Next meeting: November 7 -- also news about service opportunities

Hi everyone -

Our next meeting will be Monday November 7 -- we have a long lag this time because there's a "fifth Monday" in October and we don't meet -- but keep November 7 on your calendar.  The Johnsons will be cooking!  Thanks to Joel and to Nora for the food last time -- Chicken & dumplings,  and Nora's pumpkin cupcakes -yum!    Next time we'll be talking about Chapter 3 of John -- the encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus, where the whole question comes up about what it means to be "born again."  The posible answers may surprise us!   Chapter 3 in the commentary will be a good guide, but I expect our discussion will range far & wide.  Since you have an extra week, I encourage you to follow the reading guide in the commentary so that you read beyond this chapter and see a little more how it fits into the whole way that this gospel tells the story.  But our focus will be on 3:1-21.

The photo here is of members of our group participating in the ministry to Citygate - a program for children in Northeast DC where members of our group and the mission group from Vienna Baptist go each month to help with enrichment and support activities for grade school age children.  It's an important and satisfying ministry which we are trying to support more actively.  The next Citygate day will be November 12 -- meet at VBC at 9:00 to ride in together. We're back by 1:00.  Email Ben Wagener for more information and to sign up.

There are also opportunities to help out at the Hypothermia Shelter week at Fairfax United Methodist church in February -- we'll talk about this at our next meeting.

Looking forward to seeing you all on November 7. Please email me if you need directions to the Johnsons kathleen.staudt@gmail.com

Bible Study this Monday October 19

Hi everyone-

Here are some photos from our last meeting, when we began our conversation about the Gospel of John.   We looked at the multiple layers of meaning in this gospel -- the way that we start out knowing who Jesus is -- "the Word made Flesh" and then meet him, as a human being.   We'll be talking more this week about the human Jesus in this gospel and what we learn by reading these stories.  Our focus  (Monday October 17) will be on John 2:1-11, and on what's going on with this story of changing water into wine.  If you have the commentary, we're in chapter 2.   Think about a wedding you've attended (or planned!) recently.  What was necessary to make the event go forward smoothly?  Were there glitches?  Thinking about your own experiences of a "wedding feast" may help bring this story down to earth, even as we also look at it on a symbolic level.  There's a lot here! 

Welcome to the New blog site for 2011

Hi everyone - I'm moving our blog from the old site which was connected to my other blogs (and so was "all about me" in the profile information, to this new one that is dedicated to our group.  I think this will work a little better going forward and I'll post a forwarding link on the old blog.

We can think of last year's blog as an archive of last year's work on 1 Samuel -- I'll leave it up so you can get back to it if you're curious.  But please change the link to this one.  And also, it would be great if all could make a point of "following" this blog -- by email or RSS feed -- so that you'll know when I add updates!

We meet tomorrow, Monday 10/3, to for dinner and fellowship and to begin our study of the gospel of John.  In preparation, read the first chapter of the gospel of John, and if you have the commentary, the first chapter there.  Bring questions, puzzlements, observations.  See you soon!

KATHY