Upcoming Events

Pine Streeters are encouraged to save the date for this walk to benefit the Community Check-up Center. Those participating in the walk will get sponsors to pledge money that will be donated to the Community Check-up Center. It will be held at HACC campus ON Saturday, May 19. More information will be available closer to the event and at the Mission Table in the Gathering Place.

Please join us for a tea in honor of Carol Mader, Sunday, May 20th from 12:30 – 2:30 pm., in Fellowship Hall. You will enjoy tea sandwiches and desserts, and have the opportunity to learn more about our Stephen Ministry which Carol was instrumental in bringing to Pine Street. Handcrafted items will be raffled. (All proceeds will benefit Stephen Ministry.) Tickets may be purchased at the Welcome Center for $10.

Pine Street’s new Mom’s group will meet again on Sunday, May 20 at 5:00 pm. Child care will be available. All mothers of children up to kindergarten age are encouraged to join this group.

The goal of our first two gatherings was to begin discussing “What is faith and when does it begin?” During the first gathering the “Mom’s Group” took time to define faith, so when they meet again they can begin exploring when faith begins and (faith development), particularly in young children. It was a positive discussion and enjoyable gathering of fellow moms.

Once we are established, the group will guide what their gathering time will accomplish. This is a great opportunity to share in fellowship and to support one another. Please join us on Sunday, May 20, 2012 at 5:00 pm.

Join the fun and fellowship at the Pine Street Book Club on May 20. The featured book is “The Tiger’s Wife” by Tea Obrecht.

The reviewer is Cynthia Hertzler and your hostess is Betty Rader. Please RSVP to Betty. Her contact information is listed in the Members Directory.

This will be the last meeting of the Pine Street Book Club in 2012. Please watch later this year for the 2013 Book Club selections, reviewers and hostesses.

The next Music at Pine Street takes place on Friday evening, June 1 at 7:30 pm when organist Caroline Robinson takes to the console of Pine Street’s magnificent pipe organ. Ms. Robinson is a student at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia and the organ scholar at St. Paul’s Church, Chestnut Hill in that city. Her playing wowed the 2011 American Guild of Organists Regional Convention last summer. Set the date aside now and come for a wonderful musical treat.

Bagels and Beliefs takes place Sunday, June 3, at 9:40 am in Fellowship Hall. Plan to enjoy some great bagels and continued teaching on the parables. Rev. Russell Sullivan will be teaching on ““Pardon My Insistence” Why Doesn’t God Like Religious People”.

Join us! Whitaker Center is showing “A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC” with Stephen Sondheims’s romantic masterpiece in three-quarter time. The delightful score includes the hit song “Send in the Clowns”. The show begins at 2:00 pm., Sunday, June 3. Tickets are $15.and will be available at the Welcome Center the day of the show. Sign up now at the Welcome Center.

Vacation Bible School will be held June 25 -29 from 6:00 – 8:30 pm. We are partnering with Faith United Church of Christ in New Cumberland again this year and will be learning about Daniel and his courage in captivity

Your Adult Education and Spiritual Formation Committee is presenting some wonderful educational offerings for the summer. Here’s the schedule of these Sunday forums in the Fellowship Hall at 9:40 am:

June 17 and June 24 – “Earth Care” – Our Mission Committee for the last several years has led us in developing our awareness about caring for creation. On these two Sundays the Committee will show some outstanding videos and lead us in discussion about eco-justice and food sustainability. The videos present the work of actual congregations in their struggle to preserve their communities from pollution. This is a “must see”!

July 1 – “Clean Politics, Clean Streams” – Member of Pine Street and former Pennsylvania state senator, Franklin Kury, will present his recently published memoirs, Clean Politics, Clean Streams. Through the lens of his own book and his work in the Pennsylvania State Senate, Franklin will show us ways ordinary citizens can be involved in the preservation of the natural environment.

July 8, 15, 22, and 29 – “Christian Faith and Interfaith Dialogue” – Professor of Theology at Lancaster Theological Seminary, Lee Barrett will share with us how Christians can view people of other faiths and how we can engage in meaningful interfaith dialogue.

August 5 – “Youth Mission Trip” – At the end of June our youth will be venturing south to Florida to work with mentally challenged children at the Duvall Home. Plan to hear about their summer experiences.

August 12– “Games of Faith” will be led by Joanne Smith. Plan for a fun event as Joanne Smith, through some imaginative games, helps us mine the Bible for jewels of faith.

August 19 – “Prison Ministry” – One of our favorite teachers, Dr. Charles ‘Buz’ Myers, professor of religion at Gettysburg College, will talk to us about prison ministry and how we can make a difference to people who are incarcerated.

August 26 – “Militant Christianity: Saints, Angels, and Martyrs in Sparkling, Colorful Glass” – Did you know that the large lovely window in the rear balcony is called “Militant Christianity”? What does that mean and who are all those people depicted in that window? Join Ken Hays as he shares with us the story of that window and the heroes and heroines of our faith.

September 2 – “Singing the Faith: a Look at Our New Hymnal” – This summer our denomination is unveiling a new Presbyterian hymnal, and we at Pine Street will be studying this new work. Join us this Sunday as Ron Poorman, Chair of the Worship and Arts Committee, introduces this new work to us.

The men of the church meet on the second Saturday of the month for breakfast. Great time of fellowship, discussion and dinning. The best way to start the weekend is by having a great breakfast with other Pine Street men. We meet at 8:00 am. in Fellowship Hall. Come early to assist in preparation and stay for a bit to help clean up or just for conversation.

We need your help to deliver the flowers each Sunday.  It only takes an hour of your time on Sunday afternoon to deliver the beautiful flowers to one of our homebound members.  Receiving these flowers will keep them connected to Pine Street and brighten their day.  Please sign up at the Welcome Center.

The Congregation’s Care Team is ready to make and deliver four meals to your home after a stay in the hospital.  Two things are needed for this very valuable program: people who have been hospitalized and people to prepare and deliver the meals. Volunteers will be asked occasionally to prepare and deliver a meal to those in need of some food assistance.  The volunteers will be called on a rotating basis.  Meals do not have to be elaborate.   Those who benefit from this service will be called to arrange for convenient delivery times.  If you have any questions, or would like to be a volunteer, please sign up in the Gathering Place or call Sondra Fertig. This is very rewarding, not only to the recipient, but also to the volunteers.  Please consider being part of our team. Thank you.

Calling all knitters! If you like to loop, hook, purl or popcorn, come join the Shawl Ministry on the second Saturday of each month at 10:00 a.m. Our members range in age from 11 to 80-something. The Shawl Ministry knits shawls for those who need a bit of warmth and comfort. Members of the Shawl Ministry pray over each shawl, asking that the one using the shawl will feel the love of Christ. Shawls are available for worshippers to use each Sunday. You can pick up a shawl in the Narthex and on the pew running along the side of the church near the Lectern. At the end of the service, please leave the shawl at the end of the pew and a member of the ministry will pick it up for laundering. Shawls are also distributed to shut-ins and members who are ill. For more information, contact Cheryl Goode at (717) 238-9304 or cgoode@pinestreet.org.  

is in need of the following personal hygiene items: men’s sox, deodorant, men’s underwear; disposable razors, shaving cream, Lysol spray.  Call Chris at 238-4718 with questions.

Volunteers are needed at Downtown Daily Bread (DDB) (www.downtowndailybread.org) in Boyd lower level. Volunteering starts at DDB at 12:15 pm (or after 11 am service), and includes donning an apron, and working with DDB’s energetic staff for 90 minutes. It is a worthwhile experience. Please help in one or two ways: 1) Join a specific group on an assigned Sunday in 2010 (See dates posted in Gathering Place); 2) Sign- up as a volunteer substitute. Please give your contact information to Cheryl Goode at cgoode@pinestreet.org or (717) 238-9304 or John H. Jewett on Facebook.

is looking for new singers! If you are interested in music and can give an evening each week … we need you! This is a fun group that loves a good time along with working hard to make beautiful music for the congregation week after week. If you are interested, please speak to Tom Clark-Jones. We need your voice to complete our choir!

is an ongoing mission opportunity for members of Pine Street Church. Any member who needs help with minor work inside or outside their home may sign up to receive helping hands from the mission committee. Members are required to pay for any supplies needed. Please sign up at the Welcome Center. Any persons willing to provide the hands to complete the labor required for our members may sign up at the Welcome Center also. If you would like to participate in the Helping Hands Ministry, contact Cheryl Goode at (717) 238-9304 or cgoode@pinestreet.org.

We need volunteer(s) to deliver the food from the food barrel to the Ecumenical Food Pantry. Usually, this only needs to be done once a month. The Food Pantry is located at the Lutheran Church on the corner of Forster and 6th Streets. Delivery takes only 15 to 30 minutes – gather the items from the food barrel into your vehicle, call the pantry to tell someone you are making a delivery, drive to the pantry and unload the items from your vehicle. Ideally, several members of Pine Street will volunteer to do this and the effort can be shared month to month. With so many more people using the pantry every day, this is an extremely important mission of Pine Street Church. If you are interested in knowing more, call Debbie Olson. Her contact information is located in the church directory. We’re not asking you for more money – just some of your time.

Please bring next Sunday a non-perishable item for the Food Barrel in the Gathering Place. Food collected is given to the Ecumenical Food Pantry in Harrisburg and helps many people in need.

Please don’t throw away your empty plastic medication containers. Remove the labels from (plastic only) prescription and non-prescription medication containers and bring them to the church. Place them in the box on the mission table in the Gathering Place. They will be given to a local physicians who volunteer with World Surgical Foundation when groups take medical mission trips to places like Haiti and India. The containers will be used to distribute medication to those in need. This is a new mission opportunity for all of us and doesn’t cost us any money. A WIN-WIN!!.

This year’s Camp Krislund’s summer camp theme is “GOD OF WONDERS.” 700 young campers will be experiencing God as their “Rock”, Light”, “Living Water”, “Air”, and “Fire”. Each of the Bible studies, crafts, games and worship services will be built around these themes.

To pull off such an integrated approach, Camp Krislund needs your help. A list of needed items which will help to bring the theme to life will be on the mission table in the Gathering Place. In some cases Camp Krislund needs large quantities, but a donation of any amount gets the camp closer to the goal. Individuals or whole congregations might choose to “adopt” an item and take responsibility for supplying the entire quantity. Or you can give money that will enable the camp to purchase the supplies directly (send the camp a check and put “God of Wonders Supplies” on the check’s memo line).

Friends of the Joshua Farm,

Thanks for your support of Joshua Farm in 2011! It was a trying year, with record rainfall and some growing pains, but there was also much to celebrate–a great crew of youth employees and volunteers, progress on our mural, Friday lunches cooked by kids with farm-fresh ingredients, and of course the joy of interacting with our awesome customers. There are some significant changes ahead for Joshua Farm, so keep reading for important updates.

The biggest change is that, after much consideration, we have decided not to open the 18th St. farm stand for the 2012 season. We will still have our stand at Strawberry Square on Tuesdays. The long and short of it is that we felt uncomfortably overextended in 2011–too much time spent selling produce and not enough time spent growing it. We need to scale back somewhere while improving the financial sustainability of the farm, and despite our best attempts at marketing over the last four years, business on 18th St. has been slow. We hope to reopen a stand in the Allison Hill neighborhood in 2013 (ideally, somewhere with more visibility, perhaps on 17th St. or Derry St.) and we plan to offer a “double your dollar” program for SNAP/EBT recipients at Strawberry Square, so we’re certainly not abandoning our commitment to making produce affordable and accessible to those with limited incomes.

We are now accepting a limited number of registrations for our Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, in which members receive a share of the harvest each week for the 22 week season. New this year is an option to pick up your share at Strawberry Square on Tuesday. We are also partnering with two local businesses to offer a fruit share and a bread share. The fruit share is in conjunction with Schaeffer Farms and will include approximately 10 pounds of fruit a week for 22 weeks (every-other-week half shares are also available). Schaeffer Farms is being tended by the third and fourth generations, and you can look forward to strawberries, cherries, blueberries, apples, and more. The bread share is being offered through Little Bird Bakery, which sold baked goods at the farm stand in 2011. Shares of various sizes are available, as are half shares. You do not need to be a Joshua Farm CSA member to purchase a bread or fruit share.

More information and registration forms for the Joshua Farm CSA, the Schaeffer Farms fruit share, and the Little Bird Bakery bread share can be found on our website. We can also mail information about any or all options to you at your request. Again, we only have a limited number of Joshua Farm shares available, so act quickly to reserve your share.

The last significant change is that, after leading Joshua Farm from birth through infancy and into toddlerhood (or whatever juvenile stage it’s at now), I have decided to step back from the farm to focus on raising my other children for a season. I’ll still be activity involved in various ways and am grateful for the relationships we’ve developed over the years. Josh Moritz (formerly Josh Gebers, who’s been a familiar face at the farm for the last 4 years) will be increasing his responsibilities. To that end, we are transitioning to a new email address: thejoshuafarm@gmail.com. Please make a note of it.

We’ve spent the last few months planning for a new season, and our big order of seeds arrived in the mail yesterday. Soon the greenhouse will be filled with life again as we start planting seeds next week. Spring is on its way!

Enjoy the day, and thanks again for your support!
Kirsten Reinford
Joshua Farm Co-Manager
717.497.5578 (cell)
thejoshuafarm@gmail.com
Find us on Facebook, and please check out our website/blog:
www.joshuafarm.wordpress.com
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About Joshua Farm – Joshua Farm is a program of Joshua Group, a local non-profit offering hope and support to at-risk youth through educational and vocational opportunities. At the farm, youth from Joshua Group’s other programs can gain valuable work skills while strengthening their connection to the land. Using sustainable growing practices, the farm produces a variety of vegetables, fruit, flowers, and herbs for our small CSA and farm stand. Please go to www.joshuafarm.wordpress.com for more information.