Weekly Devotions

o the Good Folk of the Palmyra Church of the Brethren,   I have two announcements today.   First: Let's do the wave!    We miss seeing your bright and shining faces! Over the next week or so, we will be collecting video clips/selfies/photos of our PCoB friends and family waving to one another! Bethany Hoffer would love to arrange a drive by/walk by filming of you waving from your home or vehicle. If you would be willing to participate in this, please contact Bethany at bhoffer@palmyracob.org or call/text 937-417-5938 to set something up! (Bethany’s family does a lot of walking these days, so you may get called upon if you live close by!)   If you do not live in Palmyra or are unable to come outside, we would love for you to send us a video clip/selfie/photo of you and your family waving to us! Send them to Bethany’s email address listed above.   Second: Lebanon County COVID-19 Testing Sites   The LebTown online daily post yesterday provided the followi...

To the Good Folk of the Palmyra Church of the Brethren,   All church events requiring physical gatherings are now canceled, with the offices remaining closed, through the end of April.  Our Executive Committee has made this decision based on guidelines mandated or suggested by both our governmental and religious leaders.  We will continue to do what is being asked of us to contain, mitigate and/or respond to the threat and reality of the COVID-19 virus.    We continue to develop the Sunday morning worship videos, send out our daily devotional/announcement emails, and monitor and respond (as appropriate) to congregational care concerns.  We have secured an inexpensive subscription to ZOOM (a video conferencing application) in order to have daily staff meetings, bi-weekly worship planning meetings, team meetings, etc.  Stay tuned for more ways our church groups can use our ZOOM subscription.   We are working hard to create meaningful videos for...

To the Good Folk of the Palmyra Church of the Brethren,   We previously announced that all church events were cancelled through the end of March.  We are now extending that through next Sunday, April 5.  In all likelihood our cancellations will be extended through Holy Week and Easter Sunday, but we are waiting a few days to make that decision final.   Tomorrow morning, around 8am, you will receive an email with a link to this Sunday's worship service.  The service has been prerecorded this week, and continues our Lenten journey "Guided by Women," with the sermon by Audrey Finkbiner.  Many will remember Audrey as our former Pastor of Congregational Care.  Once again, this service speaks to our current situation with the coronavirus.  We hope it will be a blessing to all.   Today’s devotion is written by Karen Haldeman.  Her references to cold, kindling, spark and flame are not only empowering for these days, but also for today’s cool and...

To the Good Folk of the Palmyra Church of the Brethren, Sunday morning, around 8am, you will receive an email with a link to this Sunday's worship service.  The service has been prerecorded this week, and continues our Lenten journey "Guided by Women," with the sermon by Audrey Finkbiner.  Many will remember Audrey as our former Pastor of Congregational Care.  Once again, this service speaks to our current situation with the coronavirus.  We hope it will be a blessing to all. Today’s devotion is a poem of gratitude written by Rachel Witkovsky, inspired by Jan Wessel’s reflections on last Sunday’s worship service.   Thank you to Rachel for writing and sharing this with us.  If you wish to respond to Rachel directly, her email address is rwitkovsky@palmyracob.org.   Scripture – Psalm 122:1 and Psalm 111:1-2 I was glad when they said to me,    ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord!’ Praise the Lord! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whol...

To the Good Folk of the Palmyra Church of the Brethren,   We are developing a grocery pickup and delivery service for those who are unable to do their own grocery shopping or are within the most vulnerable population groups.  Since this project is just getting started, our assistance is currently limited only to individuals and families listed in our church directory.  If you need groceries picked up and delivered, or If you are willing to pick up and deliver groceries for someone else Please call Don Martin (717-838-0211) or Cindy Weatherholtz (717-421-0403) to discuss needs, availability and processes.  I am thankful to Don and Cindy for taking the lead on this project.  Cindy was born into our congregation.  Don, a brother to Jan Wessel, has been worshiping with us for many months. Each week we spend time in worship sharing our joys and concerns with one another and then praying together.  We will include such a time in our pre-recorded services eac...

o the Good Folk of the Palmyra Church of the Brethren,   If you are facing challenges that threaten your ability to get food, maintain housing, keep health insurance, maintain transportation, or meet other basic needs, we will work with you to locate services that are available.  Jan Wessel has prepared a resource to get you started.  Check out “Coronavirus Resources” on our website.  Included in that document is Jan’s offer to help, her contact information, and a request for volunteers to assist.  Thank you, Jan, for your ministry among us!   Each week we spend time in worship sharing our joys and concerns with one another and then praying together.  We will include such a time in our pre-recorded services each week.  If you have a joy or concern you would like us to share and pray about, please call, text or email it to me each week by  Friday morning.   I am thankful to Jill Speicher for providing today’s devotion.  Jill and Tim ...

To the Good Folk of the Palmyra Church of the Brethren,   Here are a couple of prayer requests or updates: Jamie Walmer is headed home!  She boarded a plane leaving Guatemala yesterday afternoon, arriving in Miami last night.  Her family will be picking her up today from BWI (Baltimore), and then traveling home for a two-week quarantine.   Carol Hoke had surgery on Friday and Donna Hitz had surgery this morning.  Both are doing well.  Let’s keep them in our prayers. Jose Aponte would love to receive letters of encouragement.  Letters must be typed or handwritten on plain white paper and mailed in plain white envelopes, with no other items included.  His address is: Jose E. Aponte 20P-0460 730 East Walnut Street Lebanon, PA  17042 Since we didn’t have a bulletin this week, some have missed the weekly prayer invitation called: Praying for Each Other Everyone in our church is given a special day to receive prayers from their fellow Christians. L...

To the Good Folk of the Palmyra Church of the Brethren,   We have been getting positive feedback on yesterday’s worship video.  We know it is not a slick production, but that doesn’t seem to matter.  People are commenting on the importance of being connected, on the willingness of those involved to share their gifts, on the messages of encouragement and faith that were shared, and even on how reassuring it was to see the familiar space of the sanctuary and remember/imagine one another gathered in worship.  We have also received words of gratitude from people who saw it because some you shared it on your Facebook pages.  We are already working on next Sunday’s service.  May God’s spirit inhabit all that we do.   Today we received an urgent appeal from Londonderry Village for both unused and homemade facemasks.  I will be sending a separate email, with instructions, regarding that request.  News sources suggest that we will see a huge increase ...

To the Good Folk of the Palmyra Church of the Brethren, Tomorrow morning, around 8am, you will receive an email with a link to this Sunday's worship service.  The service was prerecorded today, and continues our Lenten journey "Guided by Women," with a sermon prepared by Donna Forbes Steiner, and presented by Bethany Hoffer.  In many places, the service speaks to our current situation with the coronavirus.  We hope it will be a blessing to all. As part of the "Greeting" in tomorrow's service, I explain that although we missed Nancy Heisey Hess' sermon last Sunday on Ruth and Naomi, she would be sending it to us in written form for us to send out to you.  In the moments before preparing today's email, her piece arrived.  She has modified it into a devotion.  So, I am sending it as today's devotion, so that you can read it, if you have a chance, before tomorrow morning's video. I am thankful to Nancy for providing today's devotion.  Nancy g...