WHAT S INSIDE. Thank you to everyone who provided cookies and made Child Development Center open house a success! AUGUST 31, 2016 Volume 21, No.

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1 AUGUST 31, 2016 Volume 21, No. 16 Thank you to everyone who provided cookies and made Child Development Center open house a success! WHAT S INSIDE Birthdays... page 2 Sunday Breakfast... page 2 By Still Waters-Janis Lussmyer... page 4 Pastor s Pen... page 5 Events... page 6 September 12th is the deadline for articles for the Newsletter If you have a small group meeting you would like included on the calendar please contact Julie

2 Jo Muninger 9/4 Dannon Kelley 9/4 Mikey Glenn 9/7 Dwight Boesiger 9/13 Tim Johnson 9/17 Jeremy Welch 9/27 Contributions to the ENDOWMENT FUND were made by Carolyn Brinkmeyer in Celebration of her birthday THANK YOU The Endowment Committee wishes to thank all church members that have participated in the Endowment Fund Birthday Program so far this year. The birthday program is a great way to build the endowment fund. Just donate your age in dollars in your birthday month to help this fund grow. Happy Birthday! THANKS TO: Sue Welch & Bob Rees for providing hospitality and continental breakfast the next two Sundays Conversation Corner Promoted TO THE CHURCH TRIUMPHANT Robert Bob Wahlgren Prayers are with the Wahlgren family at this time. The memorial service was held Monday, August 22 Agape Mission: Our Church provides volunteers to prepare and serve meals at Agape Mission in Bartlesville - every Tuesday from 10:00 to 2:00 - every second Saturday of the month from 9:30 to 2:00 This ministry is looking for a few more willing hands to help feed Bartlesville s hungry. You may work the morning shift, afternoon shift, or the whole time. If you would like to participate on a regular or periodic basis, please contact : Gene Wrich CONCERN SUNDAY IS SEPTEMBER 4 Child Development Center This year is off to a great start! Our back to school open house was held August 19. We had a great turn out of families coming to meet their teachers. Everyone enjoyed eating milk and cookies and getting to talk with church members and connecting with other CDC families. Don t Wait! We need: canned meat (especially small cans of tuna), canned vegetables (corn, green beans, peas, carrots and mixed), complete pancake mix (just add water), powdered milk, macaroni & cheese, ramen noodles, and soup (chicken noodle and vegetable are our most popular). We also have people that will shop if you have the finances but not the time. Thank you in advance for your help. Bartlesville is SO generous!

3 Welcome Micheal Stevens! Micheal Stevens has joined Good Shepherd s staff to lead our ministry of music. He will begin practicing with the Chancel Choir on September 7 and will be present in Worship on September 25. Micheal is also an Assistant Vocal Music Director, AP Music Instructor, and accompanist for Bartlesville High School. This year marks his third year in Bartlesville and eighth year teaching. He plays a variety of instruments including piano and organ. At Good Shepherd, Micheal will be working with our choir, and accompanists with the goal of enriching our Services of worship with vibrant musical selections. He's well familiar with a range of worship music styles from Gregorian Chant to Taize and has led church music leadership for 15 years. Micheal not only directs choirs, plays piano, organ, and flute but is also a musical composer. He has been commissioned for several pieces and his arrangement of the Star Spangled Banner, put together on the fly, is something that Bartlesville High School Choir continues to use. Later in September one of his commissioned compositions will be performed for the first time in Miami, Oklahoma. Micheal is a runner and has competed in Duathlon (bicycling and running) and will be doing a marathon this fall. Micheal is married to Sarah, who is also a music teacher currently working at Kane Elementary. Sarah is a gifted musician as well with a special interest in music for children. Their daughter, Abigail, is 4 years old and enjoying going to school each day with her mom, being enrolled in Pre-Kindergarten at Kane as well. He graduated Summa Cum Laude in 2005 from Southwestern Oklahoma State University where he studied music composition and piano. Currently, Micheal is working towards his towards his Masters of Music Education from Southeastern Oklahoma State University. The current fall semester is his final academic semester before completing the requirements for his Masters by writing his thesis in the Spring, 2017 semester. Micheal and Marcia Hansen will team together to lead music from the organ bench for services of worship as well as other special services of worship. Family Promise On the Sunday that Will and Kristy McBride announced they were leaving the grounds of Good Shepherd for attract of land in Niotez the ears of two guests to our service of worship perked up. On that Sunday, President of Family Promise (Bob Shell) and his wife were worshipping with us hoping to have an opportunity to spark our interest in the ministry of Family Promise. Following the Service, (Bob Shell) said, Good Shepherd has been doing Family Promise ministry even though you weren t part of our program. Family Promise seeks to give a hand up to families that find themselves suddenly homeless. These families are housed for a period of months while they receive daily coaching and instruction on a variety of topics from nutrition to job searching. Typically, there are no more than 12 individuals cared for by Family Promise ministry. Churches are integral to the effort to move homeless families from public assistance to independence. Family Promise seeks to involve a dozen Congregations in the housing aspect of the ministry. During their designated week, churches feed the participants dinner and breakfast, and each evening lead them in some family oriented activities. In addition, Family Promise seeks congregations that will partner with host church facilities so that the burden of meals and activities can be further lightened. Each morning at 8:00 a.m. program participants are picked up by Family Promise and taken to their facility for coaching and training. Family Promise has 10 Congregations already enrolled, and has specifically invited Good Shepherd to consider participating. After a brief survey of our facility, Family Promise determined that unlike many congregations our facility is perfect for their purposes. Since families are housed together (with no more than 12 individuals in the program) our basement rooms, family lounge combined with restrooms, showers and Westminster room are ideal for their use. Interested in exploring Family Promise more? Contact Reverend Scott or Family Promise directly.

4 months. However, the side effects sound all too familiar: fatigue, achy muscles, and peripheral neuropathy. All are features of fibromyalgia. TMI Too much information. Too little faith. I was beginning to feel like Wonder Woman earlier this week (how quickly pride sneaks in) and now I m the one that needs rescuing. The cancer support group serves a good purpose, but unfortunately one of the side effects is learning about post-cancer treatment health issues. In other words, things I really did not want to know: neuropathies, sleeplessness, post-surgery pain, radiation damage, and depression, to name a few. Adding in my heart s desire to NOT do radiation, I did some preliminary research on cancer protocols for stage III b breast cancer in general and survival rates for triple negative cancer in particular. Suddenly fear reappears. With these extra two days off the chemo before starting the twelve-week regimen on Friday, I am feeling better than I have since treatment started at the end of June. Doctors, nurses, and cancer survivors alike have reassured me that Taxol is much better tolerated than the Adriamycin and Cytoxan of the first two I ve never been good at the power of positive thinking, and right now all I can think about is if those chemo side effects will be intensified in me due to the fibromyalgia. I want to believe that they won t, but I m not convincing myself. But wait, there s more! (Suddenly those old barkers for TV product specials come into mind. While I m not about to sell you a bill of goods, there is something better to buy into than positive thinking versus fear.) There is the promise. At the very beginning of this cancer journey, I told the Lord I really didn t want to go on it. His response was peace. Time and again, Jesus has reassured me that he is carrying me through. All I have to do is rest in him and take each day as it comes. He made no promises about how difficult or easy the journey would be, but he promised he would see me through. Ah, I feel the peace filtering through and dissipating the fear. It s true that I am not now nor ever will be Wonder Woman, but I don t need to be. Jesus, the divine superhero of the universe, is all I need. OPPORTUNITY TO JOIN SMALL GROUP Our Small Group is beginning a new study, Monday, SEPT 12,on The Attribute of God, Their Meaning in the Christian Life. We will be using the book : The Knowledge of the Holy, by A.W. Tozer. If you are interested in Thinking Rightly About God, this study is for you. We are the Brown Bag Lunch Small Group that meets on Monday at noon in Room 114 at the Church on the 2 nd and 4 th Mondays of each Month. We bring our lunch and eat and visit until 12:15 at which time our study begins and lasts until 1 PM. We are Cal and Melba Cooledge, Barbara Hoffman, Carolyn Brinkmeyer, Dick McDonald and Robert Kelly. We have room in our small group for 5 more members. If interested call Robert Kelly, or at rkelly1999@cableone.net. OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD BEGINS Once again this year we have the opportunity to partner with Samaritan s Purse through Operation Christmas Child. This year Robert Kelly along with Jim and Sue Welch will coordinate the communication and see that the boxes are dropped off at the designated collection site. This year we are looking forward to our weekday CDC classrooms to participate as well. Inserts in the newsletter and Sunday announcements will detail which items maybe included in your box. If the shopping for items is not something you can do, a contribution to Operation Christmas Child will be used to purchase items for you.

5 FROM THE PASTOR S PEN I don t know if it ever happens this way for you, but a while back I came across a passage of scripture that I have read before but never really captured my attention. It is part of the story of Moses and Israel in the Sinai desert following their liberation from Egypt and immediately after receiving the Ten Commandments. Moses has gathered the people together for a reading of the Ten Commandments, and the people have enthusiastically agreed to obey it. Moses gathers other leaders, and 70 elders and they go up the mountain to meet with God to complete the covenant agreement. In Exodus 24:10 there is this interesting note, " they" saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky. What caught my attention at first was the pavement. The pavement was lapis lazuli. Lapis is native to the Middle East and each time I go I try to purchase some jewelry made with it. The blue color is striking and, I think, beautiful. A paved area of it would look like the sky on a clear day. Moreover, the Hebrew text makes it clear that this pavement is a bit translucent so that the blue glows causing it to look even more like the sky. The second thing that struck me was that the pavement consisted of bricks. Again the nuance of Hebrew makes clear that individual bricks form the pavement. When I realized that I began thinking of the mud mixed with straw that the Israelites were forced to make for Pharaoh s building projects. It was while they were in agony over being forced to make the bricks that they cried out to God. I wonder if Moses and the other leaders thought about their mud bricks as they gazed upon the beautiful translucent blue pavement. As I meditated upon that, it occurred to me that all of the struggles, hurts, and hang-ups that we have find themselves at the feet of God. He stands triumphant over them. They were not an obstacle to him. Moreover, in his presence, they are transformed from the "mud" of our struggles to the "translucent blue" of his unstoppable transforming power. Our struggles, far being the last word, are the very places where God's power may be most beautifully presence. What about your struggles, pain, the deep groanings of your soul? The children of Israel suffered in Egypt. Their struggle was real; their agony caused them to cry out to God for relief. Moses, and the others that day, saw their bricks transformed by an all powerful God when they celebrated the life-giving relationship they had with him. How about you? The Day of Service: October 2, represents the 7 th year that we will set aside our regularly scheduled Sunday morning Service of Worship to engage acts of service. We began in 2010 and our announced projects were: "sending care packages to service men and women in far away places, appreciating firemen and specialized police forces locally, making prayer shawls for folks in need of the assurance of God s presence, assembling school bags for children in Mexico, assisting Concern s child learning center, and Bartlesville s Vision Onward. Sometimes folks will talk about how hard it is to find projects to engage. Other times folks will say "We really could use the day to work on the church here, painting and landscaping." Probably the greatest temptation for everyone is to do nothing, just stay home and rub achy joints, watch depressing news coverage, or just "sleep in". The Church of Jesus Christ is meant to be characterized by "good deeds." Those good deeds are not meant to be focused exclusively on fellow church members, nor are they supposed to be in sole support of other fellow Christians (there are plenty of other times and reasons to support Christian brothers and sisters). Jesus tells his disciples in Matthew 5:16, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good deeds and give glory to your Father in heaven." Paul writes in Ephesians 2:10, the church is "God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus for good deeds." In Titus 2:14 Paul teaches that Jesus "gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds." Churches cease bringing God praise and glory when their light doesn't shine when they grow weary in doing good deeds. The weariness shows when we can't think of any good deeds to do, or when we decide that "oh that's just too much to take on." The Day of Service is one day when we get to shine. What ideas do you have for serving? Who will you invite to serve with you?

6 Good Shepherd Presbyterian Church 801 SE Washington Blvd Bartlesville, OK Contact us: Church Office: Church Fax: Website: (USPS ) Periodical Postage paid at Bartlesville OK Return Service Requested Sunday 8:30 9:45 am Adult and Children s Discipleship Classes 10:00 am Worship Sanctuary 11:00 11:30 am Coffee Connection Monday Tuesday 10:00 2:00 pm Agape Food Service Sun. Sep am 16th Sunday after Pentecost Mon. Sep. 5 Labor Day Office Closed Tues. Sep. 6 10:30 am Staff Meeting Tues. Sep. 6:30 pm Zumba Fri. Sep pm Parents Night Out Sun. Sep. 11 9/11 Anniversary Tues. Sep. 13 No Staff Meeting Wednesday 7-8:30 pm Chancel Choir Practice Thursday 1:00 pm Ladies Small Group Friday Noon Church Office Closed