Friday, March 8
International Women’s Day
The Presbytery of Lackawanna
Pennsylvania
The Wyoming Presbyterian Church, in a 10-block town, has about 25 active members, most of them belonging to three generations of the same family. Together with their lay pastor, Laura Lewis, they keep a pretty low profile in Presbytery of Lackawanna business. The worship-centered congregation has a choir that sings about five times a year and a fellowship building, the Wyoming Institute, that it opens three times a year—for an Advent party, a Welsh-cookie fry, and an ice cream social.
Members of Wyoming Presbyterian Church gather with flood-recovery volunteers from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in November 2011.
In September 2011, Tropical Storm Lee doused northeast Pennsylvania and caused massive flooding along the Susquehanna River, which winds along Wyoming’s eastern edge. Though the town was spared, four of the presbytery’s counties, five of its churches, and thousands of homes in its communities were inundated. As recovery efforts began, the presbytery asked to borrow the Institute for use as a volunteer center, and Wyoming Presbyterian said, “YES!”
As winter approached and flood-recovery workers descended on Wyoming with Red Cross cots, a PDA tool trailer, and donated supplies from the presbytery’s other 58 congregations, the little-church-that-could prepared an opening night feast and continued to host local and visiting volunteers through the spring and summer of 2012. A second volunteer village was opened at First Presbyterian Church of Towanda in the spring, and together they served hundreds of volunteers who in turn helped hundreds of homeowners.
Flood recovery along the Susquehanna has been so much more than that: fellowship among denominations, cooperation within communities, and service to neighbors in need have in return blessed presbytery coordinators, committees, site workers, and other volunteers—everyone who said, “YES!”
The Presbytery of Lackawanna’s 59 congregations have 6,568 total members.
Let us join in prayer for:
Presbytery Staff
Rev. Dr. Barbara Smith, general presbyter
Margaret Zeigler, administrative coordinator
Maureen Posluszny, financial secretary
Robert Bryden, stated clerk
PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Tim Daly, Board of Pensions
Rev. Noelle Damico, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Let us pray
Father, we grow complacent in the calm, but you have equipped us for the storm. Guide and bless us as we work together in your name. Amen.
Daily Lectionary
Morning Psalms 22; 148
First Reading Jeremiah 11:1-8, 14-17
Second Reading Romans 6:1-11
Gospel Reading John 8:33-47
Evening Psalms 105; 130
