News from our sister churches in Lancaster

Both Bethlehem E&R and Lancaster Congregational Churches are enjoying continued growth and seeing new families attending. We switched our worship format two years ago to include contemporary songs at the beginning of worship with our church band, and growth has really accelerated after making this change.

Bethlehem- our Sunday School is really growing and has more than tripled in the past two years as we have a wonderful team of leaders. Church attendance is also growing nicely, which is always a blessing in a small community. We recently completed a wonderful renovation of our basement which was completed mainly by men in the church with really good construction skills. It was the last area in the church that needed renovations. Over the past 20 years we have completely renovated every area in our church, including the sanctuary, so it really looks great!

Congregational- Church growth has been awesome to see, and the sanctuary is filled with people and the sounds of lots of babies which we love. We see new faces often and its exciting to see how the church welcomes folks. Our church now draws folks from several surrounding communities, which is wonderful. We have a really active community youth group based out of the Congregational Church and just sent around 30 youth and parents to a week-long mission camp this week. They are helping with construction and home improvement needs in the St Louis area.

Prayers- we'll appreciate your prayers for special blessings on all our volunteers who really make our churches run, whether music ministry, construction, or youth ministry. A shared ministry between both churches (each previously had their own full-time pastor) really depends heavily on the kindness of volunteers. They

deserve wonderful blessings for all they do!