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 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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Posted on 05 Sep 2011
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We invite you to participate in Germantown Clergy Initiative’s (GCI) Germantown High School Annual First Day of School Prayer Vigil
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6
7:00 – 8:00 A.M.
On the lawn of Germantown High School (GERMANTOWN AVE. AND HIGH STREET)
Join us as we pray together for:
- Students, parents, teachers and administrators.
- Peace and safety
- The District and SRC
- Funding
- The programs of GCI and other community partners
- Greater church and community involvement
Please contact Reverend Kevin Porter for more information at 215- 518-1675
Posted on 08 Aug 2011
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This has been a great summer for our Freedom School Scholars!
Here are a few snapshots from this year’s program. Click here to see more photos!
Posted on 25 Jul 2011
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by Deborah Thompson
Welcome to my inaugural column on good books for all readers, especially K-5. In this column, I will recommend exemplary titles that are linked through themes—seasonal, holiday, author or genre.
It is a well-documented fact that children lose educational ground during the summer (the summer brain drain). One of the best ways to stop this decline is through reading nonfiction—the format that all students encounter more and more as they move up in the grades.
I invite parents of young readers to read the books aloud to their children. It is amazing what one can learn from reading a children‘s book- so you older readers out there, do not let the fact that the books listed are for mainly grades 3-5 keep you from picking up one to read. Personal interest, not reading level, is the most important reason for choosing a book. A longer list of recommended summer nonfiction can be found on the church literature table.
Click here to see Deborah’s Bee-Themed List
