Alternative to Elevator?

Earlier in the week, the Session looked into an alternative for the elevator. Please watch this video below, then click on Comments to share your thoughts on this proposal.

Hard at Work

The work for the Chicken n Dumpling dinner has begun already. Thanks to everyone who came Saturday morning to roll the dough for the dumplings.

Just a reminder to everyone that next Saturday (Sept 6th) is the Chicken n Dumpling dinner. This is a fundraiser sponsored by the Adult Sunday School class to help raise money for the elevator.

See below for further information.

New Ride At Holiday World

OK, I'll admit this has nothing to do with anything church related, but I do know a lot of our families get season passes to Holiday World. Check out this new water ride they are building - it looks amazing!

Service - August 24, 2008

Caroline sang the song "Lord Here Am I". This is a great song about the willingness to live a life where you are always available to do what God asks, regardless of the task or the consequences.



Robyn led Children's Time and talked about "being in a pickle". This video shows her illustration of the Israelites being in a pickle of their very own, as they were trapped between Pharaoh's army and the Red Sea.

Testimony - August 24, 2008

One of the newest additions to our service is the "Testimony". In this section of the service, a congregation member has an opportunity to present any sort of testimony that they desire.

While this has often been described as the most difficult part of being the liturgist, it has also been described many times as one of the most meaningful and powerful sections of the service. Thank you to everyone who has taken this opportunity to share with the church.

Here is Caroline's testimony about Colossians 3:17.

Adult Sunday School Class

The Adult Sunday School class is just beginning a study of the books of 1 and 2 Samuel. We would like to invite everyone to come join us! Everyone meets around 8:45 AM in the basement for donuts and coffee, and classes begin at 9:00 AM.

Here's the lesson plan for last week and this week:

Chicken & Dumpling Dinner

The Adult Sunday School Class will be hosting a Chicken & Dumpling Dinner on Saturday evening, September 6th. Serving will begin at 5:00 PM; Dumplings will be sold by the quart beginning at 6:30 PM.

Adults: $7.50
Children under 12: $4.00
Quart: $5.50

Carry out and home delivery will be available. Watch your email and the Sunday bulletins for names and phone numbers to call to place your order for home delivery. Please, do not call the church to place a home delivery order.

Entertainment will also be provided during your meal! Come and enjoy an evening of good food and fellowship!

Proceeds will be used for elevator repair.

Service - August 17th

In the opening of worship, we talked about Elisha and the miracles performed at Shunem. You can find these stories in 2 Kings 4. Caroline and Robyn sang a song called "It is Well (Elisha's Song)".



This song was made popular by a southern gospel group called The Isaacs. They have several albums out full of beautiful harmony and songs in the same style as this one. I strongly recommend them if you want some good uplifting music. You can find several of their videos on YouTube by searching for "the Isaacs".

Matt played a good old Gaither classic "I Will Serve Thee" as the offertory.

Youth Group - August 17th

Thank you Carla and Joe for having the Youth Group to their house for a pool party. We all had a great time.

For our lesson, we used an object lesson to talk about misleading people. The youth were mislead into thinking they were searching for hard to find objects in the pool, only to later discover that the objects weren't even in the pool. They also discovered the pool was VERY cold as Joe had just filled it :)

We talked about how easy it is to mislead people with our own lives if we live one way on Sunday morning, but a completely different way the rest of the week.

Here's a video of that first cold splash into the pool (and Tyler getting into the pool whether he wanted to or not...)

Flashback to Christmas 2007

I finally got around to getting this video put online. This is the Charlie Brown Christmas play performed by our youth last Christmas. Carla did a wonderful job as writer, director and producer!! We look forward to another production this year. (hint hint!!)



Pay special attention to Chase at 4:08 into the video :)

August 10th Service

Caroline sang "Here I Am To Worship" to open the service.



Matt spoke about looking for success in the church in new ways. Rather than relying on just the numbers to determine success, it is better to look at the individual victories that may not always be noticed. Caroline drove the point home by singing Ray Boltz's song "Thank You". If you ever get discouraged that your best efforts are not "good enough", come and listen to the words of this song and your perspective will change!

August 3rd Service Music

Here is a song called "Breathe" that was played as an offertory at the August 3rd, 2008 service.

Hemenway Goes Global!

I thought everyone would be interested in knowing that our videos have been viewed by people in many different countries so far.

To date, people from the following countries have viewed one or more of our videos: USA, Canada, Brazil, Philippines, Japan, the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Moldova, and Croatia.

New Poll

Thanks to everyone who provided feedback through the last poll.

There is a new poll available down the right hand side of this page. Please take a moment to respond!

Youth Group - August 3, 2008

We had a great time at Youth Group on August 3rd. Caroline made homemade ice cream sandwiches, sloppy joes and fried macaroni and cheese. Tyler brought a friend for the second Youth Group in a row, however lost the $50 hockey challenge (10 to nothing if anyone is counting...) Anyone who brings a friend gets to play Matt at table hockey - the first one to beat Matt gets a $50 gift certificate to either Best Buy or Circuit City.

For our lesson, we talked about the past and how easy it is to dwell on bad things that have happened before. As an object lesson, some of our youth walked backwards using a mirror and tried to avoid obstacles laying on the floor. We contrasted this to how much easier it was when facing forward and walking through the same obstacles (which demonstrates looking towards the future, rather than the past).

Here's a video of some of our "contestants".

Controversial Reading Library

What started as a hobby for Matt and Anthony has turned into a cabinet full of books and audio books that will challenge you to really think about your faith in new ways. This "Controversial Reading Library" is available to anyone at church. The library is located in the tall cabinet in the Adult Sunday School classroom. Some of the books will be highlighted here over the next few weeks.

The first two books I recommend are entitled "A Skeleton in God's Closet" and "More Than a Skeleton". These books are a bit of a tough read, however are well worth reading. The first looks at a situation of what would happen to worldwide Christian faith if the bones of Jesus were dug up today, and the second looks into a man that is in Israel who is performing miracles and fits all of the signs of being Jesus.



I guarantee these books will challenge your faith and make you look at things with a very different set of eyes.

Be on the lookout for more information about the books and audio books in the library. Please see Matt or Anthony for more information.

August Newsletter and Calendar