Pastor is home!

His trip home, while exhausting, was quite uneventful.  I picked him up at the airport on Wednesday night.  Due to a rush to catch the connecting flight to Cedar Rapids after clearing customs, he made his flight, but his luggage didn't.  Since we were staying in Cedar Rapids for the night, it wasn't a problem and he had his luggage by 8:15 am.  He's slowly adjusting to being back on our time, and he's very glad to be home again!

Thanks for all your prayers while he was traveling.  The trip was very enjoyable, and very productive!  I'm sure he'll be scheduling an evening event at church sometime soon, so you can all see pictures...like one of him standing with one foot in Europe and one foot in Asia!

Preparing for Worship - 7/13/08

July 13 will be the 9th Sunday after Pentecost

The Order of Worship will be page 184

Hymns

809, 577, 921

Scripture Lessons

Isaiah 55:10-13
Romans 8:12-17
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Those Who Serve

I think it's been a while since I updated this part of the blog. 

OFFICERS

Jerry R-President
Steve N-Vice President
Doug S - Financial Secretary
Mark A- Treasurer
Rick H-Secretary

ELDERS-

Doug K., Mark W., Matt S., and Brian G.

COUNCILMAN-AT-LARGE

Mark K., Anon A.

DAYCARE BOARD

Sandy K-President
Lisa K-Secretary
MEMBER AT LARGE NEEDED
Cindy L.-Treasurer
Steve N-Council representative
Pastor

BOARD OF EDUCATION

Candace A., Mary R., Sheryl H.

More from Ekaterinburg

I think Pastor will be beginning the long journey home later tonight.  We here at home are SURE looking forward to having him back! 

Here are some excerpts from a recent email.

"We are having a wonderful time in Ekaterinburg.  We are having a very productive meeting with Sergei Glushkov, who has been working with Good News from the very beginning.  Erik and I were impressed to hear his vision for the future of Good News here in Russia.

Today it is sprinkling some but not so bad that we couldn't tour some of this historic city, including the Church- on -the-blood, built on he spot where the last Czar of Russia (Nicholas II) and his family were shot in 1918."

Pastor in Ekaterinburg

"We flew to ekat. this morning.  an easy uneventful flight, although the ten-year old girl sitting next to me almost puked.
We were met by Pastor Sergei Glushkov at the airport.  We had been warned several times that Glushkov doesn't speak English well and we should speak slowly,  but he's doing great and we are having a good visit.
He said once, "Bishop Lytkin has told me that you have only only had a sandwich and coffee today, so you must be hungry."
"No," we said, "we're fine they gave us lunch on the plane."
A couple of hours later he said, "Konstantin Komarov tells me that maybe you will not be opposed to tasting the local beer."
I said, "that's true."
It is rainy here so we didn't get in the walking tour of the city yet.  but tomorrow will be another day. But at this point in the trip, sight seeing is not the main objective. "

Pastor Koch and Rev. Arp in Lithuania

Here's a picture of Pastor Koch and Pastor Arp on a beach in Lithuania.  Don't you love how Pastor is dressed for the beach??

Surprising Photo from Siberia

OK, this is NOT what I pictured Siberia would look like!  But Pastor said he (or Erik?) took this photo while out on a walk the other day.   Where is all the snow?!?!