Praising God is a great way to baptize your imagination and renew your mind.  God desires our praises and, without a doubt, praising God is good medicine! The quickest way out of depression is to spend time praising the Lord and counting your blessings.  Here are two praise movies that are guaranteed to life your spirits as you seek the Holy Spirit and enjoy God's grace and mercy.

Psalm 146 says, “Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.” Now, that is real religion! Real religion has as its dominant note the whole idea of praise. That’s what differentiates Christianity from so many other religions of the world. Even in the tears and anguish of life, the Psalmist is able to cry, “I will sing praises to God all my life; I will praise the Lord as long as I live.” This one great, overwhelming note that permeates the Christian faith from beginning to end is the whole idea and concept of praise.

We are first and finally a praising people. It infects everything that we do as we walk with God. It infects our prayer life where praise is the keynote of our prayers. It’s the beginning of the prayer, it’s the end of the prayer, and it’s the middle of the prayer as we give ourselves to God. Or, take our hymns—they articulate the most glorious theme in the entire world. Our singing and our rejoicing is, in effect, to stand with the soul on tiptoe singing praise to Almighty God.

NEW ADDITION PLEDGE DRIVE –Catch the Vision for the Church and Community! We Are Making Our Church Fully Accessible. Construction is Planned for Spring 2007!

We are excited and encouraged by the response to the Pledge Drive!

This project will help our church to be fully accessible. If you would like to pledge or donate to this worthy project, please know that your donation or pledge will be greatly appreciated. Please be praying for this project and that God will bless the church and bless all the finances of the congregation so that this project may be done. If you know of someone who needs a pledge pack, just contact us and give us their address. Contact us at burttpc@hotmail.com or at P.O. Box 37, Burt, Iowa 50522.

We continue to pray for funding. Thanks to Verdean Mawdsley, Tom Angus, Mabeline Lovstad and Mike Scott for their good work. We have been heartened by the great response of donations and pledges have come in for 2006. We are so thankful to all the individuals and families who God has led to donate to this worthy cause. Thanks be to God for what He is doing! We gain strength from reading the story of the rebuilding of the temple in Nehemiah. God will provide!

Handicap Building Fund Update -- We are over halfway to our building fund goals. We just need people to fulfill their pledges and we pray that God will enlarge the finances of our families so that the goal may be met by Spring 2007. Please keep praying!

The building committee has worked long and hard to develop a plan that would include a state of the art elevator/lift for accessibility by the physically challenged.  The plan also includes widening the welcoming hall/narthex area, additional Sunday School rooms, an easy access pastor’s study, a new family room, and a covered entrance and carport area to help the physically challenged enter the building more easily.  Responding to suggestions in informational meetings, the building committee added a basement area under the new family room that will give more space on the fellowship hall level of the church.  Every effort was made to make the church more accessible and more welcoming. 

            The Building Committee, which was formed by a vote of the congregation at the Annual Meeting in January, includes Tim Angus, Meladee Angus, Norman Becker, Dan Larsen, David Mawdsley, and Renee Strueker.  The committee spent much time in research and development of a plan to provide handicap accessibility in regard to the entry of the building, and access to the fellowship hall/basement, and bathroom facility.  Other needs were addressed in this study and plan, but accessibility remains the core issue.  Expanding the entry way, adding a library /resource room, giving the pastor an office that is his or hers alone, and additional classrooms and storage space were also addressed as the committee prayed and worked on behalf of the congregation.  Alternative solutions were analyzed with much discussion and prayer.

After carefully considering four different plans that were drawn up by committee teams, the committee as a whole chose the one that they felt best suits all of our needs. After congregation suggestions in August, a compromise plan, with a partial basement, was developed.  The plan was approved by an overwhelming vote of the congregation in October.

WE ARE BUILDING UP OUR CHURCH! JOIN US!

We are building up our church. We are looking for new members and friends. Help us with the ministry God has given us for Burt and Kossuth County. If you would like to be more involved or join the church as a full member, talk to Pastor Wilson or a session member. May we draw nearer to God and grow deeper and higher in Him! Our new pastoral Evangelism Committee will be working on ways to reach out to our community and to follow up on visitors who may wish to join our Christian fellowship. We are seeking new ways to spread the Good News to all people and we are also seeking new members so that this church might continue to be a lighthouse of God’s love for many years to come. Could you be someone that might be called to join our team in working for the Lord?