Spring Issue - Federated Fellowship Church

309 Roosevelt Rd
Pella, IA 50219
The Rock
June 8
March/April/May
In this Issue:
What a Day!
Jambo! Hello!
Pastor Steve, Gini Long, p. 2
Spring Issue
by Heidi Brand
Thanks to everyone who joined us for our first annual Celebration of Family and
Friends Day! The purpose behind the event was to give families in our church a
chance to just kick back and just HAVE FUN TOGETHER for FREE as well as
outreach to families in our community who do not have a church home and
welcome them with a fun and joy-filled day. I believe those in attendance would
agree the mission was completed. On Sunday, June 1st , after a combined 10:00
worship service let out, people were served “fair food” consisting of walking tacos,
jumbo hotdogs, chips, & apple slices on their way out to play. The south lawn of
the church had been transformed into a fun-land for all ages. It was neat to see
the looks on kids’ faces as they stepped outside and tried to decide which activity
to head to first! Activities included 2 bounce houses, a rock climbing wall, bungee
run, face painting, Christian clowns making balloon animals, ring-a-pop toss,
kiddie tractor pull, and a dunk tank. Lines were long at each activity! Quite a
crowd gathered to enjoy the competitiveness between the big boys on the bungee
run! And the little boys were thrilled with the super-cool tractor prizes they
received from the kiddie tractor pull (thanks Titan Machinery). Many saw a
different side to our pastors as they were great sports and repeatedly got dunked
in the dunk tank! There were tents & chairs set up for those who wanted to watch
the festivities in the shade and extra drinks placed outside. The festivities were set
to end at 1:30 and the committee members prayed the predicted rain would hold
off until then.... The showers descended upon us at 1:26. Thank you, Lord!
Jambo! Hello! cont.
Blake Korns, Bryant Groenendyk, p. 3
Showers of Blessings
Alma Witzenburg, p. 4
Continue Meeting
Mike Sereg, p. 5
Connection Cafe
Valerie Brandt, p. 6
Share What You Wear
Trisha Korns, p. 6
It took some planning to make this event happen. Thank you to all the volunteers
who worked at the activities, prepared food, helped set-up/clean-up, to Sheri
DeNooy and those who helped with Let The Children Come during the service
(over 140 kids!) and to those who invited others to join us that day. And special
thanks to the planning committee: Denise Rodwell, Amy Rodwell, Renee Davis,
Jacqui Hale & Kristen Parks. Stay tuned for next year!!
Missionary Spotlight
Dean & Karen Dawson, p. 7
Announcements
p. 8
Federated is a tender-hearted church
committed to reaching our world near and
far with the Gospel.
We care more about where you’re going than where you’ve been.
www
f
federatedfellowship.org
/federatedfellowship
[email protected]
@federatedpella
641.628.3363
vimeo.com/federatedfellowship
Jambo! Hello!-Our Trip to Tanzania
-Pastor Steve, Teaching Pastor
This spring Gini Long, Bryant
Groenendyk, Blake Korns, and myself
traveled to Africa to help our
missionaries in Kigoma, Tanzania. It
was good to see our missionaries,
Harold & Connie, Kurt & Ami and the
girls, and Casey. Every time I go I'm
always surprised at the great work
they are all doing there for the Lord.
When we arrived we had one day to
get our footing and then off we went.
Bryant and Blake helped at the grade
school, worked on cars, and worked
construction. Gini helped in the grade
school and worked with the ladies.
I taught at the college and took about
35 students through the book of Luke.
I don't know what it is about Africa,
but once you go you can’t wait to go
back.
Thanks for your prayers and your
support and know that our
brothers and sisters in Africa greatly
and sincerely appreciate our support
for them. In fact, our last night there
Pastor Dismas came to where I was
and thanked me and Federated and
said "Don't forget us."
Keep up all the great work,
Steve
Some of Pastor Steve’s students.
Top: Bryant working construction.
Bottom: Steve & Blake at Lake Tanganyika
-Gini Long
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Top: Children who attend Hope of the
Nation’s primary school.
Bottom: Blake, Gini, Bryant & Kurt
Gini, Casey, and a friend sharing a meal
they prepared together.
My trip to Africa was the most
heartwarming trip of my life. The
people were amazing and so full of
hope when they had little to
nothing. It made me step back and
reflect on how there is more to life
than we realize and it made me feel
more alive than I have ever been in
a long time. The people of Tanzania
made me feel so welcome, just like
I was family, it felt wonderful to be
there to help my brothers and sisters
and their children. It was also great to
actually see and experience hands on
what Hope of the Nations is
accomplishing there. There is so
much I can say about this trip and the
people there. God is working hard
there and I’m so glad we had the
privilege to be used by Him, to help
work alongside Him and the Hope of
the Nations team to spread the word
and His love to people that have never
heard of Him!
-Blake Korns
My trip to Africa this spring was
definitely the trip of a lifetime. It was
great to see first hand the work that
Hope of the Nations is doing in
Tanzania. The needs there are
overwhelming, but Hope of the
Nations is really doing something
about that with all of their various
ministries that spread the gospel.
Some of these ministries included,
their primary school, kids clubs, youth
groups, neighborhood door to door
ministry, and the Bible college just to
name a few. They also have the boat
ministry to visit villages along the
lake, some of which cannot be reached
by automobile. There is also a sewing
center where they teach women how
to sew and make jewelry so they can
help support their families.
While we were there, we were able
to help each morning at the primary
school with the singing and Bible
story. I really started to enjoy
telling the children the Bible story
-Bryant Groenendyk
Bryant and a Tanzanian friend he met
on the trip.
I truly enjoyed the mission trip to
Tanzania this spring. During the 2 ½
weeks there, I helped dig the
footings and pour the concrete
each morning because as it was being
told through an interpreter, the
children would act it out. That was a
lot of fun. The children were such a
blessing to me. Another cool thing we
got to do was help with the new
primary school project. The new
school is in its beginning stages of
construction and we were able to dig
some of the very first footings and
build a driveway onto the property.
It's very rewarding to see photos
of the progress that has been made
Blake leading at the primary school.
driveway for the new children’s
school. One day I was asked to lead a
devotional with the native workers
helping at the construction site. They
typically have a devotional during
break times throughout the day. It is a
great opportunity to teach these men,
who are not Christians, using
construction illustrations to
demonstrate Biblical truths. I also
helped with the youth group night,
which over 100 kids from the village
attended. That night, we did a fun
activity, acted out a Bible story, and
fed the children.
Among the highlights of my trip was
meeting the Tanzanian staff at Hope
of the Nations. I admire how they are
teaching and helping make the
Tanzanian’s lives better. Through
building the school, Hope of the
Nations is providing jobs. These jobs
help the people buy food for
Digging the foundation to the new
primary school.
since we left and to think about what
the school will be used for after its
completion. Getting to build
friendships with the nationals while
working alongside them at the
construction site was another
highlight of the trip for me.
Africa is a beautiful place with
beautiful people. To see the need
there is a life changing experience.
I hope I'm able to go back someday
Lord willing.
themselves and their families. Without
proper food and nutrition the average
lifespan is 45 years old. The children
have the opportunity to learn about
God and receive an education so they
will have the tools and skills they need
to survive instead of dying on the
street. It felt so awesome to be a part
of impacting these people’s lives for
the short time I was there. They are so
very appreciative of any small thing
you do for them. It was such a great
feeling to be helping them.
About half way through the mission
trip, I started inquiring about
internships or staff openings. I have
been approved for a year- long
internship starting in September.
When I go back, I will be helping finish
the new school. I will also help with
the children’s programs. I am very
excited to go back and to have the
opportunity to impact so many lives.
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Showers of Blessings
“Showers of Blessings” is a mission
that was birthed to celebrate each
baby born to families at Federated.
This ministry is a branch of our
Women’s Ministry. There is a team of
gals who prepares a special
celebration to honor the parents and
babies. The celebrations take place
any time from three to six months
apart. Sometimes we celebrate the
birth of two babies or we have
celebrated as many as seven babies.
The next Showers of Blessings will be
our largest celebration with eight new
little ones, precious gifts from Abba.
For each celebration a new theme is
chosen for the décor and food. There
is always an encouraging devotion
presented by someone from
Federated. Praying for the babies and
parents is also a part of each
celebration. Each family is given a gift
card and a small gift from the church.
We have encouraged the people at
Federated to bless these families with
donations toward the gift card and
also to minister to these families with
words of blessing and encouragement
on a note card.
Members of the team preparing the
celebration are: Donna Ferguson,
Debbie Lester, Denise Rodwell,
Margarita Santana, Leona Stursma,
Brenda Witzenburg, and Alma
Witzenburg. We count it an honor to
be chosen to serve these families in
the Name of Jesus.
It is always our desire to bring honor
to our Father…to show love,
compassion and encouragement to
the parents, babies and other guests…
and to have a time of blessed
fellowship with each other.
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by Alma Witzenburg
“Children are a
heritage of the
LORD, offspring a
reward from Him.
Like arrows in the
hand of a warrior
are children who
are born in one's
youth. Blessed is
the man whose
quiver full of them.”
Psalm 127: 3-5
Sunday, June 22, 2:00PM at
Federated, we will be celebrating
“Showers of Blessings” for the new
babies in our fellowship. We invite
you to honor these moms with a
poem, card, special Bible verse or
simple words of encouragement.
There will be a table in the foyer for
you to give your donation and write
a note for the mothers. Thanks for
joining us in this ministry. If we have
inadvertently omitted someone,
please call the church office.
Families we will be celebrating at our June 22
Showers of Blessings
Dan & Amanda Schwerdtfeger and daughter, Patricia
Jason & Carrie Noble and son, Caleb
Adam & Shandi King and son, Bristol
Chris & Becca Markwardt and daughter, Nora
Kris & Kelly Robison and son, Kyle
Randy & Kara Groenenboom and son, Landan
Nate & Nicole Van Wyk and daughter, Taitum
Carroll & Elizabeth Hoksbergen and daughter, Caroline
Continue Meeting Together
It’s hard to believe that summer is
all but here. With a long winter and a
inconsistent spring that it’s difficult
to imagine that we will ever see good
weather. This brings me to
reminding us all of the importance
in staying steadfast in our meetings
together as a church. It says in
Hebrews 10:25; “Not neglecting to
meet together, as is the habit of some,
but encouraging one another, and all
the more you see the Day drawing
near.” It is always encouraging to see
each other in the midst of our busy
weeks to touch base in church.
At Vital Ministries we have a lot
planned for the summer to help us not
only have a good time together, but
stay connected in the Word through
our new Vital Men podcast each week
and daily devotionals. You can hear
and see these encouraging words on
our vital ministries web page.
We kicked off the summer in June
with our annual motorcycle ride on
June 6-8. This first trip is with just the
men. This was not only a ride, but we
had morning devotions and a chance
to just be Godly men and talk about
life. We have not forgotten you gals as
we have two more rides as couples.
Our first ride is on June 21st as we
head to Marseilles, Illinois and
participate in their memorial ride for
fallen soldiers in the Middle East. We
will also have a couples ride to Galena,
Illinois on July 12-13. You won’t want
to miss this opportunity! Also, it gives
us a chance to ask other men and
couples to ride along and hang out.
We are going to have a work day June
14th with Habitat for Humanity. It will
be in Pella at Brook Circle and we will
have a day of framing and blessing a
family with a home. It will be a great
outreach so don’t miss out.
Connection Cafe
On Saturday March 29, United For
Christ Youth Group from New Sharon,
teamed up with Federated Fellowship
to serve the homeless population at
Reggie’s Place/Connection Cafe in Des
Moines. Of our 16 regular youth, 11
came along for the adventure.
We arrived and were greeted by a
helpful group of people who were
homeless. There is a large concept of
“if you are going to eat you need to be
willing to help” and they were great
helpers! We hauled all of our food
and roasters and paper products into
the building in two trips!
We served Sloppy Joes, peaches,
chips, and homemade cookies made
by our very own youth, Jacob. Mark
by Mike Sereg
This year our Vital Golf outing will be
at Harvest Point in Oskaloosa on July
19th. Great time as men to have fun
and beat a ball. We will do something
new this year with RAGBRAI as we
will be riding for one day on July 23rd.
Then we will be passing out
watermelon on July 24th.
Continue to visit on our web page at
vitalministries.org for additional info
and the new events coming this
summer. This is a great time to meet
new people, ask people to attend that
don’t normally get involved in church,
and to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
May the Lord richly bless you in the
faith and stay the course as we all
have an opportunity to live a Vital Life.
Strength and Courage,
Mike
by Valerie Brandt
and I browned the 30lbs. of meat at
home the night before with the help of
another youth, Austin. We arrived at
Federated at 9:00am to get the Sloppy
Joes put into roasters and heated up,
mixed, and prepared with the help of
Donna from Federated Fellowship!
We were able to talk and get to know
each other in the 1 hour 20 minutes it
took to find all the things we needed
and to prepare the meal.
We served the meal the Connection
Cafe in Des Moines at noon (set up
took 10 minutes). For one hour we
continued to fill people’s plates and
engage them in conversation. Cleanup
took about 20 minutes and by 1:30pm
we were on our way back to the Pella/
New Sharon area.
Dao, our local foreign exchange
student from Chang Mai, Thailand
wondered aloud, “Where do these
people live if they have no homes?
In my home country, we don’t pay
them any attention, and they are
probably going hungry.” It impacted
her greatly.
If you are looking for an easy transition into a basic Christian concept of
helping those less fortunate? Plan a
meal, make it, serve it, love the people.
Upcoming dates to serve at the
Connection Cafe:
August 30 & November 29
Contact the church office if you are
interested in serving one of these dates.
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Share What You Wear-Year 6!
by Trisha Korns
If you are unfamiliar with this event,
it is simply a free clothing giveaway.
We collect donations of gently used
clothing, shoes and bedding and after
sorting all the clothing by size and
gender, we host a two-day event and
give it all away for FREE! No limits,
no restrictions.
Over the years the amount of
donations and people attending have
grown, but our focus has remained
the same, on Acts 4:32. “All the
believers were united in heart and
mind. And they felt that what they
owned was not their own, so they
shared everything they had.” (NLT)
Our goal of this event is not to count
the number of boxes of clothing we
have to hand out, or to count the
number of people that come through
the doors. Our goal is to bless and
love the people that come through the
church’s doors and be Christ’s hands
and feet here on earth.
We are currently in the process of
collecting donations from the
community and will continue until
July 1. In past years we have sorted
the clothing as it comes in, but this
year we are trying something new.
We are going to sort it all in 4 days! It
sounds crazy, but we know our church
family can do it. From Monday, July
7 to Thursday, July 10, the church
will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for
sorting. Anyone (members, regular
attendees, and guests) can come in
and sort for any amount of time they
are available. We would love to have
your friends, family or neighbors join
us - grab your small group, your Bible
study friends, your Moms group…
make it a fun outing! Men and
teenagers, this is not an event just for
the ladies! Not only can you help sort,
we will need able bodies to help move
bags and boxes to where they need to
go. As you can see, we need a LOT of
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volunteers to make this happen!
The event will be held Friday, July
11 from 3-7 p.m. and continues on
Saturday, July 12 from 8 a.m.- noon.
We will continue to fill the tables and
racks until the clothing is gone. In a
few weeks we will begin asking for
volunteers to sign up for a shift during
the event, so please begin to
prayerfully consider if this is a
ministry you can participate in –
we would love to have you!
About a month ago, Pastor Steve
spoke from Ephesians 2:7-10
emphasizing on grace that none of us
deserve, how we are God’s
masterpieces, and that we are to be
about good works. This event gives
everyone the opportunity to extend
grace to others and to show them they
are God’s masterpieces. All the while,
we are fortunate to be able to serve
our God using the resources He has
given us. As Pastor Steve said, “God
gives us the task, the ability and the
place.” Please consider serving in this
ministry. You won’t regret it!
If you have any questions, please feel
free to contact one of the event
coordinators:
Trisha Korns: (641) 521-3946,
[email protected]
Linsey Pezley: (641) 204-1227,
[email protected]
Cindy Van Donselaar: (641) 204-1056,
[email protected]
Missionary Spotlight:
Dean & Karen Dawson-Operation Mobilization in Moldova
During the last several months the
bulk of our communication has been
focused on the events unfolding in the
Ukraine. Even as we are writing this
update, 26 more people were killed
today and Moldova has added extra
troops to our borders. But through
all of this, God remains in control and
much ministry has been happening.
A three day outreach was held with
Pastor Christian Barbosa from
Romania as our guest speaker. Dean
was in charge of the Friday night
outreach to the youth. Many of our
OM team members invited
unchurched youth from their villages.
Over 300 young people came to the
event and 23 accepted Jesus Christ as
their Savior. Our OM literature
department set up a table with books
targeting issues young people in
Moldova face and they sold in one
night the amount of books that are
normally sold in one month.
The Saturday event was for families
and was filled to capacity with many
people wanting answers to how to live
biblically as a family in Christ.
Sunday was a conference on
counseling and was standing room
only. This is an area that our church
has asked Karen to be more involved
with as she currently co-leads
Women’s Bible study with our pastor’s
wife, Ludmila.
Dr. Ron Long from Luther Rice
University and his wife Leithia came
for a visit in March and visited a
church plant in the village of Huzum
where OM has a Day Center for
children at risk. OM Moldova
operates 18 of these Day Centers
Monday through Friday throughout
the country where children receive
a hot meal, receive help with their
homework and learn about Jesus.
Pastor Nicu shared about the fierce
opposition from the local Orthodox
priest when they initially planted the
church. He showed us what
villagers call the “Living Water” well.
Since Huzum sits on a hill, each year
all the wells in the village run dry
except the one that was dug next to
the Church and Day Center - even
though this well is at the same
elevation as the others in the village.
The church freely shares the water
with the community and uses it as an
outreach tool.
Jesus answered her, “If you knew
the gift of God, and who it is that
is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,’
you would have asked him, and he
would have given you living water.”
John 4:10
The Living Water Well in Huzum
Easter Caravan took up most of the
month of April. The program included
the novelty of a puppet show, which
was eagerly anticipated by school
children and the children from the
Day Centers. With open mouths they
watched the puppet show, following
the story of a chick that, wanting to
be an Easter chicken, refused to hatch
from its egg before Easter, but did
not know when Easter was or its
significance.
The children enjoyed the animal
characters but were also challenged
to think, when the mother chicken
took them on the quest to find the
true meaning of Easter, thus preparing
them for the account of Jesus’ death
and resurrection. This was narrated
by an OM team member who played
the role of a woman who had been
with Jesus and she told the children
what had happened at that time.
Finally, the puppets appeared again to
help the children apply these truths to
their own lives.
We were also blessed to have Pastor
Steven Hill and a vision team from
CrossRoads Fellowship in Odessa,
Texas spent a few days with us to see
what God is doing in Moldova and
see how they can be partners in the
ministry here.
Mobilizing Moldovans to world
Missions (MMM) is another area of
ministry that Dean is responsible for
and is quite passionate about. He had
the opportunity to speak at a mission
conference in the village of Cantimer
with several churches in attendance.
Dean challenged the young people to
become involved in missions and
several are planning to attend OM’s
Challenge in Missions training
program.
Prayer Needs:
• Continued safety, health, and
strength for us and our
family in the U.S.
• Pray for peace in the Ukraine
and safety for our OM
Moldova team as we do
summer outreaches around
the border areas.
• Pray for the new church
plant in Panasesti and the
construction of the building.
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