Disciples in the Twin Cities busy on Mission Projects

April has been a great month for Twin Cities Area Disciples to come together to do God's work of justice in the world. On April 5, nearly 30 people from Lake Harriet and First Christian Churches in Minneapolis and Plymouth Creek Christian Church in Plymouth came together to pack meals at Feed My Starving Children in the Twin Cities suburb of Chanhassen. Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) is a local charity that makes food packets of rice, soy and veggies to places in around the world where children are in need of food. They rely on volunteers to put the food packets together and FMSC has become a place where churches, corporations and civic groups come together to do what they can to combat hunger. In the space of 90 minutes our group (as well as another who was packing with us) made over 12,000 packets which will feed 35 children for a year. Our efforts didn't end world hunger, but we did make a difference in many children's lives.


On April 24, several people gathered at Victor's 1959 Cafe in Minneapolis for Dining Out for Life. Dining Out for Life is a national effort where restaurants come together and give a portion an evening's proceeds to a local HIV/AIDS Charity. Here in the Twin Cities, that charity is the Aliveness Project, a foodshelf that deal primarily with persons with HIV/AIDS. Our group had some great Cuban food and we helped a local charity.

April was a good month for local Disciples here in Minnesota. Stay tuned for more!

*You can see more photos, by going to the Disciples in Minnesota photo page on Flickr.

A New Path --Central College Mission Day

It was Beautiful! I stood looking over the pond at the chapel and new path that now encircles the entire pond -- I heard myself sigh (a Wonderful Sigh) and say outloud "How Beautiful!" This was the second year that Central College has sent a mission team up to help build something at the Conference Center. Last year they sent a team up to build a new bridge to the area that would become the New Pond Chapel. This year they came back with yet a larger team to clean up the area around the pond and build a walking path around the pond. They worked from 9am - 4pm and I believe they were tired by the end of the day. I want to give thanks to Central College for two reason: 1) Thanks for helping us improve things that we cannot do without volunteer groups like this one and 2) Thanks for being visionary enough to set aside a whole day of classes to teach the importance of helping out the wider community. I am extremly optimistic about the upcoming generation who are willing to explore and build new paths wherever life might take them.

Licensed Ministers Event

TO: Licensed Ministry Support Network Members

FROM: Sue Woods, LMSN Coordinator

RE: April 19th meeting
WHEN: 9:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
WHERE: Christian Conference Center
WHAT: Kirby Gould, Christian Church Foundation
WHY: Learn practical steps to creating and building endowments and legacy gifts

WHAT WE NEED FROM YOU! Currently, we only have a few reservation for this event. Please take a moment right now to reply to swoods@qwestoffice.net with your reservation so we can plan for the meal.
Blessings!
Sue Woods
swoods@qwestoffice.net

Message from the Searles

The note below comes from Doug and Liz Searles, former Global Mission
Partners in China...you may recall they toured Iowa last Summer
sharing news of their great work on our behalf in China. Now,
they've got more exciting news. At this point, it is uncertain
whether or not they will be appointed as Global Mission Partners with
the Upper Midwest Region in their new assignment. We'll just have to
see how that turns out...but I thought you'd like to see their most
recent message. Best wishes. Don Hiscox




Hello, Iowa DOC friends !


We hope that all is well and that the winter is nearly past.Here in the Pacific NW, the crocuses and forsythia have been blooming for a month. It's a very different space and place.The weather's great, but we are missing Iowa and Illinois friends.


Good News! We want you to be among the first to know that we have been approved for a joint appointment to Poland. This means that we are sent by both Common Global Ministries (UCC/DOC/Christian Church) and the Presbyterian Church (PC USA). Working more closely with the church in a very different environment from China means big changes for us!
We'll be assigned to the Evangelical Reformed Church in Poland, and will live in a town called Lodz (pron. "Woodge"). It is the birthplace of pianist Artur Rubenstein, has a growing movie industry("Holly-woodge") and used to be a big textile manufacturing center.Now, it has fallen on hard times. Beyond the city, horses pull the ploughs and donkey carts are common.


More information will come soon, as we learn more about our future roles. We're hoping that we can continue our relationship with churches in Iowa if there is interest in Poland. Let us know your thoughts on this.


We'll be walking with ten churches and four meeting points as they work to strengthen their marginalized and shrinking protestant denomination, founded in the mid-1500's, and create a vision for new outreach. Ways we could help include small group development, nurturing pastors, helping improve music in the churches, developing indigenous hymnody, computer support, training ESL teachers in the church schools, and other activities.


Language study will be our first priority, of course. As we begin to study Polish, we are finding that Chinese is looking easier and easier !!!


Please keep holding us up in your prayers as we make this new transition as a family. And . . . . greet all the saints in Iowa for us, won't you?


Thank you, too, for your faithfulness and firm support!


Blessings on all your ministries!
Liz & Doug Searles

thesearles@gmail.com

712 540 4901

206 463 1747 (until June 25)

A Walk in the Wilderness - Jr Retreat Remembered

After worship Friday evening, My co-counselor and I set out on a journey with 5 boys and 5 girls. It was just a hike to cabin 5 with all our luggage stacked quickly over our shoulders, tucked under arms or in one case held delicately underneath his chin. Sometimes what may appear as a simple, everyday thing to do can produce memories that last a life time. I think we must have looked like a disorganized wagon train marching along that path that so many Jr. Campers over the years have walked before. In the moment, my hiking partners, must have been struggling under the weight of all the things parents think campers need for a 23 hour retreat and I heard many reasons why we should move cabin 5 closer to the main lodge. However, by the next morning those difficult moments on the trail had become legendary stories about our great walk in the wilderness. And yes, we had to do it all over again in reverse at the end of the retreat on Saturday but I, and I think each of them too, are thankful for the memories in between. I want to give a deep thanks to Joan White and Lynne Sandegren for planning and directing this retreat and allowing me to counsel. This is what can happen when churches take the time to gather together for ministry. I look forward to the Chi Rho Retreat held on April 18-19. Blessings Bill Spangler-Dunning

Richard and Emily Guentert in China

As you may know, Richard and Emily Guentert were in China over Easter, on a mission trip with Global Missions. The following is a brief report they just forward to those of us back home. I know you will be keeping them, and all their travel companions in your thoughts and prayers.

We are now in the middle of a very exciting two weeks in this marvelous country full of kind and hospitable friends. As you know we are traveling with our denomination's office of Global Missions and we are visiting the church's work among Christians here. Already we are deeply and profoundly impressed by the faith of the Chinese Christians and the efforts of mission personnel among them.

It is a resurrection experience to behold their energy and vitality in publishing Bibles (even printing them in braille for the blind), in evangelizing the unchurched, in medical care, in attention to such needs as HIV Aids, a mobile medical team, village health worker's training and health clinics, orphan fostering, teacher training, back to school projects, work among migrant workers, rebuilding schools where they have collapsed, and instigating the building of the largest hospital in China.

A church body called Amity has 30 different community development projects - including loans to begin businesses, environmental protection promotion, and social welfare work.
In addition to all of this there are lay training centers for part-time lay-workers in the church, there are Bible Schools (like our colleges) to train full-time church workers, and there are seminaries to train ordained clergy (of which there are woefully few compared to the great need).

We are truly seeing and experiencing the richness of the resurrection in the life of the Chinese church. These people are truly excited and animated by their relationship to the risen Lord. Richard had the honor of bringing greetings to over two thousand of them in Palm Sunday worship last Sunday, and will have the honor of doing the same in the church at Chengdu Easter Sunday. (This is the site where our Global Mission Partners, the Searles, worked for a number of years.)
Half-way through our trip we have been to Shanghai, to Nanjing, to Hefei, and now Chengdu. Please keep us in your prayers. Likewise we will be thinking of you on this glorious Easter morning. Hallelujah! Christ is Risen. He is risen indeed!!!
Richard and Emily Guentert

Hello

Welcome to the first post of the Disciples Together Blog! Here we will post news, musings and events from accross the breadth and depth of the Region. Stay tuned!