January 28 – February 3

MISSION ROAD CONGREGATION EVENTS AND PROJECTS

ADULT CLASS DISCUSSES THE EPISTLES OF PAUL

The Adult Sunday School class will continue the study of the epistles of Paul next Sunday at 9:15 AM in the Church Library. Paul Bennetts will be teaching.

VOLUNTEER POSITION AVAILABLE IN MMC

Responsibilities for the “Mission Center Support Specialist” include:

• Offer planning support to camp directors

• Serve on MC Youth Ministry Council

• Address Active Network questions

• Other duties as assigned

Some reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses (e.g. mileage, relevant training, required utilities) may be available. Anyone who is interested can please send a resume and letter of interest to the Presidents at presidentteam by January 31, 2018.

WHAT IS TWIST?

Youth from all over the mission center have been gathering together during quarterly TWIST weekends. Although these events have a lot of time built in for fun and socializing, the main goal of their time together is Teens Working In Service Together.

This means that Saturday is a day of service. They either help the congregational members from the church where they are staying or move into the community to volunteer locally. Everyone comes away from the experience touched in one way or another.

WOMEN’S RETREAT: DIVINE FEMININE

Immersing ourselves in the nurturing and comforting Spirit of God, March 2 – 4 @ Camp Doniphan.

Ladies age 14 and older are welcome to join Apostle Janné Grover and explore God in a feminine sense. The $100 cost covers food, bedding, towels and accommodations in the main lodge. Registration starts at 6:30 pm. To allow for food preparations, please RSVP by February 3. Download the registration form at wendyjgunn.

Bring your friends, your scriptures, games for free time, and your favorite snacks to share on Friday and Saturday evenings. An auction will be held to defray the cost of the retreat. Please bring nice items for this event…and your checkbook to buy them! If you need financial assistance to attend, you may contact Pam Mathena. Please don’t let finances keep you away from this amazing weekend with your sisters and your God.

YOUTH HISTORIC CARAVAN MATCHING DONATION OPPORTUNITY

Please encourage your teenagers to send their Interest Forms for the 2018 Youth Historic Caravan into the MMC office or give them to Clint Reine. Students that are currently enrolled in 9, 10, 11, and 12th grades can attend. The Caravan will be held June 7-16, 2018 (9 ½ days) with an additional orientation pre-night at Mission Road Congregation on June 6, 2018. Please see Clint for an Interest Form or grab one from the table in the Fellowship hall. No child has been left behind on past caravans because of space issues, however we have about 48 seats on a larger bus designated for teens (the remaining for adult chaperones) and we have 40 student Interest Forms turned in as of December 5. This is a record setting pace (40 in 10 days and more are promised to be turned in!) Th is quickly approaching the largest Caravan in size, which was 2010 with 56 students. We have received 53 Interest Forms (Teenagers) for the Historic Caravan in June! This number helped us decide to switch to the larger 56-passenger bus. These forms are still available for download on the Mission Center website (midlandsmc.org).

Students will be able to Register for the camps (including Historic Caravan) starting February 1, 2018 on the Mission Center website. (midlandsmc.org) The Caravan is a "first come first served" registration process. We, of course, do not want to leave anyone behind but so get the Registrations in quickly!

Our goal is to send out an update on our fundraising efforts and additional Registration Information by the end of the month. Please remember we still have the $4000 matching offer until February 15, 2018! For every $1 donated a generous Donor in our Mission Center will match your donation up to $4,000!

Donations should be made payable to the Midlands Mission center and given to your Congregational Financial Officer or mailed to the Midlands Mission Center at 7615 N Platte Purchase Drive, Kansas City, MO 64118. All donations are tax deductible. Please note your donations are for the Youth Historic Caravan.

HMA Honduras Nurse Program Pledge

In the continuing effort to support our full-time nurse (Saira Giron) in providing healthcare to the villages in the area near La Buena Fe, Honduras, we are collecting pledges for 2018.

All pledges are fully tax-deductible as HMA is a 501c3 organization. Thanks again for your help with this very worthwhile project.

The HMA will hold a "Hearts for Health" benefit dinner on February 24, at 6pm. An evening of food and entertainment honoring Dr. Howard Braby for his lifetime of service to HMA. If you are interested in attending and supporting this cause, please contact Paul Bennetts for more information.

ALL GOOD BOOKS MEETING POSTPONED

Due to dropping temperatures and possible frozen ice on sidewalks and drives, we’re postponing this evening’s book club meeting to Thursday, March 8, 2018. The revised schedule for the book club is available at https://allbooksclub.wordpress.com/meeting-dates-books/

Hopefully by March, the weather will have improved and Spring will have (almost) sprung.

DO YOU KNOW SOMEONE WITHOUT EMAIL OR FACEBOOK ACCESS?

If you know someone in the congregation who does not have email and does not use Facebook, please let Jonathan Bacon know. We’re trying to be sure everyone in the congregation has access to periodic news updates and information on congregational activities.

2018 CAMP DATES

June 6-16 Historic Caravan

June 7-22 Middle School Camp

June 24-29 Doniphan Reunion

July 5-7 Youth Quest

July 8-13 Chihowa Reunion

July 20-21 International Youth Forum

July 21-28 Spectacular

July 22-27 MITIOG

July 29-August 2 Junior Camp

MISSION ROAD CALENDAR

Sunday, February 4, 2018, 8:45 AM – Breakfast (provided by Mindy and Eric Haase), join us for conversation and fellowship.

Sunday, February 4 2018

• Nursery available – 9:15-11:30 AM, in downstairs Nursery.
• Children’s Sunday School class – 9:15-10:15 AM, taught by Mary Reichenbach.
• Teen’s Sunday School class – 9:15-10-15 AM, taught by Clint Reine.
• Adult Sunday School class – 9:15-10:15 AM, discusses "Encountering Paul” by Tatha Wiley, taught by Jonathan Bacon, Paul Bennetts, Jane Landrum and Dennis Wood in the Church Library.

Sunday, February 4, 2018, 10:30 AM – Kennetha Kuttler will speak onthe theme "Compassionate Ministry" with John Trinkl Sr. presiding. Roxann Kosmicki is the worship planner. Brian Libeer will provide the PowerPoint slideshow.

MISSED LAST SUNDAY’S SERVICE?

Would you like to hear the message from last Sunday or a Sunday service from 3 years ago? Audio recordings of many of the last several years’ worth of worship services are available online at https://goo.gl/wREl03. Note this is a new shortened URL that will take you to a Google Drive with many of the recordings from the past.

Recordings are located in folders corresponding to the year (2015, 2016, and so on). If you missed a Sunday, this provides you a way to hear the music and the message.

The beginning numbers of each filename indicate the date of the service.

The first 4 digits represent the year; the next two digits indicate the month and last two digits represent the day of the month.

In most cases, the date is followed by a dash and then the first initial and last name of the speaker. Enjoy!

NOTE: If you experience problems playing these audio files be sure you’re running the latest version of your browser or try a different browser. In some cases, you may be required to download the audio file before playing it.

The following list includes some recent audio recordings:

28 January 2018 message by Jane Landrum, filename 2018128-JLandrum.mp3

21 January 2018 message by Clint Reine, filename 20180121-CReine.mp3

14 January 2018 message by Jerry Rushfelt, filename 20180114-JRushfelt.mp3

7 January 2018 message by John O’Neal, filename 20180107-JONeal.mp3

29 December 2017 Celebration of Life Service, filename 20171229-PWeber.Memorial.mp3

24 December 2017 message by Ron Millard, filename 20171224-RMillard.mp3

CONCERNING PRAYER REQUESTS

Please know that any member of the congregation can post prayer requests or share information about members and events on the Mission Road Members Only Facebook page. You do not need to send the information for approval to anyone. In fact doing so may slow down the dissemination of your request. Be sure to include the person needing prayers and what situation has occurred (if you wish to share that information). If your post concerns an event or news item, be sure to include the basics in your posting (such as who, what, where and when).

For prayer requests, if you do not have access to Facebook, then please call Paul Bennetts or John Trinkl Sr., our Congregational Pastoral Care Coordinators.

IMPORTANT CONGREGATIONAL LINKS

The Mission Road Congregation hosts the following social media sites:

Congregational (public) website at www.mission-road.org

Facebook Page (public) at https://www.facebook.com/MissionRoad.CoC

Facebook Group (open only to congregational members) at https://www.facebook.com/groups/MissionRoad/

The link to Mission Road worship service audio recordings at https://goo.gl/wREl03

The All Good Books discussion group website at https://allbooksclub.wordpress.com/

Visit and "like" each of these sites to keep up-to-date on congregational news.

CONGREGATIONAL NEWS EMAIL

If you have news items and calendar additions or changes that need to be included in the congregational news email please contact Larry Birkby. His email address and phone number is both in the Church Directory.

Greetings,

During this past year we have appreciated your financial support of this important work so I am happy to update you about Saira and the Honduras rural Healthcare program.

During our recent visit, Linda Drown and I were extremely impressed with her professionalism and services with the villages. The villages praised her work and training and the Mission Center had only good things to report on her services provided at la Buena Fe Campgrounds.

She has created a hybrid system for health care that is quite unique. Each of the four villages has a health committee that Saira has trained in First Aid and who takes care of the health needs between Saira’s monthly clinic visits. They have bandages, basic supplies, and a few medicines (with instructions on usage) that are kept with one woman. She can dispense one table and if the condition is not alleviated, the person must seek medical attention at a doctor, hospital, or government clinic. Saira restocks the supplies, as needed each month. Saira charges $0.18 for her consultation (when people can pay) and these funds are kept with the Health Committee Treasurer. When more medicines are needed, the Treasurer gives funds to Saira to purchase them. This system reduces unnecessary patients visits during the monthly clinics for people who “aren’t sick or in pain today but might be next week”. Since the village must pay tor the Tylenol and Ibuprofen, it is less likely to be abused. Saira has identified increasing numbers of patients with hypertension and diabetes that really need to be seen at the monthly clinics. Teaching is part of every patent consultation.

Spring Worship and Service Availability

Preparation is beginning for the Spring Worship Schedule. Please take a moment to fill out and return this form to the Worship Coordinators, Pam O’Neal, Caryn Millard or place this form in the administrative "In" box located in the church Narthex on the wall by the office, mail or email this form to : Mission Road Community of Christ, Attention Worship, 7842 Mission Road, Prairie Village, KS 66208.

*Please return this form to church by Sunday February 4, 2018

Please check all areas you are willing to serve:

_____ Serve Breakfast _____ Speaker

_____ Host _____ Planner

_____ Worship Center _____ Worship Presider

_____ Power Point _____ Worship Assistant (Prayer, Reading)

_____ Nursery Volunteer _____ Serve Communion

_____ Holiday Decorations _____ Music Ministry – Solo, Instrumental, Bells, Choir

Please put a check mark beside dates you are NOT available to serve. Dates without a check mark indicate you are available.

_____ Mar 4 ______ Apr 1 Easter ______ May 6

_____ Mar 11 ______ Apr 8 ______ May 13 Mother’s Day

_____ Mar 18 ______ Apr 15 ______ May 20

_____ Mar 25 Palm Sunday ______ Apr 22 ______ May 27 Memorial Weekend

_____ Mar 30 Good Friday ______ Apr 29

Thank you for completing this form. Remember to return it by Sunday, February 4, 2018

Once the Worship Schedule is published, it is your responsibility to find a substitute for your assignment.

Thank you for your gifts and service.

Print Your Name: