Volume XLXIII                                                     July 2009                                                        Number 7

A Message from the Minister –

At five minutes and six seconds after 4 AM on the 8^th of July, the time and date will be 04:05:06:07:08:09.  You don’t suppose the end times could be right around the corner—again.  Numerologically speaking it does seem to represent a significant moment.  But let’s put things in proper perspective.  The moment in question is only remarkable on the Gregorian Calendar which we use in the West.  It is just another moment on the Chinese calendar, which is used by the most populous nation on earth.  The same could be said for those who use the Islamic Calendar or the Hebrew Calendar or the Indian Calendar or any of the 40 calendars currently in use today (not to mention the many others, like the Julian Calendar, which are extinct but still relevant). 

     Here’s another set of fun facts.  The middle chapter of the Bible is Psalm 118.  The longest Chapter of the Bible is Psalm 119.  The shortest chapter of the Bible is Psalm 117.  How many chapters exist before Psalm 118?  594.  How many chapters of the Bible exist after Psalm 118?  594.  Add the two together and you get 1188.  What is the verse at the very center of the Bible?  Psalm 118:8 "It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man.”   Interesting huh, unless you are using the Hebrew Bible in which case the numbers do not add up.  The same goes if you are using the Catholic Bible, which includes Apocryphal books not found in the Protestant Bible.  Indeed there are some experts who have calculated Chapter 117 as the central chapter of the King James Version while determining that there can be no central verse given the even number of verses in the King James translation.

     Is nothing sacred?  Is nothing special unless it is on MY calendar or in MY Bible?  I suppose we could come to that conclusion, but we might come to another one entirely.  The first day I met the Dean of my seminary (a gentleman who was later to become a beloved mentor) he inquired about my denominational connection.  “What are you?”, he asked.  Coming from a nondenominational background I responded, “I am a nothing.”  He said, “You can’t be a nothing.  You’ve got to be a something.”  So I said, “Then I am an everything.”  Every expression of faith points to God.  Every moment is a precious gift from God.  Every text of scripture communicates a timely and relevant Word from God to us. 

     Million Year Mind is a CD by Peter Mayer which includes a song entitled: Holy Now.  I close with some of its lyrics.

Wine from water is not so small
But an even better magic trick
Is that anything is here at all
So the challenging thing becomes
Not to look for miracles
But finding where there isn’t one

More Than A Landmark.  -Bill

VOA Food Pantry Needs – This month the VOA Food Pantry needs canned potatoes, Tuna Helper, pasta, egg noodles and rice.  Your generosity, as usual, is very much appreciated.

THANK YOU TO OUR NEW HABITAT LUNCH COORDINATORS – Rebecca Bliss is the new CIA Habitat Lunch Coordinator, assisted by Martha Wagner.  These two ladies will manage the lunch service to the volunteer workers of Habitat for Humanity when our church is scheduled to serve.

   Our church is a Covenant Church with Habitat for Humanity of Portage County.  Many of you have volunteered to prepare and serve food for lunches and some of you have volunteered to work on the houses.  Habitat needs volunteer workers especially during the summer when the students from Kent State Habitat Chapter and students from NEOUCOM are gone for the summer break.

   May I encourage you to prayerfully think about what you can do for Habitat for Humanity of Portage County this summer?  Volunteers will be working on the two new house starts in Atwater, Ohio.  Martha and Tim Wagner will be delivering and serving lunch prepared by volunteers from our church on June 27, 2009.  The next time The Church in Aurora is scheduled for lunch will be in October.

Each of us is blessed by God to be a blessing to others!           Thank you, Margi McDonald

Congratulations to Steven and Jodi Spinelli and big brother Billy Spinelli on the birth of Carmella Rose, born Tuesday, May 19, at 5:15 a.m. 7lbs. 0oz. 20 inches long.

 Please keep saving your used cell phones and ink cartridges ALL YEAR, as this is an on-going Workcamp project.  The collection basket is on the desk near the Nursery in the Great Hall.

Congratulations to Charlie Poe and Jake Ticer, our 2009 The Church in Aurora Barkett Memorial Scholarship recipients.

Pray for our Workcampers – Please keep our Workcamp Crews in your prayers this month and next as 27 of them are working in Erie, PA, June 21-26 and 29 will travel to Clare, MI, July 19-26. Thank you for your generous support which has helped make our mission trips possible and is allowing us to help others!

Congratulations to our High School Graduates!!!

Emma Cummins is graduating with honors from Aurora High School and has received academic awards for CP English 11, Honors Pre-Calculus and Accounting.  In addition, she has received awards in Band as well as varsity letter in Softball.  Emma was awarded the Paul Newman’s Own Scholarship for Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where she will be attending next fall.   She plans on pursuing a Chemistry or Biology degree with a focus on pre-med.  She wishes to become a pediatrician or general practitioner one day.

Jake Ticer will be graduating Cum Laude from Aurora High School.  He is also an Honors Diploma recipient.  Jake was active in theater with plays including “Grease” and “Bye Bye Birdie”.  He also participates in the church choir and hand bells.  He plans on attending Ohio University to pursue a degree in physics. 

Rebecca Ramsey Shaw will be graduating from O’Connor High School in Helotes, Texas.  She was captain of the Pep Squad, track manager and the Angels baseball team coordinator.  She is very active in her church by volunteering for nursery care, VBS, and mission trips.  She will be attending West Texas A&M in Canyon, Texas to pursue a Biology degree with emphasis on Athletic Training.  She hopes to continue her education at Ohio State University to focus on orthopedic surgery.  She is the granddaughter of Dick Shaw.

Kim Silla is graduating from Kenston where she played and lettered in Soccer and was a member of the Kenston Krazies.  She was on the Honor and Merit Roles and will be attending Ohio University majoring in Early Childhood Education.

Andrew Wallace is a Graduate of Aurora High School.  He was the pitcher for the 2009 CVC Champion Varsity Baseball Team as well as 2^nd year letter.  He was named in the National Honor Society and was involved in our church Workcamp.  He is an Honors Diploma Recipient and an Academic Award Recipient.  He will attend Purdue University in the fall and major in Biology. 

Jessica Cohen graduated from Aurora High School where she was on the swim team for four years, a member of the debate club, as well as reporter and news editor of the high school newspaper.   She was the People to People student ambassador from 2007 to present.  Her honors and awards include, varsity letter all four years, MVP for three years and the Captain’s award.  She was on the honor and high honor roll for four years, CVC All-Academic and CVC Honorable Mention.  She will be attending Ohio University majoring in Public Relations minoring in Spanish.  She wants to be an editor someday.

Church Camp – This year’s camp will run from August 2 through 8 for youth entering 6^th grade through entering college.  All the details plus registration forms for both campers and staff can be found at: www.sfacamp.org.  There you will also find plenty of descriptive material, photos, videos, and more.  If you need more information than that, contact Rev. Schnell (330/562-8266).

The prayers, cards, and thoughts sent to us at the death of our great-grandson, Hayden, made the deep sorrow bearable.  Thank you for your kindness.                           Ingrid and Mike Cuppage

The CARE TEAM is available for those who need meals during a time of recovery or a ride to an appointment or someone to pick up prescriptions or just a friendly visit.  If they could help you, call Pat Way at 330-673-7917 or Rita Suchanek at 330-562-3273 or 216-570-9808!

BICENTENNIAL BITS

Limited Edition T-shirts – Pre-ordered shirts will be available for delivery before July 4.  Open stock still available while supplies last at $12 each.

Congregational Photograph – a 5X7 full color photo can be ordered at a cost of $5.

2009 Christmas Ornament – This beautiful keepsake ornament featuring the church’s Bicentennial logo can be ordered at a cost of $15.

July 4 Festivities – Kick off the Bicentennial after the parade with an ice cream social under the tent!  The Gospel Echoes Quartet will entertain and the church will be open for tours, cold water and restroom facilities.

July 5 – Join us for a special community service at 10 a.m. where our own Chancel Choir will perform moving patriotic music.  All are welcome.

Unconditional – It is hard to find anything that is unconditional.  Everything seems to have strings attached to it.  Yet God’s love is unconditional—we don’t have to earn it or achieve anything to receive it.  At times, however, we can feel quite removed from God’s unconditional love.  We can feel guilty, undeserving or downright “unlovable.”  At those times Stephen Ministers can help.  They are trained to listen and care in a nonjudgmental way, focusing on letting Christ’s unconditional love flow through them and into the life of their care receiver.  If you or someone you know has been struggling with guilt or feeling unlovable and would like to learn more about Stephen Ministry, please contact Russ Post (330/562-9789) or Susan Kray (330/562-1344

CHURCH LIBRARY – Our summer reading program this year is to catch up on all of our series.  We just got a new "Miss Julia" book and already she's back in yet another one, Miss Julia Delivers the Goods.  Will Hazel Marie leave town and take Little Lloyd with her?  Not if Miss Julia can help it.

    If you knit, you'll want to read the new series "The Friday Night Knitting Club."  That's also the title of the first book, and Knit Two is the second one just out.  I don't knit at all, but that won't keep me from reading this new series about a group of women and how they not only become close friends, but help each other with daily problems.

    The "Blossom Street" series by Debbie Macomber is another favorite.  The newest book, Twenty Wishes, is about a group of friends and even a little girl who each makes a list of 20 things they had always wanted to do but didn't.  These wishes did come true, but not always in the way that they had expected.

    Other new books in our library are Michael J. Fox's, Always Looking Up,  Dr. Laura Schlessinger's, In Praise of Stay-at-home Moms,  and Flyaway, Susie Gilbert's story of her bird rehabilitation efforts.

Congratulations to our college graduates!!

Sam Chapman graduated with honors from Colorado College with a degree in economics.

Allison Dean graduated from Elon University in Elon, North Carolina, with a BA in human services and a minor in Sociology.  She is a member of the sorority, Alpha Chi Omega.  Next year she will be doing a year of service through an Americorps program called City Year in San Antonio.

Brett Humbert graduated from the Ohio State University with a degree in Communications.  He’s moving back home while searching for a full time job in a related field.

Paul Jaeger graduated from the University of Cincinnati with a degree in Electronic Media.  He minored in Business.  This summer Paul will be working for Aggressive Sound, the company that does the production work for Rockin’ on the River.  So if you attend any of those concerts, you’ll probably see him there.

Mary Schnell is graduating from Ohio University with a major in English.  She’s going back next fall to do her student teaching and wants to teach English at the high school level.  Mary made the deans list this spring.

Ryan Teller graduated from the University of Michigan with a BS in Biomedical Engineering.  He will be attending the University of Utah in the fall as a graduate student in Bioengineering.  He received the College of Engineering Wayne Brown Fellowship as part of his support.

Molly Weaver graduated from the University of Michigan’s Taubman School of Architecture and Urban Planning with a major in Architecture.  As anyone who knows the curriculum for architecture knows, she worked her tail off, and graduated with a very high GPA – her father thought it was a 3.8!  Molly is engaged to Luke Werhan and will be getting married in Italy this summer.

Ryan Wilk graduated from Mount Union College with a degree in Sports Business.  He was the kicker for the national championship Mount Union football team.  Ryan started working for Wells Fargo in mentor on June 1.

AUDIO CD’S of the Sunday services are available in the library in the top drawer of the cherry chest to the right of the door.  If you would like to purchase a CD, contact Phil Ticer at 330-995-9318.

Special Thank You – Since 1995 the Missions Committee has supported the programs of the Wycliffe Bible Translators, an agency dedicated to translating the Bible into every living language in the world.  Most recently, we have supported the Ramirez family in their translation work in Guatemala, and throughout the years they have visited The Church in Aurora to provide information on their program.  Each translator/ family must provide funding/support on their own for their project.  We received the following thank you note from Beth Ramirez:

On Sat, 5/23/09, Beth Ramirez <boris_ramirez@sil.org> wrote:

From: Beth Ramirez <boris_ramirez@sil.org>
Subject: Re: Stirrings from the Pokomchi Cooking Pot
To: "Cindy Hollo" <tweetyhollo@yahoo.com>
Date: Saturday, May 23, 2009, 12:32 AM

Hello, Cindy.

Thanks so much for your note.  It was incredible! The Lord is amazing, really.  Last month we decided to go ahead and start working on redoing our 35-year old main bathroom, which had ancient fixtures, molding tile and some irksome water issues.  Boris and I always make decisions like these in faith, since we don't receive a fixed salary from Wycliffe, and must live on whatever God sends us through His people.  The day before we had to pay "don Salomon," the local plumber who is expertly overseeing the reconstruction effort, we were at the end of our budget, but we were petitioning the Lord to provide for our needs. Then our Wycliffe statement came through--there was your additional $1800, just in time!  I have to confess that when I saw it, I dropped to my knees in gratitude to the Father.  We could go through with the renewal of the bathroom!  It was a tremendous encouragement!

We still are having to heat water in the kettle on our stove to take tiny baths in a dish tub on the floor of our little bathroom, and we attempt to patiently wait our turn, with ten people in our house using that one little bathroom.  It's an exercise in grace.  And it makes us really appreciate the good things--like water from a showerhead--that we took for granted before.

Please express our thanks once again to the Church in Aurora for their timely gift.  In His plan, there was no "error"!

In His joy,

Beth and Boris Ramirez

San Cristobal Verapaz, Guatemala

Behind the Scenes – Stephanie Tutkovics has only been a member of the church for a little over three and half years.  But she has already been a volunteer for Vacation Bible School three times.  Last year she was the Co-Director and Music leader.  And this year she was the VBS Director.  Any of you have been VBS Director in the past know what a big job that is.  She has picked the program, recruited the volunteers, organized all the daily activities, handled registration and publicity and much, much more!  Stephanie and her crew did a great job.  The kids all enjoyed it immensely and the week breezed by (although they may not agree!).  The staff enjoyed our week at the campground!  Thank you, Stephanie, for your willingness to do what was needed to make our church….