Advent service at St. Paul Episcopal
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church will be having a special service at 10 a.m. Sunday of Advent lessons and carols.
Advent services at Bethlehem Lutheran
This Sunday, the Bethlehem Lutheran Church, ELCA in Brainerd will celebrate the first Sunday in Advent with services at 8:30 a.m. (traditional) and 10:45 a.m. (contemporary). During the worship service the first candle on the Advent wreath will be lit. On Wednesdays there will be a variety of activities for all ages including ethnic potlucks at 5:30 p.m., a worship service based on the Holden order of worship at 6:30 p.m. and a book study on “Finding God in the Shack” at 7 p.m. All these events will run through Dec. 21. The church is located across from the East Brainerd Mall at 418 NE Eighth Ave., Brainerd. For more information, call 829-3330 or visit
www.belcnet.net
.
Advent services at Good Shepherd
“To Us A Child Is Born” will be the theme of Good Shepherd Free Lutheran Church’s Advent services beginning Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. with Pastor Gary Jorgenson. Sunday schedule will be as usual with Sunday school and confirmation and adult Bible study at 9 a.m. and worship at 10 a.m.
Program at Park UMC
The public is invited to attend a program at Park United Methodist Church, 315 North Sixth St., Brainerd, at 8:15 p.m. Dec. 2 or 7:15 p.m. Dec. 3.
This program is entitled “Mary, Mother of all Joys,” and was written and performed by Jill Herringshaw in which she used song and storytelling, from Mary’s point of view. She will take you back in time to that dusty town in Nazareth along the path that led to Bethlehem, Egypt and ultimately Calvary.
Carl Wilkens to speak Dec. 3
Carl Wilkens will be speaking at 11 a.m. Dec. 3 at the Brainerd Seventh-day Adventist Church and then again at the Oak Street Christian School, 2910 Oak St., at 4 p.m.
As a humanitarian aid worker with the Adventist Church, Wilkens moved his young family to Rwanda in the spring of 1990. When the genocide was launched in April 1994, Wilkens refused to leave, even when urged to do so by close friends, his church and the United States government. He was the only American to remain in the country, though thousands of expatriates evacuated and the United Nations pulled out most of their troops.
Wilkens permanently returned to he United States in 1996. After being featured in the 2004 PBS Frontline special, “Ghosts of Rwanda” - a documentary about the Rwandan genocide - he began to receive letters, phone calls and offers from teachers around the country to come and share his experiences with students.
In January 2008, with no end in sight to the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Wilkens left his job in Oregon to dedicate himself full time to inspiring and equipping people to stand up against hatred, prejudice, and genocide. He and his wife Teresa have since formed an educational non-profit “World Outside My Shoes” to facilitate this work.
This year Wilkens released his first book entitled, “I’m Not Leaving.” It is based largely on tapes he made to his wife and children during the genocide, not knowing if he would ever see them again.
Wilkens travels regularly to Rwanda and has recently visited the Democratic Republic of Congo. The goal of his presentations is to inspire and equip people to stand up against genocide, racism, bullying, and other forms of intolerance. He does this primarily through sharing his stories and experiences from the 1994 genocide along with what life is like today in Rwanda.
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Advent services at First Lutheran
First Lutheran Church in Brainerd will celebrate the first Sunday of Advent at the 8 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. services Sunday. There will be no Sunday school or Adult Enrichment. There will be a holiday pancake breakfast between services. The celebration continues at 4 p.m. with a family Advent festival.
Prince of Peace Lutheran Church
The Prince of Peace Lutheran Church will have Advent mid-week evening prayer services beginning at 7p.m. Wednesday preceded by light suppers at 6 p.m. The church is located at 6311 Mildred Rd., Baxter. For more information, call 829-7092.
