October 2021 Volume 23 Issue 5 Bible Fellowship Church of Newark

A Forever Family

F amily of origin dysfunction, wounds and resulting pain are no

stranger to me: not only am I sure that Andrew and I will pass on at least a smidge of our own, but I also grew up in a broken and confusing home and family. Many of you may not yet know this about me, but I did not grow up in a Christian home and didn’t come to know the LORD Jesus until relatively later on in my life at the age of twenty-one. Leading up to my salvation deci-sion, I spent my teenage and young-adult years making many mistakes as I tried in my own flesh to fill in the holes and numb the pain that had been left in/on my heart by growing up in a broken family and world. I mention all of this in this to our church family not to in any way shame my parents, whom I truly be-lieve did the best that they knew how to, and with whom I have wonderful, redeemed relationships. Why do I mention it, then? Well, church family, I have some wonder-ful news, a beautiful testimony and a charge: I’m writing to highlight and spur us on in God’s design for His primary vehicle for redemption, His Church, and to testify that a healthy church family truly can heal family-of-origin wounds when it is working well. I have come to believe and expe-rience personally that a MAJOR role of the Christ’s Church is to become a redeeming stand-in family…a Spirit-

led, unconditionally loving, always forgiving, interested and engaged family. God knows how you grew up; He was with you in the quiet and dark moments that you felt so alone as a child: He was not too distracted to notice your pain. He

watched all of your games. He had his arms around you as your parents unjustly yelled. And now, He has selected a new family for you…a specific church family…a family filled with the Holy Spirit and designed to step

into and engage in your life and pain in a way that will wash over you and begin to repair and remake your experience in the thing called “family”. When a church family is healthy and aware of and pursuing their role as a heavenly family on earth, it can be an EXTREMELY healing “force” (for lack of better words) for those who may carry around many scars and voids left behind by painful childhood up-bringings. Those with sibling wounds now have sisters and broth-ers who are actively seeking the LORD and who can pray for and hold their hand through the difficult days living in a fallen world. One that is particularly close to my heart is the lovely and noble elderly women who have headed the charge in Titus 2 to devote the latter part of their lives to “training the young women” of the church, especially

those who did not receive that train-ing from their earthly parents. Spir-itual fathers, godly men and elders are called to realize their profound opportunity to model what it means to be a good spiritual father, perhaps for some who have never seen or tasted that before. As someone who first came to Christ desperately hungry for love and family, I will never, ever, ever forget and cease thanking the LORD for those women and men who took the time to notice/listen and then stepped out of their way and into my messy life to become my church fam-ily, embracing me into their hearts and homes. May God bless them for their loving actions and service that showed me tangibly “the Way, the Truth and the Life.” —Terrence Hebel

“In love he predestined us for adoption to him-

self as sons through Jesus Christ, according

to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his

glorious grace, with which he has blessed us

in the Beloved.” - Ephesians 1:5-6

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The Fellowship is printed for the benefit of the members and

friends of Bible Fellowship Church of Newark.

Deadline for submissions is the twentieth of the prior month.

Articles may be sent to TheFellowship@

BFCNewarkDE.org

Bible Fellowship Church of Newark 808 Old Baltimore Pike

Newark, Delaware 19702 (302) 366 - 8539

FAX # (302) 366-8542

BFCNewark@verizon.net

Rev. Andrew Hebel

Rev. Steve Morton, Outreach & Missions

Rev. Daniel King, Youth & Family

Rev. William Schlonecker, Pastor Emeritus

Worship services are at 10:00 am

Sunday School meets from 9:00 to 9:45 am

Be sure to visit BFCN on the web at

www.BFCNewarkDE.org

Please direct address corrections to the church office.

November 20

Forgiving Forward

New Adult Sunday School Classes

9 am

The Real God How He Longs for You to See Him Steve Morton in Comly 3 Meeting Jesus Christ The Theology and Practice of Private Personal Worship Grove Armstrong in Comly 4 Digging Deeper Digging deeper into the previous week's ser-mons for better understanding and application. Ken Klein, Ken Kutchen, David Hall in Comly Hall

T he Forgiving Forward Train the Trainer intensive seminar was held

on September 25 with 20 partici-pants. Forgiveness is so central to the message of the gospel and God's heart that it needs to be central in our lives as well. God's love is expressed through forgiveness. I have been blessed to re-ceive forgiveness from lots of people through the years. I was very bitter against my father for many years up until early college. A wonderful man named John talked about similar challenges with his father. He said, "I had to both choose and learn how to forgive my dad so I wouldn't be consumed by regret." As college continued, my father, a long-distance trucker, stopped at school to visit more often. I began to look forward to those visits. Our friendship was finally beginning to grow more as I became more of an adult. After college, we continued to grow closer. I am so thankful that I accepted John's wise counsel 30 years ago. When I finally heard this material, I wanted to utilize it to be a blessing in people's lives the way God had birthed this better reality into my life. May God continue to lead us for-ward. —Dean Rissler

R ecently I had the opportunity of attending the Forgiving Forward

Seminar in June and the Coaching In-tensive Teaching in September, both held at BFCN. I have known for many years that the key to freedom from past wounds is through forgiveness. This Seminar goes into depth as to why we need to forgive as well as protocols or steps to take when forgiving. One of the valuable truths present-ed that struck me is that unforgiving is a sin. Choosing to not forgive is diso-

beying God. Refer to Matthew 6:12, 18:35 and Colossians 3:13. The crux of the Gospel is God has forgiven me of ALL of my sin. He has canceled my debt to him through the shed blood of His Precious Son on that cruel cross. God knows that when I obey Him and forgive I will experience His joy, peace and freedom. The protocols that were presented lay out clear directions to follow in forgiving. They begin with asking God in prayer to reveal whom or what in my life I need to forgive. It can be from something that occurred recently or decades ago. Once I pray through these steps for that situation or person, I move onto another situation that God may reveal. It is urged that a person prays these protocols out loud with a trusted friend, which I did. The result for me has been a healthier heart, a deeper belief and trust in God’s love for me and a higher level of joy and peace. We live in a broken and often cru-el world. The Forgiving Forward con-cepts and protocols are tools I plan to use to help me forgive and maybe help someone else find freedom through forgiving. —Lee Mitchell

Be kind to one another, tender-hearted,

forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

- Ephesians 4:32

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Services

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Services

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Anouncement

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75 years of Marriage and Blessing!

W ith back-to-school time com-ing up soon, families starting

back-to-school shopping, and all the back-to-school sales, we would like to ask you to start picking up items for Operation Christmas Child.

Helping Hands is busy work-ing on the school packs and toiletry

packs that go in the shoe boxes and we are in need of the items to go in them. If you would be willing to donate them, there will be a box in the Commons marked Operation Christmas Child. We need the fol-lowing items: #2 pencils, pens (blue/black), erasers, sharpeners, markers/colored pencils, small calculators, small spiral tablets (3x5), loose leaf paper, wash cloths, bars of soap, toothbrushes, small packs tissues, girls/boys socks. If you would like to donate toys or beanie babies now, that would be great too. We will need these when we pack the boxes. Con-tact Lynda Spector with any ques-tions: 610-207-1516.

Operation Christmas Child

T&S Landscaping - mulching, planting, pruning, sod, power washing, seasonal clean-up, landscape design, etc. Call or text for your free estimate: Travis 302-357-0782.

S eptember 16 this year marked the 75th wedding anniversary

of Leslie and Shirley Cruise, Janet Klein's parents. Many of you know that Janet travels to Hatboro, PA each weekend, Friday through Monday, to provide elder care for her folks, who are now both 97 and both still living at home. Janet and her brother David have been providing tag-team care for the their parents for past 27 months. Les and Shirley met shortly after Les returned from WW II. Les served with the 82nd Airborne Division, first helping to lib-erate St Mere Eglise ( Nor-mandy) and then serving in Holland and finally Bel-gium ( Battle of the Bulge). By God's grace he sur-vived the war, though he was wounded in action in Belgium and lost many of his comrades through some very tough action.

Les (and Shirley) still get around pretty well, though mostly with their “walkers.” Les’s days of jumping out of airplanes are now behind. The big goal now is just jumping out of bed in the morning! Les and Shirley have left a godly heritage to three generations, with two children, eight grandchildren and twelve great grandchildren, and they continue strong in their walk with the Lord. — Ken Klein

Women’s Bible Study The Wednesday morning Women’s Bible Study group will resume on October 6 from 9:30 – 11:30 in the Koininia Room and will be utilizing Dr. David Jeremiah’s book, study guide, and CD series “The Book of Signs, 31 Undeniable Prophe-cies of the Apocalypse.” Participants will need to purchase the book and study guide ($26.69) from Amazon. We will cover one lesson per week of the book and study guide starting with Ch. 1 on October 6. (Enter building from the play-ground side door.) For more information, contact Chris Bekowski at 302-738-3427. This study will begin in October 2021 and end in May 2022.

Linda and Marty Sellers would like to announce the birth of their first grand-child, John Henry, born to Matthew and Amanda Clarke on June 22.

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Saturday, October 16, 2021

1-6 pm

Celebration of Pastor Bill Schlonecker’s Ministry!

Afternoon program followed by an open house dessert

Reception. Hope you can join us!

Church Bonfire - Nov 13 (Saturday after Daylight Saving change). Meet at 5:00, lighting as soon as dark. Hotdogs, marshmallows, availa-ble for roasting. Lemonade, hot chocolate, coffee provided. We do not need wood.

October 30

Trunk or Treat

November 19—21

Men’s Advance