Abiding Missions

Thanks to a grant from Hilltop Alliance, we were able to update the signs on our building! Did you ever notice that we didn't even have our building number posted anywhere? Well, our delivery drivers always noticed!

Thanks to FASTSIGNS for doing great work!

Please remember the men and women who serve our country.

We will be serving up latkes tonight for our after school kids! Happy Hanukkah, from all of us at Abiding Missions.

On Wednesday afternoon some of our kids lit the candle they had made last week. Last week the kids learned about Hanukah. This week they will learn about Advent. Bringing light into the darkness of Abiding’s great room had a calming effect and right on time. Our youth counselors managed to a whole lot of youth energy!

Happy cookie day!

Abiding Missions After School Program loves cookies, too. The kids at After School love baking and eating cookies.

The vision for the “Beloved Community” is attentive, loving, neighbor care. Have faith. Let us re-dedicate ourselves to faith, hope and love. LOVE trumps evil.

The Gospel passage has been called “the little apocalypse of Mark” 13:23-37. It falls at this time of the year to connect our present with the first followers of Jesus with the history of His ancestors. It is almost like we are living out the adage that “All things old are new again.” Whether we are lighting Hanukkah Menorahs or lighting the candles on Advent Wreaths in the end its about the power and presence God’s streadfast LOVE. May each candle lit focus us on becoming the Beloved Community with God’s ever present help right here, right now. Amen.

Thank you to those who supported us this week during Giving Tuesday! Special thanks to RE 360 LLC and the United Methodist Women of Hill Top United Methodist Church who provided support of the work we're doing here in Allentown! We were able to raise $1,500 on Tuesday!

Thank you!

Join us for another wonderful year together.

Our Breakfast Fellowship group felt it was important to participate in tonight’s Allentown Pittsburgh CDC meeting to learn about what is going on in Allentown and share some of their experiences in the neighborhood.

Cheers for civic engagement!

Abiding Missions runs a Breakfast Fellowships on Wednesdays at 10am.

www.abidingmissions.org/donate.

Around here in Allentown, it can be really hard to get ahold of fresh fruits and vegetables. Whether you come to our food pantry or you receive produce from our produce wagons, we want to make sure all of our neighbors are eating well!

Support this important work today for Giving Tuesday!

www.abidingmission.org/donate.

Abiding Missions runs an after-school program Monday through Thursday for K-5th graders. We provide a safe place for youth to do their homework, play games, all the while learning about themselves and the world around them.

Gifts today help enrich the youth in our Allentown community!

www.abidingmissions.org/donate.

Join Chaplain Christine for “Faith Matters”each Tuesday 11 AM

Today we explore family trees and sacred ancestors.

Every week we are joined by a fabulous group of volunteers from Allentown who love to give back to their neighbors. By giving to Abiding Missions today, you can join them as we show each other how to be good neighbors!

www.abidingmissions.org/donate

Please magnify our impact Pittsburgh ❤️

Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday! We would appreciate your support as we continue to abide with our neighbors.

Please share our Giving Tuesday posts so more folks can see them!

www.abidingmissions.org/donate

It is going to be a cold one tomorrow! We will have our first warming center of the year. Stop on by to warm up!

Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday! We would appreciate your support as we continue to abide with our neighbors.

Please share our Giving Tuesday posts so more folks can see them!

www.abidingmissions.org/donate

"GOD WRITES STRAIGHT WITH CROOKED LINES." Teresa of Avila

The Abiding Chapel devotion is taken from Matthew 25: 31-46 the scripture passage set aside for Christ the King Sunday. To understand the title Christ the King title we need to look at the family tree at beginning of that story.

Jesus's family tree places King David in the middle of the family members listed, making David the center of attention for those who would learn about Jesus through Matthew's gospel.

Matthew also includes 5 women from his ancestors to make a point about the radical faithfulness, justice, and inclusion that will re-establish the honor system of God's household. The women named in Jesus's family tree are:

1) Tamar: She is a daughter of King David who was r***d and humiliated by her half-brother Amnon. She is then avenged by her full brother Absolom. Good right? Not really as he goes on to become more of a womanizer than his father King David had been. Tamar would become the mother of Perez.

2) Rahab: was a Caananite woman who worked as a pr******te in Jericho. She protected spies sent by Joshua to learn about the strength of Jericho's military. She would become a gentile married to Salmon and would become the mother of Boaz.

3) Ruth: a Moabite woman who was taken as a wife for one of Naomi's sons. When their husbands died Ruth chose to stay with Naomi instead of going home to her own mother's household. She followed Naomi's religious customs to see that her mother-in-law would be re-established in her home land of Bethlehem, but also married Boaz, the faithfilled family member of Naomi's family tree to become the mother of Obed. Obed would become the grandfather of King David.

3) Bathsheba: Wife of Uriah who was a military leader for David's army. David would r**e Bathsheba and have Uriah killed to hide his sin. David marries Bathsheba into his haram. She gives birth to Solomon and becomes Mother to the King when David dies and Solomon takes his place. Solomon will continue the blood-line to the family of Joseph.

5) Mary: the girl who would become the Mother of Jesus. She was promised in marriage to Joseph but mystically impregnated by the Spirit.

In the end we are to see that the gift of salvation (wholeness and holiness) is far more inclusive and just than the narrow imaginations of humankind. The family honor system of God's household uplifts those who trust and believe in a love that is surprising, shocking, expansive, and inclusive. Amen.

Mark your calendars to support Abiding Missions and other organizations you love this coming Tuesday!

www.abidingmissions.org/donate

The Hebrew reading for many worshippers today is from Zephaniah. Now Zephaniah was not an angel, the prophet was a messenger. The message was a word of judgment about the true motives of those who profess to be God’s people. This prophet was a messenger sent to tell people about God’s intentions for those chosen as stewards for all of creation.

We are also called to examine our motives and consider that they have ripple effects impacting the rest of God’s creation. The section of Zephaniah that we share today contains instruction to gather together. Unfortunately the gathering the prophet is talking about is an invitation sent by God to gather as a people sacrificed for the sins of our self-comfort and complacency.

I am not too sure what to say. It’s not hard to look around and see how self-serving we truly are. That said, I invite us to humble ourselves, confess our idolatry, ask for help to change our ways, offer prayer of hope that we adults come seeking as sincerely as our children.

This Tuesday the children will have the opportunity to take part in a collective act of worship. It is all voluntary. Let’s see how the Spirit moves their hearts. Amen.

“Education is the most powerful tool that we have with which to change the world”. Nelson Mandela

Youth fellowship was busy, rich, and delicious. We hiked into the neighborhood to check on some fig trees with ripe fruit, read parables of fig trees, talked about living each day as best we can, tasted the sweetness of fig jelly and fig and almond cakes. Read stories about gratitude and blessing. Made love chains as a Thanksgiving decoration for the altar area of Abiding’s great room and gave thanks for our kitchen staff!

Best kitchen crew in Allentown?

We think so!