Newsletter of IBC’s Senior Adult Ministry

September 2015

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Friday, September 18—Come join us for a performance with Spirit of America, the U.S. Army Band. We will meet at 9:45 AM at church and drive over to the EagleBank Arena (formerly Patriot Center). The performance begins promptly at 10:30 AM and lasts for two hours with a 15 minute intermission. The cost is free but tickets are limited. Please RSVP by Monday, September 14th.

Friday, September 25—Join us for our September luncheon at 11 AM in Room A207. We will be hearing from our various missions teams who have served in Rwanda this summer.

Friday, October 16—It’s time for our annual flu shot clinic and luncheon! Please meet us at 11am in Room A207 and remember to wear clothing with loose sleeves. Please bring your Medicare card with you. If you do not have Medicare, please bring $35. Please RSVP by Wednesday, October 14th.

Wednesday, October 28 —Join us as we visit the Riverside Center for a matinee performance of Sister Act. Meal service starts promptly at 11:30 AM and the show will start at 1:30 PM. The performance will be done at approximately 4 PM.

Tickets are $55 each. Please RSVP by Wednesday, October 21st.

Friday, November 20—For our luncheon before Thanksgiving, Clint Shondelmyer will lead us in a hymnal sing-a-long. We will begin promptly at 11 AM in the Atrium. Please RSVP by Wednesday, November 18.

November 6 — Enjoy the fall foliage and indoor garden at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens. A fire pit is also set up at the Visitor Center for those who want to venture through the outdoor gardens. Price for admission is $2.50.

December 12th — Please join us for our annual Christmas celebration! Our Grand Life family will enjoy a lovely Christmas concert at IBC from 2PM-4PM . We will then dine together at Silverado. Tickets are free but limited. Please RSVP by December 7th.

April 24th, 17 Grand Lifers left Immanuel

at 10:15 AM on a pleasant spring day for the former Lorton Reformatory which is now a combination museum and art center. Bob Karch drove our bus and we were able to make the short trip to Lorton quickly. We were greeted by Mr. John Mason, the president and CEO of the art center. A couple other Grand Lifers met us at the reformatory. After dropping off our lunches at the visitor center, we met our docent, Kenena Spalding who did an excellent job of taking us through the history of the reformatory. True to it’s title, inmates learned a trade before their release. Many inamtes learned their trades by actually building the reformatory buildings, starting with making thousands of bricks from clay found on the banks of the Occoquan River. They worked as masons, plumbers, carpenters, and electricians. At one time, the reformatory comprised 3,200 acres and a number of prison centers. The Inmate-run farms on the prison land and other products produced by inmates made the prison pretty much self-supporting. One interesting aspect of the reformatory history was the incarceration in the summer and fall of 1917 of 72

Lorton Reformatory members of the National Women’s Party, including one of the movement’s founders, Lucy Burns. These ladies had marched repeatedly in front of the White House seeking the right for women to vote. After President Woodrow Wilson’s attempt to silence the women by throwing them into the DC jail failed, the government sent them secretly to the Lorton reformatory. The ladies responded by staging a hunger strike. The prison management tried to force feed them but word leaked out and the ensuing negative publicity proved detrimental for President Wilson but positive for the cause of women’s voting. After our tour we went back to the visitor center for lunch. We sat down in two different areas and ate the excellent lunches that had been prepared for us by David Spain. Mr. Mason dropped by to talk to us while we were having lunch. Near our tables was an outline on the floor showing the size and layout of a typical prisoner cell. It was pretty small. After lunch, we spent a little time touring the art studios. The atmosphere was very welcoming. Artists were very willing to stop their work and talk with us. Even when artists were not present, their studios were open, and we could wander around freely. All sorts of art were on display—painting, sculpture, metal working, glassblowing, etc. The return trip was similarly quick, and we arrived back at Immanuel at about 3:00. It was a good day. We thank the Lord for safety and open roads as we traveled, for interesting tours, and for a great lunch. And thanks as well to Bob for driving our shuttle.

On Friday, May 15th, a good-size group of Grand-Lifers gathered for our monthly luncheon. We were privileged to have with us Immanuel’s pastoral associate for college ministries, Jordan Standridge. Jordan started with his personal testimony. He talked about the blessings and challenges of growing up in Italy as part of a missionary family. His dad was a great inspiration to him, but his mother dropped out from the church. That caused Jordan considerable confusion in his spiritual life, but his grandmother was a great encouragement to him. Ultimately, Jordan’s dad decided that he could not be an effective missionary if his wife was not committed to Christ, and he brought his family back to the US. Jordan was left with an intense desire to someday return to Italy as a missionary, a desire that is still strong today. Jordan talked about his wife Jenny and their three sons and the training the Lord has bestowed on him to effectively minister at Grace Community Church and here at Immanuel. He also talked about his ministry with college students at Immanuel and on our two local college campuses, NOVA and GMU.

Meeting Jordan Standridge Jordan loves to visit the campuses, strike up conversations with students and share the gospel. As an evangelist, he likes to explain that there are only two religions in the world—faith in Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross or faith in one’s own good works. He asks students to think about standing before God on judgment day and to consider whether they would rather present their own resume or that of Jesus Christ. As usual, Joe and Joanne Zamfino had a great lunch for us. AS always, we were blessed with bountiful and delicious food.

On Wednesday, May 27th, a group of

Grand Lifers left Immanuel on a pleasant late-spring day. We left at about 9:30 AM, headed for the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico. Jim Nellis drove our bus. For once, traffic was light on I-95, and we made the trip quickly. The introductory film in the museum theater was excellent and gave a great introduction to both the museum and the Marine Corps. It repeatedly set forth the strongly ingrained Corps culture that Marines never leave a fellow Marine behind, regardless of the risk in taking him along. What a great challenge that is for us as Christians to always be there for our fellow Christians and never to leave a fellow Christian behind on the spiritual battlefield. The displays of 200 years of Marine history are very well presented in printed displays, photographs, and actual military hardware. Coverage of two world wars, Korea, and Vietnam are very thorough. One particular highlight was at the display area describing the Iwo Jima invasion. Helping us to understand that better was an actual veteran of the invasion. Frank Matthews was just 18

Marine Museum years old at the time of the invasion in 1945. Now nearing 90, he is still vigorously sharing his experience. The actual flag used in that iconic flag raising is on display in this display area. Most of us had lunch in the Devil Dog Diner, the museum’s informal cafeteria. A couple of us ate in the Tun Tavern Restaurant, a restaurant with food servers. Both establishments had good food at reasonable prices. Probably by the next time we visit the museum, it will be much larger. Construction has started on another 126,000 square feet of display space. That space will be used to tell the story of Marine conflicts more recent than Vietnam. When the construction is completed, the museum will be a complete circle. The return trip was similarly quick, and we arrived back at Immanuel at about 2:00 PM. It was a good day. We thank the Lord for open roads and safety as we traveled, for an excellent museum, for good food, and for an elite branch of the US military that has fought hard in every war to maintain our freedom. And thanks as well to Jim for driving our shuttle.

On Friday, June 19, 2015, a large group of Grand-Lifers gathered in the Immanuel atrium for our last monthly luncheon before the summer break. Today we were serenaded by the Burke Acoustic Music Society, led by Bob Hartman. The group includes some Immanuel pastors plus a couple other folks. They played guitars and a few other instruments (ukuleles and a tuba), and they sing. The group today consisted of Jerry Kelleher, Bob Snyder, David Leach, Bob Hartman, Steve Holley, and Alex Hairgrove. In an hour of great (mostly country) music, there were a few standouts. An old faithful is Bob Hartman’s composition, Ain’t No Bobs in the Bible. Immanuel’s newest pastor, Alex Hairgrove, did the vocal on King of the Road. One Grand Lifer commented that he should be singing in Nashville. No argument with that, except that he’s doing more important work here at Immanuel. Of course we had Steve Holley’s hilarious composition, The Ballad of Eutychus. The group did a Bob Hartman instrumental arrangement entitled What’s Next? Of course there had to be a Beatles song, in this case All My Loving.

Burke Acoustic Music Society They sang a Harry Ironside poem on the rapture set to bluegrass music. And they finished with I’ll Fly Away. It was a great concert and well appreciated by the group. The Zamfinos provided lunch today to perhaps the biggest lunchtime gathering we have had with Grand Life. They served us chicken salad sandwiches, fruit, a pasta salad, and cookies. It was a delicious lunch, and lots of it.

The Grand Life

Immanuel Bible Church

6911 Braddock Rd.

Springfield, VA 22151

703-813-1955

The mission of the Senior

Adult Ministry is to glorify

God by encouraging senior

adults to become mature

believers as they minister

together in love, unity,

grace, and knowledge of

the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grand Life

Leadership Team

Pastor Bob Hartman

Gary & Elaine Holmberg

Joe & Joanne Zamfino

Jennis Davlin

Join us on the second Sunday of each month for our special service at Aarondale at 6 p.m.

Check inside to see our

upcoming events! We always

have a great time and want you

to share it!