This Sunday is Orange Bucket Sunday, May the 4th! We have worked with Food4Kids for over a decade feeding hungry children in Alachua County. You have been so generous in providing food to help them. Please bring your orange buckets this coming Sunday morning and bring them to the main auditorium. If you do not have an orange bucket, you can just bring a grocery bag full of non-perishable items that can join with our effort.
This Sunday night we are doing a joint worship night with our friends at Northwest Baptist Church. The address is 5514 NW 23rd Avenue. We wanted to meet at Northwest because 51 years ago our church planted this congregation. I want you to see all that God has done there. Brother Brian Wilson is the pastor at Northwest and has become a close friend. He’s a wonderful pastor and this will be a fun night together. The service begins at 6:00, and we are meeting early at 5:15 for a pizza and fellowship. Please join us.
Mother’s Day weekend is the weekend of May 10 and 11. We will have a special service on Sunday morning to honor moms. We are providing a special little bookmark to all ladies on how to pray for your family. On Saturday, May 10 at 9:30 AM, we have a Woman’s Brunch which is sponsored by our Women’s Ministry group. We’re so thankful for Stacy Barb and her team that put together these awesome fellowship events. Ladies, bring somebody with you that will be blessed by this event.
The weekend of May 18 is our Love Loud weekend. These are ministry opportunities that take place on this particular weekend where we reach out to our community. You can sign up in Life Groups on Sunday or find the link attached to this email to sign up to “Love Loud” our community.
Our wonderful Youth Ministry is sponsoring a high school graduation dinner for graduating seniors on May 22 from 6:00 to 7:30 PM at the church. We will recognize them in our morning service on June 1 in our main worship service. Congratulations to all these high school graduates and to their parents who have all worked so hard to see them reach this milestone. We’re so proud of our North Central graduates!
Beach Baptism is scheduled for May 25 at Frank Butler Park in Crescent Beach at 5:00 PM. Many of our families come to church on Sunday morning and leave from church to go out to Crescent Beach to spend the afternoon. After a wonderful afternoon of fellowship, we gather at 5:00 on the beach in front of the park and prepare to observe our baptismal candidates follow the Lord in believer’s baptism. We already have some folks that are on our list to be baptized. We would love for you to join us. If you need to be baptized, contact us in the church office. We can make arrangements for you to be a part of this amazing baptism.
We’re so proud of all our preschoolers and elementary students who participate in Awana. This is the finest program for children that I know of for a local church. Simply the best! We have a number of our families who came to our church because they wanted their kids involved in this program. I heard recently that our Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon was a graduate of the Awana program when he was a kid. What a testimony! Our Awana children will have their awards night on Wednesday, May 28th. Please be praying for each of these young people and for their families.
Our men will gather for a men’s breakfast on Saturday morning, May 31, from 8:00 to 9:00 AM. Please mark your calendars for this breakfast for all our men.
I want to ask you to pray for our Vacation Bible School and for our youth camp this summer. These are huge events in the life of our church! VBS is scheduled for June 30 – July 3. We will be doing a four day Vacation Bible School which will make it really, really special. Pray for Jenna and all her team as they prepare for our best VBS ever. Our youth camp will be July 14 – 18. Our students are traveling to the beautiful Ridgecrest Conference Center in Black Mountain, NC. This will be a very special week for them. Will you pray for our camp?
It is such a joy to be your pastor. North Central is and has been a tremendous blessing to our family. It is my joy to pastor this precious fellowship of believers. When I was in college I went to North Central. I met Kelly here 43 years ago on May 1. Kelly and I married at North Central. The pastor of the church along with our college minister did our ceremony and we had the reception at the church. What great memories. That would not have happened without the incredible ministry and help of this wonderful church family. We now have the opportunity, as always, to continue to make a difference in the lives of our families, our young people, our college students, and all ages. You are part of God’s work in this place and for that I am grateful!
Love in Jesus,
Pastor Calvin