RCA Church Life News Feed

For the second year in a row, a team of three Northwestern College students has been chosen as one of 100 teams from six continents to compete in the Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest's world finals. This school year's event will take place in Harbin, China, Feb. 1–6.

Northwestern is among 22 U.S. colleges and universities invited to the 2010 finals, including Carnegie Mellon, Duke, MIT, Stanford and the University of Chicago. They will be competing with students from last year's champion, Russia's St. Petersburg State University of Information Technology, Mechanics and Optics, as well as Chinese University of Hong Kong, the University of Buenos Aires and the University of Helsinki, to name a few. Seven thousand teams from over 1,800 colleges in 88 countries participated in regional competitions this fall.

Members of the Northwestern team are John Calsbeek, a senior computer science major from Orange City; Mark Haselhoff, a junior computer science and mathematics major from Schaller, Iowa; and Curt Van Wyk, a senior mathematics teaching and computer science major from George, Iowa. Calsbeek and Van Wyk were on the team that competed in Sweden.

The students say team dynamics are a key to their success. "We're all good programmers and good problem-solvers," says Van Wyk, "but each of us has strengths in different areas, so we mesh together well to make a stronger team."

With two of the three having competed in the finals last April, the team will enter the China competition knowing what to expect. "It's just a fun experience," says Calsbeek. "It's really interesting being in a huge room with around 300 nerds, hearing 50 to 60 different languages."

The Association for Computing Machinery International Collegiate Programming Contest, referred to as the Battle of the Brains, is in its 34th year and sponsored by IBM. It challenges students to solve real-world problems using open technology and advanced computing methods under a five-hour deadline. Huddled around a single computer, teams of three students collaborate to deduce the requirements, design test beds and build software systems under the scrutiny of expert judges. The winning team is the one that solves the most problems in the fewest attempts within the least amount of time.

Mark Putnam will become president of Central College in Pella, Iowa, in July, following the June retirement of current president David Roe.

“We are pleased to welcome Central College’s 21st president Dr. Mark Putnam to the Central College family,” says David Wesselink, chair of the college’s board of trustees. “He has an outstanding set of capabilities that will help Central College build on the very successful legacy of Dr. David Roe. Mark brings the very best combination of background, experience, and skills to meet the future needs of Central College.”

Putnam is senior vice president for executive affairs at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. He has also held administrative posts at Connecticut College and at Alliance Theological Seminary. Putnam earned his master’s degree and doctorate from Columbia University, and his bachelor’s from Nyack College.

“Central’s momentum has the college superbly positioned to capitalize on the prospects that lie ahead of us,” Putnam says. “I see at Central a desire to become ever more effective and have an ever more profound impact on the students who will shape the future of our society.”

Community Church of High Falls in High Falls, New York, is one of five churches that support Rondout Valley Food Pantry, which operates out of Christ the King Episcopal Church and serves needy families in the towns of Kerhonkson, Rosendale, Accord, and Marbletown.

Though Community Church is a small congregation, its members steadily donate canned goods and other items to help provide emergency food aid to hungry families. Donation baskets labeled “We Care…We Share” are always available to accept donations for the pantry; the church will often suggest specific items to donate in its weekly bulletin.

This month, as the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays approach, members of the congregation were encouraged to not only give a little more than usual, but to give food items that could be used to help a needy family celebrate a holiday meal: pie crust mix, canned pie fillings, evaporated milk, mashed potato mix, cranberry sauce, canned yams, and more.  

Last year, Rondout Valley Food Pantry handed out 100 Thanksgiving food baskets; this year, the number is expected to grow. Tom Schrader, a deacon at the church and the organizer of the food drive, took a few minutes each Sunday in November to remind and encourage the congregation to give a little more than usual in order to give the growing number of families in need an opportunity to celebrate the holiday season.

By the end of the Thanksgiving food drive, the congregation had donated enough food to fill the back of a pickup truck. Consistory member Merry Oakley says, “We would like everyone to know that our little church is still able to help those less fortunate despite the depressed state of the economy.”

On Sunday, November 15, Faith Reformed Church in Zeeland, Michigan, held a Celebration Sunday with the dual purpose of looking back on successful ministry opportunities and looking forward to a new sermon series that will begin in January.

The church held one combined morning service at 10:00 a.m., inviting church members who normally attend the blended 9:00 service and those who attend the contemporary 11:15 service to join together in worship. “The idea for this service was born of love and excitement to come together and celebrate what God has done for Faith Church, and to express our love for one another and unity,” says Steve Rimes, Faith’s executive pastor.

First, the congregation celebrated the success of two ministry initiatives. Earlier this fall, Bethany Christian Services contacted the congregation and asked if they would be willing to support a refugee family immigrating to the United States from Myanmar. Faith members donated furniture, bedding, kitchen supplies, and other household items, then spent an afternoon cleaning and setting up the family’s house so it would be ready for their arrival. During the worship service, Faith presented the newly-arrived family with their first English Bible.

Faith also celebrated the success of their Breakfast with Baby program. Once a month, the church supplies a hot breakfast and time of devotions for neighborhood families with babies under one year old. The ministry also offers baby supplies such as diapers, wipes, clothing, books, and toys, as well as some larger items like cribs and strollers.

After celebrating ministry successes, the congregation turned to the future. Senior pastor Jonathan Elgersma introduced a six-week small group study and sermon series beginning in January. Members of Faith will join with three other area congregations (First Reformed Church, Community Reformed Church, and Vriesland Reformed Church, all in Zeeland) to study The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns. The pastors of the four churches have already begun meeting, corporately working on the sermon series and praying about the direction God might be leading their churches through this study. “We thought, ‘What would it look like for four churches to live this out together?’” says Elgersma. “God is inviting all of us to be a part of that.”

New Brunswick Theological Seminary observed 225 years of training Christian leaders at an October 30 celebration. New Brunswick is the oldest Protestant seminary in North America.

More than 300 people attended the celebration dinner, including dignitaries, trustees, faculty, staff, students, and others. Congratulations and best wishes were received from a number of churches, assemblies, and community organizations. The evening also included presentation of the Esther Award to pastor DeForest Blake Soaries Jr. and to bank CEO Elizabeth Hance. The award recognizes people whose commitment to the gospel enables them to embody a fully Christian response in the face of public turmoil.

Beverly Stroebel, a member of Christ Community Church (RCA) in Carmichael, California, recently published a book entitled Full Sail: A 21st Century Spiritual Cruise on Board the Mayflower.

The book takes readers back in time to journey to America aboard the Mayflower. Throughout the book, Stroebel uses sailing terminology to point to God as the master of not only the Mayflower’s pilgrimage, but any journey through life.

The book may be purchased from Amazon.com.

David Landegent, pastor of Central Park Reformed Church in Holland, Michigan, was named the winner of the justice congregational song contest cosponsored by the CRC Office of Social Justice, Reformed Worship magazine, and the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.

The contest asked for submissions of original song lyrics relating to social justice issues. Entries were judged on theological and biblical accuracy, appropriateness for congregational worship, and effective use of language.

Landegent's song, "Let Justice Roll Down," will appear in Reformed Worship and is available for download at www.crcna.org/pages/songcontest.cfm.

On November 30, New Brunswick Theological Seminary will celebrate the 150th birthday of alumnus Horace Underwood with a dinner and service of thanksgiving. Underwood, one of the first American missionaries in Korea, helped found the Presbyterian Church in Korea. He also founded a number of educational institutions in Korea and wrote the first Korean-English dictionary.

In honor of his service, New Brunswick Theological Seminary will remember Underwood’s legacy. The Korean Student Society will share musical selections; Sang Lee, professor of theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, will speak; and the first five Horace G. Underwood Scholars will be introduced. This new scholarship in Underwood’s honor is funded by a gift from Myungsung Presbyterian Church of Seoul.

The service will be followed by a Korean supper. There will also be a brief tour of Gardner Sage Library, where a new Underwood Memorial will be located.

The public is welcome to attend this event, which begins at 5:00 p.m.

Hosting a free fair helps one church serve its community and embody the gospel. "Basically, it's an outreach to the community to represent the gospel, which in a nutshell is that we are saved freely," says Mark Hofstra, pastor at First Reformed Church in Decatur, Michigan. "It really zeroes in on the passage where Jesus says, 'Freely you have received; freely give.'"

Hofstra first got the idea from a church planter and mentioned it once in a sermon. "Some years later, one of our members, Elaine Mroczek, said, 'We've got to do that. We'll provide food and take care of the advertising.' Before you know it, we were having our first free fair last year."

This summer the church hosted its second annual free fair. "We had a volunteer hair stylist, and we had one of our members donating guitar stringing. He was like, 'I used to work in a guitar shop; I'll offer guitar stringing and tuning.' Another person said, 'I'm a nurse and I'll provide free blood pressure checks.' Another person said, 'My son has a movie theater; we'll provide popcorn.' And the Gideons right away jumped forward and said, 'We'll distribute Bibles.'" The event also included a hot meal, a car wash, clothing distribution, knitting lessons, and activities for children.

"People just really stepped up," Hofstra says. "It was just incredible.

"It was such a joy to give. It's quite something when someone tries to offer you money, and you say, 'No--this is a free fair. This is our day to give.' They just can't believe that you won't accept a donation."

People on the receiving end have been very grateful, Hofstra says. "It's been really good for the community and our church's relationship with the community. Coming away I thought to myself, I could feel God's good pleasure in the air. It was just tangible."

On Sunday, October 11, Community Reformed Church in Lafayette, Indiana, worshiped by serving its community. The church held a brief worship service, with a message encouraging members to be salt and light in the city of Lafayette, and then commissioned members to go out and bless the community. Around 150 people went out to do various small acts of service with no strings attached. The volunteers then returned to the church to celebrate and share their experiences over lunch.

Members went to grocery stores, nursing homes, homeless shelters, gas stations, and other places, and engaged in a variety of simple acts of service: they brought sack lunches to the homeless, cleaned toilets at local restaurants, helped carry groceries, put carts away, picked up trash, washed windows, and brought carnations to nursing home residents.

“Church members often came to me and said they didn’t know where they could get involved or do these small things with great love,” says pastor Chad Schuitema. “We tried to find examples of things people can do in their everyday life. We tried to think of things that a family could do once a month on a Saturday morning. We tried to think of places that people were already going, helping them see how they could show the love of Jesus through the simple act of serving.”

Community Reformed is already making plans to repeat the experience.

The Bikes for Work program of the Center of Hope, an RCA ministry in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, gets a boost from a local shopowner's "Cash for Two-Wheeled Clunkers" promotion.

Flatbush Reformed Church in Brooklyn, New York, hosts Flatbush Farm Share, a community-sponsored agriculture (CSA) program where neighbors can buy affordable, fresh, organic produce. The program was recently featured on MSNBC Nightly News.

The Northwestern College Board of Trustees approved building a suite-style residence hall and endorsed new mission and identity statements at its fall meeting, October 5-6.

The board voted to move forward with constructing a residential facility to house about 60 students. Rooms will be arranged in suites, with a bathroom in each suite. The hall will include commons areas.

Officials hope to begin construction next spring and have it completed by the end of 2010. The new hall will be used to provide needed housing for students following the closing of Heemstra Hall after this school year.

In addition, the board approved new mission and identity statements developed after much input from faculty and staff over the past year.

Mission Statement:
Northwestern College is a Christian academic community engaging students in courageous and faithful learning and living that empowers them to follow Christ and pursue God’s redeeming work in the world.

Identity Statement:
Northwestern College is a Christian college in the Reformed tradition, founded in 1882 by the Reformed Church in America. We are committed to providing a Christian liberal arts education in an undergraduate, intercultural and residential environment. We offer bachelor’s degrees in a variety of traditional and professional programs.

President Greg Christy says the new mission statement is a fresh way of stating what Northwestern’s mission has been throughout its history. “This isn’t a change in our mission, but a new way of articulating it,” he says. The identity statement incorporates much of the wording of the previous mission statement that described Northwestern but didn’t talk about its purpose.

“The most important thing is that we’re living out the mission each day to the best of our ability, with God’s grace, and that the mission is the basis for all decisions we make,” says Christy.

Peace Reformed Church in Eagan, Minnesota, is trying a new take on church, focusing on the younger, tech-savvy generation. Peace’s contemporary service, called Epic, utilizes visual and multimedia presentations to help illustrate the service, and uses social media applications like Twitter and text messaging to encourage congregants to live out their faith.

Worship at Epic, led by recent seminary graduate Mark Reynoso, is much more contemporary and relaxed than Peace’s traditional service, led by senior pastor Al Pruis.

Pruis and Reynoso say that since its September 13 launch, Epic is already attracting new people as well as a few people who had stopped coming to Peace’s more traditional services.

“For churches to say that they want to reach a new generation for the Lord, you have to be extremely intentional about that,” Pruis says. “We are being extremely intentional.”

Read more about Epic here.

A powerhouse performance at the "How Sweet the Sound" national gospel choir competition earned them Audience Favorite, Best Large Choir, and Best Overall Choir awards in the Newark, NJ, regional event. The choir is eligible for the finale in Detroit on Saturday, November 7.

• Watch the performance online

It is difficult to remember life at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in Englewood, New Jersey, without Calvin Tysen, its chaplain and head of pastoral services since 1984, who retired in September 2009.

During his tenure, Tysen helped transition his department into a truly interfaith ministry. “What was once largely a four-faith chaplaincy (Roman Catholic, Protestant, Eastern Orthodox, and Jewish) is now an all-faith chaplaincy,” said Joseph Allen, chairman of the Chaplaincy Committee. For example, to accommodate a growing Muslim presence, a Muslim representative was recently added.

Establishing Volunteer Visitors in the early 1990s was another major highlight of Tysen’s tenure. Through this program, trained volunteers visit patients with no religious affiliation to determine if the patient desires pastoral services.

Tysen shared his insights and expertise through participation in numerous hospital committees, such as the Ethics Committee, of which he was a member for 20 years. The hospital’s commitment to holistic care, which embraces the belief that a person’s physical condition cannot be separated from his spiritual side, has been fertile ground for Tysen’s ministry.

Tysen and his wife, Audrey, remain involved in music at their church, Clinton Avenue Reformed Church in Bergenfield, New Jersey, where Audrey serves as organist.

“Englewood Hospital was my first assignment as a hospital chaplain,” says Tysen. “I believe I was called to this work. It is powerful, but also humbling to think that as I enter a patient room I will be seen as God’s representative to persons in need. It is my hope always to demonstrate my interest in them, and by doing so, to illustrate the compassion and desire that God has for their wholeness in body, mind and spirit.”

When chunks of plaster began falling from the ceiling of the synagogue of Congregation Beth Elohim just before the high holiday of Yom Kippur, Rabbi Andy Bachman turned to his old friend Daniel Meeter, pastor of Old First Reformed Church in Brooklyn, for help.

Old First gladly offered to host Congregation Beth Elohim for their Yom Kippur services. Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jews, began at sundown on Sunday, September 27, and ended at sundown on Monday, September 28. Twelve hundred people filled Old First’s sanctuary to celebrate the Jewish holiday.

“Hospitality is part of our church’s mission,” said Meeter. “We didn’t even have to think about sharing the space.

“Every single Scripture they read from the altar and the pulpit is Scripture for us Christians anyway. And every prayer they prayed could be prayed by any Christian. So for us it was so easy. I am grateful that they did the more challenging thing of accepting our hospitality.

“How joyful that for 24 hours these guests took over our sanctuary in order to sanctify the name of God. What a privilege for us.”

The two congregations, located about a block apart, have enjoyed a close relationship since the 1930s.

Barbara Turnwall, assistant professor of English at Northwestern College, will be honored by the Iowa Council of Teachers of English (ICTE) at its fall conference in Johnston on October 2. She will receive the Distinguished Service Award, which is given annually to an individual who is an instructional leader, an advocate for English language arts teaching and learning, and active in professional development and service.

A member of Northwestern’s English faculty since 1966, Turnwall has served as an advisory board and steering committee member for the Iowa Writing Project (IWP). She has also directed numerous IWP workshops and given presentations at meetings of the ICTE, National Council of Teachers of English, and Council for Christian Colleges & Universities. She also served as chair of Northwestern’s English department for nine years.

In collaboration with the Iowa Writing Project, Turnwall began Northwestern’s Pedagogy Project in 2000. Through the program, more than 70 Northwestern professors have come together for a year of focused study to reflect on and discuss their teaching practice and to experiment with new strategies in their classrooms. The program has spawned Pedagogy Project II, which engages faculty members in a yearlong focus on integrating writing more effectively into the learning process.

One of Turnwall’s latest ventures has been directing the Hispanic Story Project, which has gathered, translated and published stories of northwest Iowa’s Hispanic immigrants. Some of the stories have been published bilingually by IWP and provided to area teachers for a variety of uses, including curriculum materials and sensitivity training.

Turnwall says she is humbled by the award. “I share this honor with the many friends and colleagues over the years who have provided me opportunities, inspiration, and encouragement.”

“I like the way Stephanie and Neal’s sign says it: ‘It’s all about the journey,’ says RCA volunteer coordinator Laurie Hawley.

This summer Laurie and her husband, Bruce, mutual mission facilitators for RCA Global Mission, directed RCA individuals and work groups who came from Iowa, Ohio, New Jersey, and New York to help with disaster recovery work in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In June 2008 the Cedar River rose to 31 feet above flood stage, devastating more than 5,300 Cedar Rapids homes and 1,000 businesses.

“Stephanie and Neal are rebuilding their home on the Cedar River that had flood waters up to the ceiling,” says Laurie. “Their piano broke into pieces and floated around the room. Everything was covered in mud. Neal has been working tirelessly to get his family back home for over a year.” She adds that Neal’s daughter, Angie, who is in her thirties, is severely autistic.

The Hawleys and the other volunteers worked in partnership with First United Methodist Church of Marion, Iowa. They hung, spackled, and primed drywall and painted rooms in the Neal’s home and those of several other residents, including a young man named Chris who was in Iraq when the river flooded. They had many opportunities to pray and minister with the people they came to serve.

“What a great God we serve that we can come from all over the country and work together, no matter what skills we have, and find such joy in the work,” says Laurie.

“We are counting down the days until our upcoming mobilization for deployment to Kosovo,” says Maury Millican, a U.S. Army chaplain. “We have been resetting, reorganizing, retraining since our redeployment from Iraq in 2005.”

Chaplain Major Millican’s unit, the 141st Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, will command the multinational peace-keeping mission to Kosovo, an eastern European country with a population that is 90 percent Albanian Muslim and 10 percent Serbian Christian. For nearly three decades, the country has experienced political upheaval related to its quest for independence from Serbia; Kosovo declared its independence in 2008. “Kosovo marks the ancient geographic, ethnic, and cultural boundary between Islam and Christianity,” says Millican. “We are the U.S. Army’s twelfth rotation to Kosovo since 1999, teaching the two dominant ethnic-religious groups to live together in peace.” As brigade chaplain, Millican is responsible for the commander’s religious support program along with three other chaplains and four chaplain assistants.  

When Millican is not on active duty, he pastors Bismarck Community Church in Bismarck, North Dakota. “In my absence as senior pastor, the consistory has called Rev. Al Schut to be the interim pastor,” Millican says. “The congregation has been amazingly supportive of my second deployment as an army chaplain. Once again, they are prepared to give up their pastor to full-time military service for the sake of others.” A community send-off was held in Bismarck in July, and in August the congregation celebrated the Lord’s Supper with both Millican and Schut before Millican left for final training. His unit will arrive in Kosovo later this fall and remain there for one year.

High school and college-age people from two New Jersey churches spent a week this summer helping to establish a camp for children who are blind.

The camp, called Christ’s Outreach for the Blind, has been in development since 1997 and will open this fall. It is located in Mount Vernon, Kentucky.

The work group helped develop the 900-acre site by roofing, painting, putting up a fence, and clearing trails. “We spent our time ‘planting seeds’ that will, with God’s help, be a long term blessing to the area,” says Chris Vande Bunte, trip leader and associate pastor at Colts Neck Reformed Church in Colts Neck, New Jersey. “We all learned a lesson in working for the good of others and future generations in God’s name, without needing to see immediate results.”

The group included 43 youth and eight adults from Colts Neck Reformed, plus seven people from United Reformed Church in Somerville. United Reformed participated with the hopes of organizing a trip of its own in the future; Colts Neck Reformed sends out mission teams each year. “Going on the trip with United was a big thrill for me,” says Vande Bunte, who considered it an opportunity to share what he learned from another church when he was in seminary. “Second Reformed, Kalamazoo, and especially its youth leadership, helped to teach me the logistics and everything else that’s involved with planning, running, and following up on a trip. To now practice that as a leader with another congregation is a wonderful way to pass on the blessing.”

Vande Bunte says another joy of the trip was watching college students grow in leadership roles. Many of the 10 to 15 college-age participants had gone on several mission trips before. “Each year they become more a leader than a participant,” he says. “They are invaluable in work group leadership and in modeling behavior and attitude to those younger.”

This summer the Japanese American United Church (JAUC) in New York City was blessed by visits from two RCA work teams. Eight members of Altamont Reformed Church in Altamont, New York, near Albany, came from July 25-29 and 23 people from Baileyville Reformed Church in Baileyville, Illinois, came from August 3-10. Both visits were coordinated by Paul Nulton, coordinator of East Coast volunteers.

The team from Altamont painted the pastor’s office and installed insulation in the fourth floor ceilings for the Sunday school rooms. They also cleared debris from the roof so that the second team could waterproof and repair the roof. The Illinois team painted the front doors that had been damaged by graffiti, repaired interior water damage in closets in the basement and hallways, did a thorough cleaning of the sanctuary, and shampooed the carpets throughout the building. Part of that group spent four days at the parsonage in Queens removing multiple layers of roofing, then replacing the wood before shingling the garage roof. They repaired and painted garage doors and rebuilt a crumbling brick entryway. Inside the parsonage they cleaned, repaired, and waterproofed the basement walls.

During their stays, both work teams attended the bilingual Sunday service and enjoyed dinners with church members during the week. JAUC members made delicious Japanese and Asian foods for the work teams. The Illinois team brought fresh sweet corn from a farm owned by one of their members. There was time to share experiences and get to know one another with singing, personal testimonies, and prayer.

Although the primary focus of both work teams was to improve the physical church buildings, much was accomplished in terms of cross-cultural exchange. Members of JAUC learned about the close-knit community of rural churches and of their deep abiding faith and commitment to family and traditions. Work team members came to better understand the challenges and opportunities facing immigrants adjusting to life in a foreign land and the rich heritage they bring with them from Japan.

Members of JAUC were deeply touched to learn that the group from Illinois spent a week selling lemonade at a county fair as well as holding ice cream socials and bake sales in order to raise $7,000 for the trip. Both teams brought their own food, supplies, equipment, and bedding. The teams’ humble servant attitudes and willingness to be the hands and feet of Jesus brought all three churches closer together in the body of Christ and in the RCA. Thanks be to God!

Grace Christian Church in Flushing, New York, celebrated its tenth anniversary on Sunday, August 30. A service of celebration was held at nearby First United Methodist Church. More than 400 people attended to praise and thank the Lord for his blessings throughout the church's ten years of fruitful ministry. Guests of honor included En Young Kim, coordinator of the Council for Pacific and Asian American Ministries; Jong Duk Kim, senior pastor of Siloam Church (RCA); Joon Urm Kim, senior pastor of First United Methodist Church; Jon Norton, executive minister of the Regional Synod of New York; Tien Tan, an elder at Community Reformed Church at Manhasset; and Norman Chen, senior pastor of Reformed Church of Newtown.

The celebration included lively praise singing led by a praise team and band, a "Love" duet based on 1 Corinthians 13, a PowerPoint presentation on the history of Grace Christian Church, a video presentation about the church's English ministry, a dance by the youth group, and a sermon about the church's vision in the past, the present, and the future by John Chang, the senior pastor of Grace's parent church, Grace Christian Church in Staten Island. After the service, the ladies of the church served a six-course Chinese dinner.

The first service of Grace Christian Church in Flushing was held on the first Sunday of August in 1999. Since then, the church has baptized about 200 people. Grace sponsors many programs, such as small group Bible studies; Sunday school; youth group activities; short term mission trips, both domestic and abroad; and drama, music, and dance ministries. The church has even started to reach out in the Bronx, holding regular Bible studies for Chinese students at Albert Einstein Hospital.

Grace Christian Church in Flushing is an example of a successful church plant by an Asian American RCA congregation. It also exemplifies partnership across cultural lines; Siloam Reformed Church, a Korean RCA church, donates space for weekly services. Partnerships also extend across denominational lines; Joon Urm Kim of First United Methodist Church offered his church's building for Grace's anniversary celebration at no cost. This kind of cooperation shows that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ working together for God's glory and for the outpouring of his grace and gospel to increase his kingdom.