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District News & Announcements – June 2023

District News & Announcements

June 2023

 “District News and Announcements” is a monthly e-newsletter for members and friends of the Church of the Brethren in the Northern Plains District.  District Leaders, Commissions, Committees, and those doing special ministries share information on programs and activities.  Local churches share news and invitations. 

 Send submissions by June 24th for inclusion in next month’s newsletter to:
Hannah Button-Harrison, Director of Communications 
communications@nplains.org

In this issue

Quick info

Banner photo: Hard-working volunteers hang out while building the new deck at Camp Pine Lake.  Photo by Betsy Kuecker.  Send in your photos for future newsletters!  Email communications@nplains.org.

Holiness in our Midst: Session 129

SESSION CXXIX: ON ‘DREAMS FULFILLED’

Story Circle Prompt: Share a story about a dream fulfilled.

Because I have a fondness for live musical theater, a reverence for Africa and a penchant for wild creativity, seeing a production of The Lion King with Broadway actors has long been at the top of my “Bucket List,” aka as my “Things to Do Before I Die” list. On April 16, 2023, with help from friends new and old, I checked off this wish. 

As I relive my dream come true, I realize the magic was not just in the show at the Civic Center in Des Moines, though there was plenty with “elephants” suddenly emerging from aisles and actors swinging from rafters—all moving to the constant beat of African drums. A good share of the lasting beauty was that I was accompanied on my journey. Because I am a bona fide fraidy cat driving interstates by myself in rain and snow, and especially navigating downtown Des Moines at night, friends gladly stepped in to provide meals (Italian pasta) and snacks (homemade chocolate chip cookies), transportation (curbside service), and lodging (a cozy bed) for this adventure of a lifetime. There was even a Lion King poster, deluxe booklet, and backpack waiting for me in my seat at the theater! In asking for some assistance, I received abundantly. A simple wish, stated out loud, became a spiritual experience. (I am, of course, available to make my friends’ dreams come to fruition.) I am still humming the theme song, “Circle of Life,” as I dream new dreams. Do you have a story of a dream fulfilled?

FOR PERSONAL/JOURNAL REFLECTION:

  1. Read the above reflection. In your journal, answer the following: What is one thing you would like to do, see, or experience in your lifetime? What is the first step you can take to make this dream come true?

FOR GROUP STUDY: 

  1.  Read aloud Session CXXIX.
  2.  Ask each person to answer the Story Circle Prompt.

Holiness in Our Midst: Sharing Our Stories to Encourage and Heal is a monthly on-line feature created by Janis Pyle to facilitate sharing of our personal experiences, thoughts, beliefs, and spiritual practices with one another, especially through stories. Barriers are broken down when we begin to see all persons, even those with whom we disagree ideologically, as sacred and constantly attended to by a loving Creator. Each column is accompanied by a “story circle” prompt and study guides for personal and group reflection. To share your stories, contact Hannah Button-Harrison at communications@nplains.org. Janis Pyle can be reached at janispyle@yahoo.com

District News & Announcements – May 2023

District News & Announcements

May 2023

 “District News and Announcements” is a monthly e-newsletter for members and friends of the Church of the Brethren in the Northern Plains District.  District Leaders, Commissions, Committees, and those doing special ministries share information on programs and activities.  Local churches share news and invitations. 

 Send submissions by May 25th for inclusion in next month’s newsletter to:
Hannah Button-Harrison, Director of Communications 
communications@nplains.org

In this issue

Quick info

Banner photo: Beautiful flowering crabapple trees in full bloom at the Church of the Brethren at Ankeny.  Photos by Barbara Wise Lewczak.  Send in your photos for future newsletters!  Email communications@nplains.org.

Holiness in our Midst: Session 128

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SESSION CXXVIII: ON ‘A GIFT TO MOTHER NATURE’

Story Circle Prompt: What gift would you give Mother Nature for Mother’s Day?

Viewers were asked to respond to this evocative question on a Weather Channel program on the Monday after Mother’s Day, 2022. My answer has an immediate quality, given that today (April 27, 2023) the Mississippi River is overflowing its banks in several picturesque Iowa cities, including Burlington, where I spent two transformational high school years. Mother Nature seems in peril! If I had a magic wand to grant her three wishes, I would immediately declare every day to be Earth Day. Secondly, I would invite every country to take climate change seriously and, thirdly, I would empower individuals to be good stewards in their daily lives. My personal gift to Mother Nature this year is to be more conscious of the waste I generate, especially the number of plastic grocery bags and amount of packaging materials. What would you like to give back to Mother Nature?

FOR PERSONAL/JOURNAL REFLECTION:

  1. Read the above reflection. In your journal, answer the following: What do you believe to be Earth’s most pressing issue today? How can you address it?

FOR GROUP STUDY: 

  1.  Read aloud Session CXXVIII.
  2.  Ask each person to answer the Story Circle Prompt.

Holiness in Our Midst: Sharing Our Stories to Encourage and Heal is a monthly on-line feature created by Janis Pyle to facilitate sharing of our personal experiences, thoughts, beliefs, and spiritual practices with one another, especially through stories. Barriers are broken down when we begin to see all persons, even those with whom we disagree ideologically, as sacred and constantly attended to by a loving Creator. Each column is accompanied by a “story circle” prompt and study guides for personal and group reflection. To share your stories, contact Hannah Button-Harrison at communications@nplains.org. Janis Pyle can be reached at janispyle@yahoo.com

Disrict News & Announcements – April 2023

District News & Announcements

April 2023

 “District News and Announcements” is a monthly e-newsletter for members and friends of the Church of the Brethren in the Northern Plains District.  District Leaders, Commissions, Committees, and those doing special ministries share information on programs and activities.  Local churches share news and invitations. 

 Send submissions by April 24th for inclusion in next month’s newsletter to:
Hannah Button-Harrison, Director of Communications 
communications@nplains.org

In this issue

Quick info

Banner photo: Rebecca and Samuel Dali became naturalized citizens of the U.S. on March 21, 2023.  Members of Panther Creek COB joined them in Des Moines for the ceremony.  Send in your photos for future newsletters!  Email communications@nplains.org.

Holiness in our Midst: Session 127

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SESSION CXXVII: ON ‘A HAPPY HEART’

Story Circle Prompt: What makes your heart happy?

I happened to find this question, appropriately enough, on a white board in the waiting room of a Des Moines counseling center. The answers that clients wrote were mostly names of pets and close relatives. One person simply wrote “smiles.” 

My current answer would be a newfound source of heart-happiness, that is, choir music! Recently, an event buoyed my spirits for an afternoon and well beyond. I attended the 2023 Spring Choral Concert, a fundraiser for Good Neighbor Emergency Assistance, as a community board member. Our organization offers emergency rent, utility, gas, and food assistance in Story County.

Titled “You Do Not Walk Alone,” the program showcased seven professional community choirs, a combined choir, and one especially assembled (along with an orchestra) to perform the choral masterwork, Requiem, Op. 48, by French composer Gabriel Fauré. On a snowy Sunday afternoon in March, I was not alone in being transported and transformed by heavenly sounds, sweet notes of children and somber tones of the Requiem soloists, that found permanent places in our hearts. What makes your heart happy?

FOR PERSONAL/JOURNAL REFLECTION:

  1. Read the above reflection. In your journal, answer the following: What is the happiest thing that happened to you today? In the past week? In the past month? In the past year? Ever?

FOR GROUP STUDY: 

1.   Read aloud Session CXXVII.
2.   Ask each person to answer the Story Circle Prompt.

Holiness in Our Midst: Sharing Our Stories to Encourage and Heal is a monthly on-line feature created by Janis Pyle to facilitate sharing of our personal experiences, thoughts, beliefs, and spiritual practices with one another, especially through stories. Barriers are broken down when we begin to see all persons, even those with whom we disagree ideologically, as sacred and constantly attended to by a loving Creator. Each column is accompanied by a “story circle” prompt and study guides for personal and group reflection. To share your stories, contact Hannah Button-Harrison at communications@nplains.org. Janis Pyle can be reached at janispyle@yahoo.com

District News & Announcements – March 2023

District News & Announcements

March 2023

 “District News and Announcements” is a monthly e-newsletter for members and friends of the Church of the Brethren in the Northern Plains District.  District Leaders, Commissions, Committees, and those doing special ministries share information on programs and activities.  Local churches share news and invitations. 

 Send submissions by March 25th for inclusion in next month’s newsletter to:
Hannah Button-Harrison, Director of Communications 
communications@nplains.org

In this issue

Quick info

Banner photo: Staff and volunteers prepared and served a free community meal at Camp Pine Lake in February.  Photo by Betsy Kuecker.  Send in your photos for future newsletters!  Email communications@nplains.org.

Holiness in our Midst: Session 126

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SESSION CXXVI: ON ‘ASSIGNMENTS FROM GOD’

Story Circle Prompt: Do you ever feel you are “on assignment from God?” Can you define the entrustment? Or, when have you felt you were meant to be in a certain place or role?

These questions arise from the story of Tyre Nichols, the African American man who was beaten by Memphis police after a traffic stop on Jan. 7, 2023 and died in the hospital three days later. His mother said that the only way that she was able to carry on with her life was to believe that her son was “on assignment from God” in the tragic event. She hoped that “greater good” would come from communities coming together to work for peace in the aftermath of such violence. This mother’s assertion prompts a question worth pondering: Are each of us here “on assignment” from a Higher Power?

To answer for myself, I felt “on assignment” when I moved to the family farm to care for my grandmother during her last days.

I felt “on assignment” when I cared for persons with profound disabilities for many years in residential care settings.

I feel “on assignment” whenever I serve cups of cold water (and hot coffee) to residents at the assisted living center where I work today. 

And I feel “on assignment” whenever I write about seeing “God moments” in everyday life.

I can never know for sure if I have ever been “on Divine task,” but confirmation comes in small sweet ways. The subject was birthdays the other day when I was chatting with a convenience store clerk. We had been co-workers for 10 years in a group home setting. In an offhand way, she said, “You realize you were born to care for persons with disabilities and to write, don’t you?”

“Maybe so,” I said.

FOR PERSONAL/JOURNAL REFLECTION:

  1. Read the above reflection. In your journal, answer the following: Do you feel you are “on assignment” from God? What are you doing when you are most in sync with the Universe?

FOR GROUP STUDY: 

1.   Read aloud Session CXXVI.

2.   Ask each person to answer the Story Circle Prompt.

Holiness in Our Midst: Sharing Our Stories to Encourage and Heal is a monthly on-line feature created by Janis Pyle to facilitate sharing of our personal experiences, thoughts, beliefs, and spiritual practices with one another, especially through stories. Barriers are broken down when we begin to see all persons, even those with whom we disagree ideologically, as sacred and constantly attended to by a loving Creator. Each column is accompanied by a “story circle” prompt and study guides for personal and group reflection. To share your stories, contact Hannah Button-Harrison at communications@nplains.org. Janis Pyle can be reached at janispyle@yahoo.com

District News & Announcements – February 2023

District News & Announcements

February 2023

 “District News and Announcements” is a monthly e-newsletter for members and friends of the Church of the Brethren in the Northern Plains District.  District Leaders, Commissions, Committees, and those doing special ministries share information on programs and activities.  Local churches share news and invitations. 

 Send submissions by February 22nd for inclusion in next month’s newsletter to:
Hannah Button-Harrison, Director of Communications 
communications@nplains.org

In this issue

Quick info

Banner photo: A snowy scene at Hammond Avenue Brethren Church.  Photo by Rich Corkery.  Send in your photos for future newsletters!  Email communications@nplains.org.

Holiness in our Midst: Session 125

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SESSION CXXV: ON ‘NEAR DEATH’ EXPERIENCES

Story Circle Prompt: If you knew you might only have a short time to live, what would you do differently now?

First, another question: Where were you on Jan. 2, 2023, when America stopped and dropped to its knees on behalf of a single unresponsive NFL player? I was wandering around my living room, having taken in the Rose Parade earlier (on Monday because they don’t hold it on Sunday), and wondering what football games were on. I turned on Monday Night Football and stumbled on the riveting scene unfolding in a game between the Buffalo Bills and the Cleveland Bengals. Damron Hamlin, wide receiver for Buffalo, was fighting for his life right in front of our eyes. The next evening Hamlin’s fate was still unknown when CNN anchor Anderson Cooper was interviewing Super Bowl-winning tight end Benjamin Watson on the tenuousness of life. Cooper paused and tossed out the rhetorical question, as an aside to their conversation on the importance of faith: If you knew you might only have a short time to live, what would you do differently now?

The essence of the question is spiritual in nature: Has a “near death” experience changed the course of your life? 

The first thing that Hamlin did, upon awakening, was begin collecting money for the nurses and first responders who saved his life.

For me, recovery from cancer resulted in a renewed vow to live each day more fully, faithfully, and honestly.

How have you responded to a “near death” encounter, real or vicarious?

FOR PERSONAL/JOURNAL REFLECTION:

  1. Read the above reflection. In your journal, answer the following: Have you had a life-altering experience that caused you to make changes? What was the event? What were the changes? 

FOR GROUP STUDY: 

 1.   Read aloud Session CXXV.

  2.   Ask each person to answer the Story Circle Prompt.

Holiness in Our Midst: Sharing Our Stories to Encourage and Heal is a monthly on-line feature created by Janis Pyle to facilitate sharing of our personal experiences, thoughts, beliefs, and spiritual practices with one another, especially through stories. Barriers are broken down when we begin to see all persons, even those with whom we disagree ideologically, as sacred and constantly attended to by a loving Creator. Each column is accompanied by a “story circle” prompt and study guides for personal and group reflection. To share your stories, contact Hannah Button-Harrison at communications@nplains.org. Janis Pyle can be reached at janispyle@yahoo.com