Breathe in: "What He opens

When I was a kid our family lived in a house that was built in the 1860’s. My dad added on a large family room with a fireplace and an expansive view overlooking the property. It was great. There was one problem though. Where the new addition met the existing house there was a leak in the roof that evaded every attempt to remedy. After trying many things to keep the area from dripping water into the new addition, my dad came up with the only thing that worked. He installed an eves trough inside the attic where the new roof met the old and ran it through the side of the house to divert the water. 

Sometimes we just decide to live with our problems the best way we can. We cope. The problem is still there but it is managed somehow, even if not very well.  

Jesus has come to bring a cure to the problem we could never solve but only try to manage. He came to forgive our sin and give us new eternal life. He is the only one who makes it possible for us to finally be healed from our most insidious issue, the problem of sin which leads to spiritual destruction. 

In Jesus’ day there was a man who was born blind. He had a big problem because his disability earned him social stigma that kept him from worshiping in the synagogue. He became a beggar and at least managed to stay alive. Jesus was willing to heal the man, and in doing so the man became a billboard for the work of the Messiah who had come into the world. 

Jesus still heals our greatest needs. And he still invites us to bear witness to the grace of the Savior by the lives we live as people who have experienced the healing work on the Lord. 

Pastor Rich

It's that time of year! Join us as we get the church building and grounds ready to welcome our community for our Easter Egg Hunt!

We have an ongoing list of projects that we could use a few extra hands with. Examples:

• Checking up on and fixing up the playground
• Scrubbing/wiping down folding tables/chairs
• Yard work (picking up sticks/branches, flower bed/mulch tidying up, lawn rolling, etc)
• Various Easter Egg Hunt prep projects
• Various help with department needs
• Organizing
• Etc

See Corinne for more details!

Kitchen Help:

We have an abundance of plastic silverware that we are looking for a few people who could help us wrap 'restaurant style' to keep in the pantry in preparation for future funeral dinners, potlucks, etc. If this is something you'd be able to help with, please let the Stewards know! (Richelle, Darlene, Amanda & Kara)

Transportation Help:

We are in need of help with getting Kevin Maxwell to and from church on Sunday mornings.

• Pick up at his house at 10:20am to get him to church for morning service
• Take him home after service

There are also appointments and other errands they need rides to. **A list and more details for the next few months are posted in our Helping Hands group found below.

If this is something you could do, please let Pastor Rich know.

NDI - To make Christlike Disciples in the Nations

See what the kids are up to!

• Check out the kids' wish list on Amazon by clicking the image above. Thank you for all the ways you help our kids!
• We are in need of kids volunteers for Sunday School and Children's Church. Can you spare a couple hours a month to serve on this team? See Kara Purves or John Harris for more info

CHANGING GEARS: A 4-WEEK SERIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT ON JESUS' MINISTRY

SERIES OVERVIEW:

Clank! Beep! Clunk! Kids love robots, especially ones that can transform into something new or have really cool abilities. In this four-week series from Jesus’ ministry on earth, you’ll introduce kids to a different story each week that shows us how God’s truths never change, but Jesus changes everything — including us! We’ll see that we change when we know who God is, our past doesn’t change God’s love for us, and that Jesus changes how we see things because Jesus can change anything!

We are collecting wrapped candy donations to fill plastic eggs for our Community Easter Egg Hunt! You can drop bags of candy in the bin in the foyer or if you'd like to have us do the shopping for you, monetary donations are also welcomed. You can give online for this event as well by choosing the "Easter Egg Hunt" fund on Faithlife.com.

See what the teens are up to!

• Click the image above to view the teens Amazon wish list
• The teens are also in need of some helpers for Sunday School and Youth Group on Sunday nights. If you could spare a couple hours to help lead our teens, see John Harris or Stephanie Dewey

Hosted by the Church of the Nazarene, NYC is a powerful youth event that has been held in different locations over the past six decades. NYC takes place every four years and provides an opportunity for high school students from the USA and Canada to be united in a time of worship, teaching, and community service.

Our Life Groups will join to form one large group for a special time to watch and study The Chosen - Season 2 together. Starting Sunday, January 29th, we will meet at 5:00pm in the Fellowship Hall to share a dinner together then watch one episode per week.

If you haven't joined a Life Group yet, this is a great time to start! You can RSVP on the event below.

If you would like a study book, please let Brenda know.

See you then!

All meetings are held from 6:30-8:30 PM at Grand Ledge Church of

the Nazarene in the overflow room off of the sanctuary. Meetings

are on Thursday unless otherwise indicated.

Cost of 13 sessions are free.

Book is $15 (If this is a hardship, scholarships are available.)

1. Thursday, February 16

2. Thursday, February 23

3. Thursday, March 2

4. Thursday, March 9

5. *Friday, March 17

6. Thursday, March 23

7. Thursday, March 30

8. Thursday, April 6

9. Thursday, April 13

10.*Tuesday, April 18

11.Thursday, April 27

12.Thursday, May 4

13.Thursday, May 11

14.*Tuesday, May 16

* indicates a different day of the week than Thursday

See Richelle for more information or if you would like to join

Would you like to take control of your money? See John or Darlene Harris for a one-on-one FPU class or sign up for a group class with others. We have 8 spots available, so let us know before they are gone

We had a great time in the sunshine cleaning up after the Grand Ledge St Patrick's Day Parade last weekend! Thanks to our crew for passing out flyers for our Easter Egg Hunt and picking up trash We love our city!

Save the date to love our city with our Community Easter Egg Hunt!

We are looking forward to welcoming our neighbors into our building to learn about the meaning of Easter, have some fun and eat some food together! We can't do it without our amazing I Love My City Crew and volunteers.

There is a sign up sheet in the foyer for many different ways you can help.

Individually wrapped candy donations can be placed in the green bin in the foyer, or if you would like to donate funds to purchase items needed for the event, you can give here https://faithlife.com/glnaz/give by choosing the Easter Egg Hunt fund.

Thank you!

We are excited to continue our partnership with Shared Pregnancy Women's Center. There are many ways we can give, donate, volunteer and pray for this ministry.

See the list below of items they can use. You can bring them in and drop them in the toy box in the kids hallway.

If you wish to donate money, you can drop change or bills in the baby bottle outside the kids room or give online at https://faithlife.com/glnaz/give and choose the "Shared Pregnancy Women's Center" Fund

If you have any questions, see Kara Purves

Join us for NMI Movie Night featuring the movie MULLY

Sunday, March 26th

6:00pm in the Fellowship Hall

Popcorn and pop provided!

Watch the movie trailer here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT4nqTV1tFY

See you then!

Crisis Care Kits are a way we can help others in emergency situations. Receiving simple items like toothpaste, a comb, or band-aids become very helpful in a natural disaster, war or other crisis. Crisis Care Kits (CCKs) are designed to provide people with some of the essentials they may not have due to those scenarios.

Our NMI Council has set a goal for Grand Ledge to collect 12 boxes (72 CCK's) by July 2023. Each month or so, we will feature an item to collect. (Although you can always give any of the items at any time!)

See below for this month's featured item and the details on the specifics. Thank you for helping us work toward reaching our goal!

March - Band Aids (box of 30 or more)

We will be collecting these at the Missions corner in the foyer. Here is an idea of how many we will need by July 2023:

1 per CCK

6 per box

72 for all 12 boxes