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Welcome to my little area of OakChapel.com! Here you will find my blog entries - articles about anything and everything.



Wednesday 02/10/10
Written by Rev. R. K. Schneider   
Wednesday, 10 February 2010 17:22

The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field … which indeed is the least of all seeds!  But when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.

Matthew 13:31-32 (KJV)

 

How are you doing?!  Feel like one of those “least of all seeds?”

 

Thankfully, on Monday, Brooke and Bob had power restored at their apartment!  It was also good to finally have our street plowed!  Since Friday, we’ve dug and pushed out 5 to 6 stuck cars per day in the neighborhood!

 

Ah…  On Tuesday, with our driveway well shoveled, Kathryn’s car cleaned of snow, our front porch roof shoveled off, and the snow starting to melt, I thought things were pretty well settled down --- like order had been restored from all the chaos.  …Then I looked out the window this morning!

 

Wow!  What a mess again!  The snow was blowing horizontally!!  How disheartening!  And then our power cycled on and off several times!  …Oh my, chaos again!

 

Then I thought of that mustard seed.  So tiny relative to the world around it!  So easily crushed by a rock, scooped up by a relatively huge bird, or smothered by the snow!  And yet, when someone has the faith to sow that tiny seed into the ground, it grows!  And, it grows to become not just some little flimsy bush --- but a tree, one that those huge birds come to make their homes in!

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Kingdom Area Creation - A Brief Update Report
Written by Rev. R. K. Schneider   
Thursday, 14 May 2009 19:02

For background on this topic, please see sermons of April 26 and May 3 on the church website (oakchapel.com) or ask the office for printouts.

Rev. Edwards of Layhill Free Methodist and I met (5/8) with Natalie Cantor (Dir.) and Carol McKenzie (Assist. Dir.) of the Mid-County Regional Services Center.  It was a good initial meet and greet!

Natalie was very enthusiastic about forming a partnership with the faith community in the 20906 area, especially consistent with what’s called the Kennedy Cluster Project.  I was actually amazed and convicted when Natalie said that in her 20 years at the center, we are the first from the local faith community to come to explore how the faith community might work in conjunction with her organization.  Wow!

Several action items came out of the meeting ... most on Carol’s plate.  She is going to get us information about specific needs in the community and what efforts are currently ongoing to address them and the organizations involved.  She is going to set up a meeting with us and Mark Lilly, our government area supervisor.  And, she is going to set up a meeting with the Department of Recreation, which currently facilitates the “Rec Extra” program (an after-school program).

Carol told us that there might be some funding available for a summer program that we might have an idea for.  I mentioned the idea of a one or two week tutoring program.  I thought that perhaps some teachers might be interested in doing such.  My action item is to explore the potential with local principals.  Also, I had the action item to look into participating in a KCP meeting on June 9.

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