FAITH
Friday, June 17, 2016
East Oregonian
Page 7A
BOARDMAN’S LIMEY PASTOR
Godspeed to the Gertlars
I
t was a joyful and sad event.
has always been hard, and
The Gertlars, who had been
people always seem to have
part of the founding of our
a hard time with it, often
church, had sold their house
choosing anger and resentment
and the following week would
as it allows an entertaining
be moving to be Seattle to be
range of emotions where love
close to their grandchildren.
requires listening and working
There was weeping, trembling
to embrace and console those
and laughing as this stage of
different than ourselves.
Colin
life was invited in.
The Apostle Paul spent
Brown
Phyllis, our amazing
much of his time visiting the
Faith
improviser of bounty, had
burgeoning house churches in
organized an onslaught of cake
his orbit of the Mediterranean,
and chicken that created a foundation
trying to ix the arguments of the
of food that was added to by others.
crabby new Christians that were his
Cake is a big part of Lutheran life,
church family, writing letters of gentle
suitable for every occasion, and it
correction to the quarrelsome locks.
was perfect material to loat a sea of
Jesus gave us two particularly
goodbyes from our congregation to
central commandments: “Thou shalt
these dear friends. Cake is a universal
love the Lord they God with all thy
symbol of abundance.
heart, and with all thy soul, and with
The week before I had preached
all thy mind. This is the irst and
on the Ten Commandments, the big
great commandment. And the second
“shall nots,” and this week I preached
is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy
on the commandments of Jesus using
neighbor as thyself. On these two
a handout a pastor had put together in
commandments hang all the law and
1925. This handout listed all the things the prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40.
that Jesus suggested we might have a
This should have been fairly
go at if we wanted to be more like him. straightforward, until you seek to put it
How we “learn to love” was the
in action. I think that it is dificult for
topic of my sermon. Loving people
people to understand that Jesus did not
BRIEFLY
Boardman Baptist church
sets Bible school
BOARDMAN — The Boardman First
Baptist Church is gearing up for its Vacation
Bible School.
The event runs July 6-10 from 5:30-8 p.m.
at 200 Willow Fork Drive, Boardman.
The program will conclude with a hot dog
feed and concert Sunday, July 10 beginning
at 5:30 p.m.
Nashville recording artist Cale Moon will
perform at 7 p.m. To ensure there is enough
food, those planning to attend are asked
to RSVP by contacting Rev. Bill Griggs at
bilbea@eotnet.net or 541-481-9437.
Presbyterian church day
camp seeks donations
PENDLETON — The Pendleton First
Presbyterian Church is seeking donations for
its Vacation Bible School Day Camp.
The event begins Monday, July 11 at
Westminster Woods, located near Meacham.
Each year, more than 100 kids from the
community are transported using school
buses. People can sponsor seats for $5 each.
In addition, food donations are being
accepted, including snacks such as crackers,
Chex cereal, licorice, peanut butter, M&M’s,
raisins, cheese sticks and cookies. Also,
bottled water, plastic silverware and paper
products are needed.
For more information or to make a
donation, call 541-276-7681 or stop by the
church at 201 S.W. Dorion Ave., Pendleton.
Nazarene church celebrates
fathers with breakfast
HERMISTON — A Father’s Day
breakfast is planned at Hermiston Church of
the Nazarene.
A meal will be served to the whole family
as a celebration of the men in people’s lives.
The event is Sunday at 9:30 a.m. at the
church, 1520 W. Orchard Ave., Hermiston.
For more information, contact 541-567-
3677, hermistonnaz@gmail.com or visit
www.hermistonnazarene.org.
———
Friday’s faith page features local, national
and international faith-related news. Send
information about local faith-related news
and events, including concerts, special
speakers and activities to community@
eastoregonian.com or drop off to the
attention of Tammy Malgesini at 333 E. Main
St., Hermiston or Renee Struthers at 211 S.E.
Byers Ave., Pendleton. Call 541-564-4539 or
541-966-0818 with questions.
want adulating followers. He wanted
copiers, people who would care for
the poor, tend to others with the same
love they hold for their own selves or
dearest. He was the irst person in our
faith to offer up his own life for love
of others but he has been continually
followed by a stream of many others.
The Gertlars reminded me of
my own parents. Age has shortened
them, as it had my mother and father.
My heart ached in resonance with
them as they enjoyed and grieved
this time of change. I have seen
grandparents returning to be near their
grown children and getting to know
grandchildren in proximity. I think it is
like coming into Heaven where all of
those we had lost and loved will be. It
shall be a phenomenal reunion.
So I pray for the Gertlars in their
journey toward greater love knowing
that our house of love, Good Shepherd
Lutheran Church of the little town of
Boardman, will follow one day into
the great, embracing heart of God
where all tears will be wiped away.
■
Collin Brown is pastor of Good
Shepherd Lutheran Church in
Boardman.
ALQOSH,
Iraq
—
Clutching his rile intently,
the Iraqi recruit maneuvered
between piles of bricks and
cement obstacles. The sound
of shooting pierced the air
and he jumped behind a wall,
lifted his rile and imitated the
staccato sound of gunire.
It was only a training exer-
cise — the man is among the
few dozen Assyrian Christian
militiamen conducting mili-
tary drills in a training camp
at the foot of the mountains
overlooking the Nineveh
plains of northern Iraq.
The militia, known as the
Nineveh Plain Protection
Units, or NPU, is one of three
Christian armed groups hoping
for American support after the
U.S. House of Representatives
called for direct assistance to
be delivered to local security
forces in the north of Iraq.
American assistance “will
give equality to all the ethnic
groups here,” said Col. Jawat
Habib Abboush, the deputy
commander of the group.
NEW HOPE COMMUNITY CHURCH
1350 S. Highway 395, Hermiston
Sunday Worship Services
English- Pastor Dave Andrus
9:00 & 10:45 am
Spanish- Pastor Genaro Loredo
9:00 & 10:15 am
Classes for kids during all services
For more information call
541-567-8441
P eace L utheran C hurch
210 NW 9th, Pendleton
ELCA
A
t my mother’s 1983
as a mega computer-like
memorial service
brain with identity. With the
in Chattanooga, I
whole being greater than
spoke of the Notre Dame
the sum of its parts, thus the
theologian John S. Dunne
universe is a living thing.
who wrote about the
I have read that David
spirit of the journey, the
Chalmers, director of the
adventure, and the bridging
Centre for Consciousness
with love to other peoples
at the Australia National
Tom
that had characterized my
Hebert University, believes
mother’s life: “To ind
scientists will eventually
Faith
God, I came to believe,
conclude that consciousness
we must give over the
is a fundamental property
quest of certainty for a quest of
of the universe — like space, time
understanding. How are we to come or gravity. I think so, I hope so.
to understand? By passing over to
So, in my patchwork career in
the standpoint of other lives and
management and consulting, I have
times and coming back to that of
also studied the interplay between
our lives and times, a seeking and a chaos, disorder, change, beauty,
inding. It is the spiritual adventure, excellence, adventure and original
the changing standpoint of a person conditions — the source of truth.
who says, ‘I am and I will die, yet
They hang together, but how?
shall I live.’ This spiritual adventure
What I ind in the wasteland,
is a journey with God.” Add in
which has always been attractive to
Daniel Batson’s “quest” orientation, me, is its various kind of dangers
which describes the sort of person
and the challenge to transform
who is “interested in religious
it. Who would “search for
questions but suspicious of easy
excellence” when one could search
answers,” unafraid to challenge and for the grail? Oh, yes, like the
doubt his or her own beliefs.
Quixote I am, did I mention that I
Out of such speculation I have
often fail? That I rarely stop to irst
come to believe that the universe
ask the King: “What ails thee?”
has purpose, and identity —
That said, the older I get the
meaning. Despite the incidence
more I think about harmony: “a
of entropy — unpredictability
pleasing combination of elements
of information content, disorder,
in a whole.” Perhaps I’m now
all things going to hell in a hand
more interested in a search for
basket — from the beginning of
harmony, rather than a grail quest,
time, good things were practical,
bridging, or adventure.
inevitable, meant to happen,
Oh, I know, as a philosopher I
lourish and dominate the evil likely should just saddle up and ride out.
inherent in entropy. Call it God?
Because, as J. Frank Dobie wrote
My personal search and
in his 1934 “The Mustangs,” “a
discovery began back in the
man who has had a good horse
early 1970s with Ludwig von
in his life — a horse beyond the
Bertalanffy’s general systems
play world — will remember
theory. I wrote in my co-authored
him as a certitude, like a calm
1972 book that we have an “instinct mother, a lovely lake, or a gracious
for systems” and that “America is
tree, amid all the lickering
a system, a complex and unitary
vanishments.”
whole” concluding that “if the top
That’s as far as my search for
soil begins to shift . . . is the thigh
the numinous has taken me. For
bone connected to the leg bone?”
me the universe simply adds up
But eventually growing weary
to something more: wholeness,
of a world of general systems being harmony, and hopefully, meaning
mere “transactions of decline in a
— God.
landscape of despair,” I igured out
■
that God, at least for myself, is of
Tom Hebert is a writer and
a singular reality: the fractal/chaos/ public policy consultant living on
super-complex/quantum elements
the Umatilla Indian Reservation
of a universe working together
outside Pendleton.
“This is our country, we
had a civilization here for a
thousand years and we are
still citizens of this country,”
he added. “We cannot be
marginalized.”
Assyrian Christians, many
of whom speak a dialect of
Aramaic, the language spoken
by Jesus and his disciples,
once constituted a signiicant
minority in Iraq but their
numbers have dwindled in
recent years as many have
emigrated to escape long-
standing discrimination.
When the Islamic State
group spread across northern
and western Iraq in the summer
of 2014, Assyrian Christians
were brutally targeted and
thousands of members of the
community were displaced
from their homes, leeing to
Kurdish-controlled areas.
Col. Abboush said his
group poses no threat to
anybody but IS. The militia
had formed to protect the
community in the wake of the
Islamic State’s onslaught and
the collapse of the Iraqi army.
“We joined to ight
terrorism and Daesh, and to
liberate our land, to protect
our dignity and honor,” said
recruit Michael Rai Staef,
using the Arabic acronym for
IS. His hometown, Qaraqosh,
is still held by the militants.
The NPU has received
training from American
private military trainers and
Col. Abboush said his men
were currently being trained
by U.S. military personnel.
A spokesman for the
anti-IS coalition couldn’t
conirm if the NPU was,
indeed, receiving training
from the U.S. military but said
they were considering training
another Christian group,
known as Dwekh Nawsha.
The House of Repre-
sentatives’ draft 2017 U.S.
defense bill speciies that
direct assistance may be
provided to “local security
forces, including ethnic and
religious minority groups,
with a national security
mission.” The bill still needs to
be approved by the Senate and
signed by the president, and its
vague wording gives Wash-
ington considerable discretion
over who to support and how.
But groups such as the
NPU hope it means that inan-
cial aid and direct military
support could be forthcoming.
The 300 or so ighters
of the NPU have purchased
some of their weapons them-
selves, and received around
100 riles from the Iraqi army.
Their salaries have been paid
by the Iraqi government since
spring.
Yet the Christians are
divided among themselves.
There are at least two more
Christian armed groups oper-
ating in the area, where they
vie for inluence.
One rival group, the
Nineveh Plains Forces, is
based in the town of Telskof,
where half-collapsed build-
ings and bomb craters remain
from vicious ighting against
Islamic State militants in May.
The NPF have also
received training from Amer-
ican private military trainers.
But unlike the Iraqi-supported
NPU, the NPF’s support
comes from the peshmerga,
the armed forces of the
northern semi-autonomous
Kurdish region in Iraq.
Faith Center Church
Worshiping God
~Come and be at Peace ~
Loving People
108 S. Main • 276-9569
Sunday Worship
10:30 am
Sr. Pastor,
Ray O’Grady
on 1290 KUMA noon each Sunday
pendletonfaithcenter.org
Join us Sundays
9:30
Sunday
Worship
9:30
am am
Sunday
Worship
10:30
am Fellowship
Refreshments
10:30 am
11:00 am Sunday School
& Adult Class
Seventh-Day
Adventist
Church
Saturday Services
Pendleton
1401 SW Goodwin Place
276-0882
Sabbath School 9:20 am
Worship Service 10:45 am
About God and I
Christians ighting IS in Iraq hope for U.S. support
By BALINT SZLANKO
Associated Press
Community
Community
Presbyterian Church
First United
Methodist
Church
14 Martin Drive,
Umatilla, OR
922-3250
352 SE 2nd Street
Pendleton, OR
541-276-2616
Worship: 10 AM
Sunday School at 11:30
Sunday Worship 9am
Open Hearts, Open Hands, Open Doors
Facebook: www.facebook.com/
FUMCPendleton
Services are broadcast every Sunday
on KUMA-1290 AM @ 11am
Rev. Dr. Jim Pierce, pastor
Grace Baptist Church
585 SW Birch,
Pilot Rock, OR 97868
(541) 443-2500
prbconline.blogspot.com
Sunday School: 9:30 am
Worship Service: 10:45 am
Kids’ Club: 6:00 pm
Wednesday Services:
Youth Group: 7:00 pm
555 SW 11th, Hermiston
567-9497
Nursery provided for all
services
Sunday School - 9:30 AM
Worship - 10:45 AM
6:00 pm
Wed Prayer & Worship -
7:00 PM
“Proclaiming God’s word,
growing in God’s grace”
St. Johns
Episcopal Church
All People
Are Welcome
Scripture, Tradition
and Reason
Family service 9am Sunday
Gladys Ave & 7th Hermiston
Fr. Dan Lediard, Priest. PH: 567-6672
OPEN HEARTS – OPEN DOOR
www.graceandmercylutheran.org
Sunday Worship 9:00 a.m.
Sunday School 10:00 a.m. (Nursery
Provided)
Fellowship, Refreshments & Sunday School
Check Out our Facebook Page or Website
for More Information
541-289-4535
Tom Inch, Pastor
Grace and Mercy Lutheran Church, ELCA
164 E. Main St. / P.O. Box 1108
Hermiston, Oregon 97838
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN
CHURCH
-Presbyterian Church (USA)-
201 SW Dorion Ave.
Pendleton
Service of Worship - 10:00 am
Children’s Sunday School -
10:20 am
Fellowship - 11:00 am
www.pendletonpresbyterian.com
Open Hearted...
Open Minded
Redeemer
Episcopal
Church
241 SE Second St. Pendleton
(541)276-3809
www.pendletonepiscopal.org
Sunday Holy Communion 9:00 a.m.
Wednesday Holy Communion Noon
Weekly Adults Spiritual Life Group
All Are Welcome
Come meet Jesus at
PENDLETON BAPTIST
CHURCH
3202 SW Nye Ave Pendleton, OR
541-276-7590
Sunday Morning Worship 11:00 AM
Sunday Bible Classes 9:45 AM
Sunday Youth Group 6:00 PM
Mon. Community Women’s Study
9:30 AM & 6 PM
Awana Kids Club (K-6th grade)
Wed Men’s Study 6 PM
MOPS meeting the 1st Thur of the Month 6 PM
FIRST SERVICE 8:30 AM
SECOND SERVICE 10:30 AM
712 SW 27 TH ST.
541-276-1894
www.fcogpendleton.com
FAITH LUTHERAN
CHURCH
in Mission for Christ LCMC
Bible Study.........9:00 AM
Sunday Worship......10:30 AM
Red Lion Hotel
( Oregon Trail Room )
www.faithpendleton.org
To share your worship times call
Terri Briggs
541-278-2678