{"id":14875,"date":"2026-08-05T19:14:38","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T23:14:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/?p=14875"},"modified":"2026-08-05T19:14:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T23:14:38","slug":"midweek-message-8-85-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/2026\/08\/midweek-message-8-85-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Midweek Message 8-5-2026"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>MIDWEEK MESSAGE #299<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Hello everyone and welcome to Midweek Message #299. Summer is winding down but I hope you had a somewhat restful couple of months and took some time to recharge your batteries. Why? See next statement.<\/p>\n<p>School starts this week. It\u2019s funny how that simple statement elicits different responses from people. Some groan. Some wonder where the summer went. Some are excited to get back and see friends, resume a routine, and, oh yeah&#8230;study. \ud83d\ude04 No matter your response, please remember to pray for all the administrators, teachers, students and all involved with our schools this week. Once we get a list of all the aforementioned people, we will start asking you to pray for a different person each week. For this week, <strong>please remember to pray for the start of school and pray that it will be a safe and productive year for all.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h4 style=\"font-family: Lato, sans-serif; color: #4a474b;\">FROM THE \u201cYOUTH NEWS\u201d DEPARTMENT:<\/h4>\n<p>With the start of school the news about our youth picks up steam. The only news to share at this point is about the youth group\u2019s ongoing studies.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Every Wednesday the Middle School and High School youth meet for <em><strong>Deeper<\/strong> <\/em>at the East\u2019s home from 4-5:30. Many just make their way there but if you need a ride from Pastor Ryan please contact him. Due to a prior commitment, Deeper will not meet on August 12th.<\/li>\n<li>The Middle School\/High School youth group kickoff for <em><strong>ROOTS<\/strong> <\/em>will be Sunday, August 30th from 5-7:00 PM. Look for a snack sign-up sheet soon on the info table.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>FROM THE \u201cNEWS ABOUT SPROUTS\u201d DEPARTMENT:<\/h4>\n<p>I received the following announcement from Becca Anderson about the <em><strong>SPROUTS<\/strong> <\/em>Small Group Bible Study:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>We will have our next SPROUTS event on Saturday, August 29, from 6:30-8:30 at the church building. We\u2019ll have fellowship and refreshments from 6:30-7:00 then do a Bible study from 7:00-8:00.<\/li>\n<li>Becca will also be sharing more details in the weeks to come on the plan for childcare and what study they will be doing. Each family is asked to bring a snack or dessert to share. She has also asked for you to let her know if there are any food sensitivities or allergies she needs to be aware of.<\/li>\n<li>I (Pastor Bill) can attest to Becca\u2019s excitement and encouragement about this group. Each get together has been well attended and there is excitement about the Bible study and the Facebook group\u2019s response.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>FROM THE \u201cROUTE 66 NEWS\u201d\u00a0DEPARTMENT:<\/h4>\n<p>No, sorry, we are not planning a trip on Route 66. This is about another Route 66. \ud83d\ude04<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Several people have been asking me if we have any kind of midweek study and I have told them up to this point, \u201cNo.\u201d But I also told about my efforts in the past of offering Route 66 (herein called \u201c66\u201d).<\/li>\n<li>When they have asked what it is I simply tell them \u201cThe Bible contains 66 books. \u201c66\u201d is a whole Bible study on all 66 books, taking one a week and doing an overview of each one. There seemed to be some interest so I put out a sign-up sheet on the info table this past Sunday and there has been enough interest shown for me to offer it again.<\/li>\n<li>Wednesday, September 16th will be the first class. We will meet from 6:00-7:00 PM. All you will need to bring is a Bible, a pen, a three-ring notebook (or something to put the handouts in) and a heart to learn.<\/li>\n<li><strong>If you plan to come but have not put your name on the sign-up sheet, please do so. It will help me to know how many copies to make for class.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>FROM THE \u201cIT NEVER HURTS TO BE INFORMED\u201d DEPARTMENT:<\/h4>\n<p>Because I went to an every other week format for the MM during summer, and each edition was filled with information, I suspended the \u201cIt never hurts to be informed\u201d department where I\u00a0 gave a brief snippet of the new books I have put in the church library. So far I have included books on Special Needs Ministry, Suicide, Memory Loss\/Dementia\/Alzheimer\u2019s, Depression and Anxiety, and Miscellaneous (Failure, Divorce, Forgiveness, and Does God Care?). This week I want to focus on <em><strong>LOSS<\/strong><\/em>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>When God Breaks Your Heart<\/em> is a vulnerable book by Pastor Ed Underwood. I loved this book! Pastor Ed had a form of leukemia that caused unbearable itching and skin scaling and had him more than once question God\u2019s love and contemplate suicide.<\/li>\n<li><em>Out of the Blue<\/em> by Greg Murtha. Greg was an entrepreneur and running advocate, deeply involved in helping people. He was 46 years old, at the top of his game and had just completed an 11 mile run when life crashed in on him. One month after that 11 mile run the doctor said, \u201cMr. Murtha, you have cancer.\u201d He soon found out it was Aggressive Stage III colon cancer. A really powerful read!<strong> {3rd time reading this one}<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><em>I\u2019ve Seen the End of You<\/em> by Dr. Lee Warren. Dr. Warren is a renowned brain surgeon who is also a Christ-follower. This is a book about glioblastomas. It is also the story of a doctor\u2019s life with patients and the death of his son. I\u2019ve given several of these away.<\/li>\n<li><em>Like a River<\/em> by Granger Smith. Granger\u2019s life was turned upside down when his 3 year old son died in their family swimming pool. Granger, whom I had not heard of before, was a country singer who has now left that profession to enter the ministry. Fantastic book!<\/li>\n<li><em>No Place to Hide<\/em> by Dr. Lee Warren. This is the anomaly of this group. This book is about Dr. Warren\u2019s battle with PTSD after a tour as a surgeon in Iraq. Helpful and insightful for me to know more about this ever-prevalent subject.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These books are in the church library if you would like to borrow them.<\/p>\n<h4>FROM THE \u201cLAST BUT NOT LEAST\u201d DEPARTMENT:<\/h4>\n<p>Two weeks down on my 8 week series on <strong>Break Those Chains!<\/strong> This Sunday my sermon will be <em>A Sling and 4 Stones<\/em> from Matthew 6:25-34. Reading the Scripture will show that I will be speaking about Worry.<\/p>\n<p>I look forward to seeing you this Sunday. Until then&#8230;know you are loved.<\/p>\n<p>Pastor Bill<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MIDWEEK MESSAGE #299 Hello everyone and welcome to Midweek Message #299. Summer is winding down but I hope you had a somewhat restful couple of months and took some time to recharge your batteries. Why? See next statement. School starts this week. It\u2019s funny how that simple statement elicits different responses from people. Some groan. &hellip; <\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link btn\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/2026\/08\/midweek-message-8-85-2026\/\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-midweekmessage","category-ovcf-news","nodate","item-wrap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14875"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14876,"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14875\/revisions\/14876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ovcf.org\/ovcf_wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}