This is a story from a book called the UNEXPECTED UNIVERSE\u00a0 about a man called the Star Thrower was written by the late Loren Eisely was given to us on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn a beautiful tropical beach, occasionally the tide and the surf would be just right, and they would combine, so a lot of shellfish would be cast far up onto the beach, stranded and unable to get back to the ocean where they needed to be in order to survive.<\/em><\/p>\n Some of these shellfish were very beautiful, and so after they were cast up on the beach, professional collectors and sellers would arrive to swoop up the shells. They would take the shells home to boil them, clean out the flesh of the animals inside and then sell the shells to tourists. Some shells were very rare and valuable, so quite a bit of money could be made by a committed collector.<\/em><\/p>\n One morning, after the moon and the wind had been just right, and many shellfish had been tossed up on the beach, a man was seen at the far end of the beach all by himself, picking up starfish one by one and throwing them back into the sea.<\/em><\/p>\n Curious about what he was doing with the starfish while so may other people were busy collecting the shellfish for their own personal gain, someone went over to him to ask if he too collected things on the beach.<\/em><\/p>\n \u2018Only like this\u2019, he replied, \u2018I collect only for the living.\u2019 And, throwing another starfish back into the sea,\u2019 he said, \u2018See, one can help them\u2019 … When he was asked how throwing starfish back could make a difference in the face of all the collecting going on, he threw another starfish back into the sea, then turned and said, \u2018It made a difference to that one.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n This story could easily be about Jesus and ourselves. Think, Jesus the starfish thrower and us the dying starfish. Could he save us?<\/p>\n Palm\/Passion Sunday Scriptures<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n This is a time of celebration as Jesus went into Jerusalem and when the people celebrated his arrival for the Passover, little did they know how the week would end, Yet Jesus went knowing all that was to come.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Announcements<\/strong><\/p>\n The Palm Sunday service will be shared with Marathon, by Internet. You are welcome to join us in this service.<\/p>\n UCW Meeting will be held on April 1, 2024, at 7 pm.\u00a0\u00a0 You are welcome to join this meeting. The speaker will tell about the Scout program.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The next Prayer Shawl Meeting will be March 23, 3-4:30 pm.\u00a0 in the Family Room, all knitters and crocheters welcome. Needles and wool can be provided if needed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Good Friday, the service will be held at St. Paul\u2019s Anglican Church\u00a0 (March 29) at 10:30 am. All are most welcome to attend.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n March 20 \u2013 Spring Equinox (5:24 pm, EDT)<\/p>\n March 21 \u2013 UN International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination<\/p>\n March 21 –\u00a0 World Down Syndrome Day<\/p>\n March 21 \u2013 World Poetry Day<\/p>\n March 21- International Day of Forests<\/p>\n March 22 \u2013 World Water Day<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n First United Church news\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 March 19,2024<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Lent 5<\/p>\n This story from a book called the UNEXPECTED UNIVERSE\u00a0 about a man called the Star Thrower was written by the late Loren Eisely was given to us on Sunday.<\/p>\n \u201cOn a beautiful tropical beach, occasionally the tide and the surf would be just right, and they would combine, so a lot of shellfish would be cast far up onto the beach, stranded and unable to get back to the ocean where they needed to be in order to survive.<\/p>\n Some of these shellfish were very beautiful, and so after they were cast up on the beach, professional collectors and sellers would arrive to swoop up the shells. They would take the shells home to boil them, clean out the flesh of the animals inside and then sell the shells to tourists. Some shells were very rare and valuable, so quite a bit of money could be made by a committed collector.<\/p>\n One morning, after the moon and the wind had been just right, and many shellfish had been tossed up on the beach, a man was seen at the far end of the beach all by himself, picking up starfish one by one and throwing them back into the sea.<\/p>\n Curious about what he was doing with the starfish while so may other people were busy collecting the shellfish for their own personal gain, someone went over to him to ask if he too collected things on the beach.<\/p>\n \u2018Only like this\u2019, he replied, \u2018I collect only for the living.\u2019 And, throwing another starfish back into the sea,\u2019 he said, \u2018See, one can help them\u2019 … When he was asked how throwing starfish back could make a difference in the face of all the collecting going on, he threw another starfish back into the sea, then turned and said, \u2018It made a difference to that one.\u201d<\/p>\n This story could easily be about Jesus and ourselves. Think, Jesus the starfish thrower and us the dying starfish. Could he save us?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Palm\/Passion Sunday Scriptures<\/p>\n Liturgy of the Palms:\u00a0 Mark 11:1-11 or John 12:12-16\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 joyful entry into Jerusalem<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Liturgy of the Passion: Isaiah 50:4-9a The servant says, \u201cI gave my back to those who struck me.\u201d<\/p>\n Mark 14: 1-15:47\u00a0 The narrative of Jesus\u2019 final hours.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n This is a time of celebration as Jesus went into Jerusalem and when the people celebrated his arrival for the Passover, little did they know how the week would end, Yet Jesus went knowing all that was to come.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Announcements<\/p>\n The Palm Sunday service will be shared with Marathon, by internet. You are welcome to join us in this service.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n UCW.\u00a0 meeting will be held on April 1,2024 at 7 pm.\u00a0\u00a0 You are welcome to join this meeting. Speaker will tell about the Scout program.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The next prayer shawl meeting will be March 23, 3-4:30 pm.\u00a0 in the Family Room, all knitters and crocheters welcome. Needles and wool can be provided if needed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Good Friday the service will be held at St. Paul\u2019s Anglican Church\u00a0 (March 29) at 10:30 am. All are most welcome to attend.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n March 20 \u2013 Spring Equinox (5:24 pm, EDT)<\/p>\n March 21 \u2013 UN International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination<\/p>\n March 21 –\u00a0 World Down Syndrome Day<\/p>\n March 21 \u2013 World Poetry Day<\/p>\n March 21- International Day of Forests<\/p>\n March 22 \u2013 World Water Day<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is a story from a book called the UNEXPECTED UNIVERSE\u00a0 about a man called the Star Thrower was written by the late Loren Eisely was given to us on Sunday. \u201cOn a beautiful tropical beach, occasionally the tide and the surf would be just right, and they would combine, so a lot of shellfish …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":9399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-21 18:39:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65947"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65948,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65947\/revisions\/65948"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n