fellowship north speaks

a place to talk about what's going on at FN

January 26, 2012 • 1:29 pm 2

Get to know: Alicia Emmerling

It’s a good thing Alicia Emmerling and Michelle Miller like each other. They share a small office downstairs at Fellowship North. Also, they share a job. Together, Alicia and Michelle are co-directors of WeeROCK (Alicia being the newest part of that team). WeeROCK is FN’s area for our very youngest people (birth – 4 years). On Sunday mornings, the middle floor of the Rock building is full of infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. More than 30 volunteers staff the classrooms each week, caring for the kids and leading them in crafts and activities planned especially for their ages. Alicia, along with Michelle, leads and coordinates it all.

Alicia and her husband, Sam, have been at FN since 2001, and she says that one of the reasons she wanted to take this job was the impact that WeeROCK had on her own family. There are 4 Emmerling kids: Thomas (21), Evan (13), Chloe (9), and Samantha (4). When the Emmerlings first came to FN, Evan was only 2, meaning he went to WeeROCK. A little later, Thomas began to volunteer there. Now their youngest will graduate out of WeeROCK this spring. “It’s been such a tremendous ministry to all of our kids,” says Alicia.

Previously, Alicia has worked as a nurse, and then has spent the last few years at home with her kids. Now that she’s on staff here, she says she’s really excited about new plans in store for WeeROCK, and the chance to get to know younger families at FN. Oh, and “I’m really glad to be part of the SUPER team!” she adds (and yes, the Student Ministries team really does refer to themselves that way). We’re excited to have her here!

Filed under: introducing, Alicia Emmerling, infants, preschool, Student Ministries, toddlers, WeeROCK

January 19, 2012 • 12:26 pm 0

remember [give more]?

In December, as part of the Advent Conspiracy, we decided to give the entire offering from one Sunday (December 18) to 3 mission opportunities. The offering that Sunday was $54,944.99! We were excited to be able to share the money in these ways:

Kids Across America Camp Scholarships: $5,250 – which will send 30+ kids to camp

Love & Hope Orphanage in Orissa, India: $16,695 (see letter below)

Castle Bluff Lodge Back Porch: $16,050

If you are a math-type person, you might have noticed that there is still almost $17,000 left – extra! The missions committee will decide where to give that money the next time they meet. How wonderful is that? Thank you for giving more this past Christmas season to these missions!

______________________________

Also, we recently received a couple of letters from people involved with the Love & Hope Orphanage; we thought you would enjoy reading them too. The first is from a woman helping to organize the building efforts, and the second is from a man working directly with the construction.

Dear Fellowship North Friends,

Annie [Manis - she and her husband Walt are missionaries that FN supports] called me this morning to let me know about your generous offering for the children’s home in Orissa, India. I am so thrilled of this news and above all of your generosity as a church to stand with us in this project to give to these kids a shelter to grow safe and with protection. We have been exactly missing this amount of money and we are very very touched that God uses your church in Arkansas to bless and fulfill this need.

May the Lord make your church receive 100% blessings as they have given so generously to the poor and despised kids. May He fulfill all your needs as church and individuals as you have fulfilled the needs of these kids.

I have communicated this news also to Suneli who is the first hand of this project in India, who is my good friend, a godly woman with a big heart for these kids and for God’s Kingdom in India. She says me to say to your church, so many thanks for helping these kids.

The money will go for finishing the rest of the house work (6 bathrooms, sanitary work, windows, doors, protection wall, painting, shelves in each room and electricity connection and whatever other work needs to be done.) Right now, Suneli’s husband is in Orissa looking after these duties that the house work is finished properly and on time. He is very knowledgeable in construction work and has been a blessing to have him them since end of August 2011.

Many many thanks in the name of these kids and the Orissa team,
Alma Stoeckli

(the following email is from Suneli’s husband, Satyam, after receiving the news)

beloved in christ jesus,

i cried for joy. this is a great news. it takes out much pressure from
our building team. we were working day and night striving for quality
and to save every 10 rupees. but now we can afford to be a little
generous to the builder and his team and even to our team.

i still feel a great compassion and i pray regularly for the thousands
of kandamal children who are like lambs without a shepherd. May the
great shepherd have compassion for them too and send shepherds to take
care.

much love and regards. many heart felt thanks for Alma Chris and their
compassionate team!! May God fulfill all the pending needs of the
generous donors!

satyam

Filed under: advent conspiracy, Castle Bluff, give more, KAA, Love and Hope Orphanage, missions, spend less

January 19, 2012 • 3:30 am 0

Talk It Out: Alison Chino

My church hosts this class once or twice a year called Talk It Out. And I want to invite you to be a part of it.

It’s a class for anyone who wants to learn more about race issues inside and outside of the church.

The provided reading and listening material alone is worth the effort to participate in the class, but nothing can take the place of the unrehearsed, impromptu but guided discussions you will have face to face with someone who is different from you.

To say that hearing a brother or sister alongside whom I now worship tell a story from his or her own experience is eye-opening is to grossly understate the experience. It is heart opening. It is nothing short of life changing. It is the fuel we need in our souls to stay hard on the path of seeing the church become a reconciled body of Christ.

Each Talk It Out class is as different as the people who attend it. The memories you take from a simple gathering together with others for a meager four sessions are greatly varied but consistently meaningful.

For me, the moment I remember most vividly was learning that it is common practice today in some neighborhoods that if you are an African American trying to sell your home, you would be asked by a realtor to you hide all evidence that black people live in your house.

Really?

Put away your family photos. Take down art that might seem ethnic.

Really?

For some reason, it was this experience that stayed with me even longer than stories of growing up in segregated schools. I think the reason for this is that it happened just recently. In my lifetime, in the day I (we) live in, right now, people don’t want to buy a house because the race of the owner is different from their own. Because this story happened right across from me and I could not alleviate its pain or take it away, I was ultimately most moved by it. Even now as I remember her telling it, I feel the sting of how much I hated its truth. I cringe. It was something I wanted to look away from.

I did not know it at the time, but the part of Talk It Out that I needed was a tangible understanding that I don’t have to live with these kinds of common insults because I am white. I will not ever have to explain to my children that I’m taking their pictures down because someone won’t want to buy our house if they see them.

There is a name for this collection of concerns that I don’t carry with me every day of my life. This not having to think about race. It is called white privilege. I didn’t earn it and I can’t give it back, but it is as real as the chair I am sitting in.

Because I have it, I can look away. I can turn my head. I can choose to not listen to the stories. I can try to pretend that there is no such thing as racism in America.

But this mission, this most worthy journey of all people being reconciled in Christ Jesus, calls me to keep looking. To keep listening. To stop pretending.

________________________________________

Today’s post is by Alison Chino – she blogs here and twitters here. Married to Taido and mom to Cole, Mary Polly, Ben, and Simon, she loves cooking, reading, yoga, and travelling.

Filed under: Uncategorized

January 18, 2012 • 3:42 pm 0

Talk It Out

Last Sunday, Craig spoke about ‘a new race.’ If you haven’t heard the message, you can listen to it here. You can also watch a great video with Gretchen Jackson and Anthony Valley.

Toward the end, Craig asked everyone who hasn’t been through Talk It Out (small group on racial unity) to consider going through the next one. It will meet at 6 pm on 4 Wednesdays: Jan. 25, Feb. 1, 8, and 22, and will be led by Harold and Craig together. I went through Talk It Out a couple of years ago and wrote about it in June of 2010:

I needed to hear someone say that my thought that things are equal now between races, that the injustices are all in the past, is like sitting down to play a game of Monopoly with a black friend. This particular Monopoly game has been played for generations now; our fathers and grandfathers and great-grandfathers played together too. Only some of those previous white players took all the hotels and controlled the bank and maybe punched their opponents in the face. And now I come to the game, with the wealth of accumulated resources behind me, and my opponent comes from a very different place – and even with the best of intentions, the game is not equal.

I’d love for you to see the rest of the story here. Even more, I hope you’ll sign up for Talk It Out.

________________________________

Sarabeth Jones is on staff as a part of the arts team at Fellowship North, where she gets to work in many different creative areas. She is married to Bryan and has 3 kids: Elizabeth (14), Jonathan (13), and Will (10). She blogs at the dramatic, and thinks she is pretty darn funny on the Twitters.

Filed under: unity, Craig Loibner, Harold Nash, talk it out, vision of FN

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