On Sunday, we celebrated the birthday of the church on Pentecost.  Worship was a birthday party atmosphere, complete with birthday hats and singing "Happy Birthday!"  Fellowship hour gave us time to eat cake, too.  On a bittersweet note, we also said goodbye to the Martin-Fanone family as they move up to Fenton, MI.  Though they will leave our congregation, they go with our blessings to love and serve others in their next church, just as we have shared love here.  

It was a busy weekend at the church!  Saturday, the Christian Ed committee hosted a Pancake Breakfast to raise funds to send our youth to Triennium, a tri-annual youth conference being held in July at Purdue University.  We have 7 youth and one adult adviser attending - way more than we ever dreamed!  Hooray!
The pancakes were perfectly cooked and we all enjoyed a hearty breakfast.  

It was also the day to pick up flowers that were ordered as part of the fundraiser.  All the beautiful colors made us wish we'd ordered more!  Thank you to all the families who helped make the day a success in planning and participating.

This spring, the Presbyterian Women's group (also known as PW) has been reflecting on important historical figures in the Christian church.  Starting out with women, we learned the music and poetry of Hildegard of Bingen.  Later named a saint, she was an abbess and one who pioneered the place of women in the church.  Julian of Norwich informed our April study. In her book, Revelations of Love, Julian wrote of God's overwhelming love for humanity and explored the motherly nature of God.  In May, we closed the year by studying Francis of Assisi, since interest in him has taken off with the naming of the new Pope Francis.  We discovered his love for nature, as well as the impoverished life he chose to life.  Through our discussions of these figures, we've reflected on our Presbyterian understanding of Christian ideas and seen how we can continue to learn from the thoughts of ancient thinkers.  

PW studies are open to women of all ages, as well as men.  Meetings are the second Thursday of each month (except summer) from 9:45-11:00am.