Would you like to help encourage our service men and women?
Do you have a family member or friend serving you would like to see encouraged and prayed for?

Join our “Mail Call” effort! Sign up to write letters of encouragement to our troops, and to pray for them as they serve here and abroad.
And sign-up your serving family member or friend to receive letters!

To get involved, simply e-mail Lois Kelley at shalomlizzie@hotmail.com.

You have seen the massive destruction in Haiti brought by the earthquake.

Many have asked, “What can we do?” Read more

School is now out for the summer! The new school year begins on August 25, 2010, so watch for your opportunity to sign up for a Reading Buddy time slot in late August!

Muscatine Community School District

Jefferson Elementary School

Tom Randleman is painting driveways. Yep, that’s right, for $20 you can have the Water for Christmas logo painted on your driveway for all to see! Tom isn’t thinking small either, he wants to paint 1,000 driveways!

Email Tom and get your logo today.

Just wanted to take the time to let everyone know about the opportunities available for us to unleash within out community, state, country, and world.
The annual women’s salad supper gave us the chance to hear about opportunities in the foster care system and the world of adoption, in our community at Jessica’s Closet and/or as a mentor to refugees new to our community, and across oceans by simply purchasing bags made by Sheku and David.
The church leadership also took the time to share the initiatives that they feel we can participate in on a church wide basis. The leadership identified seven areas to focus on. The church will continue to work with the sponsorship of children at the Prime System School of Christ in Monrovia, Liberia, Water4Christmas, Rebuilding Together Muscatine, and The Salvation Army. In addition, we will work with Kids against Hunger, Foster Care & Adoption, and Public School Partnerships with Jefferson Elementary.
My good friend, Audra Diedrichs summed it all up well. “We have an opportunity and a calling to unleash upon our community. It is important to reach a hurting world, to offer real truth and hope. When we unleash it is all about action. You advocate, seek justice, work, persevere, love, serve, give, listen, care, cry, encourage, build, write, hurt, speak, motivate, create, teach, lead, inspire, pray, read, praise, volunteer, feed, invite, clothe, free…. You reach a world, a country, a state, a community, a neighborhood, a family or one individual who will have true hope because you chose to unleash.”
Don’t just sit there, get out, get involved and Uleash!

Imagine living in constant fear that your son or daughter may only have a short time to live. For a family in Michigan, this is their reality for their 11 year old son.

Struggling with pulmonary hypertension, the same monstrous lung condition from which Erika suffered, he has been in the hospital for several weeks. This family is waiting for a heart and double lung transplant at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The road before them is steep and the pressure is extremely intense: he needs a new heart and new lungs to survive.

The economy continues to make times tough for all of us, yet the families of children with heart disease still need financial assistance. With demands for financial assistance climbing, the time has come to raise awareness and increase the funds for families depending on the Erika Kate Foundation.

Will you join the EKF Team as we run/walk to help this family, and others like them, endure the arduous paths before them?

On September 27, 2009, in Moline, Illinois, we will come together with EKF supporters from our area to participate in the QC marathon. Our goal is to raise funds and awareness of children’s life-threatening cardiac conditions by running/ walking a 5K, half marathon, 5 person marathon relay, or marathon. All races begin at 7:30 a.m.

Check out www.qcmarathon.org and www.erikakate.org for details about race and registering for the event of your choosing. We will be giving away EKF t-shirts to the first 50 participants who email us at www.erikakate.org after they register for a running event at the QC Marathon. We will be posting weekly race information and links to training schedules on the EKF website.

So stay tuned as the race day draws near. If you know of others who would find this opportunity a fulfilling one, please pass the word along. We would love to make a big EKF splash all over the QCA.

Thanks for your consideration!
Let’s get in shape and promote the Erika Kate Foundation together!

Teaming up with the Muscatine School District Summer Lunch Program, the Calvary Hands and Feet group provided programming to Cedar Park Apartment children for a week after the lunch meal. It was a fantastic week!

Special thanks to leadership for their support, prayers of the Gatekeepers, women who beautifully assembled and decorated pails full of summer items to be given away for drawings, a woman who made beautiful cards to personalize the pails, a women’s small group for their financial donation to purchase the items in the pails and for faithful women who assisted with the teaching and activities.

There were varying numbers of children (and parents/grandparents) each day, but we had the opportunity to minister to around 50 children throughout the week!

Here are some highlights that I can share:

• Tablets decorated and given to friends, certificates of honesty made, tinfoil art, finger-painted respect posters, cards thanking police and firefighters for courage, cards made for military personnel working for peace
• Children and families coming back day after day
• Popsicle face smiles
• Children sitting quietly listening to books about friendship, honesty, respect, courage and peace
• Being there for children and adults to talk and share their stories
• Laughter and smiles during friendship tag, respect ball tag, courageous ball rolling, peace tag
• Children crying because “they did not want to leave”
• Children eating, playing games, learning, creating, sharing, caring
• Parents/grandparents watching, helping, participating, respecting, appreciating
• Smiles, hugs and the huge joy the children showed when they were the winner of one of the two pails given out at the end of each day
• Older youth taking on leadership responsibilities
• Having great talks with parents while cleaning up together under the picnic tables
• Distrust to trust
• Being able to talk to the children about women who put the pails together because they cared about them
• While driving in to the apartments, adults and children waving and then coming over to the site
• Children’s comments on the last day, sadly “You won’t be back?,” “You should come back next summer,” “You should do an afterschool program”….
• Hopefully showing encouragement while receiving it ourselves

“Give, and you will receive. You will be given much. Pressed down, shaken together, and running over, it will spill into your lap. The way you give to others is the way God will give to you.” Luke 6:38

How grateful I am to be serving a loving and merciful God who presents us with opportunities to give to Him daily. So many times it is a matter of being where God wants you to be at that point in time to make what impact He wants you to make. What an encouragement to see Christians being there!

- Submitted by Audra Diederichs

This week-end during our special combined service, there was no childcare.

So I settled near the back with Zeke and Kora so we could make a quick and relatively quiet exit if need be. In front of me was a dear friend who is a hero of the foster care system. Her own children grown, she has a steady flow of children who find a home with her in their greatest times of need. This morning she and her teenage daughter shuffled three small little boys around into the row. A baby and his two year old brother, and another 5 year old who she has had for several months. In front of her was one of her other grown and married daughters who had with her 4 children, 2 of which they are patiently and fervently pursuing the adoption of. I know bits and pieces of the story of the two precious kiddos and it’s one full of loss and tragedy. I watched as these two families handed children from arm to arm, made bottles, gave kisses, and hugs, and handed out crayons and small toys.

By the time the service was over, the 4 adults were exhausted (and probably a bit relieved—as I was).

And sitting there in the back surrounded by all these children, hardly two with the same skin color. All with different stories. Different wounds.

I worshiped.

I was close to tears a couple times as I watched. It is exhausting work. These people. Giving their lives away. Finding Jesus in the faces of broken and hurting children. And working hard. And loving deep. And getting dirty.

On a day when people were celebrating their fathers, these families had homes full of children who were temporarily or permanently without. They were filling the gaps for the fatherless.

It’s messy. Oh my gosh, it’s messy.

I’m not sure that they were able to enjoy corporate worship. They probably could of used a couple minutes to be quiet and alone with their God. They didn’t get it today.

But they worshiped.

Perhaps they didn’t realize it. But oh how they worship!

Their lives a continual act of worship.

Every day they loosen the chains of injustice just a bit for these children.

It’s not glamorous. It is just plain heartbreaking and difficult and exhausting sometimes.

But of all worship services…the one I saw today touched closest to the heart of the Father.

And if they ever worshiped. These families. If ever…it’s now.

There has been a great deal of “Unleashing” going on recently! I wanted to take this opportunity to share the story of Barb Gipple. Barb and her husband Randy are both active members here at Calvary. Barb is a practicing dentist with an office in Mediapolis, Iowa and Randy is a practicing Orthopedic doctor right here in Muscatine. Barb has been an active missionary on two Guatemala trips, with Iowa Mission of Mercy in Waterloo, and Give Kids A Smile in February. Recently Barb had the opportunity to spend two weeks on a Mercy ship docked in Benin, West Africa. Barb and I spent some time e-mailing in the past two weeks, which gave me the opportunity to ask her a few questions about her trip and her views on missions.

1. What kinds of mission work have you done?

“My missions work has centered around dental care for the most part. The two trips to Guatemala with the Calvary teams, Iowa Mission of Mercy last October in Waterloo, Give Kids A Smile in February at the Mediapolis office, two weeks with Mercy Ships—Africa Mercy in May in Benin (West Africa)”

2. Why do you feel called to serve in this way?

“The Lord convicts each of us differently and this is just an area of my life where I feel the message is loud and clear. I wish there were a few more areas like that!”

3. Where was your most recent mission trip?

“May 3-5 I served as a general dentist with Africa Mercy docked at Cotonou, Benin (West Africa). The dental clinic was off ship in the village of Akpakpa about a 20 minute drive.”

4. What did you do on this trip?

“I did patient exams, placed restorations – both amalgam and composite, pulled teeth and referred fractures and tumors to the ship for radiographs and potential surgery either there or back at the clinic with the staff dentist, Dag Tvedt.”

5. What was the most uplifting part of your trip?

“At the half-way point of the trip I went with a group of 13 to an orphanage to show the children The Jesus Film—kids version (in French, which is the official language of Benin). We hung a sheet out to project on and God held back the rain. It was a beautiful thing and an encouragement to me to see these children singing and dancing and worshiping my Jesus. Their Jesus.”

6. What was the most difficult part of your trip?

“Jet lag. I left home at 3:30 Saturday morning and arrived at Africa Mercy at 8:00 Sunday night (there’s a 6 hour time difference). This made it hard to work Monday morning.”

7. Would you do this trip again?

“Yes. Randy was supposed to have gone on this trip but had to stay back and get crops in. He is slated to serve early next year and I hope that there is an opening for me to serve at that time as well. It hasn’t been decided exactly where the ship will be ported—maybe the Congo?”

8. How do you feel this work fits with our desire to Unleash relentless love on a broken world?

“Dental care is hard to come by in Western Africa even if you can afford the services. Patients wait in lines all day and while they wait they hear the gospel and receive encouragement. Some of them have been in pain so long that they feel that it is normal.”

9. What other areas are you currently serving in?

“I have been helping Pat Fox in the Candy Store in KidZone getting totes ready. I helped on a team for Rebuilding Together Muscatine and used a little bit bigger drill than I normally use!”

10. Do you have any advice for those considering a mission trip?

“You do not have to be a health care provider to serve with Mercy Ships. Go to their website : jobs@mercyships.org and see what is available right now or call them at 1-800-772-7447. If God is giving you a nudge shouldn’t you step out in faith and serve?

What a great example of how we can use our time and talents to serve God and help others. Way to go Barb!

Rebuilding Together – Muscatine County – Spring 2009 Work Day from Calvary Church on Vimeo.