Gay Marriage and our Response as Christians - July 2

We are having a regular worship gathering on July 2nd, at our usual location at the "shed" (where Maranatha Bible Church used to be located). Pastor Eric Schumacher will be sharing with us on the topic of Gay Marriage and what our response as Christians should be to the recent legalization of gay marriage in Iowa. Come join us starting at 7:30pm.

Watershed at the Park - June 25th!

Come one, come all! Come enjoy some food, fun and fellowship. This Thursday, June 25th, we will be having our Watershed worship gathering outside at Palisades-Kepler State Park. Feel free to show up anytime after 6:30pm. There are grills at the park, and we are providing the charcoal and matches, so bring your favorite food and drink. Also feel free to bring a frisbee or a ball to kick or throw around. We may also have a fire and smores afterwards so plan to stick around. If you came out to Palisades last year, you'll remember how much fun it was. You don't want to miss out!

Here is a map showing how to get to the park, which is off US 30 going east toward Mt Vernon. Here is a map of the park. We have reserved Shelter #1.

Regular Worship Gathering this Week (June 18)

We will be having a regular worship gathering June 18th at our usual 'shed location. Jim Coyle, the pastor of the new church moving into Maranatha's building, will be sharing from God's Word in the book of James. So come join us for a time of worship and studying the Scriptures!

As a reminder, next week we will be meeting at Palisades-Kepler State Park for a time of food and fun. Stay tuned for more details.

Healing the Heartland Reminder

Just a reminder, because a few people have asked... Yes, we indeed are "having Watershed" this week. It's just taking place on Friday instead of Thursday. We will be volunteering at one of the Healing the Heartland BBQs as mentioned in Joe's earlier blog posts.

Our BBQ is held at Taylor Elementary School, 720 7th Ave SW: http://tinyurl.com/nbqqpj

Arrive at 4:00pm if you're available to help with the setup, and the actual event will go from 6:00-9:00pm. Enough food will be on hand to feed 500 people, so be praying for a great turnout! Your volunteering will help kick off this huge weekend of events, and will hopefully help those still affected by the flood to find hope in God.

See you at the BBQ!!

-Steve

Healing the Heartland Fliers -- Update

For those of you who are helping out with flier distribution today, you probably noticed that it's raining outside. Our plan is to still meet at Taylor (yes, in 25 minutes!). We will form teams of two or so and assign a location for each team; then the team can get together later this weekend when convenient (and when it's not raining) and distribute the fliers. So still come if you can!

The Harvest is Plenty

It's time for a pop quiz!

What did Jesus say after he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plenty but the workers are few"?

With Healing the Heartland approaching fast, we see a harvest that really is plenty. There are many thousands of people in Cedar Rapids that do not know Christ, and many of them will participate in at least one of the Healing the Heartland events.

Compared to the number of non-Christians, the workers really are few, whether the workers are Christians or volunteers at one of the events.

Hmm. Wasn't that what Jesus said? Something about volunteering or stepping up?

Nope.

Even though I strongly suggest reading Joe's earlier post and signing up as a volunteer, that's not what I'm going to ask you to do.

Healing the Heartland is going to be a great chance for all of us to share Christ's love with this city. There is an enormous harvest available, but the workers are few. That's why I'm going to make a serious request of everyone that reads this. I want you to do what Jesus commanded in Matthew 9:37-38.

I want you to "ask the Lord of the harvest...to send out workers into his harvest field." Please pray daily, for the next ten days, that God will send out workers into the harvest field of Cedar Rapids.

And if you're willing to pray, please post a comment to let us know you're doing so.

Healing the Heartland

Watershed is partnering with Serve the City and other area organizations to serve our community at the "Healing the Heartland" festival coming up Jun 12 - 14. We will be helping primarily with the Friday night BBQ at Taylor School (720 7th Ave SW in Cedar Rapids).

Watershed will be helping out in two separate events. The first will be on Saturday, June 6th. We will meet at Taylor School at 9:45am and deliver fliers in the Taylor neighborhood. We should be done with this activity by 11:30am.

The second event is the BBQ itself on Friday, Jun 12th. We will be helping at Taylor from 4:00pm - 9:00pm. Our areas of service will include cooking, serving food, and just mingling with others there. If you're not able to stay for the full time, feel free to sign up for whatever part you can be there.

We also have two specific requests for the event on Jun 12th: we need someone with a pickup truck to pick up our food and supplies at River of Life at 3:45pm and bring them to Taylor. We also need someone to be the DJ for the evening -- someone with a good selection of uplifting music and who likes putting together inspiring playlists.

We are looking for as many volunteers as possible for both of these activities. If you can help, please sign up by contacting Joe Clark. Thanks!