Youth Choir, Pizza & Preview

Dear APC Youth Choir and Parents,

Summer days are waning, and a new program year is almost here!

Youth Choir Pizza and Preview happens in one week--Wed, Sep 5 at 5:00 p.m.  We'll take about 40 min. to sing through some great music for the year, including my newest arrangement of "I Saw You" by Ken Medema (composer of "The Tree Song").

Then we'll pause for a meal of pizza and veggies.  After the meal, we'll have about 50 minutes for an Introduction to Youth Ringers with Maggie Montgomery!  We hope you will try this new group.

During 2012-13 this new handbell choir will meet for three five-week segments, starting Wed, Sep 12, 6:30-7:00 p.m.  At the end of each segment, Youth Ringers will play a modest piece in worship.  You do not have to be a member of Youth Choir to try Youth Ringers, so please encourage your non-singing friends to try it!

Regular Youth Choir rehearsals begin after church Sun, Sep 16 at 11:45 a.m.

This is the year for the biennial musical.  It's "The Tale of Three Trees" on Sun, February 10 at Noon (dress rehearsal the previous morning).

Our exchange dates with Trinity-Arlington are:

• Sunday, April 7 at APC
• Sunday, April 14 at Trinity PC-Arlington

I'm excited about a great new year ahead!  Please e-mail back or call if you have any questions.

Gary Garletts

Pastor's Pen: Homecoming 2012

“When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around.   But when I got to twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he’d learned in seven years.”  --Mark Twain

In this famous quote by Mark Twain, we learn one of the problems of coming home.  Home changes while we are gone, or more likely, we change.  There is great comfort coming home.  The familiar sights, sounds and even the smells can evoke feelings of security and refuge.  Nonetheless, like a college student coming home for the first time, we realize that we no longer satisfied with the way things were.  We can’t simply go back to the old curfews and old rules. 

In the journey of faith, there is something similar.  As much as we might long for an idyllic moment in our past, our relationship to God won’t exactly be the same as before.  We change.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing.  In the Scriptures, God doesn’t plant us naked back in the old Eden.  Instead, there is a new heaven and a new earth.  Coming home means taking part in a new reality.  We are transformed. 

After a summer of vacations and trips, Homecoming at Ardmore Presbyterian Church signals the start of our fall programs.  We ease back into our familiar pews and into the usual routines.  However, I wonder if we should be satisfied with what has happened in the past.  Perhaps, we should treat Homecoming as an invitation.  We can participate in a deeper faith, a stronger community, and a more vibrant witness. 

Some might mistake this invitation as an expanding encroachment on your time.  They believe that the church wants you to be busier like school activities and your favorite non-profit want you to be busier.  Instead, the church invites us to maturity.  If your relationship to God hasn’t shown signs of growth in the past few years, it is time for a reexamination.  Maybe, it is time for a change.

Homecoming is an exciting time in the life of the church.  I pray that coming home will be an opportunity for spiritual growth for you and your family. 

Grace & Peace,

James Hodsden

Labels for Education

 

Labels for Education :
"Get Free Stuff for Your School"

Dear Parents/Guardians and friends of APC Weekday Preschool:

The APC Weekday Preschool is now participating in the Labels for Education® program. My name is Jen Migliaccio and I am the Labels for Education coordinator for our school. Through the program, we can collect UPCs and beverage caps from participating products to earn points that can be redeemed for FREE educational merchandise!

Our goal year is to collect points that we can redeem for teaching resources. It's easy to help-simply save UPCs and beverage caps from participating products and drop them off in the box in the church.

If you have questions, or would like to help with our Labels for Education collection drive, please contact the church office at 610-642-6650 or via email at preschool@ardmorepres.org.

Thank you for your support. Together with the Labels for Education program-we can build a better school for our children.

Sincerely,

Jen Migliaccio

Ardmore Presbyterian Weekday Preschool

To see a complete list of participating products and point values, please visit LabelsForEducation.com.

Garden Harvest Night for Wednesday July 18th

I am writing you about tomorrow night's(July 18th) harvesting. We are without Ray and Mary Van Leeuwen for 2 Wednesdays while they visit their family in California. This is a big loss to our Wednesdays. So it is that we need all of you willing people to come out tomorrow! As always please join us even if you must insist you are no gardener. All who fit in that category can simply combine abilities to make one composite gardener between us : ) If you come to the garden you have a great chance of really becoming a gardener which could be fun. Come when you can and stay until you need to go. 

Tomorrow we will have iffy weather so I am making a few adjustments. I will be there unless it is actually raining. Hadley and I will be there at 5pm this time to start the picking and harvesting in case the weather comes early. Hopefully we can get to the bigger items that way even if we get rained out for the herbs. Please join us at 5 or 5:30-p as usual. Jeff will come and fire up the grill at 5 45p when he arrives from work. We will provide hot dogs and drinks. Please bring a dish to share if you are able to and a chair or blanket to sit on. 

I have not been over to see the tomatoes in the past few days so we will only be picking those if they have suddenly become ready. There is zucchini and peppers, okra, a few more green onions and maybe one more batch of beans. We should have lots of need for people to pick herbs as well. The garden is enormous now. If you haven't looked in awhile, you will be amazed. The efforts of a small army of APC's kids helped to make that happen this year and that is exciting.

We will have the sprinkler out with the heat so come in your suit and bring a towel and change of clothes. I often forget one of those last two things for my own child so I am writing that to myself!

We are always collecting gently used clothes and shoes for all ages to take down to Calvin Presbyterian's clothing closet. The clothes will be taken down at the same time as the vegetables on Thursday mornings. We have been made aware that Calvin will be starting a daycare for 2,3 and 4 year olds in the fall. We have taken one load of toys. learning items and books down already. They were really delighted to receive them. We hope we can help and encourage them further before they launch in the fall. If you would like to purchase or donate a usable toy, game, puzzle, book(etc) to this effort, we could accept that from you at the garden or at church on Sunday. As most of you know our own church and also Calvin also operates a food pantry. Both are needing donations at all times of the year. Please bring any donations to our own church office or any donation for Calvin to the garden and we will get it down there. We are always available to pick up these items from your homes. We mean that. We know it can be too tricky to transport things for a variety of reasons. Let  Jeff or Karen Barnes know in person or at i2thee@hotmail.com.

We are having many good times at the garden this summer as we find we have a mission field right on our church property and certainly right up the road. Come join the harvest and the chance to show the love of Christ to our neighbors and the body at Calvin Presbyterian. We pull the vegetables with the hope that someone will know God cares for their present situation but also that their neighbors(us!) care for them as well.

Blessings,

Jeff and Karen Barnes

Mission Partnership: Calvin Presbyterian

We are still collecting any used clothing or shoes to bring down to Calvin Presbyterian. We can pick that up from you directly or you can bring it to church or the garden night. This need like food never stops, especially for children.

We have also found out that Calvin Presbyterian will be starting a daycare/preschool in the fall. We will be collecting items that would be useful for that as well. This could be new or gently used toys, games, puzzles, books,etc. Anything we could supply them with is something they don't have to buy. We can also pick up items like this from your home or you can bring them to church or the garden night. I am in the process of finding out more specifics about this new program. This might be a fun way we could bless Calvin church itself which is doing much for many with little.

Our own church as well as Calvin Presbyterian operates a food pantry for area people who are hungry. Please bring any food donations and now they will get to a place where they can be used.

THANK YOU!!

Summer Garden Fellowship -- Now with Sprinklers and Picnic Table

Hello all,

We write to invite you to join us at the garden this Wednesday. So many vegetables are coming in now there is plenty of harvesting to be done. All the weeding and watering are adding up to great things. I believe Mary may have a few more weeks of watering and weeding the garden that need covering. Let us know if you or your family is interested. There are people to show and explain what needs to be done. I use as proof that it is easy enough for anybody the fact that our family has done it : )

We have received the generous gift of a picnic table from the Rickenbach family. We are grateful. If anybody else has any lawn chairs they would like to donate to the get togethers, we would be glad to hear from you. 

In case you haven't made it out to a Wednesday night recently we have also had the generous gift of a fun sprinkler from the Hipszer family. Wear or bring your suit and cool off. This has been a fun addition to our get togethers.

We will have the hot dogs and drinks. Please bring a side or dessert to pass or share if you are able. If you are not able, come without. This is no problem.

If you have a chair or a blanket it might be nice. We have a fair amount but if it gets to be a big showing you might be glad you brought them.

We start at 5:30p and have been wrapping things up between 7-7:30p. Come when you can and stay until you must go.

The produce from the garden is continuing to be brought down to Calvin Presbyterian church in West Philadelphia for their community lunch on Thursdays at noon. This church which is a part of our Philadelphia Presbytery, also has a clothing closet and food bank available at that time. This is really three ministries in one. Mary VanLeeuwen is a great source of more information on this Matthew 25:35 project, as it is called. I am a less knowledgable but very excited about it resource as well. If you have questions or would like to come down to see where the work of the garden goes, just let someone know. Churches are joining forces to do more in West Philadelphia(minutes from here) than could be done apart. It seems to be a promising model.

This is a great ministry to invite a friend to. That includes a friend from our own church! : )

Jeff, Hadley and I look forward to seeing many of you this Wednesday.

Wednesday Garden Summer Fellowship

Hello all,

We write to invite you to join us at the garden this Wednesday. So many vegetables are coming in now there is plenty of harvesting to be done. All the weeding and watering are adding up to great things. I believe Mary may have a few more weeks of watering and weeding the garden that need covering. Let us know if you or your family is interested. There are people to show and explain what needs to be done. I use as proof that it is easy enough for anybody the fact that our family has done it : )

We have received the generous gift of a picnic table from the Rickenbach family. We are grateful. If anybody else has any lawn chairs they would like to donate to the get togethers, we would be glad to hear from you. 

In case you haven't made it out to a Wednesday night recently we have also had the generous gift of a fun sprinkler from the Hipszer family. Wear or bring your suit and cool off. This has been a fun addition to our get togethers.

We will have the hot dogs and drinks. Please bring a side or dessert to pass or share if you are able. If you are not able, come without. This is no problem.

If you have a chair or a blanket it might be nice. We have a fair amount but if it gets to be a big showing you might be glad you brought them.

We start at 5:30p and have been wrapping things up between 7-7:30p. Come when you can and stay until you must go.

The produce from the garden is continuing to be brought down to Calvin Presbyterian church in West Philadelphia for their community lunch on Thursdays at noon. This church which is a part of our Philadelphia Presbytery, also has a clothing closet and food bank available at that time. This is really three ministries in one. Mary VanLeeuwen is a great source of more information on this Matthew 25:35 project, as it is called. I am a less knowledgable but very excited about it resource as well. If you have questions or would like to come down to see where the work of the garden goes, just let someone know. Churches are joining forces to do more in West Philadelphia(minutes from here) than could be done apart. It seems to be a promising model.

This is a great ministry to invite a friend to. That includes a friend from our own church! : )

Jeff, Hadley and I look forward to seeing many of you this Wednesday.