Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Please join me in extending congratulations to Diane Kubik, wife of Oleh Kubik, pastor in Binghamton, NY . She finished her college degree at Liberty University and last week graduated Summa Cum Laude (4.00 average). Diane has wanted to finish her Ambassador College degree for quite some time. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Multiple Disciplines. As Oleh mentioned to me, “It was a wonderful accomplishment and an emotional time. Diane has fulfilled a dream she’s had since 1972, when she married me.”

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The Surprising God Blog is an informal blog about Trinitarian theology provided by Grace Communion International for its ministers. It is filled with helpful information including downloads, book reviews and recommendations. Here are just a few items that have been posted recently:
A trinitarian view of family relations
Salvation: re-creation not transaction
If all are included, why final judgment and hell?
Music and Theology

The URL of the blog is: http://thesurprisinggodblog.wcg.org/

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James Stokes writes: “Our granddaughter is now a grandmother! Makes me think I must be getting old now that we have a great-great granddaughter! Her name is Jordan Sky Henderson, and she joined our clan on April 30, weighing in at seven pounds, 13 ounces and measuring 21¼ inches long. All are doing well. I’ve attached her picture so you can see what a cutie she is. Grace and I send our love and best wishes. Keep Smilin’!”

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Camps

Generations Ministries director Ted Johnston reported the successful conclusion of the first two GenMin camps of the 2009 camp season. CrossWalk, near Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, hosted 130 campers and 80 staffers; and The Mountaintop near Atlanta, Georgia, hosted 90 campers and 100 staffers.

Anthony Mullins, who works with Mountaintop, wrote: “In my opinion, we had the best Mountaintop experience to-date. God’s provision was evident in many ways, not the least of which was having more staff than campers. The staff-camper ratio allowed our volunteers the opportunity to give a tremendous amount of personalized attention and care to the campers. Our volunteer staff is at the highest level of skill and competency that I have seen. The camp was well-planned and well-executed, and much of that success lies at the feet of the leadership team – it’s been a joy working with them. Our theme for the weekend was Mission Possible, and God reminded us again that he is more than able to meet our needs and far exceed our expectations. It was a great camp experience and a privilege to participate in this ministry of Jesus!”

A slideshow of Mountaintop highlights can be viewed at:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/video/video.php?v=108896666347&ref=nf

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Jamaica Mission Trip

Grace Communion International is sending a team of workers to Jamaica July 5-12 to help the Kingston, Jamaica, congregation with construction projects and a Vacation Bible School. We have GCI members from Ohio, Florida, England and the Caribbean currently on the team. We have room for 5-7 more team members. The trip is coordinated by one of our Cincinnati, Ohio, congregations. Details of the trip can be seen at www.cfcnext.org by clicking on “Jamaica Mission 2009.” The trip is only $600 plus airfare.

Pastors, may we suggest that your congregation might help sponsor one or more of your members to be part of this life-changing mission trip? This mission trip can use men and women over the age of 18, or under age 18 if accompanied by an adult.

For more information, see the web address, or e-mail Mike Lockard at jmlockard@fuse.net or call Mike at 513-741-8059. You can also contact Caribbean Mission Director, Charles Fleming, at charles.fleming@wcg.org for more information about the Jamaican congregation.

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Africa

Kalengule Kaoma writes: “Kimani Ndungu, Area Pastor for East Africa, and I traveled to Meru, Central Kenya, where we visited the Kibiricha congregation on May 2. Close to 40 members attended. Kimani noted that since Kibiricha was our first formally organized congregation in East Africa, the members need to keep going forward and not to look back. Not only is Kibiricha the oldest WCG congregation in East Africa, it is also one of the most stable congregations. The group is enthusiastic and hospitable.

On Sunday, May 3, we attended the main congregation in Nairobi, where we worshiped in Kiswahili and English. The Kibiricha and Nairobi congregations send their greetings. They would like you to know that they pray for you.

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Prayer Requests and Updates

Our beloved friend and brother, Werner Jebens, died at approximately 3:00 am on Monday, May 25, 2009, ending his battle with cancer.

Werner was born in Hamburg, Germany and lived in Germany throughout World War II. He completed high school and trade school education in Germany after the War and emigrated to the United States around 1950. He reported he first heard The World Tomorrow on the radio in 1956 and was baptized into the Church by Dean Blackwell in Chicago in 1957.

Mr. Jebens was hired by the Church in the German Department in 1961 and worked as a Researcher, Proofreader and Translator. Later, when there ceased to be a separate German Department, he transferred to Editorial and continued work as a News Analyst and News File Supervisor. He retired in 1995 and was 83 years old when he died.

He is survived by his wife Ruth Jebens and three daughters, Gloria, Sue and Eve and several grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held on Sunday, June 7 at 10:30 am at:
Rancho Del Oro Community Clubhouse
135 Basilica Way
Oceanside, CA 92057

Cards may be sent to:
Ruth Jebens
180 Bautista Court Unit 78
Oceanside, CA 92057

Prayer is the battleground where we fight the good fight. Let’s encourage everyone to join together in prayer. Additional spiritual disciplines such as fasting and study draw us closer to God and strengthen us. When more of us prepare individually, the stronger we move together.

Love from my family to yours,
Joseph Tkach

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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Al and Edna Barr are the proud grandparents of Jessica Isabella Victoria King, their daughter Joanna’s third child. Born May 11, Jessica weighed 7 lbs, 10 oz, and was 20½ inches long. Seven-year-old Jason and four-year-old Kayla are pictured with their new sister.

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Update from Newark, New Jersey

More than 180 attended the District Conference in New Jersey with 225 in attendance on Sunday. I was overwhelmed with positive comments about how much the conference helped deepen people’s understanding of God’s love and grace.

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Update from Africa

Kalengule Kaoma reported:

From April 24-27, 2009, I visited brethren in Uganda, and I pass on to you greetings and well wishes from our two ministers there, William Othieno and Edward Kagoro, their wives, and congregational leaders.

Twenty-two congregational and ministry leaders attended the two-day conference. The conference was held at WCG’s owned and only WCG property in Tororo, Uganda. All church areas in Uganda were represented. There are six main congregations and two have the potential of becoming thriving congregations. Average weekly attendance in Uganda is 270.

Our first WCG members in East Africa are still with us: William Othieno and Eldad Owora Opio. They are both positive about the direction WCG is going. “We are behind our leader, Pastor Tkach,” they said.

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After church services on April 25, we shared a meal to which all who attended church services were invited. Conference topics included Listening and Talking to God, Congregation Management, and A Survey of WCG doctrines.

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Update from St. Louis

The following article featuring the art of Karla Reinagel, wife of pastor Karl in the St. Louis area, was recently published in the local Suburban Journal.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009 10:43 AM CDT
Broken art for broken people: Ministries offer misprints of a Florissant artist’s painting as a message of hope
by Paul Thompson

Pictured with the painting “Hands of Transformation” are (from left) Jannice May of the Connecting and Bonding ministry; Florissant watercolor artist Carla Reinagel; Curtis May, president of Office of Racial Reconciliation ministry; and Willie Mathis, who at one time was homeless in St. Louis.

What began as a painting to symbolize God’s power to transform broken lives has taken on a strangely broken and transformative life of its own and for its creator, Florissant artist Carla Reinagel.

“Hands of Transformation” was commissioned by Jannice May for her California-based Christian ministry, Connecting and Bonding. The watercolor painting depicts a broken eagle cradled in Jesus’ hands, which then soars into the bright sky, healed and transformed.

For Reinagel, her eagle is the broken lives and spirits of people everywhere, which healed by loving hands and faith can be repaired.

“People can’t stay broken,” she said. “They need healing and to be transformed until they are ready to be in the world.”

The unique aspect of Reinagel’s story goes beyond the original artwork. When she had 200 postcards of parts of the painting reproduced at a Maryland Heights print shop, the artwork came out fine but the text on the back was skewed. The cards had to be remade.

But the flawed postcards donated by Will Sanford at Cam Printing, it turned out, became the perfect gift to the people precisely in need of healing. Reinagel shipped them to ministries working with homeless people and prison inmates both locally and as far away a New York, Idaho and Iowa.

The postcards, she said, have made a difference in the lives of hurting people who understand the message they convey. “They don’t care about the back; the image on the card is a little bit of hope they can carry with them, at a price they can afford – free.” Reinagel said.

“It’s very exciting to give people a little bit of hope, especially in the uncertainty of the time we live in,” she added. “There is comfort in knowing there is hope for a better future – even if you’re homeless, even if you’re in prison.”

One homeless man, Willie Mathis, now in a veteran’s recovery service called the Hero’s Program, received the first card along with a box of cards and envelopes to give to others in similar circumstances.

“This does something for me,” Reinagel recalled Mathis saying as he stood transfixed before the painting.

Similarly, the very first copy of an Iris giclee – a special printing technique – of the 16-by-20-inch limited edition prints of the painting came out flawed, a corner slightly bent. Reinagel had promised the first number to a teenage girl, a rape victim. But somehow, the flaw in the print gave it added significance. “I gave her that first rumpled little print,” she said.

Reinagel, 49, is no stranger to the brokenness of life or to homelessness. As a child living the Montana mountains where her father was a logger, her family was homeless, living in a tent, until a Christian woman’s charity helped them get established. Her own brother is homeless, living somewhere in Oregon.

Although she had wanted to be an artist since her first inspirations in grade school and high school art classes, she never pursued her dream. But in high school, she had an “epiphany” – simply that she wanted to help people. She just didn’t know how art could do that.

Not until she went through a deep depression 20 years ago, when her two sons were young, did it dawn on her that she was failing to live up to her God-given potential.

“I didn’t see how art could make a difference. I devoted myself to church. But you come to a place where just church doesn’t do it. You have to be true to who God made you to be. He made me to be an artist,” Reinagel said.

“I came from a long period of brokenness. I had no strength, and two little kids to look after,” she said. “After some soul-searching, I told my husband, ‘I want to be an artist.'” That very night, her husband, Karl – now pastor of New Creation in Christ, which meets at Westminster Christian Academy in Town and Country – bought her art supplies. Her journey as an artist began in earnest.

After working for various companies doing artwork for others, in 2007, she opened her own in-home studio, Art of Carla (http://www.artofcarla.com). Limited-edition prints and postcards of “Hands of Transformation” are available at the Chappel House Art Gallery in Florissant and Plank Road Pottery in St. Charles, as well as through her website.

She is currently working on a series of watercolors of Northern cardinals and dogwood trees for her first one-person show. As for her “Hands of Transformation,” it too will undergo a transformation of sorts this summer. Steve Boda of World Impact Ministries in St. Louis is planning to have the urban teens he works with paint their version of the painting on their building this summer.

“We all have brokenness in us. My job is to encourage people, and my art is my means to do that,” she said. “I encourage everyone to stick with their dreams.”

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Remember that prayer is the battleground where we fight the good fight of faith.

Love from my family to yours,
Joseph Tkach