Chaplaincy and Care Director's Note November 2021

Thanks, Share, and Support.

I want to thank all of you who virtually attended our annual training this past September. I have enjoyed reading your surveys on what you appreciated about the training and of course your helpful suggestions for future events. We had wonderful presentations by our chaplains: Erika Dekker, Trent Elders, Elizabeth Guillaume-Koene, Sarah Hoogendoorn, and Gloria Kroeze.

We have posted links to these presentations here: "Tools for Care" presentations

We have also have posted videos of our worship time and sessions with Kerry Egan.

I want to especially thank Katie Roelofs for leading us in worship and to Sarah Roelofs and Carol Vander Ark for their behind the scenes efforts. Will Groendyk helped on the technical side to keep things going smoothly. We have already begun work on next year which we do hope is in person and is also the 80th anniversary of when Synod officially recognized chaplaincy as a CRC ministry.

This leads me into asking you to share the story of chaplaincy. November 21 is the designated offering for Chaplaincy and Care Ministry (CCM) and is a great opportunity to partner with your church perhaps by preaching that Sunday or sharing a ministry moment on chaplaincy that day. You can also work with your church for a different Sunday to promote chaplaincy if November 21 does not work for scheduling.

To help continue raising support for Chaplaincy and Care Ministry, I will be sending out an email very soon with the details on my personal matching challenge for year-end donations to our ministry. Or you can give right now on the CCM donation webpage.

Grace and Peace,

Tim Rietkerk

Director of Chaplaincy and Care