Light of Christ Update

It's been awhile, hasn't it?

I thank my God every time I remember you. 

In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 

because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.  
Philippians 1:3-5

This is how I feel about Light of Christ!  How thankful I am for the committed partnership of so many good folks at our church.  We have been so blessed, from the beginning right up till now.

And in the past six months, God has sent us more good people!  About eight new regulars--all singles and couples with no kids, which helps to skew our demographic a bit more in the adult direction, although we are still may be more than 50% kids.  We also enjoy our random visitors, plus a few folks who just occasionally show up yet again.

If all the regulars, semi-regulars and visitors all end up at church on the same day, it's starting to feel a bit full in our regular meeting space, the Kemper Chapel.  So one of our new developments is a committee (appointed by the vestry--ah, so thankful for a vestry to oversee these things!) to look at our space needs and begin to nose around Kenosha for other possible spaces for us to worship in.  It's my personal hope that we can find space that we can rent full-time, rather than just on Sunday mornings, so that we can have weekly activities and meetings at the church facility, leave our sound system up during the week for music rehearsals, and have a sign out front, so that we become more of a geographical presence in the community.  (There are plenty of other things on my wishlist, too!)

Another exciting thing is that two of our new members are actually old friends!  We all used to attend our old church, Church of the Resurrection, together, and they were actively involved in leadership there right up to the day they moved to Kenosha.  (Actually, they were still phasing out even after they moved.)  We are so excited by the gifts, talents, leadership and friendship they bring.  It's so good to have them here.

The husband has immense experience doing sound, and this past Sunday, he set up and ran our soundboard like it needs to be run!  We've been setting levels and hoping for the best, with mixed results; sometimes the congregation can hear the singers/guitar/piano, sometimes they can't. I have been singing with the worship team a couple times a month, and it was great this morning to have the sound in such good hands.  What a difference!

On a sad note, we are probably losing one family, but it's to a great job opportunity and a chance for them to move to an area where they can do more urban ministry, which is on their hearts.  So we are happy for them, but they certainly will be missed.

For the fall, we've added our Sunday School hour back in, and we have a class for every age group this time.  Last season we didn't have an adult class because we were too "short-staffed" just covering the kids' classes. I am so grateful for all of our Sunday School teachers, and I'm eager to attend the adult class.  (I've been in music rehearsals for the past two weeks, which we have to hold at the same time.)

We have a neat church tradition of gathering for a meal and a talent show 2-3 times a year, and I am coordinating our next one, in early November.  It's a great chance for our kids to play a piano piece, sing a song, or perform with a group--we have two budding "bands" already!  It's also fun for the adults to prepare something (to show the kids how it's done).  We've had recitations, original poetry, readings, solos, duets and ensembles.  Usually we end with a "dance."  This involves fun music and whatever moves you got.  For the kids, it means spinning around in crazed circles until we put on the Hokey Pokey or the Cha Cha Slide and attempt some structure.  But it's always a fun time, and I am looking forward to it!

We are also holding Newcomer's/Membership lunches/classes on several Sundays in October.  I am looking forward to getting to know some of our newer folks at these.

Oh, and a big thank you to those who regularly keep us in prayer!  In my sidebar, I've asked for prayer for a guitarist and a drummer for our worship team.  Well, the new member mentioned above, who does sound, is also a percussionist.  In our current location, we don't have room for a drum kit, really, but he loves the hand drums, so--perfect!  And for guitarists, we have three beginners--one dad, one 12-year-old, and my son B16--who are all coming along so well that we have been letting them plug in, and they are doing great.  In the meantime, they've been playing unplugged with Father Rand, from Rez, who plays guitar for us once a month, and with Papa Rooster's brother from Chicago, who has started driving up more regularly to help us out.  And now that his wife's job at Oprah ended, she and our niece are making the trip more often too.  It's been so great having them!  (Hmmm, I didn't count them in my new "regulars" count...they just may skew us over the 50% line....)

In other news, Light of Christ was featured this summer in a wonderful article in the Anglican Mission's glossy magazine, with Papa Rooster's photos of some of our special needs children.  The writer interviewed several parents, who shared how included and accepted their children were, from their very first Sunday.  I wish it was online!  It was so good.

In searching for it, I found another article indirectly about our church that is online.  Check out this brief piece about the Redemption card game that one of our dads has gotten all the 12-year-old boys hooked on!

So many praises, so many blessings!


Lord, thank you for each man, woman and child at Light of Christ.  Each one brings something special to our midst.  You've been so good to us.  Thank you for this church.