Bus Tickets and Morning Worship: November 13

Each month Grace distributes bus tickets to people in our community. This happens on the 15th of the month (or the Friday before the 15th if it falls on a weekend.) Volunteers and those receiving tickets begin to gather around 7 am in the Grace alcove. Guests are greeted with smiles, coffee, water, and a place to sit. Tickets are distributed at 8:30 am, and a brief worship service follows. Everyone is invited to stay for worship, which includes communion. The worship service lasts about 15 minutes.

We can always use volunteers to help with set-up, clean-up, and ticket distribution. Want to help? Contact Kirk Anderson, kirk@mygpc.org or 684-5215.

irc

Holiday Joy Meal with the Wichita Refugee Community: December 5

Written by Cheryl Lyda

It is 9 pm, and I’m at the new Eisenhower Airport waiting for an arrival. While I have often waited for the arrival of a flight in order to welcome friends and family, this is a different sort of welcome. I am here, along with Edgar a caseworker from IRC, a refugee resettlement organization in Wichita. We are waiting to welcome a family of four from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). They are the last arrivals off the plane and easy to spot with their traditional clothing and their two little girls, ages one and two. The mother and father seem very unsure and nervous, not to mention just plain tired. The two year old clings to mom’s skirts, while the one year is peacefully sleeping on mom’s chest with a large scarf wrapped around them both.

After loading their luggage in our cars, Edgar and I drive them to their apartment we had prepared the day before. A warm meal of chicken and rice is waiting, but first an orientation to American ovens, stove, smoke detectors, microwaves, etc. is given. Fortunately, Edgar speaks their native tongue. When we leave them alone in their new home I am overwhelmed by what they have to learn, adjust to and how alone they must feel. A few days later I saw the family again at the IRC office where I do volunteer work. They greeted me with warm hugs and even the two year old smiled shyly and waved at me. I’m in awe of their resilience but that is probably a lesson well learned after years in a refugee camp.

This is only one of many stories of some of the newest members of the Wichita community. As I get to know more of these families and learn their stories, I am amazed at what they have overcome and how determined they are to make a fresh start in the United States. On December 5, at 1:30 pm, Grace, along with Lorraine Avenue Mennonite Church, is providing a holiday meal in our Great Room for the families IRC serves. If you would like to be involved, please check the bulletin board to sign up to help or to provide a dessert or salad. If you’d like to learn more about IRC or the Wichita refugee community I’d love to chat with you.

jesse-tree

Advent Family Night

Please bring your family to the Great Room on November 15 from 4:30-6:00 pm, to create a bundle of Jesse Tree ornaments.

Jesse Trees are a very old Christmas Tradition and first started in medieval times. They are used to help tell the story of the Bible from creation to the Christmas Story.

The name comes from Jesse who was the Father of King David. One prophecy in the bible, in the book of Isaiah, says:

1 A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. 
2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him– the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD– 
3 and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; 
4 but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. 
Isaiah 11:1-4 (NIV)

A branch is a sign of new life and new beginnings. Jesus was a decedent of King David, and Christians believe that Jesus is this new branch. Each day in December you read a selected passage of Scripture, and someone in your family finds the ornament with the matching symbol. You hang that ornament on your Jesse tree (usually a branch or jar full of sticks) until each ornament is found and hung on the tree.  You make 25 ornaments and receive a children’s book narrating the story of the Jesse Tree.

Laundry Love - College Town Laundry

Laundry Love: November 8, 2015

It’s time for our monthly Laundry Love! This is when we go to College Town Laundry at 3223 E 17th St, by the WSU Campus, and we pay for laundry for people. This is a mission of our evangelism team, and we’d love for you to join us. We’ll be there from 2:30 – 5:30 pm on Sunday, November 8. Want to know more? Contact Catherine Neelly Burton, catherine@mygpc.org or 684-5215.

 

Rejoice!

Last month we shared with you the joyful news that gifts and pledges for the Rejoice Campaign exceeded our request. Your abundant generosity allowed the Board of Trustees and Session to look again at our needs for worship and to make decisions about how to steward the money that was given above what we requested.

Much of our focus is on the Great Room, where about 80 people worship each Sunday morning. his is how we plan to spend some of the money:

  • Repair the Great Room folding wall: The wall that divides the Great Room from the alcove is partially open on Sundays during worship. Some of the paper on the panels has been destroyed over time. We are replacing the paper on panels that are in poor condition.
  • Replace the portable walls in front of the stage in the Great Room: When the stage is not in use, we protect it and the equipment on it with portable walls. The two largest date back to the 1950’s, are in poor condition, and are quite heavy.
  • Replace 150 stack chairs in the Great Room: Eighteen years ago the church invested in high quality stack chairs. We use them a lot. They get stacked, moved, re-stacked, and sat upon many times throughout the week. For a couple of years, they have begun to break. We’ve welded many of the broken ones, but it is time to begin the process to replace them. One hundred and fifty is half of the number we need, and we are budgeting for the other 150 to be replaced over the next three years.
  • Mount the speakers in the Great Room from the ceiling: There are two large speakers at the front of the stage. They are currently protected during the week by the portable walls that move in and out of the space. However, they are very large and could be knocked over accidently. By suspending them from the ceiling we remove this risk.
  • IPad for the sanctuary: The new technology we are installing in the Sanctuary affords us new possibilities. This IPad     allows the preacher or speaker to control the technology seen on the screen.

This list does not exhaust our resources, so we will continue to study other needs. We’ll keep you informed of any updates.

Thank you, The Board of Trustees and Session