A Rock and a Bridge,

RBCC Monthly Newsletter
Vol. 23 No. 7 - July 17, 2005

OFFERING/FINANCE UPDATE

It takes $6,800 of general income each month to meet our operating expenses. June income was $6,400.

CELEBRATIONS AND PRAYER CONCERNS

Our sympathy and prayers are with Moses Glay and family on the recent death of his brother Babor Kulo in Liberia . . . Kudos to Tabi, Kena and Tish who “walked all night” to raise money for the Jeff City Relay for Life . . . The Carters are giving thanks for the safe return of oldest son Mykle from Afghanistan and plan a big welcoming part at the St. Louis airport July 28th . . . Dahnya Rogers experienced a week of camp in a college dorm at Westminster College while Tabi DenHartog and Alexandra Harrell enjoyed float trip camps. Michelle Haas is eager to head for Rickman this week . . . Anne Carter went for an adenoidectomy and was found to have a large polyp blocking her nasal passage. Its removal allowed her to hang on to those adenoids! . . . Diane Haas asks for prayer for her home church (where her parents still attend), the Disciples church in Unadilla, Nebraska, as it prepares to close this month . . . Beth Pratt turned 95 June 26th and enjoyed a visit with her son George from Oklahoma . . . Mildred Livingston traveled to Indiana for the retirement celebration of her son David who has been a Disciples pastor there. The church’s transformer blowing out 20 minutes before worship lent drama to the occasion . . . Suzanne Wetz is spending time visiting cousins in Iowa and Minnesota before heading off to Vanderbilt in August . . . Diane Suhler will be attending conferences in LA and Boston, taking along high school senior son David so he can explore colleges . . Sarah Smith is now working at Woodhaven in addition to her work at a group home in Jeff City . . Willis & Betty Jones have been busy entertaining family from all over and will soon be hitting the road to return the favor . . . Carolyn Young is traveling in Florida with her daughter and grandchildren as the latter participate in dance competitions . . . Keep the Glay family, Lana Capps & Lois Jones and son Drew in your prayers as Medicaid cuts threaten their health and well-being . . . Larry Brown, Kathy Brown, and Maureen Dickmann will be traveling to the General Assembly in Portland next week. Rev. Linda Johnson from Russell Chapel AME will be preaching at RBCC.

SUNDAY SCHOOL NEWS

There will be NO Sunday School in August. Watch for more information on fall Sunday School programs which will kick off on Sept. 11th.

WASTE WATCHERS UPDATE

WW is currently working on a letter to the editor on behalf of RBCC to address the unjust and mean-spirited cuts to the Medicaid program. The final draft will go to the RBCC Board for their endorsement. One of the purposes in sending the letter is to mobilize other faith communities to speak out against the cuts. The next WW meeting is the first Friday of August (Aug. 5th). Remember we begin with a potluck at 6:30 pm, move to discussion, and end with action.

WEEK OF COMPASSION UPDATE

Check out their website at www.weekofcompassion.org for information on clean-up efforts for Hurricane Dennis and ongoing assistance for areas affected by the December tsunami.

NOTE - IMPORTANT DATES

Fri., Sept. 9th - Ice cream social celebrating the end of summer and the beginning of the school year.
Sun., Sept.25th - Picnic with Fifth St. CC, 1 p.m.

CANOE TRIP

We’ve narrowed down the float trip to two possible dates – July 30th or August 20th. The final decision will be made today (July 17th). Please indicate your preference on the sign-up sheet so we can determine the best date for the most folks.

FRIESEN’S FINAL INVITATION TO THE JOY OF GIVING –
July 10th

You can’t take it with you. That phrase is so familiar it sounds biblical, but it isn¹t. There are similar ideas in the New Testament. Jesus said things like, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for your-selves treasures in heaven.” Or think of the parable Jesus told about the rich man who decided to live a life of self-indulgence without realizing that it was the last day of his life.

But now as Janice and I are getting ready to move to Texas in a couple weeks, the phrase “you can’t take it with you” has new meaning. Our stuff isn’t so much the issue. There’s room in the moving van, so we can take our stuff. A lot of that stuff isn’t really worth packing up and loading into a truck, but we’re taking it anyway. In fact, one of the moving company representatives said that the smartest thing for people to do is to get rid of everything and just start over. But we won’t. We can take it with us this time, and we will.

There is something we can’t take with us, though, and that is you: our congregation, our brothers and sisters. We’re going to miss you a lot. We’re going to go to church in Austin and think, “That’s not how we did it at Rock Bridge”, or “At Rock Bridge, someone would have done something about that,” or, “What?! No hymns in Spanish?!” We’ll be comparing them to you because of what you mean to us.

Of course, we do have a couple items from last week’s farewell party to take with us: the orange dice to decorate the dashboard; the fuzzy wrapper for the rearview mirror; the Univ. of Texas batting helmet with beer can holders and a jerry-rigged Longhorn hood ornament. Those will always remind us of you.

What we’ll really take with us is the memory of how you gave of yourselves, to us and to others. We’ll think of things like:
*Working on the community garden with José and with John Chelleh.
*Serving dinner at Loaves and Fishes with Lou.
*Virginia keeping Waste Watchers moving forward and moving deeper.
*Roger’s spontaneous generosity.
*Betty announcing yet another new completion date for the building, and all her work that has gone into the project.
*Larry hooking us with a story premise and then sweeping us along through the plot twists to the surprising conclusion.
*Michelle and Lizabeth taking care of baby Alice.
*Maureen, always on the lookout for individuals who need to be drawn into the center, people who need a special dose of God¹s love.
*Mandy’s taxi service.
*Kathy making sure everything gets done (did she clone herself? is she triplets?! how does she do that?)
*Diane and Gregg making sure there are snacks after church (usually when the Friesen’s were supposed to bring them).

*Marching with our church through the streets of Columbia to remind our community that Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers,” not “blessed are the belligerent.”
*Standing in the luggage area of Columbia “International Airport” and welcoming the Glay family to Missouri.
*Linda¹s many many many Minutes for Mission.
*Watching Rich turn dozens of Miracle Day volunteers into a crew of labyrinth builders.
*A church that‹without batting an eye‹allowed Janice to bring in a bale of straw, to spread it around the Sunday School room, and to leave it there for weeks, claiming it was a movie prop.

These selfless acts of giving, and many others, are the heart of Rock Bridge Christian Church. Those times when you have modeled God’s love are the memories we¹ll take with us to Texas. The moving company can’t haul them because we¹ve already packed them away in our hearts.

But there is one piece of our stuff we want to leave behind, to remind you of us. Many of you know that Rock Bridge has a stash of signs so that we can go out and demonstrate for social justice on a moment’s notice, so we can protest for peace at the drop of a hat. Janice and I would like to add our “Pray for Peace, Act for Peace” banner to the collection. “Pray for Peace, Act for Peace” is probably our favorite slogan. It brings together three things that are important to us, and three things that we love about RBCC: spirituality, social action, and following Jesus.

Please use the banner when you march. If you’re talking about possessions or about friends, it might be true that you can’t take it with you. But you can take the banner with you. And when you do, you’ll take us with you. We’ll be walking with you in spirit as you continue to give to Columbia, as you continue to experience the joy of giving God’s love to everyone in need.