Dear friends in Christ,
I hope you’re all staying dry this rainy day. There are a few things going on in the life of the church I’d like to highlight this week:
Outdoor Worship All of May (Weather Permitting)
In addition to our online service Sundays at 10 on YouTube, we are having outdoor services at 11:30. This week there is Nursery care, Sunday school, and we’re going to have a baptism. Remember to wear a mask, bring a chair, and register ahead or with the ushers when you arrive.
The Church office prints the registration list at the end of the day on Friday, so if you can remember to register before then it’s very helpful. You can register by contacting the church office or online. Here’s the form for 5/9: https://forms.gle/vtEQgf3eD9uXdEDa6
I’ve also attached picture from this past Sunday where our Cherub Choir was able to sing!
National Day of Prayer: Thursday 5/6 @ 11am
Tomorrow (Thursday) is the National Day of Prayer, and the Rev. Tara Shepley from St. George’s and I are going to lead a brief prayer service on the Green (Christmas tree side) at 11am. Please join us!
Staff Retirement
Our Sexton, Howie G, has decided to retire after over 22 years of service at the Middlebury Congregational Church. I offer up my thanks for his many years of work here at MCC.
Howie is quite a character, and on a personal note, I’m certainly never going to forget how he made his coffee. I think I’m still recovering from the jolt of the coffee he made me once before I led a funeral. (Adding cream did not change the color!)
I know some of you have had similar experiences, and I’m sure Howie would appreciate hearing some of your memories. If you would like to send Howie a note, card, or gift in recognition of his retirement and long service at MCC, Ellen A has offered to collect those items to give to Howie.
Pastor’s Schedule
As of today, I am fully immunized. I’m working on slowly transitioning to working more from the Church Office as I did before the pandemic. I’m also able to make indoor visits now in addition to the outdoor visits, Zoom calls, and phone calls I was already doing. Please let me know if you’d like to meet.
Thank You to Our Volunteers!
This past weekend we had the Church Clean Up, our Seeds of Faith Event, and our Diaper Drive Raffle! All of these things involved work and volunteers, so I want to thank everyone who volunteered, donated, and/or participated in these various events. I’ve attached a picture of the spruced up outdoor chapel, and there’s another picture from our Seeds of Faith event. Again, thank you all (and a special shout out to our Scouts in Troops 5 and 6 for all their hard work!)
Our Outdoor Chapel is fresh and blooming! 
Seeds of Faith distributed joy and hope of flowers to our friends and neighbors.
General Comments: Adventures of Magnet
Now that winter is over and we have more opportunities to gather physically together, Magnet, our MCC Snow Mascot who’s been traveling around to keep us connected, has made her way over the the parsonage. She’s currently hanging out with Boots, the parsonage cat. (He nearly decided to steal her scarf.)
In the coming weeks as we work towards moving worship indoors, she’s going to be visiting and highlighting some of the renovations and updates that have happened around our church building these past months.
I hope you all have a good week, and I look forward to seeing you online or in person on Sunday!
Peace,
Pastor Katrina