3380 Lonsdale Ave. North Vancouver . V7N 3K2 604 985-4911 www.nluc.org office@nluc.org

Summer 2017 Newsletter

North Lonsdale United

Church

Children’s Sunday Program...

NLUC

Annual “fun"raiser

September 30th

Doors open at 6pm

Silent Auction

Live music

Delicious food

Exquisite dessert

included

...will continue throughout the Summer. Families and grand-parents are welcome to bring their children and grandchildren to church.

Magdalena and Dannielle will take turns to lead Sunday school.

Christine Terblanche (right) holding on for dear life at Camp Qwanoes

From the Chair --- God’s instruments (Part 2 ) ---

Dear friends and fellow “life travelers”;

God wants to use EACH and EVERY one of us in this congregation in this next season. Let’s be “patient”, “actively waiting” as we listen to what God wants us to “let go “of, and ready to be “energized” by the Holy Spirit - God’s calling in this new season. God is ahead of us; we just need to listen and follow Him. The same way Moses “walked” his journey with God, and how God prepared him, I truly believe that God has prepared us over the past years to be where we are now, ready for the next part of our life journey here at North Lonsdale.

God has been speaking to us in various ways. He touches us through Robin’s message from the pulpit on Sundays. He is there when we read a passage from the Bible, pray in the morning, speak with a good friend, or console a family member or colleague. Even as we stroll through the forest - he watches over and prepares us for our next season in life.

I posed the following questions as a guide: (1) What does God want us to let go of today, this week, month, this year? (2) As we are “actively waiting”, what are our talents and gifts that God wants us to use to bless other people as we have been blessed by God?

I drew the alongside mind map as I listened to Robin’s message one Sunday – what are the areas where we can be God’s instruments in His plans.

The 5 motivational streams and 8 church task areas listed act as a guideline to us participating as God’s instruments on this journey in our church and community. See Robin’s diagram below for a more schematic representation of this. Please feel free to reach out to me or any Board member if you’d like more information related to this and what it means for us as God’s church! “Thy will be done!”

Thomas Rautenbach (Board chair)

PAGE 2 SUMMER 2017 NEWSLETTER 3380 LONSDALE AVE.

While there are obviously areas of great overlap, there seem to be 5 observable streams of theological motivation that drive WHY we tend to do what we do.

Evangelical: from ‘evangel’ or ‘good news’. These folks have the good news of Jesus Christ as primary motivation for all they do. They would love to see all the world ‘saved’ as they come to accept Him as their Lord and Saviour.

Missional: these folks believ e that our primary purpose is to be Christ’s hands and feet in the world. They need to ‘go out there’ and ‘get busy doing whatever Jesus would be doing’ in order to be God’s blessing to the world that God so loves.

Ecclesial: From ‘ecclesia’ meaning ‘church’. These folks are motivated to do what they do in order to build up the church/make the church as Christ’s body strong and effective. They are whom most easily tend to volunteer: working to maintain the building, attend meetings, sit on committees etc.

Ecumenical: From ‘ecumenos’ describing the whole of creation as the ‘household’ of God. They want to make God’s difference in the world by establishing justice, fairness, compassion etc. They see this cutting across all religious loyalties and ties.

Spiritual: They understand our highest calling is to have intimacy with God, and so focus their activities on those disciplines of the faith that create that. They are the prayer warriors, the retreat attenders, the labyrinth walkers…

With these streams as their primary motivations, folks tend to want to DO one or more of the 8 marks of the church: Worship (Leiturgia) – Singers, instrument players, Sacrament servers, ushers etc Preaching (Kerygma) – lay preaching Witnessing (Marturia) – Use every opportunity to tell others what god means to them… Pastoral care (Paraklesis) – Visitors, phoning others… Fellowship (Koinonia) – community building activities/fundraisers/ social gatherings etc Teaching (Didache) – small groups, Home studies… Administration (Kybernesis) – Committee members, property workers, garden workers, finances, volunteers… Deeds of Mercy (Diakonia) – Community dinners, First United, soup kitchens…

PAGE 3 SUMMER 2017 NEWSLETTER 3380 LONSDALE AVE.

“From Your Board” will become a regular article in our quarterly newsletter . We will be sharing the plans, issues and activities that bring us closer together as a congregation.

The property team is always busy. All property matters including painting, heating, lighting, maintenance, are the responsibility of our congregation. There are no funds provided by the United Church of Canada. The board sets priorities and responds to emergencies. Funds need to be available or projected to be available so your faithful and sacrificial weekly giv-ing’s are critical.

Property repairs and maintenance plans for the near future include:

1. Repaving our parking lot. The District of North Vancouver has announced that they will be paving the lane this summer; by using the same contractor to repair our crum-bling parking area, the church will reduce our cost.

2. New doors for Duncan Hall. The doors have been donated and a work party from the church will install the doors.

3. New windows were installed in the kitchen and on the south side of the auditorium. This work was achieved thanks to a generous donation.

4. Another generous donation made it possible for us to purchase two stoves for the kitchen. Our kitchen is used a great deal; being able to replace the stoves was a great gift.

The Treasurer will be providing a report on our income and expenses once a month in our church bulletin. Fund or “fun” raising events are an important source of income along with our regular tithes and offerings. Aside from the needs of the church and community ‘fun’raising events bring us all together preparing for the event or buying a ticket to support and enjoy the cause. September 30th is our next event to look forward to: Some Enchanted Evening.

Keeping track of files, developing programs and storing data is a big issue. Because every-thing is in paper form at present; the challenge is even larger. The board and key staff have been able to work with a team of young people called “Helping Hands” in collaboration with ISSI who have been volunteering their time to develop automated solutions for procedures and storage. The board is very appreciative of the teams effort and the opportunity to up-date our administration processes.

The “hardware” used to run our programs ages quickly, thanks to a donation we have been able to upgrade this equipment to meet our current and some future needs.

Our music program is providing our worship services with wonderful support and imagination with great enthusiasm. It is lovely to see new faces too. The board is sure that if you have a calling to be part of this wonderful group you just need to speak either to Robin or to Adri.

Events coming up:

1. Pie making begins in a week or so. First pies will be strawberry rhubarb.

2. September 30 “Some Enchanted Evening”

3. The Christmas Fare luncheon date is being confirmed for the end of November or beginning of December

From the Board

Another year has gone by so fast. We look back at a busy, fun-filled and blessed Sunday school year. It was a privilege to get to know the children better, to support them and to see how they spir-itually learned and grew during the past year.

Our sincere thanks to Morgan Spence who led the Preteen and Youth groups and Tatiana Golliak and Dannielle Heraclides who helped in the nursery with the babies and tod-dlers.

In mid-May our preteen and youth leader, Morgan, started training as the As-sistant Head Counselor at Camp Qwanoes on Van-couver Island. She will be working at Qwanoes all summer. We wish her a special and blessed time with the campers and her team of counselors.

Five children from our congregation will attend Camp Qwanoes during summer. We hope that

this will be a blessed experi-ence through Bible studies and worship time with many other young people. May they come back encouraged in their faith.

Sunday school will continue over summer. Families and grandparents are welcome to bring their children and grandchildren to church. Magdalena and Dannielle will take turns to lead Sunday school.

We are looking forward to start a toddler and 2-3-year-old group in September. We will follow the Discipleland program called “What God does for me” which includes songs, a short lesson, ac-tivities and games related to the theme. This pro-gram will be at the physical and emotional level of the children. The program also offers parents spiritual growth activities and guidelines to follow at home. If you are interested please contact Magdalena for more information.

We wish you all a beautiful

summer with family and friends. Travel safely and come back well rest-ed.

North Lonsdale Sunday School Team

Children's Ministry Magdalena Terblanche

PAGE 4 3380 LONSDALE AVE. SUMMER 2017 NEWSLETTER

PAGE 5 SUMMER 2017 NEWSLETTER

Graduates of 2017- Congratulations !!

Ellie Gibbard Alexandria Dancs

BethanyShandon

Elizabeth Kilborn

Alexandria is Verna’s grand daughter. She

received the Senior Technology cur-

ricular Award, the Foods and Nutrition

award and the Physical education curricular

award She also received a

$500.00 hockey schol-arship from North Shore

Winter Club. Alexandria will be at-

tending Dalhousie Uni-versity in September.

Ellie graduated from Handsworth French Im-mersion Program and was also awarded the Future Teacher award from the North Vancou-ver School District. She will be attend-ing Capitano University starting this fall in the ECCE (Early Childhood & Card Education) pro-gram. This summer she’ll be working part time at Brazza.

Elizabeth is in the St. Thomas Aquinas High School graduating class of 2017. She has made her family very proud over her high school ca-reer by maintaining Honour Role status each year. She has per-formed in Musical Pro-ductions at STA (Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast), and en-joyed playing soccer on both the school team, and the NS Girls Soccer league. She will be at-tending Carleton Univer-sity in Ottawa in Sep-tember studying Political Science

Brandon graduated from Carson Graham Secondary and will be attending University to study political science so he can pursue a career in British

Columbia politics. Brandon is a volunteer for our Tuesday night Community dinners and is the favorite server for sure.

Beth graduated from Carson Gra-ham Secondary School. She will be attending Simon Fraser Uni-versity next year to study Crimi-nology and Behavioural Neurosci-ence

Brandon Leitch

WELL DONE TO YOU

ALL !!

WE ARE VERY PROUD

OF YOU!!

PAGE 6 SUMMER 2017 NEWSLETTER

From the Board

A note from Robin’s prayer journal

I’ve just looked up from my desk to see a white, con-

vertible, E class Mercedes sports car with red leather up-

holstery gliding toplessly up Lonsdale Avenue past my

window. Wow! Quite magnificent.

I find myself wondering at the ingenuity able to produce

such excellent and elegant sophistication. It’s no stretch

to look at a created object and wonder at the nature of

its creator is it?

See where I’m going?

The Psalms make no excuse for being lost in wonder at the handiwork of the Creator visible

in what has been allowed to come into being. We have reminders in nature as summer’s lush

green and every other colour bursts into being all around us. How is it possible to delight and

not somehow be connected to the One who has created it all?

And us? That we are no mere puppet-creations from the benevolent workshop of some great

Geppetto, but actually made in the image of the One who has made us in the first place -

with all the characteristics and intentions of that One worked into the fabric of our being. Al-

so, that our Creator has ensured our living out of those characteristics despite even our very

best efforts to thwart them. Christ’s death and resurrection is that ‘ensurance!’ ‘Insurance?’

‘Assurance?’ - you know what I mean. That is grace, vast and amazing! Our sluggish and of-

ten half-hearted participation in that grace is our bit of faith. And that’s enough! Wow!

Dear God, may we live into the wonder-full

intentions that you have for us. May our

appreciation of the unfolding summer world

around us jolt us into owning again your

plan and purpose for our lives, to become as

you have made us to be - in your image. This

sounds a little grandiose I know, Lord, but

it’s my prayer for myself and for all of us in

this place…

In Jesus’ Name

Amen.

This cake was bought by two community dinner regulars to thank the volunteers

Sharing Abundance Submitted Verna Mossop

This cake was bought by two community dinner regulars, (Alan and Richard ) to thank the volunteers

Sharing Abundance Community Dinners began in 2008 through the vision of Lizz Lindsay, a deaconess at St.Agnes Anglican Church. She worked near the Downtown East Side and saw that meals were available every day of the week for those who were in need. She assumed it was the same here on the North Shore. It wasn't and nine years later it still doesn't ex-ist.The vision is to provide a meal seven days a week so no one here goes a day without a nourishing meal. St. Agnes has been involved from the beginning. The program runs from donations from their church, from St. Clements, from North Lonsdale United, as well as grants from both the City, and District of North Van. There are also some grants from service clubs and pri-vate donations. Dinners are provided free of charge or a small donation, if possible. No one is ever turned away. Our church has been involved as an active partnership with Sharing Abundance for seven years. We closed on June 20th and begin again on Sept 12th. If we had the volunteers we could carry on all year but as of now we don't. We have served 3,225 meals in addition to the Christmas dinner with about 140 guests. We could not do this the 10 months we do without the care and enthusiasm of the volunteers we do have. You would not believe the amount of pots, pans and dishes Don Blackdadar and Hennie and Barbara Prinsloo have done over these years. They did have some relief with John, Judy and Richard pitching in. Some of us volunteers are getting on in years and it takes energy to set up and take down the hall, serving and visiting with guests so we are always looking for new people. It can mean coming only one Tuesday per month from 4-7p.m. Both men and women welcome! We prepare and serve between 72-80 meals per evening. Preparing, serving and Eating these meals have built community and for some it helps them deal with social isolation. We sometimes have a few challenges but grace always wins. Some people do not come to the meal for nourishment but they want to be a part of what is happening. Most people are on social assistance or on very low income. If you would like to help us with this program please call me or speak to me at church or by email. VERNA I was recently so blessed by a note from one of the young volunteers:

Dear Verna,

Thank you very much for the wonderful card

and movie tickets, I am looking forward

to using them. I really appreciate the card, it

really means a lot to me. This year was my

first experience with volunteer work. I was so

happy, and I instantly felt welcome and part

of the group. I really appreciate all the work

you put into these dinners and I am sure all

of the people who come, appreciate you as much

as I do. Thank you for a wonderful experi-

ence. I will see you in the fall.

Jack

SUMMER 2017 NEWSLETTER PAGE 7

This cake was bought by two community dinner regulars (Richard & Alan) to thank the volunteers on behalf of the Community

Caught by our camera...

...Easter Baptism of Julia Kageyama Leigh

...at Scripture and Scones

...some of the gardening team working hard.

If you would like to join the team caring for the garden—please speak to Svetlana Evans. (778 340 8882)

PAGE 9 SUMMER 2015 NEWSLETTER 3380 LONSDALE AVE.

...last Community Dinner before the Summer

...Baptism of Benjamin Golliak and Elijah Finch

...the pie making team preparing their fruit.

If you would like to join this fun team making pies—Please speak to Joan Sim-mons or Shirley Kitch-en . They would love you to join them!

August Birthdays 3rd - Pam Empey 7th – Frank Sindell 7th—Charlotte Wiebe 7th - Beyers Bosman 8th – Wendy Knight 9th – Joey Gibbard 10th – Beyers Bosman 15th – Joan Simmons 16th – Ramona Counihan 16th—Shelley Spence 18th – Myles Aikenhead 20th—Tetiana Golliak 24th – Amanda Stock 26th – Meggan Jacobson 29th – Sylvia Stein 30th – Donna Hardie 31st – Lorri Gibbard 31st – Aaron Jacobson 31st – Jayne Elton

July Birthdays 2nd— Lola Phillips 3rd - Karen Van Buuren 7th—Willene Jasper 10th – Terrisa Adems 10th – Thomas Rautenbach 13th - Hennie Prinsloo 15th - John Collins 18th – Chad Donald 19th – Paul Bonenfant 20th—Georgia Heed 21st—Gordon Donas 21st—Anne Fitzpatrick 22nd – Lawrence Mok 23rd – Sue Crawley 24th – Ruth Williams, 25th – Adri Rautenbach 26th – Gary Ansell 27th – Hank Wiebe 27th – Austin Sferra 29th – Glenys Dawson 29th – Bethany Shandon 30th – Ingeborg & Paul Brown

SEPTEMBER BIRTHDAYS

2nd – Don Blackadar 3rd - Jan Wilson 4th - Kay Furniss 4th—John Buchanan 6th— Tiana Sferra 9th - Jeanette Davis 13th – Bob McKilligan 13th—Don Blackadar 14th—Christine Terblanche 15th – Jean Collins 16th – Andrea Krause 18th - Temma Shandon 19th - Thomas Rautenbach (Jnr)

20th – Bill Schatz 20th – Barbara Prinsloo 22nd – Penny Mok 23rd – Betty Jofenig 23rd— Danni Heraclides 24th – John McKellar 26th – Glen Elliott 28th – Les Elton and Gloria Andreassen 29th - Belinda Aikenhead 29th— Pat Gray

Our Summer Birthdays

BULLETIN BOARD

WANTED

We are needing an elec-tric floor polisher to help scrub the grouting in the downstairs bathrooms. If you have a polisher that you are not using and

would like to find a good home for it!

That’s us!!!

Please contact the church office if your birthday is not listed.

Once again, I wish to thank members of the con-

gregation (and some of their friends) who have

made it possible for the total sales since January

2017 to reach $236.25 with the possibility of a

further $40 being contributed by the resident

manager of Verna's new home.

In June all hard -cover books were either sold or

donated to First United Church. Now only soft -

cover books in Very Good Condition will be on

sale. I have recently been requested to add large

print books by one of our most generous readers,

since her eyesight has deteriorated. My thanks to

all who have made this "job" such a pleasant one!

Rosemary