April 14, 2013 WELCOME! WE'RE GLAD YOU'RE HERE We are a group of believers who simply try to follow the Bible as a guide for all we do. Everything done in our worship service is something for which we have a Bible basis. You are welcome to participate as much or as little as you wish. We will sing hymns together and we will observe the Lord's Supper or Communion together. We will also have an opportunity to give to the work of God in this area. This collection is for the members here, and if you are visiting you should not feel and pressure to give. Our lesson time will be divided into two groups. The young children will go to our classroom area in the basement where they will be taught the Bible at a level they can understand. The adults will stay in the auditorium for a lesson at an adult level. We do try to serve the community, and if you have some needs that we can help you with, mention it to one of the members. Thank you for worshipping with us.

FAMILY NEWS

KEEPING TRACK OF THE SICK: It is important that we know who among us has special needs and attention. Many of us send cards and notes, and many of us spend some time in prayer for those struggling with special problems. Julie and Karl Marcussen do us a great service by giving us a prayer list each week that is up to date and provides us with news about our family here. They need help from all of us to keep this current and relevant. If you know of a need, please call the Marcussens at 574-514-1400 or marcusen@michiana.org. If you get to them before 8:00 Sunday morning they will have it on their list for us. We hope that everyone will spend some time each day in this activity — which we can all do. Send notes, make a call, but above all include people who need our help in your prayers.

WEBSITE HAS SERMONS: On the front of this bulletin is our web address. The website has this bulletin on it, but it also has a audio recording of special lessons and sermons. When you are sick or unable to attend for some reason you can still hear the lesson by just going to the sermon button and clicking on the lesson you want to hear. Use it, and refer others to it.

TODAY'S LESSON

GPS — God's Plan — Salvation
Luke 2:30

Page 3 – the Sermon Page and
THE BACK PAGE

CONGREGATIONAL REPORT

We had a very good congregational meeting last Sunday afternoon, and to facilitate maximum communication, we would like to make a report here on the seven areas that we addressed in the meeting:

GLYNN LANGSTON SUPPORT: We are concerned with spreading the gospel, and we are always interested in any good work that reaches out to the lost. Glynn Langston's ministry to the blind is unique, and he needs our help and support. We have the resources to help him at the present time, so the congregation decided to send him $1,000 as a donation, and for the next year at least we will send him $100 a month as a part of our regular mission work.

CASS COUNTRY FAIR EXHIBIT: The plan to use “God's Dandy Designs” as seen in the creation was approved. Larry Fox will begin construction of the boards, and posters, banners, and sefected questions will be developed. Remember the Fair is July 28 – August 4 and we will need workers for that whole week.

HIGHWAY CLEAN UP PROJECT: We will do our clean up of the highway in front of our building on Saturday, April 20, at 10:00. We have over two miles of road to clean and we will have a required orientation class before we start cleaning. Please plan to be here if you are 12 years old or older.

BIBLE CLASS PROGRAMS: We had several suggestions of topics for the Wednesday night class. John Clayton will take the suggestions and use them either for the class or for sermon topics. The ladies will work out a schedule for children's classes once school is out for Wednesday night. We will sponsor children who wish to go to Camp Indogan for church camp this year and encourage kids to go. If you have a child you know of who would like to go to camp, let one of the men know. A long discussion was carried on about using technology to teach our pre-teens and teens, and how to build a program relevant to our youth. A letter was sent to parents this week about how we might do that.

SPECIAL EFFORT PROGRAM: The Portage, Mich., church has a Saturday singing April 27 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. with a lunch. We will plan to go to that, and by that time have a date for a singing here. We will contact Glynn Langston about doing a community program/gospel meeting sometime later this year.

BENEVOLENT PROGRAM: In addition to our food bank, which continues to be used regularly in serving the community, we gave away 30 coats to children in the area that did not have a coat to wear when winter came. We had a position article last week on who and how the food bank can be used, and we will implement that. We also will have a “needs” list each week in this bulletin of what the pantry needs that we cannot get from the warehouse and we will also have a listing of items that we are always short on. That listing should happen and start appearing in this bulletin later this month.

FULL TIME WORKER: There will come a time when John Clayton will be physically unable to preach regularly for us. It is important to have consistency in the lessons that are brought, and having a guest speaker every Sunday is not conducive to consistency. There are also a variety of things that need attention by the Church in the community. Bill Gibson, Richard Hoyt, and Bill Salmons have been addressing these items, but they won't always be able to do that, and having someone who keeps track of all of this is vital. The suggestion is that we start a escrow fund that we put money into each week to build up enough money to support a full time worker for several years. Hopefully there would be enough growth for that fund to be self supporting in time, but raising support as we did for Gary Johnson from sister congregations is also an option. Let Bill Gibson (our treasurer) know what you think of this idea, and if you agree, how much should we set aside each week. The survival of the work here is at stake in this.

— John Clayton