April Events

April Events
The ‘Olive Press’
April 1, 2016
Sunday, April 3 ~ Annual Meeting
Thursday, April 14 ~ Energizer’s Lunch
Friday-Saturday, April 15-16 ~ Youth District Blitz
Sunday, April 17 ~ Members Meeting (Hope Center)
Monday, April 25 ~ Baby Shower for Julie Kuharski
Friday, April 29 ~ Women’s Spring Casual Dinner
Saturday, April 30 ~ Men’s Breakfast
Are you talking and listening to God through prayer? Are you ready and willing to share the
evidence of God working in your life and His Good News to those around you?
Time flies. Our Master is returning (see Luke 12:41-48 again). What plans and actions
are you strategically and intentionally applying in your life to best use the time and gifts God
has allowed you to steward for Him? Our Master is returning. As the old poem and hymn proclaim: “Only what is done for Christ will last.”
This publication is printed for the last Sunday of the month. If you have something you would like to
submit please contact the office one week prior to that.
www.mountofolives.net
The Elder Corner
By: Pastor Paul Anderson
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting
to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as
you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)
Time flies. As a Body we have just approved another annual budget (probably the 51 st
budget for Mount of Olives) which in part sets our priorities for the next year. God provides
us with resources; we have the responsibility of strategically directing those resources where
they bring a return for the Kingdom of God. (Luke 12:41-48)
At the Men’s Breakfast a month ago we had an update from a ministry we support,
Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship. One of the young men reported, “I have some real recent
news for you.” He told us “just last night” (Friday night before our breakfast) a young lady
who had been intentionally prayed for and encouraged over the past two semesters by IVCF
team members had made a confession of faith! You, we are part of that. Praise God!
Providing financial support to aid in expanding God’s Kingdom is tremendously important. That is one of the means God has given us to honor him. There are others. Think for
a moment; where has God positioned you? And why? Throughout the Bible we see many examples of very ordinary people filling roles of bringing the Good News to others.
In a recent Voice of the Martyrs update I read a report of a young Chinese woman on
an airplane. Turning to the person sitting next to her she inquired in a meaningful way about
his relationship with Jesus Christ. He said he was a believer; after she questioned him about
his Bible reading, prayer life and willingness to share Jesus with others she turned to the man
on the other side of her and did the same. A few minutes later she turned back to the first
man and said “you ought to pray for that man, he doesn’t want to hear about Jesus.”
What individual do you interact with frequently at work, at the gym, at a service club,
at school, or elsewhere? What group are you part of? Who do you connect with occasionally
by virtue of your activities? You are not part of their life by coincidence or accident. God has a
plan for you right where you are. Are you looking to God (reading his Word) for direction?
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BE OUR GUEST!
By: Lori Steward
There are books and books and a multitude of ‘tips’ on how to be a great host. But what
about being a great guest? It’s easy! When you get a phone call inviting you to a Cottage Dinner, all you have to do is say ‘yes’!
After pausing for a few months to pray and consider, the Cottage Dinner Team is up
and running again and planning to host two Dinners before the end of the school year. These
are informal, no-agenda events held at church, with the goal of serving and getting to know
one another a bit better. We include old and young, long-standing members/attenders and
newer folks, and plan to reach everyone in our church body eventually. The food is good,
and the conversation rich and fun.
So, when you get a call from one of us on our Team, we hope you’ll say ‘yes’ and join
us for a Cottage Dinner.
the Cottage Dinner Team Duane & Linda Dobs, Mike & Mary Agostino, Tom & Brenda Florestano, Steve & Lindy Barta,
Mark & Lori Steward, and Keven & Stephanie Johnson
From Your Prayer Ministry Team
Prayer is not so much an act as it is an attitude - an attitude of dependency,
dependency upon God. (A. W. Pink)
Once having begun the habit of prayer, never give
it up. Your heart will sometimes say, "We have
had family prayers; what great harm is it if we
leave our private prayer undone?" Your body will
sometimes say, "You are sick, or sleepy, or weary; you do not need to pray." Your mind will
sometimes say, "You have important business to
attend to today; cut short your prayers." Look on
all such suggestions as coming directly from the
devil. They are as good as saying "Neglect your
soul." (J.C. Ryle)
Further, he says that, “There is no worship without wilderness.” He is challenging us to see
that we cannot honor Christ until we truly see what he gave for us. When we come to a place
of lament, we are poised for an experience of God that we can get no other way.
Other interesting features of the book include his thoughts on the imprecatory Psalms, which
can be so disturbing at first glance. Also at several points he suggests further Scripture passages and application exercises. The sizeable appendix is also meant to help the reader to apply
the new material. The appendix includes a list of lamenters, what they lament, and where it is
found in Scripture, a list of lament Psalms for ease of finding certain topics, suggestions for
journaling, and 47 pages of lament writings both Biblical and Extra-Biblical.
This book is appropriate for those in the midst of loss and those who want to prepare for the
wilderness-times. It would also be a useful addition to the materials used in daily prayer life.
The material in the book can also be accessed in part through GospelCoalition.org under Justin
Taylor’s blog from March 8, 2009. Under Lectures on Worship, Michael Card is recorded speaking on The Lost Language of Lament and Worshipping the God who Takes Everything Away.
Thank you!
Dear Church Family, Thank you for the gift of flowers and for your prayers during
my recent hospital stay.
~Deb Schmechel
To My Church Family, Thank you all so much for your meals, flowers, cards, visits
and especially your thoughts and prayers during my surgery and recovery!
Love in Christ, Betty Smith
Dear Church Family, We are so grateful to you for your prayers for Harold and me.
The flowers are beautiful and make tough days brighter.
Thank you from our hearts, Harold & Nancy Dobs
THE BOOKSHELF
AWANA - Puggles
By: Mary Agostino
If you want to see God at work just spend a little time on a Wednesday evening down in the Puggles room.
Three years ago Sarah Wendlandt came to me and asked if she could head up a Puggles group at Awana.
You might ask what is a Puggle? In Awana a Puggle is a loveable baby platypus character. We call our
loveable 2 year old clubbers, Puggles.
This year we have 10 active Puggles. Sarah, along with her assistant Jenna Shelton and helpers Hannah
and Linda Dobs are doing an awesome job of training these little clubbers.
(Welcome to a new article that will occasionally grace the pages of this publication with a review of a helpful or interesting book to read.)
A Sacred Sorrow: Reaching Out to God in the Lost Language of Lament
Michael Card
NavPress, 2005
Reviewed by: Cherie Filmore
This last spring I was invited to a Michael Card concert hosted by a small church in Walker,
Minnesota. What a treat! I had fallen off following his music and hadn’t listened to him for the
past 15 years. Needless to say, I went straight home and dug out all our old Michael Card CDs
and promptly loaded them into my ipod.
He continues to write songs and produce albums. He often performs in tiny churches across
the country to fairly small crowds. Quite often Ginny Owens travels and performs with him.
Interestingly, he considers his very successful and award filled music career as secondary to his
Bible teaching. So on the small table they had set up with a few of his albums for sale was a
stack of books where I found this little gem, A Sacred Sorrow.
A Sacred Sorrow is a Christian Book Award recipient. I can certainly appreciate why. It is the
type of book that will be read more than once. It will share a shelf with Lewis and Piper,
though it will be tucked neatly between Bridges and DeYoung because alphabetizing is important.
In this book, Card tackles the difficult topic of suffering. He shows again and again how God
uses our doubts, rebellion, and sadness to bring us repeatedly back into his presence. He does
this by looking into the lives of “four broken men,” as he calls them. These would be Job, David, Jeremiah, and Jesus.
(CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE)
The children do not memorize bible verses, instead they focus on themes, such as, God made everything,
God saw that it was good, God is love and Give thanks. The first two units of the Puggles curriculum focus
on God’s creation. The children love to shout out “God made everything” and “God saw that it was good”
While learning that God is love the children understand that God loves us all the time, when we are inside,
outside, happy, sad, and afraid. These little ones are taught to say thank you to God for everything.
Fun activities are incorporated into lesson time to help the 2 year olds remember the lesson. Some of the
favorites include pretending to be puppies in the “God made the Pets” lesson. Crawling in a tent in the
dark and looking at the stars and moon projected inside the tent for “God made the stars”. Pretending it
is everyone’s birthday in “God loves me when I am happy” because what doesn’t make a child happier
than a birthday party?
Each week there is a puppet show featuring Puggle the platypus, Alice the kangaroo, and Sydney the koala.
During game time the children learn to take turns and practice following instructions.
The craft each week is a coloring page, which usually includes stickers, gluing bits of paper, cotton balls or
yarn.
During the evening the children enjoy a snack which follows the lesson
theme. With the lesson “I thank God for my food” the children enjoyed
waffles because God gives us good food.
A key to training a child is to start when the child is young. That’s what
Puggles is all about. Puggles is a tool to teach toddlers simple truths,
nothing complicated, and they begin to know about the Lord.
Sarah and her team have done a remarkable job. They love what they are
doing and it shows.
Faith, Family & Fellowship
By: Cherie Filmore
his license back. CMRA has stood behind him all the way and he is working on the process of restoring his license, something that he thought would never be possible.
I was so greatly blessed by the time I spent with Chad and Jori Watczak this month. If you don’t
know this dynamic young couple, it’s time to seek them out and introduce yourselves! You will be
glad you did.
Of course, Jori adds another dimension to this story, but we will start at the beginning for her. She
also grew up in a Christian home. Her mom was her Sunday school teacher through 5 th grade and
then her dad was her Sunday school teacher for 6th grade on up. She accepted the Lord in kindergarten with June Mertes leading her in prayer.
Chad was raised in a Christian home and prayed a prayer of salvation with his father around age five,
but really started to take his faith more seriously in late high school at Lakeview Christian Academy.
He was challenged in his faith by Pastor Paul Charles, his Bible teacher. He was also greatly influenced by Pastor Jim Joseph, who baptized him in a hotel pool on his senior trip in 2001.
Her youth continued to be filled with church, Trout Lake Bible Camp, and youth group at Glad Tidings
Church under Kevin Shelf. She noticed that her friend Molly and her cousin Jess seemed to have a
much deeper walk with the Lord than she did, but she wasn’t worried; she thought that one day it
would be like that for her too.
After high school he attended UWS for a year and a half before joining the military. His Guard duties
took one weekend per month and 8 months after training he found himself overseas in Saudi Arabia
from 2005 -2006. This time in his life was a huge challenge to his faith. There was a lot of pressure to
conform to the drinking and language practices of his mates, but he remained faithful to the Lord
and really looks back on this time period as a high point of his walk with God. He also received much
encouragement from another pastor that he corresponded with at this time.
By age twenty-one, she began to live a double life of sorts. She didn’t want to miss out on all of the
fun usually associated with her age group. She was also helping Erik Reinertsen as a youth leader at
this time. She came to a crisis of faith at age 23 when she heard Erik teach on the theme, “Why Not
Now?,” at a youth retreat she was helping with. Her life changed at this point. She re-evaluated all
her life choices: magazines, music, people, television. It was a real time of purging for her.
When he returned to Minnesota, he returned to college. He graduated in May of 2007 and married
in June of the same year. He soon discovered that his job in cardiac rehab was not a good fit for him.
This was when he found that the Guard was looking for recruiters. He wasn’t sure how he would like
the job, but decided to give it a try.
It was about this time that she began praying for a young man she had never met; his name was
Chad Watczak. She was helping with the “Kids on the Rock” program over at the old building when
one of her students named Ben asked if she would pray for his brother Chad who was deployed. She
later met Chad’s sister Sarah at Trout Lake Camp and Sarah also asked for prayers for her brother.
Finally in January of 2006 Chad came home and by February they were dating.
He started as an assistant. It was frustrating at first, but he stuck with it and from 2007–2014 he became one of the top recruiters in the entire state of Minnesota. It was during this time that he began
to lose his spiritual focus. As he became more and more confident in his own abilities, he leaned less
and less on the Lord. He was given an opportunity during these years to make some extra money on
recruiting bonuses. The choices that he made with the bonuses would eventually cause his whole
world to come crashing down.
When he left recruiting, he prayed about what to do next. He realized he was good at sales and decided to get his real estate license. In October of 2014, he began working with CMRA, a Christian realty company. He loved working with other Christians and really enjoyed the work.
During this time, he found out that there would be an investigation into the allocation of bonuses
during his time at the Guard. He received some good advice and decided to come clean and cooperate fully with the investigation. This was a very difficult time for him, to say the least. He had to explain to his wife and their parents what had happened and the nature of the charges made him unable to hold his real estate license. He ended up working for Beacon Point as a maintenance man.
It has been a time of discipline, growth, refining, and repentance in his life. He has really felt that the
Lord wanted to work on the sin of pride and the false sense of security that had crept into his life. He
is learning as much as he can during this time and one of the main things he’s learning is to trust God
and be content. In January of this year, the judge in his case stated that he believes Chad should get
After marrying in June of 2007, their family began to grow. Louise was born in 2009, Audrey in 2010,
and Charlotte in 2014. Nine months after birth, they started to notice that Lu-Lu had muscle tone
issues. It didn’t seem like a big deal, but just as Chad’s career began to unravel, her seizures started
and they were to discover that she had huge neurological needs.
Jori has been amazed at God’s provision during this time. The loss of Chad’s insurance was a huge
concern, especially in light of Louise’s needs. Yet they have never felt deprived and Lu-Lu’s care has
not been interrupted. Jori has started keeping track of God’s care of her family. She feels that even
though things have been tough, God has never been closer.
Recently God was again faithful to their family when he provided for Louise to attend Lakeview
Christian Academy. This has made a huge difference in Lu-Lu’s life. She loves the Lord and does get
excited to learn about him. Her teacher, Diane Goldberg, says, “Lu-Lu’s spirit is not disabled!” The
Watczaks are thankful for God entrusting them with Louise and feel that they learn so much from
her.
Obviously, the events of the last two years have been a huge stress on their marriage, but Jori has
learned so much about forgiveness and God’s perspective on sin and because of the Lord’s faithfulness, their marriage has never been stronger. Everyday is incredibly intense, but God is restoring
them.