Greetings!
DON'T FORGET...DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME ENDS THIS SATURDAY NIGHT, NOVEMBER 3. REMEMBER TO SET YOUR CLOCKS BACK ONE HOUR BEFORE YOU GO TO BED.
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2012 Regional Unity Festival is here...and what a great day it will be!
10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. THIS Saturday, November 3 United Congregational Christian Church of Lodi
701 S. Hutchins St., Lodi
Performances.
Food.
Games.
Crafts.
Fellowship.
Worship.
Join us for a day long, family friendly festival celebrating the cultural and historical diversity of our Region.
...We will have activities for children including a bounce house and a nap room.
...We will have live performances of traditional dance and music.
...We will have arts and crafts and food.
Congregations and Mission Clusters have been invited to host a booth where they can sell items that reflect their cultural heritage. We expect everything from church cookbooks to kim chee. Something for everyone!
Support the congregations of our Region by coming, bringing friends and family, and enjoying a day surrounded by the greatness of God's diverse people.
Or, you can register and pay by mail.
.......................................................................... Did you read the special E-Card sent last Tuesday? It outlined the plans for the two months of November and December and who will be doing what and when prior to the arrival of the Transitional Interim Regional Minister on January 1, 2013!
If you missed it, go to: www.ccncn.org This is the last E-news to be done by Ben. All E-news released during November and December will be under the direction of Sandhya and Quan. ARTICLES MUST BE RECEIVED BY MONDAY AT 5:00 PM. Please send your articles to: enews@ccncn.org (not to Sandhya or Quan directly) If you send an attached flyer and wish an e-news article about that flyer, you MUST also send a written e-news article. |
Begins Saturday, November 10, 1:00 p.m. and ends Sunday, November 11 after worship (about noon)
Where: Christian Church of Woodland
Cost: $30.00 PLUS three cans of food
This is an overnight event so registration and medical forms must be completed.
For all information and forms go to: http://www.ccncn.org/fallfestregpkt-2012pdf.pdf
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 Ministerial Annual Standing Review Form
ATTENTION ALL ORDAINED AND COMMISSIONED MINISTERS
DEADLINE IS TODAY, OCT. 31
If you did not return your form with a signed Code of Ethics, your Standing will be reviewed by the Recognition and Standing Committee in December for removal, "not for cause."
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TIME-SE NSITIVE: DEADLINE EXTENDED
for the MLK scholarship for college students and for nominations for the region's annual MLK awards:
DEADLINE IS TODAY OCTOBER 31. PLEASE DO NOT WASTE A GREAT OPPORTUNITY!!
Please contact Sandhya with any questions: sandhya@ccncn.org
...To nominate an individual from this region for the MLK Award, fill out the form from this link:
http://ccncn.org/MLK-Award-Nomination-09.pdf
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 HOT NEWS CHURCHES TO HOLD IN PRAYER
Congregation to pray for this week: insideOUT, Oakland; East Bay Area; Co-Pastors: Robert Shively and Sara Steenhouse.
Congregation to pray for next week: Mills Grove Christian Church; East Bay Area; Pastor, Clarence Johnson.
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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ANNOUNCING 2013 SUMMER CAMP DATES
(Note that neither Grandparents and Me Session is over July 4!
Community of the Great Commission Camps
June 6-9- Adult Camp
June 23-29- Junior and ChiRho Camps
June 29-July 1- Grandparents and Me Session 1
June 30- July 6- CYF Camp
July 1-3- Grandparents and Me Session II
June 23-28- South San Joaquin at Camp Pacifica
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UPCOMING REGIONAL EVENTS
1. Ministry with the Differently Abled:
An Invitation to Beloved Community
19 percent of the population of the United States has a
disability, is this reflected in our congregations? Why not?
Come join us for a conversation about our call as Christian community to be in ministry with people with disabilities as well as practical discussion on accessibility and worship.
When: Saturday, November 10
Time: Noon to 3:00 pm.
Lunch of soup and a salad will be served.
Where: Forest Hill Christian Church
250 Laguna Honda Blvd. San Francisco
Phone: (415) 566-1414
Cost: $10 suggested donation, but all are welcome
regardless of ability to pay.
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NEW DIRECTOR OF YOUNG ADULT MINISTRIES AND REGIONAL YOUNG ADULT COUNCIL SETTING GREAT PLANS FOR CHRISTMAS EVENT IN SAN FRANCISCO! SAVE THE DATES NOW
From Michael Carlson:
It was fun meeting the Young Adult Council by conference call last week, and they have come up with some awesome plans for the Christmas Event, December 29th and 30th in San Francisco! All young adults in our region ages 18 to 30-ish (post-high school) are invited!
We'll gather at noon for lunch at Forest Hill Christian Church on Saturday, December 29th. Then we'll go out into the city for a photo scavenger hunt. We'll return in the afternoon to hang out and play some games, then have dinner around 5pm. Afterwards, we'll go out into the city again to see the beautiful Christmas lights. And, to wind up the day, we'll have a brief worship service and call it a night. Sunday morning we'll worship with our host church.
If you are post-high school and age 18 to 30-ish, then this community of young adults is ready to welcome you. There is a cost of $10 that covers the whole weekend, mostly to help cover BART costs for the scavenger hunt and Christmas light viewing. (Note: Forest Hill CC does have showers!)
Check out the CCNC-N website and our FB page (facebook.com/groups/30684014515/) for more details in the coming days. Online registration will be available soon.
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 Disciples Men - Retreat Recap
"Faith of Our Fathers, Faith of Our Sons"
Our first attempt at having a church-based event was a success! Attendance was up by 50%. We raised over $300 in sponsorships for activities at this, and future, men's retreats. We gained useful insights on passing on the faith between generations, i. e., evangelism. Those who stayed at the church had a great fellowship experience. The hotel where others stayed was simply beautiful. We give many thanks to our guest speaker, Roger Jenks, and to our host church, Palo Alto FCC.
Mark your calendars:
Next year's retreat will be at Palo Alto again. The dates are October 18-20, 2013.
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ATTENTION ALL CLERGY
Clergy Continuing Education Grant Application Process
Due to DHM being in the process of migrating our website to a new provider, the Clergy Continuing Education Grant application process dates have changed. The application process will be open from December 1, 2012 - January 31, 2013 -- to receive requests from Disciples clergy seeking continuing education funds for programs/event/activities in 2013. Any Commissioned and Ordained Disciples Clergy with Standing may apply. The maximum possible award for any individual clergy will be no more than $500. Unfortunately, due to the economic downturn, block grants to regions or other Disciples groups will not be considered into the foreseeable future. Availability of individual grants will be dependent upon total number of
applicants. Applications received during the Dec./Jan. application process, will be evaluated and considered during the month of February, 2013; final decisions
regarding approved awards will be announced by Mid-March 2013, at the latest. No other applications will be accepted for 2013 outside of the process described
above. Please send your application beginning December 1, 2012! (link "application" to www.discipleshomemissions.org/pages/CV-ContEd
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REGIONAL STAFF NEWS
Paula is now in Colorado to support her mother who has been released home from the rehab hospital. She will be out of the office until November 6. You may e-mail her.
And please keep Paula's husband, Micheal in your prayers, upon the death of his 87 year old mother in San Diego. No services are planned.
Quan is back in the office after a few days away to be with her mother. Unfortunately, the 90th big birthday party was cancelled because of her mother's health, but the family of about 60-70 plus friends did gather around at her home to celebrate. She enjoyed being with her family.
Kyung Min, Daniel Lee, is in Indianapolis this Wednesday-Friday attending the Week of Compassion Committee meeting.
Today, Wednesday, October 31 is Ben's final days in the office!
From Cliff: Please continue to keep our grandson, LaFrance Cole, in your prayers as he has been deployed to Afghanistan in an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) Clearance Unit).
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DEVOTIONAL By Ben Bohren
Final day as CCNC-N Regional Minister
A LOOK BACK...A PRAYER FORWARD
8 years...96 months...2,920 days!
That is the measure of Ben Bohren's "chronos" time in this sacred place called the Christian Church of Northern CA-NV. Life goes by and is filled with events and people and we all know that some of life seems to creep along and some flies by! What matters most is not the "chronos" time but the "kairos" time- the God-moment times.
Reflecting back on these 8 years, I simply fall to my knees in thanksgiving and humility for the abundance of "kairos" moments. I am grateful for the opportunity to share some of these with you now; but even more to have shared them with you over the 2,920 days!
- The work of over 200 people in developing "The Five Year Vision" which gave us direction and purpose and focus on specific areas of challenge and growth.
- The creation of a weekly E-news.
- The equalization of staff- our collegial work
- The hiring of such high quality new staff
- Miracle Days
- The Transformation Van, the Mission Van, the E-Van, the Listening Van, etc.
- My Installation in five locations as part of one of those Van Trips!
- CGC improvements
- Increase in offerings of summer camps and thus camp attendance
- The various curricula we wrote as part of "The Five Year Vision"
- Lenten Devotionals
- The Pentecost Project
- The ACTS program
- Mandatory Healthy Boundary Training & Ministerial Annual Standing Review
- Extension of the Regional Elders program
- The rich ethnic, cultural and racial diversity of CCNC-N and over 20 new churches.
- Development of the Annual Fund and its tremendous growth using creative strategies: Phon-a-thon, Mission Action Auction, "$40,000 in 40 Days," Challenge to Board members; Ben's special donor list
- Becoming a Global Mission Region and the visit of the Ngokas
- New By-Laws and new governing organization
- Growing confidence of congregations in the Region- tithing of estate gifts.
- Successful move of Annual Gathering from Asilomar to Sofitel
- Special joys of working with seminarians
- Gulf Coast Mission Trips-followed by mission trips to other locations
- 1,000 People Praying
- Development of a Young Adult Ministry
- In December 2005, finding out we were broke!!
- Prop 8 controversy which led to creation of The Justice Commission
- The loss of FCC Visalia; Maze Blvd CC, Modesto and Fairview CC, Trowbridge
- The privilege of serving the General Church as Chair of GCOM, member of Administrative Committee, Executive Committee of College of Regional Ministers
- A second Disciples church in Nevada!
How thankful I am to the hundreds of faithful, searching, struggling, hope-filled and God-led Disciples from all across this Region for the support, prayers and love I have received. Words are not adequate so I simply close with the way I close all letters- blessings...blessings...blessings!
Prayer based on Philippians 1:3-9:
"I thank my God in all my remembrances of you, always in every prayer of mine for you, a prayer of joy; thankful for your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure that God who began a good work in you will bring it to completion. It is right for me to feel this way about you, because I hold you in my heart, for we are all partakers of grace. It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more..."
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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!
NOVEMBER
3- Unity Festival UCC Lodi
7- Training and Care Committee
10- CGC Facilities Committee
10-11 - Fall Fest- CC of Woodland
Sundays 11, 18, 25- Thanksgiving Offering
DECEMBER
3- Recognition and Standing- 9:30-12:00 RO
29-30- Young Adult Winter Event- Forest Hill CC-SF
Sundays, 16, 23, 30- Christmas Offering
JANUARY
7- Deadline for all 2012 Disciples Mission Fund Offering (Checks must be in the office by Monday, January 7)
2013
March 1-3 - Annual Gathering at the Sofitel Hotel in Redwood City
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CELEBRATIONS & PRAYERS
CELEBRATIONS
The Ben Bohren Camp Scholarship Fund has now reached $14,068 Your gifts continue to be welcomed so that more and more children and youth may attend camp.
Latest update on the 2012 Phon-A-Thon with a goal of $25,000 is:
- actual received: $23,655
- total pledged/received: $28,405
- still needing: $4,750 IF YOU ARE ONE OF THOSE PERSONS WHO MADE A PLEDGE BUT HAVE NOT SEND YOUR PAYMENT IN, PLEASE HELP US COMPLETE THIS PROJECT!
Our Regional Ministry Council met this past Saturday, October 27, at FCC Concord and set their sights on 2013 and ways to continue important programs in our Region. They approved the hiring of a one year position, Director of the ACTS (acdemy of Christian Training and Study) Program for one year and also approved hiring a Lenten Devotional Editor for 2013. This will assure the continuity of these two important programs and allow the Transitional Interim Regional Minister to focus elsewhere. The Ministry Council also approved two new Mission Clusters: Justice Commission Cluster and the "Service, Spirit and Strategy" Missional Church Cluster.
New members at reported: Fruitridge CC, Sacramento (1 adult transfer); FCC Redding (1 adult transfer)
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Our prayers are with Pastor Christine Tomascheski, FCC Eureka, who sent this
news: "My mother, Darlene Pellegrini had been ill with various health issues over the past several years. Her passing was unexpected. She went to bed Thursday and died during the night. She was 72 and married to my father Milt for 55 years." Christine's mother requested no service but Christine and John and family will gather for a day of remembrance.
Our prayers are also with Pastor Fred, FCC Alameda, and Janice Williams on the sudden death of his sister Brenda, who just recently moved to San Leandro to be near family. She went to bed on Friday evening and did not wake up on Saturday morning. Service plans are pending. The Williams have many family members spread across numerous Disciples churches in our Region.
We are saddened to hear the news of the death of retired Disciples minister, Paul Redmond last Tuesday. Paul was 88 years old and he and his wife Mary had been living in Oakhurst for sometime and were members of the Oakhurst United Methodist Church. Services will be held at 2:00 pm this Friday, November 2 in Oakhurst.
Prayers for the Firch pastoral family, FCC Sacramento, who have been hit with several challenges. Vickie's father had a stroke and is recovering at home in Selma. Daughter Bethany's boyfriend's mother recently lost everything in a fire that destroyed her home, her car and their dog died in the fire.
Do keep Bill Shive, musician for FCC Oakland and leader at Tapestry Ministries, Berkeley, in prayer as he continues to recover at home from his mild heart attack a few weeks ago. Cards can be sent to: 7856 Ney Avenue, Oakland, 94605
Prayers continue for Kathy Smith who served FCC Sacramento in numerous ministry positions over many years and is battling colon cancer. Her spirits and faith are still strong but there are tough days ahead. Cards can be sent to: 2809 14th Street, Sacramento, 95818
Our prayers continue for Alma Hernandez, wife of Pastor Kilo Hernandez, Iglesia del Pueblo de Porterville (Disciples of Christ) meeting at FCC Porterville. Alma has been suffering for some time from extreme fatigue, partial paralysis on right side, and fainting spells. The doctors have not been able to find the exact cause and this is very discouraging and depressing for all the family. Please send cards to : Alma Hernandez 1020 North Prospect Street, Porterville, 93257
Our prayers for Bruce Kieft, who has recently been diagnosed with stomach cancer and underwent major surgery. He is home and in the midst of chemo treatments. Bruce is the Moderator of FCC Fremont and Chair of the Construction Committee with Niles Discovery Church (Niles Discovery is the merger of FCC Fremont and Niles UCC). He also chairs the Serra Center Board as one of the five Disciples serving in leadership for that ministry and was able to lead the meeting this past Tuesday night! Hallelujah! . Cards can be sent to:41204 Thurston Street, Fremont, 94538
Continuing prayers for Rev. Kay McFarland, retired Disciples minister, is recovering from double knee surgery, at the Retirement Celebration as well. Kay has also been suffering with Shingles since March of this year. Your prayers are much appreciated. Cards can be sent to: 2091 Strobridge Ave., Castro Valley, CA 94546.
Our prayers continue for John Grose, key leader and former Moderator at FCC Vallejo as he continues in a five month round of chemotherapy. We send out prayers for healing and strength to John and wife Beth.
Latest update on Pastor Taulau Tupua, Via Dolorosa Samoan Congregational CC of Modesto who is only three treatments away from his final chemotherapy before his hopeful bone marrow transplant at Stanford Medical Center. Fortunately, his older sister is a perfect match! Your prayers are deeply appreciated. Cards can be sent to: 2329 Senimi Circle, Ceres, 95307.
We continue to keep Pastor Mark Foglio, Oakdale CC in our prayers. Mark is about to get the second series of deep injections to address herniated disks in his back and neck. Cards of support can be sent to: Oakdale CC, 330 Maxwell Avenue, Oakdale 95361.
Sorry to hear the report that Barbara Wikoff, musician at Oakdale CC, and husband Bob, Chair of our Regional Resources Committee has pent several days in the hospital last week in order to address flu like symptoms. She still needs some major chemotherapy and she is beginning several rounds of 5 days a week, then two weeks off! 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:
Bea Tiffee, FCC Dos Palos Lt. MaShon Wilson, serving in Afghanistan, son of Gloria Wilson, Associate Pastor, FCC Alameda. Wanda, daughter of Gloria Baxter of Raynor Park CC
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FINAL WORD
 The ACTS Program Lives on!
(Academy of Christian Training and Study)
Three years ago, our Region launched a very ambitious lay leadership training program called ACTS. The plan was to offer specialized training in specific areas in a multitude of delivery methods: one session a week for 5-6 weeks; a week-end retreat; on-line courses, etc. . We offered everything from Disciples History to Conflict Transformation to "A Dash Through the Bible" to Spiritual Practices to Stewardship-Abundant Living."
The design of the 12 person ACTS Team was for three years to see how the program might be received. Nearly 500 people attended one or more ACTS offerings!!!!
With the three year period ending, and the two key leaders of the ACTS Team in transition (Sandhya from 25 hours a week to 15 hours a week and Ben from ___ hours a week to 0 hours a week), the ACTS TEAM evaluated the future of this program.
The decision was clear and unanimous-THIS PROGRAM MUST GO ON AT LEAST FOR THE NEXT YEAR. So, the ACTS TEAM proudly introduces our new Director of the ACTS program...
LAURA PIERSON.
 Laura Pierson has lived in the Northern California Nevada Region her whole life. She attended FCC Chico from the time she was two years old until she graduated from CSU, Chico. After graduation, she moved with her husband Rob to the Bay Area where she and Rob were members of FCC Palo Alto while she completed the Teaching Credential program at San Jose State. Eventually, the Pierson family made their way back up north to the Sacramento area and began attending Arden Christian Church where she now serves as a commissioned minister.
Before Laura finally answered her call to ministry, she taught science at Homestead High School in Cupertino and then at Barrett Middle School in Fair Oaks. She enjoys curriculum development and has written original curriculum not only for her science classes, but for Sunday School and Adult Christian Education classes at Arden. Much of her work at Arden is education and outreach related. In her time at Arden, Laura has redeveloped the Children's Sunday School program and launched the Kids Night Out outreach program which offers free childcare to the Arden Park community on a weekly basis. She is currently developing a course called BASIC to support new adult members to the church.
Laura is currently under care to be ordained on the Apprentice Track and has completed the Certificate of Ministry Studies program at Pacific School of Religion. She is currently completing more coursework to prepare her for ordination. She currently resides in Fair Oaks with her husband Rob, her daughters Beth and Emily, and their three dogs. When not writing or studying, you can find Laura waiting around the dance studio while her daughters take their many hours of dance lessons, and if she's not there, you'll find her in the kitchen creating fantastic meals for family and friends.
Do you have an interest in serving for one year on this new ACTS team?? Contact Laura Pierson at:
frzzled@gmail.com.
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