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| The Prairie Weekly |
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| March 30, 2008 | March 23, 2008 | March 2, 2008 | February 17, 2008 |
Dorothy and Al C. joined us by way of Sun Valley Church in Beloit where they were long time members. Dorothy was born and raised in Beloit and Al grew up in New Jersey. The two met in Florida during WWII; Al a patient, Dorothy his nurse – and they celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary on Easter Sunday… something that won’t happen on Easter again for a good long time! Al worked for Fairbanks Morse in Beloit until his retirement. They moved to Janesville 18 years ago and built a condo on the east side, which is now a convenient 10 minutes drive to church. They have 3 children: Jane is retired from a job with Rock County as a social worker and winters in Las Vegas to be close to her daughter Cathy. Jackie is a teacher and lives in Rice Lake with two of her three children, Tom and Molly, attend UW-Madison. Johnny is a senior in high school with plans to go into Ministry school after attending Stevens Point. Fred, their third child, lives in Denver.
Rita and Randy may be familiar to many of you as lifelong Janesville residents. Rita was born and raised in Sheboygan and attended college at UW-Madison where she majored in social work. Randy attended Michigan State, majoring in Horticulture and Business before returning to Janesville to join his parents at owners of Janesville Floral. Governor Thompson appointed Randy to finish a vacant term as Register of Deeds in 1996 and he has gone on to win re-election 6 times to 2-year terms of office. Rita works for Rock County Human Services as an adult family home placement coordinator and supervisor for disabled adult placement in foster homes; a job she describes as different every day and rewarding. Rita and Randy met at Janesville Floral when he came to buy some flowers. They have celebrated 31 years of marriage! They have a daughter, Amanda, 25 (more on her to come) and a yellow lab Maddie who is 8. Randy’s passions include hunting and fishing (Maddie joins in pheasant hunting with him). Rita is a Lunch Buddy program volunteer at Van Buren School and a member of the Janesville Home and Garden Club.
Help welcome our new members to the Church on the Prairie and introduce yourself when you see them!
A huge blizzard on Ash Wednesday, a snowstorm on Good Friday, a nice punch of afternoon snow on Easter Sunday…a winter that just does not want to step aside. Combined with an amazingly early Easter (based on the cycles of the moon), we have had a very cold non-spring so far. But so far is almost done. Patches of green were seen last week and robins in parkas have been hanging around the better coffee shops sipping latte and waiting.
Ironically, the ones whose livelihood is directly connected to the weather seem to me to be the ones who are not commenting on it; our farm families. Most everything in farming eventually settles on weather and they are the ones who are just biding their time. Somehow the cycle will continue, the planters will get dragged to the field and the seed will go into the ground.
That seed in our church came through the message this past Sunday: Jesus Christ is alive! That is our seed that we recall every year in this great cycle of the Church calendar. It is now the Easter season that we will move through until we arrive at Pentecost on May 11th. Let the rich seed of the season take root in your hearts while we await the same for the priaire on which we worship. Christ is Risen; He is Risen indeed!
Katrina ripped through the Mississippi and Louisiana Gulf coast areas three years ago . . . three years, and the devastation is still vastly apparent.
We responded. We sent work teams down in 2006 (cleanup), 2007 (building a house for the Collins family), and this spring (working on a dozen of 17 new houses in a project for the Mississippi Presbytery).
And we likely will go back next year, says Mike, coordinator of our effort. The core group wants to return at least two more years to complete work planned by Westminster Presbyterian Church, the church that has hosted our groups these three years.
There is some money in the bank for next year. Additionally, our Men’s Breakfast Group will split the income from this morning’s Easter breakfast between Youth Caravan and Katrina.
Please contact the church main office to get more information on how those serving our country are doing. The names of the service members and their unit and/or locations will not be posted on the internet for security reasons. Thank you for supporting our armed forces.
Easter basketsLast year, our Sunday schools kids prepared 50 Easter baskets for distribution in Janesville by the Salvation Army. This year it was 84 baskets and 15 gift baskets, Christian Education committee chair Katie announced last Sunday.
It’s all about spring. Easter, the ever-prolific bunny, colored eggs, and the joyful squeal of kids.
Or is it?
The path to Golgotha we have walked together the past six weeks has been a good and sobering trip, not so much an understanding, but a participation in the events that led up to this morning.
Jesus spent a long time moving up to Jerusalem, teaching and healing as he went. He entered Jerusalem a week ago to the adoration of the crowd. And then, just a few days after that great event, he stood before a kangaroo court in the middle of the night and was sentence to death. The hand of Rome carried out his death, but it was ordered by the religious leaders of the day.
Today something wonderful happens. God set aside the natural process of the seasons and reached down to lift his beloved son from the dead. This is not about the rite of spring – it is still Easter in New Zealand – it is about God who loved the world so much that he sent his only Son . . .
One important part of our weekly worship service is the time of prayer when we come along side one another in prayer and Pastor Jamie asks us all to lift up the needs, concerns, and joys of others in our morning prayers. Requests for including specific prayers during the service can be added by asking through the church office or Pastor Jamie.
In addition to Sunday services, a weekly Prayer Group is held here at Rock Prairie every Thursday at 10:00 a.m. and all are welcome to come be a part of this prayer group. Prayer requests can also be added via our web site: www.rockprairie.presbychurch.net.
Behind the scenes, we have a Prayer Chain in place that continues the long standing practice of Rock Prairie members ‘taking good care of one another’. There are 3 prayer chains- 2 phone chains that work exactly as you’d suspect, and an email chain for those who prefer to use technology and the speed of the internet to pass on prayer requests.
The prayer chains can be activated by contacting the Church office (or Pastor Jamie). You should have the permission of the person needing prayer support but the chains are strictly confidential. The head of the chain calls the second person in line and passes on the name of the person to be lifted up in prayer, and the second person contacts the third, etc, until the entire chain has united all members on behalf of the needs of others. One member equates the praying link as a tool for multiple lines to God and one way to remind ourselves that you are never alone at Rock Prairie. If you would like the prayer chain continued during an extended period of trouble or need just ask. Our prayer chain ministry may operate quietly behind the Sunday scenes of our Church, but the support and the comfort of the healing peace of prayer is always available.
As our Katrina Mission volunteers return from Gulfport, Mississippi, let’s keep them in our hearts and prayers with gratitude for the work they accomplished to rebuild structures, lives, and hope for the future.
| C = Y/100, N = Y - 19*(Y/19), K = C - 17)/25, I = C - C/4 - C - K)/3 + 19*N + 15, I = I - 30*(I/30), I = I - (I/28)*(I - (I/28)*(29/(I + I))*((21 - N)/11)), J = Y + Y/4 + I + 2 - C + C/4, J = J - 7*(J/7), L = I - J, M = 3 + (L + 40)/44, D = L + 28 - 31*(M/4). |
This is what can happen if you ask the question “When is Easter?” It can lead you to this algorithm (Oudin, 1940) which can be used to compute the date of Easter in a Gregorian calendar year. If this leaves you scratching your head, as it did me, here is a simpler answer: Easter Sunday is the first Sunday after the full moon after vernal equinox. The official vernal equinox is always March 21st. |
If you’d rather use the first algorithm above to figure out the date Easter will fall on next year, let the rest of us know how it turns out!
A zillion below windchill tugging at my old Swedish two-door, I slid into the YMCA parking lot and pulled a frozen swim suit out of my gym bag and worked my way down to the adult lap pool. Chatting with the lifeguard before slipping beneath the chilly waves I commented on the weather, of course. She had just moved here a few months ago from San Diego having run an aquatics center there. “Bet you wish you hadn’t left California?! Eh?” I offered so very intelligently.
“Actually this isn’t bad, last year I was out of my house; unable to return to our neighborhood for 2 ½ weeks due to wildfire smoke” she responded.
“California Dreaming’ by the Mommas & the Pappas spun through my head as I flipped my turns, back and forth in that old pool. We sit and pine for sunny Florida, Arizona and California as we muddle our way through a really tough winter, but the sunshine lures us without recognition of the other factors that are part of living in these areas. Tornadoes, hurricanes, mudslides, forest fires are a few of the natural disasters as generally do not see a lot of. It seems like the grass is always greener on the other side, or at least I heard a rumor that the grass is still out there under the snow.
Hunkered down here in the cold we are sending team after team to Mississippi, continuing the rebuilding work of Katrina storm of 05. We continue to worship, pray, meet, plan and do the work of God on this frozen prairie. I guess that God needs to nudge me time and time again with a bit of patience as I await those first signs that these glorious seasons will change again....
We are blessed to be able to share in Communion today during this time of Lent. Rock Prairie has a Communion committee of 12 and they take turns each month with preparation. Several months ago Margaret saw a need to bring Communion to our shut-in members. You may notice a small box of elements on our Communion Table, currently every other month, which are blessed during our Church service. The following day, Pastor Jamie and 2 Deacon representatives take the elements to our shut-ins and administer Communion. She hopes it will evolve to visits every month as more Deacons and members of the Session are involved. If you know someone who is unable to attend Church services on the first of the month, you can let Margaret or Pastor Jamie know and they will add them to the visitation list.
Teresa Huber, who so generously shares her considerable culinary gifts with our congregation at the Soup, Sandwich & Study on Thursday nights, offers this delicious and easy way to nourish ourselves as we wait for warmer weather.
Cover diced potatoes with water and bring to a boil. Cook until fork tender and drain. Cook diced onions with butter in a microwave until tender, approximately 5 minutes- watch carefully so they don’t burn. Return potatoes to the pot, add onions and butter, and add enough milk to cover potatoes. Heat, and mash to the consistency you want, adding more milk if needed. Add 1 lb shredded Cheddar Cheese and heat over medium low heat. Season to taste, serve, and enjoy!
Serves 6
We commissioned two work teams this morning who will go to the Gulfport, Mississippi, area and help build 17 houses for Katrina victims.
This is the third year we’ve sent work teams south.
Twelve of the 17 houses ours and other work teams will build in this project for the Mississippi Presbytery are in various stages of construction, so our teams may be putting up stud walls, building roofs, finishing interior walls, hanging lights or installing kitchen sinks – whatever the site coordinator calls for on the days our teams are there.
The teams will meet the families who are waiting for the houses to be finished because most live on the building sites in FEMA trailers.
There is a cost for sending our teams south. The Mississippi Presbytery requires a contribution of $100 for each worker for the materials they use on the projects.
“We have money for that in our Katrina fund,” Mike Williams says, the leader of our first team. “We have $5,000. Twelve hundred of that came to us in a grant from the Milwaukee Presbytery and $500 as a gift from the Venable family. My hope is that we will have some money left for seed money for next year.”
Does that mean we will be sending work teams south in 2009? Very likely. To date, only 10,000 of the 75,000 homes Katrina destroyed have been rebuilt, Mike says.
The first team departs on Saturday and will drive home on the weekend of March 1-2. The second team goes down in March, during spring break for the Janesville and Milton schools. They will depart on March 15 and return the following Saturday, March 22, so they will be here for Easter. Bob leads the second team. Its numbers may increase because he’s still accepting signups.
Going on the road? Traveling? You can keep up on the news from your church while you are away. You can get The Prairie Weekly by email. Let Administrative Assistant know you will be traveling, and every Monday morning she will email The Prairie Weekly to you. You also can go online to our website. Click on Prairie Weekly and the latest issue, plus the three previous issues, will open up on your screen. If you would rather have a hard copy to read, you can download a PDF file of the latest issue and print it out. Both options are there for you at www.rockprairie.presbychurch.net
They have spent more time here at church recently than I have it seems...who are they?
The McNalls.
Actually they do not come in the building. They hang out in the parking lot, driving their plow trucks back and forth. Many mornings I get up at 5:30 to the sound of the scraping blade and the chug of the diesels pushing snow. I look out my bathroom window and see the truck running lights pushing snow, always north, back and forth. It resembles vehicular ballet, back and forth, in and out of each other’s paths using their mirrors, hand signals and a lot of years of working together on the snow.
This year more than ever in the past nearly 30 years they push snow. Bill, Jake, Sarah, Jackie and sometimes Marie run the trucks, clear the driveways, the lot and the manse drive...then they pull out shovels and clear the walks. On those rare storms where the blade can push no more, Bill calls Bill Moore and he comes down the road in his big blue loader, pushing and scooping.
We come here for meetings, for worship, for work and the lot is cleared...thanks to those who work above and beyond to keep this place moving forward. So many here put in time and energy above and beyond the call, but this time of year I offer to these a special thanks.
Sunset Circle’s bake sale last Sunday raised $367.44. The Circle gave the money to the homeless shelter program for men run by a confederation of Janesville churches.
We launched our weekly series of Lenten soup suppers and studies last Thursday. We serve up soup and bread at 6 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall, then study and pray together, and adjourn at 7:00.
Do you have news for The Prairie Weekly? You can get it to us in any one of several ways. (1) Leave a note with the details on the administrative assistant’s desk in the office, (2) call it in to the office, or (3) tell or email any one of the following people: Lynn Wood, Ed Stried or Jerry Peterson with the story.
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