GOOD FRIDAY 3/25 and EASTER WORSHIP 3/27

Friday, March 25, 2016 GOOD FRIDAY service

Sunday, March 27, 2016 EASTER worship

Pastor:  Rev. Teresa Thompson Sherrill     wtucrev@gmail.com

a43b5b263b1e682e45002609ead141aa-2March 25th – Taize style GOOD FRIDAY service at the Sack`s home from 6:30pm. All are welcome to this reflective service. Need directions, please contact wtucrev@gmail.com

March 27th – 11:00 AM – EASTER SERVICE!  Pastor Teresa will give a homily from John 20. The Zebley family and friends wunnamed-1ill also share an Easter Skit. Gene Witt will lead us on the organ. Carol Sack will play the harp. Susie, Anna and Emma will lead us in song. Please enjoy Fujiko Nielson`s Easter art installation. Our special Easter offering for Second Harvest Japan will be taken. Our delightful robust fellowship time will be after the service. After fellowship time, we will have an EASTER EGG HUNT. Invite your friends and family = )

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Tony Compolo`s transformative – It`s Friday – but Sunday is coming (audio – 5 minutes – enjoy!)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCQSsUKDYCU

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about the special Easter offering – Second Harvest Japan – Charles McJilton as director of Second Harvest Japan  shares about Japan`s first food bank. “We receive donations from manufacturers, retailers, farmers and individuals and then distribute them to those in need. All of the food that we handle is unexpired and safe for consumption. We give this food a second life by distributing it to welfare agencies, orphanages, women shelters, people without homes, and those in need. Second Harvest Japan aims to create a Food Safety Net in Japan. In order to do so, we deliver food to children’s homes, single-mother shelters, centers for the disabled, as well as many other welfare organizations and individuals in need. In order to deliver enough food to those who lack food security, 2HJ cooperates with food manufacturers and other companies, and hopes to use food to create new partnerships between corporations and the community. In our first year of incorporation, we delivered 30 tons of food. Since 2002, we have delivered over 12,000 tons valued at over Â¥5 billion yen. Your support of Second Harvest Japan helps us achieve our motto, ‘Food for all People’.

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Peter, Ann, Emin and Sopheen have invited us to their home for further Easter celebration and an Easter Egg Hunt. Delightful refreshments will be served, and feel free to bring Finger Foods. All are invited to continue celebrating our Risen Christ. Karen Seevers will be available to give rides to their home. If you need a map, please contact wtucrev@gmail.com – there is limited parking nearby.

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Upcoming Preaching Ministry and Community Events

March 25th – Good Friday Service at 6:30pm, in the Sack`s home.

March 27th – EASTER WORSHIP, Easter Egg Hunt, Robust Easter Fellowship.

All are invited to stay and enjoy!

April 3 – Pastor Teresa preaching, Communion will be served. Organ: Kazuko Sacon.

April 10 – Multigenerational and Adult Sunday Schools, Covenant Players in worship, Youth and Friends leading worship.

April 17 – Pastor Teresa preaching, Communion will be served.

April 24 – Multigenerational and Adult Sunday Schools, Hiro Morikawa preaching, Organ: Kazuko Sacon.

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GATHERING GIFTS FOR March 27th EASTER SUNDAY

Looking for thespians for a skit, flowers to decorate the altar, folks to prepare the Easter Eggs, and those to hide and manage the Easter Egg Hunt. We are asking all to prepare yummies for our robust EGG-CITING Easter Fellowship Time. Please bring a finger food of something eggy, yummy or Eastery to share = )

Please let Pastor Teresa wtucrev@gmail.com know of your gifts and interest.

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Looking for mentors for our wonderful confirmands

This church year Aidan, Anna Z, Emma, Kai, Karen, Ken, Matai, Sophia and Tristan have been meeting monthly to prepare for confirmation on Pentecost, May 15th. They will be preparing their “creed” to read during the service. WTUC matches up a mentor with a confirmand to continue their journey of spiritual formation and growth. If you would like to be one of these grand kids mentors, please let Pastor Teresa know. Thank you for your prayerful consideration.

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Little Kidz: Please remain in the Easter worship.

ES/MS Youth: Sun. April 24th  5:30-7pm. @ ASIJ for Pool fun, Devotion activity and Pizza!

Confirmation Class: Working on their “creeds” that they will share at Pentecost.

HS Youth: Still gathering usable cloth to continue with quilting projects.

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MULTIGENERATIONAL SUNDAY SCHOOL!! ADULT SUNDAY SCHOOL!! 

We have Multigenerational Sunday School from 9:30AM 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 9:30AM 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, hosted by Dr. Toshi Sasao, on the 2nd floor above the Sanctuary.) All are welcome. Need more information, contact wtucrev@gmail.com any time = ) Next Sunday School – Easter Egg hunt after church on March 27th! All friends invited!

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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, are interested in baptism or membership, please contact Pastor Teresa *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. *Sign up for snacks for fellowship time with Ann or Jill. We appreciate your contributions to our community life!

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Text for the sermon – John 20:1-23 NRSV

1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples returned to their homes. 11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look[a] into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her. 19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

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