FIRST MONDAY

March 2018

First Monday is a monthly posting to Church Professionals and committee members in The Presbytery of the Miami Valley from the Presbytery Staff including information of events and news of interest as submitted by appropriate Presbytery entities. Publication of such information does not imply presbytery endorsement of the views and opinions expressed or implied. This month we have included: 1. The Prayer List

2. The March Calendar

3. From Terry Kukuk, our new Executive Presbyter

4. Presbytery News – What’s Happening Around The Presbytery. Job listings, articles, flyers

and brochures – take a close look for news affecting you and your church community! If there are any questions about the March committee meetings, please contact your committee chair.

Submissions must usually be emailed by the 25th of the month or the last working day prior in order to be placed in the packet. Email copy ready submissions to Tom Oxley at the Presbytery, tom.oxley@miamipresbytery.org.

MIAMI PRESBYTERY PRAYER LIST

March, 2018

4 March First Presbyterian Church, 20 South Walnut Street, Troy. Pastor Hart Edmonds.

11 March Faith Presbyterian Church, located at 5555 Chambersburg Road, Huber Heights. Pastor Maggie Gillespie.

18 March Clifton United Presbyterian Church located at 183 Jackson, Clifton. Moderator Andrew Gerhart.

25 March Fairmont Presbyterian Church, located at 3705 Far Hills

Avenue, Dayton. Pastor Brian Maguire.

1 April Reily Presbyterian Church, 6370 Peoria/Reily Road, Oxford.

Pastor Thomas Ramsey. The Presbytery committee or group we ask you to pray for: For the month of March please keep the Staff Support Committee in your prayers. Thank you.

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As you gather for worship and work in your local congregation or with the presbytery, do you ever wonder what God is up to through this gathering of people? I know I do. God has brought together a variety of gifts, ideas, and life experiences. How will all of this be used by God to usher in the promise of a world made new? I am excited to work with the congregations and teaching elders, which form the Presbytery of the Miami Valley, as we discover how God is calling us into partnership with God and with one another. We are a covenant community of disciples of Jesus Christ, living in the strength of God’s promise, and giving [ourselves] in service to God’s mission. (G-3.0101) What a joy and responsibility God has given to us! I am filled with gratitude and humbled by your invitation to serve as your Executive Presbyter. I covenant with all of you to serve with energy, intelligence, imagination and love. We are the body of Christ. Christ has given to us all the gifts we need to be his body. May we rely on God’s grace to make our life together a witness of our faith and trust in our Triune God. As I get to know all of you, please do not hesitate to contact me. I look forward to the visits, phone calls, e-mails, and meetings which will allow me to get to know your hopes and dreams, joys and sorrows, daily challenges and blessings. Grace and Peace, Terry The Rev. Terry L. Kukuk Executive Presbyter of the Presbytery of the Miami Valley

First Monday Job Corner: Drop us a line if there is a job opening you need to fill at your church (and please let us know if you want it continued in future months – we are only running ads month by month, so need to know if your church wants it continued). Please note that the Presbytery website also lists some area job hunting assistance. If you know of somebody in your congregation that needs some help looking for their next job, please share that information with them.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Churches are invited to share programs, job openings, and news with other churches of the presbytery. Just email print ready information to tom.oxley@miamipresbytery.org. To Churches and Members of Miami Presbytery, January 31, 2018 This is an invitation to our annual retreat sponsored by the Stephen Ministries of The Presbyterian Church of Hamilton and Lindenwald United Methodist Church. We have been encouraged by the increasing number of people from the Miami Presbytery who have attended our retreat in the last several years and want to encourage you to attend this year. Our presenter is Dr. Quinton Moss. He comes highly recommended by several local pastors. He is a psychiatrist and a founder of Modern Psychiatry and Wellness LLC, as well as Director of Genesis Center of Excellence in Hamilton Ohio. The center offers assistance to those dealing with mental health issues, and addiction. It is a faith based program. We felt that the retreat should focus on the topic of addiction because of the scope of the problem. For example Ohio now ranks in the top five in terms of opioid related deaths among all states. We feel churches need to be aware of the scope and the causes but more importantly be part of the solution, especially when it comes to offering support to family and friends of the person suffering from addiction. They should not feel they are alone. Please see the attachments. One is a flyer that you can make copies to place in bulletins or post. Another is the registration form which again you can make copies. I am also attaching a bio from Dr. Moss. Please call with any questions and we hope to see you on March 10. Sincerely, Tim Wolfe Member of The Presbyterian Church of Hamilton Stephen Ministry Leader Home Phone- 513-829-4685

Registration is open for this year’s Board of Pensions regional gathering! The perfect venue for personnel chairs, church business administrators, pastoral leaders, and other organizational leaders involved in making benefit decisions. This event was created for benefit decision-makers as well as COM/CPM members to learn more about the recently revised benefit offerings from the Board of Pensions and to learn about new initiatives from the Board to strengthen the church. Benefit Connections Would you like to…

better understand the Benefits Plan for your pastor(s)?

expand your network of colleagues with whom you can share ideas/challenges?

increase your understanding of the new options available for non-installed pastors and other employees?

have an opportunity to address your questions to knowledgeable peers facing the same challenges you have in the area of employee compensation and benefits?

have a chance to direct questions or concerns to senior leadership of the Board of Pensions?

come to Indianapolis in the springtime? Put April 17th on your calendar and bring a colleague to the one-day Benefit Connections gathering from 9:30a to 3:00p at Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis. Go to www.pensions.org/benefitsconnections to register or just find out more. You’ll leave with newly established peer relationships, new strategies for being the best employer you can be, along with a better understanding of the Benefits Plan of the PC(USA). Honey Creek Presbyterian Church is sponsoring an eight-day trip to Haiti, June 5-12, 2018. This will be the sixth mission visit for the church to Haiti, and like all prior trips, it is hoped that persons from churches in the presbytery will take part. The group will be based in the southern coastal city of Jacmel, staying at the Guest House at Wings of Hope. Part of the St. Joseph Family, Wings of Hope is a home for children and adults who live with severe and sometimes multiple disabilities. After offering assistance at Wings for two days, the team will meet up with Cindy Corell, th Presbyterian Church (USA) Mission Co-worker in Haiti, who was part of both our 2015 and 2017 trips, and take day-trips to visit agricultural organizations assisted by our denomination on the southern coast. A long-term goal for the congregation (and presbytery) in working with her is discovering places where future support relationships might be established. The trip will be led by the Rev. Dr. Shelley Wiley, who is the pastor of Honey Creek and was a college professor for 18 years, and who has been going to Haiti since 1997. She has led many mission groups to Haiti, including a work group after the 2010 earthquake. If you would like to learn more about the trip, including scheduling and costs, please join us at Honey Creek Presbyterian Church, 212 W Jefferson St, New Carlisle on either Thursday, November 16th at 6:30 pm, or Saturday, November 18th at 11:00. Rev. Wiley happily leads groups of adults, but will only take youth under the age of 18 if a parent or guardian is also on the trip.

On March 22 Anna Redsand, author of To Drink From the Silver Cup, will hold a Reading/Signing at Fairmont Presbyterian Church, Kettering from 7-9 PM. Anna is a friend of the Rev. Shelley Wiley, Pastor of Honey Creek Presbyterian Church in New Carlisle, and is herself a member of a Presbyterian church in New Mexico. This book is her spiritual memoir, and tells the story of moving from faith to a distanced and wide-ranging spiritual journey and then back into the church. She grew up the daughter of Christian Reformed Church missionaries in the Navajo Nation in the 50s and 60s, and thus her early years were steeped in Bible study and church traditions, as well as reservation life. This is a deeply moving book about her spiritual journey. She will do a reading from the book, and then participate in conversation as well as respond to questions before signing books. There will be books for sale at the event. This is a valuable book for anyone who is attempting to discern meaning in their relationships with faith and belief. Everyone is invited to attend this event at Fairmont. If you cannot make it to that gathering, a smaller Reading/Signing will be held at Honey Creek on Sunday, March 25, 7-9 PM. Please be in touch with Shelley if you’d like more information. A few recommendations about To Drink From the Silver Cup: “From Navajo dwellings in New Mexico to Scandinavia to the evangelical Midwest, Anna Redsand's beautiful, heroic story is for anyone who has ever felt outcast from a community they love, and tossed into the desert of doubt and despair. Here you will find spiritual hope embodied, and the promise that, no matter where we are lost, it is possible to find our way home to new communities of faith, compassion, healing and belonging.” – John T. Price, author, Daddy Long Legs: The Natural Education of a Father “To Drink From the Silver Cup breaks new ground by situating the reader in a spiritual and physical landscape that is familiar to anyone longing to break free from imposed belief; yet its roadmap is beautifully fresh with each turn of the page. I could not put the book down as I let Redsand’s honesty and kindness raise my awareness of what is most sacred about the human experience—authenticity. – Paul Renigar, Assistant Professor of Language and Technology, University of Alabama

COLOMBIA PARTNERSHIP NETWORK

Miami Valley Presbyterian partners visit Colombia

By Jennifer Vicarel, Network Moderator

Members of the Colombia Partnership Network of Presbytery of the Miami Valley visited our partner Presbytery

of the North Coast (PNC) in Barranquilla, Colombia in February. The trip included representatives of three of the

Sister Church relationships within our Network: College Hill Community Presbyterian Church, Covenant

Presbyterian Church of Springboro, and Westminster Presbyterian Church of Dayton, as well as a representative

of Kirkmont Center, which is also active in the partnership.

Over the past 22 years, our partnership has enjoyed about a dozen Sister Church or Presbytery trips to

Barranquilla or Cartagena, visits each summer of two to four Colombian young adults who participate in

our Presbytery’s summer ministries including Kirkmont Center, northbound visits of pastors and church

leaders, the hosting of a concert tour by the Chamber Orchestra of the Reformed University in

Barranquilla, which is administered by the North Coast Presbytery, as well as other shared educational,

musical, or social ministries.

During our Presbytery trip in February, we renewed old friendships, formed new ones, visited the North

Coast Presbytery’s Reformed University and its American School (which teaches students pre-K through

graduation), and participated in their Presbytery’s annual mission planning conference. On Sunday,

February 18, we travelers were each able to worship with our respective Sister Church congregations.

Haley Ingram and I attended Primera Iglesia (or First Pres) and visited with friends that we had made

there in 2010. The Springboro Covenant travelers, Pastor Sarah Sparks-Franklin, Susan Stewart, and

David Siegler headed out of Barranquilla to visit their Sister Church in Pital. Our Kirkmont Center liaison

Courtney Hemmmelgarn visited Ninth Presbyterian on behalf of Sister, Oxford Presbyterian Church, and

College Hill Pastor Darryll Young visited Fifth Presbyterian Church, which is seeking a sister relationship

with one of our PMV congregations.

On Monday the 19th our group bused

over to the beautiful historic, coastal

city of Cartagena de Las Indias. We

spent the last two days of our trip with

the Cartagena Presbyterian Church,

which is the Sister Church of PMV’s

College Hill Presbyterian Church.

Following up on College Hill

Presbyterian’s Sister Church trip last

May, our group explored the musical

instruction and praise band ministry

(acronym MAJUP) of the Cartagena Church in their poor and at-risk neighborhood.

College Hill Presbyterian Church, in conjunction with the PMV Colombia Partnership Network, has

invited the original eight MAJUP praise band students, their two instructors, and Pastor Angelica

Munera to participate in the summer ministries of our Miami Valley Churches during the month of July.

A key component of this visit will be the special Praise and Peace (Alabanza y Paz) Camp that Kirkmont

Center will host from July 16 to 21, 2018. The MAJUP band performs to highlight the ongoing peace

process in Colombia that has resulted and is resulting in peace and disarmament accords with the

former guerilla groups in the country’s 50-year civil war, which is now considered to be at an end.

Please contact PMV Stated Clerk Larry Hollar (larry.hollar@miamipresbytery.org) or Colombia

Partnership Network Moderator Jennifer Vicarel (d2jvicarel@earthlink.net) if your church would be

interested in hosting a summer event with the MAJUP group. Also stay tuned for the announcement of

a Presbytery of the Miami Valley event for the Colombia Partnership Network to share more about our

February trip to our partner, the Presbytery of the North Coast in Colombia.

Presbytery Network: Habitat Houses through Catch the Building Spirit

Tired of all the negative news and discussions we hear every day?

Join Catch the Building Spirit in providing a safe affordable home for a needy family

Your hands-on effort can make a difference in this community!

Please consider giving a few hours of your time to support your community.

We are looking for some volunteers to make this happen: • Workers with special building skills

• Workers who can teach and lead volunteers in building

• Workers to help build the house (no experience necessary)

• Coordinator for lunches during the first week of building

• Secretary - 8 monthly meetings a year

• Fund Raisers

• Fund Raiser at your church • Newsletter Editor (twice a year)

• Facebook, Twitter, etc. Writer

• Webpage Master

• Photographer

For more information please contact: Hank Baust bausthd@gmail.com Home: 937-429-0360 Cell: 937-546-0085

Please return this portion with your payment of $10 made payable to The Presbyterian Church

Mail to Susan Stephenson, 251 Heathwood Lane, Hamilton, OH 45013

Name _________________________________________ Phone ______________________________________

Address _______________________________________ E-mail ______________________________________

_______________________________________ Payment enclosed (Cash ______) or (Check______)

Spring Youth Retreat

at Kirkmont CenterApril 6-8 2018

An Event for Youth in Grades 7-12

& Adult Advisors

Registration Fee is $75.00 Per PersonRegister online at: westminsterdayton.org/youth/retreat.html

Keynote Speaker Rev. Kori Phillips McMurtry

Associate Pastor Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church

Kori has joyfully served in ministry with Bradley Hills since 2013. She grew up at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Dayton and attended the Spring Youth Rally at Kirkmont Center every year during high school and served as a counselor and artist in residence for PYC Conference a number of times. Her work experience is deep, having served churches in Florida, Ohio and New Jersey, as well as numerous nonprofit organizations both before and during seminary. Before finding her way to seminary, she participated in and led multiple mission projects for PC (USA) with extensive periods in both Peru and Colombia. Other international projects have taken her to Guatemala, India, Cuba and the Holy Lands.