Winter Sneak is a Go!
The joint IYM/WYM Camp Planning Team has made the decision to host Winter Sneak in person at Quaker Haven with COVID-19 precautions in place. We are excited to creatively dream about the Gospel continuing forward through QHC as we invite 6th-12th grade students to camp February 5-7. Tabitha Lumpkin (Farmland) will bring inspired messages as the Holy Spirit prepares her to lead the spiritual development of our young people. Ashton Dalzell (Lynn & QHC) and Ross Smedley (Mooreland) will direct us throughout the weekend, and Hannah Doke (Russiaville) will lead musical worship. Click HERE to view or download the COVID guidelines.
|
|
From Christian Service: The first joint IYM/Friends Counseling Center webinar will be tonight (Feb. 3) at 6pm on Zoom. The topic is Grief Support. Click HERE for the Zoom link. The next webinar will be next Wednesday, February 10th at 6pm. The topic for that one is Support for Kids During the Pandemic.
Budget Update: Friends, due to your giving, cautious spending by staff, and a good end-of-the-year market, IYM finished 2020 in a very good financial position. Of course, this is not the only indicator that God is on the move in our midst, but it is one indicator. May we continue to be good stewards of the resources set before us as we in IYM continue to serve Him!
The Advancement Committee is thrilled to be preparing for IYM Sunday, scheduled for April 25th. Get ready! Our committee is available anytime to talk about all IYM is up to and how we are utilizing funds raised for our operating budget. If we can answer questions, meet with folks, bake you cookies -- just let us know. We love sharing what's happening around Indiana Yearly Meeting of Friends. Here is where IYM's fundraising efforts for the 2022 budget are at right now:
$ 35,577.10 Cash Already Received
8,100.00 Pledges still to be paid
$ 43,677.10
THANK YOU for your support and encouragement in accomplishing our task.
From the Christian Service Committee: Please join us the next several Wednesday's at 6pm for some important sessions --
Feb 10 - Support for Kids during a pandemic - Liz Dyson and Melinda
Feb 17 - Anxiety/Depression - Hillary and Faith
Feb 24 - Support for extended families during a pandemic - Caroline and Amy Terrell
March 3 - Loneliness - Amy Yoder and Liz Bolinger
Following is the link to join each of the sessions -- Join Zoom Meeting
Meeting ID: 986 7551 0794
Passcode: 998335
|
|
The Indiana Yearly Meeting Bicentennial History, Directory, and Scrapbook will be released this summer and includes more than 250 pages of information with hundreds of photographs. It will be hardbound and printed in color. In order to avoid using Yearly Meeting monies to fund its printing, the Bicentennial Committee is seeking at least fifty sponsors to cover the cost of printing. Sponsorships are $100. If you are willing to sponsor in your own name, in the name of your local meeting, or in honor or memory of an IYM Friend, click HERE for a downloadable form to complete and return to the IYM office (iyminfo@iym.org).
More from the Bicentennial Committee: As Indiana Yearly Meeting prepares to celebrate our 200th anniversary, the IYM Bi-Centennial Committee would like to encourage all local meetings to prepare a tri-fold display about their meeting to be set up at IYM this year at Quaker Haven, July 29 – 31. This can include anything of interest the meetings would like to highlight regarding their meeting such as pictures, historical facts, unusual tidbits regarding the meeting house, and noteworthy individuals from the meetings. (Actually, all God’s children are noteworthy). These displays will be visible throughout the Sessions.
The Bi-Centennial Committee would also like to encourage everyone from each meeting to plan to attend IYM this year. There are several other special events planned to celebrate our 200 years of history. It will also be exciting to vision together about how this history can spur us towards an exciting future in IYM as we continue to grow in Christ.
|
|
“Do not let your hearts be troubled”
It’s as if John 14:1 was continuously whispered in the background as the traumas and trials of 2020 played out before us. Yes, political divisions loomed like heavy bookends on each end of the year, with Covid-19 rampant in between. But, God was not silenced in the least, not in our individual lives nor here on campus! A new partnership with the Indiana Sports Corporation enabled the opening of Growing Teens for Life’s Tower Farming greenhouse. New certifications followed the guidance and collaboration of members of the GTFL Advisory Committee. Welding and CNA programs were added. All these additions empower young men and women to equip themselves with self-sustaining life skills, just as the Spiritual Life Committee’s commitment to provide each student with a leather bound Bible empowers them to equip themselves spiritually. “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” These words reminded us in 2020 to Whom we belong, as they remind us now and forever.
|
|
Upcoming Events:
February 3: IYM/Friends Counseling Webinar; 6pm
February 5-7: Winter Sneak Teen Retreat, QHC; (check-in begins at 7pm)
February 10: IYM/Friends Counseling Webinar; 6pm
February 18: Pastor Gathering, 10am, Zoom
March 6: Committee Day, 9:30am, Marion First Friends
|
|
Monthly Pastor Gatherings: The topic
for the February 18th Pastor Gathering
will be Understanding Uncharted Territory.
All pastors are invited to join on Zoom at 10am on Thursday, February 18th. Click HERE for the Zoom link.
|
|
|
|
Good Morning!
Having gone to school at IU in Bloomington, I am sometimes drawn back to that area. Not only do I get to receive the wonder and beauty of God’s creation of southern Indiana, but there is also a nostalgic quality about it for me.
My wife, Sara, and I met at a Salvation Army camp near Bloomington, in Bedford, IN. After that first summer of camp, she came to the IU Campus to visit her brother, who was also a student at IU at the time. That evening, we walked all over the campus and talked and shared, and you might say…fell in love.
We are 20+ years into our marriage now, and we still love each other deeply. And…that love is different. It is more grown up, more intimate, more mature, deeper. Given the ups and downs of the 20+ years together, we have both grown, and so has our love for one another.
Hebrews 5:13-14 speaks of a difference between spiritual ‘milk’ and ‘solid food'. As babies, we all start out by living on milk. Eventually, we mature to eating solid food. In the same way, in our spiritual lives, we need to start out with the ‘milk’ of receiving who God is and how He desires to operate within our lives. We also need to find that path to a more mature faith. We cannot keep Jesus for ourselves. We must also share Him with others. The natural maturity of a believer is not just to become a disciple of Jesus, but to become a disciple maker.
Although that falling in love feeling is something I remember with fondness, I am so glad my wife and I have these years of learning to love differently, more deeply, more fully. I am also thankful for a faith that has matured over the years. What would it look like for all of us to be seeking a more mature faith?
--Pat Byers
_____________________________
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
