With our Spanish and English pastors, speaking to a full church it was a lively and well-attended service.
Can you find your photo in the collection below? Let us know
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Volunteers In Action
By Malcolm Callister
Sunday 1st of April 2018 will be Easter Sunday, and also the day that the clocks spring forward. Easter Sunday is a day Lakeside Presbyterian Church, Chapala #LPCCapala, says thanks to God because His son Is Risen. “He Is Risen,” and to mark our belief in this fact we celebrate with Christians around the world. To help celebrate here at Lakeside Presbyterian Church, Chapala, we invite church members, attendees, family, friends, visitors and strangers to join us for our 10 a.m. service followed by the celebration of Easter Sunday brunch in the courtyard after the service.
All food gets washed
Volunteer Service group leaders, Debbie Reynolds and Jai Cartwright, got together with a group half a dozen of helpers on Saturday morning to prepare food for the Lakeside Presbyterian Church Chapala #LPCCapala, Easter Sunday brunch. A lot of laughter and fun was had by all.
Jai has the food delivery organized.
Being clearly useless in the kitchen, I was sent out to purchase a few extra items that were required. If I had not been there, I would not have had the privilege and fun of going shopping for the last items that Jai needed to create her masterpiece meal for tomorrow.
Bill in Training
No matter what skills we have there is work for all, Church members or not. We can all spend a little of our time volunteering, all you have to do is step out and make the first move, God can take over from there.
Fun is the Keyword, and these ladies were enjoying themselves shelling eggs and cutting vegetables.
For more information about our church or to volunteer, for one of the many, available, positions that support our church, and our several service programs that reach out to the local village populations, please contact the church office/administrator 376-106-0853, or continue to review our website: www.lpcchapala.org
On the second Sunday of every month at 11:30 a.m. you will find a group of Mexica and Gringo volunteers in the Courtyard of Lakeside Presbyterian Church, Chapala, (#LPCCapala), serving lunch.
The Line of people waiting to be served grew around the courtyard
The volunteers are organized by Debbie Reynolds into three crews; setup crew, the serving crew, and the takedown crew. These helpers are some of the Lakeside Presbyterian Church, Chapala, Volunteers In Action, #LPCCVIA. The servers all #Volunteers have smiles on their faces, the fun has already started as they chat among themselves. They stand on the far side of the food table behind their allocated serving dishes. Serving spoon in hand, they stand like a parade of soldiers. The tables in front of them are full of serving dishes of hot or cold food. This food has been prepared in the church kitchen and is wheeled to the serving table on in four-wheeled trollies as it is needed.
Volunteers Serve the Congregation
Volunteering to prepare and serve Sunday Brunch to your own congregation may not seem like mission work, but to this handful of people at Lakeside Presbyterian Church this hour or so each month, donated to assist with the building of a strong Christian Community, is their ministry. A robust Christian community can reach out to the Mission field that surrounds Lakeside Presbyterian Church in Riberas, Chapala, and from there they can touch the rest of the world. It is the ripple in the pond effect.
This Sunday is the lasts Sunday before Saint Patrick’s Day, the main course is Irish stew prepared by the kitchen staff and organized by Jai Cartwright, (a topic for another day). The people from the three regular morning services, two in Spanish and one in English are eagerly waiting to be allowed into the courtyard. Just before the doors open allowing the dinners in, Debbie Reynolds with a concerned look on her face which replacing her normally calm happy expression wanders about checking that tablecloths, chairs, and cutlery are in place, the tables all decked out like a Bistro. With a last-minute friendly chat with some of the other volunteers, Debbie takes her place in the line of servers, serving spoon in hand.
The volunteers serve about 150 members of the congregation with a free meal once a month, donations are optional. Today was only Debbie’s second as organizer of this monthly gift to the members and visitors. It was a success; after the last of the dinners had left and Debbie’s cleanup crew of volunteers at work; the smile was back on Debbie’s face.
It had been an opportunity to serve and to eat an excellent meal, to socialize in the elegant courtyard setting of Lakeside Presbyterian Church, with friends and new acquaintances from the other services.
Christ said in Matthew 25:40 “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for the one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”
For more information on how you could volunteer a few hours your time each month, please contact the Church Office Administrator 376-106-0853.
By Malcolm Callister
At the Sunday morning service, on February 5, Cheryl Davis made some moving remarks about the founding of Lakeside Presbyterian Church. Here is what she said:
As today is the closest Sunday to February 2, it is only fitting that today we remember the founding of Lakeside Presbyterian Church just eight short years ago. I say “short” because of the number of miracles that God has performed in these few years. In early February, 2009, the Lord called Pat and Ralph Courtney and Ron and Judy Stard and Norm and Jane Pifer and a few friends to gather on the Courtney’s patio for Sunday worship. Through their faith, vision and openness to God’s guidance, Ray and Angie DeLange, missionaries from Rey de Reyes Church in Guadalajara, were sent to us. Then God opened the Founders’ hearts to the Mexican community and the Lord brought us Victoria and Arturo Smith and the Guillermo Banuet.
The Founders took us to that small space in a storefront on the Carretera and as more people were brought to the Lord, He brought Ross and Carolyn to lead us. But we outgrew that space because the Lord brought us more like-minded Christians. We had Christmas programs and Independence Day Celebrations with standing room only and we even had to rent a golf shooting range for Easter sunrise services!
So, here we stand this morning, just a few “short” years later in a beautiful place where we can accomplish even more in our community with God’s help.
The Founders started with a clear purpose that they were led and empowered by the Holy Spirit to glorify God and to share his love with others. They have handed on that responsibility to each of us.
Today is my privilege to announce that the space we currently call fellowship hall will now be known as Founders Hall. It is dedicated to: Pat and Ralph Courtney, Dona Dean, Karen and Jerry McCracken, Lorna and Tom Morris, Jane and Norm Pifer, Ann and Jim Scott, and Judy and Ron Stard.
The large paintings of Christ Knocking at the Door, Christ the Good Shepherd and Christ Praying at Gethsemane were painted by local Mexican artist, Isidro Xilonzochitl of Jocotepec. These paintings were commissioned by Petee and Dick Gerlach, early supporters of the fledgling congregation. The smaller painting of the Risen Christ was commissioned by Karen McCracken in memory of her husband Jerry.
Now, when you pass that room or share a meal or meet with others of our Lakeside family, think about the Holy Spirit who brought you here. And when you say your prayers tonight and count your blessings, add those thirteen true Christians to your list. Ask God to bless them. Ask Him to open our hearts and minds to His will as He did to their hearts eight “short” years ago. With His guidance, anything can be accomplished. Amen
It’s been a while since our last lecture series–so we’re excited that Pastor Ross is beginning a new series on Friday, August 12, at 11 AM. The topic is A History of Western Thought: Why We Think the Way We Do.
Here’s how Pastor Ross describes the series:
Everyone has a worldview –- the way they see the world and what is meaningful in it, including how they fit into reality. And almost everyone today tends to think their worldview is the right, natural, and appropriate way of looking at things; perhaps even that their particular worldview it is the only rational way to look at the world.
But what most people, especially in the Western world, don’t realize is that most of what we think and believe –- most of what we take for granted as universal truth –- was actually made up by someone at some time in the past.
This series will look at the major themes in Western thought, where they came from, and how we need to critically understand them to have the most accurate view possible of reality.
August 12 — Faith (Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aquinas)
August 19 — Reason (Descartes, Locke, Hume)
August 26 — Experience (Kant, Schleiermacher)
September 2 — Process (Hegel, Marx, Darwin, Whitehead)
September 9 — NO LECTURE
September 16 — Will (Machiavelli, James, Nietzche)
September 23 — Meaning & Meaninglessness (Wittgenstein, Logical Positivism, Deconstructionism)
September 30 — Where do we go from here?
All lectures will be held in the church. If any dates change, we’ll notify you here.
UPDATE: If you miss any lectures, you can watch them on video here.
If you missed our Grand Opening and the Dedication Worship Service on January 31, you’re in luck. The whole thing was captured on video! Even if you were there, you’ll want to see the beginning and end for aerial views of the church–it’s quite impressive. Plus, you can see many of the more than 450 people who attended. Enjoy!
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Our new church building is now complete–and we showed it off to the community on Sunday, January 31. More than 400 people attended the event! We ate and laughed and enjoyed seeing the miracle God has accomplished here.
It was a full house at the Dedication Worship Service.
Pastor Guillermo Banuet led the Spanish-language portion of our Dedication service.
Pastor Ross Arnold gave the English-language sermon at our Dedication Service.
Our children’s choir was VERY enthusiastic.
We had food donated from 19 different local restaurants!
The church provided food, too.
We laughed with the clown.
This enormous cake was made of more than 250 cupcakes! It was beautiful–and tasty,
We celebrate Thanksgiving every year with a turkey feast at our church. We pick a date between Canadian Thanksgiving and U.S. Thanksgiving. This year it was October 28. What a wonderful time we had in our new building! We had so many RSVPs we filled almost the whole building with tables. Thank you to all the workers who pulled it all together!
We have witnessed many miracles this year. God has been incredibly gracious to us. We are very thankful today.
We’re almost there! Just a few more months and we’ll have the second half of our new building in Riberas finished. You can see that the boveda ceilings on the first floor are complete. That’s a huge accomplishment, because the metal beams are the most expensive part of the construction.
We had a wonderful worship experience in our new church on Palm Sunday — our very first regular worship service there. (We had a special service on Christmas Eve.)
We took far too many pictures. Most of them were taken during our coffee hour after the service.
We definitely need a sign, now that the tower has been painted. The cross above the doorway on the left is a shadow from the telephone pole across the street!
The narthex
These beautiful doors were hand-made by a local craftsman.
Preaching
