2017 Winter and Spring Activities

The women at Redeemer have been busy in 2017!  We started off our new year with our Annual Tea in February, followed by our Annual Spring Renewal weekend in April, and then crafting events with our covenant children in May and June for Mother and Father's Day!  Along with these "special activities,"  we also enjoyed a time of study and fellowship during our Friday morning weekly Winter/Spring Bible study on the book of James.  WHEW!  God has richly blessed our church with many talented women that generously share their time to attend and help make all these events possible as we serve our church family and strengthen our relationships with one another. 

Here's a few photos from each of the events that gives you a small sampling of the good times that were shared!  If you missed any of these events in 2017, we hope you will be able to join us next time! 

Special thanks to Kristin Kolb and Kristine Sung who teamed up to host the event!

All the ladies were treated to wonderful food, sweet fellowship and of course, the chance to wear our fancy hats!

One of the special treats is seeing our young girls all dressed up for this fun event.

It's become a tradition to have Karen Robinson read a story to her "captive audience."

Beautiful Ladies All Around!

Did you know the pineapple is the symbol of hospitality?  Thanks to the talents of Scherry Schafer and Tina Bangma, our event was filled with beautiful pineapple centerpieces, plates, and party favors!

This year's theme was "Christian Hospitality."  Anna Andreyev shared an excellent presentation and challenged all Redeemer women to think about how we can increase our practice in this critical area of our Christian calling.

We were treated to a wonderful catered lunch with lots of good food, including pineapple dishes to complement our decorating theme.

Songs of praise are always an important part of our renewal events.  Everyone enjoyed lifting our voices in praise to our God with Marisela Linebarger leading us on guitar.

MOTHER'S DAY CRAFTING 2017

Siblings and friends all come together for this fun time of making a special gift to celebrate our Moms!

We had a record number of crafters this year....total of 32 covenant children that participated in this event!  Thanks to all the wonderful adult volunteers that make it possible for us to host this fun time for our covenant kids!

FATHER'S DAY CRAFTING 2017

The card we made for our Dad's to show them how much they are loved!

All the kids and adult volunteers shared a pizza lunch, followed by a fun time for the kids making  trophy gifts for the special men in their lives.

Complete with gift bags, these kids did an amazing job creating a gift to share with their Dads!

Fall Activities 2016

The 2016 Fall season has been full of activities for the Women of Redeemer!  In case you missed any of the events, here's a summary of what the Women's Ministry has been doing for the past few months....

In August, we kicked off our Fall activities with a meeting at the church to describe all the upcoming activities and ways for everyone to get involved!  Women's Ministry President, Donna Bangma, talked about the upcoming Fall Bible Study, the return of our monthly Women's Evening Fellowship events and the various ways the women could volunteer to help with Redeemer Day School needs.  Other ladies spoke about the various mission in-reach and out-reach activities that Redeemer women lead, and encouraged everyone to join in the fun!  In addition to the fellowship and information sharing, there was lots of good food to enjoy!  Here's a few pictures from the event.

September brought the start of our Fall Bible Study.  The study centered on the minor prophets as we completed book 5 of Nancy Guthrie's series on Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament.  This was a great time of diving into God's word together, as 25-35 ladies gathered each week to share what they had studied, while also deepening their friendships and sharing prayer needs with one another.  We take a break for the month of December, then start back up on Friday, January 13 with our next study which will focus on the book of James!  If you have not yet participated in a Bible Study at Redeemer, please consider joining us when we start our "spring" Bible study in a few weeks!


Monthly Women's Evening Fellowship events (formerly known as CCCC) also resumed in September.  A number of ladies hosted an evening (or daytime event) in their home.  These events are a great time of getting to know one another through sharing a cup of coffee and a plate of cookies together.  In December, to add a bit of "holiday fun,"  Anna Andreyev hosted a "scarf exchange" party in her home.  Everyone brought a scarf to share, and a white elephant gifting activity produced more than a few "steals" of a favorite scarf!  A great time was had by all, as you can see in the picture below.

Along with the holidays, the Women of Redeemer also hosted the Covenant Children's Crafting event!  This high energy event offers all children ages 5 and up a chance to make gifts for their parents, grandparents, or other loved ones that can be a "secret" for them to open on Christmas morning.  The children had a great time creating their treasures, which the ladies helped get into gift bags.   As you will see in the photo, it was ALL SMILES for our children following this fun time together!  (Notice we did NOT take a picture of the adult volunteers, they may have all looked exhausted!  LOL)

As we ring in a New Year, we look forward to all that God has planned for our Women's Ministry in 2017!  A few key dates to keep in mind:  Our annual Ladies Tea will be held on Saturday, February 25 and our Annual Spring Renewal will be Saturday, April 29.  Watch for more details on these events and many others coming soon. Happy New Year to all!

Serving our Covenant Children

A primary goal of the Redeemer women's ministry is to serve our church family.  The events targeted at serving our covenant children are some of the most fun!  These precious children always make us laugh, show us how to be curious again, shower us with excitement and offer blessings of hugs!

Here are pictures from 3 of the most recent events targeted at our children - Mother's Day crafting, Father's Day crafting and our annual VBS that requires many volunteers to host the 100+ children that attended this year!

What a privilege to help our parents raise up these little ones knowing that they are a part of God's kingdom and they have a church family that surrounds them with love!

Mark 10: 13-16   People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them   When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”  And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.

 Father's Day crafting - The boys made Popsicle mats that told their Dads all the things they loved about them!

 The girls made a key chain with "keys to my heart" for their Dads!

 As you can see, we had a room FULL of fun!!!

 Mother's Day Crafting - The children were excited to make a "secret" gift for Mom (since we all realize  Moms generally KNOW EVERYTHING!!)  Every child made a card, and the older children painted canvas shopper totes, while the younger children made potted flowers for Mom!

 It didn't take much encouragement to have these children focus on their work! 

What a wonderful way to love on these sweet children while helping them with spelling!

 VBS 2016 was a huge success!  Our church hosted over 100 children from our community for this week of learning about God's creation, man falling into sin, and God's covenant with His people.  Many of the women served as teachers, leaders for music, crafts and recreation, and in the kitchen preparing fun snacks every day!

A special thanks to Kris Blaede, our talented director that organized this important learning and outreach event for these children!  Praise God for all the ways He calls us to serve Him in our community!

Redeemer Women's 2016 Spring Retreat

 Our Annual Spring Retreat was held on Saturday, April 30th at the church.  What a wonderful day of fellowship and fun for all 44 ladies that attended!  In the morning, we had time for signing praises and personal testimonials on the power of prayer, followed by small group discussion breakouts.  After lunch together, we devoted the afternoon to mission outreach crafting activities.  As you will see in the pictures below, we were able to create MANY wonderful items to donate to various local organizations including pampering kits for the ladies that are in our church as a part of our host week for Family Promise, prayer quilts for three Redeemer families, 26 fleece tied blankets going to various organizations, including an outreach to children in Juarez, Mexico and hand knitted infant caps for local hospitals.  If you missed this fun event, make a point to attend next year!  This is truly a great way to get to know your sisters at Redeemer while praising and serving our Lord!


   

The theme for the 2016 Spring Retreat was "Hands to Work, Hearts to God," which complimented our focus on spiritual growth in our prayer life for the morning session, and putting our hands to work with mission outreach activities in the afternoon session.

   

A group of ladies (and youth) blessed our day by leading our songs of praise! 

Lisa Trigsted and Lori Bajema shared personal testimonials on how God's grace and prayer has impacted their life and their families.

It was exciting to have a number of our youth join the retreat this year!

Marilyn Van Pelt led the ladies in creating three prayer quilts for Redeemer families.  As each knot was tied on these special quilts, prayers were given for the specific needs identified by each recipient.  Each person was also given the opportunity to add a personal message or Bible verse to the quilt. 

Rowena Yates led a group in making salt scrub to add to the other items in our pampering kits for Family Promise.  We hope to shower a little love on the Family Promise women that we serve in our church during our host weeks ahead with these "surprise" kits!

What an AMAZING stack of beautiful fleece blankets to share with various organizations that serve children in our local community and beyond!  Everyone worked hard to finish 26 blankets during the retreat, in a wide variety of "kid friendly" themes!  These blankets will be given to children that have likely never had a "special blanket" to snuggle or keep them warm, including 10 of them going with a local church mission trip to Juarez, Mexico to hand out to the children in that community.

June Buzzell and Christine Broom led the knitting group that made adorable infant caps to share with local hospitals that provide them to newborn babies and their parents.  What a special blessing these darling caps will be to these precious little ones and their families!