MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF WALNUT GROVE CHRISTIAN CHURCH JULY 2016 – VOLUME 7

Church Events Office Closed 7/4

Meals on Wheels 7/4-7/8

Auxiliary to Heartland 7/6

Humboldt Outreach 7/6, 7/13, 7/20, 7/27

Sisterhood 7/7, 7/14, 7/21, 7/28

Deacons Mtg. 7/10

Nursing Home Church 7/10

Council Mtg. 7/11

Eunice Club 7/18

Team Mtgs. 7/25

Area Firework locations/times

Arcola: July 1st at 9:15pm at Moore Park

Arthur: July 2nd at dusk at the Moultrie-Douglas Fairgrounds

Oakland: July 2nd at 9pm at Norton Knolls Golf Course

Mattoon/Charleston: July 4th at dusk at the Airport

Tuscola: July 9th at dusk at Ervin Park

In August we will begin our next study called Life Apps by Andy Stanley. There are hundreds of thousands of phone apps available for download. These apps can be used to wake you up, to show you where to shop, to help you count calories, or to log your exercise minutes.

But they can’t actually make you get up, control your spending, manage your diet or force you to exercise. The App Store isn’t the only place you can find apps. Did you know that the Bible has also given us many apps to enhance and improve our lives? In this 6 part series, Andy Stanley and Jeff Henderson identify five life applications worth living by: the forgiveness app, confession app, rest app, trust app and encouragement app.

...but God has a big for small towns.

We will be doing outreach opportunity in Humboldt every

Wednesday in July. Below are the locations and times of where

we will be. There will be more info in the weeks to come.

7/6 – Community Center (Movie Night/Hotdogs)

7/13 – School Sports Complex (Sports Night)

7/20 – Community Center (BINGO Night)

7/27 – TBD (service project)

During July the office hours

will be as follows:

Monday – Thursday 8am – 2pm

Friday- Closed

The office will resume normal hours which are Monday – Friday 8am – 1:30pm starting on August 1st.

Eunice Club will meet July 18th at 9am at the church.

Soap &

Toothpaste

From our Pastor... If you have driven around WGCC recently, you probably have gone by some little towns and villages that fit the adage, “If you blink you might miss it!” Communities that are home to hundreds, many that don’t have anything that make them particularly famous, just a few taverns, if they are lucky a primary school or high school. They are easy to look pass or speed through (usually they don’t have any police). Although they may be small in population, we must remember they are not small in importance. Our outreach in the month of July is going to focus on the community of Humboldt, official population 437 and just 5.9 miles from our church building at the crossroads. The town motto reads simply: A small town with a big heart! It is a motto which links up perfectly with our outreach focus to the villages around us: God Has a

BIG Heart for Small Towns.

If you doubt God is concerned for small towns think about to where the incarnation of Jesus Christ all began. Bethlehem was a small agricultural community with a few dozen families. It has a long-standing association with King David, it produced barley and wheat, but it also was a place where sheep were raised. It was a place where shepherds did their work. Shepherds weren’t high on the food chain, considered to be misfits, dirty, and stinky. Yet, God had a plan that involved this small town. The sheep raised in Bethlehem weren’t just regular sheep; in fact, they were sheep which were used specifically for the Passover—as atonement for sin. This was the place where the greatest Passover Lamb was born- Jesus Christ. After being born in Bethlehem, Jesus moved to Nazareth. A town seemingly so small and insignificant that it wasn’t listed by Josephus or the Talmud in a list of noteworthy Galilean towns. It was a place that warranted rejection rather than rejoicing. Nathanael when told where Jesus was raised was aghast asking (John 1:46), “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”

It wasn’t that God didn’t have an option to use larger cities. Bethlehem was about 4.4 miles from Jerusalem, but God chose to work in the smaller town rather than the big city. God has a BIG heart for small towns. It is where his great love for humanity began to play out. Jesus grew in wisdom and stature in Nazareth when Sepphoris, a bustling Roman influenced community was less than 4 miles down the road, and offered plenty of work opportunities for artisans such as Joseph and Jesus. God has a BIG heart for small towns. Sometimes, in the middle of the country it is easy to feel overlooked, but we know that in Christ every person matters. We need your help to share God’s love for Humboldt throughout the month of July. Each Wednesday night from 5-7p.m. we will be having a different outreach. 7/6- Movie Night/ Hotdogs (community center), 7/13-Sports Night (at the sport’s complex), 7/20-Bingo Night (community center), and 7/27-Service Project (Details are TBD). We are going to have numerous opportunities to build new relationships with a community that is under churched, a community that is right down the street, and a community that isn’t overlooked by God. Let’s enjoy true fellowship. Relationship with Purpose!

- Steven

Starting July 3, the Second’s Sunday School Class will begin a 4-week study “Joshua: Strong and Courageous” by Todd Phillips.

Whether a slave making bricks or a leader of a nation, Joshua lived a life defined by courage, humility, prayer, and worship. His life serves as an example and encouragement to us all.

Join author Todd Phillips in the heart of the nation’s capitol as he uses American history to illuminate the story of Joshua in a way never before

experienced. This 4-part series will challenge everyone to be strong and courageous using backdrop of Abraham Lincoln/Civil War, Arlington National Cemetery, FDR & Winston Churchill

during WWII and the Washington Monument.

To finish out July on the 31, “honk, honk-honk-honk, honky-honk-honk.” If you are a fan of the TV show, “Duck Dynasty” you probably understood that call! Translation for all you yuppies: join Phil, Alan, Jep, Jace, Willie and Uncle Si Robertson for “Faith Commander” a study of five parables and how to apply the lessons to your everyday duck hunt life.

Can’t make it to class? The Joshua series is available on RightNow Media a resource website to which Walnut Grove Christian Church subscribes. Please

contact Tera Arnold for more information on how you can access this valuable resource.

Join us as we meet in the church basement – classroom across the hall from Pre K/K class at 9:30 am to study “Joshua” and “Faith Commander” during July.

Mission of the Month: American Indian Christian Mission

Their purpose is to help Native Americans become aware of God and to bring them into a saving knowledge of His Son, Jesus Christ. They teach that accepting Christ is the only way one can be saved. AICM strives to reach Native American communities with a culturally relevant message of Jesus Christ. Most of their evangelism is done through the ACC Blue Bus Ministry and Summer Enrichment Camps.

To equip them, AICM provides a quality Christian education for Native American youth at their boarding school. It is their intention that students become a disciple of Jesus, grow in faith and serve Him. They also help Native American adults with both spiritual and physicals needs, following the example that Jesus gave. WGCC is currently collecting dry-erase markers and composition notebooks for their boarding school.

Not only has WGCC supported them for years, we also take a mission trip there each summer. Emerson Moore, Carol Nelson and Landon Hoshauer are currently there and will return on July 7th. Please pray for the hearts they will be touching this week, their hearts to also be touched and for safe

travels back.

July 2016 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Kayli Seaman

Office Closed Henry & Mandy Chupp

Meals on

Rick & Susie Biggs Berlyn Diener Wheels

Auxilliary to Heartland

Humboldt Outreach 5-7pm

Terry Leffler

Sisterhood 8:30am

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Deacons Mtg. 8am Nursing Home Church 2pm Deanna Woolley

Council Mtg. 6:30pm

Tom Connelly

Humboldt Outreach 5-7pm

Sisterhood 8:30am Darrin Thompson

17 18 19 20 21 22 23 Garrett Sigrist

Eunice Club 9am

Humboldt Outreach 5-7pm

Sisterhood 8:30am

24 25 26 27 28 29 30

31

Team Mtgs. 6pm

Ralph & Virginia Dare

Humboldt Outreach 5-7pm Kris & Stacey Kersey

Sisterhood 8:30am

Lisa Sigrist

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We had a great time at VBS! Thank you to all who helped make this happen! We also want to thank those who donated monetarily. It is a HUGE help to get donations to help offset the cost of snacks. During the week the kids had a competition to see who could raise the most money for Abel and Ruth Sairattanyu (Christian Mission to the Orient). Our goal: raise enough money to buy a pig. We raised enough money to buy 3 pigs! The girls raised $260.19 and the boys raised $194.13! 3 pigs = 3 people kissing a pig! Steven, Aaron and Danielle and to pucker up!

Published and mailed by

Walnut Grove Christian Church

12930 E County Road 1700N

Arcola IL 61910

Office Phone (217)-856-2155

www.walnutgrovecc.org WORSHIP 10:30am

SUNDAY SCHOOL 9:30am

FELLOWSHIP 9:00am

Steven Stern………Pastor

Aaron Boothe ………Youth Pastor

Tera Arnold……….Ministry Assistant

Deanna Woolley…….Bookkeeper

Diana Groff…….… Custodian

OR CURRENT RESIDENT