OUR CHURCH FAMILY

Please remember our church family in your daily prayers, at mealtimes and during your personal devotions. Continue to remember those young and old with ongoing physical, spiritual, and emotional struggles.

Our Family of Week is Bill & Eleanor Wildeboer. Please keep them in your prayers this week, remembering the challenges they face and the blessing they are to our church family.

Congratulations to Clarence Kits as he celebrates his birthday today! Wishing you the Lord’s richest blessings in your new year.

Do remember those who are unable to worship regularly with us: please keep Albert & Tilly Biel, Klaas Boskers, Gerry Doornenbal, Lea Dykstra, Lillian Mercier, Ernie Stebner and Grace Vander Veen in your prayers.

Pray for our missionaries around the world.

Bethel News

PRAYER ITEMS

Classis: Ottewell CRC Edmonton - Pastor Martin Mobach

Classis Ministry: Healthy Church Task Force

Denominational: ServiceLink: Volunteers, 

Churches are gearing up for their summer programs as they seek to bless their communities. VBS, Sports Camps and various other summer programs require many volunteers with lots of energy! Pray for program coordinators who are now in the planning stages, and that volunteers with a heart for kids will be encouraged and equipped to share Jesus with enthusiasm and love.

Classis Report:

1. Delegates to Synod 2015 are Pastors Gordon Pols and Neil DeKoning. Pastor Mike is first alternate. Elders Matt Schoonderwoerd and Frank Zee. Elder Peter Prins is first alternate. Deacon Cora Hoekstra is going as one of 7 deacon advisors from across North America.

2. Candidate elect Dayna Vreeken was examined and accepted as a minister of the Word and Sacrament in the Christian Reformed Church. She will be installed in Woodynook on March 22^nd in the morning service.

3. Seminary Student Josh Friend was examined and accepted as a Commissioned Pastor in Red Deer First CRC.

4. Home Missions presented a vision to plant three more churches in Edmonton area in the next five years.

5. Evaluated all ten ministries that Classis supports and discussed extensively the financial implications and the specific vision of Classis to do this work. The critical next step will be a local church exercise to determine which ministries we feel should be supported by our ministry share contributions.

Spring Newsletter: 

The newsletter team is ready to put together a newsletter for the spring. We hope to have it in your mailboxes for the first Sunday in April, Easter Sunday. We are looking forward to your contributions once again. We will be including the reports from the spring congregational meeting as well as any updates that we receive regarding programs and plans. If you have anything special you would like included, please have it to either Harriet Luymes or Anita Geldof by March 30^th. Stories, poems, a special cover page perhaps? Thanks once again for helping to make this an interesting, informative and fun newsletter to read.

Living Members 

will meet at the home of Alex and Ann Wildeboer next Sunday, March 15^th after the evening service. For the discussion Chapters 5 and 6, pages 26-36 in Follow Me, will be covered.

THANK YOU from the Youth Mission Team. 

Last Wednesday night we filled 90 "Care Packages" for the homeless people in Victoria, B.C. A big "Thank You" to all who donated items and helping us with this project! Please keep the Youth Mission team, Patrick Bouwman, Wayne Bouwman, Mark DeWit, Russell Ebens, Brooklyn Forsyth, Nathan Hazelhoff, Cora Hoekstra, Kyle Scholing, Jadyn Scholing, Anita Swier, Kayla Swier, Jenna Ubels, John Ubels & Riley Vandenborn, in your prayers as they prepare for this exciting trip.

BETHEL YOUTH

Attention all Young Peoples’ 

we will be have a social today at Kyle's after the evening service. If you have any questions please call Gayle or Jan

Tuesday Nite Youth will meet this week, March 17^th! 

Our special guests for the evening will be Andy and Linda Horlings. They will lead us in a game from Nigeria as well as a discussion about their mission work among the Muslims. Doors open at 7 p.m. Any questions contact your leader.

See you there!!

Young Adults of Central Alberta you are invited! 

Come one come all to the 1^st Annual Young Adults Dodge Ball Tournament on Wednesday, March 18^th. We will meet at 7 p.m. at CACHS, pick teams and then enjoy some great Dodge Ball action. There will be prizes and an ice cream social to follow. Please RSVP by March 13^th to confirm a spot in the action. Cost is $5 per person, call Terry at 403-896-7446. First 60 players are guaranteed a spot on a team. Hosted by Bethel Young Adults

Junior Youth event: 

We will be going to the YU-Turn Center in Lacombe on Saturday, March 21^st from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The YU-Turn Center is located at 5025 50th Street, Lacombe. There are a variety of fun games to play there, e.g. air hockey, foosball, pool, X box, Play station, etc. Refreshments will be provided. If you would like to come, please fill out a form (on foyer table) and place it in Debby van Iperen’s mailbox by Tuesday, March 17^th.

Cadets 

The March 21^st Jamboree is quickly approaching. The event will be hosted by the Woody Nook Cadet Club. Your Kub Kars and Semi Trucks must be completed and brought to the next Cadet meeting for weighing, on March 18^th. Kub Kar weight is 142 grams maximum, and Semi Truck weight this year is 1200 grams maximum. . There will be outside activities in the morning so bring winter clothes. Lunch is $5 or you can bring your own. We will be meeting in the church parking lot and leaving at 8:30 a.m. and returning at Bethel at 3 p.m. Your Cadet councillors have the consent forms, for more information contact Grant Zuidhof.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Lacombe Christian Reformed Burial Society: 

We are having our Annual General Meeting on Monday March 16^th, at Woody Nook CRC at 7.30 p.m.

The Soul Patrol Choir 

invites you to their 2015 Choral Dessert Night on Friday, March 20, 2015 at Woody Nook Church at 7 p.m. Coffee, tea, juice and a variety of desserts will be served. The choir will perform a number of their favorite songs from the year and a few new ones as well. Donations to Camp Silversides will be gratefully received. Come out for an evening of music, fun, and good food!

You are invited to Dayna Vreeken’s Ordination service. 

On March 22^nd, at 10 a.m. at Woody Nook CRC. We will celebrate God’s gift to us as we ordain Pastor Dayna to service in our community. We invite the congregations of Classis Alberta North to join us and guests to participate in this important event in our common journey of life and service in the Kingdom of God.

You are invited to attend the upcoming production of That Towering Cross 

which will premiere on March 26^th – 28^th, 2015 at the Memorial Centre in Red Deer. Tickets are required but are free to the public thanks to the generosity of our sponsors. You can get tickets for any of the four shows (March 26^th at 7 p.m., March 27^th at 7 p.m., and March 28^th at 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.) by calling 403-343-1611. They are also available for pick up at 53^rd Street Music (4902 53 St, Red Deer) or at Scott’s Parable Christian Store on Gasoline Alley. Donations will be accepted towards the CAPCC’s housing project for single pregnant women. For more information or to learn about the new housing project please call the Centre at 403-343-1611.

Edmonton Christian Male Choir 

in concert on Saturday, April 11^th at 7 p.m. at Woody Nook CRC. ECMC presents “Jesu, Joy…Desiring” an evening of song, praising our Saviour. Tickets are $15 and available at the door. Special guests: the Mighty Power Singers. For more information there is a poster on the foyer bulletin board.

PERSECUTED CHURCH

India

After the rise to power from the Hindu BJ Party at the national level of the country in May 2014, incidents of Christian persecution raised significantly. Christians, especially in rural areas, are facing intense pressure for choosing to follow Jesus. A mob of 70 radicals stood at the entrance of a Pastor's home shouting "We want to see the pastor and kill him for preaching a foreign religion in our village, Let him come out of the house". Let us lift up these brothers and sisters in the Lord, that they may stay strong and courageous. May the Lord surround them with His Peace while they face trials. May their reaction be a witness to their attackers and bring them to repentance.