Welcome
to Montpelier Presbyterian Church

Join us for worship Sundays 11:00

Prayer
Lord, you are our only source of power and grace. You are the one who makes us whole. Let us celebrate that fact today and let us share the healing we have found in you with others.

About Us

Montpelier is a small church of caring people in the Presbyterian tradition who are seeking to be faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ as God’s children by:

worshipping God,

loving one another,

and welcoming others.

We are a part of the Presbyterian Church (USA). We believe that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior and God’s only begotten Son who died on the cross to save us by HIs grace and was raised from the dead to prove to us God’s power over sin and death. We believe the Bible to be the sacred Word of God inspired by the Holy Spirit. We believe in the Trinity of God the Father, Jesus Christ His Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God in three persons. To find more about our beliefs please go to pcusa.org.

What you can expect on Sunday morning: You will be greeted at the front door and receive a warm welcome and a service bulletin. Coffee hour is before church at 10:30 in the church library right off the sanctuary.

Our worship service is traditional with

prayers,
both traditional and modern hymns,
scripture readings
a children’s sermon complete with coloring and puzzle pages
a sermon based on that day’s readings with an emphasis on living out our faith in our every day lives.

We do not take up an offering although there are plates available on our communion table in the front of the sanctuary..

Dress is casual and there’s even a rocking chair in the back of the sanctuary if one is needed.

You’ll find information on our Bible study and children’s Sunday School under Faith Development.

What our members say: “A great group of sweet folks who care and reach out whenever there’s a need…” Will M.

“I’ve been a member for 53 years. It’s home to me. Pastor Pat always finds ways to keep us engrossed in the Bible to strengthen our faith.” Debbie N.

“I’ve been a member for less than a year, but one of the things I like about it is the sense of intimacy.” Leigh-Ann M.

Our Pastor: The Rev. Dr. Patricia Ramsden is known to us all as Pastor Pat. She is in her third year as our part-time pastor and lives in Scotia Village in Laurinburg. She has been ordained for over 34 years and has always served small churches rediscovering who God was calling them to be. Among all her other duties at the church she also teaches our adult Bible study on Sunday mornings. She is single and loves her garden and HGTV as well as storytelling and acting. Before entering the ministry she was an Associate Professor of English and Drama and an academic dean in the University of Kentucky Community College system. She is the author of two books: The Power Of Their Voices and For Such A One As I.

Community Ministries

Church Community Services: Each Sunday we collect food for our local food pantry in response to Christ’s command to feed the hungry and meet the needs of those less fortunate than ourselves.

Scholarship Fund: Founded in 2007, the estate of Johnsie Patterson McFadden from Wagram, NC set up a scholarship fund through Montpelier Presbyterian Church to be given to any Scotland County High School Graduate to further their education with preference given to those associated with the congregation. This year we gave 11 scholarships to deserving students. Contact the church for more information on this program and how to apply.

Partnership With Wagram Public Schools We reach out to students in need by donating through the media center to buy books for those who cannot afford them and we do an annual collection of gloves, scarves, hats, and socks as well as providing backpacks stuffed with needed school supplies.

Special Offerings Throughout the year we collect special denominational offerings such as the One Great Hour of Sharing, the Pentecost Offering and the Joy Gift Offering.

Spring Hill Cemetery Memorial Fund. “Blessed are thy who mourn for they shall be comforted. “. Mt 5:4 Our church, in partnership with the Spring Hill Baptist Church, owns and maintains the local cemetery. The Memorial Fund goes to support the upkeep. For more information on making a donation or buying a plot, please contact the church office.

Donations to the church may be mailed to P.O. Box 407 Wagram, NC 28396. If you’d like the donation to go to a particular cause, please note that on the memo line of your check.

News & Events

July 13 2:00pm Messy Un-Church

July 14 & 28 at 5:30pm Golf Meet up Deercroft Pro Shop

Montpelier Messenger

Montpelier Presbyterian Church P.O. Box 407, Wagram, NC 28396 910-369-2259

Pastor: Rev. Dr. Patricia Ramsden 269-362-1332

Editor: Barbara Holloway 910-318-3757

(email) hollowaybarbara064@gmail.com

No. 7 Vol. 55 July 2025

Mission Statement: We are a small church of caring people in the Presbyterian tradition who are seeking to be faithful to our Lord Jesus Christ as God’s children by: worshipping God, loving one another, and welcoming others.

Celebrating and Sharing God’s Love for 173 Years

Pastor’s Pen: As we celebrate the birth of our nation, let us give thanks to the Lord for all our country means to us:

Almighty God, giver of all good things, we give You thanks for the majesty and beauty of our country.

We thank You for the torch of liberty which has been lit in our beloved land. It has drawn people from every nation by its promise.

We thank You for the men and women who have sacrificed to make this country strong and who sacrifice still. They are models for us, though we often fall short of the vision they fought for and fight for even today.

We thank You for the faith we have inherited in all its rich variety and the freedom to worship as we please.

Help us, Lord, to finish the good work You have begun in this country we call home. Grant that we will not rest upon our past but march boldly into the future. May we be not just proud Americans but faithful disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ who gave us through His grace the gift of true freedom. In His precious name we pray. Amen

See you in church! Pastor Pat

Pastor Pat will be on vacation July 21 through August 4.

Session will not hold a regular meeting in July.

Our Blessing Pantry is up and runnng! While we still support Church Community Services in special ways, our food donations are now going to our own blessing pantry to help those in Wagram for whom Laurinburg is difficult to get to. We no longer need egg cartons! However, we would appreciate your bringing non-perishable items and either leaving them in the food wagon in the sanctuary or putting them directly in the blessing pantry at the side of the church. Some suggested items are:

Peanut butter & crackers canned spaghetti/pasta

canned meats canned vegetables

canned fruit soup

Cans with pop tops are preferred - and remember school is out so foods kids can use for breakfast and lunch are good.

If you’d like for us to do your shopping for you, just make a check out to MPC and write food on the memo line or pick up a gift card at your favorite grocery store and give it to either Betsy Brown or Pat Ramsden and we’ll use it to buy what is needed.

Thanks to Roger Ammons and Harold Harrington for building our blessing pantry!

We welcome Nathan McKay to our membership! Nathan is the son of Neill McKay who also attends our church. Nathan said he wanted to join our congregation because “it felt like home.” He is a student at Pembroke studying cybersecurity and in addition to being an avid reader he also enjoys playing the drums.

Our special offering for Church Community Services collected $650 for emergency assistance with utilities and rent! This offering will help meet extra requests for assistance because of the closing of Saint Andrews University. Combined with our regular mission donation, we were able to deliver a check for $1,000! Thank you for your generosity and your willingness to help others in need.

Our Pentecost Offering to reach young people and to help children at risk has collected $100. 40% of this offering stays with our congregation and will be used for our work with Wagram Elementary School.

Our golf meetup this month will be July 14 & 28. We meet at the Deercroft Pro Shop at 5:30 and it’s $20 for nine holes. Afterwards we meet at Beth and Roger Ammons for a 19th hole get together. Come join us for golf or the get together afterwards and bring a friend. You don’t need to be a pro - or a golfer at all - to have fun with this group!

We will be making a mission work trip to Spruce Pine, NC Sept. 28 through Oct. 4 to help the area recover from the disaster left behind by Hurricane Helene. The cost of the trip for room and board for the week will be $225 per person. You do NOT need to have any construction experience. There will be plenty of clean up work to do that doesn’t require experience at all. You can sign up to go on the trip in the church library or email Pastor Pat at pastormp269@gmail.com. If there is an area of work you’d like to do, please indicate it - like landscaping, painting, minor home repair, etc. This is one way we can help others whose homes and towns have suffered catastrophe close to home.

Mission Statement: The session has been working on updating our church mission statement since January and would like your input, suggestions, comments on the new statement by July 20 before making it official. You can give your comments to any session member: Ben Ammons, Roger Ammons, Betsy Brown, Sissy Cooley, Jeff McKay, or Debbie Neverve. The new statement reads as follows:

Montpelier Presbyterian Church is a loving family of God who welcomes everyone to join us as we worship our Lord Jesus Christ and celebrate his grace given to us all. We are learning together how to live out our faith by working to meet the needs of our community and our world.

The children’s Sunday School is on summer break. The adult class is still meeting until July 27 when they will go on break until Sept. 7.

Thanks to Holly Brown who has joined our kindness circle. If you know of anyone with a special need or who could use a card, or a call, please let Pastor Pat or Betsy or Holly Brown know.

Our income for May was $7,386. Expenses were $5,267. While our budget is currently in the black, we know our major expenses such as insurance come at the end of the year, so session has decided to put $6,000 in an escrow account toward insurance and adding $1,000 a month hereafter, so we can have a more realistic picture of where we will be at the end of the year when insurance comes due. We anticipate that bill being around $12,000.

Messy Un-church! Sunday July 13 at 2:00 we will be starting something new! It’s a messy un-church designed for everyone! We will start by putting together a building project designed for small and big hands donated to us by Lowe’s in Laurinburg. We’ll tell a parable by Jesus that goes along with the project and then have a snack. It will be fun and messy! We plan to have a messy un-church project once a month and we want to thank Holly Brown for kick starting us in July.

Please check out our Facebook page or group at Montpelier presbyterian church and share the announcements, prayers and weekly GraceNotes with your friends. All you need do is click the share button! .

Coming in August!

Saturday August 9 the Men’s breakfast will start again at 8:00! This isn’t just for the men of the church - it’s for all men so invite your friends!
We will be starting Sweet Talk at the local ice cream shop Kountry Kream. It will meet once a month on the first Thursday at 2:00 and we’ll be talking about life and faith. Again, this is not just for church folk but for anyone and everyone!
As school starts up so does our work with Wagram Elementary School. Stay tuned for details as to how you can help students in need!
Adult Bible study will be on summer break in August.
Our new student intern Alex Bryant will be with us beginning August 31.
Sign up for our MIssion Trip to western North Carolina Sept. 28 - Oct. 4! Sign up sheets are in the library.

On July 4, 1776 the Declaration Of Independence for the thirteen colonies, which became the United States of America was proclaimed. It began with these words:

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness….”

Let us not forget the principles our country was founded on and that men and women have died - and are willing to die for.

Loving God, on this Independence Day, we give thanks for the blessings and freedoms we enjoy in this nation. We remember the sacrifices made to secure our independence and acknowledge that our freedom is a gift to be cherished. We pray for unity and peace within our country, and for the continued pursuit of justice and equality for all. May we always strive to live in accordance with the values upon which our nation was founded. We ask for your guidance as we navigate the challenges of our time, and for your blessings on our families and our nation. Amen

Sermons

Take A Nap and Eat Something Rev. Dr. Patricia Ramsden

Elijah was a prophet - and not just any prophet. He was a prophet of great faith, filled with the power and the courage of the Holy Spirit. How do we know that?

He stood up not only to the wicked Queen Jezebel but all of the high priests of her evil god Baal in a battle royal to see whose god was the true God - Baal or Yahweh, the God of the Israelites - our God.

450 prophets of Baal showed up for the battle against Elijah who stood alone - except for the presence of God - and that was enough.

The terms of the contest were simple. It was to be an undeniable answer to prayer. Two bulls were presented and two altars - whose ever God set the altar on fire to receive the bull as a sacred offering won.

Elijah was so confident that he and Yahweh would win this battle of prayer that he let the priests of Baal go first. And Baal’s priests, prayed and they prayed and they prayed again. They worked themselves up into such a desperate frenzy that they even cut themselves so their blood would flow and entice Baal to receive the offering of the blood of the bull.

But nothing.

Not even a spark.

Without receiving an answer they turned to Elijah and declared it was his turn.

So Elijah got down to business. He built his own altar of 12 stones, reminding everyone that his God was the God of the twelve tribes of Israel. He very carefully arranged the wood to build a fire, cut the bull into pieces and put it on top and got ready for a bar-b-que no one would ever forget.

But before he started to pray, to make it impossible for anyone to say that he had started the fire himself by some slight of hand, he had the people pour gallons upon gallons of water on the wood and all around it. Then he prayed.

It wasn’t a long drawn out prayer either. It was relatively short as prayers go - but it worked. God answered. And suddenly a great fire went up and in a blaze of glory the bull was consumed. Everyone knew in that moment whose God was the only true God. And it wasn’t Baal.

Back at the palace, Jezebel was not a happy camper at having her god - Baal - shown up before all the people and she vowed to have Elijah killed.

That’s where our story starts today. Elijah was afraid and he ran for his life. It was as if he were asking himself: What good was all his faith, what good was the power of God if he were going to be killed for it?

Finally, after running all day he found a broom bush and lay under it for protection. Now, I always wondered why he’d chose to rest under a bush- afterall, what protection can a bush give?, but it turns out a broom bush is actually a tree that can grow up to 8 feet and was well known to provide cool shade in the hot desert sun.

So Elijah sat down in the shade of that tree and he prayed, and what he said was what I might have said under the same circumstances - “Lord, I’ve had all I can take. You might as well let me die here.”

You see, I know what it feels like to say I’ve had enough. I just can’t do it anymore. I give up. And I take great comfort in what happens next. I think it’s good advice when we’re exhausted from doing too much. When we’ve pushed ourselves past our limit - physically or emotionally. What Elijah does is go to sleep. He takes a nap and gets some much needed rest.

And then an angel appears and gives him something to eat - some nice, hot, freshly baked bread and he gives him something to quench his thirst.

So, basically, what God taught Elijah - and what he teaches us - is when you’re tired, when you’re physically or emotionally exhausted take care of yourself. Rest up. Get something to eat. Don’t try to keep going past what you can do. Don’t try to give more than you can give. It’s too much to expect of yourself.

So when Elijah is rested and his stomach is full, God tells him what to do next. He tells Elijah to go to his happy place, to the place where he has always found God before and where he will find him again. He tells him to go to the very mountain of God - Mount Horeb - where God first met Moses and where he delivered the ten commandments, a sacred holy place.

It is there that God has an honest conversation with Elijah. The Lord asks him a question he would have us ask ourselves: What are you doing here? God basically asks Elijah what he wants - what he needs. And instead of answering the question, Elijah tells the Lord his sad story. How he had been faithful to the Lord and strong and courageous but all the other prophets had been killed and now poor Elijah was the only one left and they were trying to kill him too. I can imagine Elijah thinking what was the Lord going to do now? What was going to happen next? How was God going to show up in all his power?

Well, the Lord was going to teach Elijah - and us - another lesson.

Because next there is a powerful and dramatic wind like a desert storm of tornado force - strong enough to split the rocks in two. But God wasn’t in the wind.

Then there’s an earthquake making Elijah, and even the mountain, tremble. But God wasn’t in the earthquake.

Finally, there’s a fire but God is not in the fire.

Then came a quiet, gentle whisper and God was in the whisper.

Elijah found God not in some overwhelmingly miraculous act, but in the quiet stillness of the moment. And that’s how God so frequently comes to us.

Oh, the Lord can show up in a mighty miracle astonishing us with all his power. After all, that’s how our story began - with the miracle of the fire in the battle of the gods - but most frequently, God comes in the quiet of our prayers when we take the time to listen.

And after Elijah listens what does the God tell Elijah to do? God says go back to where you came from, Elijah, and do what needs to be done. God tells him to pick up where he had left off.

Now, I firmly believe that the stories of scripture are full of eternal Truths that teach us even today how to live out the life of faith in our own lives. For me the Truth in this passage comes down to this:

You can do great things for God but there will be times when you may get tired and discouraged.
When that happens take care of yourself. Rest. Eat. And then rest some more until all the tired is gone.
Then go back to where you have found God before.
Don’t always expect God to show up in some dramatic, miraculous way.
And, finally, listen for the still quiet voice speaking to your heart telling you what to do next.

Do this and you will be faith full.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but so the world would be saved through Him. John 3: 16-17

See You In Worship Sundays 11:00

San Pedro

Never forget how much God loves you!