Meaning in Lent

Here’s a little lesson about church seasons, compliments of your friendly, neighborhood church junkie:

The church year has two cycles: Advent-Christmas-Epiphany and Lent-Easter-Pentecost. These two cycles have a time of preparation (Advent & Lent), a time of celebration (Christmas & Easter) and a time of reflection/reaction (Epiphany & Pentecost).

It may come of no surprise to some of you, but my favorites are the preparative seasons of Advent & Lent. Celebrations are great, but building up to the celebrations are much more meaningful to me now. It’s also possible that the older I get, the more reflective and contemplative I am becoming, but that’s a whole other blog posting.

But perhaps the reason I resonate with these seasons so powerfully is because I have strong childhood memories of them. Just like the powerful memories I have of candle-lit Advent wreaths and opening Advent calendars, I have strong recollections about Lenten disciplines. I have great memories of going to chapel as a high school student and college student during Lent. I fondly remember sitting alone with Audrey in our first years of being married and reading Lenten devotionals together every night. 

Parents’ Meeting this Sunday!

Details:

Sunday, January 22nd
5:00 pm – Potluck Dinner (see list below)
5:45 pm – Parents’ Meeting (running concurrently with Youth Connections)
7:00 pm – SHYC Participants meeting

Who is this for?

The Parents of 6th-12th graders at FPCGV!

Discussing: 

The Sunday Schedule and how it might change!!
February – May Calendar
Summer Mission & Other Trips
Chaperone/Cook/Driver sign-ups

And what will we eat?

Please bring a potluck item to share & enjoy after the meeting with Youth Connections!
Middle School Parents – Side Dishes
High School Parents – Entrees
Parents of both – Desserts:

You Are Loved. . .

So often, when we call, it’s to ask you for something (meal, driving, chaperone, etc.). Perhaps we need to stop and just say “thank you” for all that you do. And to let you know that you are loved by a great big God who made those wonderful teenagers in your life. Hopefully, this little parents meeting will show that a bit!

Upcoming SPARK Event

Career & Calling

On January 8, we will get back to our regular Sunday School schedule. We invite you to join us (back in the youth room!) for our new study: Career & Calling. This past fall, Mrs. Harvey and Mrs. Bailey led us through the life and teachings of the Apostle Paul, examining Paul’s call to follow Christ in his life and work and what we can learn from his story. This spring semester, we will look closer to home, considering the lives of saints we mingle with every week, right here at First Presbyterian in Grapevine.You are familiar with Pastor Bob and Jodi and other ministers in our congregation, but most of us are not called to become pastors or full time missionaries. How do we hear God’s call to live out our faith, regardless of our profession or career choice? What are other ways people–in the Bible and today–use the gifts God has given? That’s what we want to talk about: how do “regular” people recognize and use the gifts God gives? We are so fortunate that, in our church family, there are hundreds of adults who have sought God’s plan for their lives and continue to find ways to apply their God-given gifts to both a profession and faith journey. So each week in the spring, we will invite people from our own church to share their “career and calling” stories and answer your questions about faith lived out in the workplace, amid cash registers and operating rooms, cafeterias and construction sites. You’ll hear from – and be able to chat with – teachers, lawyers, business executives, pilots and mechanics, entrepreneurs, nurses and doctors, artists, homemakers. . .the list goes on, so be ready to suggest a profession you’d like to see represented. They will answer questions like: How do you feel God uses you in your workplace? When did your faith influence a decision, action, or interaction at work? Are there verses or stories in Scripture that you find particularly meaningful in terms of your calling? What would you say to your 15-year-old self about hearing God’s call and using God’s gifts? We know how busy you all can be. We hope that you will make our Sunday morning Bible study and fellowship an important part of your 2012 plans.

Maggie’s White Elephant Gift Exchange Advice!

Hello FPCGV youth types!

It’s that time of year again for the WHITE ELEPHANT GIFT EXCHANGE!! Yay!! The white elephant gift exchange is a good time filled with smiles, laughter, stealing, and wacky gifts. Which brings me to the point of this. How many times have you thought: “Golly gee, the white elephant gift exchange is coming up soon! Whatever shall I bring?” Well fret no more because maaaaaggie burks is here to help!

Websters Defines “White Elephant” as “an Indian elephant of a pale color that is sometimes venerated in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Myanmar”

However, when we say white elephant we mean something goofy. The point of a white elephant gift exchange is to entertain rather than to get really useful gifts. Here are some example gifts that you are welcome to use! You can use any of these ideas, adapt them, or some up with your own! I can’t wait to see what y’all come up with!!

• A stuffed white elephant (very literal, but very clever)
• A garden gnome
• A pet rock complete with rock habitat
• A framed picture of yourself (Like what I did last year)
• Make a mix CD of fun crazy (Church appropriate) songs! (bonus points if you sing it yourself)
• Anything Homemade is excellent
• Something Ridiculous (Like a tiger rug?)
• Children’s toys (Like a jack in the box?)
• Anything Hannah Montana, Justin Bieber, or something like that (Because it is funny to see high school boys end up with items like these)

With whatever you bring, it is nice to throw in a box of candy to sweeten the deal! (see what I did there?) Before bringing your gift, ask yourself: “If I got this gift, would I be satisfied?” You would want the answer to that question to lie between “Yes this is too awesome for words” and “No this is too ridiculous for anyone”.

Remember, a gift card by itself or a stuffed animal is boring. Have fun with this. Be goofy. My gift will be AMAZING! You will all want it I’m sure! Ta ta for now!
–Maaaaaggieburks

Kolaches and Fire Stations

On Monday of this week, five youth and three adults from FPCGV Youth Connections got into a couple of cars and made a fantastic road trip.

On our way through West, Texas, we stopped at the Czech Stop Bakery on the northbound access road of I-35. If you’ve never had a kolache from the Czech Stop, I’m afraid that you might have a new item for your bucket list. I tried a sauerkraut, sausage, Swiss cheese kolache and experienced a bit of gastronomical nirvana (I paid for it later. . . .). Don’t get me wrong, the sausage and American cheese version was also quite good, but this was a doughy heaven. On my next trip, I’ll try one of the fruit varieties.

Go see the yum here: http://www.czechstop.net/home.php

Then we proceeded to Killeen, Texas, where we made a stop at Fire Station #3 and got a tour of the station and a less-than-modern fire truck. Our new friends at the K.F.D. lamented that their truck was 15 years old and they were hoping to get a new one within a year.

Our new friends at the K.F.D. 

On our way home, we stopped at the KFC in Temple. While the food was quite ordinary, one of the staff was really quite philosophical with us. We also met up with our friend Calli, who is a tremendous joy to be around.

But Kolaches, Fire Trucks and Calli were not our reason for making this trip, amazing as that may sound. We made this trip because I believe God called us to do so.

Jesus shows up

I’ve always loved Advent.

There’s not a kid who doesn’t love Christmas. What’s not to love about presents and time off from school? But I was a kid who actually looked forward to Advent. To me, Advent was the last 10 miles on a 300 mile journey.

I loved the Advent calendars (still do) when you could open up a window and see a tiny picture or read a tiny print of scripture. I loved the Advent wreath (still do) and I always looked forward to Sundays so we could light the next candle in the wreath. I loved purple candles (even though my color blindness informed me they were blue) and the pink candle and the white candle in the middle.

http://bustedhalo.com/features/advent-calendar-2011 - Try out this online Advent calendar!

Most of all, I loved the time at the end of the day, before bedtime, when my mother would call my brother, sister and I to the living room to do our Advent devotional. I couldn’t put this idea into words then, but in reflecting back, I remember feeling a sense of transcendent peace and calm that surpassed understanding. It actually felt like I was in the presence of God.

http://www.d365.org/followingthestar/ - Here’s the online devotional we’ve been using. Yes, we gather around the iPad for our devotional time.

We’ve taken to doing Advent devotionals in our home. I don’t know if my daughters “get” Advent like I did when I was a kid, but I know that they don’t fight doing it. I think they actually like the contemplative, quiet, “settle down before bedtime” feel of our time together. It’s a part of the routine, but a part that we all seem to like.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to love Advent even more. But this year’s season of Advent has meant something more to me. And it’s because of friends I’ve never met.