Opportunities for Personal Growth
Limestone is a vibrant and growing church with many opportunities for personal and spiritual growth.

Inquirer's Class
Our pastors offer an Inquirer's Class for anyone interested in exploring the meaning of church membership. This class is not only for potential new members, but also for long-time members interested in a "refresher" class about the basics of the Christian faith. Everyone is invited to a light lunch followed by a series of presentations by our pastors.  Please see the Inquirer's page for more information.

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Recent Events:

Limestone’s 50th Anniversary Celebration

On Sunday, December 3, 2006, Limestone Presbyterian Church will celebrate our 50th Anniversary! You are invited to join us in worshiping God and celebrating our journey of faith together at our one worship service at 10:30 a.m. on this special Sunday.  The preacher for the anniversary will be the greatest preacher of all time with the greatest sermon of all time:  Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  Limestone’s pastors (Kenneth Read, Willett Smith, Sarah Foulger, Laurel Loveless, Tim Coombs, Elizabeth Dick, Lyle Dykstra, Bruce and Carolyn Gillette) will share in reading the sermon together in a combined video.  The Rev. Carl Mazza will offer a brief homily.  Special music will be offered by the members of Limestone choirs (Chancel Choir, Living Water Ensemble, Youth Choir, Joyful Noise Singers and the Hand Bell Choir).  Pastor Carolyn Gillette has written a new hymn for the 50th anniversary. 

Everyone is welcome to the worship service and celebration lunch.  A delicious lunch will be served at 12:30 p.m. at the Delaware National Country Club, 400 Hercules Road, Wilmington, Delaware. A program of “Reflections” will follow lunch.  A wonderful menu has been chosen for a sit down meal in the ballroom. (A children’s lunch will also be available.) There will be a display of memorabilia and a program to celebrate our 50 years together.  If you have not done so already, please make your lunch reservations now; the deadline is this Sunday, November 26th, by contacting our church office (phone: 302-994-5646 or email:  limestonepc@comcast.net).  If you know of a former member who would like to be invited, please let the church office know. We want to include everyone. 
 

Ulster Project Hymn The inspiration for "God, We Came From Our Families and Homes": In 2005, Ulster Project Delaware, a project of Pacem in Terris, celebrated its 30th year of bringing Northern Irish Catholic and Protestant teenagers, between the ages of 14 – 16, to the Delaware area for a month of trust building and reconciliation activities.  While here, the teens are hosted by host families with a teen of the same age participating in the daily activities.  The project is the oldest, continuously running Ulster Project in the United States.  Since it was founded in 1976, it has brought 583 Northern Irish teenagers and 108 adult leaders.  In 1988 Ulster Project Delaware was awarded the Eisenhower Award by the Delaware Chapter of People to People,”  …in recognition of a demonstrated and significant contribution to the advancement of international understanding.”  Sally Milbury-Steen, Pacem in Terris’ Executive Director, requested Carolyn Winfrey Gillette write a hymn celebrating the Ulster Project Delaware’s 30th anniversary.

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Help Wanted

Help Needed with Next Friday’s Reception Food Needed by Inner-City Ministry:

Urban Promise is having a spelling bee on Friday, January 26th for the children who are in their after-school programs in downtown Wilmington. They have asked Limestone Church to provide snacks for about 60 – 70 people, as well as volunteers to set up and clean up the refreshment table. The following are needed: veggies and dip, chips, brownies, fruits, cookies, and sandwiches divided into fours. Donations can be dropped off at Limestone by 3:00 PM on Friday. Please contact Barbara Hoover (998-3090) or Carolyn Gillette (994-0220) if you can donate refreshments or would like to help out. Thank you!

Next Friday: 20/20 with Diane Sawyer reports about UrbanPromise Youth Ministry in Camden From Bruce Main: Diane Sawyer wanted to do a feature on good children who, each day navigated difficult life circumstances. She wanted to highlight the reality that one does not have to travel to the Gulf Coast to experience post-Katrina poverty. Children in the Northeast, those who live adjacent to middle-class American cities and suburbs, as well must deal with the impact of everyday poverty. Camden, New Jersey sounded like that place. “Do you have any children in UrbanPromise who fit that profile?” asked the ABC producer. “How ‘bout six or seven hundred?” I responded. Watch the 20/20 program; you will catch a glimpse of what it’s really like for a young person to grow up in Camden and cities like it. As you watch, you will be reminded of the critical role UrbanPromise plays in these young lives. You’ll see why it’s important to create Places of Peace for our children and teens—our After School Programs gave Moochie and hundreds of other children a safe place even though her life was chaotic at times. UrbanPromise is a place that keeps youth off dangerous streets, gives them positive role models and provides them with opportunities to grow in their young faith. Read more about this national TV show on an exciting ministry in Camden (Limestone supports Urban Promise in Wilmington).

HVAC Help: Several of our church’s air conditioning units broke down last summer after 20 plus years of service. Limestone Church now needs to have major AC work done. A small group of church members is exploring what other churches have done recently and reviewing contractors’ proposals. We hope to have the needed work done in the next few months when there will be savings because it is not the busy time for AC contractors. If you or someone you know has some expertise related to HVAC, please contact Pastor Bruce Gillette. Thank you!

Computers Needed by Our Church School
We want to get more computers for the Church School classrooms so they can run "Faith Explorer" as part of the Sunday Plus during the worship services. These computers need the following: Faith Explorer will run on most PC’s with an 800 MHZ (or higher) processor, 128MB RAM and a 3D graphics card, running Windows 98, ME, 2000, or XP. Any donations of computers or funds to buy new computers would be appreciated.

Nursery Volunteers are needed for Sunday mornings (approx. 1 hour shifts), Wednesday evenings (5:30 to 8:30) and Thursday evenings from 7:15 to 9:15 p.m. Please see the sign-up on the nursery door. Call Cinda McCombie at the church (994-5646) or at home (234-9114) if you have questions

Emmanuel Dining Room Volunteer Servers are needed to serve on the 24th of each month at the 2nd and Walnut St. location from 11:45 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. No more than 2 or 3 volunteers are needed per month. TURKEY COOKERS WANTED:  No experience necessary.  If you want to help with our mission to feed the homeless, we need people to cook turkeys.  All you need to do is pick up a frozen turkey from church, thaw, cook, debone and dice it and return it to church.  There is a sign-up sheet with instructions posted in the narthex.  All help is appreciated.  Questions?  see Judy Grasso.

Delaware Hospice is in need of volunteers to stay with patients, to give caregivers relief, provide errand and transportation assistance, make phone calls to reassure family members dealing with loss and grief. Help with fundraising events and community awareness. Assist with our New Hope program which helps children work through their loss and grief. Spring 2005 Volunteer Training classes will begin on March 15th. See the flyer on the bulletin board in the narthex for more information.

Recycle at Limestone
Bring aluminum cans, eyeglasses and grocery coupons to be recycled.

Save Those Grocery Receipt Tapes – They are worth money to Limestone. For many years our budget has benefited from the willingness of members to save their Zingo grocery tapes and drop them by the church office. That neighborhood store returns to us 1% for every $1,000 of tapes we collect. In 2005, that amounted to $742.88, and prior years’ returns were in like amounts. So far checks this year have added to $388.06, with many tapes yet to be tabulated, and weeks of shopping yet to come. You say you like to shop at ACME. Fine. The Pike Creek Shopping Center Acme has just started a similar program, so save those blue tapes, too. Tapes from that Acme and also from the Lantana Square Acme in Hockessin (which has had the program for a while) are now worth money to Limestone, too. Eat up and save the Zingo and Acme tapes for Limestone. Contact Pete Quayle for further information. Thank you!

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Announcements:

Life-Long Learning Adult Education Opportunities

Musicians and Singers

The Chancel Choir meets every Thursday at 7:30 in the choir room. All are welcome. It is a wonderful way to give back to worship. In addition, LIVING WATER, Limestone's Contemporary Ensemble, has openings for vocalists and skilled instrumentalists. Call Kelly Kline if you are interested.

Joyful Noise Singers
Led by Linda Wardell, the children's choir, Joyful Noise, is accepting new and returning singers for the 2006/2007 year. The singer must at least be in 2nd grade, love to sing, and be faithful in coming to Thursday night rehearsals from 6:15 - 7:00 pm. in the choir room.

Chronicle Online
The Chronicle has been posted on the website in PDF format. It requires Adobe Acrobat Reader to access it. Try the link first, and if you cannot read the text, you may need to download and install the latest Acrobat Reader. Click Here to give it a try.

Committee Night
You've seen it announced in the Dateline, you've heard it mentioned at other group meetings, and it's is posted on the front page of the Chronicle. What is Committee Night? This church is run by people. If you are "people", we need you at Committee Night. At the beginning of the evening we meet in Klair Hall to gather our common goals and strengths and keep abreast of any announcements of current events effecting the church family. Then we break up into small groups of working committees. All you have to do is pick one you are interested in. If you find yourself on the wrong one, just take your chair over to another. You will eventually find a niche. You will find yourself pulled in one direction or the other. There is plenty of opportunity to fit in.
-- Congregational Life - This consists of worship, music, church directory maintenance, fellowship gatherings, coffees and includes special interest groups like the Limestone Players, Women's Associations, Men's Ministry, etc.
-- Mission - This covers any projects that the committee selects, and includes current missions such as Hilltop, CROP Walk, Friendship House, etc. They could take on planning Mission trips and help support our Food Closet with special events.
-- Discipling - A fancy name for the maintenance of the information and educational opportunities available to the church community. This includes Church School, Adult Education, Youth Ministries, Stephen Ministers, Prayer Chain, and Pastoral care.
-- Management and Administration - A very "hands-on" group that tends to the grounds and building upkeep as well as forecasting future needs. They keep a watchful eye and make recommendations on technology resources, the Budget, Endowments and other Funds, the staffing requirements and office needs.
Come to a Committee Night and wander off with a group. Listen, ask, inform, throw in your two cents. Be part of what keeps us coming back.