Bethel Pieces January 2011

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(continued on pg 2)

January 2011

January

BETHEL CHURCH OF CLEVELAND HEIGHTS 2706 Noble Road

Cleveland Heights, OH 44121

Phone: 216.381.5501 Fax: 216.381.5568 [email protected] www.thebethelchurch.net

Staff Scottye Holloway Lead Pastor

Chelsea Mecaskey Office Manager

CONTENTS

Pg.1 - 3: Combined Worship Service & Potluck photos

Pg 4-5: Youth Lock-In Pictures

Pg 6: Re-Gifting Photos 2010 Bethel Women's Ministry

Pg 7: Bhutanese-Nepali Church Baptism Photos Pg 8: Skinhead... Clean Heart By Scottye Holloway Pg 8: January Preaching Calendar Pg 9: International Student Potluck Pg 10: 2011 Ministry Team Leaders

Pg. 11: January Birthdays, Anniversaries and other notes

Pg. 12: January Calendar

To Live as Jesus Lived and Love as Jesus Loved

Combined Worship Service & Potluck

Following the main dishes were the scrumptious desserts. A wonderful assortment of foods was greeted

happily by the hungry worshipers.

On Sunday, December 12, 2010, the churches that meet at Bethel Church experienced an amazing blessing from God. The Latvian Church, the Bhutanese-Nepali Church and Bethel Church worshipped together Sunday morning at a 10:15 service for the first time. The collaborative effort of the pastors involved reflected a long-term value of Bethel Church. This value, reaching out to immigrants, was true historically and remains so in the present. If memory serves, Bethel Church was started by immigrants. In the 1950s Bethel Church assisted with the formation of the Latvian Church that currently meets in the Bethel facility. The relationship forged years ago by Pastors John Voline of Bethel and George Barbins of the Latvian church still bears fruit at 2706 Noble Road, in Cleveland Heights, OH. Latvian Church is currently led by the grandson of George Barbins, Paul Barbins and meets on Sunday at 2:00 pm. The Bhutanese-Nepali Church, which had its inaugural service at Bethel on November 14, 2010, is under the leadership of Pastor Karna Tirwa, a recent resident of Cleveland, who came to faith in a refugee camp and planted a church among the Napali people while in the camps. Pastor Karna’s ministry now takes him around the country preaching and singing to those that will hear.

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Combined Worship Service & Potluck cont.

Fellowship was enjoyed after service before the potluck.

The warm smile of a gentleman in fellowship.

Bhutanese-Nepali is also housed at Bethel and meets at 5:30. For the past year or more Pastor Karna has held private meetings here at Bethel designed to begin this new work. Bethel Church, under the leadership of Pastor Scottye Holloway, is overjoyed at what God is doing. The close proximity of the churches allows the languages, cultures and personalities of the people to give all of us an opportunity to develop sensitive hearts for those around us immediately and around the world. We also had the privilege of seeing God work while learning of the magnificent intersection between Christ and people of various cultures during the service. The people of Bethel are excited to see God's work in, with and through us. This day was a milestone in the life of these three churches for they had never worshiped together at one time before. After the service we shared the experiences and recipe’s at a potluck lunch designed to give us an opportunity to demonstrate accep-tance, love and sharing with one another. We praise God for what He has done. It is our prayer that this will be a regular part of our life together here at Bethel Church.

The three churches met and became acquainted over the course of the meal.

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Great fellowship was enjoying around the meal. Stories of cultural dishes were shared during the potluck.

Children and parents both found things to discuss.

Families met each other in the time of fellowship.

Bright faces greeted new friends on the morning of December 12th.

Combined Worship Service & Potluck cont.

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Youth Lock-in Photos

The youth participated in active sports, including basketball. Everyone had a blast!

After all the activity, dinner was in order.

The Youth had a Lock-in from December 22-23, 2010. Avonnie Gibson and Michael and Yvonne Windom chaperoned this event and provided the photographs for us in the Bethel Pieces.

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Youth Lock-in Photos Cont.

The kids got pretty excited at night...

Who is buried beneath those covers?

...before they fell asleep that is!

Friends enjoyed the fun, food, the games, and the sleep.

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“Re-Gifting” Presented by

Bethel Women’s Ministry Team

On December 3, 2010 the Women’s Ministry Team hosted a Women’s Christmas Dinner in the beautifully

decorated Bethel Chapel, approximately 48 women were in attendance. It was an evening filled with delicious

food, lots of laughter, warm hugs, catching up with friends and most importantly the Word of God was taught

by Barb Sosnowski. The theme for the evening was “Re-gifting” with scripture reference from 1 Peter 1:3-9.

Barb reminded us that during the holiday season we often focus on giving special gifts, we spend a lot of time

on purchasing just the right gift for our families, friends, co-workers and others, which is not a bad thing

however; Barb challenged us to remember that there are gifts we should know, understand and pay attention

to which are the gift of new birth, gift of a living hope and gift of our inheritance. Barb stated, “Sometimes we

don’t recognize gifts because at times they come wrapped as trials”. However, because God has given us new

life through our faith we are born again giving us a living hope a firm conviction of our future inheritance

eternal life, which is secured and not subject to change regardless the circumstance. At the end of the

evening Barbs teachings came to life when the women did a re-gifting themselves with white elephant gifts

and many were surprised with the treasures they received. The Women’s Ministry Team and Jeanette Carr

would like to thank all the ladies for their special gifts of diapers, wipes, games, food gift cards, special

toiletries and much more for the Alternaterm Pregnancy Services.

Women’s Ministry Regifting December 2010

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Bhutanese Nepali Baptism Photos

On October 24th, 2010 Pastor Karna Tirwa baptized five members of the Bhutanese Nepali Church. They celebrated their freedom to worship Christ by following Him in baptism.

Christians are persecuted in Nepal and they are forbidden to perform baptisms. These Christians have chosen to follow the example of their Lord and to proudly proclaim His salvation.

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Skinhead... Clean Heart by Scottye Holloway

His body trembled violently as we were introduced. His hand difficult to grasp as I reached to shake it. Confusion abounds as I pondered this strange reaction upon meeting someone. What I learned later is that his life was in danger.

The young man in his 20's had very short hair, fingernails that were stained with the tar from an intense smoking habit. The tattoo's displayed by the young man let me know, beyond any shadow of a doubt, just what he thought about African Americans, Jews and Gays. He made no attempt to conceal these marks in the flesh stating his beliefs. His swastika told the story of a person that suffered from an attitude of superiority. The officer that called me to the scene asked the young man why he was shaking? The reply was that he had never been that close to a black person before without them being his victims. You can imagine my shock as he openly admitted this truth. The next two statements out of his mouth really shook me up. He stated that he was nervous because his father, brothers, and cousins were potentially coming by that day because they knew that he was being released from jail. He also stated that he knew that if he were seen talking to a black person that his family would kill him. The thing is, I believed him based upon his physical manifestations as well as the behavior of the trained officers that were in the room. They seemed to be very alert to what was going on around them.

As the conversation continued and the young man began to tell stories of his exploits as a skinhead, we entered into a more intimate conversation because he did not want the police to hear some of the things that he had done. Some of these acts, he stated, were unsolved crimes. This conversation went on for some time when all of a sudden a truck pulled into the long driveway facing the house. He ceased puffing on his cigarette and asked with a concerned tone, "Who is that! !?" The officers took their post at the windows and removed their guns from their holsters. After a few tense moments it was discovered that the person in the truck was a plumber that had come to repair the toilet. The young man stated that he thought that he was dead. After this the officer closest to me asked the young man about salvation and whether he wanted to talk with me about getting his life right with God.

There I was... on the spot. I wondered what I would do if ever I were put in this situation. Being face to face with someone that just prior to this point would rather have taken my life than hear me tell him how God may save his. Looking over my life I was faced with a dilemma. As a Christian that had experienced incredible discrimination and racially targeted hatred while growing up in the Deep South, I had to decide upon a response. This was not unlike the dilemma of Jonah when God sent him to preach to the Ninevites the truths of God. Jonah, because of his Jewish history, had many problems with the Ninevites. Unlike Jonah my encounter with God's call did not include running from God's directive.

Happily, God extended grace to me by allowing me the privilege to lead this person to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. As the Apostle Paul says, "This grace was given him ...to preach to the Gentiles (those that were unlike him) the unsearchable riches of Christ" (Ephesians 3:8-9). The real joy is that God chose to use me in spite of my history to make a difference for the cause of the Kingdom. This skinhead was not outside the reach of the mercy and love of Christ. At least now he can start life anew as he moved to another city that very day, with a clean head and a clean heart. Praise the name of Jesus.

January Preaching Schedule Date Passage Sermon Title Preacher

January 2, 2010 Matthew 17:1-8 A Glorious Vision Pastor Scottye Holloway

January 9, 2010 Matthew 17: 9-13 The Second Coming: Review the Preview

Pastor Scottye Holloway

January 16, 2010 Matthew 17: 13-24 Spiritual Warfare: Healing of a Boy


January 23, 2010 Matthew 17:24-27 Provisions! Who Needs Them?


January 30, 2010 Matthew 18:1-9 I AM the Greatest Pastor Scottye Holloway

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International Student Potluck

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2011 Ministry Team Leaders

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Birthdays

January 2011

Sharon Cheston 1/01 June Evans 1/02 Joyce Lewis 1/02 Christine Stonebraker 1/04 Josie Holloway 1/06 Celeste Stonebraker 1/09 Vivian Stomski 1/14 Kay Kyllonen 1/16 Juliana Mecaskey 1/17 Rory Kyllonen 1/18 Marguerite Cherry 1/21 Eva Spencer 1/21 Rose Gott 1/27 Jeanette Carr 1/28 Emily Stonebraker 1/28 Kathleen Walker 1/31

CHALK IT UP

Thank you to everyone who assisted with the Christmas Eve service. Your efforts

helped to make it a priceless time of worship

for the church.

AnnualAnnual Congregational Congregational

MeetingMeeting Sunday, January 30th

Following Service

The February

Bethel Pieces deadline: Sunday, January 30th

Please submit and share with us!

Weekly featured at www.thebethelchurch.net:

Church calendar, sermon downloads, sermon outlines, missions reports and more!

Anniversaries

Mario & Melinda Ruano 1/02 Kevin & Avonnie Gibson 1/05

The International Student Pot-Luck will be held on

Saturday, January 22, 2011. Keep a look-out for the time

when this event will occur.

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January To live as Jesus lived and love as Jesus loved

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

26 10:15 am Worship 2:00-5:00 pm Latvians 5:00-7:00 pm Nepalis

27 6:30 pm Women’s Ministry Meeting

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29 30 7:30PM Basketball

31 6:30 - 10pm New Year’s Eve Game Night

1 New Year’s Day

2 10:15 am Worship 2:00-5:00 pm Latvians 5:00-7:00 pm Nepalis

3 7 pm First-Monday Prayer

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6 7:30PM Basketball

7 1:00-3:30 pm Homeschool Co-op

8 8am Men’s Bible Study

9 9:00 am - 9:50 am CE 10:15 am Worship 2:00-5:00 pm Latvians 5:00-7:00 pm Nepalis

10 6:30pm Deacons Meeting 6:30 pm Trustee Meeting 7:00pm Deaconess Meeting 8:00 pm General Board Meeting

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13 7:30PM Basketball




17 MLK Jr. Day

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19

20 21




Congregational Meeting

Bethel Pieces Deadline

24 31 6:30pm Women’s Ministry Meeting

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26 27 7:30PM Basketball


29 8am Men’s Bible Study 6:00-9:00 pm International Student Mid-Winter Dinner

Documents

Bethel Pieces January 2011