Dear Church Family and Friends,

The summer months always seem to pass so quickly; here we are preparing for fall. Our Pembroke kids have started school, and our high school graduates are settling into college life. And a new church year is getting underway.

I hope you are as excited as I am about what God has in store for us here at First Church in Pembroke (FCP) this fall. My prayer is that it won t be just more activities to fill our calendars. My prayer is that we will all grow in our walk with the Lord, in our relationships as a church family, and in our ministry to the community.

So, what s coming up?

• Weekly (30-minute) in-person prayer meeting, starting this Thursday, September 4, at 6 pm. We ll start with a brief devotional on prayer, and then we ll pray together for our church, for the requests we ve received, and for any new ones. We ll learn about prayer, and we ll put it into practice by praying. Prayer is the mightiest agent to advance God s work. — E.M. Bounds [1]

         Alpha for Adults will begin on Thursday, September 11, at 6:30 pm, with refreshments, good fellowship, and engaging talks by Alpha pioneer, Nicky Gumbel, who will present each week s topic with humorous anecdotes, personal experiences and biblical relevancy. This will be followed by lively discussions about the evening s topic. The talks (29 minutes each) were filmed at Holy Trinity Brompton in London, where Alpha first began. [2]

         Alpha for Teens will begin with pizza and ice cream! — on Sunday, September 14, at 5 pm. So calling all teens let s have some fun AND explore your questions about life, faith, and purpose. This is your opportunity to delve into the core ideas of the Christian faith in a relevant and engaging way. [3]

         Pre-K Sunday School is coming soon. The C.E. team is working to get this started ASAP.

We encourage you to invite a friend or two to join us. God is at work here at First Church in Pembroke!

By the way, if you d like to get in touch with me, email is best. Please reach out to me at pastorjoy1019@gmail.com, and we can schedule a time to talk.

Love you all!

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Joy