Posted on 10 Oct 2011
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It’s Harvest Time!
By Deborah Thompson
October is one of the most beautiful months of the year. Days are getting cooler, and nights are growing longer. School is in full swing. Leaves are turning glorious hues of yellow, red, orange and brown. It is also harvest time in many parts of the country. 
Gone are the summer fruits—juicy peaches, luscious plums and sugary melons; now it is time for grapes, apples, pears and pumpkins.
In this month‘s Book Spot, the focus of the books listed is on some of the foods and sights of autumn and harvest time.
Happy Reading!
Click here to see Miss Deborah’s Book Picks
Posted on 03 Oct 2011
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Email Rev. Kevin if you are interested in participating in a serving trip
FPCG members and friends who’ve participated in mission trips we’ve taken to Pearlington, Mississippi (after Hurricane Katrina) often report feeling blessed beyond the degree to which they blessed the disaster victims they served. Although it may not be possible to measure the degree of blessing given or received, it is clear that hands-on mission, in partnership with those in crisis, can inspire and deepen the faith of all involved.
The Christian Education Committee needs your help in gauging the interest and availability of FPCG members and friends in participating in one or more mission opportunities this program year.
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) is our denomination‘s primary program for coordinating emergency response in areas of crisis nationally and internationally.
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Posted on 26 Sep 2011
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Where do you fit at FPCG?
Many schools now teach students the value of giving back by requiring them to spend so many hours in community service.
What a wonderful concept! It teaches not simply the importance of giving or sharing of oneself but also of volunteering. Unfortunately too many young people and adults are focused on satisfying their own needs. They guard their time and their resources for things that will bring them pleasure or satisfaction.
Imagine what our communities would be like if more people were willing to give of themselves, sharing their skills and gifts.
Even more, imagine what our church would be like if more of our members, like YOU, would give of yourselves, sharing your skills and gifts.
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Posted on 19 Sep 2011
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Longtime Members Share Memories
When three of the First Presbyterian women at Rydal Park gather in the same room reminiscing about their church, a wealth of memories fill that room.
The trio, Winnie Fahs (1950), Polly Montaigne (1949) and Lisa Panetta (1973), have a combined membership of 161 years!
Winnie, who had been very active in the Girls’ Service organization in Harrisburg where she lived, moved to Germantown in 1944, visited many churches in the area but found First Church to be the best. Polly moved from New Jersey to finish college at Penn, came here for worship and “found it very satisfying.” Lisa, the daughter of the pastor of the Italian Presbyterian Church in Germantown, grew up on Price Street in the manse of that church. Her father was one of nine sons, three of whom became Presbyterian ministers.
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Posted on 12 Sep 2011
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Freedom School 2011
In a summer seemingly dominated by a roller-coasting stock market, urban flash mobs, military helicopter crashes and excessive heat waves, one true oasis sheltered fifty children for six weeks in the Children’s Defense Fund Freedom School held at First Church for the second year.
With a mission “to ensure every child a Healthy Start, Safe Start, Fair Start, and Moral Start in life,” the Freedom School “depends upon the help of caring families and communities” working with carefully chosen teachers, trained college students who are called Servant Leaders.
Among the leaders was First Church’s Valient Solomon, a second-semester sophomore at Virginia Union University in Richmond. Note: this was intended to be a straight-forward news article about the school, but after several at-tempts to shape the article into an objective, balanced piece, personal feelings kept intruding, so this is an observation from a life-long educator who visited the school once a week during the session.
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