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It is good to be back after the holidays, and I am so thankful to each one of you for allowing me the privilege of joining my family in South Africa for my nephew's wedding and an early Christmas celebration. This is the first time in 18 years, that I have celebrated Christmas with all of my South African family.
I am very excited to begin this new year as we are inviting all our readers, members, friends, and those crossing our path in ministry to join us as we become more intentional in deepening Westminster's commitment to peacemaking. This coming month our Session will be asked to put a discernment process into place that will include as many voices as possible.
In many ways Westminster has long since made the commitment to be a peacemaking community. A recent example is the hiring of Emily Oshinskie as our Young Adult Peace Worker. The reality is that we could have given her many other titles, but we chose to call her a peace worker. Also at the end of last year we built on our tradition of putting our faith into action by declaring our welcome to Syrian refugees. If we look back through our history as a church we can identify many pausing places when we have made the commitment to peace. The reality however is that every new age calls us to reinterpret ourselves and calls us now to even greater study, engagement, and discernment to grow in clarity of purpose of what it means to be a peacemaking community today.
I am looking forward to journeying through this New Year with you, especially in "Engaging Peacemaking"!
See you in worship on Sunday and many blessings on the New Year!
Dries
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I couldn't have been greeted here in Wooster with a warmer welcome than at Westminster Presbyterian Church! Thank you to all those who have gone out of your way to have a conversation with me, engaged in some of the cookie-baking and card-making inter-generational activities, invited me over for a meal or just simply asked me how my transition is going. I am grateful for your support and encouragement in this time.
 On Sunday, January 10th at 6:30am, Beth, 7 of our service-oriented College of Wooster students and I will hop in two vans and drive 7.5 hours to Philadelphia, PA. Between Sunday and Thursday, we will have the privilege to partner with Broad Street Ministry; BSM is truly a city church that is deeply devoted to "broad-minded Christian community" and "radical hospitality" in order to engage in a "more just world through civic engagement." I attended a "mission trip" to BSM back in 2009 and I'm thrilled to go back again and see all of the growth and change. If you can't wait to hear about our trip and social justice work of Philadelphia, follow us on the Westminster Presbyterian Church Facebook page and click here for the trip blog for photos, reflections and more!
On Sunday, January 17th, all the youth are invited to join me in the upstairs Sunday School Room in a conversation about ordination and installation in which we will radically question who we are as Presbyterians and what is up with this "elder thing." This discussion will lead into a conversation on the following Sunday, January 24, when we will visit with with our newly elected elders April Gamble and Eric Miller to hear their stories of faith and discipleship.
Peace, Emily
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Contemplating Race Relations and Celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King
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Westminster's celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day will begin on Sunday morning at 10:45 am during worship with Pastor Dries preaching. As in the past, Westminster works in collaboration with our community partners and we invite all our members to attend the following events. Please contact Dries for more information.
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Multifaith Prayer Breakfast. Kittredge
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7:30 a.m. - 8:45 a.m.
Sponsored by the Office of Interfaith Campus Ministries.
This year's program is offered by the students from the "Just Work" course. The title of their presentation is Lessons from a Working Life. If you are interested in attending, please complete this form to RSVP by January 11th. Students are asked to swipe in, faculty or staff with "dining with students" are requested to use a "dining with students" swipe. All others are invited to join us at no cost. If you want to attend please contact Dries on or before Sunday,
January 10
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College of Wooster Campus-Wide MLK Day
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The College of Wooster will kick off the spring semester 2016 with their campus-wide MLK Day Celebration on January 18th, 2016. They have a full schedule planned to engage the campus and community that starts with a movie on Sunday night, includes a breakfast Monday morning and highlights a variety of Justice Dialogues and service projects.Read more here and see the full schedule of events here.
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Wooster Community-wide Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration
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When: Monday, January 18, 2016
Where: First Presbyterian Church, 621 College Avenue
Program:
5:00 pm: Dinner
Advance purchase only dinner tickets - $7 each.
Contact Pastor Dries for tickets.
7:00 pm: Celebration
Ewuare Osayande, Guest Speaker
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Community Workshop: Black Lives Matter and the Gospel Truth
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10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. - Community Workshop: Black Lives Matter and the Gospel Truth.
First Presbyterian Church, 621 College Avenue, Wooster, OH
This workshop will look at the Black Lives Matter movement and its call for police reform in the wake of police killings of African Americans across the country through the hermeneutic lens of Jesus' identification with the least of these.
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Human Trafficking Awareness
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Monday, January 11th will be the 7th Annual Human Trafficking Awareness Day. According to the Presbyterian Church USA website "An estimated 800,000 people, of which approximately 80 percent are women and up to 50 percent are minors, are trafficked across national borders. This number does not include the tens of millions of people who are trafficked within their countries of origin (See Trafficking in Persons Report, U.S. Department of State, 2015). Human trafficking is the recruitment, harboring, transporting, providing or obtaining by any means any person for forced labor, slavery or servitude in any industry or site such as agriculture, construction, prostitution, manufacturing, begging, domestic service or marriage." Read more here and further educate yourself.
To bring the issue home the Ohio Trafficking Task Force reports that "each year an estimated 1,078 Ohio children become victims and 3,016 more are at-risk." Follow the link to read the Mansfield News Journal article on July 22, 2014 about the conviction of the Ashland-area couple who trafficked a local woman and her young daughter.
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Congregational Care Ministry
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Westminster's Congregational Care Ministry is available for all in our church family as needed. Please contact Cheryl Weiss, or the church office at 330-263-2398 when you might find that you have a need (medical, time of loss, emergency, or other) for assistance in some way; perhaps meals or transportation. Also, if you have a project with which you would like help, we can offer the assistance of the Scouts through one of our ministry members.
Please remember that you can always contact Pastor Dries on his cell, home or e-mail (contact the church office for his contact details).
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What's happening at Westminster?
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With the Benevolences Work Group contributing $250 from Bed & Breakfast proceeds for half of a sand dam, the congregation came through with an additional $256 to complete the purchase of a sand dam to supply a community in Africa with life-giving 
