Weekday Email to Members and Friends – 2021-01-14
A weekday e-mailer from
Matt Matthews
To Members and Friends of
First Presbyterian Church
Champaign, Illinois
Friends,
Are you Zoomed out? Are you tired of wearing your mask? Do you want to go to dinner at a crowded diner and eat a meal with friends? Are you ready for a movie at the theatre, or a concert? What about worship? Are you eager to gather for worship and beat me to the doughnuts afterwards in Westminster where we gather for fellowship? Are you feeling weary?
Me, too. I’m so tired of Covid and I’m so ready to have it in our rear view mirror.
While the end may be in sight, and the vaccine is coming, we aren’t there yet. Be extra vigiliant. Don’t be the last Covid death in our area. May God grant us the patience we need.
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The DREAAM Board of Directors asked me to write a letter to our DREAAM families about the recent violence in Washington D.C.
Lou Turner, who serves with me on the Board, is a professor in the Urban and Regional Planning department at UI. He asked the Board, shouldn’t we say something in light of the recent violence? This is my effort to “say something” that will encourage our Dreamers and their families. Other’s contributed to these words. (Statement is below.)
You know, when I watch the morning news, I’m astonished by the number of local shootings and violence. Is this normal? Violence is a local problem—not just a problem at State capitols, our nation’s Capitol, and other worldwide hot spots. We have plenty to pray about, don’t we?
In the meantime, isn’t it wonderful to have a mission partner like DREAAM House (and CU at Home, etc) that offers sanctuary for our young neighbors. In the case of DREAAM, our Dream Big! Learning Centers are offering classrooms at our church and at the University Place Christian Church where Dreamers come to a warm, safe place to do their on-line classwork in “Tribes” of a few other students and leaders who mentor and help them study. This is one of the small, beautiful miracles of Covid.
Here’s our statement:
Dear DREAAM Family,
The DREAAM Board affirms and celebrates the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Recent events at the riots in Washington DC remind us of this imperative to love.
The DREAAM Board stands united in opposing violence everywhere. We denounce extremist groups that appear to be edging their way into the mainstream. While we agree that there’s room for many opinions in a civil discourse, there is never room for hate.
We believe Dreamers have the power to disrupt patterns of injustice in our community and world. We believe our DREAAM families plant and nurture seeds of hope in our communities, and because of this our future will be brighter and more equitable.
I hold you all in my prayers.
Matt Matthews, president
DREAAM Board of Directors
We commend the activities and resources below…
1. https://www.mhanational.
2. https://
3. From Facing History and Ourselves, a Head, Heart, and Conscience Discussion:
· Head: What information do we know about the insurrection that happened on January 6, 2021? What additional facts or information would you like to have?
· Heart: How do you feel about the insurrection and what is happening in the aftermath? Are there particular moments or images that stand out to you?
· Conscience: What do you believe was at stake in the events on January 6, 2021? What questions about right and wrong, fairness or injustice, did insurrection raise for you? How should individuals or politicians act in order to protect our democratic institutions?
4. Listening to Dr Martin Luther King’s The Other America speech and discussing: What ideas stand out to you as important today from Dr. King’s speech? What has changed since this 1967 speech? What’s still the same? What questions do we want to know more about?
5. Invite young children to draw a picture that shows how they’re feeling.
6. Reading graphic novels or picture books invite conversation. Try “Love” by Matt De la Pena
News
ESL Café Time
First Pres members are invited to join us for our monthly Zoom café time on January 14th at 10am. This would be a great time for you to get to know some of our students and tutors. If you’ve ever wondered what the ESL program is like, this is a great place to find out. We will be split into small groups so that we can discuss with each other. Bring your favorite hot drink and a snack to our Zoom Café Time.
We will have a Zoom Café Time every second Thursday of the month.
Email esl@firstpres.church for the link.
If you have any questions, please email the ESL Director, Jeanette Pyne, at jeanette@firstpres.church.
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Humor (Hard times really need godly laughter):
This is a joke that comes from one of our regular sources. Want to take a guess who?
I got up this morning and ran around the block 5 times!!! Then I picked up the block and put it back in the toy box!!!
Good Word: (This needs to stay up for a little while longer. Read slowly.)
1 Corinthians 13 The Message (MSG)
If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. 2 If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. 3-7 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.
Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.
8-10 Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.
11 When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.
12 We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won’t be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
13 But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.
Let us pray: (A Martin Luther King, Jr. prayer, adapted.)
O Thou Eternal God, out of whose absolute power and infinite intelligence the whole universe has come into being, we humbly confess that we have not loved thee with our hearts, souls and minds, and we have not loved our neighbors as Christ loved us.
Forgive us, O LORD.
We have all too often lived by our own selfish impulses rather than by the life of sacrificial love as revealed by Christ.
Forgive us, O LORD.
We often give in order to receive.
Forgive us, O LORD.
We love our friends and hate our enemies.
Forgive us, O LORD.
We go the first mile but dare not travel the second.
Forgive us, O LORD.
We forgive but dare not forget.
Forgive us, O LORD.
And so, as we look within ourselves, we are confronted with the appalling fact that the history of our lives is the history of an eternal revolt against you. But thou, O God, have mercy upon us. Forgive us for what we could have been but failed to be. Give us the intelligence to know your will.
Help us, LORD!
Give us the courage to do your will.
Help us, LORD!
Give us the devotion to love thy will.
Help us, LORD!
Help us be your church in our neighborhood,
our country, and our world. Grant us courage.
(—adapted, Martin Luther King, Jr.)
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Much, much love to you all.
Matt Matthews
Cell: 864.386.9138
Matt@FirstPres.Church
