April Newsletter

Entering the Mystery of God’s Love: Holy Week and Easter at Emmanuel

Sunday, April 13, we enter into Holy Week—a sacred journey that follows Jesus through his final days leading to the cross and ultimately to the resurrection. We begin with the crowds' loud shouts of praise as Jesus enters Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, a moment punctuated by his tears over the city—tears shed for hearts closed to God's peace.

On Thursday, we will gather to celebrate the Lord’s Supper, remembering that Jesus welcomes us into table fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, just as he did with his disciples in the upper room.

On Friday, you are invited to contemplate the pain and mystery of Good Friday through interactive stations of personal lament. Come anytime between 4–7 p.m. to encounter Jesus, the wounded healer—who suffers, dies, and therefore knows the depth of your pain. Cry out to the One who ultimately holds you with sacrificial love.

Saturday is the day Jesus lay in the tomb. I invite you to slow down, to sit in stillness and silence. Jesus is dead. Perhaps read Psalm 88, which ends with the haunting line: “You have caused friend and neighbor to shun me; my companions are in darkness.” This can feel heavy, sad, and painful—and that is okay. Because it is not the last word.

By walking through the entirety of Holy Week, we are invited to cling to the truth that God sees us and hears our cries. God did not stay far off but sent His only begotten Son to take on the fullness of humanity. Jesus suffers, dies, and is buried. And on the third day, in the power of the Spirit, he rose to new life.

On Easter we shout: He is risen! He is risen indeed!
Nothing can contain the love of God. Not even death.
The gates of hell cannot stand against the power of God.

Jesus is alive! He is alive! He is alive!
And we are filled with the Holy Spirit to live by faith and walk with the risen Christ in the newness of life. We are empowered by Jesus and filled with the Spirit to go out as His ambassadors, carrying forth the sacrificial love of God.

Easter also marks the beginning of a new sermon series: "Resurrection Life: Living His Story". In this series, we will consider the meaning of the resurrection for our lives today. Through stories from the book of Acts, we will explore how the early church lived out Jesus’s story and embodied the good news of new life in Christ. The resurrection proclaims that God brings life out of death—and we are invited to live this good news and carry it into our relationships, neighborhoods, and cities.

My invitation to you is to enter fully into the mystery of God’s redeeming love this Holy Week. Make space to pay attention—along with God—to your story and His. Let yourself feel: be disturbed, disrupted, moved to tears, gratitude, anger, joy—whatever comes. Feel all the feels. Know that God invites it. Give yourself over to this story of God’s transformative and sacrificial love.

Bonnie Thurston, in our Lenten book study O Taste and See, writes:

“This isn’t easy because it involves self-giving to a plot that we don’t create, to accept a role prepared for us in a great drama that we don’t write. It is, in short, to surrender to God. Surrender is costly, but in the particular story to which we are invited, it is, paradoxically, our victory.”

The cross and resurrection are God’s great paradox:
Life won through death.
Peace won through violence.
Joy won through suffering.
Community won through forsakenness.
And through it all, the love of God reigns.

Grace and Peace,
Pastor Patrick

Holy Week

Maundy Thursday Service 7pm: We will worship together and share communion with one another and our host Jesus as we remember His last supper with the disciples.

Good Friday Self-guided Stations of Lament: This day we remember Jesus was crucified and died. It is somber in mood and invites us to weep alongside mother Mary at the death of Jesus who enters into our suffering. There is no part of human experience that Jesus did not know, including death. Come anytime between 4-7pm. There will be seven stations that coincide with the seven last words of Christ. At each station there will be a prompt and an interactive component to lead you in personal reflection and lament. You set the pace and may choose to skip stations if you like. This is your time to pray, reflect and be held within the community of Love (Father, Son and Spirit) as you lament evil, brokenness and sin as you experience it in your own life.

Easter Sunday Service: 10am, Invite your family and friends to celebrate the resurrection and new life in Christ!

Sunday Morning Fellowship Volunteers Needed

We are in need of fellowship volunteers for Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday. We will need a volunteer to set-up before church for both Palm Sunday and Easter, as well a volunteer to clean-up after fellowship on Easter.

It would also be great to have additional volunteers to bring cookies or snacks for both Palm Sunday and Easter!

Please email micaelaa@epcbothell.org if you would like to sign up.

News and Upcoming Events

Book Group
Next book: Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life, by Richard Rohr

Details: Our discussions will begin after Easter—more details to follow. If you’re interested in joining the discussions, please email Connie Weber (weber_connie@hotmail.com) to get on the email chain.

Remember that if you purchase the book from Third Place Books in Lake Forest Park, you’ll receive a 20% discount when you mention the book group at Emmanuel Presbyterian Church.

Women's Fellowship: Meets the first Saturday of the month from 9 am – 10:30 am in the Narthex. Our next one is scheduled for Saturday May 4th. "BYO Coffee" in any shape of travel mug!

Come with joys or concerns to share during our prayer time. Our meetings have no formal presentation or discussion leader. We are just enjoying our friendship-building time together.

Emmanuel Farm Fall Festival

Saturday, October 12 – 11 am – 2 pm

Game Night!

Friday, September 27 - 6 pm

Join us for a fun night of friendly competition and fellowship in the Narthex. Bring your friends, family, and a favorite game if you have one. This is a kid friendly event!

Pizza and ice cream sundae bar will be provided (donations welcome). Bring your favorite topping to share.

Outdoor Worship and BBQ - August 11

Please join us on August 11 for worship in our outdoor sanctuary followed by our annual picnic. Hamburgers, hotdogs, and lemonade will be provided.

Please bring a side dish or dessert to share.

A few notes/reminders:

· Children are welcome in the outdoor sanctuary (no Sunday school that day). The “cry room” will be open if needed.

· The benches in the outdoor sanctuary can be kind of hard – you might want to bring a pad or picnic blanket to sit on.

· As a reminder, there will be no Zoom church on August 11.

Emmanuel Farm

The spring rush is on to get the beds ready and the crops in. The gentlemen have accomplished their annual “March of the tomato trellis” which is always a highlight! If you stop in, you’ll see some new additions including food heritage informational signs and a sink for cleaning produce. Both have been on our wish list for a long time.

Thanks to a friend of Carol Steinhauer’s, Emmanuel Farm also boasts several heirloom strawberry plants, a variety with deep roots in this country. We’re eager to see how they turn out!

Women's Fellowship
Saturday, May 4, 9 am - 10:30 am

Lady Birds will meet in the sanctuary May 4th at 9am. Bring your own coffee, conversation, knitting, prayer requests, etc! We welcome all ideas and suggestions to help us create this woman’s fellowship.

Hope to see you there!

Blessings in Jesus,

Linda Avery

2024 Church Spring Cleanup

Saturday, March 23, 9 am - Noon

Just a reminder our spring cleanup is next Saturday! There is plenty to do to beautify our flower beds, playground, outdoor sanctuary and other areas of our beautiful acreage.

A few added details:

We plan to serve soup, bread, and of course cookies! If you can help provide any of these items, there will be a signup sheet in the narthex or you can reply to this email.
Great news! It's time to start planting at Emmanuel Farm - we'll have plants ready to go if you want to help.
Digging in the dirt not your thing? Plenty to do inside - help serve the workers, maybe work on tidying up the pantry - something for everyone and a great chance for fellowship!

Hope to see you all there!

Lenten Service Schedule

Palm Sunday service March 24 10 am

Maundy Thursday service March 28 7 pm

Easter Sunday service March 31 10 am

A note to families:

There will be no childcare available during the Maundy Thursday service.
On Easter Sunday, the Sunday School teachers have fun activities planned (including an egg hunt during the service!)

Emmanuel Farm

Despite the recent flurries, we have faith that spring will appear soon. Emmanuel Farm is gearing up for our seventh season and it’s promising to be a busy one, in the best of ways. Larry Gibbons has kindly offered to install Irrigation in the beds along the fence line, we’re adding a sink to wash produce before delivering it to the Northshore Senior Center and you’ll soon encounter some new signs describing some of the rich local food heritage some of our crops boast.

We “Putterers” will start meeting Saturday mornings at 9:00 fairly soon. We’ve grown considerably in number over the last few years! Anyone is welcome to join us, regardless of gardening experience. Come learn how to grow food in a way that honors and celebrates our Creator’s creation!

2024 Church Spring Cleanup

Saturday, March 23

It's Spring and that means it's time to work outside at Emmanuel, getting the landscape ready for summer. Join us for a few hours on Saturday, March 23 beautifying the flower beds, playground, outdoor sanctuary, and other areas of our beautiful acreage. Bring your gloves and garden tools if you have them!

It's a great way to get to know some of your fellow members so we hope to see you Saturday, March 23 from 9 am until noon.

Men's Breakfast
Saturday, March 9

Fellowship and food come together for the men of the church on Saturday. March 9 at 8:30 am in the narthex. Jason Bohreer is cooking something special for us this month, so put it on your calendar.

Sunday School Mission Project

THIS Sunday, November 19th is the LAST week to bring hygiene and other items to support our unhoused youth community.

Items most needed include:

Body wipes & Hand Sanitizer
Uterine care (tampons, pads, liners)
Bandaids
Floss
Little flashlights
Warm hats

Other items to consider:

Ziploc bags in Gallon, Quart, and snack size to package items
Small activity books/cards/notebooks
Markers/Pens/Crayons
Dog treats/food

Thank you for your generosity!

Advent Party, Saturday, December 2, 11:00 am - 1:00 pm

Join with our preschool families for a time of celebration and preparation for the upcoming Christmas season. Our wonderful preschool teachers will be hosting ornament-making stations in their classrooms. We’ll trim the tree in the narthex, share a meal and get to know each other during this fun event.

Ways to help: There is a sign-up sheet in the narthex for sandwiches, fruit, veggies, chips, cookies and on-site help with setup, lunch prep, cleanup.

Neah Bay Christmas Party, Dec. 9 & 10

Neah Bay Christmas Party December 9 and 10

Reminder! We’re thrilled to resume our Neah Bay Christmas celebration on December 9-10.

A little history: For more than forty years, members and friends of Emanuel have been traveling to Neah Bay on the second Saturday of December to join the Makah Native community in a Christmas celebration. Along with partner churches, Emmanuel congregation members have provided dinner, gifts, and children’s crafts and activities, while the Neah Bay Church has provided the venue, enthusiasm, and many children, their families, and the community’s Elders. It has become a much-beloved Christmas tradition for families on both sides of Puget Sound.

Ways to help: We will need donations of Christmas cookies, wrapped candy, and $25 Walmart gift cards for children's gift bags, and candy for gingerbread house-making. Financial gifts to help cover the cost of food and additional gift cards will be greatly appreciated. There is a Neah Bay line on our contributions link on the website. Emmanuel Presbyterian Church Bothell (epcbothell.org). There is also a signup sheet in the narthex.

We would love to have you join us at Neah Bay.

We can always use more elves! Contact Deb Melse for more info on lodging, what to expect, etc.:
Email: debmelse@yahoo.com Cell: 425-478-7553

2023 CHURCH SPRING CLEANUP

The Stewardship Commission has planned the 2023 Church Spring Cleanup for March 25th from 9 am to 12 pm. The items we hope to work on and the garden leads are shown on the Church Spring Cleanup project list below. A signup list will also be on the Volunteer Board in the Narthex. If you have a wheelbarrow and a shovel that you could bring that would be very helpful because we plan to spread about 3 yards of mulch.

It is always a lot of fun working together to spruce up our church prior to Easter. If you have any questions, please contact Larry Gibbons.

Weed flower beds and spread mulch

Kitchen/Office (Larry)
Front bed by Sanctuary (Linda)
West & South Rose Garden (Larry)
East flower beds by Sanctuary & Nursery (Mary Ann & Connie)
East Flower bed by Classroom (Larry)
Flower beds along 104th (Marie)
Garage area (Larry)

Clean outdoor chapel (Larry)

Remove blackberries and trim branched as needed
Clean benches and rake ground by benches

Trim & Mulch parking lot island (Kristel)
Clean Sanctuary Gutters
Mow lawn
Wash Narthex & Sanctuary Outside Windows (Mary Anne)

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Advent Happenings

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Services

Our Christmas Eve service will be 5:00 pm in person and on Zoom.
Christmas Day is on Sunday this year! Service will begin at 10:00 am in person and on Zoom.

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August News

A Note from the Pastor regarding a New Members Orientation:

In the wake of the Covid shut down and the corresponding advent of having a congregation that worships in two places it is sometimes hard to identify who is a part of the congregation. The ambiguity of what constitutes “meeting together” makes for an interesting discussion about the nature church membership. But belonging to a community in which we find support and encouragement to persevere on the journey of following Jesus is still an important resource for the life of faith. Whether we meet together online or in the building, the same question is before us: “Do we belong?” Do we belong to a people? Are we a part of a web of relationships that is knit together by a common dedication to walking on the Way of Jesus? Church is not merely gathering for a worship service. Nor is it merely hearing a sermon. It is about joining with others in listening for and acting on the call of Christ.

Do you belong?

If you want to explore that question and how Emmanuel Presbyterian Church might be a part of an answer to that desire to belong to a community that is “on the Way,” we want to hear from you. After several failed attempts to get a new members orientation together, we are trying once again. It will no doubt need to be, like worship, an event that is offered simultaneously in person and online. In the past we have dedicated 3 hours on a Saturday morning to these new member orientation gatherings. That time and structure can flex given our new situation. But we need to hear from you regarding what format would work best for you. Would you prefer to attend online or in person? Would 3 hours on a Saturday in the near future work for you? Do you have any other suggestions about a good time to hold this class (perhaps one evening a week for three or four weeks)?

Please call or text me at 206 715-3007 or email me at daver@epcbothell.org with your thoughts. Let’s work together to pull this gathering of “inquiring souls” together. I look forward to hearing from you.

Dave Rohrer

Book Discussion Group

Are you interested in reading, and participating in a discussion of a book about Jeremiah during the eight weeks of the sermon series on Jeremiah? If so, you can be a part of a conversation about Eugene Peterson’s book Run with the Horses on Tuesday nights at 7pm on Zoom. Beginning on Tuesday, August 23rd Dave Rohrer will facilitate these weekly 60 minutes discussions. There are 16 short chapters in this book, and we’ll read and discuss two chapters per week. Ten copies of the book are available for purchase through the church at $11 or you can locate your own copy online through a used book seller. For the first week’s meeting a PDF of the first two chapters will be made available for those who want to be a part of the group. If you would like to be a part of the group and want to purchase a copy of the book, please contact Dave via email at daver@epcbothell.org. Copies of the PDF of the first two chapters can be picked up at worship on Sunday 8/21 or can be sent to you via email.

Summer Project Updates

The Shed…. Project Complete!

Our storage building behind the church was in desperate need of maintenance and painting. A Big thank-you to the many folks involved in this months-long project:

Maintenance, Repairs, surrounding grounds clean-up: Steve Nguyen, Emmanuel Nguyen, Loren Steinhauer, Wayne Kenney
Power Washing: Wayne Kenney, Joshua Cooper, Tom Cooper
Scraping: Bob Walther, Larry Gibbons, Lois Robinson, Scott Robinson, Tom Cooper
Painting: Scott Robinson, Lois Robinson, Drema Cooper
Point for paint purchase: Bob Walther

Garden Bed Clean-up:

While the shed was being painted, several folks decided to clean out the garden beds that were overgrown with weeds and deteriorating wood borders. Thanks to Lois Robinson, Susan Sprague, Drema Cooper, Wayne Kenney, Bob Walther and Tom Cooper who helped beautify this area!

July visit to Mary’s Place Kenmore

On Saturday, July 23rd, our picnic at the women and children's homeless shelter in Kenmore was a very enjoyable day for the folks there. Thanks to all of you who contributed to the menu items! We had enough food at the end to stock their refrigerators for the following day, a Sunday when nothing is provided for them.

The colorful tables with balloons, corn hole games provided by Larry Beach and great story telling by Deb Melse made the day fun for all ages. One of the most successful parts of the picnic was the distributing of very nice car club t-shirts donated by Lois Robinson. There were XS for the smallest children to XXXL for the largest adults, and they were a huge hit!

Yasmin, the director of the shelter, sends her thanks to our congregation.

April Newsletter