July 30, 2011
Inside the Courier
:
•
A Look at the BriteSide, page 2
• Connection with early
FCC
member’s
family, page 3
• August Cale
ndar,page 4
•Board notes and FCC
family news, page 5
On the Web:
Plaster House transforms lives of children
Amy Dunlop with children at Plaster House
Join Ernie onAugust 14 atthe ChurchWorship Ser-vice and pic-nic! Details,Page 3
Children with cleft palates, skeletaldeformities and serious burns literal-ly have their lives transformed whenthey are able to have what Westernmedicine considers fairly simple sur-gery. Amy andSteve Dun
lop’s
presentation dur-ing worship onJuly 17 demon-strated how work being done atPlaster House inTanzania is giv-ing hundreds of children new lifeand hope throughsuch medicalcare.Plaster House, an orthopedic carecenter in near Arusha, Tanzania, ispart of the Orthopedic Institute of Selian Lutheran Hospital. Childrenfrom 30 area villages come to PlasterHouse to prepare for and then recov-er from the various types of ortho-pedic and plastic surgery offered bySelian Hospital. According to Steve,the surgeries cost $200-$300, andfamilies pay what they can, but manycan only contribute a few dollars atmost.Steve also explained that childrengenerally acquire these disabilities inthree ways: from birth defects, frominjuries caused by traffic accidentsand falling into open cooking fires,and from environmental conditions.Before surgery the children often firsthave to have their strength and health builtup so they can tolerate the surgeries and,afterwards, they need time to recover andhave post-operative care.Unless the child-ren are breast-feeding, theirfamilies stay be-hind. While atPlaster House,they are cared forby 2-3 adults.During AmyDun
lop’s stay at
Plaster House,she helped or-ganize recrea-tional and educational activities for thechildren.Currently Plaster House has 18 beds andcan accommodate up to 40 children at atime, although they have had as many as93 kids at once. Funds are currently beingraised to build a new Plaster House with40 beds to for 80-100 children. Anothergoal is to hire a full-time teacher.The target fundraising goal is $400,000.FCC is in the middle of a drive to raise$2000 by August 15. You can write a
check and put the words “Plaster House”
on the memo line or donate online bygoing to the FCC website.More information on Plaster House and onfundraising opportunities is available athttp://www.plasterhouse.org.
Christian Courier
First Christian Church of Minneapolis (Disciples of Christ)
Page 2
Pastor Bob Brite
Get your exercise!
July 30, 2011
One of the things I try to doeach day is exercise. Whether
it’s walking, biking, weights, or
tennis, I usually spend part of my evening engaged in some
sort of physical activity. I’ve
found that it helps me to feelbetter, and it definitely assistsin my continual hobby of tryingto keep my weight at accepta-ble levels, considering the factthat I can look at food and puton weight.The Good News translation of
one of Paul’s letters (I can’t
recall which one at this point)talks about the importance of spiritual exercise as well. Iknow that last year one of theSunday School classes engagedin a study of
Celebration of Discipline
by Richard Foster.The disciplines such as prayer,study, fasting, meditation, wor-ship, and so on can be regardedas spiritual exercise much inthe same way that my abovelist of sports are forms of phys-ical exercise. Just as physicalexercise stresses the body insuch ways that it strengthensthe body, spiritual exercisestresses the soul in such a waythat it strengthens the soul.Just as physical exercise is bothhard work and good fun, spiri-tual exercise is the same.The work and the fun of spiri-tual exercise is growing in the
awareness of God’s presence inour lives. Please note that I’m
putting the emphasis on our
awareness rather than God’s
presence. God is alwayspresent in our midst; the
“work” part is in the arena of
increasing our awareness. Thestrongest, most illuminativesouls on our planet are thosewhose relationship with God isconstantly worked on, just asthe top musicians in our worldare constantly practicing.As the summer months moveon, I would commend to youworking into your daily rou-tines both physical and spiritual
exercise; it’ll do your whole
self some good!
I’d like to see YOU on Sunday,
Bob
A Look at the Brite Side
In our prayers
Gracious God, welift up these personsin our prayers, ask-ing the blessing of your Grace and out- pouring of your Loveupon them.
We pray with joy to have welcomed long-time friends of FCC
Wallyand Avis Carlson
, and
Ron and Judy Anderson
who worshiped withus recently; for blessings to
Grace and Leah Callahan
and
Ali Hesano,
and other young people building spiritual lives and community as theyattend church camp; in deep sympathy for the
citizens of Norway
endur-ing the trauma and shock of terrorism, and in sorrow over the perversionthat hatred creates; for
Velma Fancher
, who is hospitalized; for
GregMerkel
’
s
parents (and
Kathy Merkel
’
s
in-laws),
Ardyce & Jim Mer-kel;
in concern for
Jay Hilles
tad’s brother Scott
who is looking forwork and exploring a new vocation and for
Pat Carter and The Wol-vertons,
who had to deal with flooding in their homes due to recent hardrains; in gladness that
Nancy Cur
ry’s sister
is home from hospital anddoing well and
Karen Kan
dik’s
health has been pro
nounced “pe
r
fect”
after her final post-operation checkup; for all the FCC folk involved in 14working groups as we move forward in building and rebuilding; for allour home-bound members including
Lois
Swenson
and
Dorothy
Wil-kins
, Amen.
Christian CourierPage 3
Archival book reconnected with FCCfamily from early years
story and photos by Chris Wogaman
First Christian Church has lately been inventoryingits archives in advance of the move to the MinistryCenter at the beginning of next year. In amongstour archival holdings are several books and boxesof family pictures that have been given to thechurch over the years. One very interesting volumeof writings is by one of the first members of ourchurch, Frank Hamilton Mellen (1855-1940).Through a bit of genealogical detective work, wewere able to track down Mr. Mellen's living grand-son, Hugh Greenwald of Oceanside, CA. And onFriday, July 8, Mr. Greenwald came through Min-neapolis on some travels and was able to take thisvolume for his family's historical archive."He was a blue collar workerwho was very intelligent,"Mr. Greenwald said of hisgrandfather, who died whenMr. Greenwald was a child.Mr. Mellen was deeply in-volved in this church, andwas also an outspoken advo-cate for prohibition, runningfor US Representative in 1904 and MinneapolisMayor in 1910 on the Prohibition Party ticket.Of the memorabilia in Mr. Mellen's writings thatrelate to the church, all of which has been scannedfor future consultation, there exists one SundaySchool manual from 1892 that is possibly the firstmention of "First Christian Church" applying toour church.
Sunday, August 14 North Mississippi Park 9:15 Sunday School Classes 10:00 Worship 11:30 Potluck Picnic Wading Pool and Playground Beverages and paper products furnished
Directions: I-94 north to Exit 226. Go towards 53rd Ave. N,then turn slightly right onto Lyndale Ave. N. Follow signs to park
FCC History book needs stories!
Deb Murphy and Becki Whitaker are compilinga book of stories and recol
lections on FCC’s hi
sto-ry. They are conducting video interview sessionsat the church, or can visit homebound members if needed.Topics Deb and Becki are exploring include for-mer ministers and music directors, youth trips toHazelgreen Academy, Paraguay and other loca-tions, former social and mission activities, andmany more.Written reflections are also welcomed. Bustransportation is available.A signup sheet is in the lounge. Contact Becki(becki@sporga.net
All-Church Worship and Picnic
Search History:
Result 00 of 00
00 results for result for
p.
First Christian Courier- July 30, 2011
The July 30 edition of the Courier, the newsletter of First Christian Church, Minneapolis.
271
Reads
2
Readcasts
1
Embed Views
More From This User
Notes
Load more
