{"id":72688,"date":"2025-03-19T08:11:59","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T12:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/?p=72688"},"modified":"2025-03-19T08:11:59","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T12:11:59","slug":"happenings-at-wawa-first-united-church-march-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/19\/happenings-at-wawa-first-united-church-march-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Happenings at Wawa First United Church &#8211; March 19"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Genesis <\/strong>15:1-12,17-18\u00a0 God seals the covenant with Abram and Sarai<\/p>\n<p>So often these days, conversations about a congregation\u2019s future, circle round the lack of children. We are as childless as Abraham and Sarah in their old age. Years earlier, God had promised them that they would have children. None had shown up. God spoke into the emptiness of their childlessness:\u00a0 \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid, Your reward will be very great.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Abraham didn\u2019t pretend to believe. \u201cWhat use are your promises as long as I am childless?\u201d God just repeated the promise: \u201cYour descendants will be as many as the stars in the sky.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Finally,\u00a0 Abraham chose to trust the promise rather that the evidence. God declared that Abraham\u2019s trust and courage was the bedrock of the relationship between them.\u00a0 Even so, it would be many years before God\u2019s promise was kept. Living in hope and faith does not mean that everything will go our way. Yet, even when the future looks impossible, God is still actively at work in God\u2019s creation, moving us toward God\u2019s salvation. We live in alert expectation that God will do what God had promised. Faith is letting God do it in God\u2019s way and in God\u2019s time..<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Creation connection:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In \u201cHow to Be Caught by the Holy Spirit.\u201d Stanley Hauerwas tells us that nature is a character in God\u2019s story, a story about God caring for the world. As followers of Jesus, we are to be witnesses to that caring as well.\u00a0 (see ABC Religion and Ethics, November 14,2013; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/\">www.abc.net.au<\/a>)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Used with permission the Gathering Lent\/Easter 2025 p12<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Announcements:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sunday, March 23,\u00a0 Lent 3<\/p>\n<p>Scriptures: Isaiah 55:1-9\u00a0 Come, buy wine and milk without money!<\/p>\n<p>1 Corinthians 10:1-13\u00a0 God will not let you be tested beyond your strength<\/p>\n<p>Luke 13:1-9 The parable of the barren fig tree.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>We will be joining St. John\u2019s United in Marathon\u00a0\u00a0 (internet)\u00a0\u00a0 for our service this Sunday. You are most welcome to join us in worship.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lay Leader: <\/strong>Maria<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Prayer Shawl <\/strong>group will meet on Sat. March 29 at 3 pm in the Family Room at First United. You are welcome to come and enjoy the fellowship of knitting.\u00a0 Wool, needles and crochet hooks are available if needed.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Cross of Lights <\/strong>will again be placed on the front of the church beginning Palm Sunday. If you would like a bulb in memory of someone special, please contact Maria Reid (705-856-2861)\u00a0\u00a0 Cost is $5. per bulb.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>March 20 \u2013 Spring Equinox<\/p>\n<p>March 21 -UN International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination<\/p>\n<p>March 21 \u2013 World Down Syndrome Day<\/p>\n<p>March 21 \u2013 World Poetry Day<\/p>\n<p>March 21 \u2013 International Day of Forests<\/p>\n<p>March 22 \u2013 World Water Day<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Genesis 15:1-12,17-18\u00a0 God seals the covenant with Abram and Sarai So often these days, conversations about a congregation\u2019s future, circle round the lack of children. We are as childless as &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9399,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-13 06:52:55","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\/72688","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72688"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72689,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72688\/revisions\/72689"}],"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=72688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}