Pastor's Corner
October 2006
‘For I know the plans that I have for you’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.’
Jeremiah 29:11
Dear Church Family,
For some forty years the prophet Jeremiah proclaimed a message of “doom and gloom” to the Israelites in the southern kingdom of Judah over five hundred years before the birth of Jesus. Judgment was going to come upon them from the Babylonians because they had hardened their hearts before the Lord and rejected His ways and commandments. It was a dark and dismal time for God’s people! Yet throughout Jeremiah’s prophecies we find glimmers of hope including the verse quoted above. It is a promise to the people that God has a plan of grace to give them “a future and a hope”. This of course pointed not only to the restoration (with repentance) of the nation after the Babylonian Captivity but also it pointed to the promise of the coming of Christ. Despite the despair in the present circumstances, God was offering (indeed promising!) that there will be better days ahead filled with hope.
I thought of all this as I reflected on the major change of ministry with our Minister of Youth Cory Freese leaving Ustick to take a position of Minister of Youth at Cole Community Church here in Boise. Cory has given us six wonderful years as our Minister of Youth and has left a great legacy of leadership, love and commitment to the young people of our church as well as their parents and the many adult youth leaders he has seen raised up to serve in the youth ministry. I know you join me in expressing great gratitude to Cory (and Melissa) for serving our Lord in serving us here at Ustick. The Lord has been good to grant us this time together and we will miss these two friends and their family, yet we pray for great prosperity for them in their new ministry to the glory of God!
So we are left to contemplate the “future and hope” we have for our youth ministry at Ustick. We could feel “doom and gloom” and “despair” in this change. The better response is to trust that our Lord has plans for us for the welfare of this vital ministry of our church. To that end the Elders have asked Dave Moulin (one of our Elders) to head up a search team to prayerfully look for a replacement for Cory as Minister of Youth. Also Dave is heading up a team of adult “overseers” who will help in this transition time to make sure that the youth ministry continues to meet, disciple, fellowship with and encourage our young people in the Lord. Below is a list of those serving in these two vital areas:
Youth “Oversight Team”
Dave Moulin
Mike Veit
Kim Veit
Larry Tingler
Marie Leaman
Youth Minister “Search Team”
Dave Moulin
Jackie Greenleaf
Wendy Dalrymple
Scott Ziemer
Brent Schiller
Brian Tromburg
George Smith
Margaret Canfield
Pastor Greg (ex-officio)
Obviously we need a lot of prayer as we seek to line our will up with the Lord’s in not only keeping our youth ministry active and effective but in finding whom the Lord has to be our next Minister of Youth. Once the “Search Team” has identified a candidate they will present them to the Elders and then if approved that person will be brought to the congregational membership for confirmation. We trust that the process will go as quickly as possible and that we will come out of this “calamity” (change) with “a future and a hope” that will cause us to praise God for His amazing faithfulness! Thank you for your prayers, patience and support in this process.
Serving with you,
