MIDWEEK MESSAGE #241
Hello everyone and welcome to Midweek Message #241. “Welcome to Indiana” as they say. The weather has been all over the place making it “up in the air” when it comes to the weather. Pun intended. 🤣 Today, as I write this (it is Sunday), they are calling for rain, possibly hail, and even a possible tornado in the mix. “Say it ain’t so, Joe!”
While we may not know what is in the future, we can have confidence in a God who is always faithful. With that in mind, please be praying for our educator of the week, Brianna Wigington. Brianna is a counselor at SES. Pray for her to have wisdom in her interactions with students and faculty alike.
I’m really looking forward to this coming Sunday! No…not because of the sermon. 😄 This Sunday, in both services, many of the volunteers who went on the mission/service trip to east Tennessee will be sharing personally (including a slide show) about the area where they worked and how they helped. The area is still recovering from the flooding and damage caused by Hurricane Helene last year. Pastor Ryan took some time in our staff meeting last week to show pictures to Diana and me of what they did, who they helped, and the destruction those folks are still dealing with. Like many events, when we aren’t in the mix we tend to not see the extent of the damage. The pictures Ryan showed us brought a reality to my eyes that I cannot fathom.
Come Sunday morning prepare to be proud of our 14 people who worked hard all week long with a smile on their face, no complaint leaving their lips, and showing people there is a Jesus who cares about them.
Sunday, April 13th, Ryan and Mala Kroft from Hilltop Camp will be with us to share about the new camp season. They will give a short recap of camp and what 2025 will look like. In the second service, after their presentation, they will be visiting with the students in kid’s church, telling them about camp and making s’mores with them.
Sunday, April 20th is our Resurrection Sunday service at Abram Event Venue (next door). Here are some specifics you should know:
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- One service at 10:00 AM
- All our giving (unless designated) will go to missions we support.
- No children’s programs but we’ll have activity sheets available. 😀
- We will set up on Sunday morning. We plan to start setting up chairs and tables and carrying sound equipment, etc. from the trailer at 7:00. Due to the amount of help we usually get, we are done in about an hour. You are then able to go home and come back with your family.
- Please plan to help put tables and chairs away following the service. The number of people who usually help makes this go really fast.
- Shuttle service from the church parking lot is provided. Remember parking space is limited so using the shuttle is helpful. Pastor Ryan could use your help with parking and the shuttle service.
- There is a sign-up sheet on the info table if you would like to help.
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One of my goals when I started the Midweek Message back in 2020 during that season that no one wants to even think about was to keep the OVCF church family informed of what was happening in the lives of our church family. Because we spent several months unable to meet together, it was vitally important to stay in touch. The elders were given a different list of people each month to pray for. I did what I called Drive-Bys, where I prayed for each family while sitting in their drive way or on the street. The MM kept people up to date on different happenings involving the young people and what little we were allowed to do as groups. All that to say, the goal of the MM hasn’t changed. I still try to keep you informed about a myriad of events and
people. I was pleasantly surprised last week when I received an email commenting on the fullness of what is happening in the church family and that it was a good MM. That made me smile because after 240 of these, the goal is still the same. Some weeks are not as full as others with information, but there are some (like last week) that Diana and I struggle to edit by taking out and including material. I have no clue how long I will continue doing the MM. I guess until you get tired of it, Diana and I retire, or there is nothing happening in our church family. You can pretty well figure out which one will be the reason! 😉 All that to say that I hope you do enjoy the work we put into this each week.
Speaking of Diana, (I am about to get shot for this but at least you will know who did it), she celebrates a birthday this Thursday. I can already feel her wanting to edit that out of this week’s MM but I’m going to hold my ground on this! 🤣🤣 I WON!!
It used to be that one of the most used parts of the church building was the church library. But books are losing their appeal. The church library is a source of reading material you can trust. Ours is filled with fiction books and others as well. I love historical fiction and I recently included several I think you might enjoy reading if you like that kind of fiction.
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- To Rescue the Republic by Bret Baier. Subtitled as U.S. Grant, the Fragile Union, and the crisis of 1876.
- The President and the Freedom Fighter by Brian Kilmeade. It is about Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass and the slavery issue of the Civil War.
- Becoming Mrs. Lewis by Patti Callahan Henry. A fanciful story about the developing relationship and marriage of confirmed bachelor C.S. Lewis and Joy Davidman
- Once Upon a Wardrobe by Patti Callahan Henry. A really great story based around “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” and a young woman’s passion for meeting Lewis and finding the story behind the story for her dying brother.
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My sermon this Sunday is “The Contrast of Two Men.” See you then! Love you all.
Pastor Bill
