Manna and Music

India Christian EFC, Westchester, IL, hosted their first free Manna Coffee House event this weekend. A casual evening of entertainment open to the community it featured three acts:

Steven Abraham Band--intriguing listeners from all walks of life with their alternate rock-style and worship-oriented lyrics

Faceless--exhibiting a wide range of musical styles with an edgier sound

Abe & Liza Philip--a husband and wife team whose deeply compelling lyrics and music have earned them national and international recognition.

For more information on Facebook: Manna Coffee House

Crayons for Cancer

Featuring their own band, "Zeal," and another called the, "Post Hole Diggers," Wethersfield Evangelical Free Church, Wethersfield, CT, is hosting the annual Crayons for Cancer Benefit for Connecticut Childrens Medical Center. 100% of the proceeds go to the Family Fund in the Oncology Unit helping families by offsetting the cost of meals and parking while they stay at the hospital.

For more information on the Crayons for Cancer Benefit.

Multi-Site Pioneers

EFCA pastor Larry Osborne of Northcoast Church in Vista, CA, will be presenting as part of a team of one church/many location church pastors at the "Multi-site 2.0" conference hosted by Windsor Crossing Community Church in Chesterfield, MO, September 28-29, 2009. Sponsored by Zonderan Publishing, Leadership Network, Generis and Portable Church Industries participants will hear from a variety of multi-site church leaders, gaining practical advice in breakout sessions covering topics such as fundraising, technical issues and growth.

For further information on the Multi-site 2.0 Conference.

Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie and Living Word EFC

Focused on sportsmanship, enjoying the game and providing a new learning experience the 15th Annual Freeport International Baseball Invitational in Pennsylvania, organized by Christian Sports International (CSI), is scheduled for the last week of July this year. CSI welcomes teams from all cultures and from locations as far away as Sri Lanka and Austrailia.

The Legacy Lions Baseball Club formed by Living Word Evangelical Free Church in Butler, PA, has two teams that will participate in the invitational who's purpose is to promote the Christian faith through sporting events.

Instant Home Away From Home

Bringing only the clothes on their backs, 10 of the 52 residents who were rushed out of their burning apartment building in Gaylord, MI, spent the first night at the Gaylord Evangelical Free Church. Not having the time to grab their driver's licenses, identification cards or medication, the residents will need help to work through their losses. The community of Gaylord is stepping up to help with donations of clothing, personal items, food and more.

Read the full story by Bill Froehlich from Up North Live News.

Getting Airborne

44 skateboarders and BMX riders from ages 6 to 34 gathered in Canon City, CO, to compete in the Revolver Games organized by Omar Short, middle school youth director of the Evangelical Free Church. About 300 people attended the event throughout the day including professional skateboarder Uriel Luebcke, (sponsored by Nike and Untitled Skateboards).

"It's a little different level than just coming out and hanging out to skate," he said, "the point is to honor their sport, with BMX and skateboarding--to put on a real-deal competition that has them compete with people around Colorado." Along with honoring the sport they share a simple message of hope. This year 13 people accepted Christ as their Savior.

Read the full story by Carie Canterbury in the Canon City Daily Record.

Photo by Jeff Shane of the Canon City Daily Record.

Broken, Destroyed, Attacked -- Pray

Just minutes apart last summer, two earthquakes of 7.9 and 8.1 rocked Peru impacting more than 200,000 people. In the city of Chincha more than 40,000 homes were destroyed or seriously damaged. In the wake of these earthquakes, EFCA TouchGlobal Crisis Response has partnered with the Evangelical Free Church of Peru and ReachGlobal staff to provide holistic relief and recovery for the purpose of outreach, evangelism and church planting. Interested in helping?

Pray for a Peruvian worker who seriously cut his left foot with a power saw while helping with rebuilding efforts in Chincha. Pray God will provide for his family. Pray also for two missionaries recently attacked and bitten by dogs on the worksite.

More Room, Please

Christ Evangelical Free Church in Bethel, PA, doesn't want a time to come when the church doesn't have room to reach more people. They've requested a township permit to build a 47,000 square foot facility to house the more than 700 weekly attenders.

Today they rent modular units to house Sunday school classes. Starting with approval of the township permit and a capital campaign to raise the funds to build the new facility, the plans will begin to build a multipurpose facility that will include a worship center, day care, classrooms, kitchen and more.

For the full story by Michelle Park of the Reading Eagle publication:
http://www.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=148345

For help at your church with capital campaigns:
Ministry Campaign Services (MCS)

Connected from California to Rwanda

Teams from the Valley Evangelical Free Church in Vacaville, CA, traveled to Rwanda in June to quite literally "build" upon their partnership with the EFC of Rwanda. Their progress is well documented in ongoing blogposts by Gary Rodgers, Valley EFC's director of missions. The teams finished a floor in the home of Cyubahiro, (a 78 years-young Rwandan woman), gardened and focused on building relationships with their Rwandan brothers and sisters in Christ.

To follow their progress: http://valleyefcrwanda.blogspot.com/

(photo from the blog)

To learn more about EFCA partnerships and consortia contact EFCA CONNECT:
connect@efca.org.

Laredo, TX Students Help in Galveston

Students from Grace Bible Church in Laredo, TX are traveling to Galveston, TX to help rebuild homes in the aftermath of the hurricane that devastated the city as a part of compassion relief efforts spearheaded by EFCA TouchGlobal. For the full story as covered by Channel 8 news in Laredo:

http://www.pro8news.com/news/49980897.html?video=YHI&t=a

Including Autistic Children

A specific example of an EFCA church ministering uniquely "among all people" was featured in a July 5, 2009 article for The Patriot News' PennLive.com Web site in an article written by Diana Fishlock:

West Shore Evangelical Free Church welcomed Esther and Lee Feirick and their three autistic children--Calvin, 11, Catherine, 8, and Josiah, 7--in ways the family never expected since they first came in May 2008, Esther Feirick said.

"For Catherine they had someone who could sit with her in her Sunday school class and kind of keep her participating," she said. "Josiah's teacher said, 'Oh! My nephew has that! Does he like deep muscle pressure? Does he like this? They already knew some of these things. I was amazed because that hadn't been my experience."

The family received at least three contacts from the children's pastor asking what else the church could do to help the family. "They ask us to help. They asked us what kinds of things should the staff know. They're very supportive," said Feirick of East Pennsboro Township.

They have had a long history of working with people who are different," she said.

Instead of expecting the Feirick children to conform to their system, the congregation asked what they could change to make the experience easier for the Feiricks, Esther Feirick said. "I never had that. That thinking was so different."

To read the full story:
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2009/07/families_churches_adjust_to_he.html

Lighthouse Built By the Congregation

Lighthouse Community Church members gathered for the first time in their new building at 7705 Indianola Ave. in Des Moines, IA, on May 31 hosting a grand opening June 14.

Donated land, hours of volunteer work from the congregation and numerous donations of time and effort from nonmembers went into constructing the $1.47 million building.

For the full story by Lisa Colonno of the DesMoinesRegister.com:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090625/NEWS/906250315/1001/news&community=dmsouth

Picture by Jonathan Quinn for the Register.

Doc of All Trades

Featuring the unique practice of Dr. Ken Buczynski of Faith Evangelical Free Church, Mountain Lake Park, MD, The Baltimore Sun's writer, Stephanie Desmon shared:

Medicine is Buczynski's ministry. He sees "patients as more than just a physical entity," often praying with them and for them. "I's not a billable procedure, but I like to provide it," he says.

For the full story: http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/bal-rural0628,0,7630562.story

South Africa in California

The Evangelical Free Church of Chico, CA will share praise with a South African celebration service of testimonies and worship inspired by a recent trip to Africa, presented by Dan Irving this weekend.