The Blawenburg Beacon

Text Box: The Blawenburg Beacon
January 2009 Issue
A newsletter for the members and friends
of The Blawenburg Reformed Church

With the advent of the New Year, the time has arrived to thank the members of our congregation for their special participation in our church's life, especially over the last several months. Since there are so many, I've decided to list them alphabetically. Please, please, please let me know if I overlooked anybody, so they can be thanked in the next issue of The Beacon.

Thank you

Barb Antoniewicz for that gorgeous soprano voice and your help with the Sunday school choir,

Nancy D'Alessandro for your help during Sinterklass,

Jean Beachell, as always for the lovely flowers and poinsettias,

Bob Bradsell for providing communion on Christmas Eve and serving as a liturgist during Advent,

Barb Bradsell for the beautiful Sinterklass baskets,

Jean Butcher, for your work at Sinterklass, the spaghetti supper and the BVS teachers' luncheon,

Denise, Sophie and Pauline Charlot, for gracing our Advent service with your words and candle lighting,

Chi-Yi Chen, for the extraordinary quality and range of music during the holidays,

Dave and Evelyn Cochran, for your work on Sinterklass, Dave's work on the Preservation Fund raising and as chair of the Administration and Finance Committee, and Evelyn as chair of Social Activities,

Vickie De La Cruz, for your work with the Sunday school and serving as a liturgist during Advent,

Daniella De La Cruz for scripture reading during Advent, and

Cassie De La Cruz, also for reading and that wonderful instrumental duet during Advent,

Nancy Curtis helping to decorate the sanctuary for the 5:30 Christmas Eve service,

Linnéa Eberly, for her lovely piano solo on Christmas Eve

Mark Fritzinger, for soliciting bids and making recommendations for the replacement of our sanctuary roof,

Mike, Dee Dee and Jack Gebhardt and Fran Jones for leading us in Advent liturgy and candle lighting,

George Gurzo for some great trumpet playing throughout the holidays and brother Barry for his capable accompaniment,

Wendy Herbert for singing in the choir,

Bill Herbert for helping with the church finances and counting after worship, and for overseeing the sewer project,

Sally Hume for work on Sinterklass,

Sonya Hunt for coordinating our Heifer mission project,

Lisa Hunt for keeping our church presentable during a hectic season,

Gracie Johnson, for painting and placing special signs for Sinterklass and our holiday services, for organizing Sinterklass and assisting in the Heifer Project,

the Magliochettis for leading in the Advent liturgy and Scott especially for overseeing the Memorial Hall rentals and parking for Sinterklass,

Bill and Geniva Martin for hosting the Sunday evening fireside Bible studies,

Nancy Meyer for work on Sinterklass,

Ariel Meyer for singing in the children's choir,

Matthew and Emma Murphy for providing music during the Advent and Christmas services,

Ruth Patterson for singing in the choir,

Barb Pavlicek for her help with the Sunday School and children's choir,

Joe Pavlicek, for helping set-up the 5:30 Christmas Eve service and for reading on Christmas Eve,

Eric, Sue, Gabbie and Laura Perkins, for leading in Advent liturgy, and Eric for reading on Christmas Eve as well as decorating for the 5:30 service,

Todd Quackenbush for his work on fund raising for the Preservation Fund

Kristin Reyes for making sure our Sunday nursery is properly staffed,

Alan and Louise Taback for leading us in the Christmas Eve liturgy at 11 p.m.,

Don and Ethel Terhune for making sure our grounds are neat and walkways passable,

Grace Terhune for help on Sinterklass,

Don Thiel for work on Sinterklass,

Susie Van Doren for helping at Sinterklass and serving as Sunday school superintendent,

Barb Van Liew for her weekly email news update,

T.J. Van Liew for operating the sanctuary sound system,

Morgan Van Liew for her lovely duet with Cassie, for helping with the lights on Christmas Eve and for helping set up for the 5:30 service,

Mait Van Nostrand for operating the sanctuary sound system,

Bernice Van Nostrand for her work with the Sunday school and BVS,

Mike Vande Woude for helping with the church finances and counting the offering,

Olivia Vande Woude for that lovely duet with Anita and for reading on Christmas Eve,

Dale, Sue, Jessica and Joe Weingart for providing refreshments after worship,

Rick, Lisa, Colby and Palmer White, Rick for his work on fund raising for the Preservation Fund, Rick and Lisa for leading in the Advent liturgy, Colby and Palmer for reading on Christmas Eve, Colby for providing the camera work at the 5:30 service and Palmer for overseeing the projection,

Luke and Aubrey Yarbrough for working with our young people and serving as liturgists,

and for all of the rest of our church family who supported us with your presence and your prayers: Ginny Doremus, Dave Dorey, Dot Dorey, Jen, Joe, Sam and Madeline Eason, James and Andrea Eberly, Tom Eversen, Charles and Sandy Fetter, Fran Ficken, Sharon, Taylore and Patrick Fritzinger, Michael, Bonnie and Byron Gurzo, Ed, Pat, Mac and Patty Harris, Doug and Elmi Hill, Emmett, Dylan and Cara Hume, Ray Hunt, Tom Hunt, Jotham and Sarah Johnson, Esther and Gregory Jovolos, La Ferne and Gene Keller, Justin, Deanna, Grace and Ginger McAnear and their parents and grandparents, Dave, Ann and Katie Mueller, Catherine Murphy, Chip Parmele, Laraine Parsell, Diana Pfannebecker, Pam Wanner and Will Quackenbush, Peggy Querec, Val, Ricky and Christopher Reyes, Doug and Linda Rose, Harold and Jean Skillman, and Tom Skillman who was here in spirit, Mike, Max and Cal Urbanski, Brian Van Liew, Pat Wengel and Elaine Zeltner,

thank you all for making this an extraordinary, wonderful and memorable Christmas season. May the Lord bless each and every one of us with an equally joyful New Year!

[Editorial Note: Thank you to Pastor Rich for everything that he does.]

News from BVS:

During the month of January we will be jumping into Spanish with a class from Salta and meandering into music with a class from Kids’ MusicRound. These are afternoon enrichment classes held once a week at BVS. Please pass the word – flyers and registration forms can be picked up at the school office.

The school collected over 100 cans of soup at the Christmas concert which were donated to the Montgomery Food Pantry. Our students will be collecting items and making donations on a monthly basis for the remainder of the school year. During January we will be collecting laundry supplies, so if you’d like to make a donation please drop it off in the school office by January 23^rd.

Text Box: FREE
Yes, Free
Desk from Pastor Rich’s office
- Needs gluing
Help Yourself – it’s in the Cook Hall Basement

Publication Deadlines

Beacon Deadline - the last Wednesday of every month
Bulletin Deadline - Friday mornings
Weekly Email Announcements - 6:00 every Sunday night

Please Pray for:

Congratulations to Bill & Geniva Martin on the arrival of Allison Grace Martin on December 14^th.  She weighed 7 pounds 12 ounces and was 21 inches long.

Jenny & Peter Saam on the passing of Thelma Hancox, Jenny’s mother on December 2, 2008 in Launceston, Tasmania. She was in her 91^st year. Jenny sends her thanks to all her loyal American friends from the Blawenburg Church. Jenny is planning on being in Tasmania for the next couple of months to settle mother’s affairs & enjoy the warmer weather.

Jenny and Peter Saam c/o Thelma Hancox
1/2 Fulton Street
Legana,
Tasmania, Australia 7277
(94 cent stamp)

Our condolences to the Van Zandt family on the passing of Edgar on Christmas night.

A memorial service was held here on Saturday, January 3^rd.

Please pray for my husband, Charles, who has a reoccurrence of his bladder cancer. A high grade cancer of the bladder neck was biopsied and removed on December 17. He will begin a 6 week trial of intravesical immunotherapy with BCG. Six weeks after completion they will re-biopsy the area and if there are any cancer cells present they will perform a radical prostatectomy and cystectomy. So, please pray that the BCG therapy is successful. He is being treated by Dr. Harry Herr at Sloan Kettering in NYC. Dr. Herr is internationally recognized as the "top" physician and surgeon for bladder cancer so we are confident that he is receiving the best of care.--Thanks, Sandy Fetter

DID YOU KNOW?  There are 2 young men in the balcony week after week?

You can hear George on the trumpet but only hear TJ if he forgets to push

a button on the sound system.  Take time to thank them for their dedicated

weekly contribution.

Mary & Martha Discussion Group

The Mary & Martha group will be meeting on Jan 17 at 7:30 AM for the book Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer. All are welcome.

Family Life

Please mark your calendars and plan to attend our

Pot Luck Luncheons on:

January 11th, February 1, and March 1.

Winter can be long and cold, so come, bring a dish, and enjoy some good times together after church.

The Family Life Committee

If you happened to walk into the Cook Hall kitchen during coffee hour on December 21^st, you would have found yourself in the middle of a special meeting of Consistory. The subject: Our 176-year-old slate roof, and the now critical need to replace it. After several meetings and much discussion, the Properties Committee had reported back with actual bids, and a recommendation.

The committee recommended acceptance of a surprisingly low bid of $55,000 by Mill Roofing, Inc. – pending review of job referrals and proof of insurance. The bid was accompanied by a detailed scope-of-work document. Check with Properties Chair Ethel Terhune, Mark Fritzinger, or Nancy Curtis in the Church office, if you want to see the details.

Consistory unanimously approved the bid and authorized Properties to move ahead with the work, pending job referrals and insurance questions.

As you may have heard, our old roof has been dangerously shedding slates and showing daylight in places. One particular concern: Protecting our newly restored $90,000 ceiling.

Work should begin soon after the first of the year. You’ll know when it starts… scaffolding will be erected around the entire perimeter of the sanctuary. We’re hoping that will call attention to the project for passers-by and community members who want to help us pay for it.

Note: The Preservation Fund is accepting donations. See Dave Cochran, Rick White or Todd Quackenbush. Or donate on line at www.BlawenburgChurch.org.
Let us know how we’re doing…and if you have questions, ask. Corner one of us over coffee – or call – or put a note in the collection box. We’ll do our best to respond.

Croatia Update - Titus family sends Croatian Christmas greetings By Nancy Titus

As I write this, we are just getting to the good stuff of Christmas. Though the journalist in me says to skip Christmas and write to your January, when you will be reading this, today as I write, I just can’t.

The super-stressed bustle of the last week of school is past. Exams have been given; students have turned in required work (well, the majority of them anyway). The children are finished with the first semester term, gifts for teachers were baked and delivered, and I can now turn my attention to family related things.

Jingle, jingle, jingle. See that smile on my face! The busy parents are home for a couple of weeks of fun with kids. It is an achievement just to get to this point of the year, and your prayers and support have been a big part of it. So, I revel in holiday vacation, and today I will share with you our Christmas, Croatian-style.

In many ways, Christmas here looks a lot like Christmas there. The stores are bustling with people buying gifts, trees, and decorations. Croats were not allowed to celebrate Christmas under communism, at least in public displays or with state holidays. It was kept as a regular work day. Now stores stock rows and rows of Christmas decorations, available for purchase starting in October! Walking down the street, you can see a few blinking lights decking the balconies and windows of flats, and even the light-up Santa hanging from a balcony is not an infrequent sight. People also get two days off work. We call the second one, “Drugi Christmas” (drugi means second) though it is known locally as Holy Steven.

Yesterday, our family walked the two blocks to the local market to buy a tree. Real Christmas trees had just made their appearance. Before that, you could only buy small, artificial trees at the nearby grocery store. The tradition here is for people to put up trees on Christmas Eve and leave them up until Three Kings Day Jan. 6, which we call Epiphany. Most of the trees are in tree-stands that do not hold water, so they don’t last long. I know, my fire-conscious friends can’t get past thinking of those unwatered trees hanging around for two an a half weeks. Rest assured, the houses here are made of concrete, so they are a bit less flammable than the typical American home (and we found a stand that holds water).

We will also attend a children’s Sunday School program at church. After the short skit, Samaritan’s Purse boxes will be given to local children. It is quite interesting being on this side of a ministry that we supported as givers there.

On Christmas Day, we will share our gifts with each other and later will share our dinner with a fellow American missionary and a student who did not go home over the holiday break. We will eat turkey, which is now available for a limited time in about an eight-pound size, as well as other family favorites. On Drugi Christmas, we’ll host another American family for games.

What we will miss most at Christmas are the church traditions we loved so in our RCA churches in the States, such as the Advent Wreath, the choirs, and the candlelight services.

Wherever we are, though, we thank God for His greatest Gift of Jesus and all the other wonderful gifts He gives us, which include each of you reading this: the people who care about us and the people in Croatia enough to send and keep us here.

Thank you! We wish you a blessed New Year and ask for your continued prayers as we face some challenges in January.

First, Eric will go to Munich to study German at the Goethe Institute, doing two sessions and finishing in late February. Eric has a lot of pressure to improve his language skills for his doctoral program, and this will be a long time for us to be separated. So, pray for him that his language study would be blessed and for us that we would cope well in his absence. The second prayer need is for Valerie and me, as she begins homeschooling along side Samuel. Pray that God would help me do a good job, discerning and creating the best environment for all our kids’ educational needs.