Weekly E-Pistle: Palm Sunday

4/2/2020

Palm Sunday Video Service

We hope you'll tune in to our Palm Sunday video service, which will be broadcast here on our church's website and on our Facebook page and YouTube channel. Pastor Sal will be giving an inspiring message for the beginning of Holy Week, and there will be music from Peter Black and Nancy Plantinga. You can watch the broadcast on Sunday starting at 10 AM.

Wow! More than 100 people joined our Zoom Virtual "Friendship Hall" Gathering last Sunday. Thank you. Please join us this Sunday at 11 AM for another virtual gathering.

IMPORTANT CHANGE!!!
Zoom has been having some trouble with "Zoom bombing" (like photo bombing, but ruder), so we will not be displaying the Zoom link on social media, but sending it to your email inbox. If you haven't received your Zoom link via email by Friday (be sure to check your spam folder!), we may not have your current email address! Just write to us at onlinechurch@douglasucc.org, identify yourself and request the meeting I.D. And please do not share these meeting IDs on social media or in any way other than email or text with people you know.

Welcome Home, Sal and Gregg!!

Our Douglas UCC family welcomed Pastor Sal home from sabbatical with this video surprise!
Thank you to all who participated, to Kathleen Mueller for the idea, and to Chris Clark for putting it all together. Sal and Gregg were very touched. There may have been tears!

Our very own Pastor Sal will be a guest this Saturday on the "Morning Grind" Radio Show. He will be talking about coping spiritually with the coronavirus and finding balance during this time of great uncertainty. Tune in to 92.7 FM, "The Van," at 7 AM.

Our Last Sabbatical Homily:
Greg Sherman, "Into the Unknown"

Last Sunday was our final Sabbatical speaker. Watch as Dr. Greg Sherman of our Pastoral Relations Committee gives a powerful message for the 5th Sunday of Lent. Greg is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Grand Rapids. Previously, he was the Director of Clinical Services at a faith-based outpatient mental health clinic in Grand Rapids. His work involves helping people sort through the obstacles and conflicts they encounter in their emotional and spiritual journeys. He and his wife, Kristine, became members of Douglas UCC in 2014.

Pastor Sal Shares his Centering Prayer Practice

Now is the perfect time to either start or deepen a daily meditation practice. Watch as Pastor Sal shares his "Centering Prayer" practice with us from his meditation room at home.

Elizabeth Estes and Peter Black
Give Us "Blessings"

Elizabeth Estes and Peter Black have found another way to collaborate while Staying Home and Saving Lives. Watch as Elizabeth (singing to us with Peter Black's piano track playing on her speakers) performs the beautiful song, "Blessings," from her home in Saugatuck.

Supporting Restaurants While Supporting
Our First Responders

What started out as a quick project has turned into a movement. Church and Saugatuck City Council member, Garnet Lewis, in her concern for the stability of area restaurants during the Covid-19 season, asked for donations to purchase restaurant gift cards to give out to support our first responders -- police, fire, medical responders and essential employees in our government and public health offices. With more than $9,870 in donations so far, and half of the cards in the hands of gift recipients, Garnet is working on round two, buying more from restaurants who are in turn making the lives of these hard-working responders just a bit better. "It's just raising everyone's morale to see these towns and these people look out for one another in this way," says Garn, who conveys thanks from restaurant owners and first responders in this video.

If you'd like to give to this ongoing effort, you can send funds by Venmo (@Leigh-Lewis-9), or PayPal (PayPal.Me/GarnetLewis). Links will remain open and help will continue through the pandemic. For efforts to feed poor and elderly people, see the Feed the Need article, below.

Artists Lifting Your Spirits

Three members of our Douglas UCC family are sharing their art online during the Covid-19 crisis. Nancy Plantinga and Dan Pierce have created YouTube channels to share their music with us during this time. And Jack Ridl is live-streaming his Thursday Poems at 9am on Facebook. We are grateful to them all for uplifting our spirits with their gifts and talents.

How to find help. How to offer help.

Feedtheneedallegan.com is our local resource for finding and offering help during the Covid 19 pandemic. If you need help, dial 211, or go to this website. If you can offer time and expertise to help in this crisis, go to this site to learn all the kinds of help and donations needed right now by various local agencies. Of course if you need urgent medical help, always dial 911.

Help us help you.

Your Church is working hard to provide for you and your spirit during this pandemic.
Without a Sunday collection plate, we are asking church members to please think about
a new habit of giving to the church: either online or by mail.
It's so easy to give online from our website. Just click here.
Or please consider mailing a check to:
Douglas UCC, 56 Wall Street, PO Box 519, Douglas, MI 49406.
We are so very grateful for your continued support of our church, especially during this time.

Happy Birthdays and Anniversaries

March 29- Julie Myers, 30- Ann Hopkins, Rachel Overweg, 31- Pamela Chappell,
April 1- Nancy Plantinga, 3- Karen Prins, 4- Bill Klatt & Jim McHugh,
8- Jim McHugh, Dan Dow, 10- Jack Ridl

Prayer List – For Wholeness, Peace

Wendy Billman, Howard McLauchlan, Audra and Ben Mueller, Marcia Sullivan, Jeff Cooley, Len Lynch, Curtis Coffin, Drew Carter, Bertha Fonseka, Garth & Myra (Mary Nyhof’s Parents).

All in the military and their families. All who are homeless or addicted or abused or neglected or rejected or hungry; The UCC; the Grand West Association; our Church Council; our Stephen Ministers; our church committees; our communities, our schools, our nation and our planet.
To add/remove a name from the Prayer List, please email julie@douglasucc.org.

Financial Stewardship

Financial Stewardship Report, March 29
Collections by mail: $695
Online Giving: $1,230
Total: $1,925
Thank you!!

Your generous giving allows us to sustain our church community and our mission of service. Please consider giving online, which is easily done by clicking ONLINE GIVING.
Or you may send checks by mail to:
Douglas Congregational United Church of Christ
56 Wall Street, PO Box 519
Douglas, MI 49406