WELCOME FROM HAYWOOD STREET

UPDATES:

Golf for Awareness registration closes TODAY! Make sure to sign up if you want to participate. Register here.

The next companion orientation is this Monday, September 12th, at 5pm in the sanctuary. Contact Katlyn at katlyn@haywoodstreet.org if you plan to attend.

As part of a growing effort to engage in local missions opportunities around Asheville, our first workday back with Habitat for Humanity will be September 15th from 8:15am-3pm, and will continue the 3rd Thursday of every month. We’ll meet in the Haywood Street parking lot at 7:45 am to carpool to the site together. Please bring a lunch (sandwich makings, chips, and waters will be provided by Haywood Street).

If possible, email Seth at seth@haywoodstreet.org to let us know you’ll be coming. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Habitat and serving alongside one another. All are welcome, no experience necessary. Find more information HERE.

As you may know, our office administrator, Lesli Hollowell, is retiring at the end of the year. Closer to her end date, we will share more information about her retirement and how we will celebrate her.

With that said, we are accepting applications for the full time position of Financial and Office Administrator. Please spread the word! More information can be found here.

MINISTRIES AND RESOURCES:

• Sundays 9-1
• Monday through Thursday 10-2
• By appointment, contact April at april@haywoodstreet.org

• Sunday Bible Study – 11:00am in the sanctuary
• Tuesday Prayer Group – 12:00 in the sanctuary – Gather for a time of communal prayer
• Worship on Wednesdays at 12:30 in the sanctuary
• Thursday Card Making Group – 10:00am in Room 1 (off the main lobby) – Gather together to make cards for our community and friends in prison or in the hospital.

Click here to see the list the places in the community to donate clothes and to find free clothes. If you know of a place not on this list, reach out to Melanee at melanee@haywoodstreet.org.

COMPANION CORNER:

• Servers are invited to join us at the Welcome Table: The kitchen is in need of additional servers at the Downtown Welcome Table on Wednesdays and Sundays. If you’d like to help, please let Katlyn know or sign up and feel free to bring a friend!
• Meal Train for Respite:  Every night of the week a wonderful home cooked meal is provided for our friends in Respite. This month there are several open days that we need folks to sign up for. You can do so here: https://mealtrain.com/dm2y6z. Feel free to share this need with your friends, Bible Studies, etc.
• Clean Up Companions Needed for the Downtown Welcome Table on Sundays and Wednesdays: Wednesdays 12:00pm-1:00pm and Sundays 10:00am-11:00am companions are needed to help clean up. You can sign up or just show up!
• Haywood Street Hair Cutting Ministry – We are currently in the process of reimagining the Hair Cutting Ministry here that we have had in the past. If you would like to be a part of that process or would like to cut or wash hair when it is open, let Katlyn know!
• To Go Boxes – Since reopening in December, we have gone back and forth with to go containers at the Welcome Table. Because we served only to-go-boxes during the pandemic, our community got used to the option and we didn’t want to take that away abruptly. We have slowly been phasing out of providing to-go containers and have decided to begin phasing them out completely. Once we run out of our current supply, we will not purchase any more containers. This is both for sustainability purposes (creation care & budget sustainability) and because we want to focus on the experience at the table and allow other places that serve to go to do that well. In the case of an emergency, staff will work directly with an individual and provide food to go if needed.

SACRED ENCOUNTERS

“A Cautionary Tale”
by Linda McCracken

Grace. That’s what Haywood Street Congregation is about. So what do we do with difficult Scripture that talks about sheep and goats and disasters that the Potter is devising for His rebellious people. That’s the question that I have been coming back to over and over recently.  Brian has brought it to us through the Scripture according to Jeremiah, the Prophet, in Jeremiah 18: 1-11.

The part about the Potter shaping a spoiled piece of clay was easy enough to picture. God takes me, a sinner, and reshapes me into a more useful vessel. However, if I, like the house of Israel, don’t turn from the evil I do, then, He will devise an evil plan against me. Whoa! My forgiving God, full of Grace, would do that? To me? That’s what Jeremiah said. Looking back at the history of the Israelites that is what God did. Israel didn’t turn from its wicked ways.  And God let Assyria overtake them and later Babylon did the same and banished the wealthy and powerful to another land. There was a remnant that survived and remained in the Promised Land, but they were mostly the poor and the unskilled.

So what does that mean for me? I returned to the whole idea of Judgment and Grace. God warned the house of Israel what would befall them, but He left redemption open if they would come to Him. God is the only One who is good and therefore He is the only One who can judge. What is Grace? Is it forgiveness? No, Grace is more. Is it an absence of Judgment? No, Grace is more than that. We are free to do or not do whatever we wish, not because God will excuse our lack of concern or outright selfishness, but because He wants us to choose His Way and His love. So Grace is acting in the Way that leads others to God and brings us closer to Him.

What does that mean in daily living? At Haywood Street it means we offer food for everyone once a week so that we can have fellowship with one another and can meet a basic need. It means we have haircuts and vaccinations and acupuncture to bring additional boosts to our wellbeing. Most of all it means we listen and care and welcome one another without judgment because we are all imperfect pots that the Potter is still working on.  We gather at His Table for Communion in the Sanctuary and we praise Him with music and prayers. All of this takes tremendous trust in God and faith in His Presence among us, but the more we practice Grace the more likely we are to turn around and discover God is next to us passing the bowls of food, serving the bread and wine, and sitting nearby loving every minute.