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Greetings!
By now, everyone should know this theme:
2012 YEAR OF EVANGELISM: "Cultivating Disciples of Christ to become dynamic 'evangels' sharing the good news of God's transforming love."
What's next in the plans for this year???
It's Coming! THE E-VAN!!
Just three weeks away!
Look for a hard copy mailing with bulletin inserts/registration materials to arrive this week.
(Can you guess what the E stands for?)
August 12-16- light dinner, evangelism workshops and closing worship
- Sunday, August 12- FCC Concord 5:00-7:30
- Monday, August 13- FCC Chico 6:00-8:30
- Tuesday, August 14- Arden CC, Sac. 6:00-8:30
- Wednesday, August 15- FCC San Jose 6:00-8:30
- Thursday, August 16- FCC Hanford 6:00-8:30
Content will include:
...Dinner! (free will donation)
...Workshops on
.........Evangelism and prayer
.........Evangelism and the bible
.........Evangelism in my particular location
.........Evangelism and budgets!
..........Evangelism and youth/children's ministry
...Closing Worship!
Connection with Brothers and Sisters in Christ!
Skills to become evangels of God's abundant love!
Don't miss this chance for fellowship and skills training that can help YOU grow as well as your church! Register at your local church or call the Regional Office.
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ATTENTION: YOUNG ADULTS
TIME TO GET THOSE REGISTATIONS IN!
THIS EVENT IS JUST THREE WEEKS AWAY!
 Calling All Disciples Young Adults Regional Summer Young Adult Mission Outing "REACH-OUT-REACH"
August 10-12 in Santa Cruz at The Circle Church (Disciples of Christ)
$20 for Friday-Sunday (meals)
$15 for Friday-Saturday only
(Does not include Saturday night Boardwalk games, rides and snack foods)
Begins Friday at 7:00 with dinner, free concert at the beach, games, fellowship, movies, singing, worship and playing and sleeping in the church's full gym.
Saturday 11:00-5:00
The Circle Church has a nationally honored ministry with the street community and Pastor Steve DeFields-Gambrel will help us learn about the street community (homeless). At luch time, as we make our own lucnhes, we will be making lunches to take out to the street community and interact with them throughout the afternoon.
5:30- Delicious home-made dinner followed by a fun evening on the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. Worship at 11:00.
Sunday morning we will help lead worship with The Circle Church and then lunch which always includes all members of the church, some of which are the street community.
Thanks to our 10 member Regional Young Adult Council for leading this ministry to/with/for young adults. Special team from the Council planning and leading this event:
Billy Stoner, Mayfair CC, Stockton
Taulau Tupua, Via Dolorosa Samoan CC, Modesto
Bobby Altangerel, First Mongolian CC, Oakland
Steve DeFields Gambrel, The Circle Church
Ben Bohren (acting like a young adult!)
Please complete and mail in the registration form at: www.ccncn.org
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 YOU'VE BEEN ASKING FOR IT!
AND NOW, WE HAVE IT!!
ONLINE REGISTRATION FOR ALL EVENTS
Thanks to the excellent research and work of Bill Garrett, our Regional Minister of Faith and Giving, henceforth...registration and payment for Regional events can be made online!!
(or still by hard copy)
AND IT ALL BEGINS WITH MISSION SPRINGS
WOMEN'S FALL RETREAT at Mission Springs
September, 14-16, 2012
"Spirit-Empowered Women"
Speaker is: The Rev. Amy Gopp, dynamic Executive Director of Week of Compassion who travels the world on behalf of 3,500 Disciples congregations.
Learn more at: http://www.ccncn.org/dwf.htm
For more information on Amy Gopp and Week of Compassion, go to: http://www.weekofcompassion.org/
As stated above, Women's Ministries is launching the online registration and payment option for the 2012 Mission Springs event.
Two options are being offered:
The first is the traditional one... go to the website and download the registration form (or receive the registration packet in the mail), complete the form by hand, include your check or Visa/MC information, put it in an envelope, address and stamp it, and then mail it.
The second choice is the online option. In this, you click the link on the website on any announcement of the event through email, which takes you directly to the registration form. Fill it out online, put in your payment information for your electronic check or Visa/MC (and yes, the information is completely secure - we are actually using the same merchant provider that our denomination uses), and hit the "submit" button. And, it's done. You're going to Mission Springs! Very easy, very nice, and very efficient.
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 ATTENTION MINISTRY COUNCIL!!
Our next meeting is just around the corner...
Saturday, July 21, 9:00-3:00 at United CC, Livermore. Our major work of the day will relate to 2013 programming and ministry plans including a presentation on a possible mini-Miracle Day, Annual Gathering themes and speakers, and a possible overall theme for 2013 Regional Ministry!
Sounds like some pretty important work for the day.
(Just a reminder that the Ministry Council is composed of 6 elected members of the Executive Committee and one selected member from all Regional Mission Clusters of which there are about 15. Janet Hecker is Moderator and Sara Steenhouse is Vice-Moderator)
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 WHEN OUR REGION VOTED TO BECOME A GLOBAL MISSION REGION THREE YEARS AGO, WE WONDERED WHAT THAT WOULD LOOK LIKE!
In 2012, we have experienced the amazing impact of three sets of Global Ministries missionaries with two weeks in April shared with our Global Mission Partners, Georges and Gertrude Ngoka from the Republic of Congo and then weeks in July with Betty and Ken Frank, who spent nearly 30 years in ministry in Turkey.
And still to come, for one week in August, Tom and Lynnea Morse, will take us to China, the world's largest nation.
Their schedule is now complete:
August 5- CC of Pacific Grove-morning
August 5- Sinapi Fellowship, Palo Alto
(afternoon)
August 7-FCC San Jose-evening
August 8- Forest Hill CC, SF-evening
August 9- New Spirit, Berkeley-evening
August 10-11- Yosemite
August 12- Mayfair CC, Stockton
WE DO STILL NEED HOST HOMES!! Contact Ben.
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2012 Unity Festival
"In Essentials, unity. In non-essentials, liberty. In all things, charity" ~ Augustine (and later, Alexander Campbell)
Mark your calendars NOW for our first ever CCNC-N Unity Festival. To be held on Saturday, November 3rd from 10-5 at United Congregational Christian Church of Lodi - as central a location as we could find! Enjoy food, games, worship and performances that celebrate the cultural diversity of our Region.
Every local congregation and/or mission cluster is invited to create a booth space that celebrates their ministry, history and culture. See the website for more information: www.ccncn.org
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 HOT NEWS CHURCHES TO HOLD IN PRAYER
Congregation to pray for this week: United Christian Church, Fresno; South San Joaquin Area; Pastor Natalie Chamberlain.
Congregation to pray for next week: Galt Christian Church, Greater Sacramento Area; Pastor Jimmie Hollingsworth.
We will feature two congregations in each edition of the eNews. Please pray for their vitality, spiritual and numerical growth, their commitment to serving their neighborhood and their openness to the Spirit of God calling them into ministry in the 21st century.
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Regional Events Not To Be Missed
1. FCC Oakland folks have been working HARD on the community garden, and Oakland has noticed! We're a site for the Ella Baker Center's Day of
Service on Saturday, July 28!!!
Register to volunteer and meet lots of amazing neighbors helping to beautify the Oakland Peace Center and our immediate surroundings that day! Yay for FCC!!!
Ella Baker Center
www.action.ellabakercenter.org
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2. Sunday, July 29
Tapestry Ministries invites you to a Gospel Worship Service with The University of California, Berkeley, Gospel Chorus under the direction of Mark Wilson. The UCB Gospel Chorus has become widely recognized as a well-spring of spirited song. In their Summer 2012 concert, the chorus will trace out the history of Gospel.
Tapestry Ministries meets in the chapel of Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave. Berkeley.
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 The Regional Executive Committee has asked that you save the date of Saturday, October 20 for a Celebration of Ben's Ministry. Time is now set for 1:00-5:00 p.m. Location is California High School, San Ramon. It offers a beautiful, tiered 400 seat auditorium for programming and very large reception hall for informal interaction, fellowship and food service. Ben's retirement date is November 1, 2012. ....................................................... 4. From Congregational Care, Paula Pociecha, Regional Staff:
Just like an athlete who cannot run and jump her/his best without good food and practice, church leaders also need the fuel of new ideas and spiritual training. The Office of Search and Call in Disciples Home Mission has a
hidden gem of a website called the Well-Fed Spirit that sets that sustaining table for church leaders - ordained, commissioned and lay.
Go to the Well-Fed Spirit website for resources here:
http://www.wellfedspirit.org/main_site/Welcome.html 5. From your Friends at Lafayette Christian Church:
We are really looking forward to this year's Summer Adventures In Learning (SAIL) program at LCC. Our theme this year is "Makin' My Mark on God's World - Kids Can!" Each day we will learn a new Bible story that teaches what a difference kids can make in the world by being who they are. Of course our mornings will also be filled with games, snacks, crafts,stories, singing, and other adventures as well, all designed especially for kids age 4 - 11 years old. We think this is a great deal for only $20 per child or $40 per family of two or more.
You are invited to us each morning August 6-10 from 9 am to Noon for another great week of exploration and fun. If you haven't already registered, please fill out the flyer on our website and return it to the church office so we can include you in our plans. Please contact Rev. Sara Steenhouse with any questions at sarasteenhouse@gmail.com. Hope to see you at SAIL! www.lafayettechristianchurch.org ........................................................... |
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KEEPING UP WITH OUR NEW CHURCHES ACROSS THE REGION
(This is one of a series of monthly updates about the many new Disciples congregations who are blessing us with their spirit and energy)
Iglesia del Pueblo
Porterville
Pastor: Kilo Hernandez
(meeting at FCC Porterville)
Blessings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
It's with great excitement and motivation that we at Iglesia del Pueblo would like to communicate and tell you about our church and ministry to the Hispanic community and especially to those that yet are to know the Lord.
During this last year we've been working and pushing ourselves to reach the unsaved in our city. Its with great joy that we've seen people come to know the Lord in our meetings. Also we've seen people being healed and restored.
Sadly, we have also seen two families and two other couples leave the church and area due to economic hardships and lack of employment in our community.
Nevertheless we continue to reach out and minister to the community. We're confident and enthusiastic about continuing with this ministry and to keep going forward with the church meetings.
Iglesia del Pueblo will grow and will be a great church in this community. In the past year we have grown to 28/30 people in attendance. We've started a children's church ministry and a music ministry with the youth of the church with 7 kids. God has been good to us and will continue blessing our church. In the past year we also baptized 11 people; that's a big blessing to all of us at Iglesia del Pueblo.
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REGIONAL STAFF NEWS
Quan continues on vacation this week but will be back Monday, July 23. (Hooray!) Thanks for being patient with our volunteers, Emily Stahl, Ben, Sandhya and Paula.
(While Quan is away on vacation, it is a perfect time to share that her birthday was on July 11. Yes, this is late, but what if she returned on Monday, July 16 to a whole bunch of belated birthday greetings just so she knows how beloved she is by our Region? CCNC-N, 9260 Alcosta Blvd Suite C-18, San Ramon, CA 94583.)
Ben will out of the office July 26-August 4 to keynote CYF II (for junior, senior and high school graduates) in the Pacific Southwest Region (at their CGC) called Loch Leven. He will be checking e-mail and voice mail daily.
From Cliff: Please add our grandson, LaFrance Cole, to the regional prayer list as he has been deployed to Afghanistan in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) Clearance Unit.
Have you been wanting a copy of the directory of churches in our Region?-like names, addresses, phone numbers, pastors names, etc. Did you know you can download that directory any day right from our Regional website. It gets updated regularly (if we know the changes). Just go to:
http://www.ccncn.org/directory-of-churches-2012.pdf
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 UPCOMING MEETINGS & EVENTS
Per requests around the region,
here is a listing of regional meetings
and events over the next 30 days or so.
We do not put the dates of local church events here as we never could get them all and we would always miss some! JULY 21- Regional Ministry Council - Livermore 24- Bay Area Pastoral Relations Committee - Livermore AUGUST 12-16- E-Van on the road across our Region SEPTEMBER 14-16- Mission Springs Women's Conference OCTOBER 20- Celebration of Ben's Ministry NOVEMBER 3- Unity Festival UCC Lodi Back to top |
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CELEBRATIONS & PRAYERS
CELEBRATIONS
Congratulations to Shayne Flowers, Disciples minister, who has been promoted to Assistant Pastor for New Spirit Commmunity Church, Berkeley. This is a wonderful statement by this congregation for the value of her leadership. Shayne also serves on our Regional Recognition and Standing Committee and our ACTS Team.
Last Sunday was a very special day at FCC Vallejo with the dedication of the Lyston and Louise Johnson Community Garden. Decades long members of the church, Lyston died in 2007 at 95, but Louise was fully present at 103 years young. Want toread the whole story?
http://www.timesheraldonline.com/ci_21084386/church-garden-aims-help-hungry-honor-long-time
Congratulations to Dr. Leon Bacchues, part of the Ministry Team at Tapestry Ministries, Berkeley, and a member of the Regional Reconcilation Team and their representative on the Regional Ministry Council. This Saturday he will graduate from Chicago Law School, receiving a dual degree: Bachelor of Science in Health Administration and a Masters in Jurisprudence/Health Law.
Congratulations to William Leon, key leader at FCC Palo Alto and Vice President of our Regional Men's Ministries Executive Council, who was just elected President-Elect of the General Conference of Disciples Men. Over 250 men attended the recent Gathering of Disciples Men at Disciples historic Bethany College in Bethany, West Virginia. Also attending from CCNC-N were Rev. Arne Larsen, President of our Regional Men's Ministries and Gary Pigg, At-Large Member of our Regional Executive Committee of Men's Ministries. Congratulations William!
New Members as Reported: FCC Redding (2 adult transfers)
Our prayers are with Bill Plambeck, who was admitted to John Muir Medical Center
in Concord last Friday. due to weakness and lethary. We are pleased to report Bill is now home and improving. Bill and Bev Plambeck have been major leaders for decades at FCC Concord and within the Region. Bill and family spent many, many hours over many, many years working at the Community of the Great Commission. Cards can be sent to: 8016 Kelok Way, Clayton, CA 94517
Wes Firch, retired elder from Oakdale CC and the father of Pastor Ted Firch, FCC Sacramento, has been admitted to Kaiser North this week and is entering end of life due to leukemia. Please keep Wes, Ted, Vickie, Bart and Bethany in your prayers.
Our prayers go out to Kelley Lawton, Administative Assistant at Lafayette CC, as she undergoes surgery on her "other" hip which hopefully will allow her far greater mobility. Surgery was at Kaiser Walnut Creek today (Thursday. After a brief stay in the hospital, she will be recovering at home over the next 4-6 weeks. Cards can be sent to: 7844 Chestnut Way, Pleasanton, 94588.
Please keep retired Disciples minister, Vi Spencer, in your prayers as she undergoes knee surgery on Monday, July 23 in Visalia, where she is an active leader at Disciples of Christ-Visalia. Cards can be sent to: 20200 Ave. 352 #D, Woodlake, 93286
Our prayers are sent out to Deborah Streeter, former staff member of the Northern CA-NV Conference of the United Church of Christ, who is an active member of CC of Pacific Grove. Deborah had hip replacement surgery today (Thursday) in Monterey and will be recovering over the summer. She sent this prayer request: "I am using a healing image for myself that I invite others to imagine and send my way that day as well: gently moving warm ocean waves, the depth of mother ocean, lapping in her lap, with the salt and warmth healing and helping me to move again." Cards can be sent to: Cards can be sent to: 37755 Palo Colorado Rd, Carmel, 93923.
Good news for Marlene Elliott, who along with her husband Bill, are decades long members and key leaders at FCC Corning, and both have several terms on the Regional Board. Marlene is now out of Enloe Medical Center in Chico, and has completed the first of six chemo treatments for lymphoma. She is feeling strong and positive and deeply appreciates the prayers of so many. Send cards to: PO Box 474, Corning, 96021.
We continue to keep Pastor Mark Foglio, Oakdale CC in our prayers. Mark is now working with his doctors to make decisions about how to address herniated disks in his neck, which have been the cause of numbness and heart challenges. Cards of support can be sent to: Oakdale CC, 330 Maxwell Avenue, Oakdale 95361.
Pastor Taulau Tupua, Via Dolorosa Samoan Congregational CC of Modesto sends his deep appreciation for the many cards and prayers over this long and challenging battle with lymphoma leukemia. As he continues his second round of chemotherapy, he is driving to Stanford Medical Center twice a week for special "burning of the blood" treatments. Praise God he is still feeling strong enough to preach weekly. Cards to: 2329 Senimi Circle, Ceres, 95307.
Barbara Wikoff, musician at Oakdale CC, and husband Bob, Chair of our Regional Resources Committee is having some really good days right now following test results showing that the chemo treatments are working! She and Bob deeply appreciate all the prayers and ask that you keep them coming. Cards can be sent to: 941 Terrace Court, Oakdale, 95361.
Our prayers continue for the following who remain in need of our support and concern:
Darrell Burrell, FCC Redding
Bea Tiffee, FCC Dos Palos Violet Fields, FCC Oakland John Grose, FCC Vallejo Wanda, daughter of Gloria Baxter of Raynor Park CC
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