Week of March 31, 2024 - Easter

On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.  They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ”  Then they remembered his words.  Luke 24: 1 - 8 (NIV)

Easter Morning Breakfast - request for muffins, etc. Our schedule for Easter Sunday morning includes breakfast after Sunrise service on March 31 (ca. 7 am). Breakfast will be in Trumbull Hall at the Etna church. If you'd like to assist with the morning's menu, we could still use your donation of some muffins, pastries, or breakfast breads.  Norma Pelton asks anyone who wishes to provide some of these treats to please leave them in the kitchen at Trumbull Hall in Etna at any time on Saturday March 30. Thank you very much for your consideration and for your assistance!
Photo below is from the Easter breakfast of April 2022.

Missions Committee:   The Missions Committee is pleased to announce support of Christian Union (CU) Vox at Dartmouth in 2024.  CU Vox is a campus ministry dedicated to preparing students for Christian leadership to effect personal, cultural and societal change locally and nationally.  The group's leader, Timothy Pillsbury, and the student president, Nicolas Halverson ('26), will visit us on Sunday April 7 to discuss their organization's purpose and operations.  They will address us briefly during the service and present an expanded version in Trumbull Hall afterwards.  We will have the opportunity to ask questions.  It promises to be the advent of what we hope will be a long and productive relationship.  Everyone is most welcome to join us.

Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles  from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them;  but they were kept from recognizing him.
He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
They stood still, their faces downcast. One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you the only one visiting Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
“What things?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.  The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.  In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”
He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken!  Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?”  And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.
As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.
When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” - Luke 24:13-32 (NIV)