Upload
others
View
1
Download
0
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Connection March/April 2015
11265 SW Gaarde Street, Tigard, OR 97224 Ph. 503.639.5336 http://www.faithjc.com Faith Journey Church
home of Gaarde Christian School
Our special guest on Missions Sunday, March 8th, is from Shared Hope.
They are a local international ministry that focuses on eradicating sex
trafficking through prevention, restoration, and bringing justice
through legislature and policy solutions. Understanding the
devastation that is wrought by Human Trafficking is the beginning of
making a difference in the lives of those who have been affected by
Human Trafficking. As Christ followers, we are called by Him to share
the HOPE that His life on earth, death on the cross, and resurrection
from the grave offered every soul on this earth. Our focus for Easter
will be on that hope the does not disappoint, the hope that brings us
to the end of ourselves, and to the arms of Christ. It is a hope that we
must be compelled to share, not only with our neighbors and co-
workers, but with those who have been caught up into the tragedy of
Human Trafficking.
Journey - Pursue - Impact
ARTICLE Page
The Pastor’s Pen 2
March / April Calendars 3
Schedule 4
West of 55 4
Missions News 5
Adult Ministries 5
Worship 6
Ablaze Youth 6
Journey Kids 7
Accelerate Clubs 7
Gaarde Christian School 8
Join us as we welcome our
missionaries Sue Beaman, Josh
& Renee Ransom, and Tamara
Henkes for Saturday. On Sunday,
a guest from SHARED HOPE will
challenge us as we kick off a
focus on Human Trafficking.
the Pastor’s Pen
Page 2
His story, our hope
“With the Death of Jesus on Calvary, we witness, amid the
cacophony of soldiers and criminals, gawkers and passers
-by, what looks like the final triumph of evil. All the ugli-
ness and violence we can imagine was embodied in the
events that had as their climax the six hours during which
God in human form hung on a cross on a hillside outside
the gates of Jerusalem… It is only once we have seen the
full extent of evil on display there and witnessed the ap-
parent victory of death that we can begin to appreciate the
triumph that is EASTER!”
~Adam Hamilton: 24 Hours that Changed the World
This “triumph,” this Easter morning exuberance is found in
an incredibly dramatic way in John’s gospel chapter 20,
verses 1-9:
Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to
the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the
stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 So she ran
and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one
whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the
Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they
have laid him." 3 So Peter went out with the other disciple,
and they were going toward the tomb. 4 Both of them were
running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and
reached the tomb first. 5 And stooping to look in, he saw-
the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then
Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb.
He saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the face cloth,
which had been on Jesus'* head, not lying with the linen
cloths but folded up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other
disciple, l who had reached the tomb first, also went in,
and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not under-
stand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead. ~ESV
Reading this great passage of scripture I could not help but
focus on the last verse (9) in speaking of John and Peter’s
revelation that came out of their lack of understanding and
think Harriet Beecher Stowe’s earth shaking words
in 1852 in her book “Uncle Tom's Cabin:”
“O, with what freshness, what solemnity and beauty,
is each new day born; as if to say to insensate man,
"Behold! Thou hast one more chance!
Strive for immortal glory!”
Every year Easter morning shouts to us wake-up! Arise!
“Thou hast one more chance!” In fact, because of Jesus’
story, “His mercies (compassions) are new every morn-
ing!” *Lamentations 3:22 & 23
I wrote a poem for this article and Easter season that ex-
presses our great hope through Jesus’ story:
Easter Hope, His Story
Easter Hope is found in the
Hero hanging from the cross.
Easter Hope is found in the
Emptying of Abrahams Bosom.
Easter Hope is found in the
Brilliance of an Easter sunrise.
Easter Hope is found in the
Woman with spices and caring.
Easter Hope is found in the
Echo of the empty the tomb.
Easter Hope is found in the
Footfalls of the running faithful.
Easter Hope is found in the
Story of the Savior of the World!
~T. Paul
The great hero of World War II and then Prime Minster of
England once said:
"Men occasionally stumble over the truth,
but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off
as if nothing ever happened."
We have provided two helps March through May this year
to prepare your hearts for Easter and provide answers post-
Easter for those who would want to explore Jesus’ story fur-
ther through the discovery and discussion of “GodQuest.”
Journeying Together ~Pastor Tom
AVAILABLE N
OW!
Wednesday’s @ 7pm!
BEGINS APRIL 15th
APRIL 2015
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
19 20 21 22 23 24 25
26 27 28 29 30
MARCH 2015
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28
29 30 31
Page 3
March - April 2015 Calendars
7pm
Ablaze Youth
Mpact Club
Accelerate Club
7pm
Ablaze Youth
Mpact Club
Accelerate Club
7pm
Ablaze Youth
Mpact Club
Accelerate Club
Missions Convention
Daylight Savings Time Begins
7pm
Ablaze Youth
Mpact Club
Accelerate Club
7pm
Ablaze Youth
Mpact Club
Accelerate Club
Spring Brunch
for ladies
GCS Middle
School
Production
7pm
Ablaze Youth
Mpact Club
Accelerate Club
GCS Spring Break
Father/Son Overnighter
Easter
Good Friday
7pm
Ablaze Youth
Mpact Club
Accelerate Club
Missions Convention
7pm
Ablaze Youth
Mpact Club
Accelerate Club
Easter Monday
Youth Group
Day Trip to
Oregon Coast
Service Schedule
Wednesdays
7:00 pm ABLAZE Youth
Accelerate Clubs
Missionettes (Girls Kinder - 5th Gr.)
Rainbows (Girls and Boys 3 - 4 Years)
Tuesdays
5:30 am Men’s Bible Study - Davidson’s
Sundays
8:45 - 9:45 am Sunday School - All Ages
Nursery ( Birth - 2 Yrs )
10:00 - 11:30 pm Worship Service
Children’s Church ( 3 Yrs - 5th Grade )
Nursery ( Birth - 2 Yrs )
6:00 pm Adult Home Group - Location Varies
Page 4
Office Hours
8:00am - 4:00pm Monday through Friday
Fridays
7:00 pm The Wave - Prayer and Worship
(2nd Friday of each month)
Jesus said, “Do not worry, ”saying
‘What wi l l we eat?’ or ‘What wil l
we drink?’ or ‘What wil l we
wear?’… indeed, your heavenly father
knows that you need al l these things.”
- Matt 6:31-32
My grandma, a depression era child, had said from time to time what I’ve heard many say from that period of economic struggle, “We were poor, but never knew it.” Perhaps this is due to the fact that the basic necessities of life, though not in great abundance, were always enough to meet her family’s needs as her
parents depended on God’s promise to provide.
Nevertheless, while they struggled through those lean years, they learned not to take God’s provisions for granted. Even today, many who went through the Great Depression are not quick to discard food or possessions. After all, this is a
generation who did not have the luxury of just throwing out clothing on a whim. They became survivors who found ways to make things last. So, if anyone in our country today understands the adage “Waste not, want not.” It is these
seniors.
This combination of trust in God’s goodness and an appreciation for all he provides, has given this group a wonderful perspective on God’s care for those who trust him. This generation knows that no matter how difficult life becomes, God will be true to his word and supply what we need. Also, as these seniors model for their children and grandchildren gratefulness for and careful management of God’s bountiful blessings, they help remind younger generations that these provisions are from a loving God and
need to be cherished.
In His Service,
Pastor John Granholm
West of 55
Fridays
7:00 pm The Wave Prayer and Praise
Second Friday of each month
Missions News
Page 5
Mission ConneXion Conference
January 16th & 17th Jim and I attended the Mission ConneXion Northwest Conference. Their vision is to help God’s people effectively mobilize in Mission. Their purpose is to connect local churches and individuals to missions so that increasing numbers of believers are actively serving in areas of the world’s greatest need
and opportunity.
While attending the conference we had the privilege of listening to four
keynote speakers:
Don Richardson: He wrote “Peace Child” about their work with the Sawi Tribe in Papua New Guinea, and 50 years later returned and created the mini-documentary video, “Never the
Same” about what’s happened since.
Steve Richardson: The eldest son of Don Richardson, is the President of Pioneers and leads a mission organization dedicated to initiating church-planting movements among unreached people groups around the world. Pioneers is an organization whose passion has been to see God glorified among those who are physically and spiritually isolated from the gospel of Jesus Christ - from Muslim Bedouins in the deserts of
North Africa to animist villagers in the jungles of South America to secular humanists in Eastern Europe and middle-class Buddhist urbanites in the
sprawling cities of East Asia.
J.D. Payne: A pastor of church multiplication with The Church at Brook Hills in Birmingham, Alabama. He is a missiologist and author of several
books on missions and evangelism.
Ramesh Richard: A theologian – evangelist from India serving as Professor at Dallas Seminary and founder of Ramesh Richard Evangelism and Church Health (RREACH). He has dedicated his life to evangelizing leaders and strengthening pastors, and is seeing breakthroughs in how we cross-culturally reach into large numbers of individuals by training
large numbers of pastors worldwide.
The speakers were very interesting and spoke about the barriers and breakthroughs they have encountered when sharing the love of Jesus in their
ministry.
If you ever have a chance to attend one of their conferences it would be
worth your time.
Donna Randol
Beth Chambers(Missionaries to OSU(Chi Alpha)
Jamie and Alisha Deweese Missionaries to Clackamas Com-munity College(Chi Alpha)
Kiel & Niina Downey Missionaries to Thailand
Rick & Laurel Ellis Missionary to Chile
Carl and Terri Gibbs Missionaries to Africa
Tamara Henkes Missionary to Romania
Dennis & Diane Holcomb Missionaries to Poland
Ken Huff Missionary to Cambodia
Steve and Julie Kramer Missionaries to U of O(Chi Alpha)
Bill & Carol Paris Missionaries to Tokyo, Japan
Josh & Renee Ransom Missionary to China
Matt & Heather Reigel Missionaries to Switzerland
John & Beccy Rodli Missionaries to Azores/Portugal
Rob & Jeanel Shipley Missionaries to East Africa
David & Dorothy Yunuba Missionaries to Africa
John & Carolyn Stewart Missionaries to Africa
Recently while reading OFF BALANCE by
Matthew Kelly there was a short passage that
truly challenged me: “It’s easy to let another
week, month, or year go by without really
thinking about the life you want to live. It’s too
easy to just let life happen. There are a lot of
ways you can live your life; the point is that
you don’t have to settle for the life you
stumbled into. You can pick it intentionally.”
WOW! Imagine the impact each of us could
make in our world if we were genuinely
intentional about how we live each day! We
would make a difference in the lives of so
many people, if our eyes were kept open to
the possibilities that God presents to us every
day. Will you take the challenge to live on
purpose? Together we can impact our world
with the grace and love that God intentionally
showers upon us!
Pastor Kelly GrosJacques
Adult Ministries
Thank you for all of your support in sending
our students to the Generation Unleashed
conference in January! Jessica and I took
five from the youth group to City Bible
Church in Portland for the better part of
three days where we all listened and
learned from a multitude of youth pastors.
The theme was Amazing Grace, and we
heard all weekend about what God has
done for us through Jesus’ sacrifice, not only
forgiving our sin but giving us freedom in our
lives. We all had a lot of fun in between and
after services, and we may have even
broken a piece of a playground…
With God’s grace on our minds, we are now
looking forward to Easter and all of its
significance. Last Wednesday I spoke to the
group about Ash Wednesday and Lent and
the somberness of the cost of our freedom. In
light of Lent, I challenged the students to
think of something they could give up until
Easter and I know some are really going for
it.
Andy Reum
Youth Pastor
Youth Ministries
Page 6
This month I have been cooking quite a bit. I
am an amateur cook who enjoys cooking
different cuisines from different countries. As
an amateur cook, I also like to try out exotic
oils that you don't usually find. My favorite
oil has to be coconut oil. Not only because
of the health benefits, but also the smell of it.
I often enjoy the final packaged product of
coconut oil, but I've never thought of the
process of extracting the coconut oil. With
mostly any kind of oil, pressing is required to
extract the essence. It made me think how as
a believer, our life is kind of like the pressed
oil. God often allows certain things to
happen in our life, not because He wants us
to suffer, but because He knows these
situations will produce something amazing in
us. It is like coconut oil. For a coconut to
produce oil it must be pressed under
pressure. Our life is often pressed by all
sorts of different things, and they are not
always fun. I believe if we are willing to trust
in Christ through those times, He can use them
to extract something amazing out of us for
the world to see. The process of being
pressed is not always enjoyable, but our God
has the power to make messy things into
something beautiful. It is not as important for
us to figure out how we are going to get
through the tough circumstance, as asking
how we can trust Him more. If we are willing
to trust Him, then He is faithful to complete
the work that He is doing in us.
Phil Tu FJC Worship Leader
Worship
Page 7
On February 11th, we were able to give out 72
badges and certificates to our hardworking
students. We also celebrated their achievement
and faithfulness with a
Valentine party.
On February 22nd, Mariah
Ba l fou r and Jayden
LaGrotta were awarded
trophies in our main church
service for becoming an Honor Rainbow and an
Honor Prim. Between the 2 students, they had
received a total of 51
badges to receive this
special recognition. We
are so proud of them as
well as all of our students.
Come join
the fun.
In His Service,
Connie Frisinger
M Pact Coordinator
Children’s Ministries
In Journey Kids, we recently finished learning that the Reward for Everyone
who Accepts Christ is Heaven in our REACH series, and have continued into
the KidMo! series TEACH. During the next five weeks, we will start learning
how to live out God’s word in our lives through right Thinking, Exercising what
we know in our daily lives, Amplifying Jesus, Changing bad habits, and
Helping others. As we explore different Bible stories with Lester the Lab
Assistant and Mrs. Fluffynutter, we will continue to learn more about God and
grow in the truth.
We have also been working to get the kids excited about the upcoming
Missions Convention that Faith Journey is hosting for our missionaries. After
handing out Buddy Barrels in service, our children have been diligently
bringing in their change to contribute on their own as well.
Also coming up, we have our annual Easter egg hunt on Easter Sunday!
Our Journey Kids will have the opportunity to search for eggs around our
church campus and maybe even find one of our special prize eggs! I hope
you all can make it!
Jessica Scott
M’Pact clubs for girls first through fifth grade - and - Rainbows club for preschool aged girls and boys
Children’s Church
SUNDAYS @ 10:00AM
Freedom Kids Services for 3 yrs - Kindergarten
On Sunday mornings, our little ones (three
years old through kindergarten age) meet
together to learn, sing and play.
Journey Kids Services for 1st - 5th graders
Kids, bring along your energy on Sunday
mornings for Journey Kids! This is no time
to sit back and watch... every child is an
integral part of the service. Together,
we’re learning to worship, serve, reach out
and translate what we’re learning into
action in our own lives.
Important Dates
Mar 13 - Father/Son Overnight Campout, 7pm - Sat 8am
Mar 19 - End of Third Quarter / Talent & Art Show, K-8th, 7pm
Mar 20 - Teacher In Service - No School, Day Care Open
Mar 23-27 - Spring Break - No School, Day Care Closed
Apr 3 - Good Friday - No School, Day Care Closed
Apr 6 - Easter Monday - No School, Day Care Closed
Apr 13-17 - Achievement Testing, 1st-8th
Apr 17 - Middle School Program, 7pm
Apr 30 - Class Pictures
FOR MORE INFORMATION,
VISIT THE GCS WEBSITE!
www.gaardechrist ian.com
“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, to do good
works.” -Ephesians 2:10)
This verse continues to guide us as GCS gears up for
Missions Month, a time set aside to be intentional
about investing in the lives of others, seeking to serve
rather than be served.
During March Missions Month, students will be
challenged to bring canned food goods for the
Oregon Food Bank. Students will also meet
missionaries to Thailand, Kiel and Niina Downey in our
kick-off chapel, March 4th. Preschool through eighth
grade students will collect goods to meet some of their
needs as they prepare to move to Thailand.
Thank you for continuing to partner with us in the
education of your student. It is a pleasure to impress
upon them not only academic knowledge, but a
knowledge and understanding of serving and loving
others in the name of Christ.
Kendra Jones, Administrator “YOUR CHILDREN, OUR CALLING”
11265 SW Gaarde St. Tigard, OR 97224
Gaarde Christian School