Tabernacle Presbyterian Church (PCA)

The Guatemala team has started a blog at http://homeofrefuge.blogspot.com.  They plan to keep us updated this week and throughout their trip with prayer requests/needs and updates on the work in Guatemala.

This morning in our worship service we heard about another ministry project in our Summer of Compassion: a project to bless some of the 200 foster children in the Waynesboro and Augusta County area with backpacks filled with back-to-school supplies. Caring for widows and orphans is part of the very foundation of the mercy we’ve been called to show as those who have received abundant and undeserved mercy and grace through Christ.

Do you remember the great joy of receiving a package, and discovering small gifts, one by one, and delighting in each one?  As we fill these backpacks, let’s pray together that the foster children in our area would be filled with delight as they discover the treasures that will help them in school this fall.

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.   James 1:27

Our team is preparing for the Summer of Compassion trip to Guatemala.  Please pray for them as they raise money and set up plans for their trip.

Guatemala Team Members

In January of this year, a new ministry, Orphan Hope, developed in the sister congregations of Tabernacle Presbyterian and Holy Cross Presbyterian, consisting of individuals and families burdened by the global orphan crisis and a desire to encourage and support those called to foster and adopt.

In June, a team will be volunteering at an orphanage in China and in late July, others are heading to Guatemala to an orphanage there. The participants consider themselves one team with two destinations having the same goal—to care for orphans in their distress (James 1:27). We yearn to see our churches mobilizing to bring the promise of God’s hope and future to some of the world’s 143 million orphans!

Please Pray for Them!

• For travel safety as these groups go to China and Guatemala
• For health and wisdom
• For necessary financial support
• For the orphans they will be seeking to love
• For the staff they will be seeking to encourage
• For the families back home while they are away

Last summer we had the “Summer of Mission,” where everyone at Tabernacle was encouraged to serve our community in some Gospel-motivated strategy.  This summer, we are excited to see the Lord leading us into a “Summer of Compassion,” where we can demonstrate in practical ways the heart of “the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort” (II Corinthians 1:3). 

As we align our corporate care and resources on behalf of the weak and fatherless, let us consider how God has come to each of us in our weakness.  Through the Gospel we are loved and brought into His family of faith.  We are also sent out as His beloved children, eager to show the world His love.

Psalm 82:3-4
Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless;
maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
Rescue the weak and needy;
deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

Tabernacle is sponsoring a summer missions trip to Ceracaif orphanage in Xela, Guatemala. Our team will partner with Orphan Outreach, a non-denominational organization dedicated to demonstrating Christ’s love and improving the lives of orphans.  Ministry opportunities will be tailored to the skills, talents, and interests of team members and will likely include conducting a VBS, partnering with teachers at the on-site orphanage school, light construction or painting, and evangelism.  The trip dates are July 29 – August 5.  Trip participants need to be communing members of Tabernacle or Holy Cross.  Youth must be accompanied by a parent.  In order for this trip to take place, a team needs to be formed by April 1st.

Contact the office if interested, and plan to attend an informational meeting on Sunday, March 21st in the old sanctuary immediately following the worship service.

Tab’s Fall Men’s Retreat is coming! Friday evening October 2nd through Saturday evening October 3rd the Tabernacle men will be heading up to “The Forge” on Afton mountain for a time of spiritual growth and fellowship. Our speaker this year is Mike Sharrett, pastor of Redeemer PCA in Lynchburg, Virginia. Mike will be speaking to us about Pride and Humility. Don’t miss this highly anticipated event. Contact the church office and reserve your spot if you plan on attending.

This week is our last class. See you at 6:30pm at Grace for our class on Eschatology.

There will be no children’s or youth Sunday School on August 30.  Classes will resume on September 6, and kids will “move up” to their new classes.  Class rosters will be posted downstairs next to the kitchen.  Parents, please check rosters and make any necessary corrections.  If your child is not on the roster, please contact David Sawyer, davidmsawyer@hotmail.com) to register him/her.

Currently our adult class is studying doctrine of the Church.  This series is designed to take advantage of the short window of time before moving into the new building, arraest Satan’s plans to foster division in our Body during this transition, mature our Body’s understanding of the true glory of the Church, biblically align our hearts on the new building and worship within it, and promote a greater love for Christ and His true Temple.  We desire to communicate God’s heart for the Church, which is “a dwelling in which [He] lives by His spirit” (Eph 2:22). The class is being led by Essen Daley.