NOVEMBER CALENDAR
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1
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Worship
& Music Committee - 11am
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16
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Bible Study
- 10am
Women of
the Church - 1pm
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2
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Bible Study
- 10am
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17
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Choir - 7pm
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3
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Choir - 7pm
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20
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Worship - 10am
Sunday
School - 10:15am
Chime Choir
- 11:30am
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6
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Consecration Sunday
Worship - 10am
Sunday
School - 10:15 am
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23
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Bible Study
- 10am
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9
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Bible Study
- 10am
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24
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Thanksgiving Day
Church Office Closed
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10
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Choir - 7pm
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25
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Church Office Closed
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13
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Worship -
Communion - 10am
Sunday
School - 10:15 am
Chime Choir
- 11:30 am
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27
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Worship - 10am
Sunday
School - 10:15am
Chime Choir
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15
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Consistory
- 7:15pm
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Operation Christmas Child - We will be collecting the shoeboxes on November 14th.
Please see Toni Houston for more information.
Organ and
Choir Concert - featuring
favorite hymns of the presidents, on Sunday, Nov. 13
at 4pm
at Christ Episcopal Church, 20
Carroll Street, Poughkeepsie.
Shall we get together
and go? Connie Lacey and some of our choir members will be
participating. Part of the program
will be a sing-a-long. The concert is free, however donations will be
accepted to benefit a local
“Wounded Warriors” project which assists hospitalized veterans. We would
like to have a
group of us attend, and as done previously with other events, the Activities
committee would
assist with rides / carpool -- contact Karen Twohig to arrange.
The
Holidays are here… Please
plan to stay a little longer on Sunday, December 4th after
coffee hour to join in the Hanging of the
Greens. There is lots to do and the more
helpers
we have, the more fun it becomes..
Caroling
to our homebound - Would
you like to share some Christmas
cheer with our
homebound church family members? We will be
caroling to our homebound on Sunday, Dec. 11
at 2 pm. We will car
pool from the DuBois House and return for a light supper. Please join us!
Everyone is welcome! There will
be a sign-up sheet outside Fellowship Hall.
If you or anyone you
know needs, on a temporary basis, a ride to a doctor, a
meal delivered, a
friendly supportive visit or phone call , please call a
deacon closest to you:
Linda Baron (evenings), Wappingers Celeste Rudberg,
Wapp./East Fishkill
Barbara
Harty, Wappingers Stan Saya, Wappingers
John Houston,
Hopewell
Jct.
Karen Twohig, Beacon
COFFEE HOUR
In the list of dates and names below, the first name
on the list serves as the host. This means calling the other names on the list
for that day and seeing who will bring what, including juice and milk.
If someone on the list has a commitment before
or after worship, than the group can make arrangements as to who will set up,
who will keep the creamer pitcher full and who will clean up.
Maisie Minot makes sure the coffeepots are on
and full. Those serving make sure the coffee pots are cleaned and all the
tables and counters wiped down with the water/bleach mixture found in the spray
bottle. Please take the dirty dish towels home for a wash and bring them back
the next week.
If
you are not able to do the coffee hour on your scheduled date, please find a
replacement and call the church office with the name of your replacement. If
you have any concerns regarding your availability at this time to do coffee
hour due to health or other large issues, please contact Karen Twohig.
If anyone plans to bring food to coffee
hour for a special occasion, please notify the host for that date. Thanks to everyone for your continued
hospitality!
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
6
- Consecration Sunday 4 H
- Hoffman, Nolting, Porter
13 H -
Schmidt, Utter,
Nace 11 H
- Falcone, Covell, Crawford
20 - Thanksgiving
Meal
18 H - Jones - Wynn, Sanders,
Carruthers
27 H -
Van Nostrand,
DiYeso, Gillert 25 -
Christmas
Thanksgiving Dinner
Let’s make it happen! Sunday,
November 20th , after church. Many hands make light work -- and the
involvement of many, rather than
a few, is the fair way to make any task into fellowship, rather than just work.
We need help at all levels --
set-up, food prep, roasting turkeys at home, carving turkeys and pies,
clean-up.
Look for a sign-up sheet soon!
Caroling at Hedgewood
The Women of the Church will be caroling at the Hedgewood Adult Home in
Beacon on Wednesday, Dec. 7th.
We will meet at the DuBois House at 1:30pm to carpool. If you cannot join us, but would like
to contribute
cookies, please leave them in the DuBois House by 1:30pm. Otherwise, please remember to bring
cookies &
smiles when you join us on December 7th.
Jean Winkler, the Activities Director at Hedgewood, says that the
residents have been asking when we are
coming. They have a new piano, at Hedgewood, that Claudia is enjoying
playing.
Christmas Services
On Christmas Eve, there will be one
service at 8pm. On
Christmas Day, there will be one service at 10am, with
the celebration of the Sacrament of Communion.
Notes from
October Consistory Meeting
· Elder Antje
Landanno led devotions based on Psalm 133 and Isaiah 2. She recalled life in
Germany and the effects of the dictatorship and closed
borders had on life, relationships and
the
church. Freedom, peace and unity are gifts Christ gives to the church.
· Treasurer’s
Operating Report shows September revenues totaling $17,309 and expenses
totaling
$16,158.
· November 19 is
Work Day at the Church. The Scouts will be raking and the siding will be
taken
off the DuBois House. Workers are needed to help with the yard work and
removing the
siding.
· Wells Fargo
Investments as of September 30th
were valued at $317, 223. Income earned
is
designated for specific projects.
· Fishkill Food
Pantry grants received for July 2011 - June 2012 at the Cornwall-on-Hudson
Food
Bank, total $11,620.
· CCS will hold a
silent auction Art Show, featuring the children’s art work.
· Hanging of the
Greens will be after worship on December 4.
· Next regular
Consistory meeting is November 15th, 7:15pm.
+ +
+ + +
Women
of the Church
The Women of the Church will again be providing a pair of socks for
each resident at the Hedgewood
Adult Home in Beacon. We need 95
pair for men and 60 pair for women. Please help us meet this goal.
You may leave socks in the church or the DuBois House. We appreciate it
if you would leave them by
Sunday, November 13.
We will meet in the DuBois House Parlor at 1pm on Wednesday, November 16th , to
wrap them. All women are invited to join
us! Please bring wrapping paper,
scissors and tape. Come and share in fellowship and
refreshments. Thank You!
Poinsettias!
It’s time to order poinsettia’s
to decorate the sanctuary during the Christmas season. The cost is $8.50 per
plant, payable to Women of the Reformed Church, at the
time you place your order. The deadline
is Dec. 4.
Please sign up on the list in the
Christian Ed Building entryway, or call the church office at 896-9836.
You may give your payment to Liz Alexander,
Dorrie Hansen or place it in the offering plate in church.
Please note on the check that it
is for a poinsettia. Thank you!
2012
Sanctuary Flowers
If you would like to place flowers in the sanctuary next year, please
sign up on the Flower Chart, on the
bulletin board in Fellowship Hall or call the church office. The cost
is $40 a Sunday, payable to
Women of the Reformed Church, at the time they are placed. Thank you for enhancing
the beauty of the
sanctuary by your gift!
BSA Troop 65
Venture Crew 65
First
Reformed Church
Fishkill, New York
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November News
Troop & Crew 65 have enjoyed a
busy autumn so far. They kicked-off the new scouting year
with a local service project. The Scouts
& Crew members volunteered for the Revolutionary War
Encampment Weekend at the Van Wyck Homestead
Museum in Fishkill on September 18th and 19th.
20 scouts and 4 crew members camped
overnight at the Homestead
for two nights and assisted
the Fishkill Historic Society and Friends of
the Fishkill Supply Depot as they staged re-enactments, gave
tours and demonstrated colonial-era spinning
& weaving, blacksmithing and music.
September also marked the beginning
of the annual popcorn sales fundraiser. Troop and Crew
members buddy-up to sell door to door and in
groups at “shown & sell” events throughout the community
in September and October. The revenue from
these sales helps to fund many of the activities that the
Troop and Crew participate in throughout the
year.
The Crew also planned the Second
annual Venture Fellowship Weekend, September 30 - October
2,2011. It was held at Camp Nooteeming
in Salt Point and the theme was Venturing in the Tropics. Yes,
we had a little rain but that didn’t dampen
the Venturing Spirit.
Friday night after everyone was
checked-in, all 58 Ventures tried their hand at geocaching
at
night - one of the core requirements for the
Ranger Award. Saturday brought a multitude of activities-
whittling a Tiki
man, fishing (Sunfish and Bass were the catch of the day), archery, rifle
shooting,
geocaching and
festive fruit arrangements for the Luau. The day culminated with a Hawaiian
Luau
complete with a DJ, dancing, and trivia. The
final campfire brought all together including the Order of the
Arrow Indian dancers.
Mr. Tucholski was awarded his Wood
Badge Beads as part of the campfire ceremony. Wood
Badge is a training course for adults that
consists of two 3-day weekends with training and completion of
a project called “Your Ticket.” Upon completion, you receive a special
neckerchief, beads and a lifetime
membership in Gilwell
Troop 1.
This past weekend the Venture Crew
volunteered at the Haunted Harvest Festival at Camp
Nooteeming. This
event is for Cub scouts and families. The day long event themed for Halloween
is run
annually and staffed by volunteers from the
Hudson Valley Council. The Crew worked the donut-making
station. Crew members made approximately
4670 donut holes covered in either powdered sugar or
cinnamon and sugar. No Crew member was
interested in eating donuts by the end of the day.
Crew 65 is growing. We have 5 new
members and another youth will be attending an up coming
meeting to see what it is all about.
If you would like more
information regarding scouting opportunities, activities, or service projects,
please check out our website at www.troop65fishkill.scoutlander.com or contact Ed Tucholski,
Scoutmaster, or Venture Crew Advisor Stacey
Tucholski.
Chartered Organization: First Reformed Church 1153 Main Street, Fishkill, New York 12524
Meetings: Monday
Evenings 7:00-8:30 PM during
the school year
Brinkerhoff Elementary School 16 Wedgewood
Road Fishkill, New
York
12524
Southern Dutchess & Putnam Sportsman’s Club Cedar Hill Road Wappingers Falls, NY 12590
Dear Friends,
September 2011
“And let us
also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces
perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” These are the
familiar words of Paul to the Romans which provide a profound formula for us to
live by albeit a bit ‘untouchable’ because of the word ‘suffering.’ In any
case, many peoples and cultures even live out this formula not by choice but
through the reality of their circumstances. In reflecting on this formula, I’m
wondering if it isn’t a link to answering a frequent question posed by visitors
to Niger
(and many other places in the world like it, I suspect.) Recently, a volunteer
who was with us asked, “How is it that people here seem to have so much hope
despite their circumstances and how little they have?”
We as
Christians, of course, testify that our hope comes from our faith in Jesus
Christ which I firmly believe. However, if you have had the privilege of
traveling in some of the ‘less developed’ regions of the world, you may have
noticed people living there with surprising ‘hope’ and there is a fair chance
that those people weren’t Christian. Needless to say, you don’t have to be a
Christian to have hope. To go a step farther, many would agree that ‘Christian
societies’ including our own tend to be where the least ‘hope’ is found despite
the fact that the majority of people have their basic needs met. To be clear,
I’m not saying that ‘less developed’ is the equivalent of suffering or that
‘poverty’ for that matter equals suffering as one does not necessarily lead to
the other. What could be said is that often the causes of ‘suffering’ are much
more prevalent in ‘less developed’ countries. These causes include poor access
to healthy food and water, healthcare, education, vocation, and other basic
infrastructures. There is also injustice, oppression, inequality, wars and acts
of violence… So the startling bottom line is that hope seems to be no less
present where there is an abundance of suffering and where Jesus Christ’s Name
may not even be known. Nor is hope more present where one would say suffering
is relatively minimal and where Jesus’ name is preached regularly. One would
think that in the context where most of the factors causing suffering are
eliminated that the culture and people would be more hopeful?! However, this
isn’t evident either.
The
formula in Romans 5:3 suggests that the element of suffering, produces the quality
of perseverance which then produces character which results in ‘hope’! I’m not
a theologian, and I realize the possibility exists of taking this verse and
formula out of its proper context, however the formula seems to be saying that
where suffering exists and eventually perseverance and character, that hope
will be found. This appears to be true at least in the context of Niger. Although
the Nigerien people are not strangers to suffering and perseverance they have
an amazing hope and positive outlook on life (and the vast majority are
Muslim).
I
recently read a related theme in one of my favorite books called ‘The Gift of
Pain’ by Paul Brand and Phillip Yancey. The author describes the connection
between pleasure and pain and he arrives at the conclusion that where one seeks
to find pleasure by avoiding all pain it can be very elusive if not impossible
to attain. But pleasure can be found where pain is not absent.
So I
will stop trying to be philosophical and
share some practical thoughts about perseverance. This morning as I was working
on a construction project with some of the young men that help us at CADR, this
verse from Romans 5:3 came to my mind. It wasn’t suffering but perseverance
that brought it to mind as this project has been one of slow progress and
frequent failure. We are building walls to enclose a carport where our
‘students’ will live. The walls are being built out of ‘rammed earth’ which is
an experiment we are trying that makes use of
local material (a specific ratio of mixed soil with water and a small
amount of cement) and MUCH labor to build at lower cost. Here in Niger, the
context for this method seems appropriate because of low labor costs, high
price of cement, and better thermal properties of the walls. The building we
are closing in we recently moved to prepare the future building site for the
health clinic which we also hope to build out of stabilized earth but not using
the same method. In the process, we have taken two steps forward and three
backward on numerous occasions which brings me back to the topic of
perseverance. Many if not all of our activities here in Niger seem to
move forward in a similar way to the point where I am finally beginning to
appreciate and notice the value of perseverance! (Maybe there is hope for me!)
Here are
a few conclusions! I certainly do not consider that I or my family have been
subjected to significant suffering living here in Niger (although the hot season is
temporarily forgotten). I have learned much on the value of perseverance and
believe that it certainly does have the capacity to build hope. Many times here
the phrase is heard, “Better a program or project with slow progress than one
that grows very quickly.” I am encouraged when we hear this as it seems that we
are still laying foundations for many projects even after having been here for
nearly four years! There are many reasons that working with a church partner
rather than using an NGO model makes work advance slowly. The church leaders
are scattered over a large geographic area, general leadership capacity needs
to be developed and there is a constant
temptation for projects to be oriented for individual gain rather than
for building the kingdom. So we pray and wait and move forward as doors open.
We are grateful that we were recently able to buy medical equipment from Peace
Corps, which has left Niger
definitively. We are excited about several possibilities in the coming months:
the beginning of construction on the health clinic, a team that is planning to
come and help finish the guesthouse, and preparations for teaching vocational
skills to young people. Please pray for our perseverance in these endeavors as
well as for our Nigerien colleagues. We thank you also for your perseverance in
prayer for us. May your hope increase with your perseverance!
In Christ,
Jeremy for the Beebouts
Jeremy and Susan Beebout work with the Evangelical Church of the
Republic of Niger (EERN) to build ministry programs, enabling Nigerien Christians
to share Christ’s love with the people of Niger by addressing their health
and agricultural needs. Jeremy, an agronomist, works with agricultural
development efforts. Susan, who is a doctor,
helps develop the church’s health ministries. The couple has three
children, Lydia,
Eliza, and Abigail.
A Heartfelt Thank You…
to all who
helped and those who shopped at our De Kerk Winkel. While we would like to have
seen more
customers from the community, at least we can
take pride that our tables were laden with lovely gifts, the
food
served from our kitchen was again delicious, and the fellowship of those
of us there was certainly felt.
The money we did raise will be put to good
use by our church. Thank you all!
The Stewardship Committee
Linda Baron, Jan Utter, Susan
Wynn and Celeste Rudberg
Croatia
Update
Teaching,
students fill final months in Croatia
By Nancy
Titus
The
welcome, cooler air of autumn has ushered in our seminary's
academic year and quickly brought us to our capacities as we teach classes and
plan for our return to the United
States.
November will
be a busy month by any standard. Eric is teaching his classes in the modular
format so that they can be completed before we leave. I also am teaching as
many sessions as possible of my English classes in addition to directing our homeschool. On top of that, we will be packing up, selling,
or giving away all of our belongings so that we will be ready to leave Croatia on Dec.
28, the date of our airline tickets.
We all need your prayers during this emotional
time, but we especially ask for you to pray for physical strength for Eric as
he finishes his teaching duties at such a rigorous pace. Teaching in the
modular format means two weeks of lecturing for six hours on Mondays, and three
hours each on Tuesdays through Fridays. Then he has two master's level seminar weekends, which require Friday and
Saturday sessions. Once those classes
are finished, Eric will have a short break and then will travel to Timisoara, Romania,
for another master's level course at
an extension site there.
He is excited
about this opportunity to share his gifts with students, and I know students
are looking forward to the classes as well. He will teach Eschatology and
Contemporary Issues in Theology to the undergraduates and Systematic Theology
Seminars for the master's students.
For my part, I am finding my seminary classes
particularly engaging. The students are fun to be around and seem to enjoy the
opportunity to improve their writing. I am teaching Composition I and III. This
is the first time we have needed the third-level comp class (the second-level
course is taught in the spring), and we have new books provided by the RCA to
support student writers and give solid assistance even after we are gone. All
of which are personally gratifying. I plan to teach as many classes as I can
before handing the courses over to a colleague to finish out the semester,
which ends in February 2012.
Our children
also are engaged in their homeschool classes, with
courses both at home and on-line. Samuel is now a junior in high school,
pursuing his diploma through a classical school called Veritas Press Scholars
Academy. Both Valerie, in
the eighth grade, and Penny, in the sixth, take on-line courses through Veritas as well, but the bulk of their education is
home-based. This year, we have fixed up an office at the seminary to be our
special school classroom. It is two
doors down from my office, which makes
it easier on me as I move back and forth from the children's school to seminary duties. It also gives them a
chance to get out of the house more, which itself is a welcome change.
As you can imagine, we also are trying to
make sure we do some of the things we have always wanted to do while in Croatia. Our
schedules are filling up fast, but we are making room to spend quality time
with friends and colleagues, whom we have met along the way. By the time most of you read this, we will
have just returned from a homeschool co-op event that allowed the older children to
go to Monte Negro for a spiritual retreat and Penny to do some learning
activities with others her age. The location of this event also will have
allowed the family to visit the beautiful and famous Croatian coast, something
we have always wanted to do but have not been able to do before now.
As we enter
the last phase of our service in Croatia, we are so grateful to you,
our supporters, for making it possible. We are honored to serve as your
missionaries here in Croatia,
and know that wherever God leads us, you will always be in our hearts.
Eric and Nancy Titus are
RCA missionaries in Osijek,
Croatia, where
they work at the Evangelical Theological Seminary and with the Reformed
Christian Church in Croatia.
They will end their service in December 2011. They have three children: Samuel,
17, Valerie, 13, and Penny, 11.
The newsletter of the First 