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
Next Sunday, March 22nd
We continue Lent with the focus on “The real meaning of Jesus’ death and resurrection.” We declare “Victory in Jesus” but victory over what? Who did Jesus conquer on Good Friday and Easter? How does this define our lives as we put our faith in him? We read from 1 Corinthians 15:50-58. We will also commission our Mission team as they prepare to go to Victoria. In the evening we turn to John 15 and answer another sermon request about “Abiding in Christ.” Pastor Mike will lead our worship.
In this event we’ll explore how God’s people failed to keep the covenant, yet God provided His own Son as the covenant-keeper. Join us as we explore “The Covenant Keeper” on Sunday, March 29th at 4:00 p.m. We will conclude the event with a potluck supper. Please bring an appetizer to share. Dessert will be an ice cream bar featuring ‘tribal toppings’!
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 22nd 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 30th. 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 15th 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 Youthwill meet this week, March 17th!
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 1st
Annual Young Adults Dodge Ball Tournament on Wednesday, March 18th. 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 13th 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 21st
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 17th.
Cadets
The March 21st
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 18th. 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 16th, 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 22nd, 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 26th – 28th, 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 26th
at 7 p.m., March 27th
at 7 p.m., and March 28th at 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.) by calling 403-343-1611. They are also available
for pick up at 53rd 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 11th 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.