Hometown Worship

Our Hometown Worship section is where you'll find our area churches directory, special features about local churches and church leaders and obituaries. Devotional pieces from Pastors Bill Mantel, Bob Mankaka (Amazing Grace), Brandt Johnson (Tamarack Church of Christ), Rick Perry (Kimberly Community Church) grace the pages of this section, along with columns by Lisa Koehler (Faith Page Coordinator).

Faith Coordinator

I do freelance work from home, and, depending on how tight a deadline I have, there can be a lot of freedom in setting my own hours. I can get up early, sit down at my computer in my pajamas, and have a lot of work done by noon. Or I can work late into the night and sleep in the next morning. If I have a small project with a loose deadline, I might putz around – an hour here, an hour there – doing other things along with my work throughout the day.

But when I come to work at the Voyageur, I get paid by the hour; therefore, I’m on my boss’s time. I understand that I’m expected to work for every hour I’m paid. I’m accountable for my time, and I do what my boss expects me to do, not whatever I happen to feel like doing – which, quite frankly, some days would be zilch! Doesn’t matter. You gotta work when you’re getting paid.

I got to thinking about how different my life would be if I approached every day with the mindset that I am not on my own time. I’m working for “my Boss,” and need to do whatever tasks He sets before me. What would happen if each day I said, “Okay, Lord, I’m on your time; what would you have me do this day?”

Ephesians 5:15–16 of the Amplified Bible says, “Look carefully then how you walk! Live purposefully and worthily and accurately, not as the unwise and witless, but as wise (sensible, intelligent people), Making the very most of the time [buying up each opportunity], because the days are evil.”

The days are evil, the time is short, and every day has Kingdom work to be done, whether it’s out in the world or in a prayer closet. Making Jesus the boss of each day puts our lives on track to be purposeful and worthy and accurate.

For this story and more, pick up this week's Voyageur Press.

McGregor, Minn.

Women, men and children in more than 170 countries and regions will celebrate World Day of Prayer, Friday, March 5. The women of Cameroon have written the service around the theme Let everything that has breath praise God. They invite us to “Africa in miniature,” a country rich in diversity, where climate and culture are widely varied, but where people are bound together by a love for music, family and faith. The worship service emphasizes the importance that the people of Cameroon place on music and celebration in their praise to God.

This year’s service will be held on March 5, 2010, at 1:30 p.m. at the McGregor United Methodist Church.

Invite your friends, family and communities of faith to join the women of Cameroon in prayer and song to support women’s ecumenical ministries toward justice, peace, healing and wholeness. The annual offering will support the work of World Day of Prayer USA and help meet the needs of families who are victims of poverty, violence and human trafficking.

World Day of Prayer (WDP) is a worldwide ecumenical movement of women of many Christian traditions who come together to observe a common day of prayer each year on the first Friday in March. Services begin at sunrise in the Pacific and follow the sun across the globe on the day of celebration. Each year a different country serves as the writer of the World Day of Prayer worship service.

World Day of Prayer was founded on the idea that prayer and action are inseparable in the service of God’s kingdom. For more information, visit www.wdpusa.org. On www.Facebookcom, search for World Day of Prayer USA Committee. You may call Bethie Grell, 426-4577, for more information on the McGregor service.

For this story and more, pick up this week's Voyageur Press.

Amazing Grace Christian Church

Man had a choice way back in the beginning of history. The choice was to be obedient or disobedient to God. God told Adam and Eve, “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it, you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17). What God told them not to do, they chose to do. That original choice of disobedience plunged mankind into being a fallen race. Today, we begin life in rather the same way. We are innocent of sin until we reach the age of accountability. Then sin becomes our choice. Our decision to honor God or not, to desire a relationship with our creator or not, is a simple choice, but we all need to know that we have a choice.

As children, we are molded and shaped by the things around us. This is called “environmental influencing.” A child’s relationship with his or her parents, peers in school and in the neighborhood, the music he or she is subjected to as well as television, all play a role in the child’s cultivation.

Now we have computers and cell pones to contend with. Anything can be misused and abused. We can all become addicted to stuff like texting and Web surfing and ignore the important things in our lives.

It saddens me that through texting and e-mails, the personal face-to-face conversation is lost. Now, we can say anything we want without thinking of the damage those words can do. A simple statement can be received as hurtful and cutting without room for explanation. What a great place for the devil to bring in misunderstanding, anger and bitterness. The devil will use any means available to divide us and destroy relationships.

Many testimonies of people coming to Christ speak of what Jesus took them out of. Their eyes have been opened to the things of God. Some had …

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