Pastor’s Letter and Board News

As we are quickly leaving 2009 and looking forward to 2010, I have some wonderful news to share with you focused on new staff, a new ministry and a developing ministry! What God has done is breathtaking! Click on this link to read my winter letter.

Also, the Board and I are proposing some minor changes to our Constitution and By-Laws. You can read and download the document by clicking on this link. Voting for these changes will be after the morning service on January 10, 2010. Please review the proposed changes and rationale; feel free to contact any of our Board members with your questions.

Christmas Eve candlelight service

Invite your friends to our Christmas Eve candlelight service. This special time is for the entire family (parents will need to care for their children).

6:00-7:00 PM

Carols, Christmas story, Testimonies

Our Savior has come with gifts of love, joy, peace and hope!

Journey to hope

The journey of restoring love, worshipping joy and resting peace leads to a trusting hope. This is the message of Christmas 2009. Now, a final benediction:

Oh! May the God of hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope! (Romans 15:13)

578 Christmas dinners prepared

It was a great time in the kitchen yesterday! About 12 people (including children and pastor) came to help prepare:

Turkey and stuffing
Mashed potatoes
Sweet potatoes
Deviled eggs
Pies and cookies
Fruit
Salad

We estimated 578 servings…conservatively.

At the moment, we ARE planning to cook next Sunday. If you can help, please let Joe Walenciak jwalenciak@jbu.edu know.

Transition for the Copes

Dear Church family and friends,

We would like to express our thanks and appreciation after many years of service among our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, here in Siloam Springs First Christian.

We are closing this chapter of our lives and opening a new, exciting chapter of our Lord’s leading and we will be close to family.  We stand in awe of just in two weeks timing, everything has fallen in place, including the apartment is available and just waiting for us to move in.

We lift you all in our prayers, that the Lord will continue blessing you all and your families here at  First Christian; we are blessed to have brother Dean and Della Boyer and brother Jim and Cindy Rye to be  leading here with a fine group of Elders and Leadership.

May the love and trust and your faith in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ continue to give you the Peace, Joy and Beauty that we have shared over these past many years.

Our new address is:  River Pointe Independent Senior Living Apartment
5225 South Prince Street
Littleton, CO  80123-7772

If and when you are in Littleton, we would like to invite you to come and see us and spend some time  with us.

In His Love and In Love with Him,

Dale and Irene Cope

Journey to Peace

During this advent season, I have focused on love, joy, peace and hope. The journey to wholeness is possible because love came. Love leads to restoration, restoration to joy, joy to thankful worship, thankful worship to peace which is expressed through a settled soul, through rest.

Love, joy and peace are all internal qualities; restoration, worship, rest are external qualities, expressions of what has happened deep within.

None of these is affected by circumstances. Regardless of what is going on in our lives, we can still love, be joyful and have the peace of God because we are being restored, living with gratitude and maintaining peace with God.

Each of these qualities is a work of the Spirit of God. As Christ came all the way to us because we could not go to him, we are just as disabled to live lives of love, joy and peace apart from him.

Journey to Joy

God so loved the world that He gave His only Son…out of this love comes restoration and wholeness. Out of restoration and wholeness comes joy. When the Lord kisses our needs, at the deepest level, and heals and restores the woundedness and hurt, joy springs forth! Who but the Christian should be more joyful? Look at what Christ is doing and has done for us.

As Christmas lists are so common, I thought a list of reasons why we should be joyful would be good (these thoughts come from Pastor John MacArthur):

1. joy is a proper response to the character of God
2. joy is a proper appreciation for the work of Christ
3. joy is a proper confidence in the work of the Holy Spirit
4. joy is a proper response to spiritual blessings continually given
5. joy is a proper appreciation for answered prayer
6. joy is a proper response to divine providence
7. joy is a proper response to the promise of future glory

There are many more I’m sure. But, this week, let’s reflect on these seven.

Out of wholeness and restoration comes joy because they come to us from God’s character. God is a God of wholeness not fracture. He does not break our hearts or wound our spirits. He restores, heals and mends. He is faithful to stand with us, surround us, walk with us, grieve with us and live with us because he is personal. One day, we will be made completely whole and will see him as he is, in the fullness of his awesome character.

The Garden – update

The Garden@Siloam Springs prepared 736 servings of food today for the hungry of our community.  This is mostly recovered food that would have become trash…for no reason at all. Good food! And by the way, we can do ANYTHING with artichokes now!

Four-week total: 2,766 servings.

Advent – as Jesus came, he is coming again!

I love advent! As the Jews looked forward to the coming of the Messiah as Savior, we look forward to the coming of Jesus as King.

Advent (from the Latin word adventus, meaning “coming”) is a season of the Christian church, the period of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus; in other words, the period immediately before Christmas. Latin adventus is the translation of the Greek word parousia, commonly used in reference to the Second Coming. Christians believe that the season of Advent serves a dual reminder of the original waiting that was done by the Hebrews for the birth of their Messiah as well as the waiting that Christians today endure for the second coming of Christ.

This year, at church, we will focus on the themes of love (November 29), joy (December 6), peace (December 13) and hope (December 20) These themes are represented by the 4 candles surrounding the Christ candle. On Christmas eve we will light the Christ candle to celebrate the coming of our Savior and the expectation of his soon return.

Guatemala Children’s Art Expo

Hello Churches and Pastors of Benton County

My name is Patrick Boyd, I am currently a sophomore at John Brown University.  I would like to personally invite you and  your church families to this once in a lifetime event that we are having here at JBU.  It is called the Guatemala Children’s Art Expo, this is an art show for the whole family. The event is scheduled on December 3, 2009 from 5pm to 8pm in the Soderquist Business Atrium here at the main campus in Siloam Springs.

Guatemala City is the home for the largest dump in the world.  Men and women have to collect trash in order to make a living for their family. While the parents are at work, their children attend a poor and out-dated elementary school near by the dump. For the past 10 years, Dr. Joe Walenciak a professor at JBU, has been leading students down to the “dump” to interact with the children and to proclaim the testimony to Jesus Christ.

When you purchase a piece of the artwork, you will also receive a picture of the child with their “master piece”.  All the proceeds go back to the elementary school to buy school supplies and to provide scholarships to families that can’t afford to send their children.  So please come by, this is a great opportunity to catch a glimpse of God’s children in a different country.  Lastly there will be authentic Guatemalan food and drink.

Admission is Free!

Any donations will be gladly accepted.

For more information or any questions you may have, feel free to contact me at your connivence. We are looking forward to seeing all of you here at the Guatemala Children’s Art Expo.