MIDWEEK MESSAGE #251
Hello everyone and welcome to Midweek Message #251. Thanks for joining me this week as I try to share some important events taking place, as well as give some of my own thoughts on what is taking place at OVCF.
Don’t forget that this coming Saturday is the 5th annual Serving Owen County Together (the rain date is June 28th). As I have mentioned in the past few MMs, this is a great opportunity for us to be involved in serving our community. SOCT is a joint effort of different vendors (Servant’s Heart, Hoosier Hills Food Bank, For Bare Feet, Changing Footprints and others) to help make life a little easier for those who are struggling. Food, clothing of all kinds, baby supplies, even some furniture is made available for free to those who come. Volunteers are always welcomed. One more time here is the schedule:
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- 8-10 am-Set up
- 10-12:00- First shift
- 12-3:00- Second shift
- 3-4:00- Tear down
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Result? A good feeling of having served your community and helped someone in need.
Mark this on your calendar! Our next church family pitch-in will be on Wednesday, June 25 at 6pm. Someone said to me when we in the midst of last month’s pitch-in: “Hey Bill! I thought you said we weren’t going to have any more pitch-ins until after school started!” Guilty as charged. However, after Diana took a survey and the results were something like 28-0 for continuing, we decided to keep having them, even through the summer. We look forward to seeing you there and enjoying your company and fellowship.
YOUTH CORNER
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- We have three young people at Hilltop Camp this week. Ice Breaker (June 15-17) is Rob Anderson and Amelia Borders. Day Camp (one day-June 19) is James Anderson. As you can see both are shortened times at camp. Ice Breaker is for the campers to experience a longer stay and two nights at camp. Day Camp is for the campers to begin experiencing what camp is like. Pray for these three young lives to have a fun and meaningful time.
- Sunday morning Kartik and Jeanna Srinivasan took their daughter, Aasha, to the Civil Air Patrol encampment. She will be there all week until graduation on Saturday. CAP is the Air Force’s version of JROTC. She joined last October and every cadet must attend encampment in order to advance to higher rankings. Encampment is like boot camp for teens. Mom has asked for prayers because it is mentally and physically exhausting. It will be even more challenging because Aasha won’t have much time to recover from her week at camp this past week. If you would like to send her a note of encouragement, you can use this link: https://forms.gle/9A2r9paKpNZvdM2a8. On the form you’ll need to know: Aasha Srinivasan, Alpha Flight. Mail starts on the 16th and closes on the 19th. They will print out your note and give it to Aasha.
- The weather has played havoc with the baseball games at the Sports Complex. This is to be the last week with tournaments. Why do I hear this sigh of relief from so many parents?
- I’m going to get a little ahead of myself in this week’s MM by asking you to pray for the High School Wilderness Week that begins this Sunday. There are a ton of our young people (and adults) who will be attending. Female campers are Alli Anderson, Anna Bales, Anna East, Rachel East, Kalissa Hamlin and Meilynn Hess. Male campers are Lucas Alexander, Elijah Clausman, Caleb East, Jake Jenkins (LJ), and Nolan Miller. Adults attending are Ryan and Hope East (Deans), Abby Bales, Macy Carlson, Mike and Bella Krapf, Westin and Cassie Linville, Hannah Pendleton, Owen Powell, Linda St John, and Gracie Wainscott. I’ll remind you again next week to pray for them. That is such a large list it won’t hurt to start praying now.
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I had someone text me Sunday afternoon to ask about the Family Camp scheduled for the weekend of August 1-3 (Friday evening through Sunday afternoon). It is an “end of the summer” experience for families with your church family. Years ago, I told her, we used to have it at Beechwood Camp just outside of Worthington. It has been a long time since we had the family camp weekend and several wanted to bring it back. There are several options for you to consider for the weekend. There is a QR code you can use to take you to all the pertinent information. Jo and I will probably visit on Saturday for a while so you have an invitation to ride along with us. But that is still a month and a half away so you can give it some thought.
Did you know that Will and Teresa Reed and their three children will be here with us on Sunday, June 29th? They have been serving on the mission field in Kenya and are home for a summer furlough. We always look forward to having them visit. It has been a pleasure to help sponsor them for this second tour of theirs. Will is going to bring us up to date on their current ministry. You are going to love them!
This Sunday’s message is entitled What a Heart Prays For. The Scripture is Psalm 40-77. A couple of weeks ago I asked you to read a post I wrote for my blog. I’m not sure how many, if any, read that post I linked to, but this sermon is the subject of that post. If you would like to read that post and didn’t have a chance to before, here is the link: https://livingintheshadow.ovcf.org/2025/05/29/may-29-6/ I will look forward to studying it
deeper with you this Sunday.
Jo and I celebrated our 52nd anniversary this past Monday, the 16th. She said she would do it all over again. 😀 As would I…in a heartbeat.
Love you all. See you Sunday if not sooner.
Pastor Bill
