PROGRAMS AND SPECIAL EVENTS
We sought to have a variety of programs and special events with both the Good Friends Fellowship and the Young At Heart. The GFF met two mornings each month and concluded with a lunch. During my time, the folks brought finger food to share, sandwiches, cookies, squares, etc. Due to government regulations, since I retired, a hot meal is now prepared by the kitchen staff and helpers for a small charge.
In the first year or so of my involvement with the Good Friends Fellowship, four teams took turns preparing and presenting the program. That meant that each team would prepare the program once every two months. Eventually the GFF committee planned and led all of the programs. Throughout my years of ministry as pastor to seniors, I always had some creative and talented people serving on both committees.
The Good Friends Fellowship programs included the occasional speaker, often a missionary speaker, panel discussions, musicals, dramas, which nearly always included some humor, etc. One drama that I remember was written by a couple of our committee members and was about Abraham sending his servant to get a wife for his son Isaac. Another program was a musical about the railroad and included a lot of humor. That was also written by our people. I sent a copy of this musical to Pastor Timothy Starr, who was pastor to seniors at The Peoples Church in Toronto. He published it in one of his books of senior helps and information.
I share a couple of other programs that were well received. Herb Heppner and Bert Warden were both retired pastors. Bert had also served as a missionary in Cuba. I learned that these two gentlemen had memorized a lot of scripture. So we announced that the Herb Bert brothers would square off in a scripture competition. They both did remarkably well when a scripture reference was given to them and they were able to recite the verse. That competition ended in a tie.
One panel discussion that we had at the Good Friends Fellowship was entitled "What You've Always Wanted To Know But Were Afraid To Ask." It featured a lawyer, an accountant, a funeral director and I believe, though not positive, that the fourth one was a pastor. Questions were written out and submitted to the panel. The questions focused mainly on the latter years of life and what seniors should be thinking or planning.
The Young At Heart did not have a regular stated time. The YAH met about eight times in the year, usually about every six weeks or so. One event that became an annual event was a breakfast in the church gym prior to the Good Friday morning service. Many of the YAH gatherings were coffee and dessert hours following the Sunday evening service. We usually had a guest at these events. Some of our guests included Bernie Smith, who for years was the song leader at the Inter Varsity Urbana Conference, which is held every three years at the University Of Illinois in Urbana, Illinois. The Urbana conference is a mission oriented event for students. The most recent Urbana conference had 15,000 student attendees. What a delight to have Bernie lead our YAH group in an old fashioned hymn sing.
Other guests at our coffee hours included a former pastor of Sevenoaks Alliance Church, Pastor Bill Kilpatrick, who shared his testimony of growing up in Scotland and how he came to know the Lord. On another occasion we invited the owner/manager of a Christian radio station, KCCF, in Ferndale, WA to be our speaker. That station was fairly new and in addition to preaching programs, the radio station played only traditional hymns. Since the station was still assembling their library of music when the owner/manager spoke at the YAH, some of our people gave or loaned the station some of their LP records, which the station copied on to their computer.
The Good Friends Fellowship and the Young At Heart combined their events a few times. Since each group normally held its own Christmas dinner, one year we combined that meal and had a catered Christmas meal at The Salvation Army with some 250 seniors attending. On another occasion we had a dinner/supper meal in the church gym, recognizing and honoring all those couples that had celebrated fifty years or more of marriage. We also recognized widows/widowers who had or would have celebrated fifty years. Prior to this event we gleaned some information from them and as each couple or widowed one stood beneath a decorated arch, a one minute summary of either their courtship, wedding, honeymoon or early married years was shared. We had lots of laughter that night.
Both of these senior groups had in excess of one hundred people at their meetings. The Young At Heart had the larger attendance with one coffee night reaching one hundred and sixty-five. Both groups sometimes included skits in their program. They usually had a picnic in the summer and they both had some bus tours. One big combined effort was in 1998 when Sevenoaks Alliance Church celebrated it's fiftieth anniversary. I'll share about that in the next post.
In the first year or so of my involvement with the Good Friends Fellowship, four teams took turns preparing and presenting the program. That meant that each team would prepare the program once every two months. Eventually the GFF committee planned and led all of the programs. Throughout my years of ministry as pastor to seniors, I always had some creative and talented people serving on both committees.
The Good Friends Fellowship programs included the occasional speaker, often a missionary speaker, panel discussions, musicals, dramas, which nearly always included some humor, etc. One drama that I remember was written by a couple of our committee members and was about Abraham sending his servant to get a wife for his son Isaac. Another program was a musical about the railroad and included a lot of humor. That was also written by our people. I sent a copy of this musical to Pastor Timothy Starr, who was pastor to seniors at The Peoples Church in Toronto. He published it in one of his books of senior helps and information.
I share a couple of other programs that were well received. Herb Heppner and Bert Warden were both retired pastors. Bert had also served as a missionary in Cuba. I learned that these two gentlemen had memorized a lot of scripture. So we announced that the Herb Bert brothers would square off in a scripture competition. They both did remarkably well when a scripture reference was given to them and they were able to recite the verse. That competition ended in a tie.
One panel discussion that we had at the Good Friends Fellowship was entitled "What You've Always Wanted To Know But Were Afraid To Ask." It featured a lawyer, an accountant, a funeral director and I believe, though not positive, that the fourth one was a pastor. Questions were written out and submitted to the panel. The questions focused mainly on the latter years of life and what seniors should be thinking or planning.
The Young At Heart did not have a regular stated time. The YAH met about eight times in the year, usually about every six weeks or so. One event that became an annual event was a breakfast in the church gym prior to the Good Friday morning service. Many of the YAH gatherings were coffee and dessert hours following the Sunday evening service. We usually had a guest at these events. Some of our guests included Bernie Smith, who for years was the song leader at the Inter Varsity Urbana Conference, which is held every three years at the University Of Illinois in Urbana, Illinois. The Urbana conference is a mission oriented event for students. The most recent Urbana conference had 15,000 student attendees. What a delight to have Bernie lead our YAH group in an old fashioned hymn sing.
Other guests at our coffee hours included a former pastor of Sevenoaks Alliance Church, Pastor Bill Kilpatrick, who shared his testimony of growing up in Scotland and how he came to know the Lord. On another occasion we invited the owner/manager of a Christian radio station, KCCF, in Ferndale, WA to be our speaker. That station was fairly new and in addition to preaching programs, the radio station played only traditional hymns. Since the station was still assembling their library of music when the owner/manager spoke at the YAH, some of our people gave or loaned the station some of their LP records, which the station copied on to their computer.
Dan being interviewed one afternoon on KCCF Ferndale, WA
The Good Friends Fellowship and the Young At Heart combined their events a few times. Since each group normally held its own Christmas dinner, one year we combined that meal and had a catered Christmas meal at The Salvation Army with some 250 seniors attending. On another occasion we had a dinner/supper meal in the church gym, recognizing and honoring all those couples that had celebrated fifty years or more of marriage. We also recognized widows/widowers who had or would have celebrated fifty years. Prior to this event we gleaned some information from them and as each couple or widowed one stood beneath a decorated arch, a one minute summary of either their courtship, wedding, honeymoon or early married years was shared. We had lots of laughter that night.
Both of these senior groups had in excess of one hundred people at their meetings. The Young At Heart had the larger attendance with one coffee night reaching one hundred and sixty-five. Both groups sometimes included skits in their program. They usually had a picnic in the summer and they both had some bus tours. One big combined effort was in 1998 when Sevenoaks Alliance Church celebrated it's fiftieth anniversary. I'll share about that in the next post.
The Good Friends enjoying a summer picnic
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