SAF NEWS National Day of Prayer-May 7th Writing this in April, we don’t know yet what May 7th will be like. But I

encourage you to pray by yourself, with family or digitally with some-

one these seven points for seven days. Here are some ideas for

praying during these challenging times;

Step outside to pray if possible or open your window and

encourage your neighbors to pray with you.

Pray with your family

Pray in a virtual meeting; LIFE Group, Sunday school class or

Wednesday Prayer meeting.

May our gracious and merciful God shower His blessings upon us.

Pastor Don

Stow Alliance Fellowship Newsletter May, 2020

Pray for Families: to stand strong against our current culture that tries to dismantle them

Pray for the Military: to be safe as they place themselves in harm’s way in order to protect our way of life.

Pray for our Government: to be filled with men and women in office who are committed to serving their constituents

with integrity.

Pray for the Church: that the Lord would spark a revival throughout our nation, protect the witness of our pastors, and

continue to sanctify and purify Christians around the world.

Pray for Education: for the Lord to raise up a new generation of dedicated educators who will commit themselves not

only to an honest, accurate presentation of all subject matter, but who will also serve as positive role models for their

students.

Pray for the Media: that these powerful and influential voices in our culture will be staffed with members and execu-

tives who are committed to accuracy and integrity. Also pray that the actors, musicians and athletes our young people

seek to emulate will be worthy of our respect and admiration.

Pray for Business: that God will provide corporate America with business leaders who are committed to conducting

themselves honorably.

For Such a Time as This By Julie Kitchen

This phrase from Esther 4 has come to my mind again and again

during this season of shelter in place. Many years ago, I had a

desire to take some college classes to help me with music tech-

nology, in order to be more effective at my ministry. Stark State

College in Canton has a two-year program in music production.

This got my attention and I began looking into it. Fearful as I

was, I decided to jump in the Fall semester of 2017. (I could not

have known that both my parents would die during that period of

time). Because of all my other commitments, I have only been

able to take a class or two at a time. One of the required courses

was called Video Recording and Editing. I DID NOT want to take

this. How could this class benefit me and my ministry? I wasn’t

interested in wasting my time. There were no other reasonable

class options that semester that would fit with my schedule. I

enrolled in that class, with fear and trembling. This class ended

up being very enjoyable and challenging. I completed the class

last Spring.

Little did I know that God definitely had a purpose for me taking

it. That first week of lock down, John and I were trying to figure

out what to do for our church service. He had a sermon prepared

and we were not keen on doing Facebook Live. It was at that

moment, we thought we would try to put together a video for that

Sunday. In January and February, I had been filming our chil-

dren to put a piece together for Easter. This was done and to-

gether before March. Having my hands wet, I was ready to dive

in and work on videos for our services. John and I have brain-

stormed each week on ways we can creatively incorporate oth-

ers.

The hymn arrangements have been done through a program

that I learned in my Music Synthesis class. Yes, I am actually

playing the parts on the piano/keyboard, but I have an opportuni-

ty to layer the parts and fix all the mistakes. Isn’t that amazing! It

is too bad that isn’t possible to do live. I have enjoyed creatively

composing introductions and interludes to these hymns. In using

hymns, we are using pieces that are old enough to not infringe

on copyrights. Please pray for Pastor John and I as we continue

to do this and figure out how we are going to transition back. We

talk about it so often. We love you all and miss you terribly! God

bless.

Pastor Kitchen’s Update I bring you May greetings! Three months

ago just the mention of May brought me

visions of warm weather, blooming flowers,

leafed-out trees, and new freedoms to be

out of our homes and into the wider world,

heading toward a great summer of longed-

for activities.

Then reality showed up.

Aren’t you glad to know Jesus?

I am grateful to hear of Governor DeWine’s

efforts to re-open our state. I am equally

glad for his seeking wisdom and caution in

doing so. He and all our leaders need our

prayers; we are commanded to provide

those prayers (1 Tim. 2:1ff.). Yesterday

(April 27) the Governor unveiled tentative

first steps toward reopening, warning that

all things will be carefully monitored before

any additional steps will be taken toward a

wider, fuller reopening.

Thus far nothing he has disclosed changes

the realities for Stow Alliance Fellowship.

Our staff continues under the Elder’s direc-

tives to work from home if able and if we do

come to the building to follow strict health

guidelines. The building continues to be in

a state of general lockdown. Our custodial

team has been doing thorough deep-

cleaning and sanitizing rooms in prepara-

tion for the day we can restart our meet-

ings. All gatherings are prohibited at this

time. We are under a spending freeze in

areas considered non-essential under our

present circumstances.

The Elders have established a sub-

committee to begin preparing policies and

procedures for the eventual restart of our

gatherings. Any firm estimates of when that

might be and exactly what that might look

like are simply guess-work at this point.

Continued next page

“I'm thankful for friends

and family who take time

to check on me, send

cards, letters, donations

to Gideons and supply

me with jobs to do to

stay busy while I am iso-

lated. What a blessing to

have the mask ministry

to work on!

- Sandie Hurd

Although this certainly isn’t

the way any of our graduat-

ing seniors planned to end

their high school tenure, we

still want to recognize them

for their accomplishment of

completing this important

phase in their lives. Please

join us in congratulating

them!

Graham Alvarez

Hudson H.S.

Jacob Britton

Springfield H.S.

Taylor Dye

Stow Munroe Falls H.S.

Evelyn Engle

Stow Munroe Falls H.S.

Aaliyah Ruppel

Field H.S.

Cierra Sheller

Lake Center Christian

Ethan Wedo

Stow Munroe Falls H.S.

Youth Ministry As quarantine has changed many of our lives, I have found this time to be

both frustrating and challenging in a good way. This has challenged me to

become more digitally present than I have ever been before. I feel like every

day I’m learning something new I can do digitally to connect with people. We

continue using the ZOOM app to have meetings on Wednesday nights. I have

started what I am calling daily connections. Each week we will focus on a top-

ic. Starting with Saturday and ending on Wednesday night, each day will have

a different way to connect. These are quick little connections throughout the

week that all tie together in one big way.

I am using a new platform to communicate and connect with parents and

youth. I am now using the BAND app. You can use this from any smart phone

or computer. BAND functions much like FB groups, but also has an event cal-

endar that is linked to the church event calendar. I find it to be more user

friendly too. My goal is to be doing all communication through BAND. There is

a Parents BAND, and a Student BAND. Parents, if you have not received

an invitation to BAND from me, please contact me so I can add you.

You can contact me directly by cell 234.901.0193 or by email at cmilet-

ti@stowalliance.org.

Pastor Chris

Upcoming Events

VBS – Sadly, we have had to cancel VBS due to the uncertainty caused by

the virus. Thanks to those who were willing to help!

Renew the City – Renew the city has been cancelled this year.

In the midst of all this, I want you to know how proud I am of you. I

hear pastors lamenting their people’s lethargy and lack of initiative

in continuing to minister to one another and the community around

them. I, in contrast, am amazed as I hear ever-new reports of ways

you refuse to be held captive by the virus crisis and seek out and

find new ways within the necessary guidelines of our leaders to

reach out, love one another, serve others, and hold forth the love

and hope of Jesus. Thank you for being the church!

There’s no accident that we live in these days. God has appointed

us to this. This virus did not take God by surprise. He has eternal

matters He is working out in this—across the landscape of nations

and in individual hearts. Let’s purpose to be a part of the eternal in

the midst of temporal terrors and trials.

In Christ our Hope,

Pastor John Kitchen

Remember Nhu Update By Kim Williams

Locust and Coronavirus Concerns

Even before the corona virus came to East Africa, that area of the world had been in

the news because of enormous swarms of locusts that are eating many of the crops. I

have been in contact with the house parents of our two homes in Kenya as well as the

Director of Overseas Operations concerning both the swarms of locusts and the corona

virus. The locusts have not been in the region of Kenya where are our girls’ homes are

located. Prices of groceries, however, are slightly higher. Due to the corona virus, the

girls are now home from school in lockdown. This means that more food is needed to

feed everyone! Additionally, the house parents are keeping informed on what the Ken-

yan Ministry of Health is telling them to do to stay safe during this time, and are follow-

ing their instructions. The girls are safe, but have many questions and are a little

afraid.

What can we do to help?

We will be sending them money from a general Remember Nhu fund designated for

such things to help them through this. We currently have funds to cover this, and it is

because many have already donated to the Remember Nhu Kenya Home

fund. Thank-you to all who have donated so that we can act quickly on this need.

We can pray that the house parents will have wisdom on how to answer the girl’s ques-

tions, that the girls will have peace during this time, for the locusts to continue to re-

main out of their area of the country, and for the Kenyan government to have wisdom

concerning the various corona virus issues that need to be thought through and that

they will proceed with honorable intent.

Communications

While communicating with the Director of Overseas Operations, I learned that Remem-

ber Nhu is working to improve communications with the house parents. Before the

corona virus caused them to go into lockdown, the Remember Nhu Kenyan field direc-

tor made a trip to Kenya, where he talked with the house parents about getting internet

access and computers into their homes to improve communications. Because of the

lockdown, having access to computers in their own homes becomes even more im-

portant. The computers will be used to communicate with the with various Remember

Nhu personnel, the children’s sponsors, and with us, their sponsor church! We have

enough money in the Remember Nhu Kenya Home fund to help them out with this

project as well.

Land Fund News

SAF has raised $54,574 for the Remember Nhu Land fund, or 91.5% of the $60,000

goal, and that’s without including anything that our partner church, Northgate Commu-

nity Church in Cathedral City, CA has raised! During his trip to Kenya, the field director

took an architect to the town where our girls live to begin the process of searching for

the right land. With the coronavirus lockdown in Kenya, this has slowed to a halt for

right now. The field director asked me to convey his sincere appreciation for the sacri-

fices we have made to raise this money. Please pray that when the time is right, suita-

ble land will be found that will meet the needs for our Remember Nhu homes, and it will

be at a reasonable price.

Next steps…We are in the process of figuring out the plans for the homes to get a

better estimate of cost to build. That also has been stopped for right now, but will re-

sume when the lockdown in Kenya eases up. Please be in prayer about that as well.

Regretfully, we must announce

that, due to the uncertainty of the

future regarding measures to

stop the spread of the corona-

virus, we are cancelling VBS

2020. Thank you to all who

were willing to volunteer their

time for this community event.

We look forward to next year!

Treasurer Update: Below is the first quarter report. It includes the first 3 Sunday’s that we met virtually. Thank you for your faithful giving to Stow Alliance Fellowship. It has been exciting to see how many of you are finding

ways to do community outside of our “normal life”. I am thankful to be able to report to you God’s faithfulness that has

been expressed through your faithful giving.

If you are not currently on our birthday and/or anniversary list and would like to be, please call the church office and let us know!

Myron Koyle, Sr. 5/3

Dorothy Costen 5/4

Gina Underwood 5/5

Ethan Wedo 5/6

Carter Trowbridge 5/8

Peggy Armentrout 5/9

Keerstyn Ruppel

Don Abbott 5/15

Irene Abbott 5/16

Joe Grecco 5/21

Dale Williams

Steve Stoner 5/22

Jason Gavin 5/23

Steve Brooks

Homer Gibson 5/26

Brent Trowbridge 5/27

Theda Rowland 5/28

Marlynn Soliwoda

Dean Jones 5/29

Samuel Smith

Melanie Warman

Caleb Chapman 5/30

Paul Hetherington

Lisa MacAdam

Keaton Smith

Steve Trowbridge

Gwen Bauer 5/31

Luca & Amanda Whittington 5/19

Walt & Gloria Thompson 5/22

Tom & Jan Sparrow 5/27

Jason & Sara Lohmier 5/30