Triplehorns are in the USA!

Bruce called me today to let me know that they are in Winona Lake at a GBIM for a missionary reunion. Those who are on home ministries gather together one-time during the summer.

He informed me that he would like to come to Wooster on the following weekends:

• September 13-14


• November 1-2


• November 8-9

I intend to discover when we could have them in our church besides these weekends but they must contact new churches to come up with the needed funds required before returning to the field. I am so grateful for The Board, the Global Task Force, and Pastor Ivanildo. They all helped me increase our level of support for the Triplehorns for this year.

Bruce also praises God for Daniel's wife, Lorena, who has her papers in order to come to the United States to be with Daniel in Winona Lake, IN. She comes into O'Hare in Chicago tonight.

Daniel and Lorena got married about a year ago and have been separated the last seven months as newlyweds. She remained in Brazil to await the hopeful processing of documents to get into the country and Daniel studied at Grace College awaiting his bride. I don't know if I could do that!

Anyways, it will be great to see and to hear what God is doing in Bruce's heart and mind as he plans towards the future.

Three homes conduct NBCs in our community

stockphoto by melb.


















One in the morning, Two at night.

No, it's not a prescription from your doctor. It's when this week's NBC are being conducted. Linda Kline shared with me that there is one in Wooster (Kline home) this week, during the mornings, another in Ashland (Karcher home) in the evening, and the last one in Dalton (McCune home) in the evening.

As these clubs come to an end tomorrow, please pray for one or all of these requests that Linda included in her memo to me.

Ask God...

• to give host families, teachers, and helpers wisdom to budget their time


• to bring children who will be excited and bring their friends


• to give clarity to the teachers as the Gospel is shared and children come to Christ


• to have memorable fun


• to have safety and good weather


• to help in the follow-up of those children and adults who make decisions for Christ


• to provide a foothold in neighborhoods where God can make Himself known in and through our church families in each community.

Kara McCune told me that her biggest request for the next two nights are to give us wisdom as we try to redirect the children's energy before the Gospel Lesson. Her kids love the Scripture songs. In fact, the day care provider inquired of the parents--what is going on at your house? Your kids sing this Bible verse song over and over again. The parents informed the day care center that their children attend an NBC.

Praise God for His word in song (Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16)! As I reflect on what God is doing, I realize that this local outreach touches on one of our values at Wooster Grace--Relevance of the Word of God. May God bring new people to Christ as we've entrusted our people with God's Word to teach it to the world (Titus 1:3).

School Backpack Project 2008

photo by georgeogoodman




















This school year we are striving to help children in under-resourced families in our community by getting each child a new backpack stocked and filled with school supplies. Juana Hernandez is spearheading the endeavor again this August.

If someone would like to participate, she outlines the way to help out by giving four tips to serve a child in our community.

1. The main steps to follow


2. How to sign up to sponsor a child


3. What to do and to say when contacting the family


4. When to deliver the backpack and what to do and to say

With Janet Beaver's help, Juana has printed a brochure which details what you need to do. It is an insert in the Sunday programs. Since Juana is out of the office the next two weeks, then you can direct any questions to Silviana (ext. 246).

Village Grace (Cleveland)--July 9-13

The junior high sent out more witnesses tonight. The group of parents, students, and team leaders gathered in the West parking lot for prayer before departing for Cleveland.

They will begin ministry on Thursday morning and go until Sunday morning after third service. Twenty-one students left with five adult leaders in four vans. All made it safe.

Village Grace is hosting our junior high team. Rich and Reida Bartley direct Village Grace. I will post a few pictures of the team departing after I ask DelAnn to download them from the digital camera.

Josh was wondering if any students were going. He shared with me how only a dozen or so signed up. But twenty-one went. He was also praying for adult leaders. Ten days ago, he had only Amber and himself. Then God prompted three adults to free up time to go. God is always working in people's lives. Pray that the team is unified, focused on serving others and not their own interests, and impact in the lives of the team and those they minister to. You can hear updates on the INFOline (330) 264-6983 ext. 723.

Sowing Hope

Schellin Park Carnival goes on amid a deluge. Pastor Ivanildo shares what happened this morning.

It was a blessing for me to be there at the opening day of our camp at the park with Sowing Hope kids. In spite of the rain, between 15-20 kids were there. I was specially impressed with the number of volunteers who showed up to serve on such a dreary day. A significant number was from Student Ministries (wow, what a blessing to see all those young people there!) but also some adults and some entire families.

Pastor Randy, as usual, did a great job with the music. On a day like this, Mr. Randy's music is the perfect medicine to wake up the soul and the kids were indeed wide awake by the time they were done singing. I was just blessed to be there.

Pastor Randy leading worship

Our interns, Elise and Jacob, by the way, are doing a tremendous job. I am so proud of the work they are doing.

Thanks everyone for helping. If you want to check it out, come to the Park from 9:30 to 11:30 tomorrow and Friday.
Pastor Ivanildo C. Trindade

Lois Engelhart & Jacob Kern getting on the same page

Way to go Outreach Team! Pastor Dave Lawson shared how amazing God is. He and his boys were coming into Wooster from the South. The rain was pouring; "rainin' cats 'n dogs." But when he got closer to Shellin Park, the rain tapered off and seemingly stopped. Wow! How amazing is God! Yeah, God!

New Authors Added

photo by mike licht, notionscapital.com

In order to try to keep up with the many and great things Wooster Grace does reaching out to others in our community and in the world, I want to add new authors who will post items, pictures, announcements, and new information for all of us to know. The new authors are the outreach team members: Pastor Ivanildo, Juana Hernandez, Jeana Harley, and Beth Sorg.

In my short time here at Wooster Grace, I see that staff communication is always an on-going challenge. So I am experimenting with an outreach blog where we can post stuff so that we can keep the staff and volunteers connected to one another and informed of what they need to know.

A few things to offer as caveats for this experiment: This blog is not a substitute for personal interaction. I hope this blog becomes a tremendous asset in adding depth and richness to our communication as well as provide investment in one another's lives and offer bearing of one another's burdens.

Likewise, I want this blog to be a bridge between other ministry areas so that the rest of the pastoral and administrative staff is current on the latest news and events in the outreach area. I hope that this blog gives us the ability to document and share knowledge in an unprecedented way.

This is still an experiment focused on the pastoral staff and administrative staff. Pastor Bob encouraged me via email for everyone of us, "Let's all try to utilize and publicize this as a tool to get information to our people about how we're touching the community!"

We are doing great things for God! Pastor Ivanildo told me that Wooster Grace is the greatest secret of ministry in our community. May all we do truly honor God! May our Lord Jesus Christ get all the glory from the posts on this blog.

Your part: Please make a comment on the blog. At the end of each post (story), you will find who posted the item and an underlined part (0 comments). Click on the comments link. Then you can "leave your comment" by typing your remarks in th space provided. You are then given the option to offer your comment as anonymous or as an online I.D. If you choose the anonymous option, then please provide a tag at the end of your typed remarks; e.g. "this is a great blog! randy m." This helps everyone join the conversation and add to the honor and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Lastly, this blog is a tool--a tool to share the news of what God is doing through us to reach out to others. You are part of the story we are telling. This blog intends to capture stories, write them down, and pass them along for the encouragement of the body of Christ and to the glory of Jesus.

Correction

Thanks to Pastor Ivanildo who helped me correct Marlon Oyer's first name to Marlin. I made the correction and reposted the Wooster Fireworks info again.