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Newsletter of First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta
SUNDAY Schedule
November 1 & 8, 2015 Christ at the Center
Sunday, November 1 Annual Campaign/ All Saints Sunday • Prayer breakfast for Homeless Persons - 6:30 am, Fifield Hall • Communion Worship Service 8:30 am, Winship Chapel • The Mustard Seed Bookstore Open 9:00 am - 12:15 pm • Sunday School for All Ages 9:30 am • Worship Service 10:45 am, Sanctuary • Fellowship Hour 11:45 am
Sunday, November 8 Annual Campaign, Baptism Sunday • Prayer breakfast for Homeless Persons - 6:30 am, Fifield Hall • Communion Worship Service 8:30 am, Winship Chapel • The Mustard Seed Bookstore Open 9:00 am - 12:15 pm • Sunday School for All Ages 9:30 am • Worship Service 10:45 am, Sanctuary • Fellowship Hour 11:45 am
November 1,
November 8,
“Living Gratitude: Being Grateful in the Midst of Suffering” Job 1:1-22 1 Thessalonians 5:12-23
“Living Gratitude: Humility” Luke 14:7-14 Colossians 3:12-17
Tony Sundermeier
Rebekah LeMon
As we continue on in our LIVING GRATITUDE annual campaign, I want to introduce you to a young woman named Elizabeth. A ninth grader at Mount Kenya Academy, Elizabeth is the recipient of a scholarship provided by First Presbyterian Church. First Pres. and Mount Kenya Academy have shared in ministry for twenty years, a benchmark we celebrated on World Communion Sunday just a few weeks ago. When Elizabeth found out that she qualified for admission to the high school, she says that she had no hope. Her parents are day laborers and they could never afford to send her to the school. She wrote to us recently saying, “I remember receiving letters from different schools saying that I qualified for admission but I just kept throwing them away because there was nothing I could have done about it. My father used to cry because he felt like he had failed me but Mount Kenya Academy Senior School wiped all my tears when they gave me a scholarship. If it were not for the scholarship, I could not be where I am right now. On behalf of my family and my community and my country, I would like to say thank you for your great kindness.” This faithful, courageous and gifted young woman had a simple dream of attending high school so that, in her own words, “she will be able to help her parents and her community.” Elizabeth is an example of LIVING GRATITUDE. She is stewarding the opportunity God has given her through the generosity of our congregation. She is living her gratitude by pursuing an education that will not only benefit her, but also benefit her family and her larger community and maybe even the world. This is just one example where our financial generosity makes a difference in people’s lives. Whether it is supporting a ninth grader in Kenya so that she may pursue her dream of high school or if it is walking with ninth graders here in Atlanta through their confirmation year or if it is befriending the poor so that they may be equipped to move from homelessness to independence or if it is cultivating a dynamic worshipping community that thousands of people joyfully call home, your financial generosity makes a difference…it changes lives! If you haven’t already made a pledge for ministry year 2016, I invite you to prayerfully consider it. Live out your gratitude by committing to steward those financial resources of which God has put you in charge. Be generous…demonstrate a LIVING GRATITUDE. Blessings,
Tony Sundermeier Senior Pastor