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REPEAT
PERFORM AN ('
One Showing Only
Wednesday,
October 14
7:30 p.m.
Blyth Memorial Hall
Free will offe.ing
Phone for info 523-4308
A World Wide Pictures Presentation .tr"".,...
Canada has one of the
highest rates of multiple
sclerosis in the world.
4.1ultiple Sclerosis
Society of Canada
1-800-268-7582
Yteaetz iglu to, felt die, Sunday
Morning Worship Service - 10 a.m.
Evening Worship Service - 7:30 p.m.
Thanksgiving Service Monday, Oct.12 - 10 a.m.
Lef us come before ,Wrin mil; //lank-pinny and
ex/of m wig music and song. gar dre Lord is
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BLYTH CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH
ZbL
Rev. Adrian A. Van Geest
Hwy. 4, Blyth 523-9233
Wheelchair accessible
MELVILLE
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
BRUSSELS
11:00 a.m. - Morning Service
- Sunday School
9:30 a.m. - Belgrave Service
Wheelchair accessible
Nursery care available
We welcome you to come and worship with us.
Rev. Cathrine Campbell - 887-9831
THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA
You are welcome this Sunday
OCTOBER 11 - PENTECOST 19
THANKSGIVING
St. John's - Holy Baptism
Trinity - Holy Eucharist
Trinity, Blyth
St. John's,
9:30 a.m. Brussels
Wheelchair accessible
11:15 a.m.
Rev. Nancy Beale 887-9273 In Everything Give Thanks
Sunday, October 11 — 10:30 a.m.
Brussels Mennonite Fellowship
will have their
Thanksgiving Service
at Camp Hermosa, Goderich
(No service at Brussels Mennonite Fellowship)
Pastor Ben Wiebe 887-6388
Cornerstone
Bible
Fellowship
Ethel
Communion - 9:45 -10:30
Family Bible Hour and Sunday School
11:00 - 12:00
Prayer & Bible Study
Tuesday 8 p.m.
John 14:6 - Jesus said, "I am the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE, no
one comes to the Father, but through Me."
Everyone Welcome
For more information call 887-6665
HURON CHAPEL EVANGELICAL
MISSIONARY CHURCH
PASTOR JAMES H. CARNE AUBURN 526-7515
ASSOCIATE PASTOR - YOUTH - JEREMY SHUART 523-9788
Sunday 8:45 a.m.
10:00 a.m.
11 a.m.
8 p.m.
Monday 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday 7:30 p.m.
Friday 7:30 p.m.
- Morning Worship Service
- Family Bible Hour
- Morning Worship Service
- Evening Service
- New Hope Support Group
- Prayer & Bible Study
- Youth
BRUSSELS - ETHEL PASTORAL CHARGE
UNITED. CHURCH OF CANADA
Rev. Christine Johnson - Minister
Church Office 887-6259 Home 887-6540
Sunday, October 11, 1998
Thanksgiving Sunday
9:30 a.m. - Worship, Ethel United Church
Please bring item for North
Huron Community Food Share
11:00 a.m. - Worship, Brussels United Church
Wednesday, October 7 - 8 p.m. - UCW Evening Unit
- Guest Speaker: Dr. Don Hemingway
LET US THANK GOD FOR WHAT WE ARE GIVEN!
You are `Welcome at the
BLYTH COMMUNITY CHURCH OF GOD
9:45 a.m. - Sunday School for Children and Adults
11:00 a.m. - Morning Worship
Bible Studies - Wednesday 10 a.m. & 7:30 p.m.
Phone 523-4590 McConnell St., Blyth
•BLYTH UNITED CHURCH
Come Worship The Lord With Us
Sundays - 11:00 a.m.
Worship Service & Sunday School
Minister - Rev. Cecil Wittich
October 25 - Anniversary Service
Guest Speaker: Bob Heywood
Fellowship Luncheon following service
PAGE 20. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1998.
From the Minister's Study
Thanksgiving Day more than a holiday
By Rev. Adrian A. Van Geest
Blyth Christian Reformed
Church
There's a story in Luke's gospel
about 10 lepers who came to Jesus
for healing. Now leprosy is a
dreadful disease at any time. But in
those days, lepers were also social
outcasts. That added to their
burden. They were not allowed to
be in any close physical contact
with other citizens.
When they came to Jesus
therefore, they could only call out
to him from a distance.
I suspect that if anyone was
longing to be healed, it had to be
these lepers.
The story in Luke 17 doesn't give
us all the details, but Jesus must
have promised them healing. And
since the rules required that lepers
could only be accepted back into
the community when the priests
declared them to be free from
leprosy, Jesus told them to show
themselves to the priests. "And as
they went, they were cleansed," we
read.
What do you think the lepers did
when they saw they were healed?
And what would you have done
had you been one of them?
As to the first question, we learn
The Blyth Community Church of
God invites everyone to attend the
Oct. 14 showing of Repeat Perfor-
mance, a film about hopelessness
and finding the answer.
The tale centres around 17-year-
old Sean Purchase, who has suf-
fered immeasurably as a result of
being abandoned by his mother and
his emotionally-distant father.
Sean continues to withdraw after
he loses the father he loved to a
tragic car accident.
The tragedy deepens when Sean
and his best friend, Aaron, fatally
that only one out of the 10 thought
about going back to Jesus to thank
him. And Jesus made a point of
mentioning that this man was a
Samaritan, a foreigner. Presumably,
he was a man who knew less about
God and about Jesus Christ. But he
went back to thank his benefactor
before he did anything else.
"Where are the other nine?" Jesus
asked. They were probably so busy
celebrating their new life that they
didn't even think anymore about the
One to whom they owed it all.
Now the second question, about
what you would have done had you
been one of these 10 lepers. Would
you have thought about going back
to Jesus even before you would
have shown yourself to the priests?
This is all hypothetical, of
course. We weren't part of this
group of lepers. We have never
seen Jesus in the flesh. So we can
only specUlate about what we
would have done.
But we do have another
opportunity coming up in which we
can show our gratitude. Soon it will
be Thanksgiving Day. It's a time to
pause and reflect on all the
blessings that God has given us.
And we, in this free land of ours,
certainly have much to be thankful
for. Perhaps you can recall prayers
strike a Samoan boy with a car. The
boys run from the accident in spite
of Sean's pleading.
Through the sorrow, it is the
Samoan boy's mother, and televised
footage of Dr. Billy Graham, that
you sent up to God for specific help
or healing, and God answered those
prayers.
If such is the case, I hope you
have already gone back to God
with your personal prayers of
Thanksgiving, and perhaps also
with material expressions of
Thanksgiving. But Thanksgiving
Day is an opportunity to do this
communally, to make this a public
act.
Thanksgiving Day should be
more than just a holiday in which
we rejoice in our own .good
fortunes and material blessings: It's
a time to return and give thanks,
special thanks, to the One to whom
we owe it all.
Giving thanks is always directed
to someone. And we do that to the
one whom we credit with providing
for us all the good things we enjoy.
And that someone is God, who,
through Jesus Christ has shown
great mercy to us, just as he did to
the lepers who cried out to him for
help:
We can also express our gratitude
by acts of Thanksgiving. We can
show it by reaching out to others
who aren't as favoured as we are.
That is an indirect way of
addressing our thankfulness to
finally reaches Sean.
Repeat Performance is showing
at Blyth Memorial Hall.
Further information can be
obtained by calling 523-4590 or
523-4308.
God, for the Lord said: "Whatever
you did for one of the least of
these brothers of mine, you did it
for me." (Matthew 25:40).
Have a meaningful Thanksgiving
Day!
Church hosts film showing