Easter is always an exciting time at Garfield and this year we have activities the entire month of March.

We will start our celebration with an Easter Bingo afternoon on March 1^st at 2:00 p.m.  This will include Easter Bingo cards and Easter gifts for the winners.  March 8^th will be our Easter Egg Hunt and Children’s event.  This event is open to all children in the church and community, so spread the word.

March 16^th is Palm Sunday and with that brings our Community Hymn Sing.  A time when churches come together and raise the rafters of our church in praises to God.  A more joyful evening is hard to find.  Just like those on the first Palm Sunday we will sing and shout Hosanna to our Lord.

Right after Palm Sunday brings the Holy Week Services with Holy Thursday service with communion on March 20^th at 7:30 p.m.  Our pastor for Holy Thursday is Pastor Katie.  Our Good Friday service will be held at 7:30 on March 21 and is a somber service where we reflect on the horrible death Christ choose for us.  Rev Randy will preside over this service with the choir singing and a candlelight ending.  We will continue our reflection of what Christ did for us during our prayer vigil on March 22 from 12 noon to 12 midnight.  Sign up for your time slot to keep the prayers going.

Of course the grand celebration will be Easter Sunday when we celebrate what we have known all week; the grave cannot hold our Lord.  Garfield is the host church for the community Sunrise Service beginning at 6:30 a.m.  Garfield will have two services one at 8:00 a.m. and one at 10:15 with Sunday School between the services.  Communion will be given at both 8:00 and 10:15 services.

March 30 will be our revival with Rich Stevenson.  Rev Stevenson has been here several times before so we know this will be a week of uplifting services and studies.

He will be here from Sunday to Wednesday—the plan is to have him at all churches Sunday morning, Garfield Sunday and Monday evenings, Salem Tuesday and Wednesday evening and morning Bible study at Pleasant Walk

 

Confirmation class for children in 4^th grade and up will begin the first week of March at 9:00 am on Sunday mornings. If you are interested in having you child participate, please contact a pastor.

Western Area Regional Training Day – March 29^th

Join us March 29^th from 9:30 am to 3:30 pm at Otterbein UMC in Hagerstown for a day of training and fellowship. Available workshops include: Safe Sanctuaries, PPR, Finance/Stewardship, Dealing with the Blessings of Conflict, Vision/Mission/Strategy, Church Council, Trustees, Beyond Traditional and Contemporary Worship: Emergent 101, Leading the Church as a Team, and Youth Ministry (lead by Katie’s husband, Pastor Chris Bishop). Space is limited, so please let the Pastor’s know if you are interested in attending ASAP.

 

Youth and Young Adult Mission Trip - July 20th to 26th

Join us this July as we travel to Berkley Springs, WV to help work on a house for a family in need. We will be camping in tents, working during the day, and enjoying worship and Bible Study every evening. If you are interested in attending (for the whole week or just half) please see Pastor Katie ASAP!

 

It is hard to believe that the youth of this church have already been so active.  We’re planning our third activity and it’s only March!  Everything has been great and if you haven’t been involved you’re missing out!

Snow Tubing

The group made a last minute decision to go snow tubing at Ski Liberty at the end of January.  We all had a great time and I know everyone was a great witness to others while enjoying one another’s company.

Wild & Wacky Cardboard Derby

Linda Reeder brought to the group a brand new idea to participate in Cedar Ridge’s cardboard derby up at Whitetail.  Not only has this project ignited a new unity within our group, but it has brought new people into our group and in our worship service.  It has also brought a new excitement into our congregation.

On February 24^th the congregation participated in a “pep-rally” for the “Christian Soldiers” team and the tank was debuted and the gun was fired.  Then we went up to compete in the race!

Baltimore Blast Concert

On March 7^th the King’s Kids will bring a little Garfield to Baltimore for Youth Christian Night at the 1^st Mariner Arena.  The night will start at 7:30 p.m. with an indoor soccer game.  Then when that’s over the fun begins with a Christian Rock concert!  We’ve done this event before and had a blast (pardon the pun).  So come join us.  Let us know ASAP for reduced ticket prices.  It will be free for all, but we would like to save the youth group account a few dollars if we can! 

I can’t tell you how excited I am, and how excited the entire group is about this year.  Looking forward, April will be a very busy month with our annual Rock-a-thon that will be community wide this time!  And keep your appetite for the spaghetti dinner and theater.  Thank you for your support so far and in the future.  There is a real spirit moving with our youth so please pray that God continues to move us and thank Him for what He has done so far. 

Don’t miss out, find out what you can do for our youth!

 

March Madness

It couldn’t come at a better time.  The football season is over and there’s very little on Sunday afternoon TV.  The super bowl has been played and what is there in the life of sports after that?  It’s in the middle of winter and you can’t get outside to do anything in the way of physical activity, which has its pluses too.  But with all of this coming at the same time, it’s enough to make you go a little batty with post-holidays blues!  You know that spring is just around the corner, and yet in your head it’s so close but yet so far.  You need just a little something to get you thru just a few more weeks.  And then it comes.  The greatest basketball of the year all put together in one big tournament called March Madness.

Now, I’m not the biggest fan of basketball, too many tall people for my preference.  But there’s something about March Madness that gets my blood flowing.  And I find it’s just what I need to get me the rest of the way through winter and roll me right into spring.

So what is it about this tournament that gets so many people excited and filled with hope to make it through the doldrums of the last few weeks of winter?  Several things get my attention.  First, the players and teams that are a part of this tournament are the very best.  You start out with a select group of teams that are invited to come and play.  Game by game it gets narrowed down to the sweetest sixteen, then the elite eight, then the final four, and finally the championship game.  The very best come out and play. And play they do, with a passion and energy that would put most of us to shame on a good day.  The moves they make seem almost inhuman.  The distance of their shots makes you call for replays just to make sure it really happened.  The teamwork that is used keeps the ball zipping around so fast you can barely keep up with it.  If you’re not careful you can get dizzy trying to watch it from your living room.  It is just magnificent to watch all of this come together on the basketball court floor. 

And it’s not just the team players.  I enjoy just as much watching the coaches as they monitor and instruct their team from the sidelines.  They mostly sit there in their chairs calm, cool and collected in their suit and tie.  But then every now and then they get real excited.  Maybe it’s an exceptionally great play, or an obvious terrible call against their team.  But they will pop out of their chair as if they are a jack-in-the-box.  They will start pointing and jabbing and carrying on, maybe high fiving a player or sticking a finger in a referee’s face.  To know when something out of the ordinary is going on, just watch the coach. 

And of course at the national championship game, everything is stepped up by a factor of a 100.  Everything is all the more exciting, the team is playing all the more spectacularly, the coaches are all the more wound up, and of course there is the crowd, all gathered to see the greatest basketball game of the year!  And of course, there are the fans.  They come out in droves to support their team.  They are motivated, they are excited, and they are loud.  They pay for seats but hardly use them.  They do whatever it takes to be there.  And even if their team doesn’t make it to win the big game, they love their team just as much and are quick to show it.  If there ever were someone I would want on my side, it’s a fan for a team that goes to March Madness.  Wow!  What a thing.  And wouldn’t it be something if the church looked like March Madness?

You might wonder what I mean by that.  Why should the church look like a basketball game?  Well, not necessarily a basketball team, but shouldn’t the church look a lot like the March Madness tournament of basketball?  Shouldn’t the church be made up of the very best of who we are, just because what we do we do for God?  Shouldn’t our pastors want to preach the best they can?  Shouldn’t our teachers want to be the best teachers they can be?  Shouldn’t the custodians be the best cleaners, the meal fixers be the best in the kitchen, the musicians sing and play their very best, just because of who we play for?  When it comes to practice and working at honing our skills, we should have the best of attitudes, and we should feel it a great privilege to play on such a team.  Just because the church is indeed called to be the best team in town, ever and what about our coach, Jesus.  He sits and watches us in all we do.  He gets excited when we’ve done well, he cheers us to keep going and not give up.  He gets upset when we’ve had a bad call and seeks to make it right.  He brings it all together, he brings the best out of us all, and makes the church the greatest thing earth has ever seen.  What a coach to play for!  And then of course we can’t forget the fans.  They should be the best, cheering and encouraging and never leaving the team for another.  When a team member has messed up, the fans should be there with a hand on the shoulder, helping to do better the next time.  They should be the kind of fans that will always be there, and can always be depended upon.  And when it comes to the championship game, the church should be the best known game there’s ever been.  You know what that game is. That would be the day Jesus rose from the dead.  Easter Sunday, The greatest celebration of all.  It’s when the team and all the fans come together, and we cheer and play like nothing else in the world matters. Because really, it doesn’t. 

This March, two events take place.  March Madness, and Easter. I hope you will come and be a part of our church Easter Sunday and every Sunday for that matter.  I hope you will get involved like you are a part of March Madness.  I hope you’ll play, and cheer and follow the coach, Jesus, like there is nothing else worth doing.  Because when its all said and done, there is nothing else more worthy than to follow Jesus, be on His team, and let the world know how great He is.  Most of us won’t be basketball stars, but we can be great winners when we follow Jesus.  Come to our version of March Madness this Easter Sunday, celebrate the Lord’s resurrection and the life we have in Him.  Get involved every day and be a part of our team, and with your life, honor the Lord every day.  I know you will be blessed, because there is nothing better than being on a winning team!!  And we have surely won in Jesus!  God bless!

 

Journey With Jesus

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels." – Mark 8:34-38

As a child, I can vividly remember the Easter egg hunt at my church, and not only because I got to help hid and hunt the eggs. (That was always one of the benefits of being the daughter of the Children’s Minister!). The church I grew up in had a HUGE front yard. My dad would string rope into these narrow rows, a row for each group of children. The older the children, the harder and fewer the eggs. After having done the Easter crafts – the crosses, the lilies, the dying of hardboiled eggs—there we would gather, on the line. We were ready, salivating, hoping that we would find that special, golden egg. Because if you found the golden egg, you got a chocolate Easter bunny. That was way better than any candy or Bible verse stuffed in the other eggs.

As we waited, we would elbow each other out, trying to be first in our row. But inevitably, moments before they hollered “Go!” my mother would come behind me and whisper in my ear, “Should you be first? Or do you think that our guests should get the run of it?” Reluctantly, I would back away and someone else would find that golden egg.

But I think of those moments, because that marked for me the beginning of the season of Easter. More than any Lenten service, or devotional book, as a child, Easter began for me on the church lawn those Easter Egg Hunt mornings. I thought it was there that the real journey to Easter began.

With Easter around the corner, we have begun to journey with Jesus. We walk with Him through the triumphant entry into Jerusalem, watching and celebrating that He is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. We watch as Jesus turns over the tables, overwhelmed and upset at the way that the Lord’s house is treated. Humbly we gather with the disciples, sitting at His table, participating in the Lord’s Supper. We fall to our knees as we hear the words of our Savior, praying on our behalf. We cringe as Judas plants the kiss of betrayal. With every sound of the hammer, we weep as our sins nail him to the cross. And, we gather around the empty tomb.

This Easter, journey with Him. Pick up your cross and follow him. Save your life by loosing it. Be not ashamed. Journey with Jesus.

May God bless you and your families this Easter season.

 

Studying the Bad Girls of the Bible, the Women’s Bible Study group will meet on the 1^st and 3^rd Saturday evening from 7-8ish pm at the Beall home. (Childcare is available at Salem beginning at 6:30 pm.) To reserve a spot for your child, or to get a book, please contact Pastor Katie.

We are also looking into a Wednesday morning women’s Bible Study group, but need a few more ladies. If you are interested, please contact Pastor Katie.

 

 

Eden’s Baptism Thank you for your prayers, cards, gifts and presence at Eden’s baptism on February 2^nd. It was so beautiful and very special to have you there. Thank you for being such an important part of her faith journey!

Pastors Chris & Katie

 

 

Bloom in Faith and Friendship – Women’s Retreat Wrap Up

--Submitted by Pastor Katie

Our Women’s Retreat was February 8-9^th at Mt Aetna Retreat Center in Smithsburg. It was fantastic! Nineteen women gathered for worship, study, games, fellowship and fun! Focusing on strengthening our relationship with Jesus and growing in our friendship with one another, we took time to read the witness of Mary and Martha who sat at the feet of Jesus, hear how Mary poured her perfume on Christ’s feet, and heeded our call to serve one another while serving Christ.

It was a real blessing to have women from both Garfield and Salem and friends of women from both churches! Mark your calendars for next February and plan to be a part of this special time away with friends and with the Lord!

 

 

Income	2007	2008
Month	6535	6848
YTD	6535	6848
Expenses	2007	2008
Month	6818	8730
YTD	6818	8730
Sunday School/Missions	2007	2008
Sunday school	195	223
YTD	195	223
Missions	350	155
YTD	350	155
Attendance	2007	2008
Worship	326	326
YTD	326	326
Sunday School	95	91
YTD	95	91

 

Why a fish?

One of the most significant statements the early Christians used was “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior.”

Because Greek was the universal language then (the New Testament books were written in Greek), Christians often said and wrote, “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior” in Greek.

That phrase, if printed as an acrostic (using the first letter of each word), looks like this:

I = Jesus       CH = Christ (anointed)          TH = God    

      U = Son            S = Savior

The acrostic forms the word ICHTHUS, which is Greek for fish. If Christians needed to know where to gather for worship, they could look for a fish and perhaps an arrow pointing in the right direction. Persecuted Christians, seeing a fish on the door of a home or business, knew it was a safe place occupied by fellow Christians.