What's Happening @ FMC​

6/18 Fellowship Hall Reserved
6/19 9a Pastor Phil Preaching
Happy Father's Day
6/19 12-5pm Fellowship Hall Reserved
6/26 9am Pastor Phil Preaching
6/26 12-6pm Fellowship Hall Reserved
7/1 6:30 Ladies Night In
7/3 9am Pastor Phil Preaching
7/7 6:30p Church Board Meeting
7/10 9a  Bishop John Nissley Preaching 
7/11 10a-3p Health Dept Immunization Clinic
7/13 5p Preschool Advisory Board
7/13 6:30p  Administration Commission
7/14 9a FMW Sewing
7/20 6:30 Food Pantry Board
Quick Links:
Search our site:
Come and join us!
Sunday Worship: 9:00 AM
(Sunday School following)

​You are welcome to join us on Sunday, or stop in for a chat! We want to meet you!​

Sermons on YouTube

​Follow link to our church page on YouTube                               www.youtube.com/channel/UCnpbY7F22hfvI57xu-x8Lzg/featured
On the Journey...
Monthly Insight From Pastor Phil Yoder
June 2022
Going Home
By Philp Yoder
 
One of the pick-up points for students in our subdivision is in front of our house, so every morning students gather there to get on the bus.  Several months ago, I was at home one afternoon when the school bus came through our neighborhood dropping off elementary school students after their day at school.  I watched as these young children got off the bus, and every one of them came off the bus and hit the ground running as fast as their legs would go toward their respective homes.  There was an eagerness to go home that seemed to gush from every hurried step.   There is something about home that makes us long to go there, is there not?
 
It reminded me of a quote I ran across several years ago; “It seems to be a law written in the universe that children walk to school but run home.”  Home should be a place we look forward to returning to regardless of our age. Home should be a place of security, of comfort, a place to find rest, a place to find food, a place where we are welcomed, a place where we are unconditionally loved, and most of all, a place where we belong.  But tragically, not all homes are that way; some homes are deplorable places where those who live there are neglected and abused.  Psychologists have discovered that in homes where children are abused, much of the time children will wish to stay in their own home rather than go to another one, even though they are abused there.  I suppose it is an instinct; our home is where we belong.  Having a place where we belong is a basic psychological need.
 
It is interesting, Jesus encouraged His disciples with the image of “Home,”  a place where they belong, when they leave this world.  “In my Father’s House (Home)… I go there to prepare a place (Implying a Home) for you” (John 14:2).  Having a place where we belong (a home) in the next life, is one of the core tenants of our faith.    But what Jesus said later in that chapter is even more intriguing, “If anyone loves me and obeys my teaching, my Father will love him, and we will come and make our HOME with him.” (John 14:23)  Even Jesus longs for a home, a place where He belongs, and He finds it in human hearts that love and obey Him!
    
I frequently visit people who are near the end of their earthly journey, and I observe some very different reactions among people who are in this stage of their lives.  Some lament that they can’t do what they used to be able to do, some feel embarrassed that they can’t remember things very well.  Some worry and dread the moment of passing from this life into the unknown.  Some tell of regrets, and wish life had turned out differently, or wish they had made different choices in life.  And some, “long to go home,” is their expression.
 
One of my former parishioners from another church that I used to visit was in a memory unit in a local facility.  He always had a smile on his face, even though he couldn’t remember much and couldn’t do anything anymore.  Eighty-nine years of life had taken a harsh toll on both his body and his mind.  Now, he struggled just to put a sentence together.  But when I came to visit him, he was always smiling, and he frequently had several Bibles open around him.  One Bible on the table, another one on the chair where he sat, one or two open on the floor by his feet.  I asked him sometimes what he was reading, but he never could remember.  He just knew that the Bible somehow comforted his soul.  One day I ask him, “Peter, why do you always have a smile on your face?  What makes you so happy?”  Peter’s face lit up, but he only said one word, “Heaven!”  Peter knew he was going home soon, and he was hitting the ground running, with an eagerness to get home that gushed from every last step of his earthly sojourn!