Articles
Looking for a Miracle
By Pastor Kevin Van Wyk
I remember praying with our church while we lived in California for a member who had a staph infection. She was in critical condition, and it was unlikely she would survive. The church gathered to pray. A few weeks later she stood before the church thanking them for their prayers and support. God is so good!
I also remember praying for Randy. He had been fishing off the coast with a friend when a large wave flipped their boat. Rescuers could not find Randy or his friend. Again, the church prayed, but Randy’s body was never found. God is still good.
Does God do miracles today? I think so. I know so.
Does God do what I want? Unfortunately, we don’t get to tell God what is best. Why? Because we don’t know what’s best.
What miracle are you looking for?
healing from cancer,
restoring your marriage,
returning of a wayward child, or
maybe just a day of peace.
As we will see throughout my next series on the Gospel of Mark, Jesus heals. Over and over, Jesus turns to people in need and does the impossible. Healing did not depend on the faith of the one in need as much as on the love, power, and will of God. So, over these next several weeks, join me in a simple prayer… “Please take this cup from me. Yet not my will, but your will be done.”
Let’s rest in the assurance that our God has a great plan. While we may not understand it, remember in all things God is good.
Leadership Updates:
Consistory Meeting:
A motion was made and supported to remove the organ and evaluate how best to use the space. Motion carried.
A discussion was held on working together with the Waupun churches and it was decided to first:
- Invite area churches to our Crops & Industry Prayer Service.
- Investigate opportunities to work together to reach the unchurched.
- Investigate other ways to do ministry together.
A motion was made and supported to accept the recommendation of the Prayer Team to have prayer time from 8:30-9:00am on Sundays and immediately following the service with the prayer folks and Elders. Motion carried.
Youth Update:
The RCA next generation mission grant that we applied for for the Jamaica mission trip has come through for $4500. This means that with the rest of the money coming in from our support letters we are now fully funded! Praise God!!! The chili supper and Bible Trivia night will go to support the Senior Retreat to the Creation Museum and our upcoming summer and fall events and none of that money will be put toward the mission trip.
Christian Ed. Update:
The date for outdoor worship and the church picnic has been set for August 13th.
Wings
By Pastor Ted Medema
Did you ever long to fly? Sometimes when I watch the birds, I find myself thinking, “Wish I could do that!” I’ve had dreams in which I was soaring above all the people in a department store! I think Orville Wright did a lot of bird-watching before he attempted making an airplane. There’s no doubt about it; God knew all about the mechanics of flying long before we humans did! He beautifully designed the first wings and tail rudders to control lift and direction.
As Jesus made that journey into Jerusalem on a donkey He poured out His longing wish for His people to be sheltered under His wings. Matt. 23:37. David prayed for God to hide him in the shadow of His wings. Ps. 36:7, Ps. 91. Take notice as you read in the Psalms of this precious possibility of being protected in a God-wing shadow.
Don’t forget that God promised to give us wings to soar! He wanted us to know that He would make that possible! He let us know that if we trust Him, He’ll give us wings to lift ourselves above lots of the dreary stuff which drags us down.
Wouldn’t you like to sprout wings like that?
Volunteer Celebration
By Adrea Daane
Our annual Volunteer (Leadership) Celebration is coming soon and will be held on April 9th this year. This is an awesome opportunity to say a big THANK YOU to all who volunteer within our church community. You and your family are invited to be served lunch by our Education Team as a way of showing our great appreciation for all you do!! Invites will be coming out in mailboxes soon…so don’t forget to RSVP.
As we’ve been working on the lists of people who fill all of the positions within our church it is amazing to see how many individuals are a part of making our church a great place to worship and grow in their relationships with God. Without these truly devoted leaders and the gifts they bring to the various programs we could never touch so many lives.
Other dates to keep in mind this spring from the Education Department:
- April 5th is the final night of Bible Class for grades 1-8 where we’ll be having our annual sundae party
- April 9th the kids will be singing as part of our Palm Sunday service
- April 19th will be an Easter-themed family night here at the ARC (look for more details soon)
- May 14th is the final date of Sunday School for the year and all Preschool-Elementary aged kids will be singing during our morning worship service
- June 26-30th is set for our week of Camp Manitoqua
- July 17-21st “Operation Arctic” Vacation Bible School is scheduled
Blessed to be a Blessing
By Jessa Ter Beest
I recently read an article that contained this challenging paragraph:
Let’s clock the number of hours the average church attender spends in “church-type” activities. Bible studies, meetings, groups, social functions, book clubs, planning meetings, talking about building community, discussing a new mission statement…
Now let’s clock the number of hours spent serving the least of these. Ooooh. Awkward.
(
Does this feel like you? It definitely hit me.
This paragraph has stuck with me for weeks and I think it's God trying to reach me about something. I think that ministry inside the church is very important, but I also want to teach the youth how important it is to live as Christ outside the four walls of our church.
Over the next month, the Monday night Bible Study will periodically meet at the Laundromat in town to pay for people's laundry during Bible Study. On March 8, each of the 4 high school classes is coming up with a way to serve the surrounding community - making lasagna for families, going to the nursing homes, helping at the local food pantries - all things that they've come up with on their own. SHARCS will also do their annual service project scavenger hunt, and on Sunday, April 2nd TROUT will be collecting hams, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole items and other non-perishable food items for the food pantry to give out at Easter.
We would love for you to get involved in these things with us. If anything catches your eye as something you'd be interested in being a part of, please contact me! I'd love to join generations in an effort to help our community. Thank you for all your support!
Parish Nurse Report
By Cathy Vande Berg
On March 1st Christians enter into the Lenten season – it’s a time of reflection and rededication. It is a time for intentionally spending time with God. It’s a time to change a routine, to look at untruths and call them out. It’s a time to redefine and strengthen the direction we are traveling. Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness doing this. I am going to try for a Lent like that this year.
Our Savior’s UCC in Ripon (343 Scott Street) is hosting a Lenten Learning Series. It is scheduled to start on March 5, 12, and April 2 at 6:00 pm. Topics are “Narcotic Issues in Our Community”, “Living Wills and Power of Attorney for Healthcare”, and “Chair Yoga”. They are all free and if you are interested in attending please call (920)748-2544.
It’s the first day of spring on March 20th!! I don’t know about you but I can hardly wait. Daylight gets longer, daily subtle changes in the colors outside, I watch for hints of green, the birds starting to sing and migrating north, walking on the wet spongy lawn to see if the crocus is peaking through the dirt. It’s a time of physical, emotional and spiritual rebirth. I absolutely love it.
March is also National Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month. This is one of the cancers that can be prevented or cured when caught early through screenings. This might be a good time to schedule that colonoscopy. I am telling you the worst part is the prep, and I say this from experience. The rest is a piece of pie.
Speaking of pi, March 14 is National Pi Day. 3.14159… Pi is the ration of a circles’ circumference to its diameter. It’s always the same no matter the size of the circle. Remember that from school? I think a piece of pie might be an appropriate way to celebrate that day. (I wouldn’t normally suggest eating pie, but it is Pi day after all…).
March 30th is National Doctors Day. If you have a great physician, don’t forget to recognize them. “A good physician treats the disease; a great physician treats the patient who has the disease.” William Osler – founder of John Hopkins.
Because of all the colds and flu running rampant in our community, I have placed a basket of single servings and small bottles of hand sanitizers on the table by the foyer for you to use as you greet one another. Please if you are sick, or not feeling well stay home! Its ok, we will understand! I don’t want to be sick and neither does anyone else. Thanks! Don’t forget to wash your hands often with soap and water, sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star as you scrub!
We had our Emergency Response Team meeting in February and we had some more excellent suggestions and ideas. I had been thinking about looking into a stretcher for anyone that fell. It was suggested that we would get a thermal blanket and other supplies to make the patient comfortable and not attempt transport until the EMS arrived. Excellent! Less traumatic and less expensive. I ordered one and it is on the top shelf of the first aid cupboard in the nursery. I also ordered a spill kit for the cleaning up of large amounts of blood or vomit or whatever. That is also in the nursery. We also discussed a lot of other things but they are going to require some other investigation and preparation before we can get them started if we can do it at all. I will keep you posted.
We have Bob Gionet, RN coming to talk with us today. I can’t tell you how excited I am to have him come and do this Grapevine Presentation on the Healthy Aging Brain. Please get your coffee and come listen to his presentation. I think it will be amazing. On the 12th we are finishing our dementia awareness with a mini mental health exam. These take a few minutes to do and will give you an idea of how you are doing. These can be given to your physician for your records and his review.
Busy month again and I will keep you posted on plans for next month! As always thank you for the opportunity to serve you and let me know if there is anything else you want me to look into and/or address.
Women’s Ministries Update
This month the Women's Ministry Board is collecting for both the Waupun and Brandon Food pantries. Waupun is serving 150 families and Brandon with the surrounding area is serving 40 families. Brandon is in their 10th year and without the community donations they would not be open. The major needs include tuna/canned meats, rice/pasta sides, hamburger helper, mac & cheese, jelly, granola bars, spaghetti O's, ravioli, toothpaste and toilet paper. The volunteers who work in the pantries thank you all very much for your donations that help those in need.
Golden Lifers
By Bev Kastein
February is over – where does the time go? We have one more month of Golden Lifers left before our season ends. Since Pastor Ted has been on vacation Pastor Kevin has been showing us a film each week on faith lessons on the Promised Land. Later we have a discussion on the film which has been very interesting. We have a couple films left in the series and by then Pastor Ted will be back. Come join us anytime.
Missions Team
By Joel Ruis
We as a church support missionaries in different areas and in different ways. We support local mission work (Youth for Christ – Miley Ter Beest and Scott Ritzema), United States mission work (The Eppingers and Jill Vande Zande), and worldwide mission work (Destaye, Alexanders), as well as others that I did not list. Some of these are through the RCA and others we as a church help support. For those of you who don’t know, one of these is Mike & Jen Eppinger.
The Eppingers work through CRU at the University of Madison and the SW Wisconsin area. Mike & Jen are reaching college students by sharing the hope and life that is available through Christ. They believe that “today’s college students are tomorrow’s world leaders”, that is why they say “the university is the best place to develop and send laborers for Christ, to change the world.”
In their January update letter, they ask us to pray for their student leaders, “who are the hands and feet or our ministry”, pray for the many events and training for the students, and pray for their spring break/mission trips to Panama City Beach and New York City. Finally, they ask us to praise God for using their ministry to impact His kingdom.
This is just a small look at one of the missionaries that we as a church family help to support. I believe that all the missionaries we help support covet our prayers more than our financial support, so please PRAY for all of them. If anyone has ideas or suggestions for us as a mission team, we would love to hear from you!
Library Update
The next time you are down in the library you will notice some minor changes! We have taken out our VHS tapes and donated them to Destaye and her husband for their mission work. We found that due to technology advances they were not being checked out anymore. We do have quite a few family DVD’s to check out, as well as Veggie Tales, Adventures in Odyssey, Hermie & Friends, and other children’s DVD’s.
We have moved half of our Young Adult books and our Children’s books to the opposite wall to make room for our Fiction books.
Our 4K classroom here at church has been coming in to check out books each week – isn’t that great!
There is usually a librarian available before church on Sunday mornings and on Wednesday mornings (Golden Lifer time) if you have questions or need help selecting a good book.
Messages
Thank you for the fruit basket and thank you to Kathy Flier for visiting.
Betty Bruins
We want to thank each of you for your prayers, visits, cards, gifts, and many acts of kindness shown to us during Mom's recent illness and passing. A special thanks to Pastor Ted, Pastor Kevin, Brian Tenpas, and to those who prepared and served the lunch on Mom's celebration of life day. Thank you for touching us with the love of God.
The family of Pearl Vossekuil
CHANGE OF ADDRESS:
Donna Kastein
620 W Rolling Meadows Dr., Apt. 301
Fond du Lac, WI 54937
Events
March 10 at 5:30-7:30pm – Chili Supper & Trivia Night
March 19 at 7pm – Crop & Industry Service
April 2 at 7pm – Men’s Chorus Program
April 9 at 9:30am – Palm Sunday
April 13 at 7pm – Maundy Thursday Service
April 14 at 1pm – Good Friday Service
April 16 at 9:30am – Easter
April 16 at 4:30pm – Easter Egg Hunt at the Union followed by a free meal at 5:00pm hosted by the Outreach Committee
April 19 at 6pm – Easter-themed Family Night
News
Weddings:
2/25/17 – Joyce Clussman & Jeff Koerner
Transfers:
Ashley DeBoer with son, Chastin, to Living Hope Community Church in Fox Lake.