LET THE BIBLE SPEAK (LTBS)TV & INTERNET MINISTRY Greetings from the TV & Internet Ministry! In October we moved to a new time slot. We now air every Sunday morning at 10:00. This is probably one of the best moves we have made through the years. We now follow a nationally televised program, Meet the Press.
We anticipate a better audience now with carryover from the hour program before us. Previously, we followed a local news/opinion show that had a very low audience level. These new audience estimates will be measured in November and will be made available to us sometime in late January ’09.
The additional traffic to the web page has heightened awareness of the church and the sources for Bible study materials and videos. I have continued to track the number of visits in the chart below.
Our biggest challenge in making the web page even more effective is our lack of technical expertise. Everything on our web page is being maintained by our own staff of me and three volunteers. The depth of our knowledge is very limited.
We need someone to help us! We need technical Internet help!
We have not been able to figure out how to upload our videos to our web page without using another source such as www.godtube.com. This is not desirable because of the many competing philosophies available on that web site.
Also, we need to learn how to upload audio files so people can download lessons to their MP3 or iPod players. If you or someone you know has the expertise to assist us, please let me know. I’m sure it can be done through the Internet and after we learn how to do it, we could probably maintain it. Let me know! Our responses from TV viewers in October were encouraging. We sent out 4 Bibles, 3 Bible Correspondence Courses and received 5 web responses requesting materials! May the Lord continue to bless the efforts! Submitted by davegrant@att.net
ESCANABA (ESC)
The Escanaba church was saddened by the death of one of our members, Leo Hazen, on Friday October 3, 2008. He had been a faithful member of the Escanaba congregation for several years. His wife, Phyllis is the daughter of Wesley and Grace Hawley who started the efforts in Escanaba back in the 50’s. Leo was 84 years old. Many have contributed to a Memorial Fund through the Escanaba Church of Christ. We appreciate everyone’s gift in Leo’s memory. Gifts totaling $1,180 have been donated to the Escanaba ministry efforts. Praise the Lord!
Dave Grant Health Update Many have asked about how I’m doing now after the kidney transplant. I recently had a Transplant Clinic visit and the doctors were very pleased with all of my lab results! I have been weaning off some of the drugs and I feel great! Thank you so much for your prayers and concern. My donor, Luke Wert, is doing well, too. He is now living in Florida where he is undergoing training at the Police Academy for the St. Petersburg Police Department.
We certainly appreciate your support and prayers in our ministry efforts. October was a good month with new responses from TV and community. Submitted by Dave Grant
HANCOCK This is a glorious time of year with many of the trees surrounding Houghton and Hancock in full color array! Praise the Lord! I cherish every day of this display because I know that it can literally disappear over night with wind and rain. We see people on buses that are taking color tours, and I believe they will feel it was money well spent!
But we have more than that for which to thank and praise God, for the Career Day at Tech and Parents Day are bringing many happy surprise visits of those who graduated here and left at various times. Sunday morning as we waited for time for worship to begin, Chris and Amy Owen came in the door and hugged us. So as we visited with them they told us about attending the Walled Lake congregation with Andrew Hoyt and his fiancé, Katherine! She was baptized here just before they graduated and left. Now these two couples attend church together and spend a night each week alternating between their dwellings for supper. So as we are taking about Andrew and Katherine, who walks in the door but Andrew! His employer sent him to recruit at Tech. In addition to all this great visitation, we had Matthew Calcutt’s parents, and his girlfriend, and Steve Walter’s parents in our services and potluck fellowship!
We have started a new study on Sunday mornings for Bible class in Christian Evidences that seems to have sparked some real interest among our students. The course is one we used first many years ago that was prepared by Dr. Bert Thompson of Apologetics Press. The course was presented on videocassettes, but we got his permission to transcribe all 33 lessons of it so we would have it on print. We also keep it available on our web site (http://www.hancockchurchofchrist.com/). There is a link there, “Do You Believe In God?” That enables users to download the entire course. It begins as an interactive study of evidences, and includes the whole course in a library with the study.
We continue to do all that we can in outreach and encouraging our college students! We depend on your partnership in the work here, and so appreciate your prayers and support! Please keep them coming! Submitted by Dan Skaggsdskaggs6404@sbcglobal.net
IRON MOUNTAIN-KINGSFORD (IMK) There’s a new name written down in heaven! Dayton Diederich was baptized into Christ on Sunday, October 19, 2008! Dayton has been attending faithfully with his family for almost two years. His commitment to Christ is now an example for his friends and fellow students at his high school. May the Lord be praised!
The congregation continues to meet on Sunday afternoons and Thursday evenings. The afternoon service allows time for visiting preachers to drive over after their morning services. We have been blessed by many volunteers from the North Delta, Escanaba, Marquette, and now all the way from Wichita, Kansas! Dan Antonetti is schedule to present the lesson on November 16th. He just happens to be back in the area that weekend for deer season.
We do have a need for someone to move to IMK to work with the church. If you have an interest or know someone who may, please contact Stuart Ward at: chili@alltel.blackberry.com or davegrant@att.net
MARQUETTE Greetings from the Marquette church! Last month was good in many ways. First, we have a new brother, in Christ. Nick Kamrada, son of Chris and Karla Kamrada, accepted Jesus Christ as his savior, and was baptized by his Dad. Praise God!
Second, my family traveled downstate, at the end of October, to visit with some of our supporting congregations: The Trenton Church of Christ, the Troy Church of Christ, and the Otisville Church of Christ. We had a wonderful time connecting with our brothers and sisters there, and giving an update on our ministry in Marquette.
On the subject of support, I know that it is a tough time financially, for many, in the state of Michigan, but we are running low on funds and in desperate need of support, for our work, in Marquette. If there is anyone who could help us, with monthly support, or a one-time gift, it would be greatly appreciated. I know that it is budget time and I ask you to prayerfully consider supporting our family and the Marquette Church. For more information you can reach me by phone (906-201-0094) or email (jer.p.young@att.net).
Last, but by no means least, Jim and Pam Larsen have returned to work with us, after an extended leave. It is so good to have them back, and I am looking forward to great things happening for the kingdom, In Marquette, because they are here. Submitted by Jeremy Young jer.p.young@att.net
NORTH DELTA Greetings, Judging from all the cards my mom has received, many of you have heard about mom’s fight with pancreatic cancer. The Church here and my family thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers.
We are expecting a report back on her liver biopsy by Wednesday. She has an appointment on Friday with the surgeon and a possible surgery date of November 18. However, the biopsy report could turn it all into appointments for chemotherapy. Her days are made brighter with cards from her friends so, thank you again.
Sara and I were out of town for two weekends in a row and our son, Adam and his family, have been in Texas since September. So, the church here was encouraged with visitors from Milan and Adrian, Mich. during our absence. Visiting my mom in PA has given us some time for studies with some family members. We ask for your prayers that our Father in Heaven will provide the increase. Again, we thank you for your prayers and support as we preach the gospel here and where ever we may be. For the Church in N. Delta, Richard Wert
A Newsletter of the Churches of Christ in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
LET THE BIBLE SPEAK (LTBS) TV & INTERNET MINISTRY The web page is getting additional traffic and some responses! In September, we had specific web visitors requesting Bibles and Sermons on DVD and asking specific questions to be answered on the show. This is encouraging! The statistics of activity on the web page will be included in this report for the next few months. We hope to see improvement as we improve our accessibility.
If you haven’t been to the web page yet, what are you waiting for? You can view the TV Program from each Sunday for the entire following week, or print out sermons, request DVDs and soon we hope to offer audio files of all of our lessons. From what I understand, you can download these audio files to an iPod or MP3 player. We also have our newsletters posted so we can cut down on mailing expenses.
Visitor Statistics for the web site
Tracking Period
Unique Visitors
Number of Visits
Pages Visited
Number of Hits
September
175
292
758
26,530
October
November
Our responses from TV viewers in September were encouraging. We sent out 3 Bibles, 2 BCC and received 3 web responses requesting materials! Pray for the hearts of our audience to be open to respond to the Lord’s message! Submitted by davegrant@att.net
ESCANABA (ESC) The activity level seems to pick up in the fall. Potlucks are started again, and we have several congregational activities coming up. Secret Sisters will begin this month. This ministry is a way for the women and girls who choose to be involved to get to know and encourage one another better. We will be sending shoebox gifts to children around the world again this year. The congregation will be involved in Bibles for the Ukraine under the direction of Eastern European Ministries (EEM) and Orphan Sunday with Lifeline of Hope.
Please pray for Aubree Couillard. She is the infant daughter of members, Mike & Laurie Couillard. Aubree has been in the hospital most of her life. She has had heart surgeries and is beginning to show improvement. Please pray for this little baby and her parents. We want them to come home soon. The Milan church has been very helpful to them and ministered to their needs while they have been away from home so long.
Our recent change in the way we do the bulletin may have some wondering if they will receive the one in the mail. If you are not able to check the web page for the bulletin, please rest assured, we will continue to mail it to you. However, if you have the ability to check it on line, please let us know so we can move you to an e-mail list rather than a hard copy list. Submitted by davegrant@att.net
HANCOCK After a few rather warm days, the weather has changed into typical cooler weather with small amounts of rain. Some individual trees are turning fall colors! We look forward to a full display of those colors this year. Praise God for the faithful march of the seasons!
Several of us met for a while after potluck and discussed some questions some had about how things are done here. I encouraged them to ask questions at any time they had concerns. After some discussion, it was agreed that we should use the time we have each week at table with our potluck to discuss things we need to do regarding our building and work. I was happy to report that the glass company has completed replacing the storm windows with very little expense to the church thanks to the payments from the insurance company.
Last week when I went to Tech to pick up students, a new boy got into the van with us. It turned out he was from a denomination that is not present here, and just wanted to go to church! We had a good visit with him and encouraged him to come again. I’m sorry to say he hasn’t done so yet. Still I feel it was a good indication that having the magnetic church signs on the van can pay off as advertising for outreach. We are also following up on the contacts provided on the religious preference cards.
I’m trying another new form of outreach in the form of a tee shirt I had made. It is yellow, and in good size black letters on the back it says, “Please ask me to share the Good News of Salvation with you!” So far one man who knows Lutrica at Wal-mart commented that, “we must be Christians!” The same fellow the other day asked if we had any response from people wanting us to share the Good News with them. Please pray that this may open a door for us to preach the gospel to people!
Please continue all of your prayers and support for our efforts here! Submitted by Dan Skaggsdskaggs6404@sbcglobal.net
IRON MOUNTAIN-KINGSFORD (IMK) The congregation continues to meet on Sunday afternoons and Thursday evenings to allow visiting preachers to drive over after their morning services. We have been blessed by many volunteers from the North Delta, Escanaba, and Marquette congregations.
We do have a need for someone to move to IMK to work with the church. If you have an interest or know someone who may, please contact Stuart Ward at: chili@alltel.blackberry.com or davegrant@att.net
MARQUETTE It is hard for me to believe that September has already come and gone. September was a somewhat quiet, but good month for us here, in Marquette. The students, at Northern Michigan University, are all back, in school, now and settling into their new schedules and college life, in general. This has made it a little more challenging to get the campus ministry up and running than I had imagined, but I am optimistic that we are starting to get on course. We had our first monthly “Sunday afternoon lunch” at Ernie and Mary Lou Young’s home on Sept. 21st and had a really good time and really good food. Anytime you combine food and college students it’s a good time!
On Sept. 22 through the 24th I attended the Midwest Preachers Retreat, at Black River Falls, WI., along with Jim Larsen, and David Grant. It was a time of great uplifting and spiritual renewal. All of the speakers were tremendous and gave us so much to think about and take with us to our “home” congregations. It was also good to connect with other Preachers and build relationships.
The Marquette church has been contemplating some much needed upgrades to our building, such as, seating and carpet, and will be moving ahead with those upgrades in the very near future. I hope to be able to tell you more about those changes in next month’s newsletter. Thank you for your support of the Marquette Church and may God bless you richly in your service to the kingdom. Submitted by Jeremy Young jer.p.young@att.net
A Newsletter of the Churches of Christ in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
LET THE BIBLE SPEAK (LTBS) TV & INTERNET MINISTRY Faithfulness is the word of the month! We are encouraged by the faithful support we have received for over 32 years of TV Ministry! This past year has been no exception. Through difficult economic times and stressful budgets, your willingness to continue to preach throughout the UP and Northeast Wisconsin has been encouraging. Our updated 2008 Operating Budget is available to interested individuals and congregations. It can be sent through e-mail or snail mail. Let us know if you would like one.
One of our TV viewers was baptized into Christ in August! Dean Creeger began watching the program in July, requested a Bible and Bible Correspondence Course (BCC) and was baptized in Escanaba in August! Praise the Lord!
We are currently on the broadcast every Sunday morning at 10:30 EST on WLUC TV-6 from Marquette, Michigan. The station manager called last week to inform us that the 10:00 am time slot would be available beginning in October. The initial response from interested church leaders in the UP is to move to 10:00 am. Unless a wave of conflicting feedback is forthcoming, we will probably make the switch.
Our TV message is broadcast through the Internet at www.letthebiblespeak.net. We hope you will go to the web page and view our program. Every Monday, the Sunday show is downloaded to the Internet and is available for viewing 24 hours a day, all through the week.
Our responses from TV viewers in August were encouraging. We sent out 4 Bibles, 7 BCC and received 2 requests for visits. Pray for the hearts of our audience to be open to respond to the Lord’s message! Submitted by Dave Grant.
ESCANABA (ESC) Super Sunday was held in August with 59 people in attendance. Although the event was targeting children, an older couple saw the advertisements and came out for the day. We were able to make a connection, and the man has joined us for Wednesday evening Bible class, too!
The ESC church and LTBS have teamed up for a new web page...same address with a new design! Check it out today!
Each week our ESC weekly newsletter with prayer requests, updates and news items will be posted. The Northern Frontier Mission News (NFMN) is also posted on the web page. We are looking at the possibility of reducing postage costs with both our weekly and monthly (NFMN) mailings. If you are currently receiving any of our hardcopy newsletters through the post office, you may continue without any response. However, if you are actively getting information through the Internet or e-mail, why not send us your e-mail request to switch over? We can send a monthly reminder to check out the latest news! Submitted by davegrant@att.net
HANCOCK Lutrica and I have just returned from visiting with Teresa and Chuck (our Daughter and Son-in-law) in Clinton, Utah. We were all together in worship at the Clearfield congregation on Sunday as well, and we shared much mutual encouragement! Praise the Lord!
In our absence here at Hancock, members of the congregation here held service Sunday morning. Kathy Archambeau told us that Eric, the son of the minister of the Sault St. Marie congregation was present as a visitor, and led singing for the service. Troy Belanger read an article for the sermon. Kathy’s husband, Curt, was unable to attend due to a reaction to bee stings. Please pray for his recovery. Kathy was very enthusiastic about the way things went, and we are grateful for all who participated. We praise God for the good things that He brings together in our absences.
For some time now we have been addressing the issue of making repairs to storm windows that are missing due to wind damage to our building. When I first consulted with our insurance agent, he responded by saying that they policy did not cover “rot.” We had an estimate from one glass company that was in excess of $4,500.00. Since that was so high we began looking at ways of doing the work ourselves. We felt that it would be necessary to use scaffolding, and discussed renting or buying it. Finally, the insurance man called me and told me that he had gotten an estimate from a different glass company, and that the insurance company would pay all but a $50.00 deductible. I now have the check from the insurance company and the glass company begins work on August 20th. Praise the Lord this problem has been taken care of!
We have received a number of religious preference cards of prospective students of Michigan Tech for the coming fall semester. It is always good news to know that we have some students coming that we can invite to attend our congregation! Please continue all of your prayers and support for our efforts here! Submitted by Dan Skaggsdskaggs6404@sbcglobal.net
IRON MOUNTAIN-KINGSFORD (IMK) We have been encouraged, strengthened and motivated by our summer interim minister and his wife! Ed & Georgia Mathews have brough us closer together as a family and have enriched our spiritual growth. Their last Sunday with us for this year was August 31st. We hope they will come back again in the spring next year and share their experience and love with us again!
The preaching and teaching needs will again be fulfilled through a schedule of volunteers from other UP congregations. This worked well for us during the Spring 2008. The IMK church pays travel expenses and an honorarium to visiting ministers. If you have an interest in sharing with us for one Sunday or more, even from a distance, please contact us. I have a working speaking schedule available to send out to anyone interested. Just send me an email at davegrant@att.net or call me on my cell at (906) 420-0422.
All women are encouraged to attend the 2nd annual retreat being held at the Laurel Wreath home on September 19th and 20th. The theme for this event is "Balancing Your Spiritual Identities" Registration will be from 5:30-6:30pm CST on Friday the 19th. The retreat will conclude at 3:00pm CST on Saturday the 20th. For more information, contact Bonnie Grant at churchofchrist@charterinternet.com with questions. Submitted by Dave Grant
MARQUETTE The summer has been very busy here in Marquette. It is hard to believe that it is coming to an end and the kids are back in school already. With schools back in session, that means the return of our College students to Northern Michigan University. It is good to have them back because of the sense of youthfulness and excitement they bring to our church. I am excited to see the ways God will work in, and through, our campus ministry this year. We are “charting new waters” this year with an increased presence on campus, but we are starting off with a good group of 8 “core” students, who are a lot of fun and strong in their faith. We are looking forward to a good year and hoping for new students to join us.
We have been looking into the possibility of our church being involved with “Room at the Inn” a homeless shelter that rotates between local churches, on a weekly basis, throughout the year. We have decided that we are not ready to be a host church yet, but have encouraged as many of our members as possible to volunteer and work with other churches, with the intent of gaining experience and pursuing it again next year.
Jim and Pam Larsen have taken a leave of absence for the next month, or so, or the purpose of getting some much needed rest and renewal. Please keep them in your prayers, asking God to grant them the rest and renewal they need so they can return to us quickly. In the mean time, I will do my best to keep you all updated on what is happening in Marquette. Thank you all for your continued love and support for the church, in Marquette, may God bless you abundantly! Submitted by Jeremy Young (Youth/Campus Minister)
A Newsletter of the Churches of Christ in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
