Friday, June 09, 2006

Nurse Needed

In the summer Arrowhead Bible Camp in Brackney, PA (Northeast PA) provides a Christian camp program for developmentally disabled adults, ranging in age from 13-senior citizens. Our first two weeks are approaching rapidly and our need for a Pennsylvania licensed RN/LPN is still not met. The dates are June 11th-16th and June 18th-23rd. Lodging and meals are provided on top of a weekly stipend of $250.00. Mileage to and from camp will also be reimbursed. Housing is provided in a mobile home on camp property with private bathrooms and extra bedrooms for family members (children). Please pass the message along to any nurses you may know. Your prayers are also appreciated. Please contact us at (570) 663-2419 for any additional information.

John P. Novak
Camp Director

Feast on Words

This summer, TenthWomen and the Tenth Library are sponsoring several book discussion groups for women. Come to as many different groups as you want -- each group meets only one time. Here is a listing of books and dates.
Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Patton - Wednesday June 28, 7:30 PM
Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis - Monday, July 10, 10:00 AM
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger - Saturday July 22 9:30 AM
Girl Meets God by Lauren Winner - Friday July 28 7:30 PM
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson – Saturday August 12, 3:00 PM

Check out this Sunday’s bulletin insert for more information on where groups will be meeting. Information will also be posted on the TenthWomen website soon. Limited quantities of books are available for loan in the Tenth Library (room C4). (If you are interested in donating any of these books as a temporary loan to the library, please clearly mark your name, phone and email in the book and leave in the designated box in the Tenth Library.)

Sparrows Saturday

All girls, teens and women are invited to the year end Sparrows craft/devotional which will be held this Saturday, June 10th, at Tenth Church from 1:00-3:00 in Fellowship Hall.The devotional will feature the testimony's of ten girls from Tenth's Bible School & Maranatha. Speakers will be: Kira Fallon, Abby Reimold, Hannah Cohen, Allison & Madeleine Wattenbarger, Gabriella Melendez, Sarah Brubaker and Robin, Danielle & Shannon Kanak.Our craft will be making fuse beads. There is a correlation between fuse beads and our Christian walk...you'll have to come to find out what it is! A special luncheon to celebrate the end of the year will be provided at no cost by TenthWomen. A freewill offering will be taken to help support the Maranatha Missions Team to Chester this summer.If you have any questions or to RSVP, please contact Dori at baggsend@juno.com.

Thursday, June 08, 2006

hello from the mideast

Just wanted to drop a quick note from the middle east. The team leaves the capital city today after several good days here. We had a good time of fellowship with the national pastor here yesterday morning--the team was encouraged to hear of his faith and joy in serving our Father in very difficult circumstances. We had lunch with him, his wife, and son, and in the afternoon, a few on our team went to see the plot of land that may someday be the site of a church building. The team is learning and growing as we spend time in this culture. At times, the team has been dependent on the help of strangers as we have navigated the cities, and always we have needed to depend on the grace and mercy we receive so freely from above. Each team member is adding to this experience, and we are praising God for what we see him teaching all of us.

Please pray for the team's saftey in our return to the larger city today--as we close out our time, pray that health will stay strong (we have been pretty heathly thus far), that some of the things we are learning and seeing will begin to sink into our hearts, and that we will know ways to clearly communicate them upon our return. Pray for the last few days to be full of rich interaction, that we would be loving one another, bearing with one another, and that our love for one another will spill into our interactions with those around us. Pray for our partners in ministry here, that we might be an encouragement to them. Please know that we are dependent upon your prayers and it has been encouraging to us to think of the many from tneth and elsewhere who are upholding us over this time.

Book Groups

This summer, TenthWomen and the Tenth Library are sponsoring several book discussion groups. Come to as many different groups as you want -- each group meets only one time. Here is a listing of books and dates.

Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Patton - Wednesday June 28, 7:30 PM
Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis - Monday, July 10, 10:00 AM
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger - Saturday July 22 9:30 AM
Girl Meets God by Lauren Winner - Friday July 28 7:30 PM
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson – Saturday August 12, 3:00 PM

Check out this Sunday’s bulletin insert for more information on where groups will be meeting. Information will also be posted on the TenthWomen website soon.

Limited quantities of books are available for loan in the Tenth Library (room C4). (If you are interested in donating any of these books as a temporary loan to the library, please clearly mark your name, phone and email in the book and leave in the designated box in the Tenth Library.)

Sunday Travel Alerts

Thanks to helpful readers, I can alert you to Sunday events that will affect your traveling to church. The pro cyling race will run from 9-3. Click here for a map. It runs from Logan Circle to Manayunk and back.

The Odunde Festival is 10:00 am - 8:00 pm, South Street between 21st and 23rd Streets extending to Grays Ferry Avenue and Christian Street. Click here to go to its website.

To Palestine

Leila Salim (from the Nehemiah Project bunch) is going to the West Bank in Palestine for eight weeks this summer. She would appreciate your prayers, financial support, and keeping in touch through a blog devoted to this trip. " The address is http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~leilams/ramallahblog/

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

What's Going On?

Does anyone know why stands are being put up along the Ben Franklin Parkway? Is something going on this Saturday or Sunday? There is a Gay Pride Parade on Sunday, but that starts at 12th and Locust and runs to Penn's Landing. It begins at noon; so should not be a problem for getting to church.

Water Works

There is a wonderful new permanent exhibit - The Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center. It is located under the water works behind the Art Museum and is free. Ginger and I toured it on Saturday. Click here to see the website. You homeschoolers definitely will have to put this on your field trip list. A new restaurant will be opening up there soon.

Also, the Art Museum will be building a 440 parking garage behind the museum, mostly underground and covered over with a sculpture garden. We viewed the plans a couple of nights ago. Looks good. Actually, it took us awhile to even figure out the location of the garage because of the landscaping. They hope to begin construction in the fall and will take two years.

Doggie Style

The former convenience store turned video store across from the church is becoming a doggie store - "Doggie Style." Perhaps when you come to church you will be able to drop off your dog for grooming. There are churches in Florida that welcome bringing pets into the service. Now that Phil is away for the summer, we can loosen things up a bit!

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

More Team News

Our friends in the Middle East had a travel today. They arrived safely. During the phone call, another call was heard -- a call to prayer for the muslims. This should be a reminder to us to pray as well, asking our Lord to give good conversation and insight into the culture.

Two strong handsome men needed...

If you have a strong back and a bit of time this coming Monday, June 12 around 9 am, a Parish One member could use your help. She has to get to court and needs a hand getting into her wheelchair. Her transportation is taken care of as is her escort. She only needs help with the transfer into her wheelchair., but you will need to a good strong back.

If you can help, call Donna at 215.546.7788.

Moving Help

Brian Esterly sends in this request:

Parish Three members Ted and Sarah Gail will be moving from Upper Darby to Clifton Heights on MONDAY, JUNE 12. Help is needed. Because this is a Monday move it will be more difficult to find assistance so if you have availability your help would certainly be appreciated. Ted expects to get started around 9:15 am. Please contact him directly at 610-713-9184. The address is 218 Avon Road (directly south of Garrett Road). Thank you in advance for your willingness to help out.

Living Church

Living Church Schedule:

This coming Sunday we will commission more short-term missionaries, including the 40 on the Maranatha team. June 18 will be the public reception of new members. Then on June 25 we will receive greetings from a Presbyterian elder of a church in Cameroon and is a close friend of the McKeevers. I believe that he and the McKeevers will speak at the Missions Luncheon that day.

Going Home

Nicole Tripp is scheduled to go home tomorrow! Weeks and months of physical therapy remain, but she is proving to be amazingly resilient.

Monday, June 05, 2006

From the Field

Nancy Hala reports:

Susan Hoyt called this afternoon to report that all is well. Marty and Marlene (the home owners) went to church with the team on Sunday and they seemed to be comfortable. Someone had donated shrimp and mullet and Marty was enlisted to help cook. The vinyl siding work is progressing well.

Another Picnic?

Tenth has the opportunity to rebook the picnic grounds for August 26. What do you think? Should we go for it?

Edifice Video

the mereBreath website has a new video preview of Edifice. Check it out by clicking here.

CityNet

See the latest newsletter of CityNet which includes the announcement of David Apple as the MercyNet Coordinator by clicking here.

byFaith Award

BYFAITH MAGAZINE WINS EPA’s NATIONAL
“BEST DENOMINATIONAL PUBLICATION” AWARD FOR 2005
Evangelical Press Association (EPA) Chooses byFaithfor its“Award of Excellence”

LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga., May 19, 2006— The Evangelical Press Association (EPA) announced its annual awards last week at its national convention in Orlando, Fla., and named byFaith magazine as the best denominational magazine of 2005. “The magazine features extremely well-written information and strong editorial content,” said judge David Sanford, of the Portland-based Sanford Communications. “And the design drew me into every article.”

Nearly 30 entries were submitted for the denominational magazine category. “This publication sets the standard for EPA’s denominational magazines,” said Sanford. “Almost any serious Christian, regardless of denominational affiliation, would find this magazine compelling.” The magazine, which debuted in January of 2005, is a bi-monthly publication of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA).

Phillips Preaching in Pulpit

Rick Phillips is first in line for the summer preaching. He will be up here to perform the wedding for his sister-in-law Sue Wilkey and fiance Gary Wilcox this Saturday. Thus you will be able to see Sharon also. Rick's sermon title and text are "How to Be a Useful Christian," John 3:22-30.

Rental

Christian male house mate needed for a furnished bedroom in a 3 bedroom, 1 and half bath house with large basement, backyard & grill. Located in South Philly. One block from subway station, half block from bus station, 4 blocks to Acme, walking distance to Italian market, Vietnamese supermarket and Farmers Market. One block from recreational park. Rent is $350 plus utilities, DSL optional. If interested, please call Joe German at (215) 271 8787

Team Report

I've heard a couple of reports that our team to the Middle East has arrived safely and is doing well. Keep them in prayer. They return June 13.

Congregational Meeting

At yesterday's congregational meeting the congregation approved Session's proposal to provide support for City Center Academy. To see the detailed proposal, click here.

By the way, this is the school's last week of classes. Exams begin next week and graduation is the 17th at 11:00 in the Sanctuary. Check out the website sometime in the righthand column.

Where's Phil

(An exerpt from Phil's Tenth Press article about his summer plans. Beginning today he will be away from the church through September 3.)

This summer I will be taking the five weeks that still remain from my first sabbatical to work on three main projects, which I am sharing here for your prayers and also as a matter of my accountability as your pastor.

The three projects I have in view are all writing projects. The first is to edit my expositions of 1 Timothy for publication in the Reformed Expository Commentary series published by P&R. The second is to write new material for the ESV Literary Bible – a Bible reference tool that I am working to produce in collaboration with my father, Dr. Leland Ryken of Wheaton College. In effect, we are taking the Bible handbook we recently wrote together to the next level, and by the end of the summer I hope to write the introductions and notes for about a dozen books of the Bible.

The third project is to do ongoing translation work on a book by Oliver Bowles called De Pastore Evangelico Tractatus (or, A Treatise on the Evangelical Pastor). Dr. Bowles was the oldest member of the Westminster Assembly and taught practical theology at Queen’s College, Cambridge. Unfortunately, his excellent book on pastoral ministry has never been available in English. For the benefit of pastors, primarily, my friend Jonathan Rockey and I are engaged in a long-term project to translate the work from the original Latin. If all goes well, we hope to translate at least 50 pages of this 400-page work.

I do have a few other plans for the summer. These include three or four weeks of family vacation, including a trip to Wheaton to see my sisters; four days at the PCA General Assembly in Atlanta; a short trip to Trinidad (with elder Bill Langford) to teach at a men’s retreat; and a 20-day speaking tour in South Africa (with Josh Ryken).

It will be a full summer, and needless to say, I have a great need for prayer. Please pray that I would do excellent work that God can use to bless people who study and teach the Bible, and that the Holy Spirit would use my teaching to make a difference in people’s lives for Christ.