OAKLAND CHURCH OF CHRIST
THE FOCUS NEWSLETTER
June 2015
Sundays at 10:30 AM
Jesus, Through the Eyes of John
June 7
June 14 Shepherding—It Runs In the Family
John 10
What’s Happening in . . .
June
5th
Sutherlin’s Last Day of School
10th
Oakland’s Last Day of School
14th
Flag Day
15th
New Summer Office Hours Begin (see pg 6)
17th
Promotion Wednesday
21st
Father’s day
June 21 Lord, If You Had Been Here This Wouldn’t
Have Happened!
John 11
Summer Series: King of the Castle
June 28 Goodbye Enemy, Goodbye Friend
30th—July 3rd Packing the Food at Oregon Christian
Convention in Turner, OR
www.oaklandcc.net
I Don’t Know Him But He Changed My Life
John 9
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Oakland Church of Christ – The Focus
What I Remember About Memory Loss
To help your friend who has memory loss:
Leave your baggage at the door. When you visit, whatever has happened leading up to this moment, let it go.
Your friend can’t help you with your problems. You must
be there for him or her, not the other way around.
By Kristofer Tripp
Gray hair is like a crown of glory; it is attained in the path
of righteousness. Proverbs 16:31 (NET)
Ask permission. Knock or ask loudly “May I come in?”
Respect their space. “May I hold your hand?” If your
friend says yes, expect to be holding their hand much
longer than with someone else.
It’s so strange to see your father, but he’s not the man
you know. He looks the same as your dad—same eyes,
same color hair, same lopsided walk. But it’s not him. Not
totally. He’s forgotten where he is. Or he doesn’t know
his age. Or he doesn’t even recognize you, his child. It’s
just wrong somehow.
Connect. Get in your friend’s line of sight. Use his or her
name. When you ask a question, patiently wait for a response.
Watch your tone of voice. The patient will react to a
harsh tone, or a calm tone.
At least, that’s what I’ve seen and heard. Personally, I’ve
only known friends with memory loss during their dementia or just before it. I know her as a sweet older woman, a
little forgetful—but you know her as “mom”. I met him late
in life, but you’ve known him since the day you were
born.
Be in the moment with them. Alzheimer’s (and other
forms of dementia) take away the most recent memories
first. Your friend might think it’s a different day, or a different year, or a different decade. It’s only distressing to
them to find out they aren’t correct. So get into that time
with them.
More than 1 in 10 Americans over the age of 65 have
Alzheimer's, according to a study in 2009. Which roughly
means that for every one family dealing with this disease,
nine other families are wondering “How can we help?”
If your friend says “Where’s my brother (or sister, or parent)?” who passed away years ago, you can respond
with “Probably on his way. What can you tell me about
him?” Let your friend do most of the talking.
How can we outsiders help families and professionals
who are caring for people with memory loss? Here’s
what I’ve learned from personal experience, talking with
caregivers, and from a few experts at a seminar just last
month.
Your friend might answer questions about the school
they attended. Or sing along with songs from their youth.
Your friend might even think they’re young again! For
your friend, it’s their reality at the moment. For you, it’s a
trip down memory lane. Enjoy it.
To help the family:
Be understanding. Remember that this forgetful person
you just met is a family member they grew up with. This
is the longest grieving process. Instead of suddenly dying, their loved one slowly slips away, over a period of
years. The patients I’ve known lived with their memory
loss for at least five years each.
Give them a break for two or three hours. Family
members often alter their entire lives to care for the patient. What a treat to have a few hours to themselves!
They might run errands, or go outside, or rest peacefully
knowing that their loved one is attended to.
Don’t wait to be asked—they probably won’t. Just offer,
and then make it happen. You may have to push them
out of the room!
Ask questions. Not just to know more about the disease. Ask how they’re doing. Ask how they cope with this
long grief, or how they handle their family member who
tends to wander off. “How hard is this for you?”
Pray for them. They need it.
www.oaklandcc.net
2
Oakland Church of Christ – The Focus
Know Before Whom You Stand
By Carol Lovegren Miller
By Janet Baimbridge
“Know before whom you stand.” These awe-inspiring
words are etched in the front of some Jewish Synagogues over the Torah scroll cabinet.
This thought is only one of many that we pondered this
year during our Thursday morning Women’s Bible Study
as we discussed the book, “Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi
Jesus,” by Ann Spangler and Lois Tverberg.
The following is a quote from Church Pulse May
2015: "Parents are the single most important predictor of
a young adult's attitude toward religion. Young adults
raised in a religious home where faith is taken seriously
and practiced regularly will continue those traditions. Parents with halfhearted attempts at inculcating
faith wind up with children who are less religiously committed as adults, finds research led by Notre Dame Sociologist Christian Smith."
“Know before whom you stand,” is to be profoundly
aware of the One to whom you are speaking. How often
do we pray by rote, carelessly, or even flippantly without
even a hint of awareness of the powerful and fearsome
God that we are privileged to address in prayer. If we
even pray at all.
Okay, so where do we come in as OCC teachers and
helpers? Two things:
This attentiveness to God applies not only to prayer, but
to studying God’s word, performing kind deeds, and living out our everyday lives.
1. We reinforce and support those kids and parents
who "take their faith seriously and practice it regularly" - the easy job.
2. AND we need to make sure the faith and the practice
of it regularly here at church and in our homes and in
our community are there for those kids who don't get
this attitude at home. BIG RESPONSIBILITY - yes
it is but it is nothing that Jesus would not do and
we are to follow His example.
“Know before whom you stand.”
We need to make sure we have discipline so we don't
chase away the good kids "those who really want to be
here and learn" and we give the kids who don't have this
example at home a GOOD EXAMPLE.
Now, why do these "non-Church" families send their kids
and why do the kids want to come here:
1. God sends them to us for a reason and season of their
life
2. their parents know they need the training we give
3. they feel secure here with the adults
4. their friends come
5. their parents make them come to get them out of their
home for awhile
July 27-31, 2015
1st—6th grades
Monday, 7/27—Thursday, 7/30
9:00AM—Noon
Friday, 7/31
9:00AM—12:30PM with a Program at 7:00PM
Sad but true on #4 and #5 and we can be here for the
kids while teaching them about God and His love through
lessons and our example.
So not only do I, and many others, appreciate you taking
your time to help and teach kids from babies through
12th grade but GOD APPRECIATES YOUR TIME AND
EFFORT!
Teen VBS
7th—12th grades
Monday, 7/27—Thursday, 7/30
6:00—8:30PM
www.oaklandcc.net
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Oakland Church of Christ – The Focus
Substantial Summer Snacks for
Wednesday Nights
Thoughts on Scripture
Due to the number of local children who come to
our church hungry on Wednesday nights during the summer, we make a light meal available to them at 6:45 each
Wednesday throughout the summer.
Your help is needed! Please sign up for one or
two Wednesdays this summer. You will need to bring the
food, prepare it, serve it and clean up. Paper plates &
tableware will be available. We estimate the number of
children, ages 2-14, needing to be fed may range from 25
-45 kids. There may be a few adults who will want to eat
also. Please contact the church, 541-459-4447 or Carol
Miller 541-459-4723, [email protected] if you are willing to
help with this ministry. Thank you.
By Janet Baimbridge
"I urge you, first of all, to pray for
all people. Ask God to help
them; intercede on their behalf,
and give thanks for them."
Pray for all people - continuing on with my
thoughts from the Christian Education article for this
month - pray for all people - that means every kid babies - 12th grade that come through the doors of OCC
and their families, our friends, our neighbors, our family,
the stranger we meet at the grocery store, etc. Wow
that's a lot of praying. But we need it - they need it and
God wants to hear from our hearts. You don't have to sit
down and pray you can pray as your day goes - say a
quick prayer when you see someone or say a longer
one when you can. A good example is: The other day I
went into my granddaughters class at school to help. A
boy who comes to this church waved me over. He
asked if when I pray again would I pray for his friend because he was going home from school because he was
sick and threw up. It turned out we were by ourselves so
I told him I'd say a quick prayer for his friend and then I'd
pray more later. So I did. I wanted to encourage this
young man - it was great to see a first grader who understands the value of prayer. Like the Bible says we need
to come to him like children (not with childish behavior
but with a child's heart). We are interceding on their behalf. They may already be praying but we need to add to
that prayer. Then there are some who if we don't pray
possibly no one is praying for them. PRAYER is a huge
responsibility. Can you imagine a kid growing up without
prayer surrounding them? And most important thank
God for his creation and for answering our prayers either the way we want or not and thank him for those we
are praying for.
www.oaklandcc.net
Dates available are:
June 17—Connie Humphreys
24—Lola Haines & Norma Haines
July
01
08
15
22—Lola Haines & Norma Haines
29—VBS, No Meal
Aug
05
12
19—Carol Miller
26—Janet Baimbridge
All snack/meals should be served with ice water.
Please refill the ice trays after you use them.
Suggested menu ideas – (the fruit or vegetable
being served may be changed to your preference, or
whatever is in season)
 Grilled Cheese Sandwiches & carrot sticks
 Chicken nuggets, baked French fries & sugar snap
pea pods
 Corn Dogs & Apple slices
 Pizza & Broccoli (trees) with ranch dip
 Nachos (cheese melted over tortilla chips) & cherry
tomatoes
 Tuna Sandwiches & strawberries
 Bean Burritos & jicama sticks
 Wraps (recipe available) & Cherries
 Biscuits and Gravy & carrot sticks
 BBQ meatballs, dinner rolls & celery sticks with ranch
dip
 Pasta Salad & cut up bananas
 Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches & veggies with
dip
 Taco Salad & pear slices
 Hot Dogs & celery sticks with ranch dip
 Hamburgers with lettuce & tomato, ketchup, & mustard
 Pancakes with peanut butter and strawberries
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Oakland Church of Christ – The Focus

How sure are you that all of your students always
participate in class? How can you make sure?

How can you add more variety to your lessons to
make sure you reach and include everyone in the
lesson?
Application
Use a marker to go through a lesson you’ve already taught. Next to each activity, note whether every
child is actively included. At the end of the lesson, evaluate the lesson for effectiveness. Was it truly active?
Now use the same process to evaluate the next
lesson you’re planning to teach. Where is it weak? What
can you do to make sure that every child participates in
every activity? Make sure that no child is left out of the
learning!
Everyone’s Included!
Kids (and adults!) learn by doing. It’s that simple.
That’s why it’s so important to include every child in your
class in doing hands-on activities.
Think of it—you only get one hour each
week to reach your students for God. One
hour. How ill you use that hour to reach
each and every student? God has put the
children in your class there for a reason.
Make the most of the time you have together!
But not all lessons that say they include active
learning actually do. For example, a teacher may do a
perfectly acceptable object lesson in front of the class.
And that’s active—for the teacher, at least. But kids are
not actively involved.
How much more effective would that object lesson be if students formed pairs and performed it themselves? And then went home and performed it with their
families and friends? By having kids do the activity,
rather than simply watch the activity, you will have exponentially increased the retention value for kids.
Permission to photocopy this session from Takeout Training for Teachers granted for local church use. Copyright © Group Publishing, Inc.,
P.O. Box 481, Loveland, CO 80539. www.group.com
OK, so we now know to actively involve kids in
the learning. But kids are different, and they learn differently. That’s where an understanding of learning styles
becomes crucial.
You could actively involve kids every week in
dramas. But you probably have some kids in class who
are musical learners, and some who are visual learners,
and some who are kinesthetic learners. And those kids
won’t learn best by doing dramas every week. That’s why
it’s important to vary the kinds of activities you do so no
child will be left out of a lesson.
It’s also important to make sure lessons don’t
include activities that inadvertently result in children being left out. Sometimes such activities are hard to spot.
For example, you might play a game where only certain
kids get to participate, or a game where “losers” are
knocked out of the game early on. Because such games
are common in secular settings, you might be tempted to
overlook the fact that some kids are not actively involved
throughout the game.
But if they’re not involved in the play, they won’t
be involved in the learning. And that’s your goal—to
make sure that every child is involved in every activity,
because that’s how learning takes place!
Junior Camp 1
July 5-10
Middle School 1
July 12-17
High School Camp
July 19-24
First Chance Camp
July 24-26
Middle School 2
Aug 2-7
Father/Son Retreat
Aug 7-9
Junior Camp 2
Aug 9-14
Take this training deeper as you think over
these questions:
www.oaklandcc.net
5
Oakland Church of Christ – The Focus
We invite you to join us for a variety of studies and
activities during the week. There is something for
everyone! Need information? Need transportation?
Please call 541-459-4447.
April 2015 Average Attendance
Average Worship Attendance
123
Average Sun School Attendance
59
Average Wed Night Attendance
90
Office hours:
Monday—Thursday, 10:00AM—2:00PM
April 2015 Finances
Income
$30,783.30
Expenses
$10,571.97
Income Total
$20,211.33
Summer Office Hours: June 15—August 28
Mon—Wed & Fri, 8:30AM—12:30PM
Savers
OCC WEEKLY SCHEDULE

Sunday


9:15 AM Sunday School classes for all ages

Refreshments following the Worship Service

10:30 AM Worship Service (Nursery for babies &
Children’s Church for ages 4 yrs—4th grade)

Ink cartridges, cell phones, lap tops, and attachments for all (church office cashes in and
uses money for office supplies)

Pop can tabs (Mary Harris saves for dialysis)
Tuesday

7:00 AM Breakfast Club, grades 6-8
Information: Carol Miller (541-459-4723)
Last day: June 9
Wednesday



Box tops and soup labels (Janet Baimbridge
saves for Oakland Elementary)
6:30 PM Meal
6:45 PM Beginning June 17
7:00 PM Groups for Kids, 2 yrs-12th grade
7:00 PM Adult Group
Information: Kris Tripp (541-315-1966)
If you are not already saving the above items for
someone else, please bring them to the church office.
Friday

6:30 AM Men’s Breakfast & Bible Study
Apple Peddler in Sutherlin
Information: Richard Carter (541-459-1634)
Let's not forget the people in our community who
are hurting financially – remember when you buy
your groceries to throw in a couple of items for the
Oakland/Sutherlin Food Pantry.
www.oaklandcc.net
6
Oakland Church of Christ – The Focus
June 2015
Sun
Mon
1
Tue
2
Breakfast Club
7:00 AM
Wed
3
Thu
4
Ladies Quilting
9-11:30 AM
Fri
5
Sat
6
Men’s
Breakfast
6:30 AM
Last Day of
School—
Sutherlin
Share-A-Meal
6:30 PM
Groups 7:00 PM
7
8
9
Breakfast Club
7:00 AM
SS 9:15 AM
Linger Longer
15
SS 9:15 AM
Worship 10:30 AM
Linger Longer
16
12
13
Men’s
Breakfast
6:30 AM
17
18
Ladies Quilting
9-11:30 AM
New Summer
Office Hours
Begin
8:30AM—
12:30PM
Mon—Wed &
Fridays
19
20
Men’s
Breakfast
6:30 AM
New Summer
Time:
Snack
6:45 PM
Groups 7:00 PM
Promotion
Flag Day
21
11
Ladies Quilting
9-11:30 AM
Last Day of
School—
Oakland
Share-A-Meal
6:30 PM
Groups 7:00 PM
Worship 10:30 AM
14
10
22
23
SS 9:15 AM
24
25
Ladies Quilting
9-11:30 AM
Worship 10:30 AM
26
27
Men’s
Breakfast
6:30 AM
Linger Longer
Father’s Day
Snack
6:45 PM
First Day of
Summer
28
Groups 7:00 PM
29
30
SS 9:15 AM
Worship 10:30 AM
Linger Longer
www.oaklandcc.net
7
Oakland Church of Christ – The Focus