Covenant News - KICY Radio Honor Among April Newsletter Updates

Covenant News

KICY Radio Honor Among April Newsletter Updates

NOME, AK (April 14, 2004) - KICY Radio usually doesn't toot its own horn, but general manager Dennis Weidler toots a saxophone on occasion. One evening recently he was stopped in mid-toot as his town presented Weidler and his radio station with a community service award.

Weidler was honored during one of its broadcasts and the president of the town booster club surprised him during intermission at a local high school basketball game between Nome High and Barrow High School.

At half-time of the game, the public address announcer asked that the KICY general manager come to center court for an award presentation. Said Weidler, recalling the experience for a recent KICY newsletter, "I was playing in the community pep band, so I carefully placed my saxophone on the bench and found my way down to the basketball court with my wife, Candace, following close behind with her video camera. Here I was greeted by the president of the Nome Booster Club, local businessman Charlie Weiss and another local businessman, Chuck Fagerstrom. Charlie wanted to make sure we were still broadcasting as he wanted to include our listeners in the award presentation."

KICY wasn't the only Covenant entity honored for its efforts during recent weeks. A host of Covenanters and Covenant churches have been honored and some of those accomplishments were noted in the more than 250 monthly newsletters received by Covenant Communications. Following are updates organized by conference and region.

CENTRAL

Princeton, Illinois: The Evangelical Covenant Church of Princeton reported that Ray Mabry was finishing training in Fort Hood, Texas, and would be heading to Iraq on an unspecified mission. His company consists of 120 soldiers. The group is serving as combat engineers, including heavy equipment operations, carpentry, electrical work, and plumbing, along with training in what Mabry called "basic soldiering."
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin: Anchor Covenant Church was officially chartered on February 15 in a ceremony attended by Central Conference associate superintendent Jolene Bergstrom Carlson. A total of 47 signed the charter and officers were elected.

EAST COAST

West Swanzey, New Hampshire: Pilgrim Pines Conference Center recently hired Bob Ritchie as Ministry Development Director. Ritchie is part of nearby Monadnock Covenant Church.

ECCAK

Eagle River, Alaska: Sonny Chambers of Community Covenant Church volunteered for the internationally known Iditarod dog sled race and was interviewed by Alaska Airlines magazine for its recent edition about his efforts in helping with the event.
Soldotna, Alaska: Alaska Christian College recently sent representatives to the Accrediting Association of Bible Colleges (AACB) meetings where the school was given "Applicant" status with the national organization. President Keith Hamilton said that ACC has up to four years to prove that its standards meet those of the U.S. Department of Education. The first visit by the leadership of AABC is scheduled for this summer.

GREAT LAKES

Detroit, Michigan: Citadel of Faith Covenant Church is approaching eight months as a church plant, said pastor Harvey Carey, with over 125 adults and 35 children calling the new church their spiritual home. There are 45 people on the church's launch team. The church has a facility to meet in but expects to move elsewhere in the fall. "We moved from the Bible Study format on Saturdays to a more preview centered service format on the first of the year," said Carey. "We now meet Sundays at 2:00 p.m. We have intentionally used those services to act as a time of preview preparing us for a Grand Opening that will begin in July or August of this year."

MIDWEST

Olathe, Kansas: The Evangelical Covenant Church of Olathe hosted a blood drive on March 27, collecting units of "the red stuff" for area hospitals. The church began doing blood drives in 1997, collecting 17 units in its initial effort. The congregation will host two more blood drives in the fall. Lisa Buese is the coordinator of the ministry.
Omaha, Nebraska: First Covenant Church commissioned six members on March 28 as Stephen Ministers after they finished 50 hours of specialized training. They include: Mary Andrews, Scott Boyer, Diane Lynn, Mary Palmberg, Jim Petto and Scott Thomas.
Topeka, Kansas: Brookwood Covenant Church's LouElla Asklund was honored by her congregation on March 21 for her extensive telephone ministry to fellow parishioners and others. The church honored her with the Ephesians 6:7 Award, which denotes the biblical mandate to "serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not others." Since attending Brookwood Covenant in 1934, Asklund has sung in the choir for 50 years, worked as Sunday school secretary for 15 years, helped in the kitchen for countless dinners, greeted newcomers and served Vacation Bible School snacks, among other things. She and her late husband Wendell also served for a time as church custodians, stated a recent church newsletter.
Wausa, Nebraska: The Evangelical Covenant Church of Wausa sent a contingent of people including Rod Banks, Greg Macke, Dennis Kronberg, Rowan Nelson, Kathy Hennings, Joy Smith and Cheryl Wamberg to team up with those from Covenant congregations in Lincoln, Ceresco, Mead, and Oakland for a mission trip to Mexico. The team left February 27 for Reynoso to help with repair and construction work and to encourage others in Mexico and help bring the gospel to the area.

NORTH PACIFIC

Gresham, Oregon: Powell Valley Covenant Church's Suzy Falk was part of a budget department for Clackamas County that received kudos from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA) of the United States and Canada. Clackamas County earned a GFOA Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for its efficient budgeting efforts. The GFOA is a nonprofit association serving 14,000 government finance professionals throughout North America. Clackamas County is one of only 900 entities to have received a GFOA in the organization's 20 year history. Along with her efforts at work, Falk has also served as the church's Director of Christian Education.
Portland, Oregon: Irvington Village, a facility (including 104 assisted living residences) affiliated with Irvington Covenant Church and Covenant Retirement Communities, hired Trish Greenidge to serve as manager in February. The facility has begun an Adopt-A-Resident campaign to help provide housing costs and care for residents after recent cuts in Medicaid funding hampered the Village's finances. More about the program can be found by emailing Greenidge at PAGreenidge@covenantretirement.org or calling 503-546-9292.
Bellevue, Washington: Newport Covenant Church's ESL project involves close to 100 immigrants on a weekly basis with a team of more than a dozen volunteers. The church has partnered with Eastside Literacy Council in recent years and joined forces with Chinese Information & Service Center last summer to better serve Asian newcomers and other locals in need of language assistance. The ESL group has also gotten permission from the students to have a Bible study as part of the program. It subsequently became an easy English Alpha class.
Kent Washington, Kent Covenant Church's Bob Monahan has been working more than a year at the L Unit of the King County Regional Justice Center in Kent as a volunteer doing prison ministry on Tuesday evenings.
Seattle, Washington: First Covenant Church's Winston and Irma Johnson were the recipients of the Laurelhurst Community Club Good Neighbor Award and honored in a recent celebration featuring mayor Greg Nickels.

NORTHWEST

Golden Valley, Minnesota: A group of nine men from a Covenant retirement community in the Twin Cities is helping Covenant Women Ministries (CWM) by rolling bandages with a new handmade machine they built. They hope to build 100 small bandage rolling device kits, including a "C" clamp to hold rollers to the table and the rollers, along with detailed instructions to make duplicate rollers. They are also paying for the costs to build the kits, about $400. Stated CWM's executive minister Ruth Hill, "Their generosity and willingness was very touching and they were pleased as could be to be doing this project."
Minneapolis, Minnesota: Bethlehem Covenant Church's Brad Stokes composed a winning ditty with swing accompaniment for a nationwide University of Minnesota Alumni Association contest in honor of the school's 100th anniversary. His company, Aaron/Stokes Music in Minneapolis has produced fanfares and other musical punctuation for the Minnesota Vikings, the Wild and other sports teams.
New Brighton, Minnesota: Amy Sannes of Salem Covenant Church continues to race as a speedskater for the United States after finishing eighth in the 1,500 meter competition at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. Sannes is competing in World Cup speedskating this year.
Warren, Minnesota: The Evangelical Covenant Church of Warren's Kevin Peterson is still in Iraq as company commander for the Headquarters Company of the 4th Infantry Division Support Command, according to the church's latest newsletter. He took command last July 1 and the contingent is in the midst of redeployment, he said in his latest update to the church.

PACIFIC SOUTHWEST

Irvine, California: Newsong Community Church's lead pastor David Gibbons was featured in an article entitled "Times When Ministry is Welcome," which appeared in the Winter 2004 edition of Leadership Journal.

SOUTHEAST

Oveido, Florida: Cyndy Miericke, whose husband Kurt is the superintendent of the Southeast Conference, was nominated for a second time to be in Who's Who Among American Teachers. She teaches Spanish and chairs the foreign language department at Oviedo High School.
Plantation, Florida: Covenant Village of Florida recently announced that they have called an Associate Chaplain, Sally Gill, to begin serving the Southeast Conference retirement community beginning in May. Gill, who was serving as an associate pastor at Broadway Covenant Church, Rockford, Illinois, has been involved in pastoral care ministry for 15 years. She recently graduated from North Park Theological Seminary with a Masters of Divinity degree, stated conference superintendent Kurt Miericke.

To find out more about what's happening in Covenant churches throughout the world, regularly visit this online Covenant news report at www.covchurch.org. To send information about your congregations, email Covenant Communications at newsdesk@covchurch.org or call 773-478-4631. Church newsletters can be sent via regular mail to Covenant Communications, 5101 N. Francisco Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60625.

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