Welcome To Fourth Presbyterian Church

Summer Sunday School
Sundays through September 4
9:30 a.m. in Westminster House
As usual, our Sunday School operates on a smaller scale during the summer months. Debbie Whitmore and Marcie Hanzlik teach a combined class of first through fifth grade at 9:30 a.m. A preschool class for three-year-olds through kindergarten is held at the same time, as is the regular nursery. At 11:00 a.m., there is no Sunday School but there is expanded nursery care for infants through kindergartners.

Vacation Bible School: Power Lab!
Monday–Friday, August 11–15
9:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m
The theme for this year’s Vacation Bible School is “Power Lab: Discovering Jesus’ Miraculous Power.” It’s a science-themed good time for kids from three years old to fifth grade. We’ll do crazy science experiments, play “Hyperspeed Games,” and snack on “Test-Tube Treats” that we’ll take turns making. It’s a wonderful week of songs, crafts, food, learning, and fun!
We expect VBS will be completely full again, so if your child is interested, call to register now. Scholarships are available. We welcome junior high youth to volunteer to help as assistant station leaders or preschool crew leaders. Senior Highs are encouraged to help as crew leaders for the older kids.

VBS Kids Sing during Worship
Sunday, August 16
9:30 and 11:00 a.m. worship services
We’ll end our VBS week with singing in church on Sunday, August 17 as part of the 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. services

May 2008

Here’s the Good News

Family Camp Coming Soon!
Once again, Fourth Church families will be enjoying the first official weekend of summer at Family Camp in beautiful Saugatuck, Michigan. Our theme this year is “I Believe in God, Maker of Heaven and Earth.” Saturday morning, families will have the choice of playing cooperative games or doing a service project to get the camp ready for the summer. Saturday afternoon is free for everyone to enjoy nature, shop in Saugatuck and Douglas, or visit local wineries and orchards. We’ll enjoy family-style meals, beach football, climbing Mt. Baldy, our sing-along campfire, and the best personal company around!

Spring Family Camp will be held May 30–June 1 at Presbyterian Camps. For more information, look in the literature racks in Westminster House for registration forms. Accommodations are for two-nights, with Saturday meals and Sunday breakfast and dinner included. Scholarships are available. The deadline for registrations is Thursday, May 22, so send it in soon!

Letter from the Superintendent
Congratulations to the Sunday School faculty for a highly successful year. This year we educated an average of 170 students each week in ten lively and vibrant classrooms. Each week as I walk from room to room, I experience everything from a musical parade of three-year-olds to four-year-olds listening attentively while seated in a perfect circle to first graders acting out a Bible story, second graders reading from the Bible in their “Prayer Tent,” and fifth graders gathered in the Manse in small breakout discussion groups.

Our Sunday School program excels due to the ongoing love and support of highly creative and skilled volunteers who serve as teachers. Please feel free to drop in on your child’s class during the year. It will provide you with a faith-inspired boost. Children’s Chapel is also a wonderful place to experience the joyful noise of voices and laughter and to watch Donna Gray handle with ease and grace some tough theological questions from the mouths of babes! Thank you, one and all, for donating your time and energy to educating God’s children. There is a wise saying that “A child might forget everything taught by a Sunday School teacher, but they will never forget how that teacher made them feel.” The children at Fourth Presbyterian Church will take with them the feeling of being loved.
—Katy Sinclair, Sunday School Superintendant

2007–08 Teachers
Dala Aavik
Carol Collins
Michelle Stromberg
Bill Ohlhaber
Jim and Lies Garner
Stacey Shonkwiler
Rhonda Carlson
Judy Mitchell
Suzanne Kickhaefer
Dennis and Anne Marie Canfield
Hilary Richardson
Mark Meyer
Steve Mugg
Lisa Metzger-Mugg
Blasko Ristic
Lisa McClung
Debbie Whitmore
Marci Hanzlik
Katie Arnold
Irene and Steve Bumpus
Anne Hsu
Carol Gates
Sheila North
Ann Grissom
Chrissy Richards
Ji Inn Lee
Liz Adams
Marta Bonner
Kendra Maple
Joyce Griffith
Erica Kuhlmann
Carole Bekken
Stacy Neier
Laura Duzan
Missy MacLeod
Heather Major
Douglas Pond
Sharon Mistel, Children’s Chapel Accompanist

Eighth Graders Confirmed May 18
For this entire school year, our eighth grade class has been exploring questions of faith, identity, and their role as Christians in today’s world. Now they are ready to make their confirmation of faith in front of our congregation, which will take place on Sunday, May 18 at 9:30 a.m. in the sanctuary. We are all very proud of their dedication to achieving this. Please take a moment to congratulate our young people for this milestone in their lives.

2008 Confirmands
Zachary Douglas Antonio
Erin Elizabeth Bennett
Frank Swayze Brumfield
Madeleine Jacobus Campion
Thomas Lain Cox
Taylor Wilson Crowl
Laurel Elizabeth Doak
Geoffrey Edward David Rogers Dohrmann
Henry Robert Feldman
Elizabeth Roi Guynn
Jack Spencer Kint
Rebecca McKinnon Strek Lewis
John Lindsay McGuinnis
Henry James Meserow
Nicholas Snow Phalen
Adam Kenneth Ringwood
Thomas Joseph Rossley
Kathryn Elizabeth Sabol
Hannah Greer Elizabeth Sharpe
McCormick Louis Sinclair
Emily Jane Vander Weele
Lauren Jean Wiebe

Baccalaureate Sunday Honors Our Young Scholars
As the end of the school year approaches, Fourth Church will be honoring our students who are graduating from eighth grade and from their senior year in high school. Graduates who submit their names to John Vest by May 19 will have their names printed in the May 25 bulletin, and there will be a special Coffee Hour that day recognizing and celebrating all graduates. We honor all these students for their hard work and wish them continued success in their studies.

Summer Sunday School Schedule Begins
During the summer, Fourth Church’s Sunday School program slims down, to give both children and their teachers the chance for a break to recharge and renew. Beginning Sunday, May 25, the Sunday School’s summer schedule will begin. Debbie Whitmore and Marcie Hanzlik will teach a combined class of first through fifth grade at 9:30 a.m. A preschool class for three-year-olds through kindergarten will also be held at 9:30, as will the regular nursery. An expanded nursery to include infants through kindergartners will be held at 11:00 a.m.

Feed My Sheep
During the Easter Service for children, something sparked this conversation between two children. The first child said that Jesus and God are the same. The second child replied, “No, they are not!” If the conversation had continued I am not sure where it would have gone. It is a difficult concept to think of Jesus and God being one but two people. From the very beginning of the world, God tried to be friends with the people he had made. God tried to help the people of the world be more loving and a few people understood that. However, because only a few understood what God’s love was really like, God worked out a plan. God would show himself through a person who was his Son, Jesus. It remains a mystery we do not fully understand and we take on faith. Because God was Jesus’ father, Jesus was like God. He had the full image of God in him. Because Mary was Jesus’ mother, Jesus was human like the rest of us. It wasn’t until Easter that Jesus reveals himself as fully as ever as the Messiah and proclaims this to confused disciples on the walk to Emmaus, where they had a hard time recognizing the Messiah until he sat with them at the table and broke bread. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him.

We too may have difficulty proclaiming the divinity of Jesus and want to say, like the second child, “No, he isn’t.” We are not a people who deal easily with mystery and transcendence; we want the facts and the proof. We have a hard time understanding that we need God. So we need from time to time to say, “Lord, help my unbelief.” Faith in God is fundamentally a matter of trust in what cannot be seen but what can be realized.
—Donna Gray, Minister for Children and Families

Our Children and Family Ministry is active, exciting, and growing every year. Please join us for these and other events to share fellowship, expand your circle of friends at church, and grow in Christ as a family.

If you have any questions or comments, or just want to touch base, please feel free to contact me (312.640.2577, dgray@fourthchurch.org) or my assistant, Emilie Syberg (312.640.2578, esyberg@fourthchurch.org).