Irondale Church is a place of promise to grow and belong
September 2018
• Pray always
• Pastor David and Colleen
• Community Soup
• Our outreach and witness
to our community
• Busy Hands
• People struggling with
illness
• Young families and single
parent families
• Those struggling with ad-
diction
• Schools: students, staff,
administrators
• Missionaries
• Homeless, helpless, hope-
less, hungry
• Local, state, national and
world leaders
Irondale Church News
Not Fitting In
Have you ever been some-
where doing something you
know you shouldn’t be doing? I
suppose that is a common feel-
ing. I don’t mean like robbing a
bank on Sunday morning when
you know you should be in
church, I mean like in a job that
leaves you feeling disconnected,
or at a family gathering with your
in-laws. Just somewhere where
you feel like a milk bucket under
a bull or a pork chop at a kosher
buffet or maybe a beef rancher
at a PETA convention.
I think that’s what the life of
Jesus was like. Think about it,
Jesus’ Dad was God. I know
Joseph was His stepdad and that
was a lofty calling. But imagine
Jesus as a child at school on Fa-
ther and Son Day? The teacher
asks, “Jesus, what does your Dad
do for a living?” “Oh, he doesn’t
‘do’ anything for a living, He ‘is’
life.” Or maybe worse yet, all
the little Jewish kids sit down for
lunch and they pull out their
kosher sandwiches and Jesus
pulls out a BLT. They are all like,
“Isn’t that bacon on your sand-
wich?” And Jesus replies, “Yea, I
decided to change my rules.”
Jesus was always out of
place in this world. There was no
room for Him at the inn, the
angels sang about His birth, the
magi from the east came to visit
when He was born and the king
wanted to see Him dead. None
of that happens to a normal kid.
He was always out of place. And
we call Him our Master. John
13:16 says, “Truly, truly, I say to
you, a servant is not greater than
his master, nor is a messenger
greater than the one who sent
him.” Yet as believers often we
are hesitant to acknowledge that
Jesus is the Lord of our lives.
This not only makes Him out of
place in the world, but out of
place in the hearts of the people
He is Lord over. I find that un-
nerving. Matthew 7:22–23 says,
“On that day many will say to
me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not
prophesy in your name, and cast
out demons in your name, and
do many mighty works in your
name?’ And then will I declare
to them, ‘I never knew you; de-
part from me, you workers of
lawlessness.’ We need to make
sure that Jesus is fitting into our
lives.
Jesus simply did not and
does not fit into this world. Look
at Matthew 8:19–22, “And a
scribe came up and said to him,
“Teacher, I will follow you wher-
ever you go.” And Jesus said to
him, “Foxes have holes, and
birds of the air have nests, but
the Son of Man has nowhere to
lay his head.” Another of the
disciples said to him, “Lord, let
me first go and bury my father.”
And Jesus said to him, “Follow
me, and leave the dead to bury
their own dead.””
Jesus didn’t fit into the nor-
mal religious landscape. When
the people were cheering Him as
if He were a rock star, the Phari-
sees admonished Him to tell His
followers to stop, but Jesus re-
plied, “… “I tell you, if these were
silent, the very stones would cry
out”” (Luke 19:40.)
But when it comes to think-
ing of Jesus not fitting in there
are two scriptures that really
stick out to me. The first is John
18:36, “Jesus answered, “My
kingdom is not of this world. If
my kingdom were of this world,
my servants would have been
fighting, that I might not be
delivered over to the Jews. But
my kingdom is not from the
world.”” In a world loaded with
politics and opinions Jesus
simply looked to God for solu-
tions. This morning on the
news, the anchors were inter-
viewing a psychologist about
something, and she said, “I
think….” Whatever the topic
was about doesn’t matter. She
was supposed to be an authori-
ty on the topic. When she said
“I think…” she moved from
being an authority to having an
opinion. She should have pro-
duced facts and figures not
opinions. This is one reason
Jesus didn’t fit in. He didn’t
have an opinion on anything He
had facts and figures. “My King-
dom is not of this world…”
Jesus didn’t try to persuade
people into “thinking” a new
way, He knew they needed to
enter a whole new Kingdom.
The Kingdom of God.
There was one more
place Jesus didn’t fit: the
grave. Luke 24:5–6, “… the
men said to them, “Why do
you seek the living among
the dead? He is not here,
but has risen….” The grave
could not hold the Lord Je-
sus. He did not belong
there. “In him was life, and
the life was the light of men.
The light shines in the dark-
ness, and the darkness has
not overcome it” (John 1:4–
5). Jesus was not built for
death, He was built for life.
Continued p.2
Page 2
This issue features pictures of the
latest quilts finished by our Busy
Hands ministry which makes
quilts for children in Foster Care.
Any one is welcome to attend.
There is a place for everyone!
Busy Hands meets 3rd Saturday
of every month. You don’t need
to be a sewist to come, there is
something for everyone to do, so
come and enjoy fellowship, fun,
food, and of course Leatha’s
Chocolate Cake!
Irondale Church News
Not Fitting In, continued
The same is true about us.
We are not built for graves,
vain ideas or things that only
hold temporal value. We like
Jesus are built to be the light
of the world. We are built to
shine in the darkness. We
are to make a difference in
this world that has way too
much heartbreak. This
month as fall moves upon us,
why not make the decision to
Turning the Page
Almost the end of summer,
hard to believe… kids anxious to
be back at school and others
wishing it weren’t here yet…!
Me too, the potato plants tops
are dying and they’ll soon need
harvested, picking spaghetti
squash, peas and lettuce and
watching as the October Beans
climb more than six feet in the
air and are now turning back
towards the ground and have
and additional few feet adding to
their stature. Their vines are
beginning to fill with beans that
won’t be harvested for some
time yet as they are a dry bean.
Everything is in transition. Pre-
paring apples for pie today and
adding in a few pears for good
measure. The plum trees and
apple trees are so loaded the
branches are sweeping the
ground even though there are
hundreds that fell off in the time
of drought. Last year there was
not much fruit on our trees,
guess God knew what I could
handle.
This week has been a long
one, off to Winthrop with some
family antique farm equipment
for our daughter and son-in-
law’s, RV Park for decoration.
We were just there long enough
to say hello and turn around and
drive back the next day. Long
enough though to see how ex-
hausted she was from all the
normal work load of the RV Park
and the additional load of doing
access where you fit in and
what fits in you. Thoughts of
revenge, manipulation and
immorality don’t fit in the
hearts and minds of people
who believe in Jesus. There
are also plenty of places the
Christian does not belong and
chief on the list is the grave.
The scripture tells us
“knowing that He who raised
the Lord Jesus will raise us
laundry at their laundromats for
874 firefighters working on the
Crescent fire near them as well
as the other local fires.
Anna ordered pizza for dinner
and we were joined by David’s
brother and his wife. They trav-
eled from Bellingham to help
Anna. (Very nice of them)! :-)
Our oldest granddaughter her
husband and three little ones
also joined us. They remind me
of chipmunks! So cute and so
much to do! A busy dinner party!
I asked Anna; What time did you
go to bed last night? She said 2
am…then couldn’t sleep. I asked:
What time did you get up? 6:30
am was her reply. A moment
later and her eyes had closed.
She slept about 45 minutes,
without opening her eyes she
asked me, “Where is Grand-
ma?” (We spent the night at
David’s Mom’s home as we had a
late start and no ferry reserva-
tion.) I told her she was at her
own house. Anna called us on
the way to say, too much smoke
and not to bring Grandma. A
moment later asked me again,
Where is Grandma? I repeated
my answer. Back to sleep she
went, if she was ever awake.
Our Son-in-law and their two
youngest children had left the
week before for a very long
awaited and planned for trip to
Eastern Europe the place of
Glen’s ancestry. Other family
members, siblings and cousins
also with Jesus and bring us
with you into his presence” (2
Corinthians 4:14).
So let’s begin today living for
the Lord and not settling for
fitting in!
Happy autumn,
Pastor David
were going as well. It was very
difficult decision for Glen to go
ahead and go, but Anna encour-
aged him to go, she knew how
much the trip meant to him. I am
happy for them and God did not
let the fire spread to their prop-
erty this time!, it was a rough
decision. None of these events
were things anyone could have
foreseen.
Our own trip was a little
different than we had planned as
well. We made it just a few miles
down Beaver Valley Rd before a
tire blew on our trailer. We had a
spare with us and on the side of
the busy road, David changed it.
Yey thank you Lord! We were on
our way. Just over another mile
and the tire blew on the other
side of the trailer. David had
fortunately purchased two new
spares and we had that one as
well with us. Now though we had
no spare… but God had provided
that David had actually pur-
chased three new tires so we
would have a new spare as well,
but it was at home. A quick call
to our son-in-law and he and
Amy went and got the other
spare, brought it to us, we were
now late enough we felt the
stores would be closed should
we need it. We were very grate-
ful we didn’t have to turn around
and go back for it. Off to Skagit
County then up the next morning
to go across the Cascade Moun-
tains to eastern Washington.
Continued next page
Irondale Church News
Turning the Page, continued
Half way up the pass a truck
pulled off on the shoulder park-
ing area of the road. David
slowed down and as we passed
he could see a family in the
truck. We pulled over and he
went to see if he could help.
There was a Grandmother, son,
daughter-in-law and a little tod-
dler in the quad cab of the truck
and a large amount of fluid un-
der the truck, it turns out it was
transmission fluid. There is no
cell reception up in the high
mountains and these people
were not going anywhere with-
out help. The closest cell recep-
tion would not be available for
about another 45 miles or so.
We had the dog kennels in the
back seat as well as some other
supplies. Collapsingthe kennels
and squashing everything else
into the bed of the truck and
putting some things in the trailer
with the equipment. The young
mom decided to stay behind
with the toddler, as they had
been trying to get to the airport
in Spokane to fly Grandma to the
east coast. They were hoping
that somehow, Grandma could
make her flight out of Spokane
(another four hours east of Win-
throp). There wasn’t room for
them all in the cab of the truck
and they felt this was the best
decision. Off we went. They
shared that someone else had
stopped but they had not felt
Women’s Bible Study-Belinda Price
Phil.4:6 “Be anxious for nothing
but in every situation, by prayer
and petition with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God.”
Are you a What Iffer? I have to
admit that there are times when
I am. I find myself worrying,
“What if I can’t fall asleep?
What if that medical test comes
back with something wrong?
What if I can’t find someone to
watch my pets when I go on
vacation? What if I don’t lose
those last 20 pounds? What if
safe as the guy was pretty scary
and said he would only take one
of them even though he had
adequate room for all of them in
his vehicle. Not the page they
had hoped to write in the book
of their lives either…after a nice
family vacation. God had a plan
for them.
We drove down to the cell
reception area and called a tow
truck, it wouldn’t be able to go
get their vehicle for another
three hours, and we returned
back up to the pass to drop off
the husband pick up the young
mom and toddler. All the while
they kept saying: “This is so nice,
why are you doing this? We just
kept telling them it had been
done for us on many occasions,
which it has. We drove then to
our daughters RV Park, and she
reserved a cabin for them but
they decided to travel on to the
town where their truck was to be
towed. David took them to the
town. They made reservations at
a hotel that was going to charge
them 200 dollars a night, David
felt this just wasn’t right He
suggested they stop at a smaller
facility the cost was $80. None
of these events were planned for
but God who sees all things and
answers prayer before we can
even ask had supplied.
You would think this was
enough excitement for one
week. We had returned home in
the folks don’t like those cookies
I made for Community Soup?
What if I’m in an accident? What
if……?”
On Mondays beginning Octo-
ber 8, from 1-3pm, Irondale
Church will be starting the Max
Lucado Video Bible Study, “Be
Anxious for Nothing.” This is a 6
week study for women, focusing
on anxiety and how these scrip-
tures can help us to do away
with it; to trade our “What Iffer”
status to one of peace.
Page 3
time to transport a group of us
to the Mariner’s game our
daughter had loaned us their
suburban so we could all go in
one car and have a hitch to haul
and electric cart. She‘d taken
David’s little Volkswagen to Dav-
enport Washington, she and
Adria noticed how rough it
drove. It’s about a six hour drive.
She felt it was worse on the drive
home…she was correct. The
next day David and I drove it to
Bremerton. The farther we went
the worse it got. David had de-
cided we would need a set of
tires. Correct again… the left rear
tire had a large bulge in it and
the radial bands in it were sepa-
rating. She had driven it for ap-
proximately 13 hours and I am
not sure how many miles. God is
faithful because of course he had
heard our prayers for safe travel
for ourselves and Amy and Adria.
We are so very thankful for His
plans for us. Sometimes He in-
cludes others like the young
family we met. Let Him turn the
page, let Him write the story of
your life.
We had planned to be at the
hospital a day earlier but be-
cause of other commitments we
were not able to. Because of His
provision we were able to be
with Kathleen and Roger when
we most needed to be. When
God turned Kathleen’s page and
wrote: Welcome home!
-Colleen
Treasurer Report
We will also be addng a re- 8/28/2018
view of the 23rd Psalm referenc-
ing the Max Lucado book General Operations:
“Traveling Light” as a supple-
Income: $63,707.43
ment to our study.
Ladies, I hope you will join me Expenses: $64,114.54
in the study. There will be a sign
up sheet in the foyer. Please Budget YTD: $69,619.00
sign up so we will know how
many books to order. If you
have anuy questions you can Annual Budget: $164.554.00
contact me through my email:
beaprice@embarqmail.com or
call me at 360-732-4357.
-Belinda Price