Future Mission Trips All teenagers and their families are asked to attend a planning session on September 19th for a mission trip planning session. We will be discussing future mission trip opportunities and asking everyone to give their opinions for where the mission program should go from here. We know a lot of you have mission experience and would like to continue being given the chance to serve so here’s your opportunity to share your opinions moving forward!!! After church on September 19th please grab a quick snack in upper fellowship hall and then head into the sanctuary. Again, parents are encouraged to join us! Your opinions matter too!!

Thank You to Everyone Who Helped at the Alsback’s House!! Thank you so very much to everyone who contributed time, energy and money to repainting the inside of the Alsback’s house on August 6, 7, 8 and 9. The response was really tremendous! We owe a special debt of gratitude to Marjorie Russell who coordinated most of the painters and Jane Moen who ran all over town gathering furniture donations. But it took every single volunteer we had to be able to make such a huge difference for the Alsback girls. When we started this project the idea was just to paint a couple of the rooms in the house to brighten it up a bit for them. But as is typical at the DRCC, once we got started the project truly took on a life of its own. We had Heidi Lee making new curtains. Luther Moen rewired the TV, fixed furniture and hung up paintings. Jane Moen and Betsy MacMillan ran all over town to gather donations that came from many members of the church. The Butkus family showed up to move the larger furniture around. And all the while we had countless people painting including the Russell Family, the Winchell Family, the Erikssons, the Moens, Abby Visel, Roger Cole, Nancy Peluso, Doug Whittaker, Terry Turner, Martha Ficke, Sue Jones, Cody Carver and more! It was such a huge show of community support for Melissa, Katie and Chloe. The results from that weekend were beyond Melissa’s wildest expectations. When she walked through the door she cried tears of joy and said a huge and heartfelt thanks to the community as a whole. She loved the murals that we painted on her walls and all of the new furniture that was donated. Her exact words were “it is as if you all read my mind!” I know this is a time that it is really important for Melissa and her girls to feel the love and support of their community… and it was just so clear on that morning when they walked into their house that they know exactly how loved they truly are. THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO PARTICIPATED!!!!

Community Playgroup

Thanks to the help of many members of the congregation our FREE Community Playgroup has really taken off! We now have over a dozen children from the area to come play every Tuesday from 10:00-11:00am. 

Anyone is welcome to join our group at any time. There is no need to sign up, just meet us in upper fellowship hall any Tuesday at 10. And you do not have to be a member so please feel free to tell all your friends and neighbors about the playgroup!

Making Connections at the Eddy Shelter

This spring the Board of Christian Service and I are working to make connections at the Eddy Shelter, a local non-profit organization working to help the homeless. This year the economy has been especially hard on non-profit organizations who have seen their budgets slashed as demand for their services soars. Over time we would like to partner with the Eddy Shelter in many ways. They may be able to accept some items from clothing drives and they welcome any food and company we could provide for their residents. Throughout the Fall we plan to bring a meal to the Eddy Shelter once per month. If you are interested in this ministry please contact the Board of Christian Service.

Three Cups of Tea Discussion Groups Join the Community Read this year! Deep River is asking all residents to read the book “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and then join a discussion forum in September. The book is the story of “one man’s mission to promote peace… one school at a time” and follows Greg Mortenson through his true story of building schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is a thrilling tale of the difference that one man can make!! There is a complete list of discussion forums at the Town Hall. The DRCC will host its forums at 11am on September 28th and 7pm on September 29th.

"We are the music makers... we are the dreamers of dreams" --Willy Wonka

The Midnight Run

On April 17th, 38 members of our congregation went into New York City in the middle of the night to feed the homeless. Working through a local non-profit called “The Midnight Run,” we stopped on five street corners that small communities of transient people call home. We left the church at 7:00pm arriving at our first stop on the run just after 10:00. Over the course of the next four hours we served over 150 sandwiches, 100 bags of chips, 300 cookies, 100 pieces of fruit, 3 gallons of chili and 5 gallons of coffee. We also handed out over 100 pairs of pants, 35 blankets, 80 shirts and 60 jackets along with countless pairs of socks, underwear, gloves, hats, belts, towels and small bottles of assorted toiletries. We arrived back home just before 4:30am.

The night of the midnight run always holds a mix of emotions for those of us who go to New York. There is a huge sense of sadness when we see the way that people live on the streets. But we are also grateful to them for allowing us to be a part of their lives for a night – and grateful to our congregation for supporting our efforts through hundreds of pounds of donations! And for me there is a huge sense of pride when I watch some our young people hop out of their car on a street corner at 1:30 in the morning. They eagerly bound around to the back and pop open the trunk, excited for yet another chance to do God’s work by touching the lives of members of our society that most people don’t even bother to notice. It is in those moments that I find our teenagers inspire me the most – on a dark and cold street in New York City when suddenly and clearly their faith is made visible.

Sometimes I wish that I could bottle up one of those moments and give it away like a gift to someone who is facing sadness. Every single one of us, over the course of our lifetime, will face a period of great darkness – where the world seems overwhelming and cold and dark. And it is then that I would unwrap that moment on the street corner in New York and hand it over, saying “here is how we know, although the world may hold its challenges, that we also have reason to shout with joy and hold immeasurable hope for the future… we just have to let our young people lead the way.”