The church wedding took place on December 18, 2009 at 11:00 am. Various clergy including our own senior pastor and Archbishop Kolini officiated. The wedding was followed by a reception on the shore of Lake Kivu, over an hour away. The banter between families was revealing as how important families are in this culture, The Rukundos said that the Rucyahana could search the history.

They will find twenty generations have treated their wives well. Both families said again and again how grateful they were that Stephen brought their wedding and their pastor to Rwanda that family might be honored.

After three weeks in Rwanda, Stephen and Hope will return to Boston for graduate studies.

After writing ten books for Andrews McMeel, John wrote his first faith-based parenting book, Parenting by The Book, which was published by Howard Books (a subsidiary of Simon and Schuster) in 2007. In less than six months, PbTB sold so well that John was lured, willingly, into a three-book deal with Thomas Nelson, the biggest Christian publisher in the world. His first book for TN, The Diseasing of America’s Children: Exposing the ADHD Fiasco and Empowering Parents to Take Back Control, written with pediatrician Dr. Bose Ravenel, will be published in September 2008. Next will come The Well-Behaved Child: Discipline that Really Works! (Note to other parenting authors: The title is trademarked, so don’t even think of appropriating it!!!) and then John and Diane Kottakis’ long-awaited treatise on toilet training, the title of which cannot be revealed at this time because of national security concerns.

At present, John’s nationally-syndicated parenting column appears weekly in more than 200 newspapers nationwide including The Charlotte Observer, Miami Herald, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Hartford Courant, Omaha World-Herald, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Raleigh News and Observer, Durham Herald, and Albuquerque Journal. “All the best papers,” John remarks, noting that the way a newspaper earns the status of “best” is to run his column (see Does Your Newspaper Run John’s Column? at the bottom of the Home page).

John is most definitely one of America’s most popular speakers in the parenting field. In a given year, he gives more than 150 talks to parent and professional audiences all over the map. His talks are provocative, informative, and always entertaining. John promises that his audiences will laugh…a lot.

John’s workshops range from Parenting the Strong-Willed Child to Motivating the Underachiever. John will be speaking at St. Peter’s on Sunday, November 8 from 4-6 PM. Childcare will be provided from children up to grade 6.

To see and hear John speak go to YouTube .

We will also be sharing in some fellowship time with each other and some faith stretching time as well. Please be in prayer about our efforts this summer.

Our Wednesday night programs are set to start back on January 21. We will have three offerings to reach the needs of our community.

A Long Obedience in the Same Direction - Lead by Gordon Bals

As a society, we are no less obsessed with the immediate than when Eugene Peterson first wrote this Christian classic. If anything, email and the Internet may have intensified our quest for the quick fix. But Peterson’s time-tested prescription for discipleship remains the same - a long obedience in the same direction. Tucked away in the Hebrew Psalter, Peterson discovered “an old dog-eared songbook,” the Songs of Ascents that were sung by pilgrims on their way up to worship in Jerusalem. In these songs (Psalms 120-134) Peterson finds encouragement for modern pilgrims as we learn to grow in worship, service, joy, work, happiness, humility, community and blessing. This 20th anniversary edition of A Long Obedience in the Same Direction features these Psalms in Peterson’s widely acclaimed paraphrase, The Message. He also includes an epilogue in which he reflects on the themes of this book and his ministry during the twenty years since its original publication. Get the book at Amazon.

Why: Church Traditions - Led by John Richardson and Mary Elizabeth Jenkins.

A class for the whole family, answering questions like, ‘why do we do communion?’, ‘why do we have baptism?’, and ‘why are we so connected to africa?’. Kids and parents will explore these questions and others like them together in an interactive setting. Meets in the worship center.

Lord, Teach me to Pray - Lead by Marjean Brooks

In this rerelease of Kay’s best-selling 28-day study you’ll experience the instructions Jesus gave to His disciples and all His children to help them know how to pray, what to pray, and what to expect when they pray. This look at biblical prayer is refreshingly simple and exceedingly powerful - and it can transform the way you live and pray. Get the book.

Dinner starts @ 5:45, classes start at 6:30 and ends at 7:30
Infant through 4k Nursery is provided.