RUHL S CHURCH WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

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1 In This Edition Page 1 2 Announcements RUHL S CHURCH WEEKLY NEWSLETTER Page 3 Vision Team Update Page 4- Safe Sanctuaries Page 5- Pastor s Column Page 6- Calendar This Week in Worship With the 4th in the middle of the week, is it the holiday weekend? Or, the holiday weekend, part 2? Whatever the case might be in regards to the 4th for anyone and everyone, this Sunday is the second Sunday in our new series, Abundant Living. Last week we introduced the topic, establishing a starting point. That point was that if we are to have abundant life, and if indeed we do have abundant life, because of our faith, then there can be no question that the abundance is found in Jesus. The abundance that we should be striving after is not the abundance of the world. This week, we will continue our exploration. The text for Sunday is John 15:1-8. No surprise, Jesus figures prominently. Come on out Sunday and learn how. And, oh yeah, there will be some great music and great fellowship too! Who could you invite? Hmmm See you Sunday! Prayer Walkers! Join us to pray and walk around the inside of the church for 45 min on Thursday mornings at 9am. We will meet and begin our mile walk inside the building. As we walk we will pray for our church and many other requests and also celebrate a time of praise. Just show up at 9 ready to walk. VBS Help Needed VBS is coming up fast and I have a few jobs that I could use some help with. First, invite your family, friends, and neighbors. Second, help with decorating. How can you do that you ask? The theme this year is Shipwrecked and I need some decorations! I could use some help with decoration items. We would only need your items till the Sunday after VBS is over. Some items we need are: Big Anchor, Old Trunk style suit cases, some oars/paddles, big rope/chain, fake tropical style plants. Having these items will help make setting up and decorating go smoothly. We always do a great job decorating every year and you can help by letting us borrow your stuff! If you have any other items that you think would fit well in a shipwrecked theme please see Dustin. The third job we will need help for is on Sunday, July 29 th after church to transform the NFH into a shipwreck for this year s VBS. We will use your donated items to decorate the NFH. A lunch will be provided please stay and help decorate and get everything set up for our week of VBS. Many hands make light work. Thank you again. The fourth Job I need help with is volunteers to lead crews and to help out where needed. I have a signup sheet on the bulletin board in the NFH. Please sign up and mark which days you can help. Thank you so much.

2 Spring 2018 Finance Committee Update Thank you for your faithful giving and support of the ministries of Ruhl s Church so far in 2018! Your gifts enable all of us to work together as a church family to maintain the building, support Pastor Blaine and the other staff in their ministries, while reaching out in love to our community and the world through mission and outreach. That is something to celebrate! Administrative Assistant In recent years we have had to tighten our belts as a church by decreasing operating expenses and getting by without the support of a regular secretary to handle day to day administrative tasks. Volunteers have done an admirable job filling the gap and Dustin and Blaine have graciously taken time to keep things afloat, but we would love to see the church reach a point financially where hiring a part-time administrative assistant again could be a reality. Please think and pray about how we can increase support to the church to meet this goal. e-giving Have you ever forgotten to write a check for offering or realized you didn t bring cash with you to church? The finance team has been discussing whether an investment in online and mobile giving platforms would be worthwhile for Ruhl s. Benefits include being able to give from anywhere, the option to set up recurring donations, and an online record of your giving. If e-giving sounds like something you would use, we d love to hear from you! Please contact Dave Achey or another member of the finance team. Financial Summary thru May 2018 General Fund Donations: $125,849 Operating Expenses: $132,405 Operating Deficit: ($6,556) Come out and join us for a great time of food and fellowship at the Annual Ruhl's Community Picnic. July 21, 2018 At the church grove on Newport Road. Take-Out chicken corn soup starting at 9:00 a.m. and selling all day. Food items available for purchase during lunch and supper. For Kids - Bounce Castle, Children's Tent and Barrel Train Rides Unforgettable Big Band playing from 5:00 p.m.-8:00 p.m. We need lots of help the week prior to the picnic and on picnic day! Tuesday, July 17-8:00 a.m. - clean up and prepare grove by washing dishes and chicken cans, clean pavilion, outhouses, freezer and refrigerators Thursday, July 19-8:00 a.m. - cook and debone chicken - lunch will be provided Saturday, July 21 - All Day - help is needed to prepare soup, serve take-out soup, prepare food items for lunch and supper time, serve ice-crean, hand out drinks, cashiers, and clean up duty Baked good are also needed for the day of the picnic. Pies, cakes, individually wrapped whoopie pies, brownies, cookies, etc. Please contact Curt and Joyce Diffenderfer or Chuck and Gail Ruhl with questions or to sign up to help.

3 VISION TEAM UPDATE Hello all. I want to share a little update with you from the Vision Team. The work continues! We are making progress with the Church Survey Interviews but there are still many that we haven t gotten to, or heard from. We would love to hear from everyone who is involved in our shared life together at Ruhl s. Members of the Vision Team are contacting people in the congregation to conduct these interviews. If you have not been contacted yet, your turn is coming. Or, consider giving a Vision Team member a call to initiate the interview. Members of the Vision Team are: Josh Gray, Seth Achey, Joyce Luscian, Joanne McClain, Steph Heisey, Kris Gray, Suzy Achey, John Renninger, Ted Achey, and Pastor Blaine. We appreciate the sharing that has been done so far. Please, understand, there are not right or wrong answers. We are trying to gather basic information from the congregation in a number of areas. In order for this information to be most useful, we do need names so that we can break questions down according to different demographics, or to follow up if we have questions. Names are important. A Reminder Here are the questions that are on the survey 1 How would you describe Ruhl s Church? 2 What do you like best about Ruhl s? 3 What would you change if you could? 4 What should our focus be? 5 How would you describe the local community? 6 What is our job in the local community? 7 What can we do to help people live the lives God intended them to? (What are some specific ways we can help in our community?) 8 Imagine you were attending a church for the first time; what would encourage you to return? We are asking for your help to complete these interviews so that we can move on with the next steps in our process. We plan to wrap up interviews by the end of August. We will spend September compiling the information. Then, in October we are looking to host a number of cottage meetings to share our findings and get feedback. Finally, in November, we look to take a Sunday to talk about the findings in Sunday School classes and then we will begin to work on writing a Vision Statement, Mission Statement, Core Values, and Goals that will be shared and reviewed with the congregation before final adoption. So, there is considerable work and process ahead of us. But, we are making progress. Please keep the Team and this process in your prayers. Again, thank you. Grace & Peace, Pastor Blaine (for the Vision Team)

4 Safe Sanctuaries - Did you know, Ruhl s Church has a policy for child safety, called "Safe Sanctuaries? Actually every church in our Eastern Pennsylvania Conference has this policy. This policy is to help insure that all the children that the church is blessed to minister to are cared for, and taught in a safe environment. This policy is specifically designed to try to eliminate the potential for any kind of abuse. The sad truth is that abuse does occur in our world today, and can occur anywhere. To reduce even the possibility of abuse in the church, anyone who works with children and youth - meaning anyone under the age of 18 - be they staff or volunteers, must have clearances; a background check. Specifically, volunteers who work with children in any capacity (i.e. Sunday School, VBS, youth groups, etc.) must have a minimum of a current (issued within the last 5 years) Pennsylvania State Police Criminal Background Check, AND, a Child Abuse Clearance from the state of Pennsylvania. Additionally, staff, and anyone who has lived outside the state of Pennsylvania in the last 10 years, must also have an FBI background check. To some, this may sound like a lot, but when we consider the responsibility that we have toward the children of the church, and potentially the community as well, you will understand that it is important. Fortunately, the two basic forms, the Police Check and the Child Abuse Clearance, can both be filled out on line for free for volunteers. There is a minimal cost involved for the FBI check. If you already have any of these clearances for some other reason (work, volunteering in school or the like) you do not need to reapply. We simply need a copy of that form. Actually this policy has been in place for some time, and many people have given the church their forms. Unfortunately, many of those forms are out of date. The SPRC is working on getting our Safe Sanctuaries Policy back in compliance. We are starting now, in advance of VBS and would like to move as quickly as possible. Would you please check with the office to see if you have clearances on file, if they are up to date, or if you need to get new ones. (If you need help to apply for your clearances, we can help at the office!) Know that the SPRC will be overseeing this policy. Records will be kept securely and confidentially in the church office. Any questions, please talk to Pastor Blaine. This is a very important matter for the good and the protection of the children and the church. Thank you in advance for your help.

5 Thinking Out Loud by Rev. Blaine R. Wenger Distracted Sunday, Bonnie took the boys to Camp Horseshoe for a week of Boy Scout Summer Camp. Monday, she was sending them a little note from home. (She is good that way - I am not!) You have to write right away or mail won t get there in time. What do you write when it has been less than twenty four hours? There isn t much that would be a revelation. So, she looked up some It is so hot jokes. My favorite - It is so hot that the birds are using potholders to pull worms out of the ground. Yesterday, no matter what was on your schedule or to do list, it was hard not to take notice of that oppressive heat. I know that there are a few people out there who like this. (You know who you are.) I am not part of that club. At all. Even a little. Honestly, the kind of heat and humidity that we had yesterday leaves me feeling off physically. To say that it was distracting would be an understatement for many. There are those who have to be out in it for the work that they do. But all, I think, take that heat in to account to some degree. (No pun intended.) Some make a little adjustment and they are able to keep going, or do what they would normally do, or at least what they have to do. Some, make big alterations. They change plans. The consideration of heat is on their mind throughout their day, in everything that they do; whether they are out in it or not. For some, the reality of yesterday s heat, was so much in their mind (for whatever reason) that it was a distraction in everything, affecting everything. Before I go any further, I am not putting down anyone who struggles with the heat. I am one of you. It made me aware of something. Or raised a question in me. What are the things, or the kind of things I encounter in life that I find distracting? What goes on, what happens, that command my attention above all else? What happens that I cannot let go? What events or realities, that are way bigger than little old me, really do affect everything i do? If I scroll through my facebook page, I start to get some ideas what distracts people, what grabs them and won t let them go. Some are silly. Some are serious. Some are pretty positive. Some are very negative in tone. I see everything from the new grandchild, to immigration issues, to Supreme Court nominations, to obsessions with sports and on and on. Of course, there are some who seem to never be distracted, bothered or caught up by anything. What I am thinking this morning, is there are things in our world at large, and up close that should capture our attention, that should affect what we do, and how we do things. But, rather than being blown about by whatever issue seems to be the hot topic of the day, our attention should be directed through the lens of faith. The number one issue that should be always with us is how to live pleasing to God? Secondly, our attention, our thoughts, our actions, should be directed in such a way that we act and react to the world we live in as Jesus might if he were standing beside us. In Hillsong s Hosanna one of the verses goes like this - Heal my heart and make it clean / Open up my eyes to the things unseen / Show me how to love like you have loved me / Break my heart for what breaks yours / Everything I am for your kingdom s cause / As I walk from earth into eternity There is a plea for a holy distraction that should resonate with every follower of Jesus. It was really hot out there yesterday. It looks like it will be really hot again today. I ve got other things on my mind. How about you? Grace & Peace, Pastor Blaine

6 RUHL S CHURCH CALENDAR Sunday, July 8 th 8:00am Traditional Worship Service 9:15am - Sunday School for All Ages 10:30am - Worship Service Monday, July 9 th Tuesday, July 10 th Wednesday, July 11 th 6:30pm Bible Study for Men, Women, & Youth 8:00pm Praise Band Rehearsal Thursday, July 12 th Friday, July 13 th Saturday, July 14 th Sunday, July 15 th 8:00am Traditional Worship Service 9:15am Sunday School for All Ages 10:30am Worship Service Looking Ahead Community Picnic Sat. July, 21 st Grove Services Sunday, July 22 nd through Friday the 27 th at 7:00pm VBS Monday, July 30 th through Friday, Aug. 3 rd 6:30 8:30pm God s Clothing Closet Sat, August 25 th