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:
“So I tell you, whatever you ask for
in prayer, believe that you have received it, and
it will be yours.” (Mark 11:24 NRSV)
I was handed a clipping from a magazine (I do not
have the exact name of the magazine) that was written
by Eva Yarman from Mount Vernon, Ohio. It is a letter
to the editor type clipping. Ms. Yarman has exposed
an interesting thing about prayer and our belief in
the power of prayer. The article states:
“When construction began on a bar in a small
town, the local church started a campaign of prayers
and petitions to stop it. One week before the bar
was to open, lightening struck the building and burned
it to the ground.
The bar owner sued the church, saying that its prayers
were responsible for the loss of his building. The
church, through its lawyer, denied any responsibility.
When the case got to its first court hearing, the
judge looked over the paperwork and said, ‘I
don’t know how I’m going to decide this.
We have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer
and a church that doesn’t!’”
Now don’t get the idea that my musings are
about turning to prayer to go after the things in
life we don’t like or with which we don’t
agree. That would only turn into mass destruction
since we humans have a hard time seeing anything alike.
What I am musing about is the surety of our prayer
and our response to the outcomes of our prayers. Do
we pray as if we are merely hoping? Do we pray in
the belief that we have received that for which we
pray? Are we willing to live with and accept the responsibility
for the answers to our prayers? An interesting dilemma
for the judge in the above article and an interesting
dilemma for us as we life out our faith.
Pax,
Paul J. Mallory PO Box 268,
Grand Marais, MI 49839 (906) 494-2653 thevicar@jamadots.com
GCCP Church
and Community Worker Katie Peterson
God is good all the time! All the time God is good!
That is truly a summary of how the summer has gone
for us in God’s Country Cooperative Parish with
mission work. We have just completed six awesome weeks
of hosting mission teams all over the parish. We also
had a God filled youth mission trip in the middle
of the summer.
We started off the summer with a team from Iron Mountain
Trinity replacing a roof on a steep roof in Engadine.
We were all able to witness to not only the family,
but also to the community. The team helped us prepare
a banner for VBS and also assist in other small projects.
During the second week of the summer, Amazing Grace
Ministries of the Keweenaw from Houghton Grace UMC
and Calumet area were able to share God’s love
with a senior citizen couple in the Hulbert area.
With the team of many different skills and ages, we
were able to not only repaint their home, but also
remove their chimney, and complete many other small
projects. In the midst of extreme heat conditions,
the team was able to get out of the heat and paint
banners for Vacation Bible School. We were so happy
to share missions with the team that hosted our youth
last year.
Our youth then went to Sault Ste. Marie, MI, on their
mission trip to build raised flowerbeds for a low-income
retirement home. We had four great youth and two adults
sharing together God’s love with our hands.
Wednesday, we were happy to have the younger youth
from Newberry come join us to plant the flowers. Thank
you to everyone who helped to make our trip a great
success! We shared in meals and devotion together
each day with a variety of people.
Our third week of hosting mission teams brought
twenty-three youth and adults from Carleton and South
Lyon UMCs to the McMillan area. They were able to
rebuild a second floor of a home, paint the inside
of a home, finish a roof, prepare a home for siding,
and assist in many other God projects all around the
areas. Thank you bringing your witness of Christ to
our areas.
Our mission teams moved us to Grand Marais in the
fourth week of the summer VIM program with a team
from Good Shepherd of the North in Roscommon. They
shared in missions in many ways from building a wheelchair
ramp to washing windows, doing yard work, and painting
a home.
In the fifth week we were blessed by the servants
of Christ from Three Rivers UMC who assisted us in
siding a home in the Newberry area. During the week
we were sharing God’s love and prayer with a
family of three young children and their parents,
who grew to know Christ more through our actions during
the week. Prayer worked to help the father be able
to return to work while we were helping his family.
We migrated to Paradise in our sixth week of the
summer with a team of youth, college students, and
their leaders from Marlton, NJ. They were able to
witness to over ten families in the area – through
re-roofing a home, painting, mowing, building steps,
doing yard work, and preparing homes for future work.
They discovered ways they can give up material things
as they share with others about God’s love.
Thank you to all of our mission teams, project directors,
UMCs, UMWs, volunteers, prayer warriors, and my father
for helping us to share God’s love to over thirty
families this summer! God is truly amazing in all
that He does for us! Live simply, so that others may
simply live.
Shalom to you, my friends,
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
