Evangelical Free Church February/March 2018 Newsletter 4 Barbara Samuels Reid Youngdahl February 2018 Birthdays Anniversaries Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 John & Pat 2 3 Henze 11 12 Eli Thiessen Josiah Kurian Leah Kurian Bill Bouwer 5 6 7 8 9 10 Lala Pena Rose Wagner 18 19John & Diane Hall Linda Fuller 25 Sam Arneson Weston Hempy Celebrating those who had Birthdays/Anniversaries and those to come! 13 Tom Arneson 20 26 27 Kierra Gardner Valerie Troutner Ace Perry 14 15 16 17 21 22 28 Luke Jacobson Laura McKibben 23 29 (Leap Years) Brett Schutt Jason Hempy Trevor & Christina Schiebel 24 Maggie Catron March 2018 Birthdays Anniversaries Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 Esther Kurian 2 3 Nathan Smith 4 5 Tina Weber Adam Tyrrell 6 7 Shirley Mattson 8 Julie Gudith Don Boehler 9 10 11 Chuck & Glenette Bailey Owen Schutt Yohan Thomas 18 Naomi Boland Luke Appel 12 13 Nina Cox Zoe Weidenaar 19 Cindi LaMasters Pat Henze John Hall 25 26 Licia Johnson 20 Josiah Troutner 27 Amy Brant 14 15 Jim Lewis 21 Will Tyrrell 28 29 Cady Reimann 16 Tyler Finders 22 23 24 30 Daniel Blom 17 Terry & Charlene Dirks Mark Boland 31
March 9-11 HS Spring Retreat @ Hidden Acres March 11 Daylight Savings Time Change March 20/22 Spring session of GNC begins March 23-24 Women s Retreat @ Camp Quaker Heights March 25 Youth fundraiser pancake Breakfast, 9:00 a.m. NO SS. March 30 Good Friday Service @ Dejardin Hall, 6:30 p.m. April 1 Easter Sunday April 8 International Food Night @ E-Free, 6:00 p.m.
From Pastor Bob We were recently invited by the First Presbyterian Church to join them for an Ash Wednesday Prayer Service to begin our celebration of Lent. The Lenten season is a time of repentance and contrition to prepare our hearts to celebrate both the Crucifixion and Resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! I was incredibly moved as we shared in a time of prayer for healing spiritual, physical or relational healing. I was amazed at the number of people who came forward to be prayed for with honest, heart-felt, personal needs for healing! I must admit, I did not know what to expect when Pastor Rich invited me and our body to participate with them! All I knew is that God had put it on Pastor Rich s heart to redeem the Ash Wednesday Service for God to use it for a powerful time of Him to bring healing. God DID use it for that even in my own heart! I was very blessed to be a part of this time of worship and prayer! It reminded me of how we must see Prayer become more and more a part of who we are as Christ s Church! I need prayer you need prayer we need prayer our community needs prayer! By God s Grace, He has just recently raised up a Prayer Team here at E. Free. We have a small group of individuals who will gather regularly to intercede for and pray over our church family! If you are interested, please let me know! It is a small but mighty step in the direction of our need for prayer! While all this was in the works, a few of us were privileged to hear a message at Moody s Founder s Week from Anne Graham Lotz on Revival and Prayer! God is trying to tell me something and I m such a slow learner!! O. Hallesby in his classic book simply entitled, Prayer, writes, Prayer is for the helpless Helplessness is the real secret and the impelling power of prayer. You should therefore try to thank God for the feeling of helplessness which He has given you. It is one of the greatest gifts which God can impart to us. For it is only when we are helpless that we open our hearts to Jesus and let Him help us in our distress, according to His grace and mercy. (pp. 19,21) God, give us the gift of helplessness and let it drive us to our knees as a people continually dependent upon your Grace to even live and function for Your Glory! Community-Wide Good Friday Service We will join believers from across Marshall County on Friday, March 30 th at 6:30 PM at DeJardin Hall on the MCC campus for a Good Friday Service. It will be a service of Scripture, Prayer & Worship as we share in the Lord s Table together! Last year was our first gathering of this kind and you will not want to miss this Spirit-filled time of worship!!
2018 Vision Series -- Teach us to Pray This January, we kicked off the new year in a series called Teach us to Pray. We took four weeks to walk through five powerful verses in Matthew 6:9-13, where Jesus gives his disciples a model of kingdom-centered prayer. The vision behind this series was for our family of students and leaders to enter into 2018 with a deeper joy and renewed recognition of our dependence on God in prayer. We're joining together to boldly, humbly, and expectantly ask him to work in and through us this year for our good and his glory! HS Spring Retreat -- March 9-11 @ Hidden Acres Let s be honest: March can be madness! That s why we love creating some margin in the heart of our spring semester to get away together and rest, refocus, and rejoice in our Savior. This March, M Town EFC students will join students from Bethel E-Free Church (Fairmont, MN) at Hidden Acres for our spring 2018 retreat. Bethel s youth pastor Dayv Raleigh is a longtime friend and mentor of Pastor Scott, and they ll be co-leading worship sessions throughout the weekend. Dayv s love for Jesus fuels his passion to see God raise up a generation of disciple-makers. We re excited to see how God will use this weekend to forge new bonds of community and to remind us again and again of the stunning good news of the gospel. Hope you can join us!
The Vine Pre-Teen Youth (PTY) meets each Wednesday from 6:30 to 8pm at E Free. If your student is a fifth or sixth grader this school year, we would love to have them join us! Bring a friend! This semester, we are walking through E Free s ten statements of faith and learning what our church believes. During the months of February and March we will be studying the scripture upon which statements 6 and 7 are founded. The statements express what the E Free Church believes about the Holy Spirit and the Chruch. We enjoy lots of fun games, share in a snack, and spend time getting to know one another. If you have any questions about pre-teen youth, don t hesitate to give me a call. I can be reached at the church, 641-752-7171. Special Events and Dates to Remember in February and March: February 7 th No Youth. Pastor s away at Founders Week in Chicago March 14 th No Youth. Spring Break Children s Sunday School Winter Quarter Sunday School Unit 30 Key Passage Acts 1:8. Big Picture Question How do people hear about Jesus? God uses Christians to tell others about Jesus so they may repent and be saved. 2/4 The Message: Christ Alone : Acts 15:1-35. Main Point: The church in Jerusalem encouraged Gentile believers. 2/11 Paul s Second Journey: Acts 16:11-34. Main Point: Paul and Silas told the jailer, Believe in the Lord and you will be saved. 2/18 Paul Preached in Europe: Acts 17:16-34. Main Point: Paul taught the people in Athens that the one true God sent Jesus to be the Savior. 2/25 Paul s Third Journey: Acts 18:1-4, 24-28, 20:17-38. Main Point: God helped Paul preach with courage even when he was in danger. Spring Quarter Sunday School Unit 31 Key Passage Galatians 2:20. Big Picture Question Why does God want us to obey Him? Obedience is our response to God s love for us. 3/4- Paul Confronted Peter: Galatians 2:11-21. Main Point: Paul wrote that we are saved through faith in Jesus alone. 3/11- The Church Was Divided: 1 Corinthians 1:10-31. Main Point: Paul wrote that Christians are joined together by faith in Jesus. 3/18- The Church Showed Favoritism: James 2:1-13. Main Point: James calls us to treat people with mercy because Jesus shows us mercy. 3/25- Youth Fund raising Breakfast. No Sunday School this morning.
Seedling Nurseries God has been so gracious in providing a few volunteers to fill needs that had arisen in the nurseries. There are still needs for three or four people, 18 years of age and older, to serve in the Infant nursery during the Sunday school hour. If you are interested in serving in one of our nurseries during, either the Sunday school hour or during the worship service, please contact Pastor Brent. Good News Club and Truth Trek The Good News Clubs and Truth Trek Spring 2018 session is set to begin on March 20 and run once per week for six weeks from 3:20 to 5pm. We continue to pray for 8 volunteers to staff each Good News Club, Anson, Franklin and 5 at Lenihan. Currently we have 7 at Anson, 5 at Franklin, and 2 at Lenihan. I am praying that many of you will want to be a part of this wonderful Gospel opportunity to children in our community! I am excited to see who of you God will provide! Below are those who have already volunteered for Spring 2018: Anson Franklin Lenihan Pat Beddow Natalie Elliot Brent Thiessen Jane Boehler Mallori Ghent Karen Boland Scott Kratzer Amy Prusha Eunice Mbafor Trudy Sellner Nancy Pins Mark Boland Jeni Rost Linda Schoon The dates for the Good News Clubs and Truth Trek, Spring 2018 are listed below: For Anson and Lenihan: Tuesdays, March 20, 27, April 3,10, 17, and 24. For Franklin: Thursdays, March 22, 29 and April 5, 12, 19, and 26. If you are interested in serving children in our community this Spring in a Good News Club or Truth Trek, please contact me as soon as you are able! Thank you in advance for your service!
BIG HOUSE NEWS: On February 11th we held the first Open House/Ministry Fair at the Big House! This Open House was for our church body and we invited First Presbyterian and Faith Assembly of God. It was a long anticipated time, to finally be able to showcase the physical work that has taken place in the house, and then to also share the Vision of the ministries that God has put in motion to reach out to the North side neighborhood. We had a very good turn-out and many people that want to be a part of the outreach! The After School Program will be starting on Monday April 2 from 3:20-5:15 PM at the Big House. If you would like to volunteer, contact Natalie (515-494-4887) or Mallori (641-919-6873) ALL TO GOD S GLORY!!