Greetings friends! 
Tomorrow we will turn the calendar to March. February is behind us now, but what a February it was! We enjoyed our first blended Annual Meeting within our worship service on February 9th. In true Canadian fashion the dominant topic of conversation of the month was the weather. Here at Ebenezer, we had to cancel service on February 16th due to the heavy snowfall. Then on February 23rd Kay Moore had to jump in at the last minute to lead the service as our guest worship leader for that Sunday was ill. Well done Kay!  (On that Sunday I was enjoying some vacation time and I am grateful to the Worship Committee for making the arrangements that allowed me to be away.)
This coming Sunday, March 2nd our service will include communion (the service plans set for February 16th will be used this week). In the last PMO I told you about my birthday challenge to ‘Celebrate 70’ with a gift to the Mission and Service Fund. We will be hearing this Sunday what the grand donation total is and then we will celebrate with cake!  
The holy season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, March 5th. Please join us for the service that evening at 7:00. This service, a quiet and reflective worship time, includes the imposition of ashes, a deeply moving ritual. Of course, Lent is always preceded with Pancake Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday. We are invited to join Faith United for their Pancake Supper at 5:30. 
Our season of Lent will include a five-week Bible Study beginning on March 12th. We will meet each Wednesday from 1:30 to 3:00 in the Parlour to consider the gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday. 
Kate Bowler, in her Lenten study, writes, “Lent invites us to stop pretending we can hold it all together and instead sit with the weight of what we carry – the grief, the regrets, the messes we can’t untangle no matter how hard we try. To be human is to carry the weight of our own mortality, and to be Christian means accepting Christ’s mortality… It's through the deepest hurt that we begin to understand what it means to be fully human…. Life is a strange, tender mix. Joy and sorrow. Love and loss. Big wins and even bigger failures… Lent is the season we sit with the heaviness. For 40 days we stop pretending that things will suddenly get better and face the truth: life is fragile and so are we.” 
Let’s make this Lent a meaningful one as we spiritually walk with Christ to the cross. 
Our regular events continue. Euchre every Friday night and the monthly meetings of the UCW, the ‘Ebenezer Reads’ Book Club and the various committees who are always hard at work. As well as a new crafting group (A Stitch in Time) that will meet on Wednesdays 930-11:30 in the downstairs hall, all are welcome. 
May you feel God’s blessings in this season of Lent.   
See you at church! ~Nancy