Awesome Weekend at the Harvest Festival
A few of the daycare kids ready for the parade to start
[/caption]Thanks so much for everyone who helped this weekend at the Knox Harvest Festival. We handed out gallons upon gallons of water and bags upon bags of popcorn. All with a big smile!
Our daycare kids also participated in the parade on Saturday. They loved throwing out candy and waving to the crowd! What a fantastic weekend! Again thank you thank you thank you for everyone who made it happen!
Be A Part…
We have great things coming up here at COTH-Starke County. You will want to be a part of something! Here’s the rundown:
Fri-Sun, August 28-29 Harvest Festival Outreach, Knox – our church and daycare will have a booth and be giving out free popcorn, water, and smiles!
Saturday, August 29 Harvest Festival Parade – our daycare with many of the children will be participating in the parade
Week of September 6th – 1000 mailers will be going to families in Knox inviting them to “Back to Church” Sunday
Thursday, September 10 – our church will be placing door hanger invites to 300 homes in North Judson
Saturday, September 12 – our church will be bringing an inflatable to the Family Fun Days at Golden Living Center in Knox
Finally, Sunday, September 13 – Back to Church Sunday!!
Shew, it’s going to be an intense month of reaching out to our community. We are a church that loves our community and the people who live here. You’re participation is vitally important! A quote that I’ve been trying to live by lately goes, “to care and to do nothing is actually not caring at all”. We will not be a church to stand by and do nothing when people around us are hurting. Email me if you would like to participate in any of these events listed: lyndeelou26@hotmail.com
Back to Church Sunday
At Church of the Heartland, we are really excited about Back to Church Sunday! We’re tired of our friends and family slipping away from God and are ready to partner with Him to get them back.
Church of the Heartland is gearing up for Back to Church Sunday: As millions of Americans head back to school, organizers of a new faith-based outreach campaign hope that millions more will come back to church as well. The “Back to Church Sunday” campaign makes it easy for church members to invite their friends and family by creating a worship service specifically geared toward visitors.
The program kicks off with national “Back to Church Sunday” on Sept.13 aimed at reaching the “un-churched” and “de-churched”- people who used to go to church, but don’t any more. The campaign is based on a simple idea. If you ask un-churched people to come with you to church-mostly likely they’ll say yes.
LifeWay Research found that 82 percent of un-churched people surveyed said that they’d be open to visit a church, if a friend or family member invited them. Unfortunately, said Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay, few church members invite their friends and neighbors. “Only two percent of church members invite an un-churched person to church,” he says. “Ninety-eight percent of churchgoers never extend an invitation in a given year.”
Come on Church of the Heartland – let’s all invite someone on September 13th!
Walk in Love
I was reading the afternoon in 2 John. “And this is love: that we walk in obedience to His commands. As you have heard from the beginning, His command is that you walk in love.” v6
While away for a few days I’ve been reading a novel called The Shack. It has an interesting take on the relationship of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and how we relate to Him. Our minds – especially mine – has a difficult time grasping the true relationship God desires to have with us. When we really love Him following His commands are not a regiment set of rules. It just happens. We can discover its a normal way of existence – following God’s commands is actually to live in a state of perpetual satisfaction. Who wouldn’t want to be there? I’m really asking God to help me understand more and more what it means for me to walk in Love.
Harvest Festival Outreach
Are you ready to love some people in our community? I love that we are a church with 100% participation! Coming up at the end of August is the Harvest Festival in Knox. Our church is going to be there handing out free water and popcorn with big ol’ smiles!
You can be a part of this community outreach. Over the next few Sundays we will be passing around a volunteer sign-up sheet. Or email me if you would like to be a part – lyndeelou26@hotmail.com
It’s time to get people and families BACK TO CHURCH and your friendly face is needed to do this!
HOGSIX ROCKED!
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- Cooking some dogs over the fire
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- Tug-A-War
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- Volleyball
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- Hog Dog Eating Contest
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- Message from Pastor Shawn
HOGSIX this Thursday
I just had an awesome time with some of Starke County’s finest young people – a shout out to Kaiza, Miranda, AJ, and Layne!! These incredible youth just spent the last 2 hours boldly handing out invites around town to HOGSIX this Thursday. Along with another incredible group of COTH-Plymouth youth group youngins, a total of around 100 personal invites were given out in Knox tonight!
You will want to be there! Here’s the scoop:
Outdoor Youth Concert & Bonfire
Thursday, August 6
5:00-9:00p CT
at Church of the Heartland-Starke County
Live Band
Free Food
Inflatables, Volleyball, Basketball
Crazy, Insane amount of Fun
For youth in grades 6 – 12
Invite everyone you know!
I Need More Information!
Shawn & I have decided we are not experts when it comes to parenting. Shocker, I know! Probably in large part because we’ve only been doing it for a few years! But we really need to figure this out before adorable Abigail and cute Jack-Jack become teenage monsters!
We are really in to listening to audiobooks and podcasts on the Ipod. I personally love it during my daily walks. Sometimes its my only “me” time during the day. Just this week I downloaded a bunch of James Dobson’s Focus on the Family podcasts dealing with child-rearing issues. I can’t wait to get more information in this area.
So here’s my point in all of this – we don’t always have answers. We need to seek out information. There’s nothing wrong with not knowing something but not ever seeking knowledge is just plain crazy. God even says in Proverbs 10:14 “Wise men store up knowledge, but the mouth of a fool invites ruin.”
Here’s your challenge today: In what area of your life do you need more knowledge – marriage, finances, time management, child rearing, career advancement? Don’t ever stop learning!
Summer in the Heartland Festival a Smashing Success
Wow, can we put on a festival or what? Our first ever Summer in the Heartland Festival was incredible, awesome, fantastic and more adjectives I can’t think of right now 
We guestimated 300 – 350 Heartlanders attended. And, boy, do we know how to eat! We ran out of hot dogs and hamburgers twice!
Pastor Heath said it well, “we have the best of both worlds – the intimacy of a small church with the combined abilities and resources of a megachurch” I love how we do church together!
