THE LORD IS BUSY ON OUR BEHALF

Answers to prayers seem evident in just about every aspect of our church life. We were very much blessed by the message about the building of “The Hall of Faith.” Our praise and prayer time revealed answered prayer and of course, many new concerns. There were 41 souls present to receive the blessings.
Our Seder dinner will be at 6:30PM on April 8 at the Grange Hall. It will describe the provisions God made for His people during the Exodus. Do you suppose He still provides for us today? Seating will be limited, so please call 331-7774 to reserve your seat.
Our Easter service will again feature Pastor Darrell Wenzek preaching with a special Easter message. Please don’t miss it.
The Truth Project viewing is underway at the Walker residence at 7:00P every Thursday night. Call 331-7774 for directions. If you care about having a Christian world view, you will want to see this series.
We wil also see “The End of the Spear” which is a movie, at 6:30PM on Saturday, March 21. It is an amazingly dramatic picture that will leave you wanting to see it again just so you can comprehend what really happened.
God continues to bless us and keep us, and we invite you to come to Sunday worship service at 10:00AM each Sunday and be a part of how God is blessing us.

THE HALL OF FAITH

In spite of the early hour created by the time change, and also the threat of snow, we had 28 in attendance on Sunday morning. We were blessed.
One of the features of our service is a Praise and Prayer Time. We take a few minutes for people in the congregation to praise God for answered prayer and to offer prayers of petition. Of course sometimes concerns are quite complicated, so we encourage people to just offer “sentence prayers” so that as many praises and concerns can be offered as are possible in that part of the service. It is an important way for us to express love and concern for one another, and for others in our community too.
This Sunday, March 15, will feature Pastor Ron Wedeking preaching out of the great faith chapter in the Bible: Hebrews 11. If you seem to be struggling with faith issues, you should come, listen, fellowship, and you will surely be blessed. Because it is not our faith that accomplishes anything – rather it is God using whatever little faith we have to accomplish His will, if we will just surrender, and let Him. When we completely surrender to Jesus Christ, our lives are changed is ways that are just amazing.
Things that are happening include a Men’s Breakfast at 8:30A this Saturday, March 14. Please call Stan Walker at 360-331-7774 for details. And we have a Sedar dinner planned for the evening of April 8. We will post more details regarding this event soon.
If you want to hear any one of our sermons, please send an email to Art Angst at fuzzwuzz@whidbey.com and he will email you an electronic copy. Interestingly, Steve Hochenedel was in England in late February and listened to one of Pastor Darrell’s sermons over there. Technology can be a beast, but it can be a blessing too.
God bless you as you read this.

A GREAT SUNDAY!

We had a wonderful day with Tom Johnson enlightening us with considerable history and information regarding how to intrepret the Bible during the early Sunday School hour. Then Pastor Ron reinvigorated our attitude with a message about The New Covenent out of Hebrews, Chapter 9. After that we had a potluck and games until midafternoon. We had a great time in fellowship. A lot of people worked hard to make all that happen and we are grateful.
DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME will find us at The Grange Hall early this week for the usual 9:00AM Sunday School followed by the worship service at 10:00AM. This week Pastor Ron will be speaking about “The Sufficiency of Christ,” found in Hebrews, Chapter 10.
ALSO DO NOT FORGET our Pass it Forward Gift Ministry as we serve our members and the whole community. We want to know about people who need help – with just about anything – so we can give them a gift as we help them with whatever they need. Are there limists? Of course, but we can’t know what we can do if we don’t know about whatever needs to be accomplished. Pleases tell us about the problem, and we will determine if we can help. When we can do that, whomever is helped can “pass it forward” by referring us to someone else who might need help.
God bless you and keep you this week.

MONDAY THE BLOGGER SLEPT LATE

Well, physically there was no late sleeping, but mentally it was another matter, which is why this is posted so late in the week. The title above is a take off on a book in a series written about 30 years ago about a rabbi as a sleuth. Only the title of the book was ON FRIDAY THE RABBI SLEPT LATE, which of course would not be good for a rabbi as he prepares for the sabboth.
The early Sunday School at 8:30A went very well. There are some differences of opinion but we ordinarily view disagreements as challenges rather than offences. We eagerly await this Sunday when we will continue in the series. But remember, after this Sunday, Tom Johnson will not be with us again until April 19. So we will resume regular SS at 9:00A after this Sunday.
Ron Wedeking will be bringing us a message on March 1 out of Hebrews Chapter 9 entitled “Out with the Old – In with the New.” I suspect it will be about a new covenant. But the day isn’t over when the sermon ends. That’s because at 3:00P we will all meet at the Angst residence for food event and game night. Please call Connie at 221-8365 for directions and information regarding any special food item you might prefer to bring. Please know that you are welcome even if you haven’t had much of a chance to get to know many of us.
THE TRUTH PROJECT will be shown again at the Walker residence beginning March 12 at 7:00PM. It will run for 12 weeks. If you haven’t seen it, you won’t want to miss it. If you come, you will agree that you will never get a better chance to understand a Biblical world view than with this series. Please call Stan Walker at 331-7774 for details.
Finally, we were blessed last Sunday with Ivan Latrop from Oak Harbor as he encouraged us with a very timely message about wholesome thinking. We urge everyone to adopt that attitude as we continue in service to Jesus.
God bless and keep you this week.

IS WHOLESOME THINKING POSSIBLE?

Pastor Ivan Lathrop from the North end of our island will be sharing during the worship hour this coming Sunday about “Some Wholesome Thinking About Life.” Dr. Lathrop has amazing qualifications in his ability to share some of life’s experiences including being a Christian Missionary in Beirut, Lebanon during the terrible civil war there. We are looking forward to his sharing what God is revealing to us in these times. Our regular pastors Ron, and Darrell have the week off.
Sunday School hour, which normally starts at 9:00AM will begin a half hour earlier this week at 8:30AM. Professor Tom Johnson, retired president of George Fox College, will be presenting a class on “Interpretation of Scripture.” It is a class where we will learn how to learn as we read the Bible.
The Fun Night scheduled for February 21 has been rescheduled for March 1. It starts at 3:00PM. Please call Connie Angst at 331-8365 for details and directions.
Also, if you would like to hear any of the messages we enjoy, please contact Art Angst at 331-8365 and he will email it to you or he can burn a disk for you.
On March 1, Pastor Ron Wedeking will return to share a message out of Hebrews chapter 9 about “Out with the Old – In with the New.”
If you need to know more about us, please click on the “about us” line adjacent to this message or call Stan Walker at 331-7774.
God keeps blessing us every day and we hope you can feel that way too.

THE GREAT FLOOD

Was the flood of Noah’s era real? Yes it was! Nothing in the study of the earth’s history refutes that. But did it really cover the whole earth? The Bible says it did, so why not believe that on faith just as Noah believed as he worked on the arc for 100 years? If you remain unconvinced, please come and hear Pastor Darrell Wenzek preach this coming Sunday on “The Great Flood.”
We will soon be offering a once per month special Sunday School class that will begin at 8:30AM rather than the usual 9:00AM. We are in the formative stages of this effort, but what we know now is that the class will be conducted by Dr. Tom Johnson, who is a retired president of George Fox College. We will be able to give you the study subject and the starting date soon. You will be interested in this class if you want a once per month college level class taught by a world class educator. How in the world can you pass that up? In the mean time, we are still conducting our regualr Sunday School program at all other times. Please come.
God keeps blessing our church with much answered prayer and developing events. Every day is exciting. So we do live expecting to see God’s work in the lives of His believers and in the life of our church.
One note, our interactive email account no longer works so please send any emails inquiries to stanandnancy@comcast.net, attention STAN. And please click on the “about us” side bar which you can see on the margin of this screen to to learn more about us.
God bless and keep you this week.

GET READY FOR A STORM!!!!

That will be the title of Darrell Wenzek’s next sermon on February 8 which he will take out of Genesis 6:14-22. Of course God has promised that He will not flood the earth again. And it seems that the next worldwide catastrophe will involve fire. But none the less, we will likely be enduring some other storms in the mean time. We could be at the beginning of a serious economic storm right now. So hang on, trust in The Lord, and make sure you are familiar with His Word and His Will as you listen to good Biblical messages from Pastors Darrell and Ron.
Coming events include a “Game Night” that includes a dinner at the Angst’s home on Saturday, February 21. And we will be showing “THE TRUTH PROJECT” again at the Walker home during the Thursday evening study starting in about a month. We will keep you posted on when that will begin. We have a lot going on and are being blessed every day.
Please remember our PASS IT FORWARD ministry. If you know of someone who needs some help, please call Stan Walker at 331-7774
Please click on the “about us” button on the lower right side of the screen to find out more about South Whidbey Community Church. And our email address is temporarily out of order until I figure out the new comcast format.
May God bless you and keep you this week.

COULD THINGS GET ANY WORSE?

That was the headline that appeared on the front page of the Genesis Times when God was “sorry that he had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.”
The answer of course is “Yes they can!”
But we are praying and hoping that they don’t. The point is, things did get pretty bad in our early history, but God in the form of Christ made them better – and even glorious. He will do that now too, and He is still being glorified in the lives of His believers.
Pastor Darrell Wenzek will expand on that message this coming Sunday as he preaches out of Genesis 6:1-13.
Remember, if you want to know more about us, please click on the “about us” selection on the lower right. And remember too, please call Stan Walker at 331-7774 if you know of a special need or someone who could use some assistance.
May God bless you this week.

NEW MEMBERS

Besides hearing a great sermon from Pastor Ron Wedeking entitled “The Better Ministry” out of Hebrews 7 this coming Sunday, we will be recognizing new members. Last weeks sermon was great and we expect the message this week will be just as inspiring.
Pastors Ron and Darrell are very excited about the possibilities they see in our growing fellowship. They have complementing gifts and talents so we see great promise in their becoming our co-pastors. They will be focusing on preaching and pastoral care without all the busy details of running a church office every day.
Our PASS IT FORWARD ministry is launched and working. So . . . if you know of some local person or family on South Whidbey Island with a need for help, please call Stan Walker at 331-7774. We will evaluate the situation and determine if it is practical for us to help. We want to serve all the people of our community so please don’t hesitate to ask questions.
God is blessing our people and our church every day. May God bless our members and you too as we seek to know him better this week.

THE LORD IS BLESSING US SO MUCH!

At our annual congregational meeting on Sunday, we made some very important progress. Some highlights of that meeting are mentioned as follows:
1. We donated more than 10% of the money we received as contributions to others during this last year.
2. We have an agreement with Darrell Wenzek and Ron Wedeking who will serve as our co-pastors providing preaching and pastoral care. There will be more about Darrell and Ron next week. The elders will continue to supervise all the ministries of the church. The scholar-of-the-month program should be credited as having brought us this far, but it is ended.
3. We have made some provisions for pre-schoolers during the worship hour with a junior church program.
4. We are embarking on a “PASS IT FORWARD” outreach ministry that will provide for helping people on condition that they “pass it forward” by telling us of someone else who could use a little assistance.
5. We have game nights and movie nights planned to add to our Bible study nights.
6. We decided that our elders will serve terms of 3 years, and we elected a new elder, Steve Hochenedel. He is a great cook too by the way and does a wonderful job at our men’s breakfasts and congregational dinners.
Finally, there are just too many really good things happening because The Lord is providing. We can’t mention them all here.
Ron Wedeking will be providing the message out of Hebrews this coming Sunday, Jan. 18. If you want to check us out, please come at 10:00AM to the Deer Lagoon Grange, or call Stan Walker at 360-331-7774.
God Bless You and Keep You This Week.