MONTVALE, New Jersey--The Montvale, New Jersey and Middletown, New York, churches worked on a 50-day spiritual adventure designed to make their church a better place.
The event was titled "The Church You've Always Longed For: What You Can Do to Make it Happen" and ran from April 26 to June 14.
The congregations joined thousands of other congregations across North America who worked on the same topic during various eight-week periods.
The 50-Day Spiritual Adventure is an annual event created by The Chapel Ministries.
This year the Adventure focussed on eight ways to make a church a great one, a more inviting place to belong and worship.
Themes were working at being a caring family; capturing the heart of the community; welcoming all people; empowering each individual; modeling integrity; serving a broken world; encouraging the living God: and anticipating a great future. Ron Robinson.
FORT WAYNE, Indiana--The Fort Wayne church collected more than 5,000 coats, hats and gloves in its Coats for Our Community project to benefit needy in the community.
The collection period ran from Oct. 17 to Dec. 7.
WPTA (ABC) Channel 21 is a cosponsor and helped with public awareness. Radio stations and newspapers made public service announcements.
Several companies provided free laundry and dry cleaning services.
"Coats were distributed within the county they were collected if we were able to locate a group that had an existing coat distribution program," said director Karen Bennett.
"After that, we moved extra coats around between counties to try to meet the specific size requirements of all the organizations we worked with."
More than 500 excess coats were shipped to Red Bird Mission, run by the United Methodist Church, in southeast Kentucky, which ministers to people in Appalachia. Roger Abels.
MOORHEAD, Minnesota--Lauren Kubik, 7, threw out the first pitch at a Minnesota Twins baseball game June 10.
This was one of Lauren's awards for winning the 1997 Multiple Sclerosis readathon.
Lauren read more than 54 hours and raised $2,905 for the MS Society's Minnesota chapter.
Lauren is the daughter of Eugene and Sherry Kubik.
BROOKLYN, New York--The Brooklyn women's ministry was host to a generational afternoon tea May 17 with the theme "Motivation Leads to Success."
Women in the congregation were encouraged to attend and invite grandmothers, aunts, sisters, friends and neighbors to share in the reaffirmation of our common calling as sisters in the Lord.
Yvonne Matthews, an account executive for a cosmetics company, spoke about coping in corporate America without losing one's integrity. Rebekah Challenger.
EAST ALTON, Illinois--The Belleville women's ministry was host to a women's ministry seminar June 28 with Linda Dyer of Columbia, Missouri, as guest speaker.
Women from three congregations in Missouri and three in Illinois participated.
Debbie Duvall of Belleville coordinated the event titled "Ordinary Women in Extraordinary Lives."
The Belleville Women's praise and worship team, under the direction of Mary Ann Burns, performed several numbers in addition to solos by Ciara DuVall and Deanna Greer. James Stokes.
QUEENS, New York--"The Bible League thanks all WCG churches that participated in our Recycle Your Bible Program," said Jeff Kolsch, a WCG member and a Bible League field director (WN, May 20).
These Bibles will go around the world to individuals who desire to read the word of God and own their first Bible.
"With your partnership, we hope to repeat this annually," Jeff said.
Please call Jeff Kolsch if you have any further questions at 1-800-334-7017 (extension 505) or e-mail him at JKolsch@aol.com
DAYTONA BEACH, Florida--The Habitat for Humanity house the WCG funded and helped build was dedicated Aug. 2.
The dedication began with remarks by Jane Walters, an official from Habitat who addressed the Daytona Festival last year.
She thanked member John Shaw for his work on this and other homes. Bill Powell read from Luke 6:46-49 and thanked Habitat and the Davis family (the recipients of the house), for allowing us the opportunity to serve the Lord.
John Shaw then presented the house keys to the Davis family. Bill Powell.
LACEY, Washington-- Prison Fellowship Ministries accepted a donation of Robin Todd tapes and compact discs in June for distribution to its members.
The shipment was sufficient to place one copy in each of the more than 1,800 fellowships directed by PFM.
The offer came after a state corrections facility repeatedly refused postal deliveries of a mother's cassette gift to her son.
Mr. Todd and his production company saw an opportunity through PFM to not only honor the mother's request, but to serve the broader prison fellowship with copies of "Our Everything," a compilation from Mr. Todd's first three releases. Scott Alan.
MEDFORD, New Jersey--The Medford church participated in a 30 Days for Bangladesh project in April and raised $725 on behalf of The Bible League (TBL) to provide Bibles in Bengali for the people there.
The fund will directly benefit WCG congregations in Bangladesh established through the effort of John Biswas.
Members prayed for one Bengali gospel worker each day for 30 days.
For more information on TBL's project contact Jeff Kolsch at 1-800-334-7017, extension 505 or e-mail him at JKolsch@aol.com) George Kuo.
NORWICH, Connecticut--Boy Scouts and Adult Scouts from Boy Scout troops in Norwich took the first part of the worship service March 22.
Eagle Scout Davis Brydon was worship leader and gave a speech titled "A Scouting Adventure," praising the merits of scouting. The scouts then participated in a responsive reading that brought Scout laws to life by applying Bible verses to them.
Pastor Dennis Pelley said: "The scouts have courageously taken stands on important ethical issues that many churches have not. They emphasize many biblical and Christian values."
Boy Scouts who participated in the service were David Brydon, Christopher Burger and Jeffrey and Kevin Donovan.
Adult Scouts who helped were Charlie Burger, Margaret Donovan, Dennis and Claire Brydon, and scouting adviser John Cotter.
The event was coordinated by Claire Brydon, committee chair of BSA Troop 1 in New London, Connecticut.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado--Focus on the Family has joined with other church groups to set aside each October as Clergy Appreciation Month as a time to honor church leaders.
Focus on the Family offers a Clergy Appreciation Month Planning Guide for a suggested donation of $2.50 each ($3.25 in Canada).
Contact Focus on the Family, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80995-0353, or call 1-800-232-6459.
FAIRBORN, Ohio--Bruce Chwalek, a member in Tipp City, Ohio, and a civil engineer for the City of Fairborn, was awarded the Fairborn Knights of Columbus Blue Coat award that honors outstanding public servants.
Bruce filled in as acting city engineer for the past year, in addition to his regular workload.
At the awards ceremony it was noted that Bruce, and his wife, Ann, were involved with the Muscular Dystrophy Program, serve in their church, and are hosts for their Neighborhood Watch group. Jim Valekis.
DENVER, Colorado--Chad Nix, 18, of the Denver South congregation, was selected as the best teenage cook in America out of 10 finalists March 22 at the annual National High School Recipe Cooking competition sponsored by Johnson and Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Chad won a $20,000 scholarship in the dinner for a family of four and dessert category.
The event drew 400 entrants from across the country.
RALEIGH, North Carolina--Michael Webb, who attends the Durham, North Carolina, church, has been featured in the press numerous times for his bimonthly RoMANtic newsletter that he began in 1996.
RoMANtic's purpose, according to its mission statement, is to "inspire those who desire to continually improve their relationships."
It does so by supplying its readers with "creative ideas, personal examples, reader feedback and other source materials for increasing all of our abilities to become more romantic."
Michael told the St. Petersburg, Florida, Times, that he just started doing romantic things for his wife, Athena, "but then her friends started asking me to help their boyfriends and husbands."
He told the Fresno, California, Bee that he started jotting down romantic ideas, and before he knew it, he had more 100, enough to start the newsletter.
Aug. 19, 1997, WN, page 16
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