volume 2, number 4 • august-september 2008 • north hills ... · north hills church 1717 n....

North Hills Church 1717 N. Mountain Ave Claremont CA 91711 909.621.3079 [email protected] Senior Pastor Terry Benson, [email protected] Newsletter Editor Pam Nunn, [email protected] Editorial Staff Mike Carter, Stu Freeman, Gaby Hoffman, Steve Hoffman, Janice Landry, Jason Le, Silvia Plummer

By Dennis W. Wallstrom, Ph.D. By Dennis W. Wallstrom, Ph.D.

Volume 2, Number 4 • August-September 2008 • North Hills Church • 1717 N. Mountain Ave, Claremont CA 91711

Inside... Plumming the Depths .................... 3 Worship Conference ..................... 4 Baby Dedications ......................... 5 More Baby News .......................... 5 My Concept of God, Part 2 ............ 6 Late Again ................................... 7 KidZ Kingdom Chronicles .............. 8 VBS Diary .................................... 9 North Hills Calendar ................... 10

Special Section: Journeys

Poem: Lamb ............................... J1 My Journey to Jackson ................ J2 Photo montage: Job 39 ................. J3 VBS: Spreading His Love......................J4

And the "Who's New at North Hills" column is on vacation; it will return in our next issue. Likewise, part two of Pastor Terry's continuing article on grace is taking a break, and will pick up again in October. (But you can still read Pastor T. on page 7.) In the meantime, we have a summer treat for you; a special “youth only” section with articles, photography, even poetry. Look for Journeys on page J1, right after the calendar.

I’m going to make a statement that may sound like an over-statement, but bear with me. Here it is: 90 percent of the problems we have in our lives are problems of focus and attention. Consider how this can be so.

What is the great organ of focus in our bodies? The eye, right? Actually, all of our senses may be fo-cused to take in what is occurring around us.

Continued on page 2

Summer is here!

2 North Hills News: August 2008

Continued on page 7

FOCUS ON THE NEW MIND Continued from page 1

And how we focus them is extremely important. Jesus said, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of dark-ness” (Matt. 6:22-23). The King James Version has it more literally: “If there-fore thine eye be single”—meaning clearly and appropriately focused. In Luke’s account of Jesus’ words he adds this warning: “See to it, then, that the light within you is not dark-ness” (Luke 11:35). We might say, “Make sure that your eyes—and all your senses—are aimed with a clear, sincere focus on what brings light into your life, not darkness.”

How our senses and our lives are fo-cused has been a matter of great inter-

est not only to religious teachers and philosophers, but to scientists. You may remember the experiments that were performed on cats—Why is it always cats?—in which electrodes were attached to the auditory nerve, so they could see how the nerve was fir-ing its impulse to the brain. This hooked-up cat was placed in a room

with a metronome, and the regular clicking sound registered in the firing of the auditory nerve. But add one more thing to the room—say, a mouse—and the auditory nerve stopped firing. The metronome was

still clicking, but the cat was focused elsewhere, and it basically wasn’t hear-ing a thing. This is an experiment re-peated daily when wives try to get their husbands to focus on what they are saying! Sadly, in many cases the auditory nerve isn’t even firing.

This helps us realize that the great or-

gan of focus in our bodies is not the eye or the ear, but the brain. Our brain and its activating system tell us, This is important. So we direct our focus, much as an astronomer aims a tele-scope in a specific direction, and ig-nores the remainder of the infinite uni-verse.

But remember: How we focus can bring light into our lives, or darkness. When a mother or father spends 80 hours a week focusing on work, while their 14-year-old son is not given the proper attention and is getting into trouble, the focus is wrong. We call it being a workaholic, but the problem is on how life is focused. When a man can’t wait to get off work and get to the sports bar to have some drinks,

night after night, he’s not addicted to his work, but his problem with focus is creating another addiction. When my son, Bryan, worked in a restaurant with a bar, he would see the same man come in after work every night and have a scotch on the rocks—10, 11, or 12 of them.

When someone cannot stop eating too much, or can’t stay away from porno-graphic web sites, or keeps gambling even though he can’t pay his mort-gage, the focus is intense and compel-ling, but brings darkness into the life, not light.

You may have noticed that simply telling someone to stop doing such things doesn’t work. Even telling your-self to stop doesn’t work. What has made the 12-step programs so influen-tial has been the way they shift your focus. It’s not a problem with alcohol, or drugs, or sex, or gambling, or work, or relationships; it’s a problem with your relationship to God, or your “Higher Power.” When we focus on “a Power greater than ourselves,” dra-matic change is possible in our lives. Light comes in, rather than darkness.

Maybe you still think that 90 percent number is too high. But consider how your life may be dominated by worry and fretful anxiety. Think of how dis-tractible you are from the really impor-tant things in life. Think of those occa-sions when your emotions flood in and you react out of fear or anger or envy, and not in an appropriate way. Think of how painful relationships and other experiences continue to in-trude in your life and grab your atten-

“How we focus can bring light into our lives, or darkness.”

August 2008: North Hills News 3

NHN

All right, show of hands: how many of you think you’re creative? No, really—how many? I didn’t think so. It’s far too common for someone to think that “I’m not creative.” After all, creativity is reserved for the winners of American Idol, right? I remember when I was in high school, the guy who was voted “most talented” every year was a saxophone player: a brilliant kid, to be honest, but I always found it odd that the only measure of “talent” or “creativity” among my fellow students seemed to be musical aptitude. With that notion, if you’re not a Severino Gorospe or a Tony Rue, you ain’t creative, Bubba.

The problem with such a notion, however, is that it’s quite... um... unbiblical. Seriously. God has endowed human be-ings—men and women of all backgrounds—with enormous creativity, creativity that often has absolutely nothing to do with our celebrity-addled ideas of talent. Think about the first human being, Adam, and the first command God gave him; depending on which version of creation you read (Genesis 1 or Genesis 2), the commands are different, yet the result is the same: God told Adam, the archetype of all humanity, to be creative. Genesis 1:28 finds God blessing Adam and Eve and commissioning them to “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth . . .”—quite literally to be creative!

In the next chapter, verses 19 and 20, God’s first job for Adam is, again, to be creative: God “brought [the animals] to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.” What an act! The reason we call dogs dogs and zebras ze-bras is because of God’s mandate that Adam think up some-thing good to name all those critters! (As an aside, could it be the same whenever we name a child or a pet? When we do so, are we following in the creative footsteps of our first parents and honoring God all the while?) I have a feeling that God gets a kick out of our creativity; after all, He in-stilled it in us! Can you picture our Creator standing behind a bush watching as Adam named off the animals? I can hear him exclaiming with laughter, “You called it a what? I never would have thought of that! Oh, wait, maybe I would have—I am God, after all. Still, that’s a pretty unique name, Adam—I like it!”

You see, God enjoys beauty, ingenuity, imagination. Can’t

you picture Him weeping at the beauty of a Mozart concerto or gazing in wonder at a Rembrandt? Sure, He probably has a critic’s eye and ear (he did create music and painting, so He probably has a right to be critical of our efforts), but can’t you picture Him beaming with pride when one of His chil-dren—whether a Da Vinci or a three-year-old with greasy crayons—unleashes the creative power He implanted in them? Read the account of two Hebrew artists, Bezalel and Oholiab, in Exodus 31 and 35, or the brief description of the temple in 1 Kings 6 and tell me God wasn’t overjoyed at seeing creativity in multiple forms burst forth for His glory.

I recently read an excellent book about Christianity in mod-ern America, Albert Y. Hsu’s The Suburban Christian: Finding Spiritual Vitality in the Land of Plenty (IVP Books, 2006). In it, he outlines some of the challenges of living in suburbia, and he asserts that one way for Christians to avoid mindless con-sumerism is to be creative—after all, God made us to be so. The relevant passage (pp. 87-88) deserves to be quoted at length:

The very first dimension of God’s character revealed in Genesis is creativity. It is who he is and what he does. This aspect of God’s identity as Creator is likely one of the primary meanings of being created in the image of God. God is creator, and we too are creators. Not in quite the same way, of course, since we do not speak worlds into existence out of nothingness. But we form and reform and shape and make things out of the world around us. We are created to create. As songwriter Mi-chael Card notes, our creative efforts, performed in the presence of God in obedience to his call to creativity, are forms of worship.

The point is that our Creator loves creation: when you and I use the talent He has given us—whether it be for composing music, inventing a new recipe, gardening, scrapbooking, writing code for a computer program, finding a way to clar-ify a difficult concept to a class, or even just naming the fam-ily dog—we make Him smile. We don’t have to be a Mozart or a Rembrandt to be creative. In our daily lives, we can use what God has given us—where He has placed us—in an imaginative fashion: as parents explaining something to their children, as public servants searching for better ways to serve the community, as medical professionals seeking to ease pain. This, my friends, is creativity. This is part of God’s vision for you and me: to express ourselves for His ultimate glory using the unique abilities He has given us. Whether you realize it or not, you are creative.

You can raise your hands now.

PLUMMING THE DEPTHS: Creative Streak By Brian Plummer

“Our creative efforts are forms of worship.”


WORSHIP LEADERS ATTEND CONFERENCE By Timothy D. Nunn

If you have been coming to North Hills Church for any pe-riod of time, you undoubtedly have heard praise songs writ-ten by Tommy Walker. There are two reasons for this: one, he is a great songwriter, and two, he is Pastor Terry’s favor-ite Christian music-maker! Walker has a desire to pass on what he has learned over the years as worship leader at Christian Assembly in Eagle Rock (just down the road from the Eagle Rock SDA Church where Donald Smith used to pastor). To this end he has created a one-day "mini worship conference", which he offers several times a year.

On his web site (www.tommywalker.net), Walker says,

"Because a pastor and a worship leader share the most significant public roles in a church it is absolutely crucial that they are one in spirit and in their concept of what genuine worship is. As a worship leader I'm so aware that the true and actual worship leader in every church is the pastor. In order to have a true impact on worship in the church it is my heart to serve and inspire both pastors and worship leaders together! My pastor Mark Pickerill and I would be honored to share some of the lessons we’ve learned along the way and learn some lessons from you as well as we explore together the never ending journey of serving God and His church!"

So, on Sabbath afternoon, May 24, Pastor Terry, his wife Diana Benson, Steve and Gaby Hoffman, and Tim and Pam Nunn hopped into the Benson-mobile (that sleek white van with the interesting license plate) and headed out to Eagle Rock after our North Hills worship service was over.

The conference began with brief introductions, and then we had a song-sharing period where a few of our fellow worship leaders sang or played their original songs. Walker was pre-pared to give constructive critiques, but admitted that few of them needed much critiquing.

After a few songs were presented he asked if anyone else had a song to share. Five North-Hillian index fingers pointed at Pastor Terry, who subsequently found himself at the key-board singing "I Put My Trust In You," one of his recent

heartfelt songs. Walker said that it moved him with its sin-cerity, as did the other songs. I think he was pleasantly sur-prised at the quality of the songs that were presented.

After the song critique, we broke up into three different groups: techies, singers, and musicians. Steve and Pam went with the techies. Gaby, Diana, and Terry sang their hearts out with the Christian Assembly choir. Of course, I joined the third group! I got to watch Bob Wilson, Tommy's drum-mer, from stage right. I learned a lot while sitting there watching him lead the band from his drum throne. Wilson has been a professional drummer for many, many years and has played many different musical styles. I picked up some valuable lessons that I'll be putting into practice during our worship services here at North Hills Church.

After the choir rehearsal and dinner break (where I didn't have to sing for my supper like Diana, Terry, and Gaby!) we went back into the sanctuary for the 6:00 p.m. service. There, all the guest singers merged with Walker's regular worship team for an amazing evening of magnification and music. Tommy's band sounded fantastic, and the multi-church choir sang up a storm of praise to God. Our worship team members really gave it their all–I was proud of them.

At the conclusion of the service we broke up into groups, and prayed with members of the Christian Assembly congre-gation. We prayed for our respective churches, worship teams, and pastors. Following prayer we assembled again, and took part in a Q & A session with Tommy Walker, who answered questions about writing worship music and his career. He told us how he created some of his songs. He and his pastor Mark Pickerill, like our worship team and Terry, want the music to connect with the topic of the sermon. Sometimes an existing song is appropriate for the service, and other times Walker needs to write a new one to fit the topic at hand. It turns out we all have similar challenges that we face each and every week.

At the end of the day, we headed to the Benson-mobile and back to Claremont. The conference was very rewarding for all of us, and we hope to share what we learned as we serve you at North Hills Church. NHN


Summer time is a good time for babies—and baby dedications! On June 28, North Hills wit-nessed the dedication of two precious infants, Richard and Lisa Tjan’s son Krew, and John and Kat Schroer’s son Kai. Johnny, Kat, and Kai traveled all the way from Pohnpei in Micro-nesia so that Grandpa Tom could personally perform the dedication. It was very special to Johnny, to have his own father dedicate his son. Pastor Tom held on to his grandson Kai (which means “ocean” in the language of the islands) as if he would never let him go. And then Krew was placed in his lap, and Tom never looked happier. Pastor Tom baptized Lisa, married Richard and Lisa, and came full circle with Krew’s dedication.

On July 12, we had another special baby dedica-tion. Herlando Ramsey was home from Kuwait visiting his family—and his church family—so he and his wife Dorita took the opportunity to have their grandchildren dedicated.

Five-year-old Jada Evelyn, daughter of Her-lando Ramsey Jr. and Melissa Martinez, and six-month-old Darrell Dewayne Ramsey Jr, son of Darrel and Chenille Ramsey, could hardly keep from smiling as Pastor Terry prayed a blessing over them.

North Hills Baby Dedications Pastor Tom (middle) with Krew Tjan (left) and Kai

Schroer (right).

From left to right: Pastor Terry, Herlando Ramsey Sr, Jada Evelyn Ramsey, Darrell Dewayne Ramsey Jr. (in his mother’s arms), Chenille Ramsey, Darrel Dewayne Ramsey Sr, and Herlando Ramsey Jr.

MORE BABY NEWS

Congratulations to Andrew Lim and Bo Kim on

the birth of their son, Christian, who was born May 25, 2008.

Congratulations to Arthur Delgado and Leona Halim, whose baby boy Andreas was born April 28, 2008.

NHN


bread blocks away that somehow floats to your nostrils, even with your windows closed. When you smell these things, you are actually taking into your body a microscopic part of those flowers or that bread. It becomes, at least temporarily, a part of you. Jesus referred to Himself as the Bread of Life. That fragrance or that smell is sort of like the emanation from God called the Holy Spirit. It is a real, actual part of God, the living God of the universe that comes to live within us.

My Bible tells me in the book of Jeremiah that god says, “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” I am a part of that space of heaven and earth, so God surrounds me. The space in this room is “filled with God.” To those of us who make the choice to receive God within us, we are filled with this Holy Spirit. God tells us in the bible to ask for the Holy Spirit. He is far more than a fragrance or smell. He is the living power,

the transforming catalyst, the creative imagination and en-ergy of God Himself, which changes us gradually into Christ-like beings. Our Savior, our Source, our transplanted new heart is there—in us by the power of God’s Holy Spirit.

Today I want to tell you not only my mental concept of God, but also about the God I live with every day, the God that affects my every-day life. I have placed my whole life in His hands. He is the one who has brought me through my life experiences—some pretty exciting, some pretty horrible, and some pretty humdrum boring. He’s the one who has been the director, the energy, the counsel to make me who I am today. I believe that I—with my personality and my talents, my looks and my dimensions—I was in God’s mind long before the earth was created. Many multi-millions and billions of people were in His mind, and He wanted a spontaneous, loving relationship with each one of us. That’s why He planned for us to be born—to be in communion and relationship with Him forever.

I believe that God loves me. I can say that today. But there have been many, many times in my past where things were going so badly I couldn’t believe God loved me.

Continued in the next issue of the North Hills News…

This is the second installment of Margaret Baldwin’s talk, which she presented to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Women's Organization, at Baitul Hameed Mosque, Tahir Hall, in Chino, on February 16, 2003. The first part was pub-

lished in the June-July 2008 issue.

H ere comes the story of Adam and Eve. Eve made her choice to eat of the forbidden fruit and Adam joined her. But God already had a solution.

It’s hard for me to comprehend all of the reasons defending His resolution. But God knew if and when a person chose against Him, he (that person) would die because He, God, is the source of life. So God decided to send a part of Himself down here to earth to die in man’s place. He would be a sub-stitute for us if we would choose to serve Him who was our only source of life. Tiny baby Jesus, a minute cell or fetus, was sent here and implanted in Mary, a virgin. He had no earthly father. That was really sort of like an organ trans-plant—a heart transplant. God said, “ I am going to take a part of myself and send this living God-part down to save mankind from their own self-imposed death.”

So Jesus Christ was willing to transform Himself from what-ever form He had prior to His earthly birth, to human form, and retain is forever because He loves us.Such love is beyond our imagination! He was not just a prophet, but He was God. He was a portion of the body of God. I’ll call it a “body” for lack of a better term. None of us have seen God, so we don’t know if God even has a “form.” We do know from the bible that man is made in “the image” of God, and man has a shape.

As an illustration, imagine a man looking at ants, sadly watching them fighting and killing each other. Finally he decides the only way he can help them is to make himself into an ant so he can teach them. But he learns to care for them so much that he decides to be permanently trans-formed. For eternity he will remain an ant, for the sake of the ants he loves so much. Impossible, of course. But in God’s case, it was only a part of Himself that was trans-formed into a human being. But it was for all eternity. After Jesus died and resurrected, He went back to Heaven and is still one with God and is God. But He has retained His hu-man form because He wants to always be able to relate with us. Because He loves us so much!

The third component of God, which is the Holy Spirit, is like the fragrance of flowers wafting through your window on a summer night. It is like the smell of freshly baking

MY CONCEPT OF GOD PART 2 By Margaret Baldwin

“The Holy Spirit is like the fragrance of flowers wafting through your window on a summer night.”

NHN


NHN

tion. Think of how hard it is to organize your life, and fol-low a clear purpose. Think of how hard it is just to remem-ber all the little things you need to do.

What religious teachers, and philosophers, and scientists have discovered, each in a somewhat different way, is that by shifting one’s focus of attention great change is possible. We have an example in the series of messages on Galatians that Pastor Terry has recently completed. You might think that the Apostle Paul is creating a somewhat embarrassing fuss over circumcision. We really don’t like discussing such things in polite company. Why the fuss? Because when cir-cumcision and the entire, intricate law that it represented became the focus of someone’s life, other things went out of focus. People began focusing on how they appeared to oth-ers, and on their pride in their own status and accomplish-ments, and not on Christ as the truly Righteous One, their Savior. The result was darkness in their lives, not light.

Here’s how Paul put it:

Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let your-selves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be cir-cumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteous-ness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus neither cir-cumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. (Gal. 5:2-6, NIV)

What is “the only thing”? That’s right—“faith expressing itself through love.” Now that’s focus!

“The New Mind” is a community-oriented workshop that offers the opportunity to bring positive change into people’s lives as they learn to shift their focus. As Paul wrote, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Rom. 12:2).

In the spirit of the 12-step programs, “The New Mind” workshop seeks to open people’s minds and hearts to the life of God’s kingdom—to light—by shifting from destructive patterns of life focus to a more purposeful, well-aimed life. This workshop could be beneficial to friends, family mem-bers, and acquaintances who are experiencing frustration or emptiness, but who would be reluctant to attend a church. Both scriptural and psychological principles will be pre-sented in an informal, engaging, participative context. It will be held on four consecutive Saturday mornings, 9:00-10:30 a.m., in the Padua Room of the Alexander Hughes Commu-nity Center, beginning August 2. The Alexander Hughes Community Center is located at 1700 Danbury Road, in Claremont. Registration is by calling (909) 560-3905, and submitting the $20 workshop fee.

FOCUS ON THE NEW MIND Continued from page 2

It’s 9:47 on Friday night and I just read Pam’s e-mail inquir-ing about my article for the newsletter that was supposed to be submitted a week ago. She’s too patient, and I’m way too much a procrastinator. Really, it’s more than that–I just can’t seem to focus. I was supposed to share the conclusion of my article from the last issue (part 2), but that will have to wait. I think that the problem is information overload. “Too much of nothin’ can make a man into a liar…” sang Peter, Paul and Mary back in the day. I certainly have that going on everyday. Only thing is that the “nothing” is really too much “something.” And that’s the problem–everything is so importantly critical and so urgent, that it becomes nothing. So when I’m inundated with news–about fires, and Obama’s pastor, and McCain’s wife, and global warming, and suffer-ing puppies, and denominational politics, and pastoral assis-tant applications, and programs, and sermon preparation, and what are we singing tomorrow, and where are my chil-dren today–I can’t think straight. I can’t focus. It’s tempting to just write a “lie,” something blandly encouraging and sentimentally churchy, and… bogus. But I won’t. I’ll let God take care of the truth, and share the promise that comes to my befuddled mind right now: “God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!).” (Eph. 2:4-5, NLT). There. That helps. All the stuff swirling about in my head and in the world–all of it pales compared to this simple truth. No matter how I feel (maybe more dead than alive), no matter what complicated cogitations may be orbiting in my brain, or what uncertainties await me in the next 24 hours, God is merciful to me. God has given life to me. God has delivered me from being sucked into the uncaring vortex of this world’s complexities. God has saved me out of His sheer and amazing grace through the death and resurrection of my Lord, Jesus. Now, there’s something worth writing about… and living for. NHN

LATE AGAIN By Terry Benson


SALAPWUK DONATIONS Hey KidZ, tell your parents! We will be collecting supplies to send to the little school on the island all year long. You can bring old or new school sup-plies, books, and clothes to church, so that we can send it to MAHI International. Bring your dona-tions into the KidZ Kingdom room where we meet for music and songs.

KIDZ KINGDOM CHRONICLES

PROMOTION DAY Get ready to move on up! Sab-

bath School Promotion day will

be on September 13. All kids who

are moving up to a new Sabbath

School class should plan to at-

tend. Bring your parents!

The Children’s Sabbath School

department here at North Hills

needs teachers, both men and

women, for all age groups.

Teaching materials and supplies

are provided. You can volunteer

for weekly, monthly, or quarterly

teaching duties. You will have a

blast interacting with the great

kids of North Hills Church!

Please contact Debi Davis at

[email protected] if you are in-

terested.

MAHI ON THE WEB Want to know more about Pohnpei, Salapwuk, and all the great things that MAHI International is doing in the islands? You can find out by visiting their website, at www.mahi-intl.org.

MAHI International founder John Schroer—or, as we like to call him, Johnny—unloads a bag of clothing donated to the children of Salapwuk, by the people of North Hills.

Sorting the donated books in Pohnpei. Can you see Kai in this picture?

Your donation of $20 will provide a backpack and school supplies for a needy child in our community.

Visit the information table in the foyer.

This year’s goal: 200 Backpacks

Deadline for Donations: August 23

Operation:

Back-to-school

Backpack


VBS Diary North Hills Church held Vacation Bible School from June 23 through June 27, with a special VBS church service on Sab-bath, June 28. If you didn't get a chance to join us, you can find out what happened by reading our VBS diary below...

Tuesday

Zeke the dog is our mascot for VBS. He is so funny when Miss Jeanette asks him a question! Today he said the mem-ory verse - by barking! We are learning to Sprout JOY to-day. God's gift of salvation brings of joy! We also got to "milk" Bessie the cow. She didn't look too happy.

Wednesday

Today we learned to Plant PEACE Our wor-ship team, Ascend, taught us some great songs about peace, and all the other fruit of the Spirit. We love doing the motions to the songs. I think everybody was able to say the memory verse today. We had yummy shish-kabobs for dinner. Boy, the food here is really good!

Thursday

Our fruit of the Spirit today was patience... we learned how to Produce PATIENCE God is always patient with us, and He helps us to be patient with others. There was a really neat puppet show today, showing how we can be patient. We've had great puppet shows all week. I love them!

Friday

Last day of VBS! It’s been so fun, I don't want it to end! The fruit of the Spirit today was kindness, and we learned to Pick KIND-NESS We had a petting zoo, and after the Bible lesson, we got to play with goats, sheep, chickens, a duck, a bunny, a hamster, and a pig. We had pizza for dinner! It was the best day of VBS!

Sabbath

We had VBS in church today! It was a celebration of everything we did in VBS all week long. Ascend led everyone in singing our Son Harvest County Fair songs, and we got to go on stage and do the hand motions! The puppets sang a special song. Pastor Terry made Zeke roll over on stage. Thank you to Jeanette Larrondo, and everyone who helped to make VBS so great! I can't wait till next year!

Monday

The Son Harvest County Fair opened with a splash today - literally! There was a huge water slide on the grassy area by the church. Everybody had so much fun! Inside, the church was turned into a county fair with a big red barn and bales of hay. The County Fair VBS is all about the fruit of the Spirit. Today we learned to Grow LOVE. Because Jesus loves us, we show His love to others! We planted seeds in little pots, so we can watch them grow all week long.

Singing “Good Fruit” at the Son Harvest County Fair!

Milking Bessie the “cow”! Kitchen Crew: Will and Yolanda Brisley, Clyde and Janice Landry. Not pictured: Monique Fletcher

Zeke, our mascot!

This little piggy came to VBS!


Go to www.NHillsChurch.org for changes and updates to the Calendar!

North Hills Calendar of Events

August 2008 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 Quest 7pm

2 New Mind Workshop

3 4 5 Quilting 10am

6 7 Ladies Grp 9:30am Quilting 10am

8 Quest 7pm

9

10 11 12 Quilting 10am


15 Quest 7pm

16 New Mind Workshop

17 18 19 Quilting 10am Board Mtg 7pm


22 Quest 7pm

23 New Mind



29 Quest 7pm

30

31

September 2008 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 Labor Day

2 Quilting 10am


5 Quest 7pm

6 Newsletter Deadline Ascend practice

7 8 9 Quilting 10am

10 11 Patriot Day Ladies Grp 9:30am Quilting 10am

12 Quest 7pm

13

Promotion Day

14 15 16 Quilting 10am Board Mtg 7pm


19 Quest 7pm

20 Ascend practice



26 Quest 7pm

27 New Issue of

North Hills News


New Mind Workshop

Ascend

Beach Party

Op. Backpack Deadline

Welcome to Journeys!

We are all on a journey through this world—an expedition of personal growth and discovery.

The paths we take help us develop and reinforce the spiritual, creative, and social aspects of

our lives.

This is a new section of the North Hills News, provided for the youth of North Hills to give

expression to their personal treks as they gain spiritual maturity. Everything in this section

was written or created by the North Hills youth. Journeys is published as a supplement to the

newsletter during the summer months (when kids are not busy with schoolwork).

We hope you enjoy Journeys. It provides an opportunity to appreciate the paths taken by our

youth, and enjoy their creative endeavors.

The North Hills News staff

Lamb By Wesley Kalousek

From birth to death and all between, He lived for truth, for those He'd seen.

He laid down His life for all mankind, He let Himself be left behind.

The Son of God, when pierced, His hands Broke the bonds between sin and man.

For His mercy is great and His love is pure. When we are with Him, we know for sure

That the way is clear, no need to wait. The path is set, don't hesitate.

For the Kingdom of God is waiting now, For all its people to take their crowns.

Lamb A poem by Wesley Kalousek, Page J1

My Journey to Jackson Article by Jason Le, Page J2

Job 39 Photo montage by Alexis Hill, Page J3

VBS: Spreading His Love Article by Pauline Dyer, Page J4

Table of

Contents

J2 Journeys

“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners…” (Isaiah 61:1)

The year is 1954; the city, Jackson, Mississippi. Teenagers cruise around the town in their parents’ cars, listening to the radio too loudly. Members of the Ku Klux Klan stand along highway exits, passing out pamphlets describing Anglo-

Saxon supremacy. About 45 minutes away, a railroad track separates a town called Mendenhall into two sections: a “white” side and a “black” side. Dr. John Perkins pub-licly speaks out against racism and

social injustice. The year is now 2008, the city, still Jackson, Mis-sissippi. What’s the difference? Only 54 years.

Back in January of this year, a few teachers from Ontario Chris-tian High School led an assembly discussing the issues of social in-justice, and proposed a mission trip to Jackson, Mississippi, to learn how to fight such prob-lems. Two months and a few fundraisers later, 15 students and five teachers were on a plane to Jackson. They were to work with Dr. Perkins and his foundation to rebuild the community of Jackson, in order to prove that injustice can be fought. I was one of the students on that plane.

Spending a week in Jackson was one of the greatest experi-ences of my life. I’ve learned so much; I’ve had my eyes opened to much more. Every day would begin with a Bible study led by either Dr. Perkins himself or his good friend and colleague, Professor Lowell Noble. This was often fol-lowed by a full day of work on the Perkins Foundation, re-storing the neighborhood. On other days, we would tour the downtown area of Jackson, as well as other places men-tioned in Dr. Perkins’ book, Let Justice Roll Down, which is a recollection and reflection of his experiences speaking out against racism in the difficult times of southern integration. To be involved with something we had just spent two months discussing and learning about in school was almost surreal, yet simultaneously tangible.

We became part of the community. We lived and worked among the people. Some of us went further into the neighborhood to help paint houses for a sister organiza-tion, while others remained at the Perkins Foundation to help there. We landscaped, built a patio, washed cars – you name it, we did it. We toured the cities of Jackson and Mendenhall, each the site of oppression and injustice personally experienced by Dr. Perkins. We visited the house of Medgar Evars, a strong Social Justice activist who was assassinated, and learned about his history and his work. On another night, we were

given the opportunity to serve a local homeless shelter, distributing food to all who simply needed a warm meal.

Despite hearing all of the stories and accounts of social injustice still occurring today, specifi-cally in Jackson, Mississippi, we had no time to ask, “Why isn’t this being changed? Why isn’t anybody caring?” We had no time simply be-cause we knew that we were the change. We knew that we were the ones caring about the crimes against those around us. As we sat on the plane flying back to Los Angeles, we in-stead asked ourselves a different question:

“How can we show everyone else that this needs to change?”

Do Justice; Love Mercy; Walk Humbly:

My Journey to Jackson By Jason Le

Ontario Christian High School students with Dr. Perkins (middle), giving the “OC” (Ontario Christian) sign.

Dr. Perkins addresses the students.

Journeys J3

- Job 39 -

Verses 19-25

"Do you give the horse his strength or

clothe his neck with a flowing mane

Do you make him leap like a locust, striking terror with his proud snorting?

He paws fiercely, rejoicing in his strength, and charges into the fray.

He laughs at fear, afraid of nothing; he does not shy away from the sword.

The quiver rattles against his side, along with the flashing spear and lance.

In frenzied excitement he eats up the ground; he cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds.

At the blast of the trumpet he snorts, ‘Aha!' He catches the scent of battle from afar, the shout of commanders and the battle cry.

Photos by Alexis Hill

J4 Journeys

Vacation Bible School was the best way to start off an awesome summer. I was amazed at the amount of kids that showed up, and the dedication they put into learning about the fruits of the spirit. This year our youth band, As-cend, had the honor of leading out with the songs and motions for the little ones. Everyday at 6:00 pm we kicked off the evening with songs like “Good Fruit” and “God’s Love in Me.”

My personal favorite was a song titled “Spread His Love.” By the third day of VBS, the kids knew all the songs. When I said that we were going to sing “Spread His Love,” they would quietly protest it because it was the "slow" song. It was hilarious to hear them complain. I just love this song because it talks about going out and spreading God’s love to people around us. It touches my heart to see these

four- and five-year-olds spreading God’s love to one another. It’s amaz-ingly overwhelming.

In VBS we are supposed to be the ones teaching the kids, and I know the teachers did a great job of this. But personally, I felt the kids were teach-ing me so much! Children are so pure-hearted and pure-minded, just as in

Matthew 18:2-6, where it says, “He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: 'I tell you the truth, unless you change and be-come like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of God.'”

Being a part of Vacation Bible School, and just being around the kids, really taught me to be more humble and pa-tient, and to not be afraid to reach out to my neighbor. I also learned that we serve a FUN GOD!

VBS: Spreading His Love By Pauline Dyer

Behind the scenes at the VBS puppet show.

volume 2, number 4 • august-september 2008 • north hills ... · north hills church 1717 n....

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