November 20, 2025
Dear Church Family and Friends,
As we approach Thanksgiving, all I can say is Thank you, Lord, for all your many blessings. Of course, I am grateful for my family and friends, but this year I am particularly grateful for this church family. Thank you for the love you have shown me and, especially, for your prayer support. God is at work among us here at First Church in Pembroke! To God be the glory, great things He has done and is continuing to do.
The Lord has called us to be a house of prayer for all nations, and that is what we are becoming.
o Sunday prayer time
At 9:50am, in the sanctuary, all are invited for a brief time of prayer for the service.
During the service, we continue to praise God for what He has done and pray for the needs that are mentioned.
o Thursdays at 6pm, we have our weekly prayer meeting where we praise and pray.
o On the table in front of the side door, we have a prayer box where we invite people to share with us their prayer requests. We have received several from the community.
o And this month we are kicking off our email prayer chain. Here s how it will work:
Anyone can send a prayer request to our special prayer chain email (prayer.fcip@gmail.com).
We have been blessed to have Freda Burke volunteer to serve as our Email Prayer Warrior Team Lead.
Freda will track all prayer requests.
When an email prayer request is received, she will send an email out to our team of Prayer Warriors, asking them to pray.
She will respond to the requestor, letting them know we are praying and asking that when they receive an answer to prayer, that they let us know.
When an answer to prayer is received, Freda will respond, record it, and send an email to the Prayer Warriors to let them know.
We currently have a team of 16 prayer warriors committed to pray for the requests as they come in. More are welcome. Please let Freda or me know if you are interested.
Our adult Alpha course is coming to a close. On average, we have had more than 17 people attend each week. Our plan is to run it again in the spring. If you haven t participated in the program this fall, I highly recommend you speak to a few of the people who have. It s been a wonderful time of fellowship, great food, and spiritual growth.
We have been blessed by the formation of a Worship Dance Team under the direction of Jane Han. Jane will be performing this Sunday, 11/23/25, during the service, and the team will be performing on Sunday, December 21.
For those interested in learning about becoming a member of First Church in Pembroke, we will be having an Exploring Membership class after the service this Sunday. This is an informational session with opportunities for participants to ask questions and meet a few members of our leadership team.
I was so happy to bring my young granddaughters to church this past Sunday. They loved it! Although Sunday School won t officially start until January, we have a number of gifted volunteers who have been Cori-checked and are ready with Bible stories and activities should we have young ones visit us in the meantime. Plus, this Sunday, 11/23/25, Gail Horsefield will be reading a children s story during the service.
And there s more. But I will wait to share that with you next month. 😊
By the way, if you d like to get in touch with me, email is best. Please contact me at pastorjoy.fcip@gmail.com, and we can schedule a time to talk.
Love you all!
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Joy