A Glimpse into the Dynamic Tapestry of Covenant Life
We love in-depth storytelling, but for brief stories that we want to share with our Covenant family, we’re bringing back a familiar format from the blogging age: the roundup post. What follows is a compilation of activities, events, or ideas of interest from various points around the Covenant.
Observing Our Founding
Last week, Covenant pastor and writer Greg Asimakoupoulos wrote an entry in his regular column for local newspaper The Wenatchee World, observing the 140th anniversary of the founding of the Evangelical Covenant Church, which took place in Chicago, Illinois, on February 20, 1885. He explains some of the broad strokes of the foundational immigration story at the heart of the Covenant’s beginning and also shares how it intersects with his own family history. Well done, Greg!
You’ll be hearing and reading more about the Covenant’s 140th anniversary in the runup to this year’s Gather event, which includes the Covenant Annual Meeting; the annual meeting of the Ministerium; and the service of commissioning, ordination, and consecration of ministers and global personnel, to be held in Orlando, Florida in June. We’re thankful that Greg’s article in honor of Covenant Founders’ Day gives us an excuse to start the celebration early!
Tiger Breakfasts
As winter slowly thaws into spring, families in Wheaton, Illinois, are probably grateful for the work of Zachs-Toro Gaiya and the good people of Faith Covenant Church. Gaiya is the director of outreach at Faith Covenant and has been leading an effort to serve a weekly breakfast to the students at nearby Wheaton Warrenville South High School on late-start Wednesdays. It’s a convenient option for both students and parents to get a bit of sustenance before the start of the school day, especially since FCC is just one block away from the school. “It’s such a big deal for us,” said Gaiya when we spoke over the phone. “We started with four students, and now we have over 200.” Gaiya also says they have between five and eight student volunteers who help with cooking and serving the food, and that because of connections built, the school sent their choir to sing at one of the church’s Christmas services last year. It just goes to demonstrate how effective a timely meal can be in strengthening important community relationships. Good work, everyone.
Movies Big and Small
Covenant creativity abounds, including both on the large and small screen. Shout out to Covenanter Diane Borden, who alerted us to a fun tradition at Council Tree Covenant Church in Fort Collins, Colorado. Their kids’ ministry puts together their annual Christmas pageant as a short film and then holds a screening as a kick-off to Advent. You can view their latest, “Humphrey’s First Christmas,” on their Vimeo page. Great job, kiddos!
Thanks also to Michael Poindexter, pastor of Grace Covenant Church in Iron River, Michigan, who sent us a note about filmmaking brothers Anders and Davin Lindwall, who grew up attending Grace Covenant. They wrote and directed the feature film Green and Gold, which debuted on January 31 in theaters across the Midwest.
The movie stars Craig T. Nelson and Madison Lawler and depicts a Midwestern farming family contending with a crisis of faith. It was made in partnership with the NFL’s Green Bay Packers. As of this week, it’s available in theaters in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, South Dakota, Minnesota, and of course, Wisconsin. You can watch the trailer here, and read (or watch) an interview with the Lindwall brothers here. Way to go, fellas!
DIY Memories
Finally, a note of thanks goes to Susan Eastburg Kellner. Last summer, she told us about an interesting project her elderly father, John Eastburg, was doing during his time at Covenant Living of the Great Lakes in Grand Rapids, Michigan. As a way of trying to capture some of the stories he’d told over his long life, he began writing them down—not simply in a journal, but in booklets that he self-published and gave out to friends. He wrote his first one at 75, The Journey of an Idaho Farm Boy, which was a 112-page autobiographical account. After that, he wrote numerous follow-ups that touched on the churches he attended, cars and homes that were meaningful to him, and even one about two pianos that journeyed across the country. John Eastburg passed away last October at the age of 95, but because of his dedication to heartfelt storytelling, he left behind plenty of his memories for loved ones to cherish. Read Susan’s account of her dad’s storytelling project here.
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