{"id":7827,"date":"2017-06-30T17:37:47","date_gmt":"2017-06-30T17:37:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/news\/?p=7827"},"modified":"2018-10-15T17:43:13","modified_gmt":"2018-10-15T17:43:13","slug":"today-in-grand-rapids-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2017\/today-in-grand-rapids-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"Today in Grand Rapids – Friday, June 30, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

Church of the Brethren Newsline
\nJune\u00a030,\u00a02017<\/b><\/p>\n

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Photo by Donna Parcell.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cBut I will hope continually,<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and will praise you yet more and more.<\/em>
\nMy mouth will tell of your righteous acts,<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 of your deeds of salvation all day long,<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 though their number is past my knowledge.<\/em>
\nI will come praising the mighty deeds of the Lord God,<\/em>
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I will praise your righteousness, yours alone\u201d (Psalm 71:14-16).<\/em><\/p>\n

Theme for worship:<\/strong>
\nRisk Hope: Witness to God\u2019s work in the world<\/p>\n

Quotes of the day<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cEbenezer, up to now the Lord has helped us.\u201d
\n—A Haitian phrase shared by the Friday evening preacher Michaela Alphonse, who said she is heartened by hearing this said in churches in Haiti despite the people\u2019s suffering from many natural disasters, the nation\u2019s history of violence, and the fact that it is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cTell the world about the hope you have within you…. Tell the world about Jesus. Can I get a witness?\u201d
\n—\u00a0Michaela Alphonse, preaching the evening sermon. She is transitioning from her work as mission staff in Haiti, to a new position as pastor of First Church of the Brethren in Miami, Fla.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cCan I get a witness, a witness for my God?\u201d
\n—\u00a0Chorus of a song by Ken Medema, which he created in response to the evening\u2019s sermon by Michaela Alphonse at the close of the Friday worship service.<\/em><\/p>\n

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\n
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Michaela Alphonse preaching for the Friday evening worship. Photo by Glenn Riegel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By the numbers<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

2,306 people: the total number registered for the Conference as of Friday evening, including 672 delegates, 1,634 nondelegates<\/p>\n

1,591 people: the number in the congregation for worship Friday evening<\/p>\n

$11,653.54: the offering received in worship Friday evening, for the church\u2019s ministries in Haiti<\/p>\n

190 pints: the total amount of blood collected during the 2-day Conference Blood Drive, well exceeding the goal of 160 pints. On Thursday, 84 pints were collected and on Friday 106 pints were collected.<\/p>\n

Welcoming Brethren cousins<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the close of the business session Friday morning, general secretary David Steele introduced guests from the Brethren Church and the Old German Baptist Brethren Church New Conference. Both denominations are \u201cclose cousins\u201d of the Church of the Brethren, part of the same Brethren movement that began with the baptisms in the Eder River in Germany in 1708.<\/p>\n

Jubilee afternoon<\/strong><\/p>\n

This afternoon, instead of a business session the Conference celebrated a \u201cJubilee\u201d time of spiritual opportunities, professional growth, refreshment, relaxation, music, field trips, and more. Service projects took place at two sites in Grand Rapids–Well House and Mel Trotter Ministries–and donations to the Witness to the Host City were boxed up at the convention center. Buses took people to a garden and arboretum, and others walked together as groups to local museums. Many took the opportunity to enjoy concerts given by Ken Medema and Jonathan Emmons, while \u201cmini concerts\u201d by other Brethren musicians graced the Exhibit Hall. Some Conference-goers simply took the free time to chat and catch up with old friends, and make new ones.<\/p>\n

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Volunteers sort and box donations to the Witness to the Host City collection. Photo by Glenn Riegel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gratitude<\/strong><\/p>\n

The afternoon concert by Ken Medema today was sponsored by Bethany Theological Seminary.<\/p>\n

For more onsite coverage of Annual Conference go to\u00a0www.brethren.org\/ac\/2017\/coverage<\/a>\u00a0.<\/em><\/p>\n

The news coverage of Annual Conference 2017 is made possible through the work of the volunteer news team: Frank Ramirez, Conference Journal editor; photographers Glenn Riegel, Regina Holmes, Keith Hollenberg, Donna Parcell, Laura Brown, Allie Dulabaum; writers Frances Townsend, Karen Garrett, Gene Hollenberg; with web staff Jan Fischer Bachman and Russ Otto, and Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford, director of News Services. Wendy McFadden, publisher. Contact<\/em>\u00a0cobnews@brethren.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An overview of the day at the 2017 Annual Conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":7828,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1258],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-7827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-annual-conference"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7827"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7831,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7827\/revisions\/7831"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7827"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=7827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}