WGCC

focus MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF WALNUT GROVE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

MAY 2011- VOLUME 5

Upcoming Events

1 by Youth -May 7

th

Mother’s Day

-May 8th

Ballerina Party

-May 21st

Nursing Home Church

-May 29th

Memorial Day

-May 30th

Walnut Grove’s

“To God be the Glory” Cookbook II

is in!

Cookbooks are on

sale at the church

for $12.

See any Eunice

Club member for

details!

Just in time for Mother’s Day!

MISSION NEWS

Our Mission of the Month for May is

Disciple Maker – Church Planters

1 by Youth May 7

th in Indianapolis

This is a one day mission trip to help beautify a

neighborhood in Indianapolis. Thank you to all who

has signed up to donate their time and skills!

EUNICE CLUB NEWS

The Eunice Club will be meeting Monday May 16th, 2011 at 9:00am at the church. Any questions, please contact Carol Nelson

Vacation Bible School GOLD RUSH! “Rock of Ages”

Howdy Partners! Grab your bandana, dust off your

boots and get ready to mine for true gold as we head

to the Old West!

June 20th

– 24th

Ages 4rs – 5th

grade

You may now register your child at http://answersvbs.com/vbs/walnutgrovechristianchurch/

or

pick up a form in the church office

Starting in May, Encounter will be taking a

break for the summer. What a great way to

connect with our church family and get a

Godly “pick me up” in the middle of the

week! Wednesday night service will resume

in the fall. Details about an exact date and

topic will come at a later date!

WEDNESDAY NIGHT ENCOUNTER

We would like to congratulate children that have decided to follow

Jesus and be baptized in Christ this year.

Hope Beever 1/9/11

Elizabeth Seals 1/30/11

Jayde Hoshauer 4/13/11

Baptism books are available for any child that is considering or has

questions about baptism. Please see Carol Nelson for a copy of the

book.

“Helping kids grow a living faith in a Loving God.”

The office will be

closed Monday,

May 30th

for

Memorial Day

Ballerina Party!

Girls’ ages birth – 5th

grade,

come join Gigi in her next

adventure “The Pink

Ballerina”.

There will be crafts, snacks &

story time!

P.S. Don’t forget to dress like

a ballerina! May 21st at 10:00am

Building Team

The Elders’ have appointed a building Team to discuss the expansion and direction of Walnut Grove. Team members are: Emerson Moore, Bob Beever, Don Munson, Nancy Boyer, Jeff Edwards and Shane Beever. Brandon Hatfield and Whit Lauwers serve in an advisory capacity. Meetings will be held each month to pray about the future of our church.

WGCC is again participating in CORE June 25th & 26th

The project we are hosting is a “free rummage” at the Methodist Church on June 25th. Please think about items you can donate. See Deb Beever for

more details.

Hey kids! Moms love it when you color them a picture for Mother’s Day!

Please check out the youth board or the church website for the most

recent schedule, updates and events for the months to come at The

Grove.

This past month at The Grove we’ve tackled one of the biggest and most controversial topics the kids want to know

about, yet hate to hear about all at the same time. Dating, Sex, Temptations, etc… Awkward!!! It’s actually been fun

and we pray it’ll have an impact on the way they look at dating and more importantly their future marriages, which

are still a long way off!

We’ve challenged the kids to live and date by just a few basic principles. We opened up by teaching on

Colossians 3 and encouraged the kids to live by characteristics of holy living and relay that into “holy dating.” The

second week of the series we talked about our biggest wishes, the reality of the fact that we often pour our greatest

values into a wishing well in the hopes that we’ll get something bigger in return. Jeremiah 2:13 “My people have

committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken

cisterns that cannot hold water.” Just like adults, junior high and high school students often look for fulfillment at

broken cisterns. They find wells to dump their time, efforts, purity and greatest values that were given to them by God

in the hopes to find living water. Unfortunately, teenage dating is quickly becoming one of the most popular wells

kids are running to and God’s greatest gifts and his offering of living water and fulfillment are being tossed into

wishing-wells. There is absolutely no question that any relationship or fulfillment found on earth is only going to

come from a complete focus on God. The next time The Grove comes together we’re going to discuss the “Now and

Later” impact on dating, temptations, and long term implications that caving into temporary needs can cause. Without

question, this seems to be the biggest issue kids are facing today and as the church and as followers of Christ the kids

need to hear God’s perspective and the biblical teachings. We can’t afford to let them only be educated through

media, friends and culture. They’re in desperate need to hear the truth and we are excited at how well they’ve

responded to the challenge to date in a way that lines up with God’s word.

On a couple other notes, The Grove will be heading to Indianapolis for a one day mission trip to Indianapolis,

Indiana which we’re really excited about! We’re praying the kids catch the vision of the weekend and understand the

importance of serving others so that it will become contagious and will result in serving others locally.

PARENTS! Monday, May 2nd

we’re scheduled to have our first Quarterly Connect meeting to update you all

on what we’ve been covering, what our plans are and most importantly to get some valuable feedback from you! This

first meeting, your kids are welcome to come out as well, so bring them with you!

Check out The Grove for the latest news and updates on both the website and its new Facebook page.

May 2011

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Joan Wingler

Building Team

7:00pm

1 by Youth

mission trip

8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Mother’s Day

Rhonda

Phillips

VBS Adult

Volunteer mtg

6:30pm

Worship Team

7:00pm

Chad Arnold

Council

7pm

Sisterhood

6 pm

Deacons’ Mtg

6:30 am

Elders’ Mtg

8:00am

15 16 17 18 19 20 21 VBS Youth

Volunteer mtg

6:00pm

Eunice Club

9am

Bob Coombe

Ed Dever

Kris Kersey

Doyle Rardin

Outreach

7pm

Randy &

Sandy Pierce

Sisterhood

6 pm

Youth Team

7pm

Ballerina Party

10:00am

22 23 24 25 26 27 28

Rosemary

Austin

Jeff Chambliss

Randy Pierce

Kristopher

Kersey

Kendra Young

Sisterhood

6 pm

Dean Nelson

Earl & Julie

Hutton

29 30 31 Nursing Home

Church

2:00pm

Memorial Day

Office Closed

Emily Coombe

■ Anniversaries ■ Birthdays WGCC Events WGCC Meetings

From Brandon’s Desk… “Slowing Down”

I just learned about a new social network website called, “Foursquare.” I‟m not an expert on it, but

from my understanding, it is a site that uses the GPS device on your cell phone to locate you when you go to

certain places, or you also have the option to text where you are, and people all over the world will know

where you had dinner last night. There‟s more to it than that, but that‟s the general idea. When I found out

about this, I thought to myself, „Is this really necessary?‟

Our world is so fast-paced, fast food chains try to move us in and out like an assembly line.

Commercials flash a dozen pictures in front of us in a matter of seconds, songs can be downloaded to our

Ipods in seconds. Our fast-paced world teaches us to move quickly and accomplish more. But shouldn‟t

there be a time to slow down? How can a Christian hear God‟s voice with a Bluetooth device on their ear?

As believers in Christ, we are to look not only to our own interests, but to the interests of others. We

are called to put others above ourselves. Unfortunately everything about our culture tells us that we are

more important, and it‟s easy to fall into the trap of believing that life is all about ourselves. I wonder what

would happen if Christians would take the time they spend „staying connected‟ and use that time to serve

unselfishly. How would that impact the lives of those around us?

And what about us? How many of us have a greater desire for Christ and His Word than reading

Facebook posts? It‟s an easy test, ask yourself how many hours a week do I spend on Facebook or other

time-sucking activities, and compare that to the number of hours you spend in God‟s Word and devoted in

prayer. The results may be very telling about your relationship with God. Take time this week to „unplug and

disconnect‟ from the world, and reconnect with Jesus.

“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful… be wise in the way you act

toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.” -Colossians 4:2, 5

See you Sunday,

-Brandon

Non-Profit Orgn.

U.S. Postage

PAID

Arcola, Illinois

PERMIT NO. 24

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 8:00 &10:30am

SUNDAY SCHOOL 9:30am

FELLOWSHIP 9:00am

Brandon Hatfield……Preaching Minister

Whit Lauwers.……....Youth Minister

Tera Arnold……….Ministry Assistant

OR CURRENT RESIDENT