{"id":3520,"date":"2024-10-10T17:44:40","date_gmt":"2024-10-10T17:44:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/church\/?p=3520"},"modified":"2024-10-10T17:46:24","modified_gmt":"2024-10-10T17:46:24","slug":"york-center-hold-neighborhood-fun-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/church\/2024\/10\/10\/york-center-hold-neighborhood-fun-day\/","title":{"rendered":"York Center holds neighborhood fun day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"896\" height=\"626\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/church\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/YorkCenterCommunityEvent-courtesy-WaltWiltschek.jpg\" alt=\"People of all ages sitting in a picnic shelter\" class=\"wp-image-3518\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/church\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/YorkCenterCommunityEvent-courtesy-WaltWiltschek.jpg 896w, https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/church\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/YorkCenterCommunityEvent-courtesy-WaltWiltschek-300x210.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/church\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/YorkCenterCommunityEvent-courtesy-WaltWiltschek-768x537.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/church\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2024\/10\/YorkCenterCommunityEvent-courtesy-WaltWiltschek-560x391.jpg 560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 896px) 100vw, 896px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Members and friends of York Center Church of the Brethren connected with the DuPage County Sheriff\u2019s Department and other community members in a neighborhood park. Photo courtesy of Walt Wiltschek. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It wasn\u2019t an ideal weather day, but that didn\u2019t dampen the spirits of <a href=\"https:\/\/yccob.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">York Center Church of the Brethren <\/a>members and friends as they held a recent Neighborhood Fun Day. Like many congregations, York Center\u2014located in Lombard, Ill., in the western suburbs of Chicago\u2014has been considering ways to better connect with its immediate community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The church\u2019s Christian education commission decided to try holding an event at a park two blocks from the church to open the doors to those connections. Members arranged for a local taco truck, visits from first responders, art activities, lawn games, and more to go with the extensive playground equipment already there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While it didn\u2019t end up drawing a lot of church neighbors, it provided some new visibility, and several families stopped by to enjoy the activities\u2014including one boy who initially came with his family and decided to stay for the whole time to keep playing. It was also a high-spirited time for members of the congregation to connect and share amid the bursts of rain, including some who don\u2019t often come for worship. And it left everyone with the question: What could we do next?<br><em>\u2014Walt Wiltschek<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>This article originally appeared in <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/messenger\/\">Messenger<\/a><em>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rainy weather couldn&#8217;t dampen the enthusiasm of those attending a recent event in a neighborhood park. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3518,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[246],"tags":[530,447,337,529],"class_list":["post-3520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-illinois-and-wisconsin","tag-06-290","tag-illinois-and-wisconsin","tag-jesus-in-the-neighborhood","tag-york-center-church-of-the-brethren"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}