Summer is coming! (hopefully!) And District Conference will be here before we know it. Download the conference registration form and children’s activities/childcare registration form. Please pass these on to anyone who might like to attend conference. All are welcome!

Please also note several changes in registration and the conference schedule:

• A trial registration subsidy has been added this year. An information sheet has been added to the registration information, so please read that carefully before filling out the registration form.
• Condensed schedule. Please note that the district conference schedule has been slightly condensed this year. The Pre-conference Workshop, usually held Friday morning, will be Friday afternoon, followed by a one-hour opening business session from 4-5pm.

Here are District Conference highlights that you don’t want to miss!

• Pre-Conference Workshop! Join the denominational Deacon Ministry director Donna Kline for a workshop on Friday afternoon from 1:00 to 3:45pm. This will be a wonderful training for deacons, pastors, and other lay persons in your congregation!
• Connect with and support Brethren and ecumenical organizations throughout the weekend by visiting their displays! The Cedars’ annual ice cream social will take place Friday night, and new to the schedule is a Saturday afternoon reception hosted Prairie View. Plan to attend!
• Attend special meals including the Women’s Breakfast and the new Mission & Service Dinner on Saturday evening.
• Meaningful worship together! The youth will help prepare the Saturday evening worship, and preachers for the weekend will be Moderator Kenneth Davidson, pastor of the Mont Ida and Scott Valley congregations; Jerry Bowen, team pastor at the McPherson congregation; and Nancy Faus-Mullen, who is interim pastor at the Wichita congregation.
• Other opportunities will include youth and children activities, insight sessions, fellowship with one another!

Looking forward to seeing you at District Conference!

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Download your Footprints Devotions for May!

Last year, we shared with you the first volume (January through June) of Footprints devotionals, which Cathy Price of the Mont Ida congregation has written, along with artwork by Connie Rhodes, member of the Newton congregation. We are pleased to offer this devotional series again this year, which will include volume 2!

We have a special project this year and that is to complete a tractor shed that was begun by Darrel Jones, our camp co-manager for the last decade, who was killed in a tragic accident in November.  We’ll come together to finish this in his memory.  And if construction is not your thing, we need cooks, sweepers, trail rakers, flower planters, wood stackers, hammerers, dish washers, dusters, organizers, you name it!

Come for an afternoon, a day or for the whole weekend. There is no cost and all meals are provided.  Bring a sleeping bag, pillow, work gloves, and lots of layers (it’s warm during the day and cold at night).  Please let us know if you’re coming (so we can have enough food on hand) by emailing Rosi Jones at campmgr@campcolorado.org or calling her at 719-688-2375.

Come join us for a weekend of hard work and good fellowship in the Rocky Mountains!

Download your Footprints Devotions for April!

Last year, we shared with you the first volume (January through June) of Footprints devotionals, which Cathy Price of the Mont Ida congregation has written, along with artwork by Connie Rhodes, member of the Newton congregation. We are pleased to offer this devotional series again this year, which will include volume 2!

Please pass on this information to anyone you think was planning to attend the retreat.

Thanks so much for your help!

Western Plains Congregations!

Just a reminder to get your Annual Conference delegate(s) registered for the 2013 conference in Charlotte, N.C.! Go to the Annual Conference website to get started!  www.brethren.org/ac/   Each congregation west of the Mississippi that sends a delegate to Annual Conference will receive a $150 travel stipend. Continue reading for more information….

At last summer’s Annual Conference report of the Revitalization Task Force, they recommended to Program and Arrangements Committee that a $150 travel scholarship be available to each delegate west of the Mississippi River. P & AC has approved that and wants to begin this summer with the Charlotte Annual Conference.

A check will be sent to each congregation west of the Mississippi who sends a delegate to the 2013 Annual Conference.  After it has been confirmed that the delegate checked in at the Charlotte delegate registration desk, a check be sent to that congregation.  So it will be July before the congregation receives their $150 reimbursement per delegate they send.

Bud and Susan Taylor

Last year, we shared with you the first volume (January through June) of Footprints devotionals, which Cathy Price of the Mont Ida congregation has written, along with artwork by Connie Rhodes, member of the Newton congregation. We are pleased to offer this devotional series again this year, which will include volume 2!

The conference will be held Spril 19-21 at Cross Wind Conference center in Hesston and will be hosted by the Hutchinson Women. Registration begins Friday, April 19 at 4:00 p.m.

Email Ann Stover to request scholarship information: stoverann@yahoo.com

The conference theme, “Clothed and Created…a God Fashioned Life” is centered on Ephesians 1:11: “It is in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for.”(The Message)

Our speaker, Anita (Grosbach) Rediger, is a child of the Western Plains District, nurtured by the Enders Church of the Brethren. She is a graduate of McPherson College and Earlham School of Religion (M.Div). Anita studied with Brethren Colleges Abroad in Marburg Germany. While in Europe, she met her future husband, Martin Rediger. Martin and Anita are the parents of three adult sons. The families work together as Rediger Farms, Inc. near Geneva, Indiana.  She recently completed 15 years as chaplain at Swiss Village, a long-term care community in Berne, Indiana. She serves as pastor of Emmaus Road Mennonite Fellowship.

Contact the District Office for more information: wpdcb@sbcglobal.net, 620-241-4240.

When: March 8-10
Friday @ 6pm until Sunday @ 1pm

Where: Hutchinson Community CoB

Why: To learn about Missional Ministry and how YOU can make a difference!

What to bring: Each youth bring a backpack filled with school supplies (pencils, pens, notebooks, crayons…)– or maybe a church makes a couple to send!

Fee: $10 per youth, unless 2 or more youth from same family attending it will be $5 per youth

To learn more, download the registration form & brochure here!

Registration Deadline is February 24

For more information, please contact Lois @ 785-817-7912, lois.grummert@gmail.com