The Lighthouse MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2018 VOLUME 6 Get Out of the Boat Sarah Mendelson, Worship Director Matthew 14:22-33 tells the story of the disciples out to sea without Jesus when a storm rolls in. They see a figure walking towards them and are terrified. When they realize it s Jesus, He tells them to have courage and not be afraid. Peter says, Lord if it s you, tell me to come to you on the water. So Jesus told Him to come. Peter was walking on water until he took his eyes off Jesus and focused on the wind and waves. He began to sink and cried out for Jesus to save him. Jesus did save him and they climbed back in the boat. For a moment, when Peter was focused solely on Jesus and not the circumstances around him, he was walking on water. What if Peter had told Jesus, If it s you, come closer and let us see or If it s you, make the storm stop? The story would ve ended very differently. More than that, what if Peter had stayed in the boat? He could ve said, No thanks Jesus, it s storming I ll stay in the boat. But Peter listened when Jesus said, Have courage, don t be afraid ; he focused on Jesus, listened to His calling, and walked on water. Are you that focused on Jesus Christ? Can you hear Him calling you into something? Maybe it s volunteering for Children s ministry, or Awana. Maybe it s joining a Life Group or coming to a prayer meeting. Jesus is calling each of us to something, and if we re focused on Him we will hear what He is calling us to. Like Peter, if Jesus calls you to something, you can be sure you will accomplish it through the power of Jesus if you stay focused on Him. Continued on next page... Church Events Oct. 4 Keenagers Hymn Sing 6:30 PM Coffee, 7 PM Hymn Sing Oct. 7 Baby Dedication During Service Oct. 17 Day of Prayer (All Day) Oct. 21 Quarterly Business & Town Hall Meeting 9:30 AM Oct. 28 Boo Fest 4:30-5:30 PM Special Needs Hour 6-8 PM General Admission
But you have to get out of the boat. There is no other way to experience God s power in our lives. You may say, But Sarah, what if I start to fall? Valid question. But Jesus only allowed Peter to fall when he took his eyes off of Jesus. If we stay focused on Jesus when we step out of the boat in faith, Jesus won t let us fall. We will accomplish things we would never have thought possible, but we have to stay focused on Jesus, listen to his calling, and get out of the boat. Take courage, and don t be afraid. Get out of the boat. SCC Youth David Jaeger, Youth Director October is the best month of the year. If you have a different opinion, that s alright, not everybody can be right about that. Apples, spooky skeletons, and cool weather are great, but we all know those things are great because most of us have been here for a while and know what good things Autumn brings in Michigan. What you may NOT know is that the Youth Group is growing. Let s put this into perspective, and before I begin, I am not disapproving of any practices nor of anyone by saying this, I m only saying this to show how the Holy Spirit has been working in our Youth. 2 years ago there were about 10 kids who regularly came to Youth Group on Sunday nights; now, there are about 30. About two-thirds of those kids are in Middle School, which means we have the opportunity to help them grow into followers of Jesus as they prepare for high school and beyond. SCC Kids Lesa Jaeger, Children s Director Youth Events Oct. 6 Lewis Farms Trip $15 Regular Youth Group Oct. 7 & 14 @ 6 PM Oct. 21 Halloween Party 6 PM Oct. 28 Volunteer at SCC Boo Fest What we need you to do is pray. Pray that God would work through us to shine His light and love onto these kids. Pray that God would use these kids to spread His word throughout the schools. Pray that God would make true disciples, not fake Christians, and that these disciples would want to know His word and would want to glorify and worship Him. October isn t my favorite month because of what the weather brings, October is my favorite month because of what we hope and pray God will do. Welcome to Octooooooober!!!! At the end of the month, Sunday, October 28, we are hosting our 2nd annual Boo Fest (last year called Trunk or Treat). This event will be the bomb.com/booyah! Pun intended. This is a community outreach event, which means invite, invite, invite! Come to the church, starting October 1st, Tuesday through Friday from 10-2 OR Sundays before or after church to get your family a ticket. Make sure to invite your friends and grab their tickets for them! #squadghouls! Tickets are limited and free so make sure to not be a lazy bones and grab your family s ASAP (1 ticket per family please)! SCC is doing Boo Fest a little differently this year. When you come to grab your ticket from the Shores Box Office (Pastor Nate or Kaitlyn) you will sign up for a time to come. You will choose either 4:30-5:30 for our special needs hour, 6-7, or 7-8. Our ghoul is to get to 100 families per hour which means we have 100 tickets per hour available for pick up starting October 1! Remember, tickets are limited! Please encourage your friends and families to come and trick or treat yo self! Continued on next page...
We are also doing something real special for our community! We are having a Special Needs hour from 4:30-5:30 PM. During this hour, SCC will be prepared for these needs by having a safe, fun, less stressful hour for those that might need a little bit more help. If you know anyone who would be interested, please make sure to grab their family a ticket. At this event we are making sure to be the ghostess with the mostest by having lots of carnival games, candy, fall desserts, snacks, etc. If you are interested in being the mummy of the year by volunteering for a booth, please talk to Amanda Firehammer, Zekara Palmer, Pastor Nate Parsekian, or Kaitlyn Ayers. Last but not least, please donate some candy!! There is a big apple crate at the LIVE MISSIONAL wall, so go ahead and creep it real by bringing some candy to make this outreach event the best one yet! Now let s go out there and give em pumpkin to talk about! On a different note, Shores Kids K-4 will be doing lessons about sin, how sin has consequences and God knows when we sin. We will discuss how God desires for us to live on a path of doing things right, but due to our sinful nature we cannot live the life that we need to in order to get to God; but God, meets us where we are at and is able to save us and chose to save us! What a powerful month this will be. I encourage parents to go home, pray with their kids, and discuss what happens when we sin. I urge parents to be reminded, and remind their children, that God didn t wait for us to climb the mountain to reach him at the peak, but that he climbed down that mountain to meet us where we were. He takes us out of the place that we are struggling and brings us to him. What a powerful, meaningful God and Savior we have that we can say that he chose to come to us. We have a God who desires for us to have a relationship with Him. In 3-5 year olds, we just finished talking about families. Now we are moving on to discuss our friends and how God gave us our friends so that we can learn to be good friends, learn to bring each other closer to Christ daily, and that God gave us our friends for a reason. Lastly, I know we haven t even gotten through Halloween or Thanksgiving yet, but I am sending out a pre-warning. CHRISTMAS is right around the corner! Soon I will be passing out a schedule of our practice times and will get the scripts out. That won t happen until November, but be warned. Visit our apple crate under the LIVE MISSIONAL wall to drop off bags of candy! Any amount is appreciated!
Prayer & Outreach Kathy Porter, Deacon of Ministries PRAYER IS HAPPENING AT SCC! If you haven t already noticed, the Prayer Team has been quite busy and available on Sunday mornings after the services to talk and pray with those coming forward plus meeting at the Prayer Wall. Prayer requests are being submitted week after week and sent off to the Prayer Team to add to their already full prayer lists. Perhaps you re thinking that you re so glad that s not you having to do all that praying because you don t know where to begin. Okay, if that is where you are at this point, here s a suggestion for you; how about you write on the front of your bulletin or enter into your phone a note to PRAY FOR THE PRAYER TEAM, even once during the week. You have no idea how very helpful that would be. Here s how you can pray: Ask the Father to protect all the Team members from any kind of attack; sickness, discouragement, overload, etc. Ask the Father to fill each of us with wisdom and discernment for praying for each of the requests. Ask the Father to free up our schedules so we don t miss out on praying as we plan. Praise Jesus as our Faithful Intercessor for all that He does to bring these requests to the Father on the church s behalf. Pray that the Holy Spirit will fall freshly on us daily so we can pray with power and conviction using God s Word as our guide. Saturday, September 29th, the Prayer Team will come together in a day of retreat to be boosted and encouraged through the teachings from other prayer ministries. Later on, we ll spend several hours praying and listening as to what God is speaking to us as individuals followed by intercession for the prayer life of our church. This is not a vacation but something we can all use to keep on doing what we re called to do. If any of you sense a call to prayer, even for a season, consider joining us on the 2nd Sunday of each month at 4 PM in the library for our monthly meeting. No preparation is required; only a heart to talk to God. OUTREACH Have you wondered if we are planning to participate in Operation Christmas Child this year? Well, WE ARE! As a matter of fact, plans are being made for SCC to participate in a number of outward mission projects prior to Thanksgiving. Nothing s been forgotten; we re just moving forward somewhat differently this fall. And many of you and your families will be able to get involved in more than one outreach event so be on the lookout for forthcoming information. As far a Operation Christmas Child is concerned, the signature green and red shoe boxes will become available for you to pick up in the foyer the beginning of October. You re invited to take the number of boxes you believe you and your family can fill along with the appropriate tags and information sheets. We ll have about 5 weeks before they need to be turned back to church so we can get them to the collecting location to be shipped out. Again, listen for announcements or watch for posted information.
Getting to Know You (Part 5) Bob Lenz, Deacon of Missions Jim and Toni Keck Jim and Toni were both raised in West Michigan and presently reside in Twin Lake. They have three married children, all serving the Lord, and six grandchildren all living in the greater Muskegon area. They are with First Priority, an organization that works with middle and high school Christian students. Their goal is to prepare the students to reach unsaved classmates through forming Bible clubs on campus. First Priority provides the resources, coaching, and even school lunches to help unsaved students discover Jesus. Jim graduated from Grand Rapids School of the Bible and Music in 1987, and Cornerstone in 1995. He began his ministry in the Muskegon area as youth pastor at Evanston Ave. Baptist Church from 1985-2000 where they still retain their church membership. He helped to initiate First Priority of Muskegon under the umbrella of the national organization and became the director in 2001 serving until the present time. Jim is vitally involved with the school clubs, See You at The Pole (SYATP), Unity Christian Music Festival, and Call to Prayer rally in the spring. He also does pulpit supply and mission conferences. SCC has been supporting the Kecks for 15 years. DOUG & STEPHANIE LEWIS The Lewis were married in 1984 and are serving with Converge in the Cameroon. They have been there since 1993. They have two adult children, Rebecca who is married and is a nurse in St Louis, and their son John who is engaged, and lives in Chicago. Doug is a veterinarian working with livestock and their owners. One of the means to reach people s hearts is to show interest in their livestock with surgeries, live births, etc. This opens a venue for witnessing. Stephanie ministers to the local women and tutors some children. They also minister at a local church in their area which has a great outreach in the village. SCC does not financially support the Lewis, but we began a prayer ministry with them because of a trip to the Cameroon by Missions Team member Jack Swainston in 2000. The Lewis If the Lord lays these friends or any of our SCC missionaries on your hearts, please see me for contact information to be personally involved with our missionaries. The Kecks
Birthday s & Anniversaries Happy Birthday to: 1 Shirley Lenz 2 Missionary Lori Dawe 3 Elisabeth Cooper 3 Zekara Palmer 5 Missionary Lyndsey Hazard 8 Kellie Cumings 8 Harvey Smith 9 Missionary Roy Schwarcz 10 Melissa Gilson 18 Missionary Paul Hill 25 Trudy Gorenflo 25 Barb Schroeder 29 David Jaeger 30 Nathan Ayers 30 Ken Doctor 30 Linda Engstrom 30 Katlin Miller 30 Marissa Miller 30 Namaeya Swanson 31 Larry Gordon 19 Missionary Doug Lewis 19 Sue Sidock 23 Jeff Lee 24 Daniel Engstrom 24 Linda Johnson Happy Anniversary to: 2 Cliff & Marge Lund 3 Jerry & Amanda Firehammer 3 Robert & Laurie Hulst 5 Josiah & Tyesha Swanson 6 Jonathan & Kaysey Cooper 15 Larry & Sharon Gordon