Church Notes 3.6

BROWNSVILLE - The "Pasta and Puccini" Fundraiser benefiting the Master Chorale will start with a concert by the UTB/TSC Master Chorale from 3 to 4:30 p.m. on Mar. 8 at Sacred Heart Church, located at 602 E. Elizabeth St. in Brownsville and continue with an Italian family-style meal at Cobblehead's Bar and Grill on Central Boulevard from 5 to 8 p.m. Tickets for the concert are $15, pasta and Puccini dinner are $25 and concert and dinner are $40. To order tickets, call (956) 882-4332. The tickets can be picked up at "will call" at the event.

ELSA - New nationwide report reveals that Self-Help Groups can help support people battling addictive behaviors. Self-Help Groups often are used in conjunction with specialty treatment and to support individuals seeking help or sustaining their recovery. Power Church, located at 600 N. Broadway St. in Elsa invite you to their Self-Help group meetings every Sunday evening at 7 p.m. This is free of charge.

MCALLEN - An Introduction to New Testament Greek will be offered free of charge to the public. This 12-week series will be held at Trinity United Methodist Church, 1801 Trenton Road in McAllen from 5:45 to 6:45 p.m. on Tuesdays. The class is open to adults and high-school age young adults. Pre-registration is required at the church office at (956) 631-2926. Elinor Abdulla, retired teacher with a certification in Latin and a consuming interest in classics, will teach New Testament Greek starting with the alphabet. Bring a notebook and pen.

MCALLEN - St. Paul Lutheran Church & School invites you to our Spring Benefit Auction on Mar. 28 at 6 p.m. in the Activities Center. All school alumni are especially welcomed. The Honorable J. D. Salinas will be the Auctioneer for the Live Auction with Silent and White Board Auctions offered as well. Special raffle items will be featured that evening. A menu of finger foods will be served with plenty of fun for everyone at the admission cost of $10. Child care and a pizza party will be available to children 6 years old and younger at no charge. If you would like to donate an item, contact Gail Cyphers, Auction Coordinator, at (956) 630-6645. Sponsorships are welcomed. Tickets may be purchased by contacting Dr. Kathy Lang, Principal, or the Church Office at (956) 682-2345. Visit us as www.stpaulmcallen.com or stop by our school at 300 W. Pecan Blvd. at 2nd St.

MCALLEn - "Man" is the topic for this Sunday's 10:30 a.m. service at McAllen's Christian Science Church and Sunday School. The congregation will hear these Bible words from Galatians, "There can be neither Jew nor Greek, there can be neither bond nor free, there can be no male and female; for ye all are one man in Christ Jesus." The theme of Man's oneness with God is continued in our Sunday School and 7:30 p.m. Wednesday evening testimonial meetings, which are held in the Sunday School/Reading Room Annex. Reading Room hours are Tuesday 5 to 8 p.m. and Thursday 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. First Friday Art Walk 6:30 to 8 p.m. All are welcome. Call (956) 686-4241 during Reading Room hours for more information.

MISSION - TOPS #415 Mission is meeting at the Conway Baptist Church at Conway and 495 Monday evenings. Weigh in starts at 5 p.m. with meeting following. Come and learn about our weight loss group and how you can lose weight economically. For more information you may call Fran at (956) 581-6492, Billy at (956) 585-6609 or Irene at (956) 607-3840.

PHARR - Pax Christi Rio Grande Valley invites you on a special Lenten journey called The City of God - Reflections for Lent 2009, written by conscientious objector, Joshua Casteel. We live in a world divided by religion, race, ideologies, borders and walls of all types. Over and over, God calls us to be the human community. Through Casteel's daily reflections and the lessons of Scripture, we remember once again how to build and live in God's City. What would it mean for our lives, our communities, and our world to truly become co-creators of the City of God? Meetings are each Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. during Lent. For more information, contact Mark or Michelle Peña at (956) 380-3731 or email at mpena113@rgv.rr.com.

SAN JUAN- Spanish Classes are being offered for free at Los Wesleganos UMC, located at 204 W. 14th Street, every Wednesday morning from 9 to 10 a.m. Come and learn Spanish language and culture from teachers who are native speakers. Classes are great for Winter Texans. For more information, call (956) 212-2021.

SAN JUAN - Dr. Tom Lynch will direct our attention to the third important religious awakening in human history as he speaks at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Hidalgo County on the title of "Third Awakening". The first awakening was when something that we have chosen to call God, was guiding and creating our world. The second awakening was the understanding that somehow God included the notions of oneness and spirituality and was manifested in such guidance as the Golden Rule. The third and current significant religious awakening is that we are co-creators with God with each benefiting the other. Worship services begin at 10:30 a.m. with child care and religious education for children. The Adult Forum discussion group begins at 9:30 a.m. as they continue their consideration of the values in interfaith relationships.

SHARYLAND - Perspectives on the World Christian Movement classes will have classes at 6:30 p.m. at the Rio Grande Valley Prayer Center, located on Harmony Lane off 2 mile line between Taylor and Shary Roads. Classes will run for 15 weeks with a different instructor each week. For more information, call Ken and Glynis Kintsel, of King's Way Bible Institute, at (956) 655-4710.

PHARR -  At the 10:30 a.m. Worship Celebration Service this Sunday, March 8, Unity of the Valley's Spiritual Leader, Licensed Unity Teacher Michael J. Scales, will present the Sunday Lesson, titled "Getting God on Your Side."

Have you ever wondered where God is in the midst of all your trials and challenges? Many people cite the apparent absence of evidence of the presence of God in his or her experience as a reason not to believe in God at all. It is hard to blame them. It is indeed easy to conclude, when we are struggling to overcome oppressive difficulties that God isn't there. At such times we might certainly conclude that, even if God exists, He has turned His back on us and lost interest in giving us any sort of support in our efforts to live successfully.

It's depressing to think that God has simply put us here to fend for ourselves, relying only on our puny human prowess in the face of the prodigious material forces that seem to be arrayed against us. The good news, according to Unity and other New Thought systems of belief, is that this remoteness from God is a false appearance. The truth is that God has never deserted, and never will desert, His human children. According to Unity's interpretation of scripture, the blissful experience of God's inner presence is what was represented by the Garden of Eden. The fall from Eden represents humankind's loss of this experience of God's presence within us and our oneness with God.

The key to a close and cooperative relationship with God, therefore, lies within the grasp of every human being. God is everywhere-present, including within the heart and soul of the human-spiritual being. All any individual need do is seek the experience of God's presence within his or her heart. When we wonder if God will ever come to our aid, we can take heart from the words of the Jesus in the Gospel of Luke: "Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, ‘The kingdom of God doesn't come with observation; neither will they say, "Look, here!" or, "Look, there!" for behold, the kingdom of God is within you"‘ (Luke 17:20-21).

The heartening revelation, then, is not only that we do not have to beg and grovel to get God onto our side; God is already on our side. We just have to allow Him to help us. The way we do this is simply to turn to Him and open ourselves up to the experience of His loving presence. We can become co-creators, with God, of the successful life for which He designed us. It is God's will for every man, woman, and child alive to live a life of health, abundance, happiness, and fulfillment. Our divine Father-Mother is always supplying us with the energy, intelligence, and spiritual substance we need to manifest our divinely-ordained destiny of bringing forth the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. This means that God sustains each of us with all things needful for us to create our own little corner of that visible Kingdom. It is in this sense that God wants us to be successful and happy; our success and happiness are essential to the achievement of God's purpose in creating the universe.

Whatever you may be facing today, remember that God loves you. You are more precious to Him/Her than you can imagine. The beauty that God sees in you would astound you with its splendor. God is on your side every second of every day. Take time to meditate on God's presence within you. Read the holy scriptures of the world's great religious traditions. Take your needs, concerns, and desires to God in prayer, believing that you have received the thing for which you ask. Forgive yourself and others of the wrongs you or they may have committed. Sincerely seek God, and you will find through your experience that God is, indeed, on your side.

In his lesson, Scales will illustrate for the individual practical steps he or she can take to access the Presence of God in herself or himself in order benefit from God's eternal and ongoing action on his or behalf.

The following activities are available at Unity of the Valley on a weekly basis: Thursdays - A Course in Miracles. All activities begin at 7 p.m.

If you enjoy the writings of Stephen Covey, Eckhart Tolle, Louise Hay, Deepak Chopra, Oprah Winfrey, the Dalai Lama, A Course in Miracles and the Daily Word, you'll enjoy a Unity Church Service. The Daily Word devotional magazine is published by Unity, and read by millions worldwide each day. Unity Village headquarters may be accessed on the Internet at www.unityworldhq.org, where you can also read today's DaIly Word. Phone the church office at (956) 787-4411 for more information about church activities, classes and study groups. You may visit the church Web site at www.unityofthevalley.net. Unity of the Valley welcomes worshippers from all religious backgrounds and meets at 301 E. Polk in Pharr.