Please send an email to WCOCNEWS@aol.com if you have any questions regarding the announcements. 

Church Banquet: The Church Banquet is scheduled for Friday, December 15th at the Leicester Knights of Columbus.  Cost is $9 for children 7-12  $15 for teens through adults.Under 6 = FREE

Kids Kingdom:  Happy New Year! (almost) Jan.-May rotation Kids Kingdom needs folks with hearts to serve with the children. Please contact Pat or Kate if you are able to volunteer.  pjbars@myibocs.com, katebars@hotmail.com or 866-203-8319  

Inspiration from the Past brings Believers
Back to the Future in Sweden
Stockholm Church Celebrates 20th Anniversary

Jerry Maday Worcester, MA
November 21, 2006

 
What a special time it was for everyone with Kristi Församling (the church of Christ) in Stockholm, Sweden. With glad hearts, on Saturday, November 18, 2006, the church came together and celebrated the 20th anniversary of the planting of their special congregation in Northern Europe.

In 1986, a small group of faith-filled believers, consisting of 8 Christians from the USA, several Christians from Finland, and few new believers in Sweden, officially started a church of Christ in Stockholm. I was blessed to be there in 1986, and was blessed to be back in 2006! I felt honored. And the Lord was highly honored.

Since that time, there have been hundreds of baptisms all around Scandinavia where there  are now 6 churches…

• Stockholm, Sweden               Stockholm Kristi Församling
• Copenhagen, Denmark           Kristi Kirke København
• Helsinki, Finland                    Helsingin Kristuksen Seurakunta
• Reykavik, Iceland                   Samfélag Krists í Reykjavík
• Bergen, Norway                     Bergen Kristi Församling
• Oslo, Norway                        Oslo Kristi Församling 

On that festive Saturday night, there was a great feast! We enjoyed not only delicious food, but we also experienced “the great banquet” Jesus talked about. On the menu were joyful fellowship, heartfelt sharing by special guests, photo memories, laughter and a lot of music. The music was performed both by locals and Scandinavian guests. The Stockholm pre-teens singers, led by David Skynar and Christopher and Lovisa Lindfelt sang beautifully. Anders Holmgren, Pauline Hovenäs and Denmark’s Kresten Wolff performed special songs of gratitude and friendship. Camilla Nilsson and Rita Lavesson em-ceed as  “roliga tantor” (funny old ladies) and kept us smiling. The whole night was well coordinated by Suzanne Carlsson and was a tremendous success.

Two sisters from Finland, Liisa Kaliokoski and Annikka Sketch shared a lot of detailed anecdotes about the 24 months of waiting they did for the church to be planted in Stockholm. For months, they faithfully held Sunday worship services together by gathering around a cassette player to listen to services from Boston that often included baptisms afterwards. They took great care to dress up in honor of that special time for communion. They even put out a special table cloth for the cassette player to set on. The cassette player, for them, was the voice of God’s word for them to be taught by.

Chris Reed (Denver Colorado), Tim & Julie Huffman, (Houston, Texas) were honored to share as well. Sören Erkenborn och Erik Steinholz led the group in a song I had written for the planting “Beröm era av hans Heliga Namn” (Glory in His Holy Name). It is based on text of  I Chronicles 15:16 – 16:36, when David first had the ark brought into Jerusalem to be in a tent. I was honored to give a “skriftlig uppmuntran” (biblical encouragement) to all with reflections on how God has the Stockholm church to influence all of us and many others whom we have come to know over the years.

On Sunday, Tim Huffman did a moving communion, I led “Unto Thee O Lord” in Swedish, and Chris Reed preached an inspiring, but quick exposition of Ephesians. God helped all of us guests to quickly remember our Swedish vocabulary, grammar and colloquialisms so we could share our hearts effectively. Let me just share that I thought our elocution was “charming!”  : )

All had a terrific, memory building time. We were greatly energized to renew our dedication to God’s will that all of Sweden and all of the world be won to Jesus Christ as long as it depends on us while we live on God’s earth. We are one body; one world-wide church of God; tied together in a global family. Everyone doing God’s will as a daughter or son of God is following the Son of God into eternity. So we shared about the past, talked about today and will always get “back to the future”  - helping others be in heaven with us and all of God’s saints in Kristi Församling.

Your brother in Christ,

Jerry Maday

Pictures

Please send an email to WCOCNEWS@aol.comif you have any questions regarding the announcements. 

New Arrival: Welcome Cooper Jobe, son of Jeremy and Cheryl, born Tuesday, November 7th, weighing in at 9 pounds, 4 ounces.  They are home and doing well.

New Arrival:  Welcome Nandi Esliyah Haire, daughter of John and Jessica, born Thursday, November 9th, weighing in at 7 pounds, 11 ounces.  They are home and doing well.

Fundraiser Luncheon: A light lunch will be served today after service, in order to help defray the cost of Jeff Crumble’s upcoming kidney transplant and associated expenses.  Donations will be accepted.

Today is Feed Your Neighbor Day:  This campaign will benefit the Pernet Family Health Emergency Food Pantry in Worcester.  Pernet provides 300 families with Thanksgiving baskets each year and depends upon donations to provide most of this food. Donations, which have been assigned by family group, will be collected today after service.

Prayer Workshop with Fred Faller:  Saturday - November 18, 2006, From 9AM-Noon at The Worcester Hotel and Conference Center 500 Lincoln Street, Worcester - formerly the Holiday Inn.  There is no childcare provided.

Kids Kingdom:  Happy New Year! (almost) Jan.-May rotation Kids Kingdom needs folks with hearts to serve with the children. Please contact Pat or Kate if you are able to volunteer.  Email: pjbars@myibocs.com, katebars@hotmail.com or call 1-866-203-8319

Music Ministry Meeting:  Is scheduled for today immediately following the worship service at the SDA Building.  We will be putting together plans for this year’s 12/24 Christmas Eve Service, as well as discussing/planning future services.  There is an immediate need for participants in the service including:

1) Adult Singers for a choir:  One or two songs.

2) Adult Men Singers for a men’s quartet: Two Songs

3) Parts Singers (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass, like we do on Sundays)

4) Children singers: Specifically we’re looking for a preteen boy or girl to sing a solo, a cappella piece.

5) Dancers - Previously announced by Patryce Hudspeth

6) Sound/Prop Helpers: Folks who can help set things up, and help with run-throughs, etc.

If you would like to participate in the service, please plan on attending this meeting, as we plan to solidify plans then. 

November Birthdays:

Prayer Requests:

Paul Butts: His father will have surgery this Tuesday.

Jerry Maday: Will be traveling to Sweden for the 20th anniversary service of the Stockholm Church, where he will be speaking.

Jayne Bartlett:  On November 18th, the town selectmen will again vote to decide on whether or not to commit to fixing her mobile home park or condemn it. The cost is $4.1 million and many are not sure if they want to spend that kind of money for 60 homes.

Paula Brady, her mom Sylvia, and her family: Paula’s step-dad, Paul Bohanek passed away last week.

One of the more horrific tragedies I can recall in my lifetime occurred quite recently in the Amish country of Pennsylvania when a lone, crazed gunman locked himself and a group of Amish children in a schoolhouse and proceeded to execute five of them, before taking his own life. What distinguished this incident in my mind as especially brutal was the fact that it victimized one of the most peaceful, loving communities in the United States. I was deeply moved when I read one of the grieving grandparents had spoken to the widow of the gunman and told her he had forgiven her husband and then proceeded to invite her to attend the funeral of his granddaughter. How could he bring himself to forgive the murderer of his grandchild, before she was even laid to rest?  The fact is, the Amish understand God’s command that we are to love EVERYONE, regardless of circumstances.

Jesus made this clear in Matthew 5:43-45, when he said "You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be the sons of your Father in heaven."

By loving and praying for our enemies, we can overcome the evil that is pervasive in our society which Satan uses to take aim at Christians.   The ability to love our enemies requires us to surrender fully to God. We need to be freed from our selfishness and that can only happen though total submission to God.  God’s word clearly tells us that our success in learning to love all people is what’s most important to Him.  It’s through loving that we are most like Jesus. Unconditional love, exemplified by the Amish man, is at the core of everything God teaches us. The Apostle Paul said it best in Galatians 5:14, "The entire law is summed up in a single command: Love your neighbor as yourself." 

It’s essential to our salvation that we eventually learn to love without hesitation or exception. The story of the Amish man inspires me and at the same time, makes me keenly aware of how far I have to go to achieve that level of love. My guess is most of my brothers and sisters would feel similarly. Our journey to achieving unconditional love must begin in the Church. Each of us must recognize that until we are motivated by love for one another in all that we say and do, we will not grow as a family and become the shining light in a dark world God wants us to be. He commands us to love one another in order for us to accomplish his primary purpose for our lives in John 13:34-35, when Jesus said "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love onnother."

When we learn to love one another consistently, the completely unselfish love of the Amish man won’t seem so unattainable.

Love in Him,

Jim Curtin

Please send an email to WCOCNEWS@aol.comif you have any questions regarding the announcements.

FEED YOUR NEIGHBOR DAY: This campaign will benefit the Pernet Family Health Emergency Food Pantry in Worcester . Pernet provides 300 families with Thanksgiving baskets each year and depends upon donations to provide most of this food. If you are moved to participate, please do your shopping according to the following family group list and bring your contribution to church on the morning of November 12, 2006