Ongoing Response to COVID-19

Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2021-04-29

Thursday April 29th 2021
A Weekday Emailer from
Matt Matthews
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
 
Dear Friends,
 
Note the interesting church history below, written by Lincoln scholar Clayton F. Daugherty.
 
* * *
 
I am looking forward to our Cuba Celebration this weekend. Saturday morning begins at 10 am at firstpres.church/cubaforum.

Sunday worship begins at 9:00 on-line and 10:15 in person. The on-line link is FirstPres.Live  The Sunday afternoon Two-Step will be a blast. When’s the last time you Zoom-danced? (Is that like the moon-walk?). That link at 1 PM Sunday afternoon is: firstpres.church/cubatwostep
 
Here’s a short essay from our travel journal from our winter trip in 2019.
 
* * *
 
Cuba Journal/Monday, March 4th
Matt Matthews
 
            On the way home, jostling in the church van, I ponder how I’ll never be able to utter the word “world” from the pulpit ever again without thinking differently. 
 
            Thank you, Cuba.
 
I’ll miss you.
 
Sweating men cutting grass with machetes as Carlos carts us as gently as he can to the airport. Pay phones. A man on his motorcycle—with his goat. Packs of dogs on sidewalks watching the cars whiz by. Los gatos in sunny courtyards. The man sweeping the gutter of a busy city street with a push broom. Bulls and horses tied to stakes on the roadside at the outskirts of the city. Palm trees. Packed city buses, standing room only, filled with people of all ages. Trees with enormous leaves, mimosa leaves, shining leaves, hanging brown pods pointing to the ground like wiccan fingers, pink flowers, orange flowers, red shoots, yellow and lime blooms. The sign on the greenhouse hawking plantas medicinales. Fading pictures of revolution on walls, on billboards, on buildings. Old men playing checkers on benches in the small neighborhood parks. Carlos’ smile in the rearview as he taps the horn twice and waves generously to another passerby he knows. On these roads with the holes and taxis and zipping scooters one hand on the wheel is a gracious plenty
 
Our flight to Miami was uneventful. Upon landing, however, we rushed to customs only to wait in line. Robert had gotten an app a week ago at check in that allowed him to bypass this step. He told us to get that app, too. We didn’t listen. As he sailed through customs, we waited like cattle shifting from foot to foot. Cleared at the last stop, we charged to get our bags, which Robert had gotten for us, then to the gate on concourse H only to discover had we arrived seven-minutes prior we would have gotten our bags on our connecting flight. No worries, the nice lady at the counter said. Flying space available should get us to Atlanta eventually to catch our 9 p.m. connection. 
 
In this unexpected Miami layover, we ate. Heading to our gate, I bought a small fortune’s worth of primo chocolate for the beleaguered troops. Swiss milk chocolate with coconut filling makes everything better. It took the edge off. 
 
WiFi worked in Miami, and like junkies we buried our faces in our phones for a fix. 
 
When Paul Simon recorded So Beautiful or So What largely in his Connecticut home, he accommodated the ambient noises common to a less than perfect soundproofed studio. Acorns, for example, fell on his roof and tapped out their contribution to his guitar passages. He and producer Phil Ramone worked the sounds in. “Everything is music,” Simon said, “when you start to listen.”
 
Missed flights, bumpy rides on a cacophonous church van, poison ice cubes, rationed chocolate, migrating at jet speed from winter to summer and back, and dozens of other inconveniences are all part of the song. Everything is music when you start to listen.
 
* * *
 
            Our flight to Bloomington arrived on time. Jay Geistlinger, dressed in a long black coat akin to priestly robes, greeted us with a beneficent smile. He had draped each of our heavy coats over the chair backs at the table near the restrooms near baggage claim. We struggled to get the strange encumbrances zippered onto our reluctant bodies. Our bags awaited us, and, outside, so did the snow. The temperature when we woke up was 95-degrees warmer. But neither wind-chilled, bitter skies nor jetlagged memories of the warm ocean obstructed the bright stars as we stepped into the cold night for the van ride home.
 
* * *

News:
 
The first meeting house 
for the people who started the 
First Presbyterian Church of Champaign
By Clayton F. Daugherty
 
            The waiting room of the Depot served as the first church in West Urbana.  It is worth mention, that just as the Pilgrims did not wait to build a church before conducting worship services but fell on their knees on the shore and gave thanks to God, and, as in the case of the followers of Daniel Boone, who, on the first Sabbath day in Boonesborough, conducted worship service in the kindly shade of a large elm tree, so likewise, the earliest settlers of this community were willing to accept the kind offer of the railroad to use the waiting room of their depot as a church.  It is very likely that the aroma of the boarding house kitchen added a worldly touch during the hours of service.  We might even imagine that the custom of “eating out” on Sunday received its inception here?
            But despite the fact that the benches served a double purpose during the week by offering comfort to both the hotel guests and train passengers, and although swinging doors opened directly into the adjourning dining room, believers found ample inspiration in the sermons that were delivered from the improvised pulpit.
            They were of a sturdy stock, willing to face the hardships of a new community without flinching, yet ready to show their sublime trust in a Higher Power by repeated reiteration of their faith.
            Religious worship was a part of their character, not to be denied by the lack of a church building.  The fact that the waiting room in the railroad station was the largest and, in fact, provided the only available place where the services might be held, brought its uses as a church as a natural course in events.
            Presbyterians, part of a group living in Urbana, or drawn largely from the sections of the Sangamon Timber, made up the first congregation that worshipped there in 1854.  The church had been organized under the authority of the Presbytery of Palestine, by the Rev. Jahn A. Steele, during the previous year, later in 1855, the congregation grew in numbers and found sufficient funds to build a church of their own at State and Hill Streets.
 
* * *
 
About the author: Clayton F. Daugherty (1899-1990) was a Lincoln collector and researcher who lived most of his life in Champaign County, Illinois. He spent many years studying the law career of Abraham Lincoln, focusing on his legal work in Urbana, Illinois.
 
* * *

Remember to reserve your place for Worship each week by calling the church office by noon on Fridays.  This Sunday, as mentioned above, we will connect with our sister church in Cuba.

* * *
 
Humor
 
Teacher: Maria, go to the map and find North America.
Maria: Here it is.
Teacher: Correct. Now, class, who discovered North America?
Class: Maria
 
And Tom Gilmore reports that he’s gained some weight around the middle since this pandemic started. So, he decided to start exercising by getting up more often and more energetically to prepare something to eat. 
 
* * *
 
Good Word:
 
Let everything that breathes praise the LORD!
 
(Psalm 150)
 
Let us pray
 
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord’s face shine on you with grace and mercy.
The Lord look upon you with favor and ☩ give you peace. Amen.
 
* * *
 
Much love to you all.
 
PEACE,
 
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church


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Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2021-04-28

Wednesday April 28th 2021
A Weekday Emailer from
Matt Matthews
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
 
Dear Friends,
 
I am looking forward to our Cuba Celebration on (1) TONIGHT
Email zoom@firstpres.church for the link.

(2) Saturday morning, (3) Sunday worship, and (4) Sunday afternoon Two-Step. Links below.
 
Tending the relationship with our sister church in Havana takes Jesus’ definition of “neighbor” seriously. Our neighbor is far and wide, both the expected and the least expected. Our brothers and sisters at Luyano Presbyterian Church in Havana need us and we need them. Here’s a short essay from our travel journal from our winter trip in 2019.
 
* * *
 
Friday, March 1st
Matt Matthews
 
            Prior to breakfast, I traipsed around the Luyano campus trying without success to capture some pictures taking advantage of morning light. The light was summery and golden but my pictures turned out flat and uninteresting.
 
            Breakfast was not. As usual, we relished fresh pineapple, guava, bananas, frothy fruit drinks, small shots of hot café, breakfast ‘hotdogs’, an egg scramble, bread, cold water, and hot sweet milk.
 
            Conversation wasn’t so great because I had to sit next to Daniel. Ha, ha. He’s getting pretty good at ‘busting’ me. I’ve been treating him with kid gloves. The gloves will come off at lunch. In my world, joking and a hand on the shoulder means familiarity, friendship, and love.
 
            We piled onto the bus—our rickety, old friend—for a 30-minute drive to Santa Maria del Mar. Robert was the first soul into the ocean. I was the last. We bobbed around as white as fish bellies in bright swim trunks. The deeper water was blue. At the beach, turquoise waves broke into pearl foam. Midway between the beach and the horizon the blues blended into a color I cannot describe, and in midwinter could hardly believe. 
 
            Katerine and Norco are our friendly hosts. Katerine and her twins are moving soon to England. I told her she would miss her Cuba sun and Cuba warm. There’s an ocean in England and the same sun, but there is no scene comparable to this. Cambridge is filled with wonders, but not Cuba’s.
 
            At the Restaurante Costarenas a hundred yards from the beach, we sat outdoors beneath a high tarp. By now, our pink skin needed protection from the bright sun. Katerine, Robert, and I ordered cervezas nacionale. Norco ordered a coke. Judi and Rachel ordered rum and cokes; when the drinks appeared with ice in them, they became immediately alarmed and asked the waiter to take the ice out; nothing poses as egregious a threat to intestinal health as a cube of local ice. Amiably, he returned the drinks sans ice but with more rum. Soon Judi and Rachel were laughing loudly and talking with their hands like native Cubans.
 
            The waiter thought my and Rachel’s pizza was to be an appetizer for the table and the paella was for everyone, which is why we ended up with two whole pizzas and six paellas, a heck of a lunch for just six of us.
 
            I used Judi’s Spanish-English dictionary to shape nonsense sentences, which amused Norco and Katerine. I liked hearing them laugh and watching their faces twist up with delighted smiles. Maybe they were being polite. “Dessert with sugar in a plates,” I said, “to bring happiness to the peoples of the world.” And, “I stamp (sellar) a jungle (selva) with a traffic light (semaforo).” They didn’t know what I was talking about and nobody cared. The laughter seemed meaningful enough.
 
            Towards the end of lunch two men approached with congas and a nylon stringed guitar. They regaled us with an impromptu concert. Nothing quickens one’s pulse like music, especially music well-played, as this was. Spanish speakers in the small crowd of diners—there were maybe ten of them—laughed at the same times. Those of us who didn’t speak Spanish missed the joke, and I told Katrina when we walked to the van later that I wondered if the singers had been making fun of us gringos. On the contrary, she said. They were singing about America. 
 
            I blushed with shame.
 
            I dozed on the bus to the chatter of the others. When we returned to Luyano, we retreated to showers and naps. Marilyn, we were told, would take us to Old Havana tonight. 
            
            We spilled out of our rooms to the patio for reading and conversation. Oswaldo (“not Lee Harvey,” he insisted), Vladimir, Marilyn, Daniel, Hector, and Rosita’s husband all dropped by for afternoon salutations. As the afternoon eased towards evening, we watched the old women in white shirts congregate in the compound for Tai Chi. We talked about joining them, and then we did. We stood up and formed a ragged line behind them. We stretched, massaged our faces with our finger tips, touched our toes (or tried), stood on our toes, pointed our toes, and bent our necks and arms in every direction. The women were flexible and could stand on one foot like flamencos, which is to say they were perfectly balanced. These gentle contortions relaxed me, though made me feel a little like a beached whale as I was the most awkward of our nimble group. At least I was a relaxed beached whale. 
 
            These centering movements took us to another good dinner—this time shrimp creole, salad, baked plantains, and a creamy yellow soup. Daniel arrived late with a six pack of cold Bucanero Cervezas. Cheers!
 
Dinner
frutas especiales
much hard work
we are
loved
 
Silvi
always serves
with a smile
she’s a 
saint
 
* * *
 
            Friday evening was a letdown, one for which, I guess, we were due. Everything else all week had been so amazing. You can’t have one amazing experience after another forever. Carlos faithfully dropped us off at the Iglesia San Francisco in the heart of Old Town Havana. Marilyn, our faithful guide from Luyano, took us through dark alleys until we stepped out onto the wide plaza. We watched a street band play a song, strolled in a circle, sat down at tables on the plaza and tried ordering dessert but they only sold booze, so we got up, walked around in another circle, then found ourselves in a chic second story restaurante that, to our happiness, served ice cream and flan. The cigar smokers in the small club shared their secondhand smoke. The piped-in muzak was too loud and lacked the soul of the tunes outside. Even in the third world one can be beset by first world problems. 
 
            We did devotionals back at the church. Sitting on the patio in perfect weather refreshed me. The stray cats moaned their discontent, however. Maybe one was in heat. Maybe one wasn’t thrilled with our reading from or interpretation of Hebrews.
 
* * * 
 
News:
 
Remember to reserve your place for Worship each week by calling the church office by noon on Fridays.  This Sunday we will connect with our sister church in Cuba.
 
* * *

Cuba Celebration weekend this Saturday and Sunday May 1st and 2nd. Join us for our Cuba Forum on Saturday, May 1, at 10 am.  In the meanwhile watch firstpres.church/cubakeynote about Cuba and Cuba-US Relations 2015-2021. Then zoom in Saturday with your questions for Professor Jacobsen. You can link into the Forum on May 1 at 10 am at 
firstpres.church/cubaforum

On Sunday, worship will have a Cuba theme with special prayers for our partner church in Havana, the Luyano Presbyterian Church. Later Sunday afternoon, we’re having a Cuba Two-Step salsa lesson.

Shared Worship  Sunday, May 2         9 AM at FirstPres.live. 
Cuba Two-Step   Sunday, May 2         1 PM at firstpres.church/cubatwostep

For more information, contact the Church Office at 217-356-7238 or zoom@firstpres.church.  The links for the Cuba Forum, Shared Worship and Cuba Two-Step will all be live on their designated dates and times.

* * *
 
This news from friend to many and former church member Larry Braskamp:
I am sad to inform you that Judith (Kolenbrander) Braskamp passed away on April 25th after a short illness caused by a recurrence of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.  
Judi was born on February 10, 1943 in Hull, IA, a small Dutch community in northwest Iowa.  Along with her brother and two sisters, she attended primary schools in Iowa and Nebraska, and high school in Guelph, Ontario.  She graduated from Central College, where she majored in history and met Larry Braskamp.  They were married June 12, 1964, a few days after her graduation from college.  
In their first years of marriage, Judi focused on raising David (now married to Kris with a daughter, Isabel) and Steven, (now married to Caroline with a daughter Sophia and son William). After the boys were in school, she pursued her CPA at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. To study for the CPA exam, she put tax codes to popular songs and carols. She created a beautiful sound throughout our home, and all through her life she could be heard singing and humming, often to herself.  
For the past 31 years, Judi and Larry lived in Chicago, a city she fell in love with. She worked at several firms and especially enjoyed working at the Chicago Legal Foundation since she worked with lawyers and others defending the less privileged among us.  She was active at Fourth Presbyterian Church, a wonderful faith community that gave her much joy and meaning in life. She served on the Board of Trustees and as a Deacon.  More recently, she found fulfillment in being active in the Church’s Meals Ministry program, serving food and getting to know some of the homeless.  Throughout her life, she led a life of humility and service.  
She loved traveling the globe and visiting her grandchildren.  She enjoyed cooking, reading, visiting museums, and with her discipline, walking 10,000 steps each day.   
A memorial service will be held at a later date.  In lieu of flowers, donations in her honor may be made to the Fourth Presbyterian Church Meals Ministry Program.
Her favorite Bible verse was 2nd Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and love and of a sound mind.”  
Our family today can say that we have been blessed with Judi’s presence in our lives for which we proclaim, “Praise the Lord.” 
Larry Braskamp
 
 * * *

Humor
 
Monday’s jokes came from Bill Gamble. Today’s jokes come from Bob Kirby.
 
Teacher: Harold, what do you call a person who keeps on talking when people are no longer interested?
Harold: A teacher.
 
Teacher: Glenn, how do you spell ‘crocodile’?
Glenn: k-r-o-k-o-d-i-a-l.
Teacher: No, that’s wrong.
Glenn: Maybe it’s wrong, but you asked me how I spell it.

* * * 
 
Good Word:
 
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
 
(Psalm 23)
 
Let us pray
 
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord’s face shine on you with grace and mercy.
The Lord look upon you with favor and ☩ give you peace. Amen.
  
* * *
 
Much love to you all.
  
PEACE,
 
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church


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Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2021-04-27

Weekday Email to Members and Friends
 
   
                                                       

 

 

The Heart of Mission
April 27, 2021
 
You’re Invited
First Presbyterian Church Champaign

A Time for Celebration!

United, United in Him, United Unidos, Unidos en Su Nombre, Unidos

Cuba Weekend May 1 & 2

May the God of all hope fill you with all joy and peace in faith so that you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

Come celebrate! Celebrate our hope for a new era, pandemic free with open travel, a bustling economy for both of our countries and standing more strongly united than ever in our lives in Jesus Christ.

Annual Cuba Forum

Available Now: (https://youtu.be/YcDbRkioSok)
Cuba and Cuba-US Relations 2015-2021
Watch this keynote address by Professor Nils Jacobsen in advance.
Come on Saturday with your questions for Professor Jacobsen.

Saturday, May 1 10 AM (via Zoom)
Come for music, prayer, testimonies and photo shares during our Eighth Annual Cuba Forum. Professor Nils Jacobsen will address your questions from his video presentation.
Join the Forum at firstpres.church/cubaforum

Shared Worship
Sunday, May 2 9 AM (online)
Come back Sunday at 9 AM as we share worship with our congregation on the island at FirstPres.live. We will share messages and prayers from our siblings in Havana and feature music of the island.

Cuba Two-Step
Sunday, May 2 1 PM (via Zoom)
Continue to celebrate Sunday afternoon at 1 PM via Zoom with a virtual salsa lesson, more photo shares and more music. Karin Vermillion will teach us to sing a Cuban song you will love.
Join the Two-Step at firstpres.church/cubatwostep
 
For more information, contact the Church Office at 217-356-7238 or zoom@firstpres.church
 
* * *
 
Stay tuned for next week’s Heart of Mission when we will see pictures from Styrofoam Saturday and hear other mission news such as May 12, a zoom visit from Bob and Kristi Rice, our mission coworkers from South Sudan! See last week’s Heart of Mission for information about signing up for the Pakistan dinner series.
 
Peace,
Rev. Dr. Rachel Matthews, Mission Coordinator
 
We want to keep our mission partners in our prayers, those who are waiting to go back to their place of ministry and those who are able to work where they are. Listen for God’s call to you in their ministry.
 
Our PC(USA) Mission CoWorkers:
Mark Adams and Miriam Maidonado Escobar (Mexico)
Farsijanna Adeney-Risakotta (Indonesia)
Jeff and Christi Boyd (Central Africa)
Bob and Kristi Rice (South Sudan)
 
Our regional and global mission partners:
Kemmerer Village (and Camp Carew)
Lifeline Pilots
Marion Medical Mission
Mission Aviation Fellowship
Opportunity International
Friends of Presbyterian Education Board in Pakistan Presbyterian Cuba Partnership
Special Offerings of the PC(USA)
Theological Education Fund
Young Adult Volunteers
 
Here in Champaign – Urbana:
CU at Home
CANAAN S.A.F.E. HOUSE
CANTEEN RUN
COURAGE CONNECTION
DREAAM
eMPTY TOMB, INC
FAITH IN ACTION
JESUS IS THE WAY PRISON MINISTRY
THE REFUGEE CENTER
RESTORATION URBAN MINISTRY
SALT & LIGHT
 
Here at First Presbyterian Church
FPCC Amateur Preachers
FPCC Environmental Committee working with Faith in Place
FPCC Presbyterian Women
FPCC ESL
FPCC Children, Youth and Families
FPCC Mission Possible/Go and Serve
FPCC Mission Team, World Mission and Community Mission Deacons
 
 
 
A picture containing drawing Description automatically generated
 

  302 W. Church Street
  Champaign, IL 61820
  217-356-7238
  info@firstpres.church
 
 

 
   
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Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2021-04-26

Monday April 26th 2021
A Weekday Emailer from
Matt Matthews
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
 
Dear Friends,
 
I am looking forward to our Cuba Celebration on (1) Wednesday night, (2) Saturday morning, (3) Sunday worship, and (4) Sunday afternoon Two-Step. Zoom links below.
 
Our partnership with our sister church, the Luyano Presbyterian Church in Havana, is revitalizing. Here’s a short essay from our travel journal from our winter trip in 2019.
 
* * *
 
The Road to Matanzas
            
            I. Most of the buildings look abandoned. In the States, buildings as neglected and decrepit as these are ready for the wrecking ball. Paint is peeled and faded and curled by the wind and sun. Gated compounds are overgrown.
 
            A shining exception was a fire station we passed on the highway to Matanzas. The tile shone clean in the morning sun. The opened garage doors revealed polished trucks and gleaming floors. The surrounding yard was landscaped with yucca and flowering bushes. 
 
            Spit shine must be in the DNA of all firefighters.
 
            II. A refinery on the coast mars a gorgeous view. Oily, black smoke belches from a tall smoke stack. A low band of black smoke hugs the coast—a cruel gash severing the turquoise ocean and the cerulean sky. Even on the open highway along this lovely coast, the sunny air steaming into our open windows is heavy with the fumes of diesel exhaust. 
 
            After the oil refinery, we could smell flowers—a momentary but sweet aroma that transported me to honey suckled memories of summers growing up in tidewater Virginia. 
 
Yaimi’s Sunday School Class
 
            Our travel team’s dining room off the sanctuary was transformed into Yaimi’s class of 13 chattering children. Yaimi taught them in rapid-fire Spanish. Her words tumbled on top of one another. I could understand few of them: nombre, mira, ahora, familia, tambien. I could make out few others. She said entonces a lot. Entonces this, entonces that. 
 
            Our quiet dining room echoed with the children’s voices. At junctures in Yaimi’s stream of words, hands would shoot up. These grade school children were eager to be called upon and they seemed articulate and able to hold their own with their teacher. They were polite but not shy. Yaimi sat at the end of the table like a general at an important briefing, leaving no doubt who was in charge.           
 
            Late comers tricked into class to a hail of salutations that got Yaimi off track only momentarily. Kids vied for the attention that she doled out attentively with smiles, but only briefly. Her teaching seemed to be comprised mainly of questions.
 
            I think the discussion—all in Spanish, of course—became focused on the beatitudes. Possibly Mateo Cinco. The children dutifully opened their Bibles. She returned to questioning them. From time to time, she’d ask something that forced their hands up, up, up. They were dying for her to call them. Their eyes pleaded. The selected one would read the prescribed verses. I recognized some of the words, but as I read “pure in heart” in English in my Mateo cinco, I worried they might be in Marco. I hoped I was following along. 
 
            Blessed are those who can’t speak the language for one day they will get the hang of it. 
 
            Yaimi stood and ended class with a little speech that began with the words “practicar compassion.” The kids had grown restless and seemed ready to practicar salsa.
 
* * * 
 
News:
 
Cuba Celebration weekend this Saturday and Sunday May 1st and 2nd. Join us for our Cuba Forum on Saturday, May 1, at 10 am.  In the meanwhile watch firstpres.church/cubakeynote about Cuba and Cuba-US Relations 2015-2021. Then zoom in Saturday with your questions for Professor Jacobsen. You can link into the Forum on May 1 at 10 am at 
firstpres.church/cubaforum

On Sunday, worship will have a Cuba theme with special prayers for our partner church in Havana, the Luyano Presbyterian Church. Later Sunday afternoon, we’re having a Cuba Two-Step salsa lesson.

Shared Worship  Sunday, May 2         9 AM at FirstPres.live. 
Cuba Two-Step   Sunday, May 2         1 PM at firstpres.church/cubatwostep

For more information, contact the Church Office at 217-356-7238 or zoom@firstpres.church.  The links for the Cuba Forum, Shared Worship and Cuba Two-Step will all be live on their designated dates and times.
 
* * *
 
Humor
 
Guess who these came from:
 
Sometimes I talk to myself. Then we laugh and laugh.

When this virus is over, I still want some of you to stay away from me.

If you think I am short, you should see my patience.
 
* * * 
 
Good Word:
 
Luke 21:25-31                        
[Jesus said] “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 
 
Let us pray
 
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord’s face shine on you with grace and mercy.
The Lord look upon you with favor and ☩ give you peace. Amen.
  
* * *
 
Much love to you all.

PEACE,
 
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church


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Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2021-04-23

Friday, April 23rd 2021
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
 
To Members and Friends of 
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
 
Friends,
 
Miriam Chenault shared these words with me from “Vision and Viewpoint” a weekly e-newsletter from Joan Chittister.
 
believe in God, creator of the earth

“Never, ever, throw anything in the water,” my father taught me when we were out fishing, pop bottles and sandwich wrappers all over the bottom of the little skiff. “Never, ever, throw cans out a car window,” my mother warned as I finished the last of an afternoon snack in the back seat. These other messages were the descant against which I lived my young life: Don’t ever hurt an animal. Don’t ever keep more fish than you can eat. Don’t ever use more of anything than you need. Don’t waste anything. Don’t ever dig up flower gardens. Don’t ever trample down small trees. Don’t ever hurt a baby bird. 
 
Why? Because, that’s why. Because making a garbage heap out of the water and the woods, my property or nobody’s property, destroyed the beauty and goodness of creation. Because destroying another being just for the sake of destroying it took life in vain. Because creation was good and each part of it had its own purpose that’s why. Because we were to walk through life on tiptoe, as part of creation, not as predators with swollen bellies and bloated souls. We were to learn from animals and care for flowers, to have enough and never too much. We were meant to leave the world better than we found it. This was more than the kind of paltry stewardship that conserves so we can continue to be rapacious. This was a way of life that held more than humanity sacred. Those lessons ring in my heart until this day, more loudly than ever before.
 
God, the Creed insists, created the earth. The earth, like us, in other words, breathes the breath of God. The simplicity of the statement overwhelms. What is it that has been created by God that does not reflect the presence of God? What is it, created by God, that can cavalierly be destroyed without remorse, without awareness of the divine life within it? If God is really God, that is. The Upanishads teach:
 
As the web issues out of the spider
And is withdrawn, as plants sprout from the earth,
As hair grows from the body, even so,
The sages say, this universe springs from
The deathless Self, the source of life.

             —from In Search of Belief by Joan Chittister (Liguori)
 
* * *
 
Rev. Samantha Nichols, our Sunday School Coordinator, preaches our Earth Day Sermon this Sunday. You don’t want to miss it. 
 
Join us THIS Sunday.
 
Remember: FirstPres.Live for on-line, and 302 West Church Street, big green doors, for in-person.
 
PEACE,
 
Matt Matthews
864.386.9138
matt@firstpres.church

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Last Sunday we had 22 people enjoy the sunshine and conversation in West Side Park. Join us this Sunday, April 25, 11 am to noon and then starting in May, the 2nd and 4th Sundays of the month.  We hope to see you! 

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From your Nurture Team — Last week’s photo challenge was a stumper, and admittedly it was a challenge because our subject now lives in California.  Emily Beach still keeps in touch, and it was her smiling face we saw in last week’s photo challenge.    

Here’s this week’s photo. 

Visit http://fb.com/groups/firstpreschampaign to make your guesses, or email them to photos@firstpres.church.  
 
Please join in the fun!  We are running low on photos, so we would like you to select a photo from your younger years (grade school, high school or early adulthood). Photos need not be professional. Candid shots are welcome. Please send your photos to photos@firstpres.church.
 
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Lots of songs this Friday. 
 
Song of the Earth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noTYlKHTTKA
 
Holst’s The Planets
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be7uEyyNIT4
 
Flash mob
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3cpOrB1GW8
 
You’ll love this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfOx4CmQWLs
 
Another beauty…
https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=mcafee&ei=UTF-8&p=reconciliation+tommy+mcdonald+youtube&type=E211US105G91506#id=1&vid=7fdaa41dc73d8233614ff538e447648a&action=click


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