Weekly E-Pistle: 15th Sunday after Pentecost

9/16/2022

In This Week's E-Pistle, You Will Find:

This Sunday's Service — 15th Sunday after Pentecost: "Creation Season: Refugia Faith"
Last Week's Service Video — 14th Sunday after Pentecost: "The Spirituality of Animals"
New Wallpaper and AV Deck!
Front Door Restoration!
The Return of Coffee Hour: We Need a Treat Planner!
Congregational Care: Meal Sign-Up and Services for Seniors
Beach Cleanup September 17
Community Meeting to Save The Wishbone House, September 21
LWV Educational Series in September: Issues Impacting Lake Michigan
Support the CROP Walk and Ease Food Insecurity, September 18
Blessing of the Animals, Beery Field, October 2
We Need You: Highway Cleanup, October 1
On the Brink of Everything: Stephen Ministry Book Read, Thursdays in October
Soul Collage Session, October 8
Styrofoam Collection, September 24
Birthdays & Anniversaries, Prayer Requests, and Financial Stewardship

This Sunday: "Season of Creation: Refugia Faith"

This Sunday, we continue with September's theme of "Season of Creation" by welcoming special guest homilist, Dr. Debra Rienstra, author of Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth. She is a professor of English at Calvin University, where she has taught since 1996, specializing in early British literature and creative writing.

We hope you will join us on Sunday at 10 AM (either in person or streaming live online) for an inspiring "Creation Season" message from Debra Rienstra and special music from Ron Rienstra and Peter Black. Pastor Sal Sapienza will be leading our worship.

Download this week's online bulletin here:

order_of_service_september_18_2022.pdf
File Size:	697 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

Last Week's Service

September is Creation Month. Last Sunday, we focused on the "Spirituality of Animals." A gift from God, animals are our spiritual teachers. Please enjoy last Sunday's service, when we learned what animals can teach us about the spiritual life. For, as it says in Job 12:7: "Ask the animals, and they shall teach you." Message: Pastor Sal. Music: Peter Black and Jeff Spangler

Click here to read, listen to, watch, and share Pastor Sal's Homily.

New Wallpaper and A/V Deck!

The new wallpaper project in the church is now complete!! The new color is so inviting and really brings out the warmth of the woodwork and the vibrant colors in our historic stained-glass windows. The wainscotting and pews were also refinished and stained. We are so grateful to our church's Design Team (Josephine Berault, Bud Baty, and Floyd Fleming) for overseeing this project and for their gifts and talents. Click the video above for a 360-degree view.

In addition, we are so very grateful to Jeff Spangler and Doug Wierenga who built a brand-new A/V deck (photo at left) at the back of the church to house our sound and video equipment. They matched it exactly to the design in the rest of the church! We are so grateful for their excellent craftsmanship and service to our church.

Finally, we are very thankful for the generous donation we received from the estate of our beloved church member, Walt Lawrence, which helped fund this renovation project. We honored Walt at last Sunday's service on the one-year anniversary of his passing.

Front Door Restoration

This week, our historic front doors were removed and sent off for professional refinishing. We are so grateful to our Church Council Trustee, Kelly Wright, and church members, Mike White and Larry Fuerst, for removing the doors and taking them to the refinishers in Zeeland. Kelly also crafted a temporary plywood covering for the front entrance, which the three installed. We are so very grateful to them, and to church member, Bud Baty, for working with the refinishers.

The Return of Coffee Hour:
We Need a Treat Planner!

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

With our Covid numbers dropping and vaccines rising, we will soon restart after-church Coffee Hour! But the treat offerings must be planned, and we are looking for someone to coordinate our wonderful treat volunteers. Could that person be you?

Contact Julie by email: [email protected] to learn more about this volunteer position.

Congregational Care: Meal Sign-Up
and Allegan County Services for Seniors

Photo by Andre Oulette on Unsplash

In last week's Service, our Congregational Care Coordinator, Lynne Snyder, shared the news of her team, which is growing as the church grows! If you'd like to offer help to another church member when they find themselves in need, contact Lynne by email or phone (her information is in the chuch directory), or use the sign-up sheet in the Friendship Hall.

Lynne also shared about the wonderful services offered by Allegan County Senior Services, which are provided for free to seniors, and include driving, shopping, cleaning, and more. To learn more about their offerings, click on the button below, or call them at 269-673-3333, or 1-877-673-5333 (Toll-Free) to have a brochure sent your way.

Visit the Senior Services Website

Beach Cleanup, September 17

The annual Oval to Douglas Beach Cleanup will be held on Saturday Sept. 17, 9am -12 noon.

All are welcome to participate...surrounding community residents, visitors, and (supervised) children. Check-in will be anytime between 9 -11am at the Oval Beach parking lot. Bring a bucket & gloves. Plastic bags and latex gloves will be available.

This event is sponsored by the Creation Justice Team of Douglas United Church of Christ
in conjunction with Alliance for the Great Lakes.

Brad Hopkins will serve as the the on-site coordinator for our annual beach cleanup. If you would like to help with the cleanup this year, a sign-up sheet is in the Friendship Hall, or email Brad Hopkins.

Community Meeting to Save The Wishbone House, September 21

LWV Educational Series in September:
Issues Impacting Lake Michigan

The Lake Michigan Region of the League of Women Voters Speakers Bureau is holding a series of programs, addressing areas of concern for each of the states surrounding Lake Michigan.

These programs are free and open to the public. But they do require registration. For the State of Michigan, the program is

Thursday, September 29, 2022, 7:30 p.m. ET – Michigan
Topics: Climate Change, PFAS, Invasive Species, Coal Ash, Line 5
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUkde2sqDsqEtamYIh68KyOJ3Dbfr6V77ND

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. The programs will also be recorded. If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Support the CROP Walk and Ease Food Insecurity, September 18

We are so close to reaching our fundraising goal!

Sometimes a family hits a bump in the road. In one local example, mom and dad have full-time jobs, and they own a home. Their son was diagnosed with autism, and their daughter began struggling in school. So they made a difficult choice: mom home-schools their daughter and takes care of her brother. With only one income, expenses are a huge challenge. Help from a local food bank allowed them to allocate some of their limited income to other necessities.

One-quarter of the money raised by the Saugatuck-Douglas CROP Hunger Walk goes directly to food banks in our area. You can support the DUCC team with an online donation of any amount! It's also not too late to join the team! Go to https://tinyurl.com/crop22ducc and scroll down to the blue “Join the team” button. Do what you can to raise money, and then join us for the walk on Sunday, September 18 at 2:00 pm. Contact Chris Clark or Mike Mok to learn more.

*Food insecurity is a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life.

Help Us Reach Our Goal!

Blessing of the Animals, Beery Field, October 2

Please join us on Sunday, October 2, at 2 PM for our 3rd Annual "Blessing of the Animals" officiated by Pastor Sal and Animal Chaplain, Ginny Mikita, from our church. We will meet at Beery Field in Downtown Douglas. This event is sponsored by Lakeshore Pet Boutique in Douglas. Coffee will be provided by Uncommon Coffee Roasters.

We Need You: Highway Cleanup, October 1

The Douglas UCC Creation Justice Team has scheduled our highway cleanup for 9 AM on October 1. We are looking for many hands to work together to make light work of cleaning up our three miles of highway. Sign up on the sheet in the Friendship Hall or by writing to [email protected]. Thank you for helping us keep our corner of the world clean!

On the Brink of Everything: Stephen Ministry Book Read, Thursdays in October

"Every day, I get closer to the brink of everything... When a serious illness or accident strikes, or someone dear to us dies — or we go to a class reunion and wonder who all those old people are — it becomes harder to ignore the drop-off that lies just over the edge of our lives."
-- Parker Palmer

The Stephen Ministry team is hosting a book discussion of Parker Palmer's On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old. Discussions will take place on Thursdays in October, beginning October 6 at 3pm in the Friendship Hall. If you'd like to join in, sign up via the church sign-up sheet, or drop a note to [email protected].

The book is available in e-book, audio book and hard cover formats through your favorite booksellers, includingAmazon, right here.

Soul Collage Session, October 8

Styrofoam Collection, September 24

Birthdays & Anniversaries

September 19- Duce Sims, 21- Barbara Lucier,
22-Laurie VanDenBeldt, 24- Elaine Troehler

Birthday and Anniversary cards are a great way we can reach out to one another. If you wish to mail a card to one of our church members, addresses can be found in our Church Directory.

Prayer Requests

Dr. Paul Lewis (Stephen Lewis's brother); Michael Lynch; Jennifer Roe-Lazzaro; Mary Baxter (Marjorie Reiman's friend); Dianne Soper (Beverly Hawkes' sister); Elwood Cephus Stith (Mark Reiman's friend); Pete Wehle; Rev. Lou Grettenberger (friend of Ginny Mikita); Rachael Rienstra; Phil Sturdevant (Pete Wehle's friend); Darren Dixon (Beverly and Orie Hawkes' nephew); The Hotwagner Family; David Zylstra (Laurie VandenBeldt's friend); Elinor Hite (Virginia Stuart's sister); Judy Baxter (Kristine Sherman's Mother); Joann DeJonge; Richard and Joanna Weber's grandson Mattox (friends of the Ridls); Al Overweg; Beverly Willming (John Willming's mother); Jay North (friend of Dan Pierce); Hannah Sherman; Maureen Pierce; David Abbot; Sarah Johnson Lock; Vicki Latham (Ruth VandenBosch's cousin); Cole Hartman; Mike Sneedon (Peg and Jack Donohue's friend); Tim Reineck, Matt Brazys, Suzanne Cook, and Ken Cassbon (friends of Pete Wehle and Pamela Chappell); Richie Czarnowski (Mark Reiman's friend); Sherri Kanten (Ruth VandenBosch's friend); Chris Stuart (Virginia Stuart's sister-in-law); Mary Elizabeth Loudin (friend of Laurie VandenBeldt)

Financial Stewardship

In-Person Attendance, September 11 : 104
Total Views for September 11 Online Videos: 396

Collection Plate & Mailed Donations: $926.00
Online Giving: $6,479.52

Total: $7,405.52

Thank you!!

Your generous giving allows us to sustain our church community and our mission of service in the world. Please consider giving online, which is easily done by texting your donation amount to
844-931-2849, or sharing through the donate buttons on
Facebook or Instagram, or at our website.