January 12, 2010
The Broadway Spire
Volume 68-Number 15 January 12, 2010
The Broadway Spire (USPS 875-600) published weekly except every other week during June, July and August, by Broadway United Methodist Church, 11 S. 1st Street, Council Bluffs, IA 51503-4315. Phone 712-322-7741. Fax 712-322-2162. Periodical rate paid at Council Bluffs, IA 51503. Postmaster: Address change to The Broadway Spire, 11 S. 1st Street, Council Bluffs, IA 51503-4315.
Web: www.broadwayunitedmethodist.com
Our mission: Ever seeking, serving and growing as the family of God with unconditional love and acceptance!
FROM MARVIN D. ARNPRIESTER . . .
We begin a year long celebration of Broadway’s 160 years in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Plans are coming together for a variety of experiences as we celebrate together. I am grateful to Tom Whitson and Carlotta Romero who are co-chairing this important event in our church’s life.
We plan to sing one of the hymns from the past each week and share in some worship services featuring the order of worship from the past.
Our Bishop will join us in October for a great day of celebration. A musical is being written and will be shared in November. Watch for more information shared in The Spire and bulletin. You are invited to contact Carlotta Romero for tickets to sell the January 21 Chicken Noodle Dinner here at the church.
Each week snippets of Historical Highlights will be included in The Spire. Below is this week’s installment:
We know the story of Henry DeLong, a gambler at the Ocean Wave Saloon, who found religion at a revival meeting and later bought the land where the Ocean Wave Saloon once stood. He then gave the land to the Presiding Elder of the Methodist Church for a church to be built. There is much more to the story and the man Henry DeLong...
Henry DeLong was born September 7, 1834, in Old Brighton, Pennsylvania, the third of seven children. In 1844, a missionary visited the DeLong home and told of the “great prophet.” Eventually, he convinced Henry’s parents to sacrifice everything and join the Mormons in their trek to Nauvoo, Illinois. They chartered a steamboat with many other recruits to go to the “promised land.” During a stop in St. Louis, they heard of the mob shooting of the Mormon leader, Joseph Smith and his brother, Hyram, in Nauvoo. They arrived in Nauvoo the day of the burials. This event left the new arrivals with no work, no homes and no money.
Henry’s father was a mill wright and found work with a miller 25 miles from Nauvoo. He moved the family there. Henry and his two brothers found work and board with families referred to as “the Gentiles.” When work stopped at the mill, Henry’s father invented a washboard that the brothers then sold to provide for the family. In the spring of 1845, Henry and his brothers returned to the family farm. That fall his father and three of Henry’s siblings became ill with the “ague.” Later that winter, his father, mother, brother and sister all died and the rest of the children were separated.
(To be continued next week)
FROM CHRIS ST. CLAIR . . .
Commissioning the VIM group going on the Palmar Norte, Costa Rica mission reminded me of something I’ve always wanted to do: return to the Philippines in mission. I hope to do it someday, but hearing about everyone preparing to go and a recent article about the plight of the Filipino people reminded me of this again. Here’s where the initial desire started:
My brother was born in the Philippines in 1972 when I was 4 years old. My dad was stationed at Clark Air Force Base on the island of Luzon. I have only a few memories of the time I was there, mostly because I was very young. They are shadows now--like images taken with an old camera that, never having been the most vivid--faded even more with time.
Faded as they are though, they’ve persisted. Memories of a grasshopper the size of my forearm, the whistle-like call of a gecko, my first (and very traumatic) shower at the age of 4, and falling into an anthill of fire ants (I don’t recommend it), memories of our housekeeper, Luz. She had black hair and a pretty smile. I believe the economy, even to this day, is such that even the lowest paid military personnel could afford to hire the locals and provide them at least part of a living wage.
On our last day in the country before returning state-side, Luz treated us to a delicacy—fish-eye soup. Her hospitality was well-received, but the soup staring back at us from the bowl…was not. Because of these memories, I’ve always wanted to return to see where it was I lived.
My folks had taken pictures of when we were there, so when I had a class in college on Southeast Asian cultures I decided to gather some slides. What I found was very interesting. There were pictures of the area in which we lived and the countryside and the people, but they were all obscured by the smear of a windshield or the half-opened passenger-side window of a car. All the pictures that may have shared something about the culture and the people were taken from the interior of a 1965 Toyota Corona. Safe, sheltered, anonymous.
I’m not saying my parents didn’t meet any Filipinos, or didn’t experience the Philippines—they did. But the story the pictures implied was very different. I think some missions feel like that for those of us not going—like we’re safe state-side—without risk, without reward. It’s kind of like a variation on an old vacation joke, “People from my church went to Costa Rica on a mission trip and all I got was this crummy t-shirt!”
As Christians though, nothing could be further from the truth. There is a teaching in the church about the God-head that says whenever one person of the Trinity is present so are they all. The persons of the Trinity are always together revealing God’s love and inherent pull toward unity and community-Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I think the same applies with us as the body of Christ in mission—when one part of the body is in mission, so are we all. We do indeed participate with them through our prayers, our support, our community, and eventually our enlightenment as those in direct contact return and bear witness to the power of God in his mission to the people of Palmar Norte, and the whole world.
So may we be missionaries all—every one. And may we be reminded of our participation through God who calls us by his Spirit to works of unity and community, no matter the distance from one to another. And may we be about the work of the kingdom here, there, and everywhere we are called! Amen.
THIS WEEK AT BROADWAY . . .
Confirmation Class for youth in Grades 7 and older begins Wednesday, January 13 at 5:00 p.m., and will be held each Wednesday at that time. Confirmation includes memory work, Bible study, work projects and fun activities as the youth grow in their faith and witness. Judy Smits, Laura Hartley and Marvin Arnpriester serve as leaders. Confirmation Sunday is scheduled for May 2.
UMW Unit Meeting will be held at 2:00 p.m. Thursday, January 14. Contact Fran Hansen for reservations, 323-3794. Board meets at 12:45 p.m.
Single Diners meet Friday, January 15, 5:30 p.m. at Cracker Barrel. Contact Sandy Johnson for reservations at 323-5493.
The call-in prayer line is now 322-7741 extension 15. You will hear our latest requests. Call the office for a complete printed list of prayer requests.
Persons desiring to be baptized and/or received as members of Broadway are asked to make arrangements with Rev. Arnpriester. Dates include January 17 and February 21.
Purchase your January-February issue of The Upper Room and/or Alive Now Devotional Guides available from the table outside the office.
Persons desiring boxed sets of weekly offering envelopes for 2010 may pick them up from the counter in the Centrex.
WE WILL BE LOYAL TO BROADWAY . . .
With our Presence: January 10, 2010:
Worship: 8:00 am - 66; 9:30 am - 141; 11:00 am - 107; 6:00 pm - 73 = 301
Sunday School: 9:30 am - 99; 11:00 am - 22 = 121
With our Gifts 2009: Received
Current Expenses needed weekly $12,871.75
Received January 10 $9,12.15
Total current received to date $27,729.65
Budgeted to date $25,743.50
Growing through Grace received $1,381.00
With Our Prayers . . .
Hospitalized, Jennie: Kris Lippke. Others: Patti Bruner, Roger Coffey, Barbara Condecon, Richard Devereaux, Roxine Devereaux, Bob Dodder, Doug Dungan, Denise LeBaugh, Claudia McEvoy, Justin MeEvoy(service) Peggy McKee, Bob Nielson, Sue Phillips, Phyllis Rajcevich, Kerri Randolph, Steve Roberson,Vaneda Yochum (nursing home), persons needing jobs, missionaries, victims of war and natural disasters, Bishop Trimble, District Superintendent Brian Milford & Field Staff Ed Kail, pastors and staff. Call the office, 322-7741 ext. 15, for additional prayer requests.
Our Sympathy to . . .
• Teresa Phillips in the January 8 death of her mother, Beverly Phillips of Carson.
• Don & Patti Bruner in the January 8 death of his sister, Barbara Bateman of Shenandoah.
• Bob & Irene Dodder in the January 9 death of his brother, Paul Dodder of Coffeyville, KS.
Lectionary Bible Readings . . .
January 17 Isaiah 62:1-5
Psalm 36:5-10
1 Corinthians 12:1-11
John 2:1-11
Our apologies for the typos in last week’s Spire...
• Sympathy to Nyma Schema on the death of her brother George Bursik.
• The Historical Highlights article should have read, “In 1861 (Wednesday, September 9), occurred the fire which destroyed the notorious Ocean Wave Saloon,...”
Reminder: When school is called off or dismissed early for inclement weather, all activities at the church are canceled as well.
BROADWAY BOUQUETS TO . . .
1. Let you know I enjoy receiving The Spire and pass it on to another former member of Broadway. - Elbert Snethen
2. Broadway families, I wish I could say greetings from sunny, warm, south Texas, but we’ve had unusual rainy, chilly to cold drizzly days. Citrus crops are in danger. Not a mild winter. - Macyl & Dick Reeves
3. Robin & Chad Lobendo on the January 8 birth of Logan Alexander.
BIRTHDAYS . . .
January 14 - Ethan Anderson, Dave Dales, Dwylan Gearhart, Dorothy Johnson, Hector Lopez, Maria Sanchez, Lisa Schnackel
January 15 - Gabe Hoessler, Jan Messner
January 16 - Deanna Boese, Brenda Boyle, Tricia Custer, Fred Vogt, Elysha Wickman
January 17 - Melba Bentley, Kurtis Hockman, Claudia McEvoy, Ruben Mendoza, Cindy Peterson, Marcia Ranney, Richard Speight, Larry Willis
January 18 - Ann Betts, Leticia Gomez, Brandon Landolt, Lyle Sell, Mark Swirmicky
January 19 - Dana Bechtold, Lora Billings, Eric Duhachek, Abigail Mendoza
January 20 - Hannah Gibson, Chuckie Granger, Stephanie Harden, Ray Martin, Tricia McSorley, Lester Pearson, Scott Spears, Megan Walker
January 21 - Nick Rhodes, Kim Sellmeyer, Jeri Stolley, Amber Strohbehn, Allen Wright
ANNIVERSARIES . . .
January 14 - Curt & Ann Betts - 7
January 15 - Marvin & Anna Johnson - 60,
Hugh & Jeanne Prickett - 21
January 16 - Scott & Kristy Millage - 17
January 19 - Elmer & Joyce Barritt - 64
THANK YOU SO MUCH . . .
Because of your generous support, we ended 2009 with all bills paid in full and $4,834 on hand to begin 2010. $72,855 was received in December for a grand total of $568,243 received for the year.
We will also be a Third Mile Rainbow Covenant Church meaning we exceeded $15 per member in support of a variety of mission causes here and around the world.
The books will be audited in the near future and an audit report will be made available at a later date.
CHICKEN DINNER . . .
We kick off our 160th Anniversary Celebration with a Chicken Dinner on Thursday, January 21. Chicken Noodles with mashed potatoes and green beans, with cake, pie or a brownie for dessert. Tickets are on sale, $5 for adults and children 5-12, $3; children 4 and under eat free. Volunteers are needed to help. Contact Carlotta Romero or sign up in the Centrex.
FOR YOUR INFORMATION. . .
Help the Worship Team in preparing for our 160th Anniversary Celebration by turning in the name(s) of your favorite hymn(s). We plan to sing at least one each Sunday during 2010.
A SPECIAL WORD OF THANKS . . .
I thank you for the generosity and compassion you showed the families of In Jesus Name Services this Christmas season. When Judy and Pastor Marvin asked if there was something Broadway Church could do to help, I had no idea that in three days so much could be accomplished. We were able to adopt four families in desperate need of some Christmas cheer.
When we arrived at the first house, a single father raising five children by himself, the kids were playing outside and had no idea they were going to receive gifts. The kids ran to greet us, wondering why we were there, for there was no scheduled activity that day. When they saw the gifts heaped in the back of our vehicles, they all began to jump up and down with excitement. I could tell by their facial expressions they were wondering if the gifts could really be for them. I began to cry, knowing we had just made a difference in the lives of these children. Our experiences at the other three homes are just as heartwarming. We had parents praising God, crying and thanking us with warm hugs. Some of the kids asked us if we were Mrs. Claus. I had to laugh and say, “Well, just maybe I am.”
Here at In Jesus Name Services we deal with crisis, addiction, near homelessness and poverty on a daily basis. Our mission is to empower the people of our community through recovery-based services, individualized counseling, life skills coaching and family educational programs needed to live healthy, self-sufficient, purposeful lives.
I personally thank you, Broadway United Methodist Church family, for uniting with us. Together we do make a difference! To learn more about In Jesus Name Services, please visit our website: ijnservices.org.
--Wenday Sorenson
JANUARY - A TIME OF NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS!!
What resolutions have you made this year? Usually we make resolutions to improve our health. We are starting a program at BUMC to help you. 5-4-3-2-1 Healthy Kids is a nationwide program good for both kids and adults. The plan encourages:
4. 5 - Fruits and vegetables daily
5. 4 - Glasses of water daily
6. 3 - Servings of low fat dairy products daily
7. 2 - No more than 2 hours of screen time daily
8. 1 - One hour of exercise daily.
We have bracelets for you and your children to wear. When you have eaten 5 fruits and veggies every day, move your bracelet to the other arm. When you have your 3 servings of dairy products, move your bracelet to other arm, etc. Children and youth will receive their bracelets Wednesday night at Seekers in Sneakers. Adults, support your children! Do it yourself and be a good role model for your kids!
YOUTH NEWS. . .
Youth are currently earning points for their July 12-16 mission work trip to St. Louis in 2010. All youth 7th Grade and above are eligible to participate. Deposit information will be available after Christmas.
Graduating Seniors & College Students -
Iowa United Methodist Foundation scholarship information is now available at www.iumf.org for you to download. All applications must be postmarked by March 1, 2010. Call Judy with questions. This does not include Broadway Scholarship applications.
Puffins are back! Youth will be taking orders February 14 and 21 in the Sanctuary. Start thinking now about how many you will need to keep you supplied for the year. A new flavor this year is mozzarella. Free samples will be available February 14!
Help Wanted: A Nursery attendant is needed for 1-2 Sundays each month and possible other times. This is a paid position. If you or someone you know is interested, call Judy.
Single Moms meeting on Monday nights will have Margarite join them to share some recipes for quick, easy nutritious meals. All single moms are invited to join the group. Nursery care is provided from 6:00-7:00 p.m. A meal is provided for both children and moms.
Shelter Reality will be at Broadway again Wednesday, February 3, 6:30-7:45 p.m. They are a local and state-wide precision drumming group of young people who support shelters through their gifts and graces on the drums. Admission is $1.00. Ear plugs are provided!
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
Wednesday, January 13 Staff Meeting - 9:30 am
Confirmation - 5:00 pm
Senior High Youth Synago - 5:30 pm
Seekers Meal for donation - 6:00 pm
Bell Choir Practice - 6:25 pm
Midweek Moms, Alpha - 6:30 pm
Wednesday’s Children, Children’s Activities - 6:30 pm
Jesus’ Allstars, Christian Cadets - 6:30 pm
Jr. & Sr. High Youth - 6:30 pm
Choir Practice - 7:30 pm
Thursday, January 14 UMW - Board 12:45 pm
UMW Unit Meeting - 2:00 pm
Men’s Ensemble - 5:45 pm
Disciple - 6:30 pm
Friday, January 15 VIM Group leaves to Costa Rica
Single Diners - 5:30 pm
AA Group - 8:30 pm
Sunday, January 17 Worship - 8:00, 9:30 & 11:00 am
Jr. and Sr. High Sunday School - 9:00 am
Sunday School for all ages - 9:30 & 11:00 am
Drama - 11:00 am
Band Practice - 1:30 pm
Worship in Spanish - 6:00 pm
NA Group - 7:00 pm
Monday, January 18 Single Moms Group - 6:00 pm
Global Outreach - 7:00 pm
Scouts - 7:00 pm
Tuesday, January 19 Administrative Council - 7:00 pm
MS Group - 7:00 pm
Bible Study in Spanish - 7:00 pm
Wednesday, January 20 Staff Meeting - 9:30 am
Twilighters - 2:30 pm
Confirmation - 5:00 pm
Senior High Youth Synago - 5:30 pm
Seekers Meal for donation - 6:00 pm
Bell Choir Practice - 6:25 pm
Midweek Moms, Alpha - 6:30 pm
Wednesday’s Children, Children’s Activities - 6:30 pm
Jesus’ Allstars, Christian Cadets - 6:30 pm
Jr. & Sr. High Youth - 6:30 pm
Choir Practice - 7:30 pm
CHURCH STAFF . . . Ministers - All Baptized Christians, Administrative Secretary/Volunteer Coordinator - Linda Muilenburg, muilenburg-bumc@qwest.net, Band Coordinator - April Wichman, alwichman@yahoo.com, Building & Grounds - Dora Olivo & Greg Foster, Children & Youth Ministries Coordinator - Judy Smits, smits-bumc@qwest.net, Congregational Development Coordinator - Bob Folkers, rcfolkers@cox.net, Financial Secretary - Virginia Paap, Music Coordinators - Ann Carpenter & Gary Richardson, Nursery Attendants - Patty Garcia, Whitney Kurcz, Kay McDonald, Sarah Opal, Stephanie Rodriguez; Organists - Ann Carpenter & Clarence Smelser, Parish Nurse Coordinator - Sue Jungman, Associate Pastor for Discipleship - Chris St. Clair, cstclair-bumc@qwest.net, Associate Pastor for Hispanic Ministries - Ruben Mendoza,Rubyoli@hotmail.com, Senior Pastor - Marvin Arnpriester, arnpriester-bumc@qwest.net, Treasurer - Terry Muilenburg