New Neighborhood Churches

 We have two new neighborhood churches in the Longview/Douglas Park area of Rock Island.  One is on 12th Street, north of 7th Avenue.  That is the Zion Temple Celebration Center.  The Pastor is Jacques Bizimana and he is a French Speaker from Africa.  I believe his community was affiliated with Broadway Presbyterian Church for a time, but now they are in their own facility.

The other fairly new church in the neighborhood is Calvary International Revival Church.  They are at 519 13th Avenue, in what was previously the House of Fire Ministries building.  (House of Fire has moved out onto 11th Street.)  Their Pastor is Dr. Vitalis Kyulule. (I call him Dr. K) assisted by Patrick Noya.  This church also is made up of recent immigrants from various African nations.

We wish these neighbors well as they seek to serve God in this place.  I keep them in my prayers.  It is always a challenge to begin a new church.

Mission on Our Doorsteps

I attended a very interesting conference at Wheaton Bible Church in West Chicago, Illinois this last Friday and Saturday, March 16th and 17th.  I went at the encouragement of Amy Rowell of World Relief, Moline.  It was all about mission and ministry with new immigrants in the US.  There was good representation not only of Euro Americans but also recent immigrants and the second generation, adult children of first generation immigrants.

The array of organizations at this important conference were all from churches characterized as Evangelical Churches.  And this does not mean the Church of Peace, even though we have the word "evangelical" on our cornerstone.  In this framework, Church of Peace is characterized as Mainline.

The question on my mind is "Can Evangelical and Mainline churches work together to address the needs of our new neighbors?  Is our love of God and love of neighbor powerful enough to cause us to set aside some of our familiar rivalries, push our disagreements to the edge and our love to the center?"

Only experience will tell.  There seem to be enough new neighbors and human need in our part of Rock Island to keep a lot of folks busy, and our time can be better spent if we can work respectfully and cooperatively.  And I saw some hopeful possibilities at this conference.

Inter-Session Family Literacy Program

 The Family Literacy Program at the Church of Peace is off and running for the Spring Inter-Session two weeks.  The top photo is of the Elementary Age group of children.  The two women at the left, Alana and Katie are the group leaders.  On this first day over twenty elementary age children attended.

 This next photo is of the pre-school children working on their A-B-Cs with Pam, their teacher.  They have just sung the song and the bag in Pam's hands is plastic letters soon to be distributed for the children to touch and learn.

 Here is Gloria, another caregiver, providing a little rest for one of the babies.

 This photo represents one of the brilliant elements of the Family Literacy Program.  Here are parents and children together at a table working on an art project.  This promotes the use of language - listening, following instructions and talking together.  And it represents very positive interaction among family members together.

 This is Lisa, the project coordinator, providing instruction to the room full of tables of families.

This is a photo of a break-out classroom of adult students working on basic language with Teresa, one of the teacher-volunteers.  They use all sorts of modalities - songs, little dramatizations and role plays, pencil and paper, recitation and more to gain language skills.


Breakfast and lunch are also supplied for students who wish to eat during the Inter-Session program.

This program is supported with grants and gifts from Edwards Congregational United Church of Christ, Davenport, Iowa, the Rock Island Kiwanis Club, the Rock River Striders Running Club, the Doris and Victor Day Foundation, the Regional Office of Education, The Luke and Mehgan Cooley Family, and St John's Lutheran Church, Rock Island.  Management and volunteers are supplied by the Church of Peace United Church of Christ.

Lots going on.

Walk In Cooler

Well, our walk in cooler is in full use today.  This is certainly not a great photo, but it represents an important moment.  Today was the first day of the intersession meals program providing free breakfasts and lunches to children in our neighborhood here at church.  When school is not in session we supply free meals to children under a USDA program through the Illinois State Board of Education.

As this program has gotten bigger we have needed more space to keep things at a proper temperature and to store food and keep it fresh.  Last summer we purchased a used walk-in cooler and stored it, in pieces, in the garage of the parsonage here at church.  We were able to purchase it with a grant from the Diane and Hunt Harris Foundation.  There have been many steps to get to today.  We had to find a room in the church that we could use, and then move the other users to a new location.  We got an electrician to install proper outlets.  We found a commercial cooling company and had them reassemble our cooler and get it running.  Then we ordered custom shelving and had it installed.  You can see that it has been an eight month process to get things in use.

We need to have a grand opening in a few weeks!

Family Literacy Program Donation

The Rock River Striders Running Club, represented by Dick and Mary Fisler, give a check to Katie Colbrese for the Spring Inter-Session portion of the Family Literacy Program that takes place here at the Church of Peace.

The Family Literacy Program runs throughout the school year and is a partnership of the Regional Office of Education, Rock Island School District #41, Blackhawk College, Rock Island Library and the Church of Peace.  There is English as a Second Language instruction for refugees and new immigrants who have children in the schools.  And there is childcare for their young children.  During the inter-session breaks for Rock Island Schools additional programming takes place for the elementary age children of the regular ESL students.  We expect to have 120 participants per day in total, including pre-schoolers, adults, and elementary school age children.

One of the highlights will be the day we charter buses and all go to the Putnam Museum together!

Katie will be coordinating the elementary school age component of the program, assisted by workers from the Spring Forward Learning Center and volunteers.

Baptism

Today in worship Tammy Walker was baptized and welcomed into the fellowship of the church.  She is a neighbor and attended a nearby church when she was a child.  Her father wanted her to make her own decision about baptism, and now she has done so.  Her sponsor is Delores Valentin.  It was a wonderful service and a joyful day.  Her sisters and their families attended with her.

President Baynum visits ESL Program

President Baynum of Blackhawk College visited the Light-ON family literacy program here at the Church of Peace today.  Here he is with the adult students in Fellowship Hall.  President Bynum is near the center of the photo and I've slipped in over at the left.

Blackhawk is a partner, along with RI Schools, RI Library,  Regional Office of Education and the Church of Peace in providing this needed program in the community.