Ryan & Samantha » Church

Hitachi-Taga: Old friends, good memories

Ryan Corcoran — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 02:41:02 +0000

Sunday morning, we were blessed with the privilege of worshipping with the believers at the Taga church in Hitachi-Taga. This was the church we worked with through our LST experience four years ago. So many familiar faces, so many familiar sights and sounds. It was very much like coming home again. I was asked to read scripture (in English, thankfully), and even got to say a few words at the end of the service, in which I briefly mentioned Philippians 1:3-6 where Paul says, “I thank my God every time I remember you…” I finally understood–with all of my being–what Paul was talking about in that passage, and I was very overcome with emotion to be back with those wonderful people again.

Judith Alexander, a missionary who currently works with the Taga church and helped us arrange our travel, was a great friend we had made there during our short visit in 2006. We were able to catch up with her as well as the preacher, Sugao Tadokoro. They treated us to lunch and great conversation at Woody’s (just a few blocks from the church building), before having to head back to the bus station. Judith drove us to the bus stop (after first making a detour to the beach), and they sent us off with hugs and greetings for the Haruna church.

Below are two pictures from the most recent trip and two from the previous trip. Clockwise, from upper left: 1) The Taga church building, 2) Sugao preaching on Sunday morning (this trip), 3) Saito-san, a wonderful elderly couple in the church (from last trip), and 4) Sugao and Judith (from last trip).

Coins for Caracas

Ryan Corcoran — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 14:43:31 +0000

This post is about 7 months behind, but I wanted to make sure and share it for the benefit of those that read our blog but are not on Facebook. Our involvement minister, Mark Yeakley, took photos and wrote the following description of this event: “The Northside Church of Christ’s children’s classes launched a giving program on Nov. 22, 2009, to raise money to help poor children in Venezuela. The money will be sent to the church’s missionary, Jonathan Hanegan, to buy Bibles and class material for a small congregation in a fishing village a few hours from Caracas. Norma Banning is the Children’s Education coordinator, Samantha Corcoran taught the special class, and Josh & Julie Marcum, missionaries from Bolivia, were able to attend the launch of the giving campaign.”

This special class was focused on the geography and culture of Caracas, Venezuela. I wanted to kids to be able to see how far away Venezuela is from Kansas, see photos of the people that Jonathan served, and taste some of the food that they eat there.

The lesson started with a short video clip from the Disney movie UP!, where the two kids talk about visiting “Paradise Falls” (which is Angel Falls in Venezuela). The kids recognized this clip so I used it to introduce where we were heading on our map. I used Google Earth and started the map in Kansas, right over our church building, and then flew south down to South America to Caracas. Once we “arrived” in Caracas, preachers Steve Tandy & Mark Yeakley talked to the kids about their first-hand experience in Caracas from when they went to visit Jonathan earlier in the year. They had some great stories to tell the class about the mountains, the beach, the people, and what worship and bible class are like for kids their age in Caracas.

We then traveled from Caracas to Cocoli, which is difficult to find on a map. Jonathan had given us the distance from Caracas to the fishing village, so I had the kids help me use the ruler tool in Google Earth to measure the distance to find the fishing village.

I had made one of my favorite latin dishes, ceviche, for the kids to try. Jonathan said that this is a very common dish and would be perfect to introduce the kids to fishing village food. After reviewing our food tasting etiquette, the kids each enjoyed a small helping of ceviche with chips. Most liked it, but it wasn’t as successful as our lentil stew or bread and cheese classroom taste tests.

In a way that on the Holy Spirit could do, we had an unexpected visit from missionaries Josh & Julie Marcum from Bolivia. For the last part of our class they were so gracious and taught the kids a song in Spanish, showed them Bolivian money and then prayed with kids in both Spanish and English. I was so thankful that they were there–their example and teaching really made the lesson come alive and real to the kids!

We finished by showing a video Jonathan had made called Campaign for the Children of Cocoli. This introduced the service project: collecting spare change to provide Bibles and other supplies for the children in Cocoli. They kids were really excited to help and since this time have been faithfully bringing their spare change each week to their Bible classes.

The Brock & Tara Show!

Ryan Corcoran — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:54:02 +0000

For the past four years, I have done some editing of some short comedy videos for the Women Walking with God Conference, held at our church here in Wichita. Below are the two videos I made for this year’s conference.

A little back story if you have not seen the previous years’ videos, the basic premise is that men will (and have, according to the videos) do anything in order to attend the women-only conference, just because of how good it is.

Enjoy!

Friday Night:

Saturday:

The Bachelor… in ancient Persia?

Samantha Corcoran — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 04:01:00 +0000

Ever wonder where ABC got the crazy idea for the TV show The Bachelor? Check it out on our Blogging the Bible site!

When the imitation becomes the standard

Samantha Corcoran — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:53:00 +0000

I just finished reading Aesop’s fables and one of the very last ones, called The Buffoon and the Countryman, has an interesting application to the church–in my opinion. Check it out over at our Blogging the Bible page.

Earliest Copy of the New Testament is Now Online!

Samantha Corcoran — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 02:36:00 +0000

This is incredible! A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is now available to anyone with an Internet connection! The fourth-century Codex Sinaiticus has been digitally photographed and is searchable like Bible Gateway. It contains the New Testament in Greek, and portions of the Old Testament (Septuagint).

I’ve written about it in more detail at Blogging the Bible.

Prayer request

Samantha Corcoran — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:49:00 +0000

As I was catching up on Facebook tonight I saw that Jonathan Hanegan posted a link to a news story from Bolivia. The Cochabamba church of Christ youth group was driving to a camp for holiday break and had a tragic accident which killed several teens. Joshua & Julie Marcum are missionaries there and Joshua was one of the injured. Julie has written his account of the accident and rescue operation on their personal blog (link above). A brief summary of the accident is on the youth group blog and there is an article in Los Tiempos (you may need Google Translator for this one unless you can read Spanish).

Please pray for the families that lost loved ones as well as those injured. Also pray that God will turn this tragedy into a blessing for the families and those around them.

Esther 2 – What took Xerxes so long?

Samantha Corcoran — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 06:12:00 +0000

Curious as to why it took Xerxes so long to appoint a new queen? Check out my latest blog post on Blogging the Bible. Be sure to try out the interactive map with trivia questions!

Esther Chapter 1

Samantha Corcoran — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 06:14:00 +0000

I’m really enjoying our study of Esther this summer. I’ve done a little bit of extra research, which Ryan has invited me to contribute to his site Blogging the Bible.

I just finished a post on Esther 1 – Queen Vashti Deposed. It is full of history, intrigue, lavish parties and big egos. I hope you enjoy it!

In the future I’ll put all my Esther and other Bible-related posts on Blogging the Bible. Ryan has used this site to blog through the book of Matthew, some of John, and a few in Jeremiah. Bookmark it or add it to your RSS reader–there’s something there for everyone!

Wichita Workcamp

Samantha Corcoran — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 19:40:00 +0000

This past week our church teens, with teens from around the area, helped six homeowners and made the news in the process! Wichita Workcamp took on six houses to scrape, paint, and spruce up the yards, at no cost to the homeowners. The Wichita Eagle wrote a nice article about the event, pictures and video included. We are very proud of our youth group and their selfless service to others and hope that it spurs others on to service as well.