Preaching for the Month of August: ( 5) Rev. Micheal Edwards (12) Rev. Micheal Edwards (19) Rev. Kelvin Spooner (26) Rev.

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1 Pastor s Reflection: Reformed Church in America August 2018 Monthly Church Newsletter Rev. Dr. Micheal Edwards Senior Pastor it simply means that you do not believe that Jesus means what He says. He teaches where He instructs us not to teach. Master let us make three tabernacles (Luke 9:33). Are we playing the part of an amateur providence, trying to play God s role in the lives of others? Are we so noisy in our instruction of other people that God cannot get near them? We must learn to keep our mouths shut and our spirits alert. God wants to instruct us regarding His Son, and He wants to turn our times of prayer into mounts of transfiguration. When we become certain that God is going to work in a particular way, He will never work in that way again. He works where He sends us to wait. tarry until (Luke 24:49). Wait on the Lord and He will work (Psalm 37:34). But don t wait sulking spiritually and feeling sorry for yourself, just because you can t see one inch in front of you! Are we detached enough from our own spiritual fits of emotion to wait patiently for Him? (37:7). Waiting is not sitting with folded hands doing nothing, but it is learning to do what we are told. These are some of the facets of His ways that we rarely recognize. Congregational Conversations with Pastor on Change and Sustainability Change is an inevitable part of life; it s also an opportunity for growth and transformation if we allow it to become so. During many of new regulations concerning Faith Based Religious Organizations/Churches, we had several wonderful opportunities to talk together more deeply about change; as this year continues, we d like to continue to talk and to grow together as one DeWitt. God s Church at DeWitt is moving into the future building healthy church community, a prayerful centered ministry, innovating models for financial sustainability, and creating a warm and welcoming invitation to all people. As your pastor, we will seek prayerful conversations on big questions we are facing as a church community and how we are embracing change together. Learning About His Ways When Jesus finished commanding His twelve disciples He departed from there to teach and to preach in their cities (Matthew 11:1). He comes where He commands us to leave. If you stayed home when God told you to go because you were so concerned about your own people there, then you actually robbed them of the teaching of Jesus Christ Himself. When you obeyed and left all the consequences to God, the Lord went into your city to teach, but as long as you were disobedient, you blocked His way. Watch where you begin to debate with Him and put what you call your duty into competition with His commands. If you say, I know that He told me to go, but my duty is here, 1 Preaching for the Month of August: ( 5) Rev. Micheal Edwards (12) Rev. Micheal Edwards (19) Rev. Kelvin Spooner (26) Rev. Micheal Edwards Birthday of the Month: August 8 th Elder Hattie Mitchell, 11 th Lydia Wilkens 12 th Elder Cora J. Gammons, 15 th Deacon Yvonne Foster 16 th Deacon Norma Klausner, 16 th Xakiela Garcia 16 th, Carol Fritz, 23 rd Corey Arrington, 23 rd Cheryl Lewis 23 rd Sue Meyers, 28 th Lillian Robinson 31 st Kenneth Creightney Praying: for our youth and young adults as they return to schools & college. Pray for one another. Tuesday Bible Study: Resume on September 18, :30pm Wednesday Bible Study: Resume on September 19, pm. Bible Study packet will be distributed on Sunday, September 9, 2018.

2 Young Adult Bible Study: TBD SAVE THE DATES: See Flyer for detail information GOSPEL FEST: August 12, 2018 at the Highbridge Church HOMECOMING: September 9, 2018 see Food requested Donation/Contribution sheet in bulletin on the last Sunday of August. To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart. Eleanor Roosevelt If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn t lead anywhere. Frank A. Clark I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying. Michael Jordan Newly appointed RCA Minister at the Cambria Heights Community Church. Rev. Spooner last sermon as Associate in Ministry at DeWitt. We will be having a farewell reception for Rev. and Elder Spooner on August 19, Blessings in your New Ministry. Health Updates with Nurse Carol: First Sunday of August: Immediately after morning worship service PCT 7: Tuesday, August 7, 2018, 4pm Dewitt will be participating in the annual National Night Out against Crime: Please visit our table display: East Broadway on Clinton Street. Recycling: August 1, 2018 Mandated by the City of New York SAVE THE DATE: RCA Conference on Racism Members are invited to attend September 8, am 3PM School Supplies Distribution: at Primitive Church on August 13, 2018, 4pm 6pm Back to School Festival: Gouverneur Hospital, August 25, :30am 2:30pm: Location will be announced Preparation for worship For the Week of August 5 As the sun burns hot these days, set our hearts on fire with enthusiasm for your Word and for serving the world in your name, Jesus. For the Week of August 12 God, as students prepare to go back to school, remind us all that your Word is useful for teaching (2 Timothy 3:16, NRSV) year-round! May we never stop learning the truth of your powerful love! For the Week of August 19 Despite all the despair and hurt in the world, with the psalmist I put [my] hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and... full redemption (Psalm 130:7, NIV). For the Week of August 26 How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD of hosts! (Psalm 84:1, NRSV). I rejoice to be in your presence! Reflective Thoughts 2 Words of welcome Sisters and brothers in Christ, I welcome you to worship and Christian fellowship. May you find blessing and strength in your participation here this morning [evening]. The earth has yielded its increase (Psalm 67:6). In late summer days, as gardens and fields ripen, we gather to praise our generous God! Welcome. The heart of Jesus The idea of a spiritual heart transplant is a vivid image to me; once you have the heart of somebody else inside you, then that heart is there. Jesus heart is inside me, and my heart is gone. So if God were to place a stethoscope against my chest, he would hear the heart of Jesus Christ beating. Max Lucado September 2, 2018: 9am Prayer and meditation time 10am Sunday School 11am Worship Service What spills out? Rev. Henry Wingblade once compared the Christian personality to the unseen soup in a bowl carried high over a waiter s head. No one knows what's inside unless the waiter is bumped or trips. If Jesus is truly living inside us, Wingblade said, what spills out should be the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. When you falter, what do people see? How can your spillage better reflect the Holy Spirit, who lives in you? A sermon on legs

3 I d rather see a sermon than hear one any day: I d rather one would walk with me than merely tell the way. The eye s a better pupil, and more willing than the ear. Fine council is confusing, but example s always clear. Edgar A. Guest Pearls of wisdom A man begins cutting his wisdom teeth the first time he bites off more than he can chew, said Herb Caen. Though his tongue may have been planted firmly in his cheek, right next to said wisdom teeth, we do indeed learn from our mistakes including the mistake of thinking we can handle more than we can, or that we know more than we do, or that we don t need anyone s help (including God s). As far back as Old Testament times, people collected wisdom sayings into books from which we can still learn. Foundational to the book of Proverbs, attributed to King Solomon, is this first nugget of wisdom: The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge (1:7). May we cut the wisdom teeth of our lives not by foolishly overestimating ourselves but by following God. Words of welcome Good morning [evening], and welcome to worship in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ! Please welcome those sitting near you. Jesus said, I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry (John 6:35, NRSV). You have come into this physical space; I invite you also to let your heart be nourished by the true bread from heaven. Great are the works of the LORD! (Psalm 111:2): long summer days, meteor showers, lakes and forests, time for vacation and rest. Let us worship our generous God. Welcome to worship, and a special extension of friendship to our visitors. May all who gather here experience the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7, ESV). Looking up World-renowned cosmologist Stephen Hawking ( ) stated: Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. His sentiment is especially fitting for August, when many people try to count the falling stars of the Perseid meteor shower. 3 As a self-proclaimed atheist, Hawking relied on science to answer what makes the universe exist. Yet many Christians believe that while science shows how things happen or were created, our faith tells who made them so. Deuteronomy 4:19 (NIV) declares: And when you look up to the sky and see... the heavenly array do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven. We can be grateful for the work of scientists and the wonders their study reveals, but instead of bowing down to nature, we worship its Creator and Ruler the Lord of heaven and earth. Harvest time! With harvest underway or imminent, fields of ripe grain, tall cornstalks and soybeans turning brown recall Jesus words to the disciples: The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest (Matthew 9:37-38, ESV). Nowadays farmers use fewer laborers and bigger machines than in decades past. But what about harvests of faith? Leading people to know God s love can t be done mechanically. Studies show that newspaper ads or doorhangers left anonymously are less effective at bringing people to church than a warm personal invite. Right after urging his disciples to pray for harvest workers in a classic instance of You might be God s answer to your own prayer! Jesus sends them out as those very laborers! How will they work the harvest? Not by guilting people into faith. Not by pronouncing judgment or biblical law. But by using Jesus authority to counter evil, illness and brokenness among those they befriend. Ponder and pray about where Jesus is sending you as his laborer to cultivate and reap Christian faith and assurance of God s love. Renewable energy Keep close to nature s heart... break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean. John Muir Living sacrifices In Romans 12:1, Paul urges Jesus followers to perform spiritual worship by being a living sacrifice. For Old Testament believers, that concept would have been an oxymoron. A sacrifice, after all, required bloodshed and death to absolve sins. New Testament believers us included may squirm at the idea too. The problem with a living sacrifice, as D.L. Moody noted, is that it keeps crawling off the altar.

4 Living for Jesus is an all-in commitment. Being a living sacrifice involves forsaking the world and our own desires. But through God s grace and Jesus sacrificial love, we can alter our attitude and stay on the altar. Prayer from the heart John Bunyan said, In prayer it is better to have a heart without words than words without a heart. A story told by a 19 th -century Jewish rabbi shares the same idea: A disheveled old man entered a synagogue for the first time. Not realizing he was holding the prayer book upside down, he tried to follow the congregation s singing, but his words were incorrect. Finally, he simply looked toward heaven, repeating one Hebrew word over and over. After worship, some people complained to the rabbi, Why didn t you ask him to leave? He replied, That man said more to God with his one word than some of us will ever say in our whole lives. God hears the words of the heart. Crossing the border Some Christians know the exact date they received Jesus as Savior. Others come to faith through a gradual process; they can t say precisely when they became a disciple. Norman Warren (How Do I Face Life s Uncertainty?) tells of meeting refugees who d fled horrible circumstances and crossed into Austria. One woman had left Yugoslavia after her parents died of starvation. At the Austrian border she was given a visa stamped with the date and time of her entry, so she could always name the exact moment she stepped into her new life. Another refugee had journeyed over the mountains from Communist Russia. He didn t know precisely when he crossed the invisible border line, but when he arrived at an Austrian village, he knew for certain he was free. God leads people into new life in various ways. We travel different routes but thanks be to God! our final destination is the same. Bible Quiz Who had a staff sprout, bud, blossom and produce almonds, indicating that God had chosen him for a special reason? A. Moses B. Zechariah C. Aaron D. Nathan Answer: C (See Numbers 17:1-11, specifically v. 8.) Out of mind When my wife and I argue, she always gets historical, a man said. Don't you mean hysterical? his friend asked. No, I mean historical, the man replied. She s always bringing up the past! 4 Forgiveness is tough when you can t stop dwelling on wrongs and slights. If you have that problem, consider the 24-letter tongue-twister issumagijoujungnainermik. Around 1739, Moravian missionaries faced a lexical gap when they tried to explain forgiveness to an Eskimo Indian tribe. Their language didn t have an adequate word for the concept, so the missionaries had to create one using several existing Eskimo words. The result is a mouthful, but it s a perfect expression of the true meaning of forgiveness. Issumagijoujungnainermik translates as not being able to think about it anymore. Our bright beacon We are frequently advised to read the Bible with our own personal needs in mind, and to look for answers to our own private questions.... But better still is the advice to study the Bible objectively... without regard, first of all, to our own subjective needs. Let the great passages fix themselves in our memory. Let them stay there permanently, like bright beacons, launching their powerful shafts of light upon life s problems our own and everyone s. Following such a method, we discover that the Bible does speak to our condition and meet our needs, not just occasionally or when some emergency arises, but continually. Frederick C. Grant Christian Symbol: Seven-Branched Candlestick The seven-branched candlestick represents the Holy Spirit and its seven gifts in the listing from Isaiah 11:2-3: wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, fear of the Lord, and delight in the Lord. (By contrast, the Hanukkah menorah is a ninebranched candelabrum lit during the eight-day Jewish holiday.) Prayer Fellowship Clinic - Breakfast Begins: October 14, 2018 at 7:30am Book Club: 11pm Members who attended the annual National Crime Night events. Those members who also participated in outreach efforts for DeWitt: Carnivals, Flea Markets and Lower East Side Activities. RCA Classis of New York/Collegiate Grant initiatives: If you have a ministry that will provide Outreach opportunities, and needs funding, please secure application from pastor and complete the grant application by August 30, Possible Flea Market: August 2018

5 See Pastor and Mother Howell THE DEWITT REFORMED CHURCH SCHOLARSHIP FUNDS: REV. DR. MICHEAL EDWARDS SCHOLARSHIP AWARD Rev. Edwards Scholarships for Academic Excellence and Educational Improvement provide DeWitt youth with an opportunity to be recognized for their educational achievement during school year This award of recognition will provide some financial rewards and acknowledgement of their efforts during their school year. Please pick up application from Minister or First Lady. Deadline: August 30, 2018 Federation of Protestant Welfare Scholarship: Honorees: Jamila Amanfu Christian Education Scholarship 2018: See officers of the Christian Education Ministry for application. See Sis. Bernice McCallum for information The Late Elder Dorothy Wills Scholarship: See Sis. Bernice McCallum for information. Application and essay are reviewed by family for consideration. SUMMER PROJECTS: Save the Date:: Masaryk Anniversary Banquet Gathering: September 8, Thanks to the Church members for helping clean the Sanctuary and Chapel: 2. Thanks to Sis. Connie Jones Martin for coordinating and our Youth in the FPWA scholarship application process. 3. Thanks to our members who participated in the NYC HHC Gouverneur Faith Based Conference. 4. Thanks to our cooks and assistants for a wonderful Picnic. 5. Thanks to our members who donated clothes to the various shelters. 6. Thanks for the food donations: Picnic. CHURCH ASSESSMENT: Payment is due! EFSP Rent or Utility Arrears Fund FPWA currently has funds available to pay for one month of rent or utility arrears. Applicants must provide proof that rent or utility is only one month in arrears. Assistance is offered through our Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP) funds. If a clients' rent or utility has been previously paid by an EFSP grant in 2018, they are ineligible to apply. An advocate must first assess individual cases and call or Blanche Centeno- Hatwood, Program Director at or bcenteno@fpwa.org with specific details, including financial and background information available, in order to proceed with the application process. Funds are limited and will expire August 31 st. St. Augustine Episcopal Church: September 29, Church Anniversary Banquet - TBD Cambria Heights Church Anniversary: September 29, 2018: September 29, 2018 RCA Regional Women Ministry at Elmendorf Reformed Church RCA AAC Eastern Region Meeting 9am 1pm AT Dewitt - September 29, 2018 RCA AA/BC Caucus on October 3 & 4 at Newark Crown Plaza. RCA MISSION OPPORTUNITIES: RCA & the Marble Church: South Africa Mission: October 4 15, 2018 See Rev. Edwards for application. RCA Women Ministry: Global experience to Bahrain & India- January 14 26, See Elder Williams for additional information. 5

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