Williamston - West Locke and beyond!

I had a great time preaching at Williamston-West Locke yesterday morning and then enjoyed lunch/fellowship with Pastor Mike & Ruth Black and Justin Neier, Assistant Pastor (also known as "the outreach guy"). Later that afternoon, I met with a team in Hastings to interview a potential church planting couple for that community.

I'm still hearing encouraging reports from the Easter outreach in our district (have you filed your report yet?) including news that Holland - La Roca broke 300 for their Easter Sunday - Friend Day outreach. Congratulations to Pastor Jose Luis Pacheco and the La Roca team!

On Saturday morning I was able to connect with 10 Hispanic ministerial students taking the FLAMA class with Rev. Edgar Chacon, DS, as visiting professor, meeting at Plainwell - Friendship Church. The future is bright for Hispanic ministry in West Michigan.

Thank you to the many WMD team members who expressed their condolences and prayer support for Rev. Jim Wood and his family as they grieved the loss of Mrs. Donna Wood, who was promoted to her eternal reward last Monday and celebrated at a memorial service at KCC on Friday morning.

Please keep the leadership teams at Allegan and Allendale Wesleyan churches in your prayers as they continue their pastoral search. Pastor Tom Boland has accepted a call to a church in the South Carolina District and Pastor Ken DePeal has accepted a staff position at a church in the Western Pennsylvania District. We'll miss these team members and their families but we're excited to think about the positive impact both of these leaders will have in their new venues of ministry.

On the district calendar this week:

Tuesday - Personnel Committee - 3:30 p.m. @ District Office
Thursday - New Pastors Network - 9:30 a.m. @ District Office
Thursday - New Church Planters' Network - 12:30 p.m. @ District Office
Sunday - Parma @ Howe Wesleyan Church - Annual visit (MLG) and LCC

Pastor Grover James (Jim) Wiegman passed away on Saturday after battling cancer for 4 years. Rev. Wiegman had pastored in our district for several years with friends and family residing in the Lansing area. After the memorial service is held in South Carolina where he'd been pastoring, his body will be transported to Lansing for family visitation and the burial. The family visitation is scheduled for Saturday, April 21, at Grosline Runciman Funeral Home, 1-3p.m. The graveside service will follow at 3:30pm at Chapel Hill Memorial in Lansing. We extend our condolences to Kathy, his wife, and his extended family.

Upcoming district events:

May 1 - Conference Action Committee (all resolutions/memorials should be forwarded ASAP ... see Policy Manual - WMD006)
May 8 - District Board of Administration meeting @ District Office
May 14 - Retired Ministers' Luncheon @ District Office
May 15 - Jackson/Lansing Zone meeting (9:00 a.m.)
- Battle Creek/Kalamazoo Zone meeting (12 noon)
May 16 - Lakeshore Zone meeting (9:00 a.m.)
- Grand Rapids Zone meeting (12 noon)

Some of you may be writing blogs that we can link to from our district website. I'm collecting a list of favorites including:

http://www.revitalizeyourchurch.blogspot.com/
http://www.evotional.com/
http://joelspoint.blogspot.com/

Keep on making a difference for eternity!

Your servant in Christ,
Mark

P.S. Josh and Shelly Buck had a great team help with their move into temporary housing this past Saturday and Josh taught last night at Greenhouse! You can stay updated on Josh's progress @ www.greenhouseministries.org