Annual Rake Off & Chili Lunch!

After services this Sunday we will:

1)Decorate the Church for Advent & Christmas!
2) Haul piles of leaves back to the Church Garden!
3) Eat Chili and have a good time!

The work should take less than an hour. Men, please bring your favorite Chili concoction, a rake, and a tarp. We want YOU to have a good time!

See you Sunday!

Produce: Go For It!

Hyacinth Bean Pod

There are green beans, sweet potatoes, a few ripe tomatoes, a lot of green tomatoes, watermelon, and some peppers in the Community Garden. Stop by and pick what you need.

Folks from the neighborhood have been invited to pick out of the garden (two families have taken us up on it), and kids who live around the church have done a good job of finding the watermelons (we're glad they did), but there are a few left. As Shakespeare wrote, "the race is to the swift."

For salsa fans there are plenty of Rutgers (sorry, Hogs fans) variety tomatoes available for salsa verde, for frying, or for that infamous green tomato pie that is really good. You may also find some eggplants. Again, help yourself.

The picture above is of a hyacinth bean pod. Feel free to pick these for inclusion in salads or Asian soups. Do not eat the dry beans but by all means collect the pods for replanting in your own gardens next Spring.

Our Fall clean-up is going well. We're about a day or two away from finishing up our work in the Community Garden and then, we'll move on to the Children's Garden. By Thanksgiving at the latest both gardens will look spectacular and be ready to rest over the winter.

If anyone has some composted chicken manure we will be very grateful to get it. Thanks to everyone for your terrific support of our Creation Care mission!

Outreach and Communications!

Drawing of Alexander Bell's first telephone

We're very excited about expanding our church's outreach efforts to bring as many people as we can to Christ. Some of these efforts will include updating our website, developing protocols for Facebook and Twitter, and consolidation of our various e-mailing lists into LISTServ formats.

When our Wednesday Night Contemporary service is fully back on the weekly schedule, we will promote it by placing videos of the services on YouTube, and showcasing the talents of our young people and visiting guest artists and preachers. We think these efforts, including podcast capabilities, will really enhance the visibility of and vitality of our programming for youth and their parents.

Although our initial focus is on electronic communication, we will also review, edit, and enhance our print communication, like brochures, etc. so that we have attractive and informative information to hand out to visitors and at civic events or fraternal organizations.

Included in our efforts will be acting on plans for a new church sign, and developing a strategy to consistently access free local media.

As Disciples, we have an exciting and deeply meaningful church experience to offer Berryville and the surrounding communities. If you would like to help shape and develop our new outreach and communication efforts, please stop by and talk with Pastor French about your ideas!

Preparing for Fall

A large pile of mulch ready for transfer to the garden's pathways.

The Community Garden is being prepared for fall. Basically, this involves three tasks: 1) weeding and cleaning rocks from beds; 2) Applying a deep application of mulch for water and weed containment, and; 3) planting a fall cover crop like oats or vetch. Be sure to stop by and check out our progress.

We have the Community Garden about 1/3 mulched and about 3/4 weeded. It is starting to look pretty good. The mulch pile pictured above has disappeared, and as soon as another pile shows up we'll continue. Once the Community garden is fully mulched and weeded we'll move on to the Little Sprouts' Garden.

Cardboard makes an excellent base for garden bed foundations.

Thank you, everyone, who donated their cardboard boxes to the garden. If you have more, bring them over to the church and just toss them over the fence. We'll take them from there.

Working in the garden is a real blessing and helps our gardeners structure their days along a commonly recommended Christian way of structuring a Christian lifestyle: reading and studying holy books, prayer and meditation and, manual labor. We are grateful that fellow Disciples have given us this wonderful opportunity.

Thank you, Lord, for the Delicious Rain!

Just when we decided to pull the plug on watering our church garden the Lord provided a good, strong, and life-giving rain during the night. How thankful we can be!

And, what a delicious outcome. Because of high night time temperatures and no rainfall plant blossoms were unable to set fruit, and what fruit we got was puny, squishy, and not very nice. But look at the ugly babies in the picture above (picked earlier in the year)and imagine them in the cooking pot or on our salads! Last night's rain will give us at least a couple more weeks harvest.

Yes, it has been a good year for tomatoes. We've supplied tomatoes for the Senior Center, invited the neighborhood in (they have taken up our offers to pick freely), and even had a few left over to provide on Sunday morning and once in a while at Loaves and Fishes. We feel blessed.

We also feel inspired to get going with our fall planting. It is going to be terrific and we're optimistic about supplying everyone with sweet potatoes for our Thanksgiving dinners. God is Good all the time!

Down...but not out!

It is time for us to stop watering the garden. There is no way that we can sensibly keep ahead of the drought. what happens next is tearing out many of the plants--like the tomatoes--and then some diligent weeding. This will occur over the next several weeks.

In the mean time we do need to start watering the trees and shrubs around the church yard; they are in tough shape and in danger of dying after two plus years of dry weather. If we get some sufficient rain in the next few weeks we'll start putting in some fall plants. Anyway, if you want some green tomatoes now is the time to get them.

Red Tomato Blues

We've had fun experimenting in the garden this year. In many ways, the garden has been a learning center, particularly with our tomatoes. We started out with six varieties of heirloom tomato seeds which we grew in the Hale's greenhouse. Three grew well from the seeds started there; one variety did okay and two of them didn't do well at all. They pretty much died in the pot (ungrateful seeds!).

The three healthy starts did well in the garden and we've had a good crop. What we've learned, however, is that heirloom varieties are not resistant to insects (in fact, they attract them)and they are not particularly heat tolerant. Since we planted early and before it got so hot the plants flowered well and set fruit pretty well. Now, however, the nights have also been hot and the flowers are failing to set.

A big question for us to answer is if we want to continue with heirloom varieties next year or, to go with more commonly known plants that are both heat and insect resistant. The heirlooms are interesting to look at, and the taste is often superior, but it is discouraging to have so many "bad" fruits among the good, and they are a lot more work.

It has also been a terrible year for squash and zucchini. We also used heirloom seeds to start these plants and they never did a thing. Since long range weather forecasters predict several more years of heat and drought, we certainly going to go with non-heirloom plants in this family next year.

All that aside, we are still producing many more tomatoes than we probably need. This week, we donated about a bushel to Loaves and Fishes and we've been experimenting (successfully) with green tomato pie. Stayed tuned for the recipe.

Be sure to stop by the garden and pick some tomatoes. There are plenty. And, as always, your Community Gardeners are grateful and thankful for our church's generosity and support of our efforts. Thank you, thank you!

Patience

It has been so hot for so long that we can feel our patience running thin. Small things irritate us more, and more quickly than usual, and small differences have the potential to flare up and become bigger than they really are.

What a good time to remember that not much matters except our love for one another, our love for Jesus, and the ties that bind. Among those ties is our collective hope for cooler weather and a little rain, and knowing that in six weeks the NFL kicks off the preseason.

In the mean time there is green tomato pie, salsa, cold beverages on the porch, and our time each day with the Lord. "Thank you Lord, for our family, for the gift of living right here and right now, and for that irritating person who is responsible for making me a better, more loving person. ~ Amen"

It's the weekend. Let's have some fun!

Community Garden Update

We've focused on learning how to garden this year in our Community Garden--and have grown rich in experience. That focus, on learning, observing, and hands-on research, was done to prepare us for the up-coming fall gardening season, and next year when the focus will shift to production.

One major learning so far is that organic solutions for killing bugs aren't very effective. We've used BT, Neems, and homemade concoctions like mixtures of chewing tobacco and Ivory soap to kill bugs like Japanese beetles and aphids. They don't work very well. Consequently, we've had disappointing zucchini and acorn squash experiences, and green beans have been effected as well.

Some organic growers use chickens to keep bugs down, and others use traps of various design. since we are unlikely to run a flock of chickens any time soon we'll try and locate traps and see how they work. We may also want to consider some semi-organic approaches (if there is such a thing). In the mean time we'll keep on squashing and smashing the little bug-gers when we see them.

The soil in our garden is also poor. We've had it tested and it needs a couple of big jolts of nitrogen and other compounds. Since this is not the best time to add stuff to the dirt (because of the heat and growing cycle) we make the proper adjustments when it cools down a bit this fall. In the mean time, if anyone can donate some composted manure we will be very grateful.

There are some beautiful flowers growing in the garden and they are attracting bees and other pollinators. Hyacinth beans are also growing along the western fence line and make colorful and tasty additions to salads. Please feel free to pick them. Tomatoes are doing well and we encourage everyone to stop by and pick as many as you can use: there are four varieties growing and each has a distinct shape and taste-character. Sweet potatoes are growing nicely and, unless critters get them we should have an abundant crop for our Thanksgiving dinners.

Between now and cooler weather (probably mid-September) we'll be working on preparing beds for planting fall crops leafy vegetables like lettuce, mustard greens, spinach, and so on. We may also plant carrots and maybe leeks if we can find seeds or starts. Our aim is to keep the garden in production until at least Christmas.

The hot, dry weather has not been terrific for growing; weeds thrive in such conditions of course, but just about everything else suffers and stutters. But that is a thing to learn as well, and we thank God for giving us the brains to be interested in such things. It is all good.

Too Much Stuff? Donate it!

First Christian Church's Children's Ministry will be having a series of sales at our new "Chapel Thrift Store" all during the month of July to pay for a trip to Kansas City, Missouri. There, the children will visit a Community Garden that is home to many refugees from around the world. A refugee is a person who must leave her home because of a "well-founded fear" of religious, political, or human persecution." We hope that the children will benefit from the trip by 1) learning more about community gardening, and 2)learn about refugees and how we can help them.

We're having pretty good luck with sales this week (June 29-30. In fact, we need more stuff! If you have a bit of clutter around the house, like the beautiful butter jar above, or the neat books below. Please consider donating.

And, of course, stop by Chapel Thrift today and...load up!

Pastor French Donates a Sorrowful Mystery

We've been going through boxes and boxes of donated items for our Chapel Thrift Store (thank you!) and among them was a box of books donated by Pastor and Mrs. French. Naturally, they caught our eye.

Among the titles donated by Pastor French is the fascinating book Understanding the Methodist Church, which we delved into between customers. I can't say we made much headway; those Methodists are a complex people, and their church remarkably hierarchical; it was a hard book for a simple Disciple to understand and it must remain, I am afraid, one of those Mysteries the Catholics call Sorrowful.

More readable, not to say riveting, was Skip's gift of Criswell's Guidebook for Pastors by W.A. Criswell,(1984). We peeked into it and realized that it is basically a tip book. Topics included "leading by example," (always a good thing), "estate planning and stewardship," and "how to talk to children." Now that we've read this book we'll know where Pastor French is coming from (also a good thing).

Many thanks to everyone for donating to the Chapel Thrift Store!

We Need Your Cardboard!

Smart gardeners and vegetable gardeners have been dumpster diving all summer long to snatch up any available cardboard they can find. Cardboard is an excellent mulch and helps keep moisture in the ground. It is also a wonderful facilitator of earth worm habitat. Because of these positive factors, and others, we haven't been able to get all the cardboard we need for our Community Garden.

We need your cardboard. If you recycle cardboard (and of course you do!) please consider throwing it over the fence at the Community Garden instead of taking it to the recycling center. Don't worry about taking boxes apart, and neatness or lack of it won't count against you. We,ll break the boxes down and stack them neatly.

Over the last four years our focus has been on learning how to garden. Next year, year five, our focus will be on production. But we need lots more mulch--and cardboard really helps.

Thank you for everything you do! And praise God, from Whom all blessing flow!

Christ Rules Over the Storm

No matter how bad it gets, God is with us.

Why are you afraid? God is with us!!

When I was a kid, I was terrified of spiders. Even Daddy Long Legs, which I now understand are not, technically, spiders but have a very spidery look about them, scared me to death. Once, almost literally, when one leapt out of a half bushel of peaches we had just bought by a road side stand, I leapt out of the car into the road. Fear can do that.

The kids in my neighborhood didn't help, either. They enjoyed picking Daddy Long Legs up by a long leg and chasing me around the yard!

Since then, my fears have grown up a little. Now I fear things that really can hurt me like the national debt and global warming. Just the other day, the headlines named another fear, terrorists, this time, U.S. citizens, independent, guided by some 5,000 do-it-yourself terrorist self-help websites.

On top of these overwhelming world fears, each of us carries personal fears - a deadline, a pink slip, a visa bill, a doctor's appointment. We all have spiders – some fear that gets us in the gut.

These are fearful times, but then – they always have been.

You would think, if ever there were a time and people who would be fearless it would be the disciples, walking and living in the very presence of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, Light of the World, 2000 years ago. But as Mark tells it, they could panic right along with the best of us. That night they piled into a boat after a long day of teaching and preaching, big crowds, lots of questions, the most dangerous time to be on the water: when a windstorm hits! Waves beat into the boat; they've got water up to their ankles. Not only a literal storm, but darkness and the sea and chaos also represent forces of evil. This is serious. At least four of the disciples are professional fishermen and even they are scared. They have phobos. This is phobeo. Our word phobia comes from this root – anxiety, panic, dread. Fear of what we do know and fear of what we do not know.

The disciples do what we do when we find ourselves overwhelmed – They yell, "God, for heaven's sake, wake up!" They do what we do when bad things happen to good people. They ask, "Are you really there God?"

They discover that God is really there. Right in the boat, in the scariest of places, God is there. After they've tried everything they turn to Jesus and he is there and he is able. Jesus can sleep through the wind and yawn at the waves because God is there and he knows that this boat will float. You don't have to go it alone.

Last week, Public TV had a program on children with terminal cancer. Timothy, a teenager, was dying, treatments were no longer helping. One day he shared his greatest fear with one of the doctors. It wasn't pain; it wasn't even death. It was being alone. It made all the difference when the disciples remembered that Jesus was in the boat with them.

But when the storm is over, their knees are knocking. That is when Jesus wants to know, "Why are you afraid?" Not, "Why were you afraid?" but, floating on that calm, smooth sea, "Why are you afraid?" Scripture says, after the storm stops, "A great fear stole over them."

I had a boat ride once that helps me understand. I have never been particularly comfortable in boats on deep water. One time, when I was working Taiwan, I took a side trip off the southern coast. We had to take a ferry. It looked like one of those ferries that you read about that capsizes on a clear day and everybody drowns.

It was old, it was ugly and it was already full when our bus pulled up. People sat on other people's laps. They sat on the steps. And, even on the roof. We threw our luggage on a pile and found a spot against a railing. As we waited, another bus pulled up and all those people got out and got on the overloaded ferry, somehow. Then another bus came and then another came. I was terrified just sitting at the dock!

But then the ferry headed out to sea. The sea was not completely calm. It wasn’t exactly a windstorm and the waves didn’t exactly beat into the boat. But it wasn’t calm either! I kept my eyes on one of the few life preservers overhead. I wondered about sharks; how far I could swim; and that I was too young to die. Phobeo. I was terrified.

There was only one thing that could have scared me more. And that would have been if someone on that boat had stood up and held up his arms and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Peace, be still!" and the sea suddenly went still. The storm and the ferry were terrifying. That I could understand. But, a human being who could stop a storm, that would be incomprehensible! What else could such a person do?

The fact is, whenever Jesus heals, walks on water, teaches, feeds, feasts, rebukes, when he is born, is resurrected...it scares the wits out of people. They run, many of them. They freeze. They hang on to the old ways. They attack, some of them. God's power revealed is an awesome thing. But there's more to fear than phobia — panic and dread and hanging on so tight you drown. There is also life-giving fear. The Hebrew word for this kind of fear means reverence, awe. --- Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. It comes from faith and it leads to faith.

You could call it — Easter fear.

There's a reason why the predominant response to Easter is not joy, but fear. Mark's gospel ends that way, with the women going out to the tomb and meeting an angel who says, "He is risen! Go and tell," but they don't because they are afraid.

Afraid of what? Afraid that Easter just might be true. That waves and wind and death itself will bow down before this one who sits in the boat with us and who will not go away.

It could scare you to death. It could scare you to life.

If you don’t think God is active today you have missed the boat. However having said that the bible and experience tells us that traveling in the boat with Jesus is not always smooth sailing! No sooner than you jump in the boat with Jesus, storms will hit. Consider the storms of life that have hit you.

Don’t you agree it hasn’t been smooth sailing?

Some of you have been hit with antagonism when family members, or friends, or coworkers ridicule you for your faith. Some of you have been hit with a storm called Cancer. Some of you have been hit with a stormy relationship and you’ve been served divorce papers, even after you did everything you knew how to do to avoid divorce. Some of you have been through the storms of grief when you lost a loved one. Let me ask those of you who have been hit the hardest, does God hear, does He care, does He act for your good? Some of you nod your head yes, and some of you remember the feelings of doubt and fear and frustration through it all. Maybe some of you are going through that frustration now.

Maybe right now you feel like God doesn’t seem to care? Maybe right now it seems like God is asleep in the helm? Maybe right now you are terrified about the prospects for the immediate future? Maybe right now you are frustrated because you have cried out in pain and despair, and received nothing in reply? You wonder. Is there anyone up there who cares about us down here?

I am convinced that although things seem out of control during a storm, and that we are tempted like the disciples to say “Don’t you care?” that when we turn to Jesus, and that if He is in our boat He does hear, He does care, and he does act for our good. But events in life are not always as I would expect or hope. I therefore I let Christ be the one who speaks peace to my storms.

Much that is wrong on earth can be corrected. There are mothers who dry tears, repairmen who fix machines, surgeons who remove diseased tissues, counselors who solve family problems. As to correcting the weather, people talk about it, but it takes GOD to change the weather. Jesus commanded the elements of the weather, with the result that even the wind obeys him, and so does even the sea.

"Have you STILL no faith?"

IT USUALLY takes a storm to discover where WE place our faith. Where do WE place our faith? Do WE put it in the boat? In our circumstances? In the weather? In the security of our homes to keep the weather out? Is it in the security of our bank accounts to keep the financial storms out? Is it in the security of our insurance policies to keep disasters out?

But, what happens when one little storm cracks that superficial picture of security? It can happen just as suddenly as a Galilean storm. All it takes is one little storm to find out where our faith is. I hope the Son of God doesn't have to say to us, "Oh, ye of little faith". On the other hand, I hope there is a little faith for us; at least enough to take us away from the fear that can so easily destroy that faith. The storm is but a little matter. What is a storm when you have Jesus in the boat with you?

So, who is this Jesus?

What kind of man is this Jesus?

The narrative ends with the attention focused NOT on the storm NOR upon the miracle, but upon Jesus Christ himself. The Question "who is this" is not answered. Everyone who reads it may give his own answer, may profess his own faith, and add his own doxology.

“Who is this man?” This is THE important question. How do we answer this question? The ultimate answer to this question will make all the difference for us in the storms happening right now in our lives, in the storms in the future, in the great storm to come, and on Judgment day? If our answer is "This man is the Son of God" then we need to make a decision to follow Him. Have you ever made that decision? Have you ever made it public? I invite you to make that decision today........ and remember: If you are with Jesus: 1) “The Boat will not sink, 2) and The Storm will not last forever."

A M E N

This sermon was delivered by Dave Buttgen at the First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Berryville, Arkansas on June 24th, 2012

Welcome Skip and Char French

Pastor Skip French and wife Char. (Photo courtesy David Bell

James "Skip" French and his wife Char have been called to First Christian Church Berryville (Disciples of Christ) by the congregation. Skip and Char will begin their stewardship of the FCC flock on July 1st 2012.

There will be a congregational-wide picnic after services on July 1st (starting at about 12:15 PM) in the church yard. The public is invited to celebrate this very welcome event.

Skip and Char, God bless you and welcome to our family!

Mares Eat Oats and...

Our Community Garden is also an experimental garden. During the last four (4) years we've been learning how to garden and to figure out how things work and don't work. Last year we killed most of our tomato plants because we applied an "organic" bug killer when it was too hot out: the plants all shriveled and died. This morning I laid to rest the last blueberry bush out of the 20 that we planted. Some things have worked, like our black berry canes, and somethings haven't. One thing that looks like it is working is an experiment with oats.



Last fall, and again this week, we planted oats as a cover crop in a couple of under performing beds that don't do well because they are under a treeline and stay dry and stay in the shade. Oats, however seem to do well there and add lots of organic material to the soil and keep the weeds out. The bed above, filled with baby oats was planted about 2 weeks ago.



When the oats grow up they are pulled out of the ground (by hand). The soil left behind is full of fairly rich organic material and ready for another crop of oats. The picture above shows a bed in the process of being "harvested."



The stalks that have been harvested are laid on top of the beds producing vegetables. Oat straw makes perfect mulch and, if the heads (seeds) sprout it is all good because it becomes green mulch and also helps keep the weeds down. The bed seen in this picture has some sweet potato vines that your community gardeners planted the first week in June.



It looks like we're about a week away from picking peppers (the green bells above are growing along the west fence line) and about two weeks away from what looks like today a bumper crop of tomatoes. We have four (4) types of tomatoes growing so there will be plenty to go around.

If you visit the garden you can see that we're also experimenting with containers. Our plan is to go to school this year (in the garden) and then next year be experienced and helpful resources for members who would like to container garden at home.

The community garden is your garden. Stop by any time, feel free to pick anything you can use, and enjoy this beautiful space. You will find that the garden is a good place to pray and another cause to thank God for His many blessings.

Thank you, Loretta Tanner!

Wash tubs, wooden boxes, and of course, pots and pans, can be converted into planters

Thanks to a generous donation from Loretta Tanner, we're experimenting with containers. We've learned that children and older adults find container gardening an easy way to grow food and flowers.Note the large box in the picture.

This grow box is 5x3 feet long and wide and 22 inches tall. It is constructed of treated 2x8s and 2x4s and cost $72 to build. It took about 2 hours to build and transport. If you would like a box like this at home let your Community Gardeners know and they will build you one if you buy the materials. These boxes can be built to fit into any sized spot that gets at least 6 hours of direct light a day.

Grow boxes are filled with about 4 inches of rocks, then followed by about a foot of rough composted materials that can hold and absorb water. Top of the balance of the box with composted soil, manure, and good clean dirt.

Please stop by your community garden--feel free to pick anything that is ready to pick--and take a look at the containers. Again, if you are interested in having a grow box at home, let us know and we'll build one for you. Happy Gardening!

One More Darn Thing...or...An Opportunity!

A raised bed made from treated lumber

Pictured above is a raised bed made from treated lumber. We're thinking about putting a couple of these--well, maybe a few--on the concrete pad adjacent to the garden. The reasons for doing this are many. First, with care and attention, it will make our church yard even prettier and more interesting to the, believe it or not, many visitors our garden gets. Second, they use space that is neglected and helps our efforts become even more productive. Third, raised beds are more accessible to older members and to children and make gardening much easier for them. Fourth, raised beds conserve soil, water, and produce robust and healthy plants.

But we need donations of treated lumber to construct these beds--and donations of soil, composted manure, and straw. If you can help--that can also be called "an opportunity"--we will be grateful! Please consider a donation of some of these necessary materials.


Raised beds can also be made out of concrete block

We can also make raised beds out of concrete and--we would love to have some donated containers (really big pots!). If you have some unused containers suitable for vegetable plants please consider donating them to your Community Garden. As always, we'll provide you with a contribution letter for tax purposes.

Thank you SO MUCH for your generosity. We are grateful to our church family for making the garden available, and for everything you do. Amen!

We're Having a Wedding...

We're having an old fashioned church family wedding tomorrow, May 26. A daughter of our congregation is getting married at 11:00 AM. Kari Keever, the child of Eddie and Mary Keever, is marrying Miles Petersen.

We've met Miles but don't know him very well. He was apparently born in Missouri, which is some what problematic, and he spells his last name with an "e" rather than with an "o" connoting a Swedish rather than the more respectable Norwegian heritage. But we trust Kari's judgment and we are happy to welcome Miles into our family. Into the "circle of trust" so to speak...which Miles will understand.

Anyway, we're feeling a little weepy and also very happy about this truly blessed event. It is our first wedding in a long time. A beloved Child of God is embarking on a sanctified and often arduous journey, and we as a congregation will, in not just a symbolic way, travel along with Miles and Kari as they go forward.

Everyone in the congregation is invited. A reception follows in the church hall.

Blackberries on Parade!

God willing and the creek don't rise we're going to have a bumper crop of blackberries in the Community Garden this year. As always, "the race is to the swift" so keep your eyes open for the moment the berries reach their peak--and then pick them for pies, jam, or just munching off the cane. They look wonderful.

We also thank Richard and Jane Pille for their donation of yet another bunch of blackberry canes which we have planted alongside the foundation of our little storage building just behind the Children's Garden. The space was largely wasted and given over to weeds; now, it will be productive and useful space and we'll have more berries next year. Thank you, Richard and Jane for your donation--and everything you do!

Faith is Like a Picture

Loquats and Mountain Bird, artist unknown

One of our members was up on Holiday Island yesterday and went to church with the Lutherans there. It was a very formal very Lutheran service, quite unlike our own worship service. In the middle of all the formality, however, was a very simple and direct sermon about faith. Our member found it quite moving.

The pastor said that "faith is like painting a picture." The painter starts out with nothing, then adds a brush stroke or two that may only complicate the picture because the brush strokes seem unrelated. Then,as more brush strokes are added--symbols for time, experience, and effort--something wonderful and sensible and lasting emerges.

The sermon took about 10 minutes to deliver but it stuck with our member all day long.

Mulch Update

Grace Lutheran Church in Holiday Island

Isn't this a clever--and attractive sign? It may be time for our sign committee to meet again! In other news...

...David Bell and Dan Krotz will organize a work team to put mulch in the Church flower beds and around the Annex and garage. The team's work will be scheduled soon after Carroll Electric drops of a truck load of donated mulch. It may be a while--we need to wait on Carroll Electric--but we haven't forgotten. Stay tuned!

The Curtain Rises on Season Four!

Tomato cages

Twenty young tomato plants were transported from the Hale's greenhouse on April 17th--two days past the last predictable frost date in Arkansas--and put into the dirt in our Community Garden. The plants, which our Little Sprouts grew from seeds, are heirloom varieties that include an old favorite called Rutgers, and a new to us variety called Sioux Land. Both are full bodied red tomatoes, typically round and of average size. They were chosen because they are good for both canning and in salads. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

The garden beds are essentially full.We have four (4) beds of potatoes--Yukon Gold and a small early red potato who's name we can't recall, 1 full row of bell peppers, half a dozen zucchini plants, a row of broccoli, six hills of climbing beans, a row and a half of asparagus, and plenty of lettuce on the way. The Little Sprouts also planted a couple of raised beds of Indian Corn which is doing nicely.

We have been blessed by good weather, just the right amount of rain, and plenty of sunshine. The soil in the garden is really showing the results of three years of care and feeding: we are almost entirely weed free and the raised bed method seems to be working well for us.

Up next is Mrs. Hudspeth's flower seed and hyacinth bean planting; Jennifer's flower beds are always the highlight of the garden and a robust attractor of bees, butterflies, and ladybugs. The hyacinth beans are also a delight and transform our chain link fence into a jungle of color.

Working in the garden this year has been wholly a pleasure. It is a wonderful place to pray and meditate and to feel first hand the presence of God. What a good thing a garden is.

A Letter from our Brother Kerry

God's blessing was so much with us this trip to India. We finished our 16th year of going and we are so thankful!! We are home 2 weeks and look back at God's grace and strength that He gave. We were able to give 39 Prayer Sheds and churches and drill 8 water wells so far this year. We gave for many goats, buffaloes, bicycles etc.

Some how, a friend in Arkansas was connected to this village pastor in India and this pastor was persistent... My friend asked if we would "inspect" while we were in India. This brother is persistent, but he send us a report and it blesses us. We have great success.

In the villages and in life, God's way is to do things "little by little" and to test our heart to find our faithfulness.

This brother came and we gave for a prayer shed and to bless 4 widows with big goats and one evangelist needed a bicycle. We gave the choice to him of which to do, church or bless widows etc. When he finished one and he sends a report with pictures, he would get funding for the second.

PTL!! The report looked good, the four widows look blessed and bicycle is given...

Our prayer is always for God's guidance to give and that we miss no assignments that He puts before us to strengthen the hands in the villages, for His glory.

As we give we always teach the pastors to use the gifts as a tool to teach the people to give--as in the "Talents" of Matthew 25, and teach the people to, as a result, build their own churches and not wait with open hand for someone to do it for them... It is then a joy to step up and, together, build a place of worship for the glory of God!!

Thank you all for your giving and for helping strengthen the hands in the villages!! The churches are definitely growing spiritually, numerically and in the blessings of the Lord!! It is a joy and exciting!!

This trip, we had the $25,000 matching gift and it was an awesome blessing!! The couple who gave it, have renewed the pledge to give another $25,000 matching gift for when we return in October!!!! PTL!!!

With so much thanks, love and prayers,

Kerry and Melody
PO Box 140402 Broken Arrow, Ok 74014 918-346-1656

Grand Opening: April 15th!

April 15th isn't only tax day. It is also the last possible frost day in our growing area and that means we'll be able to start planting with some energy. Pictured above is the little Prayer Garden we started last year. It is starting to look pretty good.

We have managed to plant a few things, including one or two of Loretta Tanner's favorite vegetables. Our potatoes are doing well, snow peas are up and running, the Little Sprouts have some corn in the ground and we've got space cleared and ready for Scott's peppers. Stop by the garden and see how we're doing!

Pastor Search Committee Meets

Diogenes by JHW Tischbein

Loretta Tanner, Jill Stice, Scott Frame, Susan Krotz, David Bell, and Ken Hale comprise the committee that will help First Christian Church Berryville recruit a new pastor to replace John Turner; John is leaving our congregation in April to devote himself to Christview Ministries. Selecting a pastor is an important "family" affair that involves a many stepped process that our Pastor Search Committee is organizing for us.

It is hard to imagine a more difficult job than that of pastor. A powerful and inspiring preacher is the most important quality desired by some members. Other members place a higher value on a pastor's ability to grow membership and run a "tight ship" administratively. Still others seek a pastor who excels at counseling, has a comforting bedside manner, or who can be counted to respond quickly and effectively to spiritual or everyday crisis. No matter what individual skill matters most to us, everyone wants a pastor who is a good and moral person, a good Christian, and a decent human being.

And because we are Disciples of Christ it is important to find a person who understands our history, our theological culture, and our beliefs and values as a denomination within the body of Christ. Thankfully, our Regional Office is helping us with the selection process and can be relied on to refer candidates who meet our special needs.

Church membership is such a powerful force in so many of our lives. We rely on church, especially in a small town, for spiritual and moral guidance, for opportunities for service, for socialization, and as the source of many of the feelings we have about ourselves, our families, our friends, and the world around us. That's why the choice of a pastor is so important: a good pastor understands that power and does her best or his best to see that it is properly channeled and used.

Sometime in the next few weeks, members of the congregation will be given a survey or questionnaire to fill out that helps them list or identify what is important to them in terms of the skills and qualities we feel we need in a pastor. Filling out and returning the survey is a significant responsibility that every member is encouraged to accept, reflectively and prayerfully. These are difficult times for small churches and much depends on our doing our best as we participate in the search process.

Our Search Committee meets on March 21st to begin the process as a group. Let us hold up our brothers and sisters on the committee in prayer as they complete this important work.

A Letter from Kerry Mauldin

First Christian Church Berryville actively supports missionary work in Haiti, India, and worldwide through the efforts of our Youth Ministers Scott & Amanda Frame and their Youth Ministry participants. Following is a letter we've received from Kerry Mauldin, a Good Friend in Christ who works in India:

Dear Friends,

PTLord, We made it to the villages and are off to fast, packed start!! We visited 7 villages today and gave for 4 new churches, 1 well and blessed with many talents!! Five took baptism in water!! Dedicated 3 churches!! I was overjoyed at 2 villages especially!!

At LLaxmi Village in Oct. we went along the canal to where about 70 believers meet with first coming to Christ 12 years ago. They said they were poor and could give nothing to improve their simple shed. I did not know what to do or give, so we waited on the Lord.... Finally a chicken began to crow and I asked if any had chickens... They all had!! We agreed to trade a good chicken from each to put a roof on a new church!!

Today, we dedicated a beautiful church with plenty of room to grow and painted so nice! The Cox family gave to help build this. The people were all so excited and learning to give, have taken ownership of this awesome church!! Two handicapped women are taken care of by Pastor Isreal. We gave a good buffalo for them to have milk and strengthen pastors hands!!

At Sarvaram Village, we went 2 Octobers ago and in the night, many people gathered around 6 holes dug in ground for pillars. We shared Salvation bracelets and gave to help build the Church--CowBoy Church in Antlers, Ok gave...

We dedicated a big nice church, not painted, but has 150 members and 80 baptised!! Pastor Prabudas has done well! Only he has only 3 of 150 are tithers. Some give offerings. I asked them who would like to learn to be tithers? Only 3 indicated they wanted to. Most looked down. Then I asked how many WANT GODS BLESSING? They all raised their hands and were with enthusiasm... I said, "Something doesn't add up here..."

Taught on Malachi 3 and said if we put a "Talent" in Pastors hand how many would like to learn to tithe?

Pastor took 10000 rs to use as test. He has1 month to send report on his plan of putting something in peoples hands to learn to tithe... Multiply chickens or etc... They were all excited after the teaching and we said out of their giving, they can paint , plaster and put tile down...

Pastor Prabudas had accident and crushed his heel in church construction. He found he is diabetic and at 210 blood sugar avg. his foot would not heal.. I encourage with insulin and diet... So many have no knowledge and we can help them!!

Tonight after giving bore well, we met in a home for supper! I was so sleepy from jet lag... Melody and I were hanging on...

There was dancing, clapping and singing!!

Nathaniel got up and put scarf on and as all gathered and shouted and clapped, he danced with all his heart a traditional Indian dance. Then Melody and I sang all a song... as I said dancing clapping, singing and at end much squirming!!! But we thought we needed to sing for our supper....

We may not have to worry about eating supper from here on...HA!!

Thanks so much for praying!! 6 dedications today!!

With love thanks and prayers,

Kerry Mauldin

For more information about Kerry Mauldin please visit http://www.mauldinministries.com/

Are You Ready to Plant Your Garden?

The world of gardeners is sometimes a strange one. For example, our Little Sprouts were hard at work two days before Valentine's day planting lettuce and snow peas...and just in time for our first snow fall of the year!

What their experience proves is that gardening isn't just a summer time activity; serious gardeners garden all year long. In mid January a couple of our gardeners traveled up to Mansfield, MO to buy heirloom seeds. The picture above is one of the varieties they picked up, an old favorite named Rutgers which was developed at Rutgers University back in the 1920s. In total, there will be about 10 different heirloom vegetables grown in the garden this year. We'll see how they do--literally.

In the next 10 days or so we'll be preparing seed trays in the beautiful greenhouse the Hale Family has allowed us to use. If you would like us to grow some seedlings for you, just let us know and we'll acquire the seeds if we don't have them now, and get them growing for you.

As you can see, rain, snow, or shine, we can--and do--garden in any weather!

Springing into the Garden--2012

As you've heard us say before, "It takes 5 years before a garden is really a garden." Well, we're ready to start Year 4--and we're really excited. Most of our essential infrastructure--dirt, fencing, raised beds, water lines--are in place. Barring another year of drought and excessively hot weather, we're expecting a bumper crop of really wonderful vegetables. Here's what will be happening in the next couple of weeks:

Mulch from the big pile in the back yard will be barrowed over to trenches between planting beds. Drip irrigation lines will be connected and strung out. Old blueberry bushes will be drug up and transplanted. Trays will be filled with potting soil and seeded to get plants started in the Hale Greenhouse. Rocks will be located and used to finish the small prayer area near the garden fence. Potatoes, onions, snow peas, and garlic will be planted. A couple more raised beds (boxed) will be constructed.

If you have time we'll be glad to have your help hauling mulch, preparing seed trays, and hooking up drip lines. If it is possible for you to donate any of the following items, it would be a good thing:

A bag(s)of potting soil, seed trays, 2X6/8/10 for raised bed construction, BALES OF STRAW, and composted manure. Talk with Dan or Jennifer to arrange.

Please remember that the garden is your garden and you are invited--enthusiastically--to go into the garden any time to pick for your family. Your gardeners DO NOT EXPECT payment of any kind. Yes, donations of time and materials are gratefully received, but are not ever expected. Our only goals are to be good stewards of God's many gifts to us, and for you to enjoy the beautiful spot that is the First Christian Church's Community Garden.

Hale's Donate Greenhouse Space

The Barbara and Ken Hale family have generously agreed to let our Community Gardeners use their greenhouse this Spring. This opportunity will allow us to save a lot of money because we can start plants from seeds instead of buying plants as they become available from the usual sources. More importantly, we'll be able to grow a greater number of different and more interesting plants such as heirlooms and so on. And there is more good news. If you are not a Community Gardner but would like to grow plants from seeds just let us know and we'll be happy to put a flat of your seedlings in the greenhouse. We can't guarantee that they'll grow, but we'll do our best to get them back to you in plant-worthy condition.

The Greenhouse is approximately 10 feet wide and 20-22 feet long. We'll put seed trays on tables and think we can fit in about 1,000 plants to start. We'll begin sometime in February and operate through the end of May.

The Greenhouse is fully equipped and ready to go. Ken and Barbara, Thank you for Building a Community of Hope through your generous contribution!