First Congregational United Church of Christ Posts
The United Church of Christ is actively involved in giving assistance to the following: Ukraine Emergency Appeal, Pakistan Response Fund, and Hurricanes 2022. If you are interested in contributing, please make check out to United Church of Christ and on the memo line write down the specific name of the fund you are giving to. Mail your check to: United Church of Christ, P.O. Box 71957, Cleveland, OH 44194
Reverend Dahmon Romness will be serving as our guest preacher; we’ll be posting recordings of his sermons if you are unable to get to church. Worship Service is held every Sunday at 9:30 a.m.
Longtime church member Karen Lee Wolter, age 82, died peacefully on Friday, October 14, 2022 at The Terrace at Cannon Falls. She will be greatly missed by her family, friends and church family. Visitation will be at First Congregational Church from 9 – 11 a.m. , Saturday, October 22nd with the service at 11 a.m. Read her full obituary HERE.
Well, it is Friday, our last day of camp – also known as crunch day, as I like to call it, since it is our last day to get our sites completed. We had a blast from the past. They woke us up with “Where is our Hairbrush” from Veggie Tales
My crew was very excited to get going. We had a little bit to do, like putting the steps and handrails, put up the railing on 3 sides, and then put the spindles on the railing. Then when we were finished, we cleaned up the site of our mess. I’m very proud of my crew. We got it all done by 2:45pm. Since we skipped lunch, we went out to DQ (Dairy Queen) for food and ice cream.
We got back to the school to check in and return tools and unused materials.
We said goodbye to Joe, Ella, Sam and Thomas; they need to leave early. After they left, I started to pack up my tools with the tools we had brought along with us. We are going to be leaving Sheboygan about 8am after we gas up for the long drive home.
Today’s theme is Go with God.
They talked about as we go back home on how we can use the new understanding of service to look/see all the opportunities to service because we are free. Throughout the week we saw how freedom, purpose, humility, and gratitude all ties into God, and on why he sent his son to teach us to be a servant.
Just a little bit of trivia…
We had 199 campers from 13 different churches and 8 states. We made up 34 crews, worked at 31 sites and completed 27 projects. All together, we worked 5,970 hours of service and brought 516 items for the local food bank.
On Monday we were introduced to writing care cards from Teddy and Fluffy. These care cards are to be written with positive and affirming notes to our crew, youth group, and anyone else at camp. Well as I’m writing this blog, everyone needs to have their care cards done by 11pm. They have an hour to go. So, it is a mad rush to get them done.
Thank you for reading these short blogs and Ella Coyle and I have been writing. Now go serve with God!!!
Signing off for now; Cindy Mae
Ps. Please come to church if you are able on July 10th, 2022 at 9:30am to hear all the youth have to say about this exciting trip to Sheboygan WI.
Just like all mornings at camp woke up at 6:45 am to unique music . The 6:45 am wake up call while early for most is refreshing for me because when I was on staff in 2019 the typically wake-up call could be as early as 5 am. Breakfast was the same as usual. Not five-star worthy, but it definitely did the job and was made with care.
After a breakfast we learned about the focus for our day, which was gratitude. In a short video clip from a “on the street” interview the word gratitude was defined for us by a seven-year-old to be “a dog”. I don’t know if that is exactly the definition that I would use; however, it was interesting to start the morning hearing about how other people would define gratitude. With that in mind we were asked to think of something(s) that we have not yet thanked God for, but that we should. Think about that for a second. It is a tough question because there are so many things that we take for granted that God does for us. So, I encourage you to think about that and consider what God has done for you that may have gone without thanks.
After a reflective morning at program, we loaded up and got ready for the second to last day of camp. I get to go to my work site on to what is considered, by my crew, to be a mini party bus. It qualifies as a party bus because of the blue mood lighting and a broken TV. The goal for the day today was to finish up painting a two-story house and trim. We had a majority of the house painted, but needed to do a lot of touch up on the trim. That was a fun game of touching up the black paint and then touching up the white paint then the black then the white. Oh yes I forgot to mention there was an excessive amount of black trim on this house. It was a never-ending game …. not the most fun for a perfectionist. We left our site with a good amount of work done, but still more to do tomorrow, so we will get to return for one more day of work.
When we got back to the school it was time for a quick rest before adult shower time. You never really appreciate your ability to shower on demand until their defined shower times. Many of the youth group members spent the time before dinner writing care cards. AKA notes with words of positive affirmation for individuals in your crew and youth. Dinner tonight was chicken strips and mac’n cheese, not a personal favorite; however, it doesn’t take much to make a hungry camper happy. After dinner it will be time for program and tonight typically tends to be the reflective day of the week. Veteran campers have unofficially, officially called this night “cry night” that being said it is a time that is dedicated to personal reflection.
The guide for the reflection initiated today is a reading from Colossians 2:6-7. As the week comes to a close it is fun to look back and see how God has worked through us this week and how we can continue to show him/her the gratitude he/she deserves.
Sending smiles and blessings from Sheboygan, WI.
Ella Coyle
PS. Wasp Proof Shed Photo from CindyMae