Philippians Study Continues

Former Pastor Tony Ledbetter did an excellent job this past Wednesday evening dealing with the 2nd Chapter of Philippians. If you would like to obtain a copy of the CD please contact the church and we will provide you with one. Pastor Tony will be teaching from Philippians 3 next Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. Don't miss it.

Family Day (Sunday evening)

Fall Festival

The 3rd Annual CCC Fall Festival will take place Friday, October 31, 2008 from 6 - 8:00 p.m. There will be plenty of prizes, games, slides, candy and food for children of all ages. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Movie Historically Inaccurate

'The Express' Posted by John Antonik on Thursday, October 9, 2008 (4:50 pm)

Go to Campus Connection page to comment

‘The Express,’ depicting the life of Syracuse Heisman Trophy winner Ernie Davis, is both entertaining and moving. It is also completely fictitious, at least the movie’s characterization of West Virginia.
‘The Express’ chronicles African-American football player Ernie Davis’ triumph over the racial injustices of the 1950s. Woven into the story were the real-life protests that ultimately led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The movie takes Davis from his early years in Uniontown, Pa., to Elmira, N.Y., and then to Syracuse University where he is one of three African-Americans on the 1959 Orange team that captures the national championship. Davis follows the footsteps of the great Jim Brown, an African-American who endured similar hardships and who becomes a sort of father figure to Davis.

Later when he is dying of cancer, Davis is shown in one final scene passing the baton to Floyd Little.
In addition to Brown, another key figure in the movie is Coach Ben Schwartzwalder, played by Dennis Quaid. Schwartzwalder was a Captain in the 82nd Airborne during World War II who earned distinction during the invasion of Normandy and the battles that followed. The movie uncovers the hard-scrabble Schwartzwalder’s complex relationship with the intelligent and sensitive Davis.

In one scene Schwartzwalder notices Davis glancing at a white cheerleader during practice. Later in his office, Schwartzwalder advises Davis that he should give his old girlfriend from home a call. The coach's message is clear: it is not proper for a black man to socialize with a white woman.
Another practice scene shows Davis being roughed up by a white player to which Schwartzwalder shows indifference, remarking to Davis that he will encounter much worse during games.

Then Syracuse arrives at West Virginia. Schwartzwalder is shown in the visiting locker room preparing his team for what they are about to encounter when they play the Mountaineers.
“They play by a different set of rules,” the coach says in the movie. “It will be hostile. Their fans are unruly, especially when they’re playing against a team that looks a little different than they do.”
Next comes a riveting scene when the Syracuse team is about to walk out onto Mountaineer Field underneath the haze of flying beer bottles, garbage and other debris in almost complete darkness.
“Everyone is to keep their helmets on at all times whether you are in the game or not,” Schwarztwalder says. “I don’t want anyone hurt by flying bottles. Davis, you stay in the middle of the pack and keep your head down.”

“It must be Halloween because here come the spooks!” yells one crazed West Virginia fan.
West Virginia players are shown giving cheap shots to Davis while he is on the ground. After a long Davis run that comes up just short of the goal line, Schwartzwalder removes Davis from the game because he is fearful that if he scores a touchdown he could be harmed.
It is all very compelling and dramatic. It also never happened.
Ernie Davis played just once at West Virginia in 1960, not 1959. The game that year was played during the day, not at night. And at no time do any of the participants on either side recall the unfortunate racial incidents portrayed in the movie.

West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, recruited to play football at West Virginia University in the mid-1960s, voiced his outrage Thursday morning.
“It’s labeled a true story but to have so much falsehood is just ridiculous,” Manchin told the Charleston Daily Mail. “I mean there is no truth to it.”
Syracuse quarterback Dick Easterly concurs, saying what was depicted at West Virginia University simply did not happen.
“What the director tried to accomplish is showing the conditions of those times," Easterly was quoted in Thursday’s St. Petersburg Times. “A lot of things in the movie didn't happen at that time at Syracuse but did happen in the country.
“I see a lot of things that never were done to Ernie but maybe happened to (Syracuse great) Jim Brown (in the 1950s). The movie's more about him than Ernie. And they made Ben look like a racist, to me.”
There are also connections to West Virginia the movie ignores. Schwartzwalder was born in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, attended West Virginia University and briefly coached high school football in the Mountain State before going to Muhlenberg College and then on to Syracuse.
The early part of Davis’ life took place in Uniontown, just a ½ hour drive from Morgantown. The West Virginia game was essentially a homecoming for Davis.

Also, West Virginia’s coach the year Davis played in Morgantown was Gene Corum - the man responsible for integrating football at West Virginia University in 1962. To depict Corum and his West Virginia University team as bigoted is utterly appalling.
Of course West Virginia is an easy target. It always has been. Young people watching this movie are going to form an opinion of West Virginia that is completely false.
This is sad because West Virginia became a state because it seceded from Confederate Virginia during the Civil War.

Unfortunately, that fact is lost to history.

(From MSNsportsNET.com)

Family Emphasis Day

We are delighted to announce that Larry & Susan Duncan will be with us on Sunday, October 12, 2008. Our focus will be Family Emphasis. The morning service will deal with the effects of crisis management and how we can better equip ourselves in God's grace. The evening service will focus on emotional healing and the importance of building stronger family relationships. Join us Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m and Sunday evening at 6:00 p.m. for this special Family Emphasis Day.

Larry has been ministering full-time in the Church of God of Prophecy since 1973. During that time he has served in a wide variety of positions at the local, state, and international levels. His deep passion for relational ministry is expressed in efforts to strengthen families, encourage pastoral couples, and equip church leaders through retreats, relational ministry courses, and personal ministry.

A Study of Philippians

From beatings to imprisonment, Paul endured an enormous amount of suffering for the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. Overwhelming trials had taught the Apostle to be content in whatever circumstance he found himself. Through his experiences he was able to encourage the Philippians to cultivate a similar lifestyle. His letter to the Philippian church is a testimony to his courageous attitude. Even though he was in prison, facing an uncertain future, Paul wrote this letter of gratitude expressing an abundant joy in what God was accomplishing through the Philippians.

Join us every Wednesday night at CCC in the month of October as we explore the depth of God's grace from the book of Philippians. Our guest lecturer for this month will be former pastor Tony Ledbetter. Bible study begins at 6:30 p.m.

Ezekiel's Vision

Sunday's message dealt with the vision of Ezekiel and what he learned when God showed up in his life. The first chapter of this wonderful prophetic book is extremely informative about the revelation of God in our human experience.

The Lord moved in our presence in a very wonderful way. Thank God for His awesome presence and power in our lives.

True Repentance

The third chapter of Jonah gives us 2 great examples of repentance:

1. Repentance is making a U-turn.

2. Repentance involves confession, conviction and commitment.

Tonight we will continue our study from the Book of Jonah. We will learn about the principles of repentance and what God expects from each one of us. Join us as we continue our journey through the Book of Jonah.

Special Tribute

Dr. M. E. Barnett was honored during our recent homecoming celebration. Dr. Barnett pastored CCC from 1975 to 1995. He indelibly left a lasting impression on the character and personality of this church. His wisdom and leadership will be felt for generations to come.

Building Bridges - 56th Anniversary

We were extremely honored to have General Overseer Randy Howard and his family as our guest at the 56th Anniversary of CCC!. It was a great day with over 225 people in attendance. The days activities included visits from our State Representative Gerald Allen, County Commissioners Bobby Miller and Gary Youngblood. Our special musical guest was Kim Dunn, who did an outstanding job leading us into the presence of God's grace. We spent the day honoring our friends and church family. Special tribute was given to former pastors, Dr. M. E. Barnett and Tony Ledbetter. God has inspired us to build a bridge from the past to the present and on into the future by laying out the welcome mat to everyone who will join us on the journey to God's eternal kingdom.

A special thanks to Rita & Derry Meade, Brenda Francisco, P. J. & Valyn Behan, Teresa Crawford, Yvonne Dewberry, Harold Terry, Jerry and Angela Boatwright, Linda Griffith and everyone else who made this a special day

56th Anniversary Celebration

Praying In The Belly Of A Fish

Three ministers were talking about prayer in general and the appropriate positions for prayer. As they were talking, a telephone repariman was working nearby. One minster shared that he felt the key was folding your hands in a pointed upward position. The second suggested that real prayer was conducted on your knees. The third suggested that the only way to reach God was from a prostrate position, flat on your face. By this time the phone man couldn't stay out of the conversation. He chimed in, "I found that the most powerful praying I ever done was while I was dangling upside down by my heels from a power pole, suspended forty feet above the ground.

The most powerful prayer that Jonah ever prayed was from the belly of a fish. Join us Wednesday evening as we continue our study in the Book of Jonah.

Building A Bridge From The Past To The Present And On Into The Future

Join us Sunday morning at 10:00 a.m. as we celebrate a great CHURCH FAMILY REUNION.

Rainbows of Promises

With all the news concerning rain, floods and the damage done by hurricanes, isn't nice to know that God still produces rainbows to assure us of His convenant of promise. As I was flying home last week, just before landing I heard someone in the back of the plane say, "Look at the rainbow!" As my eyes gazed out the window, I saw a beautiful picture of God's creation. At 23,000 feet elevation, we were flying above the rainbow that had appeared from nowhere. For the first time in my life I was viewing a rainbow as God sees it. The person seated beside me remarked, "That's a good sign, isn't it." I remarked, "It sure is" for the Holy Spirit was confirming in my heart that God had favored me and was fulfilling promises in my life everday. What an awesome God we serve.

Haiti Suffers from Hurricane Ike

Haiti Hit Hard by Hurricane Ike

By David Bryan, Global Outreach Ministries Director

Once again, our hearts go out to our precious church family in Haiti as Ike has unleashed its fury on this nation. The news has reported that four major storms in three weeks have killed more than 600 people and left hundreds of thousands in desperate need of food, clean water, and shelter. More stormy weather hampered relief efforts yesterday [Sunday, September 7th]. And, the heavy rains brought down a key bridge which severed the only viable land route to the hardest hit city, Gonaives, forcing trucks loaded with emergency supplies to turn back from assisting this area.
Today, I received the following report from Bishop Jean-Claude Dorlean, our National Overseer for the COGOP in Haiti:
“Greetings in the precious name of our Lord Jesus-Christ! Do you have any news from the region of the Caribbean such as Bahamas, Jamaica and the other islands? We are praying for all the countries hit by the hurricanes.

In Haiti, I want to share with you the info that we have so far. We will send some pictures to you as soon as we can. Much of the country is separated now due to the bridges that went down and we can not have access or visit the places so far. As a result of the hurricanes, we are affected as follows (Partial Report):

1) Part of the [sea] wall at the orphanage has fallen down.
[Note per Annette Taylor, Harvest Partners Ministry Director: This is one of the major projects that we must correct very soon unless we risk losing the entire orphanage property to the sea. We have had an engineer recently visit Haiti to review this project, and the best possible answer to remedy this need according to the engineer is for us to build a new sea wall on the inside of the old wall. We need to raise around $25-30,000 to fulfill this major need. Currently we house and facilitate over 80 orphans on the very property that is at risk, and Bishop Dorlean has made a plea for us to possibly intake more orphans as a result of these recent storms. Please allow the Holy Spirit to speak to your heart about assisting us with this sea wall project.]

2) South East: 8 churches damamged with roofs gone and 3 churches completely destroyed, 800 members flooded.

3) 2 church members dead, 9 churches damaged, either walls fallen down or roofs lifted, 1000 members flooded, 100 houses crashed.

4) Mapou, Font Verrettes and Bodarie: 2 church members dead with their houses fallen over them, 5 churches damaged and 4 churches completely destroyed, about 1000 members flooded.

5) Gonaives: our one church there is completely flooded including our 300 peopled attending that church.

6) Petite Riviere de l'Artibonite: 2 churches completely destroyed, 1500 persons affected and their houses damaged as well.

7) Miragoane: part of church roof is gone.

8) Mariani, near Port-au-Prince: Roof lifted completedly and thrown into the sea by strong winds.

9) South and Grand-Anse: Jeremie city is completely flooded including our church, and that region we have 2000 members flooded.

10) Pilate: This church is new and was under construction; all the walls falled down.

11) La Coma: part of the church falled down.

12) Boucan Patrio: part of church roof is gone.

13) Jean Rabel: Roof of the church is gone.

This is the partial info that we share with you. We will certainly keep you posted on any new developments and as soon as we can reach some places, we will send you some pictures.”

Won’t you please remain in prayer with us for our brothers and sisters in Haiti? Literally, hundreds of families [if not thousands] are grieving, hurting, displaced, and in dire need. They had not recovered from the devastation suffered from the past couple of years’ storms, much less have more hardships to deal with now from this year’s storm and ferocious attack. Won’t you also prayerfully consider how you can assist our Haiti COGOP family financially?

Your prayers and support are vital for our people to recover…
Annette Taylor
Harvest Partners Ministry Director

How to Send Help
Churches may contribute through Harvest Partners Ministry Level Two (project) giving. Individual donors can contribute through the Helping Hand Ministry. Mission Marker Partners is also available for giving specifically to help churches in restoring and rebuilding their worship facilities.
Please make all checks payable to Church of God of Prophecy and be sure to specify how you want your offering utilized by designating it as HP L2 eg. "Haiti – Disaster Relief" or "Haiti – Church Structures and Repairs."

Send to:
Church of God of Prophecy
Attention:Global Outreach Ministries – Haiti Relief Efforts
P.O. Box 2910
Cleveland, TN 37320-2910
*Note that all gifts are tax deductible and 100% of your gift is applied to the need you specify.