Volume 13, Issue 4 April, 2009

Pastor’s Column 2

CLF Library 4

Women Unlimited 5

Senior Adult Ministries 8

Community Care Day 9

Inside this issue:

A m o n t h l y c o m m u n i q u é o f

C h r i s t i a n L i f e F e l l o w s h i p

One Church

Two Locations

Page 2 O N LI N E

ave you ever been the recipient of an April Fools prank? Many of us have, so

we can probably appreciate some of the best pranks ever perpetrated on mankind.

The San Diego-based Museum of Hoaxes has determined some of the best ones, based on their notoriety, absurdity, and number of people who were duped. #1: In 1957 the respected BBC news show Pano-rama announced that, thanks to a very mild winter and the virtual elimination of the dreaded spaghetti weevil, Swiss farmers were enjoying a bumper spaghetti crop. It accompanied this announcement with footage of Swiss peasants pulling strands of spa-ghetti down from trees. Huge numbers of viewers were taken in. Many called the BBC wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti tree. To this the BBC diplomatically replied that they should "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best." #2: In its April, 1985 edition, Sports Illustrated published a story about a new rookie pitcher who planned to play for the Mets. His name was Sidd Finch, and he could reportedly throw a baseball at 168 mph with pinpoint accuracy. This was 65 mph faster than the previ-ous record. Surprisingly, Sidd Finch had never even played the game before. Instead, he had mastered the "art of the pitch" in a Tibetan mon-astery under the guidance of the "great poet-saint Lama Milaraspa." Mets fans celebrated their teams' amazing luck at having found such a gifted player, and Sports Illustrated was flooded with requests for more infor-mation. But in reality this legendary player only ex-isted in the imagination of the author of the article, George Plimpton. #3: In 1962 there was only one TV channel in Swe-den, and it broadcast in black and white. The station's technical expert, Kjell Stensson, appeared on the news to announce that, thanks to a new technology, viewers could convert their existing sets to display color recep-tion. All they had to do was pull a nylon stocking over their TV screen. Stensson proceeded to demonstrate the process. Thousands of people were taken in. It wasn’t until April 1 of 1970 that actual color broad-casting began in Sweden. #4: In 1996 the Taco Bell Corporation announced that it had bought the Liberty Bell and was renaming it the Taco Liberty Bell. Hundreds of outraged citizens

called the National Historic Park in Philadelphia, where the bell was housed, to express their anger. Their nerves were only calmed when Taco Bell re-vealed, a few hours later, that it was all a practical joke. The best line of the day came when White House press secretary Mike McCurry was asked about the sale. Thinking on his feet, he responded that the Lin-coln Memorial had also been sold. It would now be known as the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial. #5: In 1992 National Public Radio's Talk of the Na-tion program announced that Richard Nixon, in a sur-

prise move, was running for President again. His new campaign slogan was, "I didn't do anything wrong, and I won't do it again." Accompanying this announcement were

audio clips of Nixon delivering his candi-dacy speech. Listeners flooded the show with calls expressing shock and outrage. Only during the second half of the show did the host, John Hockenberry, reveal that the announcement was a practical

joke. Nixon's voice was impersonated by comedian Rich Little. #6: In 1998 Burger King published a full

page advertisement in USA Today an-nouncing the introduction of a new item

to their menu: a "Left-Handed Whopper" specially designed for the 32 million left-handed Americans. According to the ad-

vertisement, the new whopper included the same ingre-dients as the original Whopper (lettuce, tomato, ham-burger patty, etc.), but all the condiments were rotated 180 degrees for the benefit of their left-handed custom-ers. The following day Burger King issued a follow-up release revealing that, although the Left-Handed Whopper was a hoax, thousands of customers had gone into restaurants to request the new sandwich. Si-multaneously, according to the press release, "many others requested their own 'right handed' version." #7: Hotheaded Naked Ice Borers- In its April, 1995 issue, Discover Magazine announced that the highly respected wildlife biologist Dr. Aprile Pazzo had dis-covered a new species in Antarctica: the hotheaded naked ice borer. These fascinating creatures had bony plates on their heads that, fed by numerous blood ves-sels, could become burning hot, allowing the animals to bore through ice at high speeds. They used this abil-ity to hunt penguins, melting the ice beneath the pen-guins and causing them to sink downwards into the

Senior Pastor’s Column H

VOLUM E 13, I SSUE 4 Page 3

resulting slush where the hotheads consumed them. After much research, Dr. Pazzo theorized that the hotheads might have been responsible for the mysterious disappearance of noted Antarctic explorer Philippe Poisson in 1837. "To the ice borers, he would have looked like a penguin," the article quoted her as saying. Discover received more mail in response to this article than they had received for any other article in their history. (Incidentally, Aprile Pazzo is Italian for April Fool!) #8: Planetary Alignme nt Decreases Gravity In 1976 the British astronomer, Patrick Moore, announced on BBC Radio 2 that at 9:47 AM a once-in-a-lifetime astronomical event was going to occur that listeners could experience in their very own homes. The planet Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, temporarily causing a gravitational alignment that would coun-teract and lessen the Earth's own gravity. Moore told his listeners that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment that this plane-tary alignment occurred, they would experience a strange float-ing sensation. When 9:47 AM arrived, BBC2 began to receive hundreds of phone calls from listeners claiming to have felt the sensation. One woman even reported that she and her eleven friends had risen from their chairs and floated around the room. It’s amazing how easily we can be fooled, isn’t it? The Bible has some strong things to say about “fools.” In fact, there are almost 200 Biblical references to “fools” or “foolish.” Perhaps the most descriptive word is given in Psalm 14:1 and Psalm 53:1, “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” If you pre-fer something even more graphic, how about Proverbs 26:11, which says, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.” The good news is that none of us has to play the role of a fool. The Bible speaks much more about being wise and acting in wisdom. Psalm 111:10 says, “The fear of the Lord is the be-ginning of wisdom; all who follow His precepts have good un-derstanding.” All of us are given the choice to either follow the broad pathway of the fool, or to choose the narrow pathway of the wise. The latter is always the best choice. And Proverbs 3:13-18 tells us why: “Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gains understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her. Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor. Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace. She is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who lay hold of her will be blessed.” May it always be said of everyone in the CLF family, “There goes a wise person.”

Saturday Men's Breakfast

Monthly-7:00am Contact the church office,

887-3565 before each event if you are planning on attending

Mark Your Calendars with these upcoming dates!!

April 18th-”Blood, Guts, Glory and Beans” With Pastor Jeff

May 16th-Topic TBD

June 13th-Bruce Van Natta (author of Saved by Angels)

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This month’s book review come from Judy Schultz. She writes, “The 21 day fast has given me an opportu-nity to rediscover my love of read-ing, as one of the things I fasted was TV.”

“Saved By Angels” by local author Bruce Van Natta: Bruce shares his near death experience, his encounter with angels, and how God speaks to all of His children. The reason I wanted to read this book was to hear about Bruce's ex-perience with angels who saved his life. But I came away with much more than then some-one's experience with Angels... That God speaks to everyday peo-ple through angels,dreams & visions,The Holy Spirit, The Bible, Design and Cir-cumstances, answered prayer, and God's spoken Word. The book chal-lenged me to be sensitive, open and listening for God's promptings. I also learned even when we "fall short" we can be used for God's pur-pose, we need to con-tinue to have trust and faith in God's mercy and grace while we deal with our sins of the flesh. This is an easy read with a lot of bang! “The Shack” by Wm. Paul Young: The Shack is a New York Times

Bestseller I was reluctant to read, but glad I did. The Shack is a fictional story about a father whose daughter was ab-ducted & murdered during a family vaca-tion. Years later as he is wrestling with God-(Where is God in a world filled with un-speakable

pain?),struggles with his marriage relationship with his remaining children and the past secret he has regarding his abu-sive father, He receives a note to meet God at the Shack where his daughter was murdered. His en-counter with God (Trinity)at the Shack is unusual. Mack(the fa-ther)learns God desires an intimate relationship with him, sees his

"need" to trust God, the importance of forgive-

ness, and that God works through our brokeness,

hurts, and our deepest sad-ness. This is a work of fic-

tion and is not a perfect book, but reading it left me

wanting a deeper relationship with God. (Julie’s note: I have

three friends who read The Shack and agree that it is well

worth the read. I was given a copy that is on the top of my reading pile.)

“Idol Eyes” by Mandisa with An-gela Hunt: This is a story about

Mandisa Hudley, an American Idol junkie. Mandisa dreams of auditioning for American Idol, & becoming a contest-ant, which she accom-plished. She shares her per-spective on Faith, Fat, & Fame.

The book takes you back to Mandisa being a child of divorced parents,

raped as a teen, her addic-tion to food, depression, and ques-tioning her relationship with God. I was a big fan of Mandisa on the fifth season of American Idol and thought she was unjustly voted off: When she sang "Shackles" and that night talked of her Savior & addictions: I remember Simon Cowell saying "I don't get that"...This song & Mandisa's comments became misun-derstood and she received much hate mail. I was excited for this book not only because she was a Christian on a #1 TV show but also provided be-hind the scenes of American Idol. I discovered she is a former worship singer with Travis Cottrell during Beth Moore Conferences, and the challenges of living the Christian Life style in the secular world. Mandisa is a strong, brave and in-spiring woman. Mandisa’s theme is that true beauty comes from what is inside a person and the personal confidence comes

(Continued on page 7)

What are you reading??? 

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Women Reaching Women Leadership Training

“Fully Loaded.” Are you influencing other women? Or do you long to impact the lives of others, but are not sure where to start? Join Diane O’Connor and other CLF leaders at this fabulous training event in Green Bay on Thursday & Friday August 27 & 28. This "fully-loaded" training event is for women leaders and potential leaders who are seeking to begin or continue building effective and balanced ministry to and with women. The cost is $135 plus hotel room and food. For more information go to www.lifeway.com and click on Women Reaching Women – Fully Loaded. You may also call Diane O’Connor for more information - 421-3163

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Do you long to live with Passion and Purpose? Are you curious about who God made you to BE and what He is calling you to DO? Would you like to better understand yourself and those you live and work with? Self-understanding can be a large part of your discipleship journey! Check out these up-coming workshops to help you sort it all out:

and julie overturf

Discover Workshop (Formerly Class 301)

Discover is a journey of self-discovery designed to help you better understand who God designed you to BE so you can DO what He is calling you to do. Join Pastor Julie and Diane O’Connor on Monday and Tuesday May 4th and 5th,

6-9pm for an energizing workshop designed to help you better understand yourself and those you live and work with. We will map out your Spiritual Gifts, Passions, Abilities, Personality and Life Experiences. Please pick up a spiritual gift assessment at the information table, and complete it before the first session begins. There is no charge for this workshop.

Living Your Strengths Workshop

Join Diane O’Connor on Thursday, April 16th from 6:30-9:00 PM for an encouraging and exciting evening! Living Your Strengths is a workshop designed to help you better understand how God has designed you with naturally recurring patterns of thoughts and feelings that impact how you instinctively react to the world. It’s so refreshing to focus on strengths as opposed to weaknesses!

Books are available at the information desk and you must purchase one ahead of time and complete the 40 minute, online assessment before the workshop. (Books are $15) Please email the results to dianeoc@charter.net. If you have already taken the Clifton Strengths Finder Assessment online, you may just come with your past results – no need to purchase another book.

Perspective Workshop

The God of the universe is personally involved in your life! Taking time out to allow Him to show you what He’s been up to over the years brings perspective and hope. Join Diane O’Connor on Thursday, April 23rd from 6:30-9:00 PM to think through your “story,” and create a post-it-note-timeline of your life. The process is sure to give you a greater understanding of your personal life contribution and roles, as well as a greater capacity to assess future ministry opportunities. Cost is $5.00 to cover materials.

Diane has been trained by Gallup Faith as a Strengths Performance Coach®, and also serves as an instructor for Life Purpose Coaching Centers, International®. She is passionate about helping people understand who God designed them to be, as well as what He is calling them to do. You can visit Diane and her husband, Bob, at www.oconnorcoaching.com.

VOLUM E 13, I SSUE 4 Page 7

 

    

     Do you  like to sing?    I have an offer you can’t re‐fuse!  Sing with the CLF choir for our Spring Semester and be part of two exciting events. 

     2009  is  the 30th Anniversary of  the beginning  of  CLF.  From  it’s  beginning in  1979,  CLF  has  had  a  strong,  vital choir, so it is natural that the choir will minister  in  our  30th  Anniversary  Kick‐Off Bash on Sunday, May 3, at the PAC in  Wisconsin  Rapids.    This  combined service  will  celebrate  what  God  has done  over  30  years  and  envision  us with His continued plan to reach Cen‐tral Wisconsin in the future.  The choir will sing 3 songs  in that service  includ‐ing the Hallelujah Chorus. 

     The  second  event  is  the  Patriotic Musical “Sing America”, which will be held on June 27 and 28.   This year’s Patriotic Musical has many excit‐ing  elements,  the  first  being  a  change  of  location.  Due to the WRYSA Fast Pitch Tournament which will be held at Robinson Park  the  same weekend as  the musical, we  have  changed  our  event  location.   Our concert  will  be  held  in  the  East  Junior  High  Field 

house.  Rain will no longer be an issue for us!!! 

     Our concerts will be part of the Cranberry Blossom Festival held  in Wisconsin Rapids.   On Saturday, June 27th  our  6:00  concert will  follow  the  craft  show  at Witter Field.  Sunday morning our concert will be be‐fore the Cranberry Blossom Parade.  People can come to the concert, buy a brat and watch the parade. 

     CLF will be smack dap in the middle of a whole new group  of  people who may  have  never  had  an  ade‐quate  witness  of  who  Jesus  Christ  is  and  how  He 

changes lives.  What an opportunity!!! 

     Another exciting  facet of this event will  be  the  partnering  with  Hearts Apart,  the  Military  Family  Support Group,  to  reach  out  to  families  and friends  of  those  deployed  with  the local  National  Guard  unit.     We  will make  a  concerted  effort  to  include these  families  in  the  weekend’s events. 

     Will  you  join  me  for  this  exciting ministry opportunity?   Choir rehearsal will  begin  on  Wednesday,  April  8th from 6:30 to 8:00 pm.  Please jump in right from the beginning so we will be 

prepared for the PAC.  We will work hard and we will present a  concert of excellence.    I  can’t wait  to get started. 

     If  you  have  any  questions,  please  contact me  at pastorjulie@clfonline.org.    I  will  look  for  you  on Wednesday, April 8th in the Fellowship Hall. 

from the Lord. I find she is a great role model for young women who struggle with living for Christ everyday and with their appearance. Mandisa offers an alternative view to what our society says we need! “Driven By Eternity” by John Bevere :The author reminds us we will stand before Christ(2Corinthians 5:9-11) and many of us will be shocked to learn that majority of our time spent will not count towards eter-nal rewards! Bevere writes about a fictional land called Affabel and shares of six characters named: Independ-ent, Deceived, Faint Heart, Double Life, Selfish, Char-ity and how their lives are examined and received their

eternal reward on judgment day. This is not a feel good book- Many times in my life I felt overwhelmed with the question, “What is my call-ing or purpose?”, but this book give reasons why you need to know and may catapult you to examine your daily life decisions.

What are you reading? Fiction, Sci-Fi, Christian Liv-ing? Email me with the books that you are enjoying and would recommend to others. I look forward to hearing from you!

Julie pastorjulie@clfonline.org

(Continued from page 4)

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VOLUM E 13, I SSUE 4 Page 9

The 3rd annual Community Care Day took place at Lin-coln High School on Satur-day, March 21st, 2009. The South Wood County Commu-nity Care Day is an annual event aimed at helping our friends and neighbors in need. Launched in 2007 by the Heart of Wisconsin Lead-ership Team, the event features several complimentary services and specifically targets populations needing assistance in the greater Wisconsin Rapids area. In ad-dition to services, the event also provides a complimentary lunch, entertainment and information fair.

Here are some inter-esting facts about this year’s event:

• Approximately 450 people re-ceived services

• 33 exhibitors participated in the information fair

• 32 professionals volunteered their services in 15 service areas

• 420 hot lunches were served

• 123 volunteers helped out as advo-cates (48), client registration (6), volun-teer registration (2), room host (20), runner (5), food service (8), greeter (2), and child care (19)

• 120 hair cuts were done in less than 5

hours

• 70 families received a free portrait

• 160 bags of food were dis-tributed from the food pantry along with 160 packages of domestic goods and 160 bags of onions & potatoes Hundreds of books and shoes were given away

This list is not exhaus-tive. Overall the day was a huge success. Thank

you to all those from CLF who vol-unteered their time and services.

Next year’s Com-munity Care Day will be Saturday, March 20th, 2010….hope to see you there!

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Upcoming Events MOPS ...............................April 16

M-Pact Girls Art Exhibit...................

.....................................April 18-19

30 Year Service @ PAC ........ May 3

National Day of Prayer ......... May 7

Baby Dedication................. May 10

Honor Graduates........... May 23-24

R R Summer Camp .......June 18-21

M’Pact Girls Camp.........June 26-28