Chewy Tuesdays is Underway!

Chewy Tuesdays kicked off its 6^th summer season today—Tuesday, 7 June 2016.  What is Chewy Tuesdays?

It is a ministry of the Burns Flat Cumberland Presbyterian Church conducted on every Tuesday in June and July to feed children in Burns Flat.  This year the ministry has expanded to include Dill City.  It is more than a food ministry.  It is a chance to tell children that God loves them.  Children do not heart that simple message enough.

Among the kid-friendly lunch fare are hot dogs, ham and cheese sandwiches, and the long time favorite—peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  There are some simple sides to go with this meal delivered in a decorated paper bag but among them the most valued is fresh fruit.

Fruit is something that many children simple do not get in the course of the summer.  Prices have precluded many families from purchasing grapes and bananas and even apples.  Regardless of the main course, each meal always includes fruit.

Ministry members have been contacting families that they know have children that might enjoy the Tuesday lunch but so many just don’t know about Chewy Tuesdays.   The only requirement to receive the meals is that the parents contact the church or the ministry leader, Don Foust and report any food allergies for any of the children receiving meals.  It’s just that simple.  Income level does not matter.  Every child needs to be told that God loves them, so it is important that the children are present to receive the meals. 

Ministry members also appreciate a phone call if the children will be out of town on any given Tuesday.  If you would like your children to receive these meals and this wonderful reminder of God’s love, please contact Don Foust:  (580) 660-6666.  If you would like to help support this ministry, you may contact Don or the church at (580) 562-4706.  If you can’t participate directly but would like to donate, please make your check out to CPC and put Chewy Tuesdays in the “for” line. 

The  Cumberland Presbyterian Church is located at 205 State Highway 44 in Burns Flat, Oklahoma.  The mailing address is PO Box 8, Burns Flat, Oklahoma 73624.  The church motto is God’s Love in Action!

Back to Beyond the Pallet--Tom is signing books again!

He’s back!

What?  Who is back???

Western Oklahoma author Tom Spence, will be selling and signing his books at Beyond the Pallet  in  Elk City, Oklahoma on Saturday, 23 April 2016 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.  Tom signed books here once before just as the new business opened.  He’s back signing books and enjoying the pleasant atmosphere and wonderful fare of this revitalized establishment.  Beyond the Pallet is located at 103 South Main Street in Elk City. 

Tom will have a variety of books published by Tate Publishing.  Two of the most hard-hitting books, especially for those in western Oklahoma, are Throw Away Kids and PoMo Poverty.  In these companion selections, Tom goes beyond identifying society’s problems; he brings us to solutions that don’t wait on the government to fix or ignore the problems.

Since Tom was last at Beyond the Pallet, he has published two books/scripts with fast moving dialogue where people actually talk about important things.  Defense mechanisms get turned off and people really talk.  The first involves two women trapped in an elevator and is titled Going Up.  The second book involves two men who meet weekly and is based entirely in conversation.  The title is simply, The Conversation.

Tom is an ordained minister in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the pastor of the congregation in Burns Flat, Oklahoma. 

As a pastor, he returned this past summer from his second trip to Africa to train pastors and church leaders in Kenya and Uganda.  He has served as moderator of the Red River Presbytery but perhaps is best known as the guy who gives out wristbands that read:  GOD LOVES YOU – LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

He is a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer that served in all four Marine Divisions, including a tour training reservists.  He has served in Iraq and Kuwait, Japan, aboard Marine bases on the east and west coasts of the United States, and has a substantial amount of service afloat.  His final tour was as a program manager in charge of maintenance and modifications of Marine Corps ground training systems and simulators around the globe.

Tom served as both student and instructor at the Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Virginia—the Crossroads of the Corps, and proudly boasts that he successfully avoided a tour in the Pentagon for his entire career.  Tom wrote two books specifically about the Marine Corps.  The first was a first person collection of observations and anecdotes titled Sea Stories.  The other was Christianity for Marines.

Please join Tom on 23 April 2016, buy a few books, and get a cup of coffee  or something delicious at Beyond the Pallet, and enjoy a Saturday afternoon in this fine establishment.

Book Signing by Tom Spence

Beyond the Pallet

 103 S. Main Street, Elk City

2:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Book Signing set for 23 April at Beyond the Pallet

Western Oklahoma author Tom Spence, will be selling and signing his books at Beyond the Pallet in  Elk City Oklahoma on Saturday, 23 April 2016 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.  Beyond the Pallet is located at 103 South Main. 

Tom will have a variety of books published by Tate Publishing.  Two of the most hard-hitting books, especially for those in western Oklahoma,  are Throw Away Kids and PoMo Poverty.  In these companion selections, Tom goes beyond identifying society’s problems; he brings us to solutions that don’t wait on the government to fix or ignore the problems.

Tom is an ordained minister in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the pastor of the congregation in Burns Flat, Oklahoma. 

As a pastor, he returned this past summer from his second trip to Africa to train pastors and church leaders in Kenya and Uganda.  He has served as moderator of the Red River Presbytery but perhaps is best known as the guy who gives out wristbands that read:  GOD LOVES YOU – LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

He is a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer that served in all four Marine Divisions, including a tour training reservists.  He has served in Iraq and Kuwait, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, aboard Marine bases on the east and west coasts of the United States, and has a substantial amount of service afloat.  His final tour was as a program manager in charge of maintenance and modifications of Marine Corps ground training systems and simulators around the globe.

Tom served as both student and instructor at the Marine Corps Base, Quantico, Virginia—the Crossroads of the Corps, and proudly boasts that he successfully avoided a tour in the Pentagon for his entire career.  Tom wrote two books specifically about the Marine Corps.  The first was a first person collection of observations and anecdotes titled Sea Stories.  The other was Christianity for Marines.

Tom will also have with him, two unique books with fast moving dialogue where two men—The Conversation—and two women—Going Up—drop their defense mechanisms and actually talk about important things.

Please join Tom on Saturday 23 April 2016, buy a few books, and get a cup of coffee  or something to eat at the District House in this wonderful area just made for people who like to enjoy a Saturday afternoon.

Book Signing by Tom Spence

Beyond the Pallet

 103 S. Main, Elk City, Oklahoma

23 April 2016

2:00 – 4:00 p.m.

Just over a week ago, 9 ladies from Tom's high school class surprised him at a book signing in downtown Oklahoma City.

Tom was ordained as a Cumberland Presbyterian minister in 2010.

Tom in Kuwait City with the United Nations after Desert Storm.

Fantastic turnout for Community Easter Egg Hunt

Burns Flat, Oklahoma, 26 March 2016:  The sun was shining, the wind was light, and helpers were plentiful as the final preparations were made to host the Community Easter Egg Hunt.

For the third consecutive year the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Burns Flat, Oklahoma hosted the event.   Thousands of eggs, hundreds of prizes, candy a plenty, and hunters galore were all in place by 10:00 a.m. Saturday morning.

Following a prayer of thanksgiving, hunters were grouped by age and led to their respective areas and then the fun began.  Thousands of colored eggs full of prizes and surprises filled hundreds of baskets to overflowing.  Children and adults alike enjoyed the event.

But wait a minute—a church is hosting an Easter Egg Hunt, really?  I though the church had a different Easter message.   Not sure if that is a dichotomy, an oxymoron, or a paradox?  Don’t decide until you hear a little bit of the story. 

Three years ago the Cumberland Presbyterian Church stepped in at the last minute and with the help of several donors, put on an Easter Egg Hunt that had previously been sponsored by the now defunct Chamber of Commerce and then by various individuals.  It was not going to happen otherwise.

Then, the real story began. The church session voted to adopt the Easter Egg Hunt as a ministry.

Hold your holy horses!  Hunting Easter Eggs is not about the real Easter story. Why is a church adopting this pagan pageant for kids?  Why indeed?

Does this church not know that the world is invading Christianity? How could they do this?

Actually, the world is not invading Christianity. Christianity is invading a lost world. The truth that Christians carry is being marched in to community after community around the world. That invasion has been underway for 2000 years.

It is not carried out with tank divisions and air strikes but with messages of how much God loves you.  In addition to the many prizes the children received, they also received a Gospel of John, stickers with a message of love, and pencils proclaim how much God loves us.

Heather Spence, the missions committee chair, engaged every helper with not only specific assignments, but the charge to convey the love of God in every encounter.  Robert Wascom and Don Foust roamed among the children with stickers and pencils and messages of “God loves you.”  Susan Manuel and Nora McCullough took names of children that might be blessed with a bicycle.  Adults and children put in names other than their own of children that might not ever have a bicycle otherwise.  Two bikes were delivered shortly after the egg hunt concluded.

Many worked for weeks in advance stuffing eggs and staging donations among them were Alice Callahan, Dora Westreicher, Buffy Westreicher, Victoria Glover, and Tom Collins.

This event truly reflected the generosity of the community. Linda Wascom was the donation coordinator.   Among the many donors were Burns Flat Auto Service Center, Washita State Bank, R-N-R Roofing, Heavenly Bodies, L&S Equipment, The Shop, Crown Geochemisty, Inc., Keith’s Butcher Shop, MODA, Advance America, Burns Flat City Hall, Great Plains National Bank, Bessie COOP, Rystic Star, Rudy’s Superette, Gret’s, Walmart Elk City, and many individual donors.

Didjano you can help the WOFCC?

Didjano?

Did I know what?

Didjano that even if you can’t donate money or time you can still help the WOFCC?

I suppose, well, how exactly?

It could be as simple as sharing one of our posts or inviting your friends to like our page.  Much of what we do begins with connections.  We connect with some who want to volunteer and some who want to pray for us. 

We connect with some who are nearby and can avail themselves of our services or offer some help and some on the other side of the state, nation, or planet who will share our page and somehow connect with someone close by.

You have heard of the six degrees of separation?  OK, you might have heard it called the six degrees of Kevin Bacon (some list seven degrees).  Geography is not much of a barrier when it comes to connecting these days; and much of what we have and will accomplish has to do with connections.

Connecting people who want to serve with opportunities to be of service sometimes takes the most circuitous routes.

Connecting people with the gift of intercession and an organization that thrives not only on volunteers and donations but on prayer is just the obvious thing to do.

Connecting even with the youth and children plants seeds.  One day in the not too distant future some of these young folks may just be a volunteer, board member, or a monthly donor.

The WOFCC does many wonderful things in western Oklahoma.  We are eager to get the word out so that we may truly be at the heart of these communities.  We are calling for donors, volunteers, prayer warriors, and yes, even some web savvy folks to share what we do in every online venue they know.

We serve many who would go without medical care, heat, water, and other basic needs without the support of many who can and do help.  This is a season to make more connections.

Please help as you can.

Please share.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation

http://www.westokfcc.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Western-Oklahoma-Family-Care-Center-Inc-139465756105202/

Scouts to hold Spaghetti Dinner on 20 March 2016

Support your local scout troop!

Scout Troop 310 is holding a Spaghetti Dinner on Sunday, 20 March 2016 as a troop fund raiser.  The meal will be held at Will Rogers Elementary School from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

The price is $5.

Go ahead and make your Palm Sunday lunch plans now and support your local scout troop.

Church Kids to Raise Money for Camp with Yard Sale

It’s time to do some spring cleaning and to donate some things that have become clutter to you.

But I’m not up for a trip to Christi’s or the Mission House this week.

No problem.  Just drop off your donations at the Cumberland Presbyterian Church or 323 Suwannee beginning 10 March 2016.  The Elementary Youth will be having a yard sale to raise money for church camp.

It is a chance to clean out.

It is a chance to give.

It is a chance to help send a kid to church camp and maybe be a part of changing a life.

The sale will begin on 12 March 2016 at 323 Suwannee, Burns Flat, Oklahoma.  More details to follow…