Faith Presbyterian Church

 The weather is getting warmer, summer is just around the corner, and soon it will be time to welcome children to ReNew, the Green VBS, June 6-10. This year, our program will encourage kids to “Grow in Faith, Have Fun, and Change the World”, while studying Jesus’ Parable of the Sower, and learning ways to care for God’s creation.

There will be lots of green activities, from planting seeds and growing a “pizza garden” of tomato, basil, onion, bell pepper, and oregano, to learning about ways they can help care for the environment at home, in the community, and around the world. 

Each night, ReNew will begin at 5:30 PM, with dinner.  Kids will then “Gather” to learn about the Parable of the Sower, sing songs, and begin their daily planting ritual. Then they will rotate between the Self, Community, and World activity sites, learning what the Bible story and creation care mean for their lives.  During the “Send” time, they will share “roses and thorns”, finish their planting ritual, and decide as a group what “ReNew It! Challenge” they will do before the next day,

A new feature this year will be the combination of VBS and our annual trip to the blueberry farm, Berry Sweet Orchards.  We want to invite all our VBS families to meet us on Saturday, June 11, and travel to the country to see organic gardening up close and personal.  And of course, on Sunday, June 12, we will celebrate VBS in worship, and after at the Hamburger Picnic!

 Registration will be available online, as well as by mail, e-mail, and fax.  Please check back often as we update this information!

One of our favorite annual Fellowship events is our Chili Cook-off and Karaoke fund raiser for cancer research. You are invited to bring a pot of chili and/or a dessert to share with the group, but that’s not all. There will be a cup placed in front of each chili, and after you have sampled, please vote for your favorite(s) by placing cash or checks (made payable to Faith) in the cup. You are encouraged, in the best Louisiana tradition, to “vote early and often,” and all proceeds will go to the American  Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. The winner will receive the coveted Chili Spoon trophy!

After dinner, John & Shannon Ortego, with Audio Pro Karaoke, will accompany our karaoke singers. They have hundreds of songs, in many different genres, so plan to tune up your vocal chords and sing a song or two. In years past, we have had many celebrity singing groups show up to perform, and this year promises to be no different.

Don’t keep this event all to yourself – invite a friend, or two, or three, to join you for the fun. And don’t forget to share the blessing and take some chili to a neighbor or shut-in!

This year the members of Faith are adopting two families to help during this Holiday season. Both of these families have children who attend Twin Oaks Elementary School. There is a tree in the vestibule that has tags hanging from it. These tags give the children’s names, ages, sizes, and gift suggestions. Please help us make their Christmas brighter by taking a tag, shopping for that child, and returning the gift, wrapped and labeled, to the church by December 19th. Please make sure that all green tags have been taken from the tree before removing a red one. We want to make sure that the most needed gifts are given first! Thank You! If you have any questions please contact the church office.

June 7-11 brought an African Safari and heat wave to Faith Presbyterian Church’s Vacation Bible School 2010.  And yes, it was a blast!  It actually felt like a Rainforest Adventure on Monday with the rain storm but that did not stop the fun.

Each day brought a Bible story, Bible verse, theme, and critter.  On Monday the children met Faye, the zebra, and heard the story of “Abraham to Canaan.”  The theme was Trust.  Tuesday the theme was Love and Amy, the Red Colobus Monkey, helped with the story of “Joseph and His Brothers.”  Bud, the elephant, helped with the theme of Follow on Wednesday.  The Bible story was “Jesus calls the Disciples.”  Thursday the Bible story was “The Good Samaritan” and Care was the theme.  Sam, the meerkat, was the critter.  Jonathan, the giraffe, was the critter on Friday.  The theme was Share and the story was “Philip and the Ethiopian.”  The children enjoyed receiving their toy critter and trading cards each night as they went to different sites.  There was storytelling, crafts, and music.  During storytelling we told the story for each night, and crafts were made with each theme in mind.  With music, there were parades, learning sign language and motions, and playing musical instruments.  We also had a pre-school class that stayed in one room but still learned what the older children were learning each night.

Of course, after registration each night, everyone enjoyed fellowship with a delicious meal.  There was spaghetti, chicken strips, pizza, hot dogs, and red beans and sausage along with many side dishes, salad, and desserts.  The children then enjoyed an incredible opening celebration.  There were skits and a lot of joy and laughter!  There was also a collection for the mission project, Africa Jam.  The children raised an outstanding amount of $229.96!!  After a couple of sites the children enjoyed sensational snacks such as fruit salsa, ants on a log, and fruit cups.  After the last site the night ended with a closing celebration.

Sunday brought us a special worship service all about VBS.  Many of the children and families attended and then shared another wonderful meal provided by Fun and Fellowship.  To all the parents, thank you for sharing your beautiful children.  They were all such a joy.  Thanks also to everyone who participated.  It was truly a Baobab Blast!

And A Special Thanks To:

Pastor John Blewitt

Karen Blewitt

Garnet Pierce

Jill Wild

Kelly Surace

Carol Bell

Bobbie Broussard

Dora Summerell

Dona Werner

Lois Warner

Niki Wild

James Wild

Connie Raggio

Craig Rowley

Jim Wild

Dwyer Broussard

Sandy Broussard

Denise Summerell

Jack Summerell

Juan Letelier

Lee Soileaux

Freda Knight

Cleo Lambert

Roger Lambert

Sharon Gautreau

Alice Kennedy

Danah Frens

Jack Frens

Laura Acosta

Lauren Berthelot

Blaine Amoroso

Lauren Amoroso

Katarina Frank

Nichole Anderson

Buddy Anderson

Cheryl Anderson

Rosemary Goodell

Sarah Burke

Pat West

Kathy West

Jo Kay Tullos

Emily Rowley

Brandon Dixon

Drake Smith

Art Frens

James Frens

Chyrel Frens

Robert Crawford

Barbara Crawford

Mariel Acosta

Lukas Acosta

Everyone in our church family that supported us in prayer.

Invite all your FRIENDS, NEIGHBORS of all ages, all beliefs…
Young Life, Emmaus, Cursillo, Via De Christo, Kairos, and Chrysallis Participants to a Genuine Unique New Ole Fashion Sing-A-Long.

In THE BATON ROUGE GREATER AREA
“SongFest” Friday. Eve April 23rd at 6:45 pm:
CALL FOR DETAILS AT: 225-275-7393
Faith Presbyterian Church
12855 Old Hammond Highway
Baton Rouge 70816

PURPOSE: Experience an environment where people feel like participating without fear or intimidation. A chance to invite your friends and neighbors to experience the excitement of a JOYFUL type of Spiritual experience and fun without being religious! We will sing favorites from the Beatles to Best Of Folk and your favorite songs from your retreat experience and younger camping days. Let’s get together to sing our hearts out with songs everyone actually likes to sing out of the 1,175 ‘SONGS’ Songbook. We use songs easy to sing and play, and are in the right key with simple chords.

Event Led By: Yohann Anderson
Author of the 1,197 “Songs” Songbook
National Workshop Leader and Owner of Songs And Creations

“Bring instruments if you play one and especially your Voice
because in this kind of environment… Everybody Can Sing even if you don’t think you can… I guarantee it.” -Yohann Anderson

You are invited to join us for a Sweetheart Dinner
on February 12, 2011
at 6:00 in the evening
Faith Presbyterian Church
12855 Old Hammond Highway
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Come celebrate your love with us at a couples Sweetheart Dinner! The menu for the evening will be a delicious steak dinner. The cost for the dinner is only $20.00 per couple. Childcare will be provided free of charge. You will also have a chance to renew your marriage vows, if you so choose!

Reservations are required. Please call the church office at 225-275-7393 if you would like to make a reservation for dinner, or if you have any questions.<!–[endif]–>

Please join us at Faith Presbyterian Church on December 24th at 4:00 p.m. for a new kind of Christmas Eve Worship Service.

This Christmas Before Santa Service will be family focused with lots of great Christmas Carols and singing.  We look forward to sharing the Joy of Christmas with our friends and local community!

Please make sure to save the date for this new, informal worship service and bring your entire family!

The Fun & Fellowship group is planning on an exciting Fall Festival as an outreach to our local community later this month, on October 25th from 6 pm—8 pm. Children from Twin Oaks Elementary are being invited, as well as friends and family of church members and members of our surrounding community. This will be a great time for people of all ages!

There will be games, food and fun! Decorate or carve a pumpkin at home and bring it to the festival to see if you can win the pumpkin decorating contest! There will be a costume contest for kids 12 and under, although people of all ages are encouraged to dress up!

So, come out and enjoy the fun! To register your child or to get more information about this event, please contact the church office at 275-7393.

Let’s try this again – the last post I made about this didn’t work correctly!

It’s time again for our annual fish fry! Plan to take part in the food and fun this coming Sunday, September 27th after worship. Fish, Hush-puppies, and Coleslaw will be provided. Please bring a potluck dessert to share with the group!

If you would like more information, please contact the church office at 275-7393.

The Closet Clutter Busters initial meeting was held on Saturday, August 29, with Carol Bell, John & Karen Blewitt, Dwyer & Sandy Broussard, Alice Kennedy, Bob & Freda Knight, and Jill Wild in attendance. The group’s mission is to de-clutter, reorganize and refurbish the closets in the Education Building and the Sanctuary, along with the Storage Building behind the Education Building.

Karen Blewitt and Jill Wild will be leading a work day on Saturday, September 12, beginning at 9:00 AM to begin the process of de-cluttering the closets. Please consider giving some of your time to help us with this undertaking. (All projects will be completed in time for the LSU-Vanderbilt game at 6:00 PM!)

A second meeting will be held after Worship on Sunday, August 13, to assess our progress and plan for the next steps. Your presence is welcomed and appreciated!