Online Newsletter August 2011

In one of our recent weekend services we were given some Scriptures to read and meditate on. These Scriptures were intended to help cultivate the heart of Christ in us. One of the Scriptures was Matthew 20:28, which says, “…the Son of Man (Jesus) did not come to be served, but to serve…” The attitude of a servant’s heart is so important for all of us who are followers of Christ. There are so many illustrations of His servant heart in the Gospels. On one occasion He took the towel and washed the feet of His disciples. On another occasion He took the time to talk to a woman who

was an outcast in her society. He was quick to take the children and put them on His knee. He was always on the lookout to see if there was a way to serve others. I am very grateful for the many, many people in our church family who have exhibited a servant’s heart in a variety of ways. As I write this article, we are winding up a great week of Vacation Bible School (VBS). What an incredible joy it has been to see the 90+ “servants” who have made VBS possible. And we are not talking about just adults. There have been a significant number of teenagers helping throughout the entire week. I want to say a huge “thank you” to all who have served. Your example will not be lost on these children. The seeds you have planted will produce a harvest. The children have been playing some games on the church yard, and I was reminded of another

“servant” who has blessed this church family in a huge way. Dave Bornbach mows the church yard every week, and he has done that for many, many years. He does it as an act of service and, in so doing, has saved this church thousands of dollars that we are able to put into ministry. Thank you, Dave, for your servant’s heart. We just “retired” the best church janitors in the world! Pat and Donna Dillingham have served this church for almost 13 years. You may say, “But they were paid for their service.” Let me assure you that they weren’t paid near enough, and that

doesn’t take into account the many, many times they went above and beyond the call of duty. Thank you, Pat and Donna, for the many consistent years of exhibiting the heart of a servant. This article could go on and on with names of people who are demonstrating by their lives that they understand this principle of living life with the heart of a servant. A lot of “servant” work is done outside the walls of the church building. And that only makes sense. We spend a few hours a week inside the church walls, but all the rest of our time is spent out in the marketplace, and in our neighborhood, and in our schools. So the majority of our “servant” acts will happen in those places. My prayer is that we will all continue to reflect the heart of Christ in every part of our lives.

Pastor’s Column

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Let me shift gears a bit, and talk about an opportunity that you will be hearing much about in the future. With Julie Overturf stepping into the leadership role in the Children’s area, it was necessary to shift some of the other responsibilities that she has been carrying. So, I asked Jeff and Carey O’Connor and Chris and Stephanie Ziegler (that’s her married name now!) to form a team to give leadership to our small group ministry. They have enthusiastically agreed to do this, and they are pumped up and ready to roll with some fresh ideas for this vitally important area of ministry. You can read more about this below. But let me just say that the focus of these groups (which will

now be known as Life Groups) will be on growing people, and creating a place for people to discover what it means to truly follow Christ. What excites me the most is that every group will be encouraged to be looking “out” for those that they can include in their Life Group, particularly those who have not yet crossed the line of faith. The groups will not all look alike, but there will be some common values that every group will share (one will be to cultivate a servant’s heart!), and you will hear lots more about these values. Please read the information in this Online about these groups, and take note of the dates that are involved. We look forward to a huge response this fall from our church family.

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IMPACT Kids Ministry

Kids! Kids! And more kids!

All wild about God! Children from birth to grade 6 came to learn that God watches over them, He listens to them, He created them, He gives them good gifts and my favorite, God loves them no matter what. We had 10 children ages birth to 2 years, 60 children ages 3‐5 years and 87 children in grades k‐6th. That’s a total of 157!! 157 chil‐dren with beaming smiles and excited voices anticipating the days events.

There were children that made first time commit‐ments to Christ and nu‐merous recommitments! Praise God that these children had the oppor‐tunity to hear about Jesus!

VBS would not be possible with out the 90+ vol‐unteers that help make it happen. We want to thank ALL our volunteers for investing in these children. Paula Heil

How many times do we think about crea-tion? In the Bible it says that God created the world and said it was good; however when He created man He said it was “very good”. We are that creation and during Va-cation Bible School I had the chance to share this truth with the children in my Crew.

VBS was a week filled with pan-das, singing, crafts, Bible lessons, Chadder adventures, God sightings, and games. However, throughout all of the excite-ment

the love of Jesus was shared and these children learned how spe-cial they are to Jesus (and to their Crew Leader).

The lessons were geared for chil-dren to hear the gospel and to know that “God is Wild about them”, but they were profound and I know that they changed the lives of my Crew. As the Bible points were introduced our re-sponse was “Thank You God”, then anytime during the day when the point was said, everyone would shout “Thank You God”.

Our Bible points for the week were: God made us, God listens to us, God watches over us, God loves us no matter what, and God gives us good gifts. Along with these points came a verse from the Bible and an explanation, this was the theme for the day and the discussion starter.

My crew learned that God created each of them for a purpose and had a plan for their life – He

made them with His own hands and they were special to Him. That God hears their voice and their heart; He desires to have a relationship with

each one of them. Together we discov-ered that our loving God always has us in sight, He is constantly watching over

us (Thank You God). We also learned that God loves us no matter what; He loves us in spite of our sin. His death and

resurrection paid the price for our sins; and salvation is a free gift. And then that God gives us good gifts; He has given us our special abilities,

talents, and blesses us every day.

I was blessed to be a part of this year’s VBS and enjoyed seeing the excitement in my Crew as they learned and shared about Jesus. Our God is Wild about us and all I can say is: “Thank You Jesus!”

Joan Winkler

Joan Winkler and her crew

Snapshot of a Crew Leader

God's Special Hearts is a ministry for children of all ages with special needs and their families. When we began Special Hearts a year and a half ago, we had a preconceived idea of what the ministry would be and how it would operate. It didn't take long to realize that it was not going to be the same week to week.

Each child has their own activity they enjoy and different levels of ability. When we started out we had children in the early elemen-tary age levels. Since then we have had seven additional participants some that are in older grade levels. One week we found out a few hours before service that eight children would be attending that day. Since we try to have a one-on-one ratio of helpers, I made a lot of phone calls and people responded to help. We have been blessed with excel-lent volunteers and I would like to thank each one. It has been a great learning ex-perience for me and God continues to reveal His perfect timing and His faithfulness.

Our goal is to provide loving sup-port and a safe environment for chil-dren while their family is able to at-tend the worship service. We find that the children enjoy coming to Special Hearts and feel loved in their class.

This ministry takes place every Sunday morning during the 10:30 worship service. We meet in Room 5 off the Fellowship hall. Please come back and visit us and see where you might fit. Paul Jeltema

IMPACT Kids Ministry

A Big THANK YOU to all who have invested in Promiseland. Use the form to the right to “X” the times you are available to serve and drop this form off at the church office. Thanks so much!

Aug. 27th & 28th

Infant/ Toddler

Preschool 3 & 4

Preschool 4k & 5k

Saturday Night

Sunday, 1st Service

Sunday, 2nd Ser-vice

Aug. 20th & 21st

Infant/ Toddler

Preschool 3 & 4

Preschool 4k & 5k

Saturday Night

Sunday, 1st Service


Aug. 13th & 14th

Infant/ Toddler

Preschool 3 & 4

Preschool 4k & 5k

Saturday Night

Sunday, 1st Service


Aug. 6th & 7th

Infant/ Toddler

Preschool 3 & 4

Preschool 4k & 5k

Saturday Night

Sunday, 1st Service


Name___________________ Phone____________________

M‐e‐t‐r‐o‐k‐i‐d‐z!!!!! the teens yelled from the unique Metro Kidz van parked in an empty lot in the middle of an apt. hous‐ing complex, in a Las Vegas neighborhood . The side of the van opened forming an instant stage. Music is played as teens from the Dream Center get everything ready and we go door to door inviting kids. This is one of the out‐reaches that we were able to help with on our recent mission trip to Las Vegas. Even though it was over 100 degrees that day, kids came to sing, hear a Bible story and play a game. They knew this van brought people who cared, peo‐ple who would be back to pick them up Wed. night and Sun. morning for church. One little girl, who has Down Syndrome, loves to hold the mic and help sing. She captured our hearts and we have sponsored her through their Metro Share Program. For $24.07 a month (it’s a reminder that God cares for our kids 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – and so do we) you can share

in the hopes and dreams of a child in the inner‐city by providing programs that relieve poverty, build self‐esteem, and give hope for their future –through Jesus Christ.

As we got ready for this trip and told people we were going to Las Vegas, we got lots of, “sure

you’re going to Vegas on a mission trip”…… What people don’t realize and we soon found out is that only 4 minutes from the glitz of our hotel is a whole differ‐ent world. Here homeless people are everywhere and a neighborhood exists where crime, drugs, and gangs are so bad house numbers are

painted on the rooftops (police helicopters can find them quicker). Thousands of hurting peo‐ple in desperate need of a real touch from Christ live there. The Dream Center exists to bring hope to them, providing for their needs, loving them, and winning souls for Christ.

Jerad Upwall, youth and urban impact pastor, leads missions groups all summer long. He planned our week and worked alongside us. Jerad’s wife, Jaclyn, director of their Compassion Ministries, oversees a warehouse they rent in an‐

other neighborhood. It is predominantly full of donated furniture and household items that come and go to needy families daily. She put us to work several days driving their truck to get donations and unloading and organizing what was brought in. One young mom who was moving from a shelter to her own aptartment came and went home with most of what she would need to set up her household. Some hotels there donate dishes, blenders, toasters, etc. in perfect condition‐ they just redecorate and get new. It’s a constant job keeping up with donations. They network with other agencies in town also. What a blessing they are to so many people!

One “out of our comfort zone” experi‐ences was when Jerad had us load up some water and candy bars to have ready to handout to any‐one we might find in “underground Vegas”. We literally went under the city with flashlights walk‐ing down a water drainage tunnel. No one was there when we went, but there were signs of peo‐ple living there. So Jerad said, “Let’s do some drive bys”, since we had the water to hand out. Drive bys, we wondered…….. and soon learned it meant driving to where homeless people were, rolling down the window, and asking if they’d like some water and a candy bar. Everyone was grate‐ful and we invited them to the Thursday night meal served weekly at the Dream Center. It didn’t take driving down very many streets before we had handed out all that we had. Thursday night at the meal we helped serve, we were glad to see some familiar faces from our drive bys. This got us thinking, and the last two days we got our daily breakfast at the hotel to go, and did a few of our own drive bys.

Keith is happiest in the kitchen so he loved helping out with the homeless meal. He also was privi‐

leged to share and pray before the meal began. Our hearts broke as the people left, going back to their tents, their spot on the sidewalk, etc.

We attended the weekly teen meet‐ing and met some awesome youth who are thriving despite their cir‐cumstances. Another night we worked alongside some teens as they

helped run the Wed. night kids program. The Dream Center concentrates on reaching families and has a men and women’s study go‐ing on Wednesday too.

Please remember the Las Ve‐gas Dream Center in your

prayers and we thank the church for helping us to have this eye and heart

opening experience. Lori Fuchs

Dream Venter Las Vegas Team Members– Jim & Lori Fuchs, David Fuchs and Keith Miller

Women in Life-Long Development

Group Coaching For Leaders

What is Coaching? Coaching is a process of change, a relationship of growth, and a path of discovery, helping you move from ‘where you are’ to ‘where you’d like to be.’ Leadership Coaching is different than a leadership “class,” or even working with a “mentor.” A coach encourages you to be alert and to listen, trusting that God will speak to your heart. Coaching creates focus, motivation, and accountability in all of life; the coach comes along-side, asking questions to help you clarify who God is calling you to be, as well as what He wants you to do.

Group Coaching is

“not for the faint of heart!”

If you desire to be stretched and chal-lenged in your life and leadership, ask Diane or Julie for a brochure and cove-nant, and pray about joining us.

Coming in September!!! Ladies Bible Study- “Daniel” a video study

by Beth Moore

Tuesday mornings at 9:00am.

Watch for starting date!

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Water Baptism @ the Lake.... July 31

Jr High/Sr High Camp ..........Aug 1-5

Kids Camp ........................Aug 8-12

Open House at CLF for Steph and

Chris................................August 14

Men’s Breakfast ................August 20

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Calendar for August July 31 ‐ No [UN]Common (Baptism @ Pazurek's)

August 7 ‐ [UN]Common @ 6:00pm

August 14 ‐ No [UN]Common (Open House for Steph

and Chris at CLF)

August 21 ‐ New 7th Grade Orientation @ Teen

Center, 12:15pm‐1:15pm



Online Newsletter August 2011

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Transcript of Online Newsletter August 2011