01/06/05

God’s blessings on you and yours in this first week of the New Year of
our Lord, 2005.

The Hockenberry family is back in town, back to work, back to school –
back to reality, as are most all of you as well.

This Sunday we are also back to our regular schedule for Worship (8:30
and 10:40) and Sunday School (9:30). And this Sunday is the Baptism of the
Lord – and we have the opportunity to renew our baptism. I am still
looking for elders willing to help in individual prayers for those who come for
a personal time of renewal. Please let me know at ken@beulahpresbyterian.com

Surely the largest prayer concern in our world these days is for the
people of Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Thailand. It is as many of us felt after
9/11 – “Who can believe what we have seen?”

This Sunday I would like to use our Wood Offering Box to collect
donations for the relief effort. So far about $300 has come in with last
Sunday’s offering. These funds will be sent to the special PCUSA account set
up, through our One Great Hour of Sharing fund, to this effort. If you
want to read about this in particular, go to http://www.pcusa.org/ and read
more about our church’s efforts thus far. Already $300,000 in funds have
been dispatched – made possible by our One Great Hour of Sharing offerings
over the years.

Judy also sent this to me – about efforts at the Presbyterian Center –
since we have people from the Center traveling the world at any given time,
and one was in Sri Lanka when the tsunami hit. I know Chris Nicholas very
well, as I work with him at GA meetings each year.


Dear Friends,

We have all been shocked and appalled by the images of the great
Tsunami in Indonesia and Thailand. Down here at the headquarters for the
Presbyterian Church we have folks that are continually traveling around the world.

Chris Nicholson, from the Office of the General Assembly, and his
family were in Sri Lanka at the time of the Tsunami. Fortunately he and his
family were spared any injury. They have decided to remain in the area for as
long as they can be of support.

Here at the Center, we are collecting the following to be sent to him
in Sri Lanka. These items are urgently needed. If you wish to donate
specific items please bring them to church for the next 3 Sundays (9, 16, and
23) and I will bring them downtown to be shipped directely to Chris in Sri
Lanka. The items that are urgently needed are:

* clothes (no winter clothing)
* aspirin
* vitamin C
* gauze
* Neosporin
* bandages

Bring these items to the church and put them in a shopping cart in the
library and I'll collect them and bring them down town to be shipped to
Sri Lanka.

I continue to enjoy my work here and find new challenges at least weekly.

However, I miss greatly my role in pastoral care of the people and I
even miss preaching (although not quite as much). I will have the honor of
preaching at my home church, First Presbyterian Church of Arlington
Heights, on Sunday, February 13, as part of a year long celebration of their
150th anniversary. Please pray for me as I prepare for that sermon. It is
very daunting to "go back home". My church provided $3000 each year of my
seminary education and in 1983-1986 that covered most of my room and
board at Princeton.

Please keep my mother in your prayers. She underwent some surgery on
Tuesday (1/4) and they are now concerned that she had a heart attack
during the surgery. She is conscious and able to talk on the phone and the
surgery itself went extremely well. My mom is Lois Hartung and she is 73 years
old.

Thanks in advance for responding to the mission opportunity. As my
visits to other churches has now extended beyond this area as far west as
Denver, I continue to be amazed by the gifts, talents, and wealth that Beulah
possesses and the incredible people and ministry that live and happen
in our midst.

Blessings, Judy

As Judy mentions, if you want to bring these items to the church, we
will see that they get sent along to Chris – a direct, hands on mission, to
those in need.

On our prayer list: I am going within the hour to pray with Kelsey
Blake, daughter of Melinda Smith, a 9th grader, who is having knee surgery
again on her knee. She hopes to be ready for soccer this fall.

We continue in our prayers of Cliff Stout, Joy Straub (who had cataract
surgery on Monday), Brook Seymour (recovering from pneumonia), and Jim
Williams (who begins radiation treatments soon).

Hope to see many of you in worship this Sunday – and if you are unable
to be here for worship, please know our prayers are with you and yours as we,
as a church family, renew our baptism – our inclusion in God’s covenant of
steadfast love and grace, our welcome into the family of God, our
cleansing and healing by Christ’s sacrifice on and victory over the cross – and
our guaranteed assurance of the Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives as we
live and work to be faithful in Christ’s service in the world.

Grace and peace to you all.

Pastor Ken H.