November 2008

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving day with family and friends. Barb and I and the family did nothing, actually. We are waiting for Adria and Gama to get here to celebrate on Sunday. So for us, the Thanksgiving feast is still ahead. However, we did feast, and if your travels, your schedule, or your reluctance kept you from this feast, you are the one who has lost out. We enjoyed a wonderful time of worship and thanksgiving with our brothers and sisters from St. Paul's Missionary Baptist Church. We can sometimes think that worship ...

Don't forget our Fellowship Lunch this Sunday, November 30. Please bring a dish to share and join in this wonderful time of food and fellowship.

Please mark your calendars and plan on joining us on Saturday, December 13 at 6:00PM for our annual Christmas Dinner. This is always a wonderful time and this year promises to be very special. To aid our planning efforts, we would appreciate it if you would RSVP. You can either sign up on Sunday (sign up sheet is on the table in the foyer) or you may RSVP to Jerusha at simplysweet1416@aim.com. Please invite your family, neighbors, co-workers and join in the fun and celebration.

Join us on Thanksgiving morning at 10:00am for a service of praise and thanksgiving. We will be joined in fellowship with our brothers and sisters from St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church. Pastor James Roberts will be preaching. Nursery care will be provided.

Please continue to bring in items for our Food Drive in aid of the Salvation Army. Our box is pretty empty after our recent delivery to their headquarters. If you're coming to the Thanksgiving service, please bring something with you or perhaps on Sunday if you are able. Thanks so much for your ongoing support!

Do you play an instrument? Do you have an amazing singing voice that no one knows about? Are you looking for ways to serve and bless the church? Don't hide your light under a bushel! We're looking for any and all musically talented people who may be interested in serving on the music team. People of all ages, genders, and talents are welcome. Do you play the guitar? Drums? Accordion? Triangle? There's a place for you! Please contact Keith Snow to let him know of your interest and availability.

This just in from Keith Snow, ('Uncle' Keith, actually): Samantha Madeline Forssell was born at 12:12 pm! She is 8 lb 4 oz. Rejoice with and remember in prayer, Erica, Dan, Riley, and Samantha.

Vince Strawbridge was a key member in the original PCA church in Lakeland, Covenant, and his children have been a blessing in many ways throughout that community. His son Tim is an elder and on staff at Covenant's plant Trinity Presbyterian in downtown Lakeland. So, it is with sadness that we hear of Vince Strawbridge's death in a fatal car accident yesterday. This will be a very hard loss to those churches and to the family involved. Please keep them in your prayers. You can read about the accident here.

A heads up here: we've moved wings night up a week (to THIS Thursday) so that we do not overlap Thanksgiving. So, be at the Wing Factor at 600 PM (or so) Thursday, November 20. It's always a great time. We hope to see you there.< > < > BTW, we will need to move this up in December as well. December's Wings Night will be December 18 in order to miss Christmas and NY day. January will return us to the old schedule of the last Thursday of the month.< > < >

Click here to read the latest update from Tracy & Joy Dager.

On Sunday, December 7, we'll resume our film discussion class with Disney/Pixar's WALL·E, which was released in theatres earlier this year and comes out on DVD next week (November 18). The basic premise of the film is "What if mankind had to leave Earth, and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off?" Click here to view the film's trailer. See you there!

I don't make it a habit to 'cross-post'. But I am making an exception to that. Some of you may know that I have a personal blog. Though a number of the HPC family read that blog, not all do. The thoughts I posted there this morning, I wanted to be before those who do not read blog but read this one. My apologies to those of you who read both!! ***** This past Sunday the elders of HPC interviewed people for membership. What we look for in those wishing to join is simply a credible profession of faith in Jesus Christ. To discern this can be ...

As mentioned in last week's bulletin, we are endeavoring to assist the Salvation Army in their ministry to the needy in our community by participating in their annual Food Drive. There is a box in the church foyer for donations. If every family could check their pantry on Saturday evening and bring an item or two with them on Sunday, it would be greatly appreciated. The box will remain in the foyer throughout the month of November. Thank you.

To those of you who joined us for the first ‘Ora et Labora’ prayer time, thanks for doing so. We hope that you were blessed as many have testified that they were. If you were not able to join us, remember that we will do this regularly on the first Sunday of each month. So, plan to join us again at 5:00 PM on Sunday, December 7. Encourage others to come! By the way, at the end of the time Sunday, I made the mistake of venturing into talking about the Latin title. Of what I said, I got about 10% of it right. I’ll try to stick to what I know ...

The November update from the Padilla's is now available.

The service for Ruth Shane, mother of Ruth Anne McDowell and John Shane, will be this Saturday, November 8 at 2:30PM at Shannon Funeral Home, 1015 14th Street West, Bradenton. The family will receive friends prior to the service from 1:30-2:30PM. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Street Child, P.O. Box 116284, Atlanta, GA 30368.