Pastors, if you have news from your congregation that you'd like to share, please send the information to mklotz@indianaministries.org
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♦ Congratulations to Matt & Robin Tricker who just brought home Eli, their new son, adopted from Haiti! In the adoption process for more than two years, they just recently went to Sarasota, FL where he had been brought by Agape Missionary Flights. They are so thankful he was unharmed by the recent earthquake and that they have him safely home with them. Matt & Robin's other boys, Isaiah (7) and Ian (4) are excited to have their little brother home, too. Matt is the worship leader at Avon Community Church.
♦ The people of the Lebanon Church of God have a history of helping the people of Haiti with thousands of pounds of beans, rice, peanut butter, along with diapers, wipes, and other supplies sent to the Lashbrook mission there. Pastor Gene Johnson is a frequent visitor to that mission. They are now raising funds for another shipment in March, already having raised close to $2500. It's great to see the Lebanon church being the hands and feet of Jesus, meeting needs to show His love!
♦ Congratulations to Brandon and Jeannette Zoll at the birth of their son, Lucas Reese, born November 30! Brandon is the youth pastor at Mt. Pleasant Church of God in Evansville.
♦ Northeast Community Church in Fishers, just celebrated their 10-year anniversary with a great time of worship followed by a church-wide tailgating party, watching the game on a big TV, lots of food and fellowship. Congratulations to Pastor Fred Bays and his wife, Dyan, and the whole Northeast family! God bless you with many more years of reaching the lost.
♦ Curt & Julie Walters, along with their three children, recently welcomed little Meredith into the world! They pastor the Crosspoint Church in Fishers. We're thankful for another healthy baby born! Congrats Curt & Julie!
♦ John and Nicole Sieg will be traveling soon to Ethiopia to pick up their newly adopted son, Abraham! We praise God along with them for answered prayers and pray for safe travel and many years of joy raising him. John is the youth pastor at First Church of God in Goshen
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♦ Wil and Angela Sagesse welcomed a son, Josiah Wisely on October 13th. Angela serves as youth pastor at Avon Community Church. We rejoice with them!
♦ Andy & Jenessa Denniston were officially installed as pastors of First Church of God in Eaton. It happened to be the same Sunday that the congregation celebrated 80 years of ministry. It was a great day for all involved.
♦ Brett & Courtney Talley welcomed their first child, daughter Berkley Grace, into the world on September 25th! Doug & Cindy Talley are the very proud grandparents. Brett serves as student ministries pastor at The Church at the Crossing, Indianapolis.
♦ On September 20, the Wabash First Church of God hosted a "Fishing/Games/Hot Dog" evening at their property north of Wabash. The guests of honor were teens from a Wednesday night Bible study at The Access, a local outreach for area children and teens. Rick Tolley, the Director of the Access and the church he pastors, New Foundations, were also invited. Forty-five people including adults, teens, and children enjoyed an evening of fishing (some for the first time), football, visiting and eating hot dogs with all the trimmings.
The property on County Road 100 North has a four acre lake stocked with fish and a large area for picnics. It will eventually be the location for a new church building for the congregation.
♦ Tower Heights Church of God in Princeton will celebrate 100 years of ministry October 10-11 with food, fun, fellowship and a special worship service. We congratulate them on reaching this milestone and pray for even more fruitful years ahead!
♦ The youth group from Donica Memorial CHOG in Bedford traveled to the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, eager to serve and share. They took part in a Community Fun Fair, providing food, donated clothing/household items, toys, school supplies, etc. to help need people in the area. Some also helped put a new roof on a leaky trailer home.
♦ Pastor Chris Gammello and Youth Pastor Tami Byrd took a team of students from S. Memorial CHOG in New Castle to "DAT House" an inner city ministry run by Laura and Derek Abner. They made and poured homemade laundry soap, sorted donations to be handed out in the community, unloaded firewood, hung out with some of the neighbors and served in Jesus' name! There are some more photos in the gallery to the left of this page.
♦ Ed Hyatt was officially installed as the new pastor of South Meridian Church of God in Anderson, Sunday, July 5th. Doug Talley, state minister, was there to give a charge to him as pastor and to the congregation as they begin their relationship together. You can see some photos of the special event in the gallery on the left side of this page.
♦ 5th and 6th graders from First Church of God in Kendallville raised money and accepted donations and gave 300 books to a program called "Kate's Kart". The program was created in memory of a little girl, who loved to read, who had incurable heart condition. The class, teacher and Pastor Jim Kendall are shown in this picture at Parkview Noble Hospital where the books are distributed.
♦ Congratulations to PJ & Angie Towle who welcomed little Isaac into their family May 8th! PJ is the director of creative arts at Crosspoint Church in Fishers.
♦ Pastor Denver Burns from the Michiana Community COG in Granger sent an update on some great things happpening: "
Four weeks ago we took $500 in 5 dollar bills and passed them out to our congregation along with a connection card that said 'Just for you just because... God loves you.'
We called it 'operation blessing' and challenged the congregation to go out and bless a total stranger in the spirit of God's love. ...Several rose to the challenge. Stories have been pouring in from our church people how they were so blessed to be able to participate in blessing someone else. They shared how God put them in positions to overhear conversations that provided an opportunity to bless someone in real need. Others just simply felt as if they should bless someone they saw because they looked like they needed a blessing. From buying extra dougnuts for the family who couldn't afford them to buying lunch for the janitor at the hospital. They've done it all! Many church members have even started blessing others with their own money since 'operation blessing' began. And as if that weren't reward enough, we have actually begun to receive cards and letters from those strangers that we blessed. Some saying that the money was an answer to prayer, the simple act of kindness was a reminder of God's grace, they needed to feel God's love, etc.
It has really been a fresh approach to sharing God's love for our church and I think for our community. The plan is to gather up all that was not given away and do it again towards the end of summer on a larger scale.
...With 6 salvations and 9 baptisms this year...God is up to something good here at Michiana Community COG and we are excited to be in it and to share it."
♦ Congratulations to Craig & Kelli Knisley at the birth of their second son! Ben Allen was born on Monday, May 11th, 5 lbs 1 oz, 18 3/4 inches long. They're celebrating the fact that though he is 5 weeks early he is healthy and whole! Big brother Brady is proud and happy, too. (Craig is the Discipleship/Small Group Pastor at Westlake Community Church in Indianapolis)
♦ The Church at the Crossing in Indianapolis is getting their hands dirty! Volunteers constructed a home on site in the near-eastside neighborhood of Bells Chapel Church of God (BCCOG). The home will allow H4H applicant, Sue Long, to have her first home, along with her 13-yr old son. It will also allow her to enter into foster care of 3 extended family members who need a home. Read more about it...
♦ Northeast Community Church in Fishers pulled together leaders from organizations all over their community to discuss how they can cooperate more to better serve the people in the Fishers area. Read more about this leaders' summit here.
♦ A simple act of kindness may be all it takes to draw someone to Jesus. Take, for instance, Amy Canada, of the Stoneybrook Community Church of God in Bloomington who had a burden for the down and out in her community and began a blanket ministry. The Stoneybrook congregation solicited donations of blankets from the Bloomington community has distributed over 150 blankets to those in need since December. As a result of this outreach, a homeless shelter in town asked Pastor Brian Bolton to come share a message. They have now asked him to come every Tuesday to share with the people at the shelter and several of those have been attending Stoneybrook Church and beocming part of that church family. Visit the church's web site and read more about this loving and effective ministry. There are a few photos in our gallery as well as on their site.
♦ For quite some time the Mooresville Church of God has supported a food pantry in the Mooresville community sponsored by the organization Churches In Mission. They soon realized there was a gap in the food pantry’s ability to serve because it wasn’t open on weekends. Realizing that this gap in service led to numbers of struggling families having to sometimes go days with little or no food the Mooresville Church of God launched a food pantry a few years ago and made it available only on the weekends so that it would not compete, but rather would support the overall food pantry ministry in the Mooresville community. In 2008 the MCHOG food pantry served over 500 families (over 2000 individuals) by providing them with needed food and basic goods! We’re thankful that God has blessed this effort to serve our community! - reported by new senior pastor, John Crump
♦ Meridian Church of God in Indianapolis has an ongoing food drive, asking the congregation to bring items on the third Sunday of every month so they can be given to those in need.