Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2020-09-28
Monday, September 28th, 2020
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
To Members and Friends of
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
Dear Friends,
Yadkin County, NC, Brunswick Stew (Thanks Beth Hutchens!)
1 chicken, 6 lb. or 2 fryers (yes, any available meat was thrown in)
2 onions, diced
2 c. Okra, cut (optional)
4 c. Fresh tomatoes or 2 cans
2 c. Lima beans
3 medium potatoes, diced
4 cups corn or 2 cans
3 tsp. Salt
1 T. Sugar
1 tsp. Pepper
Cook chicken in 2 qts water. Bone and dice. Reserve 1 quart of broth.
Add raw vegetables to broth. Cook till tender.
Add other vegetables, seasonings, plus chicken, and simmer.
If canned vegetables are used, do not drain.
And . . . for dipping chips:
1 can black-eyed peas, drained and rinsed
fresh tomatoes, chopped
Green onions, diced
Green pepper (optional)
Juice of 1 lime
1 T. Olive oil
1 T. Chopped cilantro
1/2 tsp ground cumin
Pinch of salt (or use salted chips)
Pinch of cayenne pepper
News:
Yesterday’s ‘‘SUNDAY IN THE PARK” was great fun. Join us in two weeks, on Sunday October 11th, for another fellowship hour after worship. Hessel Park is a perfect place. The weather was glorious.
* * *
Don’t forget these conversations on PUBLIC SAFETY: The City of Champaign is pleased to invite you to participate in a community listening session to share your vision for public safety in our community. All residents, business owners and community stakeholders are encouraged to take part. The goal is to help create better communication and understanding between Champaign Police, City Administrators and community members by allowing you to directly voice your thoughts and expectations around policing. Each session will include Chief of Police Anthony Cobb and Police command staff, City Manager Dorothy David, and elected City officials. The listening sessions will be moderated by Dr. Travis Dixon, an American media studies scholar and Professor of Communication at the University of Illinois.
Determining the future of policing in our community should be a collaborative process involving community partnerships, and the first step in that process is to hear from you. Each listening session will be used to gather information from the public so it can be shared with the City Council as they make future public safety policy decisions to best address the needs, interests, and values of our community. Virtual Listening Session Dates:
· Tuesday, Sept. 29, 6-8 p.m.
· Saturday, Oct. 3, 1-3 p.m.
· Friday, Oct. 9, 1-3 p.m.
· Tuesday, Oct. 13, 6-8 p.m.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the listening sessions will be held electronically using the Zoom meeting platform. More information on how to join and participate, including how to attend via Zoom can be found on the City’s website at champaignil.gov/
Humor (Hard times need godly laughter):
From Bill Gamble:
The passengers had all boarded. The pilot came on the PA with this
announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen. We are having a slight delay
loading baggage. The machine that breaks the handles off of the
suitcases is out of order, so they are having to it by hand.”
Good Word:
PHILIPPIANS 3:4B-14 4bIf anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
7Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
12Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
Let us pray:
O God, I’m not there yet.
While I want to follow,
I can never imagine following
so ardently and so completely
as your Son.
But please, nevertheless, accept
my stumbling efforts, and by
your grace, guide my steps,
in the name of the One
whose humility and grace
inspire me to serve with
all my heart.
Help me, Holy Lord.
And thank you, Holy Lord.
In Jesus’ name,
In Jesus’ perfect name,
I pray . . .
AMEN
Much, much love to you all.
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church
