The God’s Country Cooperative Parish
is in the eastern part of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
It covers a 250 square mile area from Engadine near
Lake Michigan, up to Paradise at Whitefish Bay, to Grand
Marais on Lake Superior’s south shore and encompasses
McMillan, Germfask, Newberry and Hulbert. Although it
is located in some of the most beautiful country you
could ever hope to see, the isolation, extremely harsh
long winters, and scarcity of jobs bring real challenges
to these churches and the communities they serve. Unlike
our more densely populated areas where you might find
another United Methodist church within a few miles,
these churches can be up to 100 miles from their sister
churches in the Cooperative. Yet these seven communities
of faith combine their resources, share their faith
and, through their active presence, work to bring self
esteem, hope and faith to all God’s children throughout
their vast parish. These goals are accomplished by:
• Cooperative Mission
Trips
• Cooperative Bible Studies
• Cooperative Youth Activities
• Cooperative Leadership and Training Events
• Cooperative Support of Mission Projects
and Missionaries
• Cooperative Hosting of Volunteers in Mission
Teams
• Cooperative Fellowship Activities
PURPOSE STATEMENT:
The purpose of God’s Country Cooperative Parish is
to help the churches of the Parish in spreading the
Gospel of Jesus Christ by strengthening them through
ministering to each other, through fellowship, through
sharing talents and resources, and through reaching
out to all people by pastors and laity.
GCCP
Director Paul J. Mallory
Mallory Musings:
“ When I look at your heavens, the work
of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have
established; what are human beings that you are mindful
of them, mortals that you care for them.” Psalm
8:3-4 (NRSV)
In 1977 the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecraft were
launched. These were two of the unmanned spacecraft
designed to achieve escape velocity from the solar
system. In 1990 as both of these spacecraft left the
solar system, they were commanded to train their cameras
back toward ‘home.’ Sunlight was reflecting
from the skin of one of them and the resulting effect
was a picture of Earth as a ‘pale blue dot’
at the end of a sunbeam.
The picture was so impressive that it inspired the
late astronomer and physicist Carl Sagan to write
his book entitled, “Pale Blue Dot.” In
Chapter 1 he says, “From this distant vantage
point, the Earth might not seem of any particular
interest. But for us, it’s different. Look again
at that dot. That’s here. That’s home.
That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone
you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human
being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate
of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions,
ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and
forager, every hero and coward, every creator and
destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant,
every young couple in love, every mother and father,
hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher
of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’
every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and
sinner in the history of our species lived there –
on a mote of dust suspended on a sunbeam…Think
of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals
and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could
become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.
Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants
of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable
inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their
misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one
another, how fervent their hatreds….Our planet
is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic darkness…The
Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life.
There is nowhere else, at least in the near future,
to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle,
not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth
is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and
character-building experience. There is perhaps no
better demonstration of the folly of human conceits
than this distant image of our tiny world. To me,
it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly
with one another, and to preserve and cherish the
pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”
There is much in Dr. Sagan’s words for us to
consider. As I read them for the first time I was
compelled to muse about our ministries here in God’s
Country Cooperative Parish. We have a great opportunity
to ‘deal more kindly’ with our neighbors.
We have a great opportunity ‘to preserve and
cherish’ this marvelous gift that God has given
to us. As we begin planning and budgeting for the
next year of ministry I pray that we as seven communities
of faith and as a larger parish take into consideration
Dr. Sagan’s words. May we consider more than
mere building maintenance and our status quo and step
out in faith to greater things.
“When I look at your heavens, the work of your
fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them.”
Pax,
Paul J. Mallory PO Box 268,
Grand Marais, MI 49839 (906) 494-2653 thevicar@jamadots.com
GCCP Church
and Community Worker Katie Peterson
Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages,
teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the
good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease
and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had
compassion for them, because they were harassed and
helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said
to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful,
but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of
the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."
-Matthew 9:35-38 (NRSV)
Where and how are you sharing your harvest with the
world? I have seen a harvest shared from over 150
volunteers to over 25 projects throughout GCCP! This
summer has been an awesome time helping out our neighbors
in need. I have loved working side by side with youth
and adults from all over and hearing the stories of
their walk with Christ. We have been blessed this
summer to have two wonderful interns assisting us
with the leadership of the Volunteer in Mission teams.
They are Joani Schmeling from Marquette, MI and Megan
Fair from Newberry, MI. They have been great in leading
devotions and helping in many different areas with
the mission teams.
I have not only had the God-given opportunity to organize
the VIM teams and projects coming and going in GCCP
this summer, but I have also been able to lead VBS
for the first time as director. I assisted six wonderful
adults in leading VBS to twelve sky-scouts at Tahquamenon
UMC in Hulbert! It was an awesome week of learning
and sharing more about God's love for and with us!
Our sky-scouts ranged from 4yr-10yr olds!
Thank you for your continued prayers and support of
me, as your Deaconess and Church and Community Worker
serving GCCP, and also all of our ministries of outreach
within the God's Country Cooperative Parish. Thank
you for everyone who has donated sweatpants, socks,
and underwear for our schools. We are currently collecting
sweatpants of all children's sizes (infant-XL children)
– new or used for our schools.
Please do let me know when, and if you would like
someone from God's Country to come share the joy of
missions with your congregation.
Shalom,
Katie Peterson
Church and Community Worker
Deaconess
PO Box 67, Paradise, MI 49768
(906) 492-3680 ktpete@gmail.com
Advance number 982942
We give thanks to the General Board of Global Ministries
for providing free space for this web site.
For comments on, or additions to, the website, contact
the editor, Jan Barrett at jan_barrett47@hotmail.com
