Click here to view the newsletter in PDF format; the following is an abridged version

February Calendar Highlights

Feb. 24, 7 pm VBS Planning Meeting
Wednesday, Feb. 26, 7 pm Ash Wednesday
Saturday, Feb. 29, 7-9 pm Craft Fundraiser

We Need Your Help – assist a family with overwhelming medical expenses

Come Craft for a Cause Fundraiser to help with the Byler Family’s medical expenses. $35 to decorate a round birch sign. Refreshments will be served. Limited to 40 persons. Please reserve your place before Thur, Feb. 27. Extra donations will be accepted to help us match an anonymous donor’s $1500 matching funds offer. Event organizers Laura D. and Lynn L.

March Calendar Highlights

We Need Your Help – fight against hunger

by March 1st, Feed Your Neighbor grocery items due

Pick up the following items to share., by March 1st, 2020. Bags are at church or just fill a paper grocery bag. If you don’t belong to our church bring a bag to a local food bank. Please help give this critical ministry.

canned corn

cans of pineapple and mandarin oranges

boxes of mashed potatoes

bags of black beans

Hamburger Helper

cereal

granola bars

spaghetti noodles

feminine hygiene products

dish soap

body wash

deodorant

Sunday, March 1, 3-5 pm, Cincinnati Civic Orchestra

Hear CCO perform their 91st with classical music selections from Scandinavia, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Broadway tunes from Mamma Mia

Enjoy a clip from a previous concert:

Tuesday, March 17, Election Day held at CCC; bake goods benefiting Send-a-kid-to-Camp
Saturday, March 28, 9 am to approx. 2 pm Queen City Kitchen; meet at CCC to carpool
Saturday, March 28, 11:30 am – 3 pm; Disciples Connect Sprint Luncheon at Camp Christian Luncheon Info and Registration Link

Sunday, March 29, 9:15 am LIFT Inter-generational Sunday School “Trusting through Tears”
Tuesday, March 31, 5:30 – 9 pm; Stepping Forward usually 2 shifts of workers @Faith United Methodist Church in West Chester

Ongoing:

(February 29 to March 14) Saturday, 9:30 am Refit exercise class (admission free, welcome to the community)
(Sundays, March 8 to April 5) post-service “Table Talk” chat more about the sermon, snacks are provided, all are invited!

Faith Alliance

We Need Your Help – Summer Literacy/ ESL Program Seeks Critical Funding

Since 2015, the Faith Alliance Summer Literacy and ESL (added last year) Program has helped young struggling readers from low-income Lakota families to hold or improve their reading skills over the summer. Traditionally, these children experience a summer slide in reading levels due to a lack of resources at home. With an average program success rate of 85%, it is important that we continue to help these children succeed! There is an URGENT need for additional funding, close to $10,000 (about $500 per student), to continue this program. Please consider sponsoring a child or making ANY donation toward his or her future success. The Faith Alliance is a 501(c)(3), and donations are fully tax-deductible. Checks may be written to The Faith Alliance and mailed to P.O. Box 806, West Chester, OH 45069. For more information on the program, contact Tiffany Gehrlich: tiffany.gehrlich@gmail.com

Reach Out Missions Recap 2019:

What three things are addressed by our Outreach?

Poverty
Spreading Love and Cheer through giving of gifts as Jesus did for us
Hospitality and Community working together to help children and families

Mission	Location	Number of People Helped	Number of Volunteers
Holiday Program Reach Out Lakota	West Chester and Liberty Twsp.	35 families; 600 in total all churches	1 and all those who purchased gifts or gift cards
Cozy Comforts	Local and elsewhere Matthew 25 Ministries	38	1 and material donated from members; note the Cozy Comforts box has been restocked. Please take to anyone who might need a tangible gift of love.
IHNWC Interfaith Hospitality Network	Warren County	various families	4X year 12 volunteers 4-5 each meal
Queen City Kitchen	Hamilton County	150+ meals once a month	8-10 servers each meal
Faith Emergency Services	Mason – at United Methodist Church	various individuals facing homelessness or utility cancellations or stoppages	1
Whiz Kids	Lakota School District	various students	1 Note: you can provide tutoring for just $42 a month or one hour of your time
X Days (Workdays)	Mason		30 on 2 different workdays
Stepping Forward	Held in West Chester but affects various Counties	141, and 139 meals	10-12 from our church and others from Bethany UMC church
LaFwa Mission	Dominican Republic (Santiago)	June 11 to 19; numerous residents and families	9 travelers

Other programs not charted include Pop Tabs for Ronald McDonald House, Pill Bottles for Mathew 25, Mothers Day Blankets, Father Day Tools, and Summer Lunch Programs. Tools for Hope Inc. would like to thank you for your donation of $230.00 made in the calendar year 2019 (Father’s Day). The donation went to support a Rwandan subsistence farmer group. More info can be found from the letter on the outreach board.

Faith Alliance

Says “Your generous donation helps us to serve a the Collaborative Hands and Feet of Christ in our community by leading, organizing and sustaining such ministries as the Summer Lunch Program, Summer ESL and literacy program, Feed our Neighbors in Need and the “Help a Child in Need Succeed” Backpack Drive. We are grateful for your generosity and partnership!”

Mason Deerfield Area Chamber

As a new year unfolds, we at the Mason Deerfield Chamber want you to know we appreciate our unique partnership with the MADE Community Basket program. It is in that same excitement, I am pleased to share the end of year results for 2019. For the fifth year in a row, the Community Basket program reached more than 1,000 new households in Mason and Deerfield Township and set a new record in 2019 by reaching more than 1,100! We take our “Life Is A Journey” brochure to the chamber to be included in the Community Basket.

Upcoming Sermon Series: “Guess Who’s Coming to Supper.”

All ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.

Matthew 14:20

Given the centrality of the Lord’s Supper and our denominational logo of a chalice, it’s clear that communion is an essential part of our identity. We say that we are an “open table” congregation. In the past we’ve unpacked what that means culturally, scripturally, and denominationally. Beginning March 8 we’re going to unpack what an open table means historically and explore how we got to our current practice. We’ll dive into the broader Christian tradition, the various approaches to communion, and who are invited to the table. Because that history spans nearly 2000 years, this will be the first in a 5-course series entitled “Guess Who’s Coming to Supper.” We’ll be working our way from Jesus forward; that historical journey will help situate our present practice as we look into the future as a Disciples of Christ congregation in our suburban community.

Our first course is “Setting the Table,” and the following courses are “The Table of Christ,” “The Table of the Apostles,” “The Tables of the Early and Medieval Church,” and “The Tables of the Reformation, Modern, and Future Church.” Because each course offers a lot to chew on, we’re offering a “Table Talk” after worship these 5 Sundays to dig in and dialogue more about the message, considering its implications for our lives together. Snacks will be provided as we ruminate and digest the food for thought provided that day.

Over that 5 week course, we’ll be engaging some big questions: Is our tradition of an open table offered weekly idiosyncratic? Where does this habit originate, and what might this institutionalized behavior tell us about how we “be church” with one another and how we interact with the larger world?

These are big, important questions whose answers cannot be fully contextualized within our 200-year history as a movement. After all, our practice of communion only covers two centuries, one-tenth of the entire history of the larger Church’s communion practice. In order to fully apprehend and appreciate this practice of ours today, by necessity, we’re going

to have to take a walk through history. In so doing we can fill in the remaining ninety percent of communion practice prior to the Stone-Campbell movement.

When we’re clear on our practice of communion, everything else comes into focus for us: our worship, fellowship, education, outreach, and evangelism. In short, our table practice frames our entire mission as a church. With the table of Christ leading the way, we cannot stray. With the table as our lens, we can see clearly how we are to relate to God, one another, and those beyond these doors. As Disciples of Christ, we need to be crystal clear and utterly transparent about our central practice of coming to the Lord’s Table.

I hope you will take every opportunity to feast upon the riches that await us next month!

“Table Talk” Snacks & Discussion March 8-April 5

Following each Sunday’s message, we’ll have a chance to dig in and dialogue about that week’s sermon and its meaning for our congregational life. Snacks will be provided, all are invited! See above for more information.

Library Corner

It’s All About Love

Our banner in the library says it all: Love. Jesus gave us two great commandments and they’re both about love. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and

with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.” Matthew 22: 37-39 (NIV). Here in our church library, you can find books that will help you obey these two great laws. And you can also find books that will help you to love yourself. Come and spend some time in the library. You may find what you’re searching for.

Youth Ed Corner

Worship and Wonder volunteers for Greeters and Storytellers are always needed! If you are curious about what Worship and Wonder are, come to join us in the modular following the Children’s Sermon and come see how the children are worshiping! If you

have questions, please contact Carol Y. or Katie B.

Save the Date! June 23rd-26th will be this summer’s VBS, Knights of the North Castle is the theme, so put on your best chain maille and join us for fun as we learn about the Armor of God! Time to start prayerfully considering what part you can play in this year’s VBS – Station leader, Group Leader, Assembly Leader, Music, Financial Assistance, or Prayers! February 24th at 7:00 will be a planning meeting for VBS. Anyone who would like to be part of the initial planning for VBS is welcome.

Parents of Fourth through Sixth Grade Parents – Be watching for an email coming your way. We want to know the spiritual and fellowship needs you think we need to address for this age group and what is the best way to meet the needs of these youth.

I’m also looking at Sundays in March that might be a good Sunday for us to have “Crafting with a Cause” – a display of samples and instructions for all the ways our congregation uses their craftiness to make items that are useful and donated to a good cause. Any suggestions?

March 29th will be the next Breakfast with Jesus Intergenerational Sunday School! The theme will be Trusting through Tears. Bring a favorite comfort food to share for breakfast at 9:15, followed by fellowship and learning together!

Thanks! from Carol Y.