April, 2017

Worship in April

We will celebrate Communion every Sunday during Lent

April 2 Fifth Sunday in Lent – Luke 12:1-7 –

Freedom from Fear: Fear of Hell

9 Palm Sunday – We will begin worship in the

Chapel and process to the Sanctuary – John

12:12-16 - Freedom from Fear: Fear of

Conquest

13 6:00 pm - Maundy Thursday – Covered

dish and worship in the Chapel

14 7:30 pm – Good Friday – Worship in the

Sanctuary

16 Easter Sunday –

7:30 am – Sunrise Service in our Yard

10:30am – Worship in the Sanctuary with

Communion – Matthew 28:1-10 - Freedom

from Fear: Fear of the Unknown

23 Second Sunday of Easter – “Called to New

Life” – Celebration of April Birthdays

30 Third Sunday of Easter – Service of Prayers

and Anointing for Healing – Luke 24:13-35

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EASTER MEMORIAL CONTRIBUTIONS

A contribution to the Memorial Flower Fund & Easter

Decorations Fund or Benevolent Fund

Deadline: April 9, 2017

The Flowers will be distributed following Easter Services.

The Easter Bulletin will list donations

□ Donation to the Decoration Fund □

Donation to the Benevolent Fund

Please choose one □ In Memory of □ In Honor of

___________________________________________________

Given by

___________________________________________________

Please keep the following in your prayers this week:

Stacy Maeurer, Jeaanne Holden, Janet Flory, Thomas

Kenniff, Jennifer Cabral, Kayla Verdino, Greg and Dorothy

Doyle-Wandell, Mark Clingo, Lydia Marcantonio, Thelma

Whittaker, Joy Zomer, Rob Anderson, Barbara Stalmack,

Henry Wegmann, Elizabeth Artinger, Edward Troster, Tina

Banks, Carmela Carillo and family, Robert Zittel, Helen

Torok and family, Neil Troster, Elana Ficalora, Anne

Johannson, Tina McKinley, Charles Ayers, Paul

Angenbroich, Richard Carboni, Mary Weber, Judy Troster,

Terry Hoffman, Mary McKeown, Rosemary Ricken, Ruth

Sottolano, Maria Bateman, Kathleen Hart Brumm, Betty

Farina, Tom McDonald, Matthew Lotz, Danny McCaffrey,

Billy Schmidt, Richie Schmidt, Catherine Raines, Jennifer

Piatek, Ed Duggan, Virginia Maresca, Dorothy Weis, Brian

Giordano, Arlene Bealin, Charles Kenney, Raymond & Cathy

Wegmann, Carmela Oppedisano, James Folmsbee, James

Donaghy, Nick Markoulakis, Glenn Brown, Maryann

Hernandez, Barbara O’Keefe, Frank Basile, Don Bozzo,

Lucille Smith, Kristy Breen, Pam Crabtree, Pam Dobular,

Rosie Riollano, Tim Dolan, Grace Agunzo, Louis Werner,

Renaldo Weaver, Madalene Basile, Ralph Seizinger, Maria

Negele, Debbie Tanico, Angela McIntyre, Anna Lebel and

family, Eric Rivera, Ronnie Sowa, Joyce M, Catherine

Norton, Eileen Poll, Darius Grayhall, Barbara Plitt, Andrew

Elizee, Margret Elizee, Arlene Stetzner, Gerhard Kern,

Brianna Brackett, Peter Gribbin, Ron Durham, Daphne

Hanousek, Caren Mack, Ernest Ackerman, Rudy Zachernegg,

William Schutt, Doreen Ziegler, Billy Newman, Jeff Ivins,

Carina Basile, Barbara Garrick, Maureen Kiley, Emily

Garrick, Tina Fitton, Debie Guttilla, Christian Durham, Amy

Shluker, Lisa Auerbach, Janet Elbert, Joey Sottolano,

Gertrude and Jim Vitale, Patrick Gualtieri, Mariane Hark,

Paula Massena, Barbara Carson, Philip Dobuler, Frank

Priore, Justin Meyers and his family, Brian Goodwin, Mark

Leone, Vivian Molnar, Dorothy Stanley, Lorraine Lohmann,

Maureen Kiley, Laura Ball Tomasello, Sandra Schutt,

Heather Matosky Porter, Doris Stamer, Marousa Gallagher,

Ray Diaz, Mikey Moss, Amy McVicar, Kathy Hachtel

Berlinski, Carol Seiffer, Sofia Rabello, John Rodriguez,

Susannah Lindsey and her sister Maudelin Willock, Leona

Ryan, Doris Harris, Nancy Moss, Tony Artinger

All people in our nation and around the world affected by

natural disasters.

All veterans, those who serve our country and their families

If you have an update on anyone listed, please send it to

prayerrequests@frccp.org or call the Church Office

(718) 359-3956. Thank you.

APRIL BIRTHDAYS

04 Kathryn Thornton

10 Arielle Trager

13 Leona Ryan

Kevin Martinez

14 Leona Ryan

15 Lindsey Creed

17 Laura Perticare

19 Denise Kramer

20 Raymond Webber

22 Austin Yip

28 Mary Failla

An Easter Story by Michelle Grigsby

What do you think of when you think of Easter?

Eggs, of course. The symbol of new life come spring. How better to illustrate the season’s spiritual message?

I looked forward to teaching the lesson of the egg in my Sunday school class as Easter approached, but when I asked the children where eggs came from the

answer surprised me. “Bunnies!” all 12 students shouted.

Bunnies? I thought. Could these kids be so far removed from nature they actually think rabbits lay eggs? My own chickens would have been insulted!

“It’s on TV,” one of the girls explained. “A white rabbit lays chocolate eggs.”

Now I knew what they meant. I’d seen the commercial, but it didn’t have much to do with the lesson I wanted to teach. I had to think this through.

The following Sunday morning I got ready for

school, still not sure what to do. I have to find a way to set them straight, I thought.

I checked my chicken coop before I left. My birds

strutted and clucked around the hen houses: Ida, Ada and Henney Penney in their nesting boxes, Rudy the

rooster scratching at the ground. Penney puffed her feathers to twice her size when Rudy got close. She was guarding a dozen eggs.

“If only the kids at Sunday school could see your eggs,” I said, stroking Penney’s copper-speckled feathers,

“they’d forget all about chocolate.” That’s when it hit me: What if I took Penney and

her eggs to Sunday school with me? How many of the kids had ever seen a real egg hatch? Or watched an

ordinary-looking, beige-colored egg turn into a live chick with bright little BB-pellet eyes, downy feathers and tiny feet, peeping away? The hatching of an egg was like a

miracle. Why not share it with the kids? I’d give those children an Easter message they’d never forget!

I hunted for a box to hold the eggs. But wait a minute: Was I really planning to bring a chicken to

church? I tried to remember another time any kind of animal had joined us at our solemn service. Once a sparrow flew in an open window and fluttered around,

disturbing the reading. And a puppy had wandered in and led the ushers in a merry chase around the aisles while

the children laughed. But those events hadn’t been planned.

I thought of a certain church lady, a good Christian with very strong opinions. She’d once objected to my

son’s carrying in a Bible with a jazzy cover. “It’s a New Testament,” I’d assured her as she eyed the brightly colored jacket.

“Well,” she’d sniffed, “it looks like a Betty Crocker cookbook!”

I had a vision of my little bantam hen pooping on the ecclesiastical carpet. “I guess chickens really don’t belong

in church,” I said. But then I remembered Jesus’ own words in the Gospel of Matthew: “How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers

her chicks under her wings.” “That settles it,” I told Penney. “Jesus would

approve of a chicken in church, and he’s who matters!” Penney would be in the Sunday school wing anyway. Nowhere near the church, actually. And nowhere near

that straitlaced church lady (I hoped).

I poked holes in the lid of a straw-filled cardboard box and transferred Penney and her eggs into it. It was waiting on the table when the children came to class. As

they took their seats I said, “Guess what’s inside.” “Rabbits!” one boy shouted.

“Kitten!” a girl said over him. “Puppy!” called someone else. “Nobody has guessed it,” I said and lifted the lid.

All the children gasped. Penney blinked in the sudden

light and ruffled her feathers, but soon settled down and clucked. The children came forward slowly, so as not to

scare her. The girls took turns stroking her feathers. “What do you think Penney’s brought with her?” I

said. I lifted her up to reveal a dozen eggs. A boy poked one of the shells with a pudgy finger.

“How can she sit on them?” he asked. “They’re hard!”

“Penney wants her babies very much,” I said. “She’s willing to go through hard things. Just like your

mother did before you were born. God puts love into all parents’ hearts—even chicken parents!”

Now that the children had seen the eggs, I offered

them a deal. “Penney has laid 12 eggs. That’s one for each of you,” I said. “You have a choice what to do with

your egg. You can take it home and have your mom cook it for breakfast…”

The children giggled.

“Or I can bring Penney back next week and you can see your eggs turn into babies!”

Not one child voted for an omelet. By the following

week the children had told all their friends. We discussed the impending blessed event. They couldn’t wait to see the chicks they’d been promised on Easter Sunday.

I promised, I thought as I got ready for bed on Saturday night. Should I have been so confident the

children would see chicks on Easter? It took 21 days for a bantam hen egg to hatch, and in the interest of timing, I’d taken the eggs from under Penney so that she’d miss

a day of brooding. But what if I’d miscounted, or addled the eggs when moving them? What if Penny’s

temperature wasn’t just right? The hatching of a chicken was God’s work, not mine. God, I prayed after I switched off the light, please let at least one egg hatch for them.

The church parking lot was crowded the next

morning. Everyone came for the Easter service. But why were so many people gathered around the Sunday school wing? I made my way through the crowd with my

cardboard box.

“Is that Penney?” a woman asked me. “Did the eggs hatch yet?” a man said.

They were all here to see Penney and her eggs! Along with every child from every Sunday school class,

not just my own. Even the pastor came over to see what was going on. “It’s an expectant hen,” I told him, blushing. “I thought the children would like to see the

eggs hatch.”

“What a perfect way to illustrate today’s sermon!” he said. “Would you bring Penney into the church?”

So much for keeping Penney under wraps, I

thought as a pack of children cheered and followed me into the sanctuary. They plunked themselves on the stage

at the front of the church. Okay, God, I thought as I lifted the lid. Time for an Easter miracle!

A gasp went up. There was Penney with not one

but six wobbly chicks. Three were already dried and fluffy as dandelion down. The other three were still wet from

their shells. Two more eggs were nearly cracked in half, the babies just emerging. The last four eggshells showed

tiny holes where miniature beaks were pecking. I looked up, beaming, from Penney’s new family—right into the face of that straitlaced parishioner I’d dreaded.

She was gazing down at the chicks as happy and amazed as the little girl in front of her who asked, “How did you

get the eggs to hatch right on Easter?”

“God decides when the eggs hatch,” I said. “He

knew this was the right time!” And just the right place—right in his own house, where all new life begins.

Traditional Hot Cross Buns Recipe Ingredients

2 packages (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast

2 cups warm whole milk (110° to 115°)

2 large eggs

1/3 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup sugar

1-1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

6 to 7 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup dried currants

1/2 cup raisins

1 large egg yolk

2 tablespoons water

ICING:

1-1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

4 to 6 teaspoons whole milk

Directions

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm milk. In a large bowl, combine eggs, butter, sugar, salt, spices, yeast mixture and 3 cups flour; beat on medium speed until smooth. Stir in currants, raisins and enough remaining flour to form a soft dough (dough will be sticky).

2. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until dough is smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

3. Punch down dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide and shape into 30 balls. Place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Cover with kitchen towels; let rise in a warm place until doubled, 30-45 minutes. Preheat oven to 375°.

4. Using a sharp knife, cut a cross on top of each bun. In a small bowl, whisk egg yolk and water; brush over tops. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool slightly.

5. For icing, in a small bowl, mix confectioners' sugar and enough milk to reach desired consistency. Pipe a cross on top of each bun. Serve warm. Yield: 2-1/2 dozen.

Church Chuckles

One Easter a priest and a taxi driver both died

and went to heaven. St. Peter was at the Pearly gates waiting for them.

'Come with me,' said St. Peter to the taxi driver.

The taxi driver did as he was told and followed St

Peter to a mansion. It had everything you could imagine from a bowling alley to an Olympic size

pool.

'Oh my word, thank you,' said the taxi driver.

Next, St. Peter led the priest to a rough old shack with a bunk bed and a little old television set.

'Wait, I think you are a little mixed up,' said the

priest. 'Shouldn't I be the one who gets the mansion? After all I was a priest, went to church

every day, and preached God's word.'

'Yes, that's true.' St Peter rejoined, 'But during

your Easter sermons people slept. When the taxi driver drove, everyone prayed.'

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A father was reading Bible stories to his young son. He read, 'The man named Lot was warned to

take his wife and flee out of the city, but his wife looked back and was turned to salt.'

His son asked, 'What happened to the flea?'

ANNOUNCMENTS

Meyer Fund

Thanks to a large bequest from the estate of Irvin Meyer,

Consistory has established the Meyer Fund. This fund will be used

to make large capital repairs to improve the safety, security and

functionality of our buildings. We have replaced the gutters on the

church and parsonage, repaired water damage in both buildings,

fixed the front entrance steps of the sanctuary and replaced the

outside door by the front office. The sidewalks have been

repaired, and the painting on the Sanctuary and chapel are

completed. We have repaired the roof and fixed the water damage

in the sanctuary.

If you would like to partner in this ministry of upgrading and

improving our facilities, you may make a donation labeled

Meyer Fund.

Third Sunday Programs

April- Easter --No program

May- A presentation by Sister Ave Clark " Springtime Blessings"

June- No program

Serving in Worship

If you are interested in ushering, greeting, reading or hosting

coffee hour and have not yet signed up, please contact the church

office (718) 359-3956 or office@frccp.org or sign up in the back

of the Sanctuary.

Flowers and Bulletins

Please note that there are still weeks available if you would like to

give the gift of flowers or bulletins in memory or in honor of

friends or loved ones. Please speak to Doris Harris if you would

like to make a contribution. You can also call the Church Office

(718) 359-3956 or email us at office@frccp.org and we will pass

the information along to Doris.

Making a Difference

We would like to include “Making a Difference” as a regular

feature in our newsletter.

If you would like to contribute a testimonial of how our church is

making a difference in your life, please submit it to

newsletter@frccp.org

Pancake Breakfast

Please join us on Palm Sunday, April 9th at 9:30 am in the Chapel

Basement for our Annual Pancake Breakfast.

145th Anniversary Celebration

Our 145th Anniversary Celebration will be held on Sunday,

June 4th beginning with Worship in the Sanctuary at 10:30,

followed by a reception at the Poppenhusen Institute at Noon. If

you would like to take an ad in the Journal, an order form is

included in the newsletter.

Newsletter Ads

If you are interested in purchasing an ad to support our newsletter,

please complete this form and mail to:

First Reformed Church of College Point

118-17 14th Avenue

College Point, NY 11356

The Steeple of the First Reformed Church is sent out eleven times a

year to approximately three hundred homes, most of them in

College Point. It is also posted online on our website and linked to

through our Facebook page. Through your support we will be able

to defray the costs of this ministry, which is our main contact with

members who are shut in or out of state.

All ads must be submitted camera ready. Size may be

adjusted if needed.

All ads are 2 x 3-1/2 inches (the size of a business card)

Cost is $110 for publication in eleven issues of the

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No credit card logos may appear in any ads.

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Please enclose ad plus check made out to “First Reformed Church”

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