Editor’s Note: Jakob has been worshipping at First CRC for a few years, while a Redeemer student. If his name sounds familiar, it could be because his sister Carrie Van Dorp biked across Canada last sum-mer with the Sea-to-Sea bike tour.

2006 marks both the end of my undergraduate career and the one-hundredth anniversary of the Canadian Bible Society. The first occasion gives me rea-son to celebrate and praise God for his providence; the second offers both a broader context for thanksgiving and a means to do so. Lord willing, this Canada day will see me joining up with other cyclists (61 going the whole way, and up to thirty joining us for each of the nine weeks) to make up a peloton of riders heading from coast to coast. Our nine-week adventure will end in St. John’s, Newfoundland on the Labour Day weekend, after covering 7,500 kilometers.

My most pressing need is for prayer support: please pray for the safety and spiritual growth of myself and others on this journey, and also that the Lord will use our journey to create opportunities for living and sharing the gospel—both with the people we meet and those who benefit from the funds raised in support of the ride. If you are able to offer financial support in this journey, I ask you to prayerfully consider what you can offer, and to make donations

through my participant page online at “http://www.bike-forbibles.ca/FundraisingPage.asp?Volunteer_ID=17” or by mail to either my permanent address (below) or the Canadian Bible Society Office (below). If there is a place we will be traveling or a date in the summer that has sig-nificance for you, consider spon-soring me for each kilometer for that particular day’s journey.

The Canadian Bible Society works both at placing Bibles in people’s hands and producing resources to aid in communi-cating the Gospel to those they seek to serve. Funds raised from this year’s event will go towards meeting the needs of spe-cialized ministries working in Canada’s urban cores, pris-ons, and with first nations and youth.

Please do not hesitate to contact me—I would love to hear from you, attempt to answer your questions, and for those of you spread far and wide in this land, to let you know when I will be passing through your area!

Jakob Van DorpP.O. Box 749Wiarton, Ontario N0H 2T0Canadajakobvandorp@bmts.com(519) 373-6528

Canadian Bible Society10 Carnforth RoadToronto, ONM4A 2S4

*please include your name and address and note my name in your donation; receipts are avail-able for gifts greater than $5.00

Bikes for BiblesBy Jakob Van Dorp

There are different ways to say good-bye to staff. All of them involve grief. Saying good-bye to our former minister of preaching, Mike Goheen, and his family a year ago involved some real sad-ness. But there was joy in know-ing that although some significant Canadian geography separated us, an airplane could span the distance and we would see each other again soon. And so even though parting is such bi�ersweet sorrow, perhaps in this situation it was far more sweet than bi�er.

But saying good-bye to Be�y Spoelstra has involved a far great-er degree of sadness for those who knew her and loved her. For those new to our community, Be�y came on staff eight years ago as our first music director. She continued the tradition of her father, cultivating

rich and robust congregational singing. She pioneered the forma-tion of the service choir and the music makers. Be�y was a master of many musical genres and could create delightful medleys at the drop of a note. She was experi-enced by many of us as a real en-courager, someone who affirmed our gi�edness and brought out the best in us. She was experienced by others of us as a real minister, some one who used “custom care” preludes, postludes, and offertory times to speak salvation into our souls. But her time with us was cut short by a recurring ba�le with breast cancer that ultimately took her life just a few weeks ago.

At a recent service of grief and hope, I was reminded just how bi�ersweet saying good-bye can be. For on the one hand...

June 2006 • Volume 4 • Issue 1

Saying Goodbye to Betty

By Andrew Zantingh

Continued on page 4

Right and Left Brains

Page 2

New MembersPage 3

HUGGSPage 5

Bikes for BiblesPage 6

Right- and Left- Brained Woship

By Beth Terpstra

Page 2 June 2006 • Vol 4 • Issue 1

Several months ago, I joined Peter Tigchelaar and my husband, Paul, on a trip to Grand Rapids, MI, for the Calvin Institute of Worship’s annual Worship Symposium. The Worship Symposium is a yearly gathering of pastors, worship leaders, and coordinators within the CRC who are active in leading and planning worship services.

One of the highlights for me was a workshop I a�ended ti-tled “With All Thy Mind: Right and Le� Brains”. This work-shop was led by Robert Glick, who has been studying the re-lationship between psychology and worship for several years.

Robert began the seminar by highlighting the fact that the hu-man brain is divided into two parts: the right side and the le� side. Each side seems to produce differ-ent character traits in people. Most people’s brains have one side that is more dominant than the other. While this is common knowledge for scientists and psychologists, few church leaders realize that this can have a big impact on the life and culture of a congregation.

Let me describe the differ-ent (typical) character traits for both types of people.

Le�-brained people tend to be: • analytical • rational • logical • detail-oriented • concrete • verbal

Right-brained people tend to be: • visual • symbolic • intuitive • subjective • imaginative • experiential

This psychological fact greatly affects the worship life of a con-gregation – and more specifically, our congregation. There are many different types of people in our church; some more rational than others, some more creative. Some learn best by experiencing visual images, or by doing hands-on projects, while others learn best by si�ing and listening to a speaker. As the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12, “The body is not made up of one part but of many…. God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as He wanted them to be. …As it is, there are many parts but one body.”

As a church desiring to embrace blended, diverse worship, we

need to embrace in our worship services both analytical, rational teaching/thinking (le� brain), and also creative, visual pictures/symbols (right brain). It is our creational mandate to honour the full spectrum of thought pa�erns in worship. For just as God com-municates with us in a wide vari-ety of ways, so should we affirm and embrace our varied learn-ing styles and thought pa�erns.

Let us pray that the Spirit will move our hearts and minds to understand each other even in our differences – so that we can learn from each other, and so that together, we can understand and experience God more fully.

Page 5June 2006 • Vol 4 • Issue 1

HUGGs* activities have con-tinued through the winter. We have been bowling every fourth Tuesday--- Richard’s record five strikes in a row still has not been beaten! However, the scores of some bowlers are creeping up-wards, with some ge�ing as many as three strikes a game! Many thanks to our volunteer drivers, Hans, Bill, Trish, Wim, Wil, and Rachel who take turns transporting people to the bowl-ing alley and who not only bowl with us but help cheer the rest of us on. A popular recent guest was Rachel’s baby daughter Ada, who never lacks for a lap while it’s mom’s turn to bowl!

The cooking group meets in the Fellowship Hall kitchen on second Tuesdays; our creation this month

was burritos, we made some Easter moulded chocolates, and during “Irish week” in March we really did have green mashed potatoes! Lynda and Margriet have been visiting collective kitchen pro-grams at First Christian Reformed Church in London and New Life CRC in Guelph to collect ideas.

HUGGs UpdateExpect to see the cooking group with a whole new look by next fall!

The highlight of “3rd Fridays at Wentworth” this winter was Charlie Chaplin’s visit on Feb. 17 (a.k.a. Michael Carl O’Neil). “Charlie” en-gaged those present, one at a time, to be part of his act and kept eve-ryone smiling.

We are look-ing forward to the warmer weath-er of spring and summer, with hopes of more outdoor activities on trails and by lakes. Any ideas for an interesting place to go for a day trip by bus? Let us know!

*”Healing Under God’s Grace”

THANK YOU!

Our Thank You column for this issue is dedicated to the ladies who are ex-tra busy this year with preparing quilts for numerous babies, those who are already born and those we are still anticipating to join the Church family.

Each baby receives a quilt as a token of First Church’s love for them and it takes many stitches to produce even one quilt!

So - ladies of the “Quilt Brigade”, on behalf of our little ones - thank you!