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St. Peter’s

CONNECTION VOL. 5, No. 21 May 22, 2015

Connecting the World with God’s Love

THIS ISSUE: Christian Education awards St. Peter’s has been recog-

Stepping outside our walls

nized for excellence in our Christian Education programs.

Intro to Student Ministries All sixth-graders and their parents are invited to come see what St. Peter’s Student Ministries is all about.

We worshipped outside the walls of our church last Sunday by serving as Christ’s hands and feet in the world during our annual Church Without Walls. Almost 950 people went out into the Katy community and beyond to serve others in a variety of ways. One of the projects was to build a community garden for the residents of the Brookwood Community in Brookshire.

20775 Kingsland Blvd., Katy, Texas 77450 (281) 492-8031 www.stpkaty.org

Can you help with VBS?

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his year’s Vacation Bible School adventure is coming soon and we need you to help make it happen. Join us June 15-19

from 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. as a VBS Everest Adventure Guide. Each year we open our doors to more than 400 children for a week-long adventure with God. It takes more than 150 volunteers to make this week happen in a safe, meaningful, fun, and powerful way. Won’t you prayerfully consider how God will use you during this week of connecting children with God’s love? Please contact Kelly Pagonis, Everest Co-Director, at st.petervbsvolunteer@ gmail.com or Whitney Peper at wpeper19@ gmail.com and let them know how you will serve with us at VBS this summer.

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God is up to something Dear Friends in Christ, As you may know, this week is our Annual Conference week. Also, this coming Sunday is Pentecost Sunday. At a recent Annual Conference meeting in Memphis, Tenn., Rick Kirchoff of Germantown United Methodist Church made the following statement at the opening of the conference: “When God sends forth the Spirit, amazing things happen: barriers are broken, communities are formed, opposites are reconciled, unity is established, disease is cured, addiction is broken, cities are renewed, races are reconciled, hope is established, people are blessed, and church happens. Today the Spirit of God is present and we’re gonna have church. So be ready, get ready ... God is up to something ... Dr. Pat Sparks, Senior Pastor discouraged folks, cheer up; dishonest folks, ’fess up; sour folks, sweeten up; closed folks, open up; gossipers, shut up; conflicted folks, make up; sleeping folks, wake up; lukewarm folks, fire up; dry bones, shake up; and pew potatoes, stand up! But most of all, Christ, the Savior of all the world, is lifted up.” This is my hope for our Conference, our Church, and each of us. Grace and Peace,

Pat

As part of Church Without Walls, church members and scouts worked at the YMCA’s Camp Cinco to clear trails and spread mulch throughout the 220-acre facility.

Be a host family for T Bar M counselors

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hildren’s Ministries is excited to be partnering with T Bar M: Discover 252 Camp this summer. A team of college-age counselors, selected for their passion to model Christ and celebrate each child’s worth as God’s treasure, will come to our campus for a week of a Christ-centered adventure. T Bar M counselors will be here from July 18 to July 25 for Discover 252 Adventure, which is July 20-24. The counselors will need places to stay while they are here, and we want to share our love of Christ with them through Host Family Homes. The counselors stay in homes because the T Bar M philosophy is that, by God’s design, growth and transformation happen best within relationships. Host Homes allow the staff a unique discipleship opportunity to grow and be transformed alongside you and your family. We are asking for 12 Host Families to prayerfully consider opening their hearts and homes to be an official Host Home site. A Host Family would provide lodging for three or more same-gender counselors for seven nights (Saturday through Friday), a basic continental-style breakfast each day, and three dinners (Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday). The staff will be provided with their own transportation to and from our church, so you won’t need to worry about getting them places. We believe this will be an amazing opportunity for families of St. Peter’s to connect God’s love with these hard-working, energetic young people. For more details and to say yes to hosting, please contact Shelley Keating at [email protected] or Kelly Johnson at kjohnson@ stpkaty.org.

Church Without Walls benefited Clothed by Faith by raising funds through the Steps2Serve walk at Taylor High School. Clothed by Faith meets the clothing needs of children in the Katy area who are at risk or living in poverty.

Church Council Next Meeting Thursday, May 28 7 p.m. in E106 Please note that this is a date change because of Texas Annual Conference.

What does it mean to be an everyday servant?

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oin us for the study “Everyday Servant” by Jackie Hooks beginning June 23 at 6:30 p.m. In this six-week study we will examine what it means to serve Jesus with our everyday lives as we learn to live a life more like Christ every single day. The cost is $20 for the workbook. We will have homework each week. Register at stpkaty.org under Register for Events. Jackie also will be our speaker at the 2016 Girlfriend Getaway women’s retreat. For information, contact Anne O’Quinn at annieroonie@sbcglobal. net.

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St. Peter’s wins two awards for Christian education excellence Trip to Chappell Hill. On June 19, the KEYS senior adult group will travel to Chappell Hill for a historical tour of the Chappell Hill Museum, Old Rock Store, Providence Baptist Church, and a historic United Methodist Church. Lunch is at Bevers Kitchen. Cost is $2 per person plus lunch. We will leave St. Peter’s at 8 a.m. and return at 4 p.m. Sign up at the KEYS bulletin board in the Lobby. Please sign up even if there is a waiting list, as we usually have cancellations. For more information, call Mark and Lura Padgett at (281) 647-9555.

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t. Peter’s has received the 2015 5 Stars of Excellence in Christian Education and Shooting Star awards from the Christian Educators Fellowship.

Each year this group recognizes congregations in the Texas Annual Conference that are committed to effective ministries in faith formation in five core areas: mission and goals; involvement of clergy in Christian education; calling, equipping, and affirming laity; caring, inviting, and reaching out; and providing resources and support for Christian education. The 5 Stars award will be presented at the CEF luncheon at Annual Conference on May 25. Our congregation, thanks to both clergy and laity, achieves excellence in faith formation, through worship, classes, mission, studies, events, caring ministries, small groups, large groups, life groups, and home groups. Our clergy, as well as a multitude of lay people who step out in faith and leadership, offer many opportunities to learn and grow in our faith. We gather, grow, go, and we give whenever possible as we seek to connect the world with God’s love. The Shooting Star Award can only be achieved every two years. Qualifying congregations are those who seek to promote, support, and advocate for quality in Christian education. St. Peter’s submitted our We4 (Wednesdays 4 Everyone) program as an exemplary educational program/event for this award. Heather James and Ryan Wilson, our coordinators for We4, have done an outstanding job providing activities and lessons for children on Wednesday nights.

We’re updating our records

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e are continuing the process of updating our membership records. If you have adult children who are listed as members but who have joined other churches, please let us know so we can make the changes. Please e-mail Ashley Eidson at aeidson@ sptkaty.org.

Through lessons, stories, crafts, games, centers, scripture memory, dramatic play, music, movement, science, outdoor sports, and random acts of kindness, the children are given the opportunity to grow in their faith and expand on the monthly/weekly Sunday lessons. A particularly wonderful result of We4 has been the mission opportunities it has provided our children, who

Peaceful Pumpkins for the Ballard House

range from 3-year-olds through fifthgraders. The children have participated in projects such as Hospice Comfort Bags, Blankets for Babies, bagging beans and rice, Food Drive, Kindness Walk, making Boo-Boo kits for the preschool, Cups of Love and Peaceful Pumpkins for the Ballard House, and Christmas Card Cheer for an area nursing home. This outstanding program offers the opportunity for our children to connect with their community and share God’s love! Congratulations to all those at St. Peter’s who strive to educate and en-

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courage people in their faith journeys.

Father-Daughter Dance

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In Our Prayers PRAYERS

PLASH children’s worship hosted

Hua Atkinson, Dennis Bowling, Jim Butler, Katie Clements, William Clites, Julia Clites, Faunelle Deaton, John Duffield, Richard Franklin, Shirley Franklin, Caleb Gore, Lu Haas, Art Henderson, Rick Jage, Brian Jones, Oscar Jones, Don Kennedy, Wanda Klaus, Ken Knowlton, Betty Marsh, Maynard Robertson, Kathryn Sadowski, Marilyn Shaw, Ruby Smith, Spencer Stanford, and Cheryl Swift.

a Father-Daughter Dance May

15. Daughters of all ages came and danced with their dads. They enjoyed a photo booth, games, desserts, and more, all designed to provide fun and fellowship. Members of both St. Peter’s main campus and Living Stones attended. SPLASH will host a Mother-Son Pirate Event in September. For more information about the SPLASH ministry, please contact Whitney Peper wpeper19@ gmail.com.

Girl Scouts collecting stuffed animals, pillows

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irl Scout Troop #17379 is collecting donations of new or very gently used throw pillows and huggable stuffed animals to comfort Heritage Park Nursing Home residents as part of our bronze service project. Please drop off donations by May 30 in the bin located in the Children’s Ministries office. You also can call Kay Gordon (281) 733-0124 or Connie Allard (281) 788-8150 to drop donations off at their homes. The girls in our troop thank you for your support!

ST. PETER’S ATTENDANCE May 10 Traditional Worship 8:30 207 9:45 284 11:00 501 the element 9:45 36 11:00 111 SPLASH 63 Living Stones 186 Living Stones Kids 91 TOTAL 1,479 May 17 Church Without Walls

Welcome to Our New Members Ava Adams, Jack Balog, Madeline Balog, Matt and Kellie Farmer, Jake Marlow, Riley Marlow, Dolores Robertson, Chris and Sarah Schneider, and Mecklin Stelzer

SYMPATHY To Alexis Hyde-Washmon and family on the death of her mother. To Phil Landis and family on the death of his mother.

PRAYERS FOR OUR MILITARY Tim and Alison Batig, John Belsha, Will Brandt, Skyler Cook, Westley Freeze, James Gilbert, Tyler J. Gorcie, Dylan Greismeyer, Stephen Travis Harding, Adam Higdon, Matthew Ivester, Mike Linn, Ryan Lueders, Blake Nunes, Ryan O’Quinn, Matthew Platz, Shawn Platz, Hamilton Rencurrel, Jack Ritchie, Don Rolleg, Ben Saunders, Jacob Shinkle, John Simmons, and Jasen Wilson.

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TAC requesting donations for Van, TX, residents

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s you probably know, the people in Van, Texas, were hit by a deadly tornado as part of the recent spring storms. Many people have lost their homes, and there have been tens of millions of dollars in damage. The flood buckets we made during CWOW will actually be used in the

cleanup from these storms, but there’s more we can do to help. Bishop Janice Riggle Huie has issued a challenge to the churches of the Texas Annual Conference to take up a special offering for the people of Van, and conference response teams are working around the clock to help the community rebuild. If you would like to help the people of Van financially, make checks payable to St. Peter’s and put Texas Annual Conference: Van Recovery in the “for” line. Thank you for your compassionate generosity.

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Connecting the World With God’s Love

ore than 900 people from St. Peter’s braved the elements and participated in this year’s Church Without Walls Sunday! While the numbers from the projects are still coming in, here are some highlights: • 78 flood buckets (worth more than $5,000 at full retail cost) were assembled and will be used in the spring storm clean-up in either Van or one of the other nearby places severely damaged by the recent deadly storms. • The new home for a Fulshear woman and her special-needs son was drywalled. • The citizens of the Brookwood Community worshipped with a large group from St. Peter’s, including adults and our Children’s Choir. Another group built a community garden at Brookwood, which will serve residents for years to come. • Groups from St. Peter’s helped beautify the Fort Bend Women’s Center, and another group did crafts and fellowshipped with the young women staying at the Krause House. • More than 1,000 pounds of beans and rice were bagged for distribution through the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. I could keep going with more and more stories and numbers, but that’s not what really matters. What does matter is that so many of you answered the call of Jesus to proclaim the Good News with your lives. You put into practice our mission statement of connecting the world with God’s love. On behalf of the Missions leadership team and myself, thank you. Thank you to our project leaders, to our photographers, to the people who opened their homes or their ministries to receive us, and to each and every one of you who participated, prayed, served, thought about, or in any other way helped with CWOW. On behalf of just me, thank you to the leaders in missions who stepped up and did unbelievable amounts of work. There’s so much behind the scenes that goes into something like CWOW; if you see one of our missions leaders, be sure to thank them! Paz,

Nathan

Daily Bible Reading Calling All Sixth-Graders! All students who will be sixth-graders this fall and their parents are invited to find out about Student Ministries on June 7 at 9:45 a.m. in the Wesley Student Center. For some of you, this might be your first opportunity to learn about Student Ministries. For others with students already in the program, you probably know the routine. Either way, we would love to see you on the 7th when we will explain a little bit about Student Ministries, talk about confirmation in the fall, and spend a few minutes dreaming about your child’s faith journey over the next seven years. The Wesley Student Center will be open from 9:30-10 a.m. for students to check in, tour the Wesley and the Quad, and to join the other students in a friendly competition. At 10 a.m. we will head into the Quad for our Summer Kickoff program. Students and parents are invited to join us for music, games, and a few other fun things. At about 10:15 a.m., parents will join Director Jason Trice for an information session while the students continue in the Quad. Students and parents should be done around 10:45 a.m. If you have any questions, please contact Jason at [email protected] or (281) 492-8031.

Young Adult Small Group. This summer Student Ministries will be offering a small group for 2015 high school graduates and all college students home for summer break. We will be studying “Recovering Redemption” about recovering what is lost and broken—mainly, our relationship with Jesus. We believe the gospel is the remedy to fix all things: every struggle, every circumstance, every relationship, everything. If you are interested in being a part of this small group, join us Sundays beginning June 14 at 9:45 a.m. in the Wesley Student Center. Coffee and refreshments will be provided.

Camp Connect Donations. Summer is almost here and we are headed to Camp Connect June 8 with 50 campers! Camp Connect is when our junior high students put on Vacation Bible School for children in the Parkview Village Apartments in Houston. One of the ways we keep this camp at a reasonable cost is by collecting donations of snacks and breakfast items. If you would like to help out, we will be collecting kid-friendly cereal (Lucky Charms, Frosted Flakes, Fruit Loops, Captain Crunch, Cocoa Puffs) Capri Sun juice pouches (the pouches work best since they are easily crushed for trash) , granola bars, Pop Tarts, and donuts. We will also need individually packaged snacks such as chips, crackers, and cookies. All items can be dropped off in the collection bins located in the Lobby or the Student Ministries office by June 3. Monetary donations and gift cards also are appreciated! For more information, contact Heather at [email protected].

May 25 – 31 MONDAY Acts 2:1-21 TUESDAY Psalm 104:24-34, 35b WEDNESDAY Romans 8:22-27 THURSDAY John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15 FRIDAY Leviticus 19:1-18 SATURDAY Colossians 2:6-15 SUNDAY Isaiah 58:6-14 June 1 – 7 MONDAY Isaiah 6:1-8 TUESDAY Psalm 29 WEDNESDAY Romans 8:12-17 THURSDAY John 3:1-17 FRIDAY Micah 4:1-4 SATURDAY Ephesians 2:1-10 SUNDAY 1 Samuel 7:3-14

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Su nday Worship 8:30 a.m.

Traditional Worship with Holy Communion

9:45 a.m.

Traditional Worship the element Contemporary Worship Sunday School for All Ages

10:30 a.m.

Living Stones St. Peter’s West Campus at Cinco Ranch High School

11:00 a.m.

Traditional Worship the element Contemporary Worship SPLASH Children’s Worship Sunday School for Adults

St. Peter’s Events Calendar Sunday, May 24 Annual Conference Begins 3:00 p.m.

Youth Choir Rehearsal

Ellis Music Suite

5:00 p.m.

Handbell Rehearsal

S101

Women of Joy

S203

10:00 a.m.

The Gathering

Asbury Hall

7:00 p.m.

Chancel Choir Rehearsal

Ellis Music Suite

7:00 p.m.

Church Council

E106



Grief Share Group

S209

Friday Night Friends

E221

3:00 p.m.

Youth Choir Rehearsal

Ellis Music Suite

5:00 p.m.

Handbell Rehearsal

S101

Chancel Choir Rehearsal

Ellis Music Suite

Grief Share Group

S209

Tuesday, May 26 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, May 27

Thursday, May 28

Friday, May 29 6:00 p.m. Sunday, May 31

Wednesday, June 3 7:00 p.m. Thursday, June 4 7:00 p.m.

Detailed weekly calendars of St. Peter’s events are available on our website.

Church Without Walls volunteers prepared healthy food boxes and did general cleaning at Christ Clinic, which provides health care to people in Katy who are uninsured or underinsured.