Sunday, March 1st

THIS WEEK: Sunday, the 1st –

11:00 AM – WORSHIP

FELLOWSHIP TIME: after the service

Sunday, March 1st – During the 11 AM worship, Rev. Dr. Jim Sack will preach from Mark 8 and Genesis 17 bringing a sermon titled “New Life Through Capital Punishment.” Communion will be served. After the worship service will be a robust fellowship time. All are welcome!

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about the preacher – Jim and Carol Sack have been long term missionaries in Japan with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Japan since 1982. Jim teaches clinical psychology classes in the undergraduate and graduate school as well as pastoral counseling classes in the seminary. Carol is director of “Lyra Precaria,” a ministry that provides harp music and voice at the bedside of the dying.

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CHRISTIAN EDUCATION CORNER (we value your prayers & involvement in this vital ministry)  Any questions, please contact Pastor Teresa at wtucrev@gmail.com, or Julie Rogers for HS; Amy Harbaugh and Steve Bennett for Upper ES and Lower MS, grades 4-7; and Carrie Bennett for Lower ES, grades K-3.

Little Kids: all are welcome to enjoy books and colouring materials during the service.

ES – Tentative swim and devotions dates – March 18th (PACT) 5:00pm, April 8th (PACT) 5:00pm, May 13th (PACT) 5:00pm, June 3rd 5:00 pm

MS/HS – Sunday, March 1st, visiting Tokyo Union Church today to worship with them

Next MULTIGENERATIONAL and ADULT Sunday School – 3/8, 9:30-10:30am

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Upcoming Preaching Ministry and Community Time

March 1st         Rev. Dr. Jim Sack preaching, Communion

March 8th        Multigenerational and Adult Sunday School, Pastor Teresa preaching

March 15th       Pastor Teresa preaching

March 21st       Makoto Fujimura – Saturday film showing of “Golden Sea” and  interview at ICU Dialogue House, International House 2F, 6:30-8:30pm – Chance to see Tom Hastings as well!

March 22nd     Multigenerational and Adult Sunday School, Makoto Fujimura preaching http://www.makotofujimura.com/, Communion will be served.

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MULTIGENERATIONAL SUNDAY SCHOOL!! ADULT SUNDAY SCHOOL!!

We have Multigenerational Sunday School from 9:30 in the cafeteria the second and fourth Sundays of the month. Who is welcome? All ages. We will be creating, discussing, playing games, acting out bible stories and more. At the same time, the Sacks host the Adult Sunday School, also at 9:30 am in their living room. The method used is the, “Swedish Bible study method,” interacting with the texts for the service through our own life experiences. Their home is right across the Lutheran Campus from our sanctuary. Best coffee in town = ) Come and enjoy! (At times Adult Sunday School is held in the Upper Room, on the 2nd floor above the Sanctuary.) All are welcome. Need more information, contact wtucrev@gmail.com any time = ) Sunday School schedule: 3/8, 3/22, 4/12, 4/26, 5/10, 5/24, 6/14 and 6/28.

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AFARI, American Friends of ARI (Asian Rural Institute), is an organization of friends, former volunteers, expats who came to know ARI through T.U.C. and mission co-workers who have deeply respected the mission and people of ARI since its founding in 1973. Each year since 2004, AFARI has sought gifts of frequent flier miles (mostly on Delta/NWA and United, but also from other airlines that carry passengers from parts of Asia, the Pacific Islands and Central/South America to Tokyo.) If you or a family member have enough miles for a one-way or round-rip flight that could be used to bring a participant from Kathmandu, Myanmar or Manila (for example), please be in touch with pamhasegawa@gmail.com at your earliest convenience. The Hasegawa family, T.U.C members from 1985-89, enjoy a lifelong bond with A.R.I. For the last 10 years their family has given at least one ticket a year to support the travel of a participant whose organization did not have the funds for air fare. AFARI members in North America agree, “It has been a joy for us to contribute to the mission of ARI in this way and we would invite you to join us, if you can, in making your own contribution of FF miles.”  

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WTUC Announcements:

*Questions or concerns? Feel free to email wtucrev@gmail.com anytime.

*Please enjoy and refer our website https://wtuc.net/ and FB page (West Tokyo Union Church) to others. Please make any suggestions for additions to the Pastor Teresa and/or Steering Committee.

*If you’d like to be added to the WTUC church email list, please contact Gene Witt ewitt@asij.ac.jp

*If interested in joining the WTUC Prayer Chain, let Pastor Teresa or Prayer Chain Coordinator, Kayo Ozawa, know of your interest. Please submit prayers to wtucrev@gmail.com or Kayo Ozawa.

*Sign up for snacks for fellowship time with Ann or on the list on the white board for next year. We appreciate your contributions to our community life!

*Each week we will be setting up the chairs for worship and preparing the sanctuary, anyone around at 10:30am is invited to be involved in the fun = ) Each week we will also return our sanctuary to it`s classroom style after the fellowship time.

*Interested in baptism or membership, please contact Pastor Teresa.

*Interested in a paid position setting up and/or taking down the chairs of our sanctuary? Contact Pastor Teresa at wtucrev@gmail.com

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Scriptures for the sermon –

Genesis 17:1-8, 15-17     When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.” Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, “As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you.I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.”

God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?”

Mark 8:31-38     Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”