|
Vol. 46, No.
40 SOUTHSIDE ORACLE December 19,
2003
The Bulletin Board
Fifth Wednesday Group Meeting – Every fifth
Wednesday our midweek Bible study groups all meet together. This year it
coincides with New Year’s Eve. A special program is planned for all that
can attend. It will include a prayer session in which prayer requests that
have been submitted will be honored. A box on the table in the side foyer
is for any requests you may have or for thanksgiving which some may wish to
offer. Rocky Slaughter is in charge of the program. Plan to attend even if
you are not currently a part of any of our study groups.
The Sick – Elfriede Wandsnider is out of
intensive care at St. Luke’s Hospital following her two recent surgeries.
She is much improved and is having rehabilitation therapy for her hip
replacement….Pearl Molla is still confined to home as she recovers from her
recent hospitalization….Vic Kurmis was injured in an accident last week in
which his car was totaled.
The York College Concert Choir will sing at
Southside at 7:00 p.m., Friday, January 9th. We will be housing
over fifty people overnight and are in need of homes to sleep them. You
will want to attend to hear this group. If you can help, see the sign-up
sheet on the bulletin board in the foyer.
ATTENDANCE
RECORD
Two years ago Last year
Last week Goal
Bible classes
118 127
134 170
Morning worship
232 213 *212 250
Evening worship
43 72 55 80
Contribution
$8736.11 $4062.35 $4412.87 $4200.00
The Parent to Parent
video/discussion is planned beginning Saturday, January 31st.
This is for parents of children of all ages and we encourage friends and
neighbors to attend. For specifics see the printed flyer or talk with John
Giemza or Daryl Miller.
The Christian Workers’ Meeting was
attended by nineteen on Tuesday. Roy Ratcliff and Ken Himes were the
speakers on the theme of grace.
The Southside budget for 2004 is posted on
the bulletin board. We are increasing our contribution goal to $4500
weekly.
Because We Care
It was thirty years ago. They were all
strangers to me. A few hours earlier they had been strangers to one
another, about five families drawn together by a common bond of human
suffering. One had phoned me in the hope that I might provide some strength
and comfort to another of the group about to lose her son as a result of a
tragic bus/car accident that had taken several lives. She had come from
Oklahoma to be with her dying boy and was alone, totally alone, in what may
have been her most difficult hour. I was called because she had given our
faith as her preference as a result of contacts in her community.
This was not the first time she had faced
tragedy. A year earlier her mother had died in her home. Three years
before her husband had died leaving her with a 15 year old daughter and an
18 year old son who enlisted in the navy to help pay off their home. He had
just written that he was sending her $500.
In the next forty-eight hours I got to
know these people rather well. They included families of another boy hurt
in the same accident, a young man in critical condition from another
accident, and two men who had suffered heart attacks. All kept vigil
outside the hospital’s intensive care unit. Children, parents, wives,
sisters – all sought to provide emotional strength in time of crisis.
Except for immediate families and Christians, I have never seen such genuine
caring as among these people. Though from diverse backgrounds, most were
people of high moral standards.
But the special concern of this tight knit
group was the grieving widow whose son would never recover. They made sure
someone was always with her. Although their own loved ones were in serious
condition, they knew that her burden was greater than theirs. It almost
seemed they were more concerned about her welfare than their own sons and
husbands. One by one they received good news while she became more certain
that her boy would not live. When she gave the word to remove the machine
that was the only thing that sustained a semblance of life, some of them
were there. When he was pronounced dead a few minutes later a mother said,
“I feel so guilty that my son is getting well while you have lost yours.”
They stayed at her side until we left to put her on the plane to go home.
These people identified with one another
because they were facing similar crises. It would be correct to say that by
her fortitude the courageous widow helped them as much as they helped her.
Without realizing it they were carrying out the biblical injunction, “Bear
one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:2).
We live in an unfeeling world in which it is easy to assign the human needs
of others to the government. The government may sustain the body, but it
cannot comfort the soul. One of the blessings of the church is that it is a
fellowship of people who care and will stand together in time of calamity.
If a group from the world can be drawn together by suffering, how much more
should we who wear the name of Christ help one another at all times! It is
our mission as Christians to serve. We share because we care. We ought to
feel the pulse of our fellow disciples in Christ, and that genuine concern
ought to extend outside the fold of safety. In our impersonal society
people are more drawn to Jesus by the genuine love that they see displayed
among Christians, a love that cares about them, than by the doctrine that we
proclaim. The doctrine is essential for the salvation of their souls, but
it is often the Christian concern that attracts them to the Savior.
__Monroe Hawley
|
