Singles Picnic (divorced, widowed, never-married, etc.)

Coming in the Fall

Grief Recovery Workshop
at Canton First Friends Church
Tuesdays at 7pm - September 11 - October 30, 2012
330/966-2800
http://firstfriends.org

Sunday in the Park

What: Sunday in the Park (fellowship, fun, Bible study for Single Adults 35+)
 
Topic: "One Is a Whole Number" 
 
When: starts this Sunday afternoon  (weekly thru July 22) - fun at 4:00, group starts at 5:00, done by 6:30
 
Where: at the Arboretum Park (about half-way between Whipple & Cleveland Avenue on 38th Street, NW in Canton). We will meet in Shelter #7 (except July 1st in Shelter 8)
 
Weekly schedule (something like this):
   4:00pm - outdoor games ( corn-hole, croquet, bocce ball, frisbee golf, volleyball, etc.)
   5:00pm - refreshments/ice-breakers
   5:15pm - worship time (pray, sing, etc.)
   5:35pm - presentation on the topic ("the talk" by Craig Henry, others)
   6:00pm - table talk (picnic table discussion groups)
   6:30pm - closing prayer
   * perhaps a walk around the park before or after

Holding God's Hand in the Dark

Don’t doubt in the dark what God told you in the light. - V. Raymond Edman

Never let anything so fill you with sorrow as to make you forget the joy of the risen Christ.
- Mother Teresa

Faith is believing in advance what can only be understood in reverse. - Chuck Swindoll

Has this world been so kind to you that you should leave with regret?
There are better things ahead than any we leave behind. - C.S. Lewis

It would be more accurate to call our present life “the beforelife”
rather than calling what follows “the afterlife.” - Randy Alcorn

Don't focus on what you are going through;
Focus on where God is taking you. - Boone

We shouldn't ask for a faith that passes all understanding and then act surprised when we don't understand it all. - Bob Goff

God has your tomorrow covered even though you haven't been there yet. - Tony Evans

If God's Word holds the universe together, surely He can keep your life from falling apart.
- A.R. Bernard

Let God’s promises shine on your problems. - Corrie ten Boom

His Strength Is Perfect

Thought of this tonight while speaking at Grief Recovery Workshop.
It popped into my head when I was in the hospital 9 months ago out of nowhere and really expressed the gratefulness for God's sustaining strength that I have experienced. Perhaps it will speak to someone reading this.

His Strength Is Perfect
by Stephen Curtis Chapman

I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength
But sometimes I wonder what he can do for me
No great success to show
No glory of my own
yet in my weakness he is there to let me know

His strength is perfect when our strength is gone
He'll carry us when we can't carry on
Raised in his power the weak becomes strong
His strength is perfect, His strength is perfect

We can only know the power that he holds
When we truly see how deep our weakness goes
His strength it must begin
When ours comes to an end
He hears our humble cry and proves again

His strength is perfect when our strength is gone
He'll carry us when we can't carry on
Raised in his power the weak becomes strong
His strength is perfect, His strength is perfect

Laugh... It’s Good For What Ails You

Many years ago, Norman Cousins was diagnosed as “terminally ill.” He was given six months to live. His chance for recovery was one in 500.

He could see the worry, depression and anger in his life contributed to, and perhaps helped cause, his disease. He wondered, “If illness can be caused by negativity, can wellness be created by positivity?”

He decided to make an experiment of himself. Laughter was one of the most positive activities he knew. He rented all the funny movies he could find—Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, W.C. Fields, and the Marx Brothers. (This was before VCRs, so he had to rent the actual films.) He read funny stories. He asked his friends to call him whenever they said, heard, or did something funny.

His pain was so great he could not sleep. Laughing for 10 solid minutes, he found, relieved the pain for several hours so he could sleep. He fully recovered from his illness and lived another 20 happy, healthy and productive years. His journey is detailed in his book, Anatomy of an Illness.

Some people think laughter is a waste of time. It is a luxury, they say, a frivolity, something to indulge in only every so often. Nothing could be further from the truth. Laughter is essential to our equilibrium, to our well-being, to our aliveness. If we’re not well, laughter helps us get well; if we are well, laughter helps us stay that way.

Since Cousins’ ground-breaking subjective work, scientific studies have shown that laughter has a curative effect on the body, the mind and the emotions.

So, if you like laughter, consider it sound medical advice to indulge in it as often as you can. If you don’t like laughter, then take your medicine—laugh anyway. Use whatever makes you laugh—movies, sitcoms, Monty Python, records, books, New Yorker cartoons, jokes, friends.

Give yourself permission to laugh—long and loud and out loud—whenever anything strikes you as funny. The people around you may think you're strange, but sooner or later they’ll join in even if they don’t know what you’re laughing about.

Some diseases may be contagious, but none is as contagious as the cure . . . laughter.

- Peter McWilliams, Chicken Soup for the Surviving Soul

A cheerful heart is good medicine,
but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
- Proverbs 17:22, NIV

youversion.com/bible/niv/prov/17/22