Will Starve for Food
 
The 30-Hour Famine has become one of the most significant events in the program year for youth ministry at LPC.  Despite a number of schedule conflicts with school events, this year’s participation will be as high as ever with over 125 middle and high school young people and 80+ adult leaders taking part in one way or another.  As you look out over the sea of blue t-shirts at Sunday's 9:45 service, you’ll see this year’s “Will Starve for Food” logo along with the now very familiar “30-Hour Clock” Continue reading →

The Beginning of the Journey
 
This week's Ash Wednesday Communion Service is the beginning of the forty-day season of repentance and preparation for Easter known as Lent.  Much about Lent is old and complicated and lost in the fog medieval Europe. Its beginning date is tied to the date of Easter, always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox.  And the forty days do not include Sundays.  The word Lent is thought to be a corruption of an old Germanic word for spring.  The season commemorates Jesus' forty days in the wilderness and in the older traditions was a season of fasting.  The meatless Fridays some of us may remember from our Roman Catholic friends was a ritualized form of fasting. The fasting was to be used to help the believer focus on his or her need for the forgiveness and grace offered by Christ through his death on the cross. The ashes imposed upon the forehead on Ash Wednesday were a visible sign of one of the most ancient symbols of sorrow, grief and remorse. Until 30 years or so years ago, most Protestants, especially those in the Reformed Tradition had little to do with Lent. Continue reading →

Some of you know that I spent last week in Guatemala as part of a mission team from our church.

It was a great week.  For several years members of Langhorne Church have traveled to Guatemala to help with the work of Promised Land Ministries, a Guatemala-based ministry of medical, educational, nutritional and spiritual aid to the people along the shore of Lake Atitlan in the mountains north and west of Guatemala City.  This was the second LPC-sponsored trip and it centered around the work of three of our doctors who join the staff doctor from PLM in providing clinics and medicine to the people of Atitlan. Continue reading →

Off to Guatemala
 
Last night the members of the Guatemala Mission Team received a welcoming email from our Guatemalan hosts, Roberto and Ita Santizo.  They said in part (and slightly edited): Continue reading →

One Good Year
 
Becky and I passed our first anniversary in Langhorne and at LPC this past week and give great thanks for all that God has done.  I'll save ministry outcomes and strategic planning for annual reports and session meetings.  For now, blessing counting will do.  In no particular order, we give thanks to God for these first 365 days in Langhorne and at LPC during which we were blessed in many ways:

• Wonderful friends in the LPC congregation.  We often talk about the kind of friendships where you pick up right where you left off no matter how long you've been apart.  With so many of you there is a sense that we've known you for a long time even though it's been a short time.  Thanks for opening yourselves to us.
• A year ago we were anxious about selling our house in Beaver and finding a new place to live here in Bucks County.  A gracious offer of temporary lodging provided exactly enough time for God to find a buyer for our old house and the perfect Langhorne house for this new season of life. 
• Becky wasn't sure what God had in mind as far as her employment went, but within the same ten days that the Beaver house sold and we made an offer on our Langhorne house, doors opened at a local alternative energy company and it's now been over ten months of challenging and satisfying work at Fibrowatt.
• We enjoyed running through Tyler State Park, paddle boating at Core Creek and walking along the towpath along the Raritan Canal.
• The incredible privilege of seeing and hearing how God has been at work in so many of your lives.  You've shared some tough times and some joyous times.  You've described moments of grace and episodes of challenge.  In and through it all you see God at work and are willing to tell others about it.  We have gotten to know God just a little better for one year in this part of the Body of Christ known as LPC

Yes, the markets are down and anxiety has grown.  2008 seems to have raised many more questions than answers.  But here is an answer that is always true and which we have heard shouted and displayed throughout the past 365 days:  God is very good!!!