A basket of bounty from my greenhouse harvest last week. Life-giving food full of flavor to tickle my tongue, nutrients to sustain my body and a rainbow of colors to delight my eyes. The basket weighed near 10 pounds. I joyfully bore the weight of this basket, giving thanks for every dirt dusted gift in it.
This haul, and the other many baskets of the summer, began from what I could hold in the palm of one hand. These 10 lbs. of tongue tickling, body building, eye delighting bounty started out as about 2 ounces of seeds.
A few weeks ago, Chapel by the Sea started a Fire Relief Fund to help our community recover and rebuild. Though we ALL bore some level of trauma from near misses and evacuation chaos, you planted seeds to help neighbors who had lost so much more. First it was a few hundred dollars, then a few thousand. Our friends at Community Presbyterian Church in Yachats sent us $5000 they had received for fire relief. To date over $10,000 have been raised.
Some of those seeds have already been planted and have grown to impact nearly 100 hundred households. Gas cards, hand tools for clean-up, propane for cook stoves, household goods, supplies for a huge volunteer clean-up effort. More seeds are being prepared to plant, as the Missions Committee partners with several families directly. As they rebuild, we will stand with them in the long months ahead, with prayer, encouragement and funds.
Tiny seed plantings lead to giant harvests. A few dollars given lead to lives changed. It is the way the Kingdom of God works. I know you have many choices for how to spend your dollars, many good choices. I ask you to invest in planting them in the mission and ministry of Jesus, through Chapel by the Sea. This year we have experienced pandemics, fires, deaths, births, illness, ZOOM, Facebook, laughter, play, preaching and prayer. Through it all, God has been faithful and present, lives have been changed, the gospel shared, hope given wings.
2021 is still a mystery to us, but like a hopeful gardener, I ask that when you receive your pledge card, you think of it as a seed packet. Decide how many seeds you will help plant in the world for Jesus ~ both in the money you give and in the time that you offer; then pray that the bounty of the Master Gardner will be more than we can carry in any basket!
Blessings,
Wendy Olson
NOVEMBER BIRTHDAYS
Nancy Seyfert – November 2 David Bosnjak – November 23
Jim Irwin – November 3 Janis Severson – November 26
Adele Hamilton – November 15 Jack Phillips – November 27
Ben Shuford – November 19
John Elliott – November
BOOK CLUB
Book club meets on November 12, 2020 at 1:00 at the church. This months book is The Oracle by Jonathan Cahn presented by Roberta Porter.
Jonathan Cahn, author of the New York Times best sellers The Harbinger, The Mystery of the Shemitah, The Book of Mysteries, and The Paradigm, now unveils The Oracle, in which he opens up the Jubilean mysteries and a revelation so big that it lies behind everything from the rise and fall of nations and empires (even America), to the current events of our day, to the future, to end-time prophecy, and much more.
- Could an ancient prophecy and a mysterious ordinance given in a Middle Eastern desert over three thousand years ago be determining the events of our day?
- Could some of the most famous people of modern history and current events be secretly linked to this mystery-even a modern president of the United States?
- Could this ancient revelation pinpoint the events of our times down to the year, month, and day of their occurring?
- Could a mysterious phenomenon be manifesting on the world stage on an exact timetable determined from ancient times?
- Could these manifestations have altered-and now be altering-the course of world events?
Jonathan Cahn takes the reader on a journey to find the man called the Oracle. One by one each of the Jubilean mysteries will be revealed through the giving of a vision. The Oracle will uncover the mysteries of The Stranger, The Lost City, The Man With the Measuring Line, The Land of Seven Wells, The Birds, The Number of the End, The Man in the Black Robe, The Prophet’s Song, The Matrix of Years, The Day of the Lions, The Awakening of the Dragon, and much more.
The reader will discover the ancient scrolls that contain the appointed words that have determined the course of world history from the onset of modern times up to our day. The revelation is so big that it will involve and open up the mysteries of everything and everyone from Mark Twain to Moses, from King Nebuchadnezzar to Donald Trump, from the fall of empires to the rise of America, from a mystery hidden in a desert cave to another in an ancient scroll, from the palace of the Persian Empire to the US Senate, from the Summer of Love to the Code of Babylon, and much, much more.
Ultimately the Oracle will reveal the secret that lies behind end-time prophecy and the mystery of the end of the age.
As with The Harbinger and The Book of Mysteries, Cahn reveals the mysteries through a narrative. A traveler is given seven keys; each will open up one of seven doors. Behind each door lies a stream of mysteries. The reader will be taken on a journey of angels and prophetic revelations waiting to be discovered behind each of the seven doors-the ancient secrets that lie behind the world-changing events of modern times-and revelations of what is yet to come.
Hailed as a mind-blowing masterpiece, The Oracle will reveal mysteries that are absolutely real, amazing, stunning, mind-blowing, and life-changing.
We wish to thank the congregation for the wonderful gift given to us in honor of Pastor Appreciation month. The card is beautiful, and the gift certificate to the Wild Flower Café is perfect, but what means the most to us is your love and support.
You were all so good at keeping the surprise, that when Mark was called up at the end of worship, he had no idea what it was for! We are truly blessed to minister with you at Chapel by the Sea. November 1, marks three years with you and we give thanks for every day of those years and are eager for all the years ahead.
Thank you and bless you,
Mark and Wendy
DEACONS
Chapel by the Sea is partnering with our neighbor, Head Start, to reach out to Head Start families affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Breadwinners have lost jobs or have hours cut, parents are needed at home as children are now attending school on-line making it hard or impossible to hold a job. Head Start provided Deacons names of 4 families they felt could use a helping hand.
Through the generosity of the congregation the Deacons have funds available to help these families with gas, food, rent, car repair and other needs.
God is at work in Lincoln City.
Melissa
