This Sunday, we welcomed 9 new members into the faith family at First Presbyterian Church. They are Pat Luley, Arlona Herbel, Barbara Gee, Helen Furr, Ken & Allyce Peters, Richard & Debbie Sanders, Marla Hill.
We welcome you all to our congregation and look forward to continued fellowship with you.
For our second year, the Great Christmas Cookie Caper Too will feature Jingles, Nancy, and Waco the Weasel as they look for the animals who witnessed the birth of the little baby Jesus in the manger. But where IS the cow who gave up his hay, or the donkey who carried the mother? Where is the sheep who gave wool for his blanket, or the dove who sang him to sleep? They are nowhere to be found, but there are plenty of other surprises to be had. What is with all the HISSING going on? Who is this stranger who comes bearing unusual animals of every kind? You won’t want to miss this very special Christmas story brought to you by one of Granbury’s most beloved storytellers and her friends Waco and Lili Weasel, Larry the Crocodile and Jingles the Elf. They will be joined by our incredible guest Eric Brittingham, known and loved by thousands of children across the state as “Mr. B” of Wildlife on the Move. In addition, there will be live music, cookies and milk, and live animals that you can visit. There is NO CHARGE for this great show, but we do as that you RSVP so that we’ll have a cookie just for you!
This Christmas, we are providing gifts for the residents at the Housing Authority units just to the north of Granbury Square. We will fill gift bags for 25 families and 83 elderly or disabled residents. If you would like to donate a gift bag for a family with a cozy blanket, a family game, holiday hand soap, hot chocolate and popcorn, there is a tree in the narthex that has gift tags with the children’s ages. OR, if you would like to donate fleece lap blankets, holiday beverage mixes, holiday hand soap, or lip balm for the gift bags for the adult residents please bring them to the narthex or church office. Please bring all donations by Sunday, December 15th.
Order forms for Christmas Poinsettias, to be given in honor of or in memory of a loved one, can be found on the Narthex table. Deadline for ordering is December 13th. Order forms and payment ($10) each may be dropped off at the Administration Building, put in the offering plate, or mailed in.
Consecration Sunday is November 17, 2019. On this day our congregation will come together to praise the Lord by offering our estimated giving for the 2020 calendar year. There will be one service at 10:00 followed by a catered luncheon in the Fellowship Hall. Please mail in your RSVP to the church office by November 11.
Read about our upcoming Christmas/Advent events, our live streaming, online giving, our soon-to-be Associate Pastor and more!
Download the November newsletter
I grew up in Florida, Central Texas and Southern California. After volunteering with a youth missions organization, I ended up back in the Los Angeles area where Bill and I married. We joined the Peace Corps together in 2011 and served in Mongolia for two years. There were two long winters and two very short summers. We chose to move to Texas because of family living nearby and I wanted to be warm! And after six long summers and five short winters, Texas has not disappointed me.
We settled in Granbury in 2014 and we stumbled upon this church because it was walking distance from our home. Our first visit was in the summertime so we squeezed in and knew we had found a wonderful place. We have welcomed two beautiful and noisy additions to our family since then and we are so grateful for the welcome that they have received from their church family as well.
I have been blessed to serve this congregation as an elder for the last 3 years. Granbury is a wonderful community and I look forward to continuing and expanding our work of outreach and mission both locally and around the world.
I grew up in the small farming community of Snook, Texas. My childhood ambition was to be a farmer and rancher, but that all changed in late 1965 when I joined the U. S. Army for what I thought would be a couple of years and then back to playing in the dirt on the farm. I guess military life must have agreed with me since I spent the next 38 years serving in the Army in numerous capacities. During an assignment in Dallas, Texas, I met and married my best friend and soulmate, Lynne in 1990.
Since that time, she and I have been a team moving from assignment to assignment with our eyes on retirement and getting back to Texas. In 2014, we chose Granbury as the place to put down roots and moved into our home in Pecan Plantation in early 2015. Shortly after we moved in, our neighbor and friend, Carol Boyd, invited us to attend First Presbyterian in Granbury. A few months later we joined First Presbyterian by letter of transfer from the Winchester Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Winchester, Tennessee. We have three children and five grandchildren.
During the past 3 years, it has been my pleasure to serve one year as Long Range Planning Elder and for the past two years as Administration Elder. It has been an honor working with the Session, Pastor Drew, committee volunteers, and congregation to grow and enhance the presence of FPC, Granbury in our community and in the broader outreach of the Presbyterian Church, USA. I feel blessed for being nominated to serve such a wonderful and caring church family as an Elder in the Class of 2022.
My husband, Jim, and I moved from Shreveport, Louisiana to Granbury in 2017 bringing with us my mother, Judy Butler, who is also a member of this church. We all joined First Presbyterian Church Granbury in April of this year. Jim and I have been married for 36 years. We have two sons, Justin (32) and Jentry (29).
The most important thing about them at this moment is that they are each giving us another grandchild in March of 2020…due 3 days apart! Justin and his wife, Carrie, live in Charleston, South Carolina and have been married for 6 years. They have a son and daughter, Sam who is 4 and Sullivan who is 20 months (plus the one on the way!) They also have a 17 year old foster daughter, Jennifer, and her 2 year old son, Adrian, who we equally adore. Jentry and his wife, Katye, will be married 2 years when they welcome their first child in March…it’s a boy! They live in Fort Worth and I am over the moon with the thought of having a grandchild I can get my hands on in less than an hour!
I was fortunate enough to have the choice of being a stay at home mom. Being a mom was the best “job” ever! It allowed me to be involved in my children’s schools and in our church. My “jobs” in the schools ranged from being PTA President in elementary, middle and high schools to working at the district level raising awareness for the need of parental involvement in all schools. My favorite “jobs” were being in my sons’ classrooms, helping with school plays, going on field trips and cheering my son on to win a state high school baseball championship! My “jobs” in church were numerous. To mention a few, I served as a deacon, a senior high youth leader, director of vacation bible school and sat on the Division of Christian Education.
I feel called to serve as an elder because I believe in servant leadership and in following the example set by my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who said “…the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28) I am a child of God, raised by two wonderful parents who had me baptized as an infant into First Presbyterian Church in Ottumwa, Iowa. After a move during my childhood to Louisiana, our family became members of First Presbyterian Church in Shreveport. It was there that I grew in my faith, where I would later be married and where my children were baptized. It was in the Presbyterian faith where my children learned by example from our wonderful church family how to become servant leaders. It would be my privilege to continue in servant leadership at First Presbyterian Church in Granbury.
Derek grew up in East Texas, graduated from the University of Texas at Austin and spent six years working in Dallas before relocating to Seattle. He made his career there spending thirty years as a successful architect before getting re-acquainted with his high school sweetheart, Vanessa. They married and attended the Lake Forest Park Presbyterian Church before moving back home to Texas to be closer to their parents and family. Between the two of them they have five children and nearly seven grandchildren (and counting…).
Derek enjoys reading, travel and working/creating in his shop where dreams are imagined and promptly dashed to bits…The Faulkners visited several churches in Granbury before deciding on First Presbyterian. They were both moved by the compassion of the congregation and the congeniality they showed. The fact that the church is a historical building was also a positive factor in their decision.
He is honored to be given the opportunity to become an Elder in this church, be entrusted with the upkeep of this beautiful campus and welcomes the challenge that comes with that honor.
