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Mark Your Calendar 

Christian 

The Stillwater  Volume 2013 | April 22

April 28 Croft Reception

May 8CWF May Luncheon

May 11CMF Breakfast

May 26

Senior Sunday

Thank you, Blood DonorsThank you to everyone who donated blood on Sunday at the blood drive. Also,

thank you to everyone who baked treats and helped make it a success!At our February Blood Drive, the Red Cross was able to collect 38 units of

blood which potentially saved 114 patients lives. The blood has been sent to hospitals

in Tulsa, OKC, South OK and the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The Red Cross, hospitals,and patients also wish to thank everyone for their participation.Our next blood drive will be June 30th. Please consider being a donor!

Welcome Center Hosts NeededWelcome Center hosts are needed for June, July, September, and November.

If you are willing to serve in this capacity as an individual or as a Sunday Schoolclass, please contact Diana Watkins (405.614.2848 or diana.watkins@okstate.edu).Thank you!

Be The Church ScheduleThere is so much excitement about this effort! If you are still unsure about

where you would like to or can help, or what you would like to do, take a look at theschedule below and see what works for you. For more information about what the spe-cific projects are at each site, contact the person listed there. If you want to help outwhere there is still the most need for volunteers, consider Life Center on Wednesdayand Mission of Hope on Saturday.

Burkhauer Visit a SuccessFCC enjoyed a great weekend of interactions with Rev. Bruce Barkhauer, Min-

ister of Faith and Giving for the Disciples of Christ denomination. He preached in bothservices on Sunday, spoke Saturday morning on the biblical basis for a culture of gen-erosity, and engaged in helpful conversations with the Trustees and the StewardshipDepartment. We learned a great deal from Bruce and look forward to following throughon a number of his ideas and suggestions. Ron Elliott, Stewardship Chair

Reception for Lisa Croft, Sunday April 28thYou are invited to a reception honoring Lisa Croft and her 12+ years as our

Song Leader at FCC. It will be held on Sunday in Café Bistro from 10:45 to 11:10am.

Join us this Sunday for the Children’s Musical, “The Prodigal Clown,”Sunday School 9:00 · Combined Service 10:30 

It is the mission ofFirst Christian

Church (Disciples ofChrist) in Stillwaterto be the church ofJesus Christ in theworld. We do so by

developingDISCIPLESHIP,

EnablingOUTREACH,

and embodyingCOMMUNITY in our

lives together.

OutreachCorner

Did you know that… 

In 2012, throughour Outreach

Department, FCCdonated more than

$23,000 tomissions projects

throughout thecountry and the

world.

Join us this Sunday for Owen Cayton’s Message,“Joyous in the Light: The Geography of Joy!” based on Isaiah 61:1-11 and John 13:31-35 

Traditional 9:00am · Sunday School 10:10 · Contemporary 11:10

Wingsof Hope

HabitatBuild

HabitatReStore

HumaneSociety

4/24: 9-3,4/25: 5:30-7:30,

(if needed)

Terry Varnell 

4/23: 8-noon,4/25 and 4/27

(if needed)

Ron Beer

4/23: 9-noon,4/25: 9-noon(if needed)

John Leonard

4/27: 1-3Wade & Diana

Watkins

LifeCenter

MissionOf Hope

PayneCo.Youth Srvcs

Goody Bags

4/24 6pmKyle & Keri

Bruce

4/27: 9-3pm or11-12:30

Laura Sharp

4/20(completed)

Chuck & SusanWilloughby

before 4/24Mary AnnGrimsley

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Vacation Week for the Ladds!

Rick and Sondra are on vacation; but we’re stayingbusy! Please check out the revised schedule and up-dates for the next couple of weeks:

May 1st DeadlinesThere are several May 1st deadlines.

FINAL PAYMENTS FOR JAMAICA MISSIONTRIPDRY GULCH FINAL PAYMENTS, ANDMISSION EL RENO.

Questions about balances? Contact Leola in the of-fice. All checks need to be made to FCC and submit-

ted to the church office. Payments have already beenmade, so it’s very important to meet all deadlines.

Be The Church ParticipationYouth have 2 opportunities to participate in ‘Be TheChurch’ this week. Please do your best to be a part ofone of these. I want to see as many of you as possiblebeing a part of this incredible effort to reach out to ourcommunity and ‘be the church’ outside of the walls ofour building.

Stillwater Humane Society, Wed. 4-6 at the Stillwa-ter Humane Society. Diana and Wade Watkins arethe group leaders. Shelby Brawley will organize

the youth who attend. All participants under 18must have a signed Humane Society releasewaiver (attached to the newsletter, or in the office).

Life Center, Wed. 6pm with Kyle and Keri Bruce.We will help with various cleaning projects and canuse as many helping hands as possible.

May 5th EventsGraduates Meeting, May 5th at 5:30pm. All SHS andarea Class of 2013 grads are asked to meet in theyouth room at 5:30 on Sunday, May 5th (parents areencouraged to attend) to discuss plans for the Senior

service, Sunday, May 26th

. We hope to take a groupphoto and are asking the grads to wear jeans and awhite shirt. Please bring approximately 15 pictures forthe photo slideshow to be presented during the ser-vice.Jamaica Mission meeting at 6:30 in the youth room.We will be distributing release forms, discussing poli-cies and expectations and covering transportationneeds. It is very important that EVERYONE attend thismeeting. If you are unable to attend; then you must setup a meeting with Sondra (between 5/2 and 5/5.)

Cancellations to Note

No SMS or SJH breakfasts through May 1st.No Youth Meeting on Sunday, April 28th.

CHILDREN & YOUTH MINISTR Y NEWS

Sondra Ladd, Children/Youth Ministry Director youth@fcc-stillwater.org 

Happy Birthday to:4/26 Jeff Bales,Mark Nordquist4/27 Caryl Jobe4/29 Sharon Gober,

Gayle Ward4/30 Arlene Chapman,Regan Sirbaugh 

Facts & Figures for April 21, 2013Attendance (118 & 111)………………...229 Sunday School……….………...……....…80 General Fund Receipts………….$7,919.00 Capital Fund Receipts……………..$555.00 Loose Offering/Sunday School..….$210.75 Project Funds Receipts….……..….$458.71 

Facts & Figuresas of March 31, 2013

YTD Budget Receipts……......$115,327.92 YTD Budget Expenses…….....$115,114.32 Net Receipts over Expenses……….213.60 

Presented by Kay Smith, Treasurer, dkwsmith@suddenlink.net

The Stillwater Christian is a weekly publication of First Christian Church  (Disciples of Christ). The deadline 

for articles each week is 1pm Monday. Tracy Freeman, Editor

editor@fcc-stillwater.org

Church Office Phone: 405.372.7722Fax: 405.372.7726

Find The Stillwater Christian andmore information atwww.fcc-stillwater.org

Send prayer requests and generalemail to office@fcc-stillwater.org

The Care and Feeding of A Candle

Owen Cayton, Senior Minister pastor@fcc-stillwater.org

Last week after the tragedy in Boston, a good

friend and colleague of mine, Chuck Jones, and I hada thoughtful exchange on Facebook. The conversationwas helpful to me in many ways. While I would love toshare the bulk of that conversation with you, I realizethis format is not conducive. However, it is worth offer-ing some ‘bullet points for thought’ from that conversa-tion (there will not be ‘closure’ in this article, but it isleft intentionally open to foster discussion). There is adanger inherent in talking about the Christian re-sponse to something. Indeed, Christians respond tothings differently, and each is uniquely Christian. Ihope we ponder these things as we listen to each

other in our varied responses to this and other trage-dies.

Jumping from the horror of a tragedy too quickly to“love your enemies” can be damaging. To tell peo-ple what to do and feel in the wake of such painand confusion makes a lot of assumptions anddoesn’t leave room for people to experience theirown healing. It can also create further feelings ofguilt upon an already devastated soul.The Psalms are full of expression of pain and grief.Indeed, lament psalms are the largest single cate-gory in the Psalter.

Further, there are Psalms of Deprecation (“punishmy enemy, God!”). Read Psalm 137. Let’s behonest about two things: 1. Anger is a valid emo-tion in the aftermath of a tragedy. And 2. We arenot always comfortable with expressions of anger.It is okay to sit with our anger and grief and allowthese ancient writings and even writings andprayers of our own to express those emotions be-fore God.The church bears witness to God who responds todeath and violence with resurrection and life-givinggrace. When I, as a person of faith, am unable to

move beyond my grief and anger to bear an effec-tive witness to resurrection and forgiveness, I relyon the community of faith to maintain that witnessfor me: to pray for my enemy when I cannot, tolove the perpetrator that I cannot – all the whilecaring for me and acknowledging my pain.As we wrestle with these and other issues within

and outside of ourselves, we are certainly called topray and offer hope and healing to those who havebeen unalterably affected by these events. In addition,we continue to pray for those in West, TX whose trag-edy has, in many ways, taken a backseat to the trag-

edy in Boston.Shalom, Owen