The entire church is invited to the E Ave Morgan Creek Pavilion Sunday, May 21 at 5pm for a church picnic and grill-out. We’ll provide burgers, hotdogs and drinks. Bring a side to share. Grill-master Steve will be manning the grills. 🙂
The new playground and pavilion are accessible from E Ave, just west of the church. All ages are encouraged to attend. Bring a lawn chair and your favorite outdoor games.
The prayers of the Apostles are prayers taken directly from Scripture – the written prayers of the New Testament that were written by Jesus followers and the Apostle Paul.
These prayers are a great pattern for us to follow as we continue to learn how to pray and want to expand our prayer vocabulary. They are deep and rich Scriptures.
There are roughly 40 in total. The prayers were written for the people, whether to use them or said on the people’s behalf.
Inspired by the Spirit, they focus on God and center on cultivating goodness and blessings among God’s people.
Easter is coming up quick – April 9. There are three services on Easter: 8:30/9:45am traditional and the 11am. I have a couple of different music and worship opportunities I want you to plug into!
SANCTUARY CHOIR – 8:30/9:45am
The choir will be singing on Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday at the 8:30 and 9:45 traditional services. Choir rehearses on Wednesday nights immediately following the Lent service, around 7:05pm in the Teal Room (where Journey youth meet). For more information on choir, contact Stuart Geiger.
WORSHIP JAM – 11am
The Worship Jam is for any and all musicians (including kids!) who want to help fill the stage at the 11am service – current worship team members and any others who wish to join. We will practice Monday, April 3 at 6:00pm, and then a warmup Easter Sunday at 9:55am in the Journey classroom. Please kindly RSVP here for the Jam so I know who to expect for setup and music. If anyone you know is curious about 2nd service worship teams, this is also their first step in exploring the team. All the music and some simple practice recordings are available here. Paper copies also available ahead of time. Just let me know and I’ll get copies to you. Otherwise, I’ll provide all the music on the rehearsal day.
Thanks,
Leah
Colene Brewer passed away on Tuesday, February 21. Please pray for her family in their time of grief.Colene Kay Brewer, 84, of Cedar Rapids died Tuesday, February 21, 2023 at Unity Point St. Luke’s Hospital. Services will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, March 4, 2023 at Cedar Hills Community Church. Friends may visit with the family after 9 a.m. on Saturday at the church. Burial will be in Oak Shade Cemetery, Marion. Teahen Funeral Home is caring for Colene and her family.
Colene is survived by two sons, Michael E. Van Dee of Williamsburg and Marc A. (Julie) Van Dee of Marengo; seven grandchildren, Cody (Maliah) Van Dee of Ely, Kala (Kody) Miller of Webster, Samuel Van Dee of Cedar Rapids, and Joshua, William, Madaline and Zachary Van Dee all of Parnell; two great-grandchildren, Tucker and McKinley; two step-daughters, Debbie (Roman) Routhe of Cedar Rapids and their daughters, McKenzie (Brady) Anderson of Fort Meyers, FL and Katie Routhe of Cedar Rapids, and Christine (Randy) Kray of Lisbon and their sons, Michal (Sammy) Kray of Mount Vernon and their children, Theo and Liam, Marshall (Nichole) Kray of Marion; sisters, Patricia Ritchie, Cindy Van Dee and Diane (Bill) Glenn; and brother, Dennis (Carman) Van Dee.
Colene was preceded in death by her husband; parents; and brothers, Kenneth and Ronald Van Dee.
Colene was born on February 16, 1939 on the family farm in Iowa County near Millersburg and was the first child of Charles and Marjorie Van Dee. She attended a country elementary school and graduated in 1957 from English Valley High School, where she was active in music and cheer leading. Colene attended Ottumwa Heights College and received her Teacher Certification in Elementary Education. She began her first teaching position at the BGM Elementary School. Colene then obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education from Drake University, Des Moines while teaching.
Colene married Ronald Brewer in Cedar Rapids and after retirement they purchased a Class A Motor home, and began going south in the winter. She and Ronald loved camping in the summer with family and friends. Colene will be missed.
Memorials may be directed to Cedar Hills Community Church in memory of Colene Brewer.
Growing up, Lent was not a part of my faith experience. It was not a tradition really practiced in my church or my family. Actually, if I am honest, I probably even felt judgmental about it. My unspoken thoughts were; “It’s just something those weird catholic kids do!” They get ashes on their forehead and then quit eating meat on Fridays. Why? Honestly, most of my catholic friends didn’t understand it either. It was just a ritual.
At Central College I was introduced to the practice through Lenten breakfast times of prayer. I enjoyed this practice and now regularly practice fasting from something during this time of year.
There are some traditional spiritual disciplines protestant Christians have focused on during these 40 days leading up Easter and Jesus’ resurrection. These disciplines are prayer, fasting, and generosity. One of the best ways is to ask God what He wants for you during this time.
Last year I was doing some reading about how addicting social media is, and how it rewires our brains. I was convicted about my own compulsive use of social media at times. I committed to fasting from Facebook and to fast from my cell phone at night. The flipside of this fast was to use that time to pray and read. I wanted to break some bad habits and build some better ones. This was good. I read some books and prayed more. I was not perfect. It was difficult at times, but I did find less of an urge to do those things at the end of Lent. I think I may repeat this fast again this year.
So, as we enter into Lent 2023, are you feeling led to be intentional about changing your patterns of prayer, fasting, and generosity?
Steve Poole
Director of Youth & Young Adults
Do you own a Cricut but haven’t quite figured out how to use it yet? Saturday, March 25 Hailey Griffin will be holding a free workshop to teach you how to use your Cricut machine and software.
We’ll go through your machine, accessories, materials, Cricut Design Space and answer any questions that you may have. Then we will go through an Easter project with the things that we have learned.
WHEN
Sat., March 25th @ 9am-11am
SUPPLIES NEEDED
Cricut machine, tools and cutting mat. Laptop or tablet, scissors,
power cord, and cardstock in 4 different colors (Spring colors).
WHERE
In the Teal Classroom at Cedar Hills Community Church
RSVP
If you’re interested, please RSVP by March 15th by emailing Hailey Griffin with subject line “Cricut Class” (You should receive an email back from Hailey in a couple days with some follow up information. If you don’t, please resend the email. Thanks and hope to see you at the workshop.)
PASTA OF THE PRAIRIE – Support Noah’s Ark Preschool AND a small business in our church !
Pasta of the Prairie is own by Tyler and Lindsey Steinkamp. They started creating pasta out of a love of good food and trying new things. After taking a trip to Italy where they learned how to make pasta by hand, they brought back new flavors and ideas back home to Iowa.
This locally-made pasta includes a variety of easy-to-make pastas, meal kits, soup mixes, and pasta salad mixes!
Watch for the display fundraiser in the Gathering Space on Sunday, February 12. Pasta can be purchased at the display, or ordered online to be delivered to the preschool. Be sure to use promo code “NOAH” to save on shipping and for your order to be delivered to the preschool/church. Order by Saturday, February 18. *Pick-up your order after Monday February 20 at the preschool
Drop the kids off at the church Feb. 11, 5:30-8pm for Parent’s Night Out! We are launching a couple from our church into missions and want to support them financially. Parent’s Night Out proceeds will go straight to funding their call to foreign missions! The minimum donation is $20/child or $50/family, pay at the door.
We will be providing snacks, but not supper. Please plan on feeding your children before arriving.
Would you like to help with this fundraiser? We could use adult, high school and middle school aged caregivers to assist the event.
January 8 during the 9:45am Sunday classes hour we will be hosting a special speaker from Chains Interrupted, a local organization that fights Human Trafficking. We want to invite all adults to attend this event at 9:45am, in between the two services. All regular adult classes will be attending this event instead of their regular class times. Children’s classes and nursery will still be in session.
January 1, 2023 we will have one worship service at 8:30am. Regular services will resume Jan. 8 at 8:30am and 11am, as well as regular nursery care and the 11am Children’s Worship.
Also Jan. 8, we will be hosting a special speaker from Chains Interrupted, a local organization that fights Human Trafficking. We want to invite all adults to attend this event at 9:45am, in between the two services. All regular adult classes will be attending this event instead of their regular class times. Children’s classes and nursery will still be in session.
January 15, all classes resume, as well as some new classes beginning.
