January 2005

In this Issue: (click the title to jump to the article)

News_From_Around_our_Great_District From the District Superintendent: Tsunami In the past few days we have become very familiar with a word that many have heard but paid little attention to in the past: TSUNAMI. Tsunami is a Japanese word with the English translation, "harbor wave." This TSUNAMI happened when an earthquake occurred many thousands of miles away and deep within the bedrock floor of the ocean. It created a wave that has changed not only a few lives, but altered the course of nations and very possibly human history. One scientist has calculated that it has even impacted the rotation of the earth. As we enter into this period between Christmas and Easter, we are reminded that even though our Savior was born a long time ago and the events of the cross span almost 2 thousand years in the past, the TSUNAMI He created of love, mercy and grace is impacting humanity today like never before. The wave of his favor has reached every shore and touched every life. It will either be a wave of cleansing or one of destruction. Thank God for the TSUNAMI of God that has changed our lives. "When the centurion and those with him, who were guarding Jesus, saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they feared greatly, saying, 'Truly this was the Son of God!' " Matt 27:54 (NKJV)

How Nazarene's can help with TSUNAMI relief:
During the last three years NCM South Asia has trained over 100 leaders in disaster relief. Tens of thousands of Nazarenes, including medical personnel at the Nazarene hospital in Washim, are prepared to assist in relief efforts as supplies can be provided. "In a crisis of this immensity," said World Mission Director Dr. Louie Bustle, "We are so thankful that we already have a built-in distribution system through NCM in the local churches. Let's do our part in helping them, and in praying for God's grace to sustain our brothers and sisters as they work tirelessly to bring help and hope to the victims of this massive disaster."

Persons and churches wishing to make a donation for relief efforts can mark their checks "Tidal Wave Relief ACM1762" and mail them to the General Treasurer, 6401 The Paseo, Kansas City, MO 64131. Checks marked with the name of the local Church of the Nazarene will receive 10% giving credit.

News from Around Our Great District



Rev. Judy Esckilsen, associate at Cass City, had surgery at U of M Hospital in Ann Arbor and is doing well.

Retired Elder Rev. Modie Schoonover of Adrian passed away on December 22nd. He had been very ill for some time and was in a critical care facility.

Fenton Church (Web site) has called Rev. Eldon Asher as their full time youth pastor. He and his wife and family will be moving next week from Auburn, Indiana.

Rev. June Burton's, associate at South Flint, mother Elizabeth Matheny passed away on the morning of December 26.

Rev. Robert Flowers has accepted an appointment as pastor of the New Life Church of the Nazarene (Web site) that meets in the Eastside Mission (Web site).

Williams Lake Church Invites You to a Children's Ministry Workshop

Christian Illusionist, John LouisCome join Williams Lake Church for an affordable children's ministry workshop. Cost is just five dollars a person for a full day of workshops featuring professional gospel illusionist, John Louis , as the keynote speaker.

Breakout sessions will include: Easy Gospel Illusions, Technology in Children's Worship, Creative Teaching Ideas, Storytelling without Flannel-graph and More!

Please register by phone (248) 673-5911 ext. 13 before January 31st!

Date: February 5, 2005
Time: 8:30am to 3:00pm
Cost: $5 per person
Location: Williams Lake Church of the Nazarene (Web site) on Airport Road in Waterford, One Mile North of M-59.

Please promote this event in your church as well. You can download a flyer to print and post on your church's bulletin board at: Workshop2005.pdf

Ministerial Credentials and Studies Boards to Meet
The annual meeting of the Boards of Ministerial Credentials and Studies will be held on Monday, February 28 at Flint Central Church of the Nazarene (Web site). Those ministerial candidates desiring a new or renewal of a district ministers license must plan to meet with these boards. For more information, please contact the following board secretaries:

Ministerial Credentials
Rev. Larry Betz, District Secretary
517-263-1579

Ministerial Studies
Rev. Donald Ault, Secretary
989-665-2635




Christmas at the Mission...


Children and parents from the Eastside community were lined up down Delaware Avenue awaiting this special Christmas celebration. And, about 100 volunteers joined us on Saturday, December 18 to serve them.

Everyone received a Christmas gift and then enjoyed a ham dinner. There were about 350 meal served, not counting seconds. (And who counts seconds at Christmas, anyway?)

Thanks to volunteers...
Where would we be without our wonderful volunteers who come and cheerfully serve? A special thanks to the more than 100 area volunteers who came to serve at our Christmas event. They were kept busy giving out gifts, serving meals, pouring drinks, setting tables, serving cake and doing anything and everything needed to make that day special. What a blessing you all are to us!

Several Nazarene Churches were represented including: Beulah, Chelsea, Flint Central, Flint East, Flint First, Flint West, Lapeer, Mount Morris, Richfield and Swartz Creek. 

Other friends serving with us came from Glad Tidings Church, Fenton United Methodist, Assumption Greek Orthodox, and St. Michael's Roman Catholic and City of Hope.

In addition, a group Phi Theta Kappa students from the University of Michigan-Flint came to help serve.

Thanks so much to all of you. We could not do it without you! May God bless you all in this upcoming year!

Dinner raises money for Christmas at Eastside

Just over $1,000 was raised for Christmas gifts at the Flint Eastside Mission with the help of Emmanuel United Methodist Church who hosted this dinner for us. Typically, between $600 and $700 is raised by this event, so this year was an extra special blessing.

Thank you to our friends at Emmanuel for hosting this dinner once again.

Online donations!

This was our first time venturing into the realm of online donations. We are pleased to report that the website was used quite a bit over the holidays, and indeed, donations were made on our site and may continue to be done online!

Please be sure to check out the newly revamped Web site.

Wedding Show to benefit ESM

The Eastside Mission will benefit from a January 9 Wedding Show at the Holiday Inn Gateway on Hill Road. Advertising is encouraging participants to bring a canned good item or other non-perishable food item as their entry fee.

Each year, more than 500 brides and 2,000 others come to this annual event to find just the right photographer and cake decorator. This is the first time this group has chosen a charity to highlight while holding a food drive at the same time. We are grateful for the exposure in the community as well as the opportunity to collect food.

Our wonderful volunteers will be collecting the canned goods at the doors and handing out information about the Mission.

Dental practice offers Dental Day


When people truly want to serve, they do indeed find a way to offer up their gifts! Here's a first for the Flint Eastside Mission.

A dental office in Clio has set aside one day in February to serve eight children from the Eastside neighborhood. This is not the first time this practice has done this, but it's the first time our Mission has been included. These children will be transported by volunteers and their teeth will be cleaned, x-rayed, sealants applied and any fillings filled. As much work as the office staff can complete in one day will be done.

Watch for more details about this!


Church Planter Gathering in January

The church planters of the district will be meeting at the district office on Thursday, January 13, 2005 at 10:00 AM.  This meeting, held in January every year, has proven to be a very valuable time for our new church pastors because of the administrative topics covered. These topics help prepare our pastors for the tax season. This is also a very valuable time for our church planters to share ideas and support one another. If you are unable to attend, please notify me as soon as possible.

  Missions Update
Tsunami

Board of General Superintendents Issue Statement Regarding Tsunami Disaster

Kansas City-As news of the mounting toll of casualties in Southern Asia staggers the imagination of a grieving world, the Board of General Superintendents expresses its deepest sympathy and prayer for the survivors of the devastating earthquake and tsunami. Natural disasters remind us of our human frailty, and of our total dependence on a God of grace and mercy to minister to those affected by this tragedy.

"We call on Nazarenes around the globe to pray fervently for the people and nations so deeply affected," says Chairman Jim Bond. "Our message of holiness expresses itself in specific and concrete ways in tragedies of this nature. Our extensive network of compassionate ministry personnel is already at work."

In addition, the board encourages Nazarenes to give generously to the relief and recovery efforts that are underway. Nazarene Compassionate Ministries is already mobilizing personnel, and is gathering relief supplies for distribution. Over 100 disaster relief leaders have been trained over the last three years in South Asia. These dedicated ministers of compassion and mercy will be participating in a massive effort to channel supplies to the effected areas as quickly as possible.

--Issued by the Board of General Superintendents, December 27, 2004

Thanks, Central Church!


Pastor Glen Gardner presented the Books for Pastors from his heart and his people responded with love and support . Thirty-eight pastors somewhere in the needy world will receive $500 worth of reference books, concordance, study lessons and Bible in their own language because they gave. Thank you Flint Central People. This will continue passing the good message on to the next generation and more. Have you taken an offering yet? Please do something.

NMI 90th Anniversary Project-Books for Pastors

Purpose: To enable every ordination candidate to have access to our biblical and doctrinal resources for their personal study and development. The goal is to make these resources available to every pastor either via the Internet or by published books at a major discount.

Development: Translating core textbooks and resources from the Wesleyan holiness tradition, supplemental materials/study guides to accompany the translated textbooks & writing original textbooks in other languages by national scholars.

Pray:
  • God's blessing upon this effort to equip our Pastors
  • Translators to prepare the materials
  • New pastors who are eager to study in order to preach the Word boldly!


Plan: $7 per person using average Sunday morning attendance

Share your ideas with Reta by phone or email or snail mail.

Plan now for Upcoming NMI Convention
Location-  Flint Central
Date - Tuesday, April 26, 2005
Time : 9:00 - 5:15 (No evening theme presentation 4:00 instead)
Missionaries -  Dan and Melody Anderson from Uganda

Be Sure to Read the NMI Newsletter!


The Bi-monthly EMD NMI Newsletter is available on the NMI section of EMDNAZ.org. Everyone on the District will find news and information of interest in this Newsletter as well as some fun along the way. By the way, if you have not been to visit www.emdnaz.org/missions_home.php lately, check it out today! There are all sorts of useful resources there for our local churches and their Missions presidents. Bulletin inserts, clip art and information about the current exciting group of Missions books are freely available! Teens: Don't Miss Saturday @ Olivet

Olivet Nazarene University invites you and your youth group to attend Saturday@Olivet on February 12, 2005. This special event is designed specifically for students in 8th, 9th and 10th grades.

Saturday@Olivet allows students to experience campus life without having to worry about homework, classes or finding quarters for laundry!

The day includes live music, campus tours, lunch in Ludwig Center Dining Hall, a show at Strickler Planetarium and admission to the Olivet men's varsity basketball game against Indiana University-South Bend!

Pre-registration is preferred. To do this, students should complete the form at http://oodb.olivet.edu/promo/admissions/sat05/.

On February 12, event-day registration will run from 9:30 - 10:15 a.m. in the Leslie Parrott Convocation/Athletic Center Lobby. The $20 fee covers expenses for the entire day and should be paid at this time. The event is free for Pastors and sponsors.

There are a variety of reasonably priced hotels in the area should you decide to arrive early on Friday or stay overnight on Saturday evening.

For more information, contact your church's youth leader!  

NYI Quiz Schedule for 2004-2005

Following is the schedule for this coming teen Bible quizzing season. If your church can host a quiz please contact Robert Flowers at reviceman@netzero.net . The goal is to have a different church host each quiz. Quiz results are now being posted on the District Web site.

January 8, 2005                     District Quiz # 5 (Everyone Experienced) Chapters 1-22
February 12, 2005                  District Quiz # 6 (Everyone Experienced) Chapters 1-25 At Detroit First
February 19, 2005                  Sterling, IL Invitational
March 12, 2005                      Indy Westside Invitational
March 18-19, 2005                District Team Finals Chapters 1-28
April 2, 2005                          Top 16 Individual Finals