WDN - July/August 2011

Wisconsin District neWs

Where the

Spirit of the

Lord is, there is

Liberty

July/August 2011

“OPPORTUNITY IS KNOCKING”

by John E. Putnam

Wisconsin District News WDN EDITOR Craig Lundt PO Box 688 Beloit, WI 53512 editor@wisconsindistrictnews.org WDN SECTIONAL REPS Section 1: Loretta Lundt Section 2: Carole Keller Section 3: - Open Section 4: Frank Ritchie Section 5: Kathy Fry WDN Proofreader: Dede Sharp DISTRICT OFFICERS Superintendent: Rev. J.E. Putnam Secretary-Treasurer: Rev. E.A. Kaske Honorary Board Member: Rev. J. Grant PRESBYTERS Section 1: Rev. C. Welch Section 2: Rev. A. Tamel Section 3: Rev. E. Herman Section 4: Rev. J. Sindler Section 5: Rev. P. Bennett DEPARTMENTS Foreign Missions: Rev. M.W. Rogers Home Missions: Rev. R. Keilley Media Missions: Rev. S. Jacobs Ladies Ministries: Sis. J. Schumacher Youth Ministries: Rev. Tim Vik Revival Commission: Rev. M. Hook Sunday School: Rev. W. Rehbein Prayer Force: Rev. Don Rogers Men’s Ministry: Rev. S. Rogers Music Ministry: Sis. Darlene Boyte Purpose Institute: Rev. J.D. Putnam Deaf Ministry: Renee Thomas FUNDAMENTAL DOCTRINE The basic and fundamental doctrine of this organization shall be the Bible standard of full salvation, which is repentance, baptism in water by immersion in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and the baptism of the Holy Ghost with the initial sign of speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance. We shall endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit until we all come into the unity of the faith, at the same time admonishing all brethren that they shall not contend for their different views to the disunity of the body.

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District Superintendent

In the last book of the Bible, we find our Lord and Savior standing at a door knocking. The scripture states in Revelation 3:20-22, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”

What is so interesting about this passage of scripture is that Jesus specifically instructs us to listen intently to what HE is saying to the church. The whole scene described here is one of untold opportunity to any man who will dare open the door.

The word “opportunity” is defined as: 1. a favorable juncture of circumstances 2. a good chance for advancement or progress If there was ever a day of opportunity for advancement for the churches of the Wisconsin District, it is this hour in which we are living! Our world’s circumstances are literally pointing to the eternal truths of God’s Word that Jesus is coming again!

Our door of opportunity here in this state is our continual focus on reaching the lost. I believe it is imperative for every church to constantly be reaching out

for new souls. Soul winning is the lifeline of every assembly!

The reason why this is such an opportunity is because Jesus stands at the door of every beating heart knocking.

Given the right circumstances, that certain word of witness, that particular sermon on a particular Sunday or mid-week service, that particular lesson of a home Bible study, that particular fellowship gathering, and suddenly the individual opens up their heart’s door and Jesus comes in to fellowship forever.

There are souls just waiting in areas that we have not yet evangelized. Places that do not have a witness of Apostolic truth, that are waiting for someone to point out to them that there is a loving Savior that is “knocking.”

The “GO” in the great commission is still intact! We cannot become content with a “status quo” of just trying to maintain, while the door of opportunity is standing before each of us, and we must recognize that Jesus is the one knocking, compelling us to open this door and let the many blessings of His kingdom continue to unfold throughout Wisconsin.

Opportunity is knocking! Will you commit yourself to opening the door and allow yourself to be an active part in the greatest soul winning ingathering Wisconsin has ever seen?

MARSHFIELD UPDATE

district Calendar of Events September 5—Labor Day 9 & 10 -WI Sunday School Seminar, Location TBA 11-SFC Sacrifice Offering 16-17– PI- Appleton & Madison 23-24—PI, Oak Creek & Eau Claire 27—SFC Call In

By April Peckham God is doing marvelous things in Marshfield! Since starting as a daughter work in 2006, we’ve seen 14 people baptized and 11 filled with the Holy Ghost!

As many in Wisconsin know, Marshfield is rich with Apostolic heritage. In 1939 Bro. Benjamin David Urshan held tent meetings here, birthing the Apostolic church in Marshfield.

Since then, many anointed men and women of God have walked our streets and preached this message; among them were Bro. Samuel Hart and Bro. Monte Showalter. We are truly reaping the harvest they have sown!

Riverside Apostolic began in the living room of a mobile home with seven in attendance. Quickly outgrowing those accommodations, we moved to a hotel meeting room and began to hold Sunday evening service. In 2007, we found an affordable storefront to rent and were very excited to have a permanent place to hang our sign! Also in 2007, we were granted Home Missions status, which has been a tremendous blessing. It didn’t take long for us to realize we’d need to find an even bigger facility, as our 50 seat capacity was quickly filling up. We searched high and low for a building, passing 201 S. Maple by over and over again, thinking it was not attainable…but with God, all things are possible!

The asking price for our current building was once at $265,000. We were able to purchase it for $160,000. The owner had renovated the basement of this one-time Christian Science building into an apartment, and in addition to lowering his asking price considerably, he decided to leave us all his furnishings! One thing we’ve always asked God for in looking for a building was

to have quarters for foreign missionaries who are on deputation; because the owner left us EVERYTHING, we were able to transform the master bedroom into a missionary suite, complete with a full bathroom and laundry room!

From the beginning of our work in Marshfield, we have had an outpouring of support from our Section 4 sister churches. When we started holding Sunday evening services, we were given a drum kit and keyboard from one sister church and another asked to pay for our meeting room expense! Each of our sister churches donated something to help us furnish our storefront: chairs, tables, overhead projector, and money for the deposit. Our outreach events became SOAR events, as many Section 4 saints personally sacrificed to see God’s Word spread in Marshfield. Then, when it came time to purchase our building, our sister churches came alongside us to raise the down payment. In addition to the grant from Home Missions, Christmas for Christ, and our own building fund monies, Section 4 churches gave us over $13,000 for the down payment!

Words cannot describe how humbled we are by the sacrifice of our sister churches and by all who have given to Home Missions. Know that your giving was an integral part of an Apostolic church being planted in Marshfield.

October 1– CFC Kickoff 12-16—UPCI General Conference, Louisville, KY 14-15-– PI— Appleton & Madison 21-22—PI Eau Claire 21-22—Spanish Ladies Retreat, ALMAS 24-26—WI District Planning Session 28-29—PI—Oak Creek 28-29 WYM Mosaic Conference, Wausau 28-Section 3 CFC Dinner, Madison, 7 pm 31—Section 1 CFC Dinner, Appleton November Nov 1- Adopted Missionary Offering Kick-Off 1—Section 2 CFC Dinner, Oconomowoc 3—Section 4 CFC Dinner, Thorp 4—Section 5 CFC Dinner, Eau Claire 4 & 5—Ladies Ministries “The Gathering” Minister’s wives retreat, Location TBA 6—Daylight Saving Time Ends 2 a.m.

6—All Nations Sunday 11-12—PI—Madison & Appleton 18-19-PI, Oak Creek & Eau Claire Media Missions Mission of Hope Offering 24-Thanksgiving

“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”

II Corinthians 3:17 July/August 2011

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The Wisconsin District ladies (and some men!!) enjoyed a wonderful time spiritually and in fellowship during the 2011 Ladies’ Retreat. The retreat was attended by 921 registrants and held at the beautiful Blue Harbor Resort in Sheboygan, WI. I am encouraged to report that three received the Holy Ghost, with many healings. We celebrated a first at this year’s retreat. An out of state lady was baptized in a guest room Jacuzzi before she returned home.

Both of our speakers were greatly anointed. Sis. Carol Clemans from Loveland, CO and Sis. Donna Myre of Paris, TX brought so much spiritual food that it will take a long time to digest it all. We are thankful for the CDs

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and DVDs that are sold by our Media Department, so we can go over it all again!

I am always thankful to Rev. and Sis. Putnam, our Superintendent and First Lady, for opening our event with words of wisdom.

Next year, God willing, we will hold our retreat at the Appleton Paper Valley Radisson. We hope to see all of you there. Come with an anticipation of all the great works that Jesus will do in our midst.

With my sincere love to each of you, Sis. Jane Schumacher, President Wisconsin District Ladies’ Ministries

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Ministry to Our Police Department

the jail if need be, but that I truly I heard the knocking at the door. wanted to reach Having been awakened from a deep out to the officers sleep, I looked at the alarm clock and re- themselves. Afalized it was 2:00 AM. As I went to the ter all, I thought, door, the sergeant from our department who was minissaid, “Chaplain, there has been a suicide. tering to them?

Single gun shot to the head, 24-year old DC-Skatrud remale. Can you come and do the death no- sponded that, to knowledge, Here we are praying at the “swearing-in” ceremony for all tification?” I responded, “Give me a few his minutes to get ready and yes, I’ll come.” no one had ever Sheboygan County elected officials at the Sheboygan County Thus began a long, early morning of being had an interest in Courthouse Jan. 3rd, 2011. Including the swearing-in of our newly elected Sheriff, Todd Priebe (left of me in picture). breaking into the a chaplain.

Working in the chaplaincy for me tight-knit group that the officers are. In your team!” His response was overwhelmstarted back in 2004, as an associate pas- fact, he said, “I’m not sure how they will ing! In fact, Sheriff Helmke once put it tor in Monroe, Wisconsin. It was there receive you, but you are welcome to give this way, “Pastor, I want you to marry us that I was in contact with a local police it a try.” That began the start of my chap- off, bury us, and get us to heaven!” He prolieutenant, which spawned the thought of laincy work. vided me with 24/7 access to the departWithin a short time, we started ment, to his officers, to their equipment, ministering to our local law enforcement.

The lieutenant got me in touch with weekly “ride-alongs” and slowly but surely and to their training. This led to being Deputy-Chief Jeff Skatrud at the Green the walls started coming down and the able to attend the International ConferCounty Sheriff Department-GCSD (Mr. officers welcomed me in. After about a ence of Police Chaplains training, which Skatrud is now Sheriff Skatrud). Upon year with the department, God called us gave us a “Police Chaplain Certification.” meeting him, he explained that they had a to Sheboygan County and we had to say As a Police Chaplain, there are countnumber of clergy in the area that were on goodbye to our friends at the GCSD. less opportunities to minister to people. I an “on-call list” to be contacted, should an Once in Sheboygan County, I ap- often do “ride-alongs” with the deputies. inmate in the jail need spiritual guidance. proached Sheriff Helmke, Sheboygan This allows me to spend one-on-one time I communicated to DC-Skatrud that County Sheriff Department-SCSD, with them for hours, building relationI certainly would be willing to assist in about my past chaplaincy work in Green ships and building their trust. Whatever County and he situation they are called out to, I’m right said virtually the there with them. Thankfully, the departsame thing, “We ment provides me with the approprihave guys that ate safety equipment to protect myself, will go into the should there be a hostile situation. jail and do Bible I am often called out after critical instudy, but no one cidents, where officers have encountered has really ever scenes that no one should ever have to wanted to work see, to help the officer talk through their with our staff.” emotions and feelings, often having to apI said, “Sheriff, proach the question of: “Why would God that’s what I feel ever allow such horrible things to occur?”

The Honor Guard presenting the colors at the Swearing-in led to do. I want I’ve been called out where the officeremony Jan. 3rd, 2011. to be a support to cers have to get social services involved,

By J.D. Putnam

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as both “mom and dad” are being arrested and the kids have no place to go.

I’ve been out on drug raids where, I have to admit, I asked myself the question: “What am I doing here?”

I am called out to do death notifications, whether it’s involving fatal accidents, suicides, or death from other mishaps.

I have had countless opportunities to gather in people’s homes where the police have been called and, instead of arresting individuals, we have been able to all gather in prayer and ask God to intervene in their situations and lives.

I am called out to pray at the official sheriff department events: swearing-in ceremonies, department training, banquets, retirement gatherings, etc. I have been privileged to do weddings for some, have done funerals for officers’ family members, and counseling to those needing spiritual direction.

We have recently had a new sheriff During my short tenure as sheriff of Sheboygan County, I have had several events that have required spiritual and counseling assistance.

It is comforting to know that when life-changing events occur, our clergy is available to assist families during the loss of a beloved family member, victims of crime, and also our employees during personal struggles. I have determined that our agency would be at a great loss if our clergy were no longer available to us.

It is in the best interest of today’s law enforcement agencies to have resources available to help in areas that law enforcement isn’t trained or prepared for, but clergy is.

Sheriff Todd Priebe Sheboygan County Sheriff Department

elected to serve here in Sheboygan County, Sheriff Todd Priebe.

Sheriff Priebe comes to us from the City of Sheboygan Police Department and is already making his impact.

He, from the get go, has commu- Here is Deputy Traas, me, and Corporal Walters at a SWAT nicated with me training exercise. Deputy Traas was baptized in October 2010, how thankful he filled with the Holy Ghost in February 2011 and serving God with everything. Bro. Traas has been witnessing to Cpl. Walis that our depart- ters, showing him the Word of God. ment has a chaplain and, for the first time in Sheboygan I’m so thankful for the doors God has County history, he has authorized me to opened up within our sheriff department place a baptistry at the county jail. Now to serve our community. It certainly isn’t at the weekly jail services that are held by for everybody. In fact, I’ve seen things I ministers from our church, those incar- wish I had never seen. I have seen the cerated will have an opportunity to have “dark side” of our county, almost as if the their sins washed away in Jesus’ name! veil was lifted from my eyes. I have had Praise God! to deliver the worst words a person would As a chaplain, I get to do some of ever want to hear as a spouse, a parent, or the more “fun things” like shooting at the child – informing them of the death of a firearm range with the deputies, going out loved one. on boat patrol on Lake Michigan, riding Our law enforcement officers are in the squad car at 140 mph legally! serving and protecting each and every day Some of the craziest things that I’ve that they clock in for their shift. They nevbeen a part of with the department would er know if this is their last day, or whether have to be: being “tased” during Taser they will see their kids and spouse again. training (the Taser is a non-lethal way to Please remember to pray for them, pray subdue an individual), going in on a drug for their families, and pray for God to raid with the swat team, and chasing sus- open up a door for your church to reach pects down on a foot chase. I have discov- into their very private lives, to introduce ered that even though you are the chap- them to Jesus Christ! lain, when you are on the road with the guys, you become their “quasi” backup!

Over all, the most rewarding part of being a chaplain is seeing lives changed!

We have been able to teach a number of Bible studies to many officers. I have seen them receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, have had the privilege of baptizing them Here is Deputy Traas right after coming in the name of Jesus, and have seen their out of the baptismal waters having his families come into truth! sins washed away in Jesus name.

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“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” - Psalm 133:1

By LORETTA LUNDT

group from Shawano sang a special and “Anointed Hands” blessed us with the The churches from Clintonville, powerful hand-signing special: “The Elton, Shawano and Waupaca all gath- Presence of the Lord.” ered together for a night of worship, There was a presentation that expreaching, food and fellowship. Cal- plained the plan for each church to vary Apostolic hosted the unity service reach out to another specific area. Each on Friday evening, June 17. church is considered a charter church, The evening started with some not only in their community, but also beautiful praise and worship, led by in their county. Each should look besingers from the area churches. All yond where they are at and expand four pastors, Pastor Narlock, Pastor their vision outside of the box. When Rehbein, Pastor Harris, and Pastor reaching the lost in each area, they Morey, addressed the assembly and should realize they are not alone. All talked about the excitement of coming the local churches are there to support together in unity. The “Second Chance” each other, with the common goal of

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reaching the lost.

Bro. David Lee from Colorado taught a message entitled, “Pure Noise That Makes a Difference.” It was a message on unity and following the clear, straight path God has given us.

He stressed that we should keep moving forward and worship even in the middle of adversity, and even if no one has asked us to do so. We need to have a passion that causes others to hunger for what we have. Dance and shout for Jesus, even if you’re in Wal-mart! The world will know if we have been delivered – there will be a visible change.

Shout with a voice of triumph!

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10 Effective Ways to Reac pockets on the inside. a. Music CD b. Bible Study (Tim’s Bible Study is free and effective) c. Letter from Pastor d. Church bulletin, if you have one each week e. Church schedule of services or events calendar f. McDonald’s gift cards, if affordable

By Tim Downs 1) Backslider or Prodigal Program This is a program designed to reach out to all of the backsliders in your area. Basically, we are getting together a list of all the people who have left our churches and in the first month, sending them a CD with music and a card and each month after, a card. You will want to distribute the list of backsliders to all the saints to use for a prayer guide. We will want to pray for each person on our list daily.

It is important for the pastor to remind the church regularly about the need for backsliders’ information.

2) Sunday School Seed Program This program reaches into the homes of our Sunday School children through a packet that is created to send home as a seed. Basically, we make up folders that have the following information in them and send them home to each family of the children who come to our Sunday Schools. This program is very effective and is a great way to reach the parents of our children! Here is what we suggest putting in these folders. You can get the folders at any office store; they have the

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3) Court House Program This program is very effective. You want to have a couple of people working in this program. You will want to find out the schedule at the court house for all of the court sessions, i.e... Criminal, Divorce, Bankruptcy and Traffic. One thing you can be sure of, when people are going through any type of situation that brings them to court, they are in need of prayer and willing to receive it!

If you have people who can stand outside the court room with a name badge from your church and possibly a nice sign that says, “Prayer Request Taken,” they can greet people and have a nice little book to record the prayer requests of the people. In most court situations, you have the person going to court and also their families. This is a great way to serve your community and show your church loves people and is willing to pray for them. The person who does this should make sure to dress nice and be very friendly and compassionate. Be sure to have plenty of church cards to offer people.

4) Free Cooking Class This is a program that your older or younger ladies can do. If you have ladies’ auxiliary, they can head this class up. Many times the elderly ladies do not feel there is a program for them to reach souls; here is one they can use! You will want several women to get together and have recipe cards of simple things they can prepare. Make up flyers that are ex-

citing and tell people your church is offering FREE COOKING CLASSES! Take these flyers to all of the battered women’s shelters, WIC offices, welfare offices, or anywhere single and hurting mothers will be found. In the class, you will just basically have one person per week show how to prepare one recipe.

You will want to show the women how to make it and then sit down with them and fellowship and eat it. The first thing you will want to do is teach them to pray before their meals! Also, you will not want to preach to them. Use this as a fellowship tool, have some soft Christian music playing in the background, and just show yourself friendly! Each week, other women from your church can teach their recipes.

5) Learn the English Language FREE! This program will be very helpful in the next few months. We are seeing more and more Hispanic families in our communities and we can reach them with this type of ministry. Basically, you will need someone who knows Spanish. They do not have to be a teacher or professor, just someone who can speak and write Spanish and English. The person will want to teach 10-15 words per week. You can advertise to every Hispanic person in your area with flyers and news print. Once you have a group of people coming, make sure to love them and let them know about your church services.

6) Sunday School Giveaway Program This is a very effective program to build your Sunday School. You will want to have a giveaway at your church and make flyers that list the items you will be giving away. Make this exciting! Do not use words like “Acts 2:38” and “One God” and all the other religious terms; just advertise “Blessing Our Community Through Giving.” You can give away a couple of hundred dollars worth of

ch Souls prizes and reach many souls! We have a sample flyer on our web site that you can use (www.gowinsouls.com). You will want to hand out these flyers all across your community: apartment complexes, stores, schools, wherever you see people.

One of the best gifts to give is a free bicycle. If you have 25 families in your church who will commit to giving a donation of $100.00 through a period of one year, you can have a bike giveaway each week and be known as the church that gives away bicycles! It will not take long for the community of children to hear about that! Door hangers are very effective in this program. You will want to choose several apartment complexes that you can basically adopt. You will want to visit there each week, take fruit snacks or some type of free candy each week and a flyer. Stay in contact with the children! Fruit snacks are very effective in giving to people and opening up the door to talk to them.

7) Witnessing in Restaurants This is an instruction sheet, helping people understand how important it is to act appropriately in restaurants. Each person needs to have a copy of this! The Apostolics are not the only people that act crazy in restaurants. However, we look different than any other Christian, so attention is drawn to us, and the separation from the world is a way that people know who we are. We have to be very careful how we act in public and also use this time to be an effective witness. You can download this at www. gowinsouls.com.

8) Youth Outreach Program Each week, we end up giving our kids 15-20 bucks to go out with their friends after church to eat.

If you have 10 young people, they can take $5.00 per person, put it in a can, and now they have $50.00. Take

Soul-Winning Series the $50.00 to Little Caesar’s Pizza, get 5 large pizzas for a total of $25.00. This is plenty of pizza for like 25-30 people.... then you buy 2-3 12 packs of Coke and Mountain Dew....that will cost you another $15.00. You have $10.00 left to go to Wal-mart and buy a cheap basketball.

Now you have pizza, soft drinks, and a basketball. Take it to a park where there are a bunch of people playing ball, and announce you are having a FREE PIZZA PARTY and are also going to give away a basketball! You will meet tons of new friends, eat pizza with them, and witness! Be sure you take church guest registration cards with you, and church cards and flyers. You will use the guest cards to get information. You tell the people it’s for the basketball giveaway.

Once everyone signs up and you eat, have one of the guests draw the guest card for the winner. Now you have all the information from the people, who were glad to give it to you so they could win a ball, your youth have had fun, ate pizza and witnessed, and it only cost them $5.00! Of course, if you have more youth, or chip in $10.00 per person, you can obviously have a bigger party...this keeps your youth busy reaching souls and not going to local restaurants, complaining and talking about how terrible life is!

9) Sticky Notes You can purchase sticky notes in bright yellow and have your church info printed on it for less than one cent per sticky note. You will want to make sure that the top line of text is in large letters and says, “INVITATION.” You will want to list the church service times, phone number, web address, if you have one, and any other info. It is not recommended that you put a bunch of church words like “REVIVAL, ACTS 2:38, ONE GOD, JESUS NAME” stuff… yes, we believe that to be the message; however, someone who reads your sticky

note for the first time out of the world will not know what any of that means.

You can use these sticky notes all over!

Pass out stacks of 100 to each family and have them start sticking them everywhere! Here is one web site that carries these: http://www.bizforms.com/ postit.htm 10) Hospital Ministry You will need to purchase at least 100 small gift bags; you can find them on most any search engine by typing in “wholesale gift bags.” Once you have them, you will need to purchase travel size Scope mouth wash, ChapStick, and lotions. You will also want to order some pre-cut prayer cloths, or have someone from your church cut them....you can buy them from the internet with your church name, address and phone number on them, which I suggest. Place all of these items in the bags, along with a church card and a card with your service times; take them to the local hospital. You just go to every room where someone is staying, hand them the gift bag, and tell them you will be praying for them.

All of these programs will help you in reaching the lost. We do not believe these are the only programs that work; however, we can say that they do work!

Please feel free to edit them, change them, or use them in any way to reach souls. I believe God has given me the wisdom to instruct many about reaching souls, and I want to offer what He has taught me to each person!

These programs will not work by simply being good ideas. You must put them into place and use them to be effective. We must reach our world and we have little time left to do this! Let’s get busy, church!

These programs and more are free, and listed on www.gowinsouls.com. For more information, please contact Bro. Tim Downs at tim@gowinsouls.com.

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Green Bay

By CHARLES WELCH On Sunday, June 26, 2011, Meadowbrook Church of Green Bay hosted a Unity Service, together with Oneida Apostolic and Lighthouse Apostolic Truth Church of De Pere, beginning at 2 pm.

A beautiful spirit of worship and unity filled the sanctuary, led by a combined choir and musicians as the Spirit of the Lord moved across the congregation. Bro. Chuck Welch, Presbyter of Section 1, and each of the pastors, Pastor Lee Endris of Green Bay, Pastor Juan Alicea of Oneida, and Pastor Peter Fraser of De Pere shared their

Wisconsin

excitement of coming together in unity. Sis. Simmons, wife of the Two Rivers’ daughter work pastor in Algoma, also greeted the crowd. There was great faith and expectation that prevailed throughout the service.

Evangelist Tim Greene, national coordinator for our UPCI evangelists, was the guest speaker. He opened with text in 1 John 3:11-16, focusing on the apostle’s statement in verse 16: “Hereby perceive we the love of God.” He spoke of the fact that, next to our love for God, our love for one another is of utmost importance. Jesus said that “loving our neighbor” was part of loving God with all our heart, soul, mind

and strength. Our love to one another is a testimony to the world that we’re His disciples ( John 13:34-35).

A great time in the altar followed Bro. Greene’s message as the Holy Ghost swept over the congregation. A time of food and wonderful fellowship followed.

The preachers and the saints stated various comments like: “This was wonderful,” “This was like a camp meeting before camp,” and “We need to do this again.” Thank God for the beautiful spirit of unity that is prevailing throughout the Wisconsin District. It certainly is where God commands the blessing (Psalm 133)!

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” - Psalm 133:1

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pray4progress

By Steve Rogers I heard Andy Stanley ask a while ago, “... if your church burned to the ground and you couldn’t rebuild - who would be affected, other than the people that attend your building?” It is our conviction that the world really doesn’t “care how much you know - until they know how much you care.”

After praying and asking God to help us make an impact on our city, we started Elim’s pray4progress. (Greenfield’s city slogan is “pledge to progress.”) Our goal is to tackle a different area of our city every month. For example, when our schools start back up in September, we will once again let all of the school principals, staff, and hopefully their students, know that we are praying for their safety and success, and for God to bless them. We let them know that we are thankful for the ef-

forts they are making for progress in our city.

Last October, during Fire Safety month, we invited all of the fire department stations to a service, where we recognized them and showed our appreciation for them. Sixteen firefighters (on duty) came and lined up in the back two rows. During the prayer meeting we held that month, we specifically prayed that our firefighters and their families would be safe and blessed. When the chief came by for our prayer day we gave him a certificate of appreciation, and he asked me to serve as the city Fire Department Chaplain. This is a double honor, as I have been the Police Chaplain for a couple of years already.

Being the chaplain of the Police Department has kept me in front of our city officials once a month now for a couple of years, as I am asked to open the monthly common council meetings with a word of prayer. A few months ago, I was able to pray with a first-time mom whose boyfriend had just rolled over and suffocated their three-day-old boy while taking a nap. These were not the type of people who would normally

call a church for prayer (I suspect they were involved in witchcraft), but because I’m the chaplain, God swung the door wide open. I was able to pray with the grandfather right after the cops finished restraining him from trying to take out his anger on the, by all appearances, sorrowful father of the dead baby, who lay just a few feet away in another room. I was SO glad for the call.

We have also had prayer for the churches in the area – all the churches.

We will be hosting a meeting in February where the mayor has agreed to help us gather all of the city pastors, so we can address local needs together.

During our “green” month, we bought a tree for our city. One of our young preachers and his girlfriend planted it on Arbor Day with Chuck, our city controller, and many other important city officials.

So many things have happened as a result. Recently, while at Starbucks (my other office), our mayor assured me that Greenfield DOES indeed KNOW Elim. Get ready Greenfield, ‘cause the next step is that ALL of our city will know JESUS!

Locations in Wisconsin:

Appleton • Eau Claire • Madison • Oak Creek Find out more information or register now for the next semester

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Music SP

TLIGHT

Andy Vik Releases Debut Album

Andy Vik has recently released his debut album, One Thousand Words.

The release is a testimony of determination and God’s grace and mercy.

The album, One Thousand Words, consists of 15 original Praise and Worship songs that discuss lifting up our voices to God in praise, how God will restore us through our struggles, and simply being thankful. The overall theme is that God cares about you. He knows your name. He saw you rise. He sees your days and years. If a picture is worth one thousand words ... and Jesus pictured you while He was on the cross … then He has at least one thousand words to describe you!

One song titled “Relentless” shows that no matter how far you’ve run away, God is always relentlessly chasing af-

ter you. “When I seek Your face, You came rescuing … When I called Your name, quickly answering.” The song thankfully proclaims, “You never gave up on me!”

The album was recorded at Elim Tabernacle and was supported by local UPC musicians: Josh Taylor, Yacharmi Smith and Brent Mayek.

Andy Vik has been the Music Director at Elim Tabernacle (Greenfield, WI) since 2006. He has been involved in various music groups and events across the state including the UWMilwaukee Gospel Choir, Elim Tabernacle Choir and Wisconsin District events.

The album is currently available for purchase at: http://www.christiandramaresources.com/christiandramaresources_101.htm For more info about Andy Vik and his music, please also visit the links below: www.reverbnation.com/andyvik www.facebook.com/andyvikOneThousandWords

July/August 2011

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July/August 2011