A recent story in The Daily Pilot focuses on the changes in her life that include starting to attend River47 Covenant Church as well as its thriving recovery ministry. The turning point came following a drug arrest that led to four months in the county jail, as well as a day at the Chino Women’s Institute, a state prison.
“That one day was enough for me,” Antilia tells the paper. “It was gross. I didn’t fit in and realized that I had been hanging out with the wrong people. For a lot of the women, that was their home. But that wasn’t my home.”
Upon her release, Antilia took steps to change her life. She now has a full-time job and her children are again living with her. A program through the Orange Coast Interfaith Shelter (OCIS), based in Costa Mesa, is providing a rent subsidy and is teaching her budgeting and family skills.
Church Braves Cold for Outreach Event
MINNEAPOLIS, MN – Members of Bethlehem Covenant Church will brave possible snow showers and definite cold temperatures to deliver more than 200 loaves of fresh-baked banana bread to their neighbors this weekend.
Roughly 25 volunteers will bake the bread Saturday morning and then deliver the six-inch by three-inch loaves in the afternoon, says Dan Jacott, director of outreach. They will be bringing the bread to parents of children at the church’s preschool as well as local residents who have visited the church in the past year. Any leftovers will be delivered to the rest of the neighborhood.
In the past, the bread would be placed in the cubbyholes at the preschool, but the facility won’t be open next week. The staff has been mapping out the homes of the different families to coordinate the outreach. “It’s going to be quite the operation this year,” Jacott says.
Volunteers love getting together in the church kitchen each year to bake the bread, and Jacott has his own reasons for enjoying the outreach: “The whole place smells like banana bread.”
Covenanters Lead High School to State Championship
WHITEHALL, MI – The Montague High School Wildcats won the Division 6 Michigan State Football Championship under the guidance of coaches who are part of Whitehall Evangelical Covenant Church.
Head Coach Pat Collins attends the church, and Craig Smith, the church’s youth pastor, also coaches. Several of the players also attend the church.
The Wildcats played the championship game at Ford Field in Detroit and defeated the Leslie Blackhawks 41 to 20. This was the first state title for the high school, which had fallen short in the semifinals the previous three years.
Sermon Illustration Provides Something to Chew On
ALLEGAN, MI – Some sermon illustrations go down better than others. The members of Christ Community Church especially appreciated a recent one given by pastor G. Patrick White.
Using a table in the chancel area, White made bread, mixing the ingredients and kneading the dough as he spoke. He kidded the congregation by asking them to sing “I Knead Thee Every Hour.”
White shared the history of Bethlehem, telling the congregation that the city’s name means “House of Bread” in Hebrew. Small grains planted on the rolling hills that surround Bethlehem were used in Jesus’ time for breads that were made in earthen ovens and then sold by vendors in Jerusalem. The town’s connection with bread added an extra depth of meaning when Jesus referred to himself as “the bread of life” in John 6.
White used the same bread recipe taught to him by his grandmother when he was a boy. The dough was baked in small loaves and served during dinner following the worship service.
Church Supports ‘Merry Christmas’ Campaign
IRON MOUNTAIN, MI – First Covenant Church is participating in the nationwide “Wish Me a Merry Christmas” campaign, which seeks to encourage retailers to offer the Christmas greeting rather than “happy holidays.”
Church members are handing out buttons that say, “It’s OK, wish me a Merry Christmas.”
Many retailers have stopped using the Christmas greeting for fear of offending customers. Searching for “Christmas” on some websites produces no hits.
“We find it interesting that many of the people who see the buttons say, ‘I like your button,’ ” pastor Pete Erickson told a local TV news station. “And it seems like there’s a sense of a change. People appreciate that, in a sense; they have permission to say Merry Christmas.”
