ANNOUNCEMENTS AND UPDATES
Our special mission offering for January and February is being collected to support the grandchildren of longtime members Clarke and Sheila Simmonds. In 2019 Kristofer, Kacie, and Kellie (pictured with Sheila and Clarke) endured the sudden and unexpected death of their father, Brian Simmonds. Late last year, their mother, Brenda, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her chemotherapy triggered a string of other health problems that have kept her hospitalized and unable to work for weeks. Brenda’s ongoing medical needs are significant, and she expects a transfer to a care facility in the Chicago area.
Your gifts to our special offering will help cover household expenses for Kristofer, Kacie, and Kellie, who live together in the Quad Cities, and provide “gas money” for travel to visit their mother in Chicago. Offerings will be matched dollar for dollar up to $3,000 with proceeds from the church’s Claude and Bernice Schafer Memorial Endowment. That means every one dollar you give will become two dollars.
To participate in this special offering, earmark your gift “Simmonds grandchildren” and place it in the offering plate during Sunday worship. You also may mail it to the church at P.O. Box 422, Waukon, IA 52172, or drop it off at the church between 8:30 a.m. and noon Monday through Thursday. Please make your check payable to “First Presbyterian Church.” And please continue to hold the Simmonds family in your daily prayers.
Pastor Grant and Elder Lee Ann Knudson will be co-teaching a series of confirmation classes that will begin with an orientation session in the Chapel at 11 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 22. Weekly classes will continue Sunday mornings through Lent, and the rite of confirmation will be celebrated on Easter Sunday, April 5. Please keep the group in your prayers.
Pastor Grant is preaching a five-week series on the New Testament book of Revelation. The last book of the Bible anticipates the day when Christ’s reign will be made visible as he once and for all conquers every evil. On that day, Christ will descend to earth a second time — not meekly as a tiny baby as he did in Bethlehem but openly as the triumphant Son of God with the armies of heaven at his side. Messages in this short series, which will lead us to the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 18, are available online in audio and text formats. Also online are messages his Pastor Grant’s holiday series, “Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room.” Go to “Sermons” page
Here’s the schedule for upcoming Wednesday Church Night activities for children, youth, and parents. The evenings begin at 5:30 p.m. with a family-friendly meal in the Fellowship Hall. Faith-formation lessons begin at 6 o’clock and wrap up by 7. Elders Linda Mahr and Lee Ann Knudson lead the Faith Formation and Outreach Team. Reach out to either one if you would like to host a meal or help with a lesson.
Jan. 28: “Waiting for Summer” (Lee Ann provides a picnic!)
Feb. 4: Making Valentines to share with our church family and friends
Feb. 18: “40 Days of Lent”
Feb. 26: “How do we serve in the church when we’re just little kids?”
March 4: “Words we don’t know, but we’re going to learn!”
March 11: Making Easter cards to share with our church family and friends
March 25: “Palm Sunday and Easter — A lesson in giving”
April 1: Filling plastic eggs for the Easter egg hunt
April 8: “Keeping our faith active — a lesson in how to pray”
April 15: Wrap-up celebration of faith formation
During a recent Wednesday Church Night, youth, parents, and grandparents sorted the groceries contributed through December’s “Reverse Advent Calendar” food drive. Your offerings of canned and non-perishable food weighed 351 pounds, which the Wednesday night crew delivered to the Allamakee County Food Pantry. Thank you for putting so much food on the tables of our neighbors who need it. Our latest offering comes in addition to the 67 pounds of food collected on our church’s float during the Waukon Holiday Parade in December.
The Presbyterian Women will be frosting and decorating cutout cookies at 9 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 12, in the Fellowship Hall. The cookies will be shared with church members and friends for Valentine’s Day. If you’re available to lend a hand, all are welcome — including men.
Make plans now to attend the Presbyterian Women’s annual soup and sandwich lunch on Sunday, Feb. 15, in the Fellowship Hall. The menu includes several delicious varieties of homemade soup: potato, chicken noodle, and chili. Feel free to invite a friend or neighbor to join us for worship and fellowship! If you would like to contribute ingredients for the meal, sign-up sheets will be posted on the bulletin board outside the church kitchen.
If you are hospitalized and would like a visit from Pastor Grant or one of the deacons, please contact the church office at 563-568-2981 or fpcwaukon@gmail.com. Due to privacy laws, the hospitals do not routinely notify the church when a member is admitted, so we have no way of knowing that someone is hospitalized unless you or a family member contacts the church. However, if you ask your nurse to contact the church, she or he can call us with your permission. In the case of a medical emergency, you may contact Pastor Grant directly at 563-568-2134 or 563-217-9171.
In case you didn’t receive his announcement sent via postal mail, Pastor Grant plans to retire later this year. “For more than 14 years now, my ministry in this blessed place has felt both fruitful and rewarding. You are a devoted congregation with a caring heart and generous spirit, and I expect your faithful witness to the Gospel will continue in the years ahead,” he wrote in the letter. “With the new year bringing my 65th birthday in late summer, I sense God calling Julie and me to a new place in life, and after months of prayerful thought and conversation, I have shared with the elders of Session my plans to retire on August 31, 2026. … Yes, you and I will be writing our final chapters together, but for all of us, there indeed are more chapters of God’s grace to be written in the book of our lives. The Lord is not ‘done’ with any of us!”
The annual meeting of the congregation and corporation is scheduled for Sunday, March 8. It will be held in the Fellowship Hall after a potluck dinner hosted by the Presbyterian Women. Worship that Sunday will include the ordination and installation of new deacons and elders. The church’s annual report will be available in mid-February.
Church member Lee McGovern has shared with our congregation a kind and generous gift of $50,000 and asked that Session designate the money for the Presbyterian Women. The church has transferred the money to the PW, and with Lee’s input, the PW executive board has voted to donate $40,000 to the Allamakee County Child Care Coalition and to set aside $10,000 for future improvements at the manse. We are so very grateful to Lee for his thoughtful and faithful giving. On a personal note, Lee is back home and feeling well after an extended stay in Veterans Memorial Hospital. He appreciates your many prayers for healing and your other expressions of love and support.
SAVE THE DATES
Thurs., Feb. 12 ~ 9 a.m. PW decorating Valentine’s Day cookies
Sun., Feb. 15 ~ After worship. Presbyterian Women’s annual soup and sandwich lunch
Wed. Feb. 18 ~ (time TBA) Ecumenical Ash Wednesday service, St. Paul’s United Methodist Church
Sun., Mar. 8 ~ Ordination and installation of new elders and deacons during worship, potluck lunch and annual meeting of the congregation after worship
Thurs., Apr. 2 ~ (time TBA) Ecumenical Maundy Thursday service in the Sanctuary
REGULAR EVENTS
Every Sun. ~ 8:30 a.m. Continental breakfast. Fellowship Hall. ~ 9:30 a.m. Worship. Sanctuary. ~ 10:30 a.m. Continental breakfast. Fellowship Hall.
First Sun. ~ Kwik Star gift cards on sale in the lobby before and after worship. ~ Monthly visit by Berkley, our in-house therapy dog.
First Mon. ~ 6 p.m. Property Committee meeting. Fellowship Hall.
First Tues. ~ 2 p.m. Presbyterian Women’s Ruth Circle meeting. Gathering Room. ~ 7 p.m. Presbyterian Women’s Lydia Circle meeting. Gathering Room.
Second Sun. ~ 11 a.m. Worship Committee meeting. Gathering Room.
Second Mon. ~ 1 p.m. Presbyterian Women’s executive board meeting. Gathering Room.
Second Tues. ~ 5:30 p.m. Finance and Stewardship Committee meeting. ~ 7 p.m. Session meeting. Gathering Room.
Third Tues. ~ 9 a.m. Mission sewing circle. Gathering Room.
Last Sun. ~ 10:45 a.m. Deacons meeting. Gathering Room.
CELEBRATION OF THE LORD’S SUPPER
Sun., Feb. 22 (beginning of Lent)
Sun., Mar. 15 (mid-Lent)
Thurs. Apr. 2 (ecumenical Maundy Thursday service in the Sanctuary
Sun., Apr. 26 (mid-Easter season)
Sun., May 24 (Pentecost)
Sun., June 28
Sun. July 26
Sun., Aug. 30
Sun., Oct. 4 (World Communion Sunday)
Sun., Nov. 1 (All Saints Sunday)
Sun., Nov. 29 (beginning of Advent)
Thurs., Dec. 24 (Christmas Eve)