Life is happening!

There's lots on the calendar:

• Last Sunday was the Bridges event on healing racism. The youth groups went, and I attended.
• Bowling continues on Saturdays at 2:30 PM. We didn't have a big turnout last week--people were out because of illness, deaths in families, and possibly because the weather was too nice to be indoors.
• Maundy Thursday worship at Aldersgate UMC (April 9, 7 PM)
• Good Friday Prayer Breakfast at the Y (April 10, 7:30 AM)
• Good Friday Community worship at First Congregational Church in Rockford (April 10, 12:30 PM)
• Easter Egg Hunt at the Y (Saturday, April 11, 10 AM) Ooh, the new T shirts (that we got partly for this event) came in. They're awesome. People are already talking about redoing the design and about ordering more shirts. Personally I ordered a number of shirts in the eye searing safety green color, and they're beautiful. Well, they are if you're on the roads walking or biking in the late evening, as I often am.
• Easter Worship (Sunday, April 12, 10 AM single service) We'll have to be sure people know that the schedule is different this day.
• There's no Faith and Fitness group April 5 and 12.
• The 2009 Children's Music and Drama Camp and Musical "A Miracle for Bitty" will be Monday-Thursday, July 20-23 and July 27-30, from 9 AM - Noon at the Y. Performances at the Y are Thursday, July 30, at 7 PM and Sunday, August 2, during worship.

But the big news this week was news coverage--video on WXMI and a full page spread with color pictures in the Grand Rapids Press. Juanita Westaby did a great job! The version in the paper had more pictures. I'll try to include at least part of the Press story here, since news sites sometimes take down the stories after a few months.

White Pines United Methodist Church worships and works out at Belmont YMCA

by Juanita Westaby | The Grand Rapids Press

Saturday March 21, 2009, 2:44 AM

Adam Bird | The Grand Rapids Press -- Abby Wills works with a weight bar as part of her workout after church services at Wolverine World Wide YMCA.

For a workout fanatic, this is close to heaven.

There are few cars in the parking lot at Wolverine World Wide Family YMCA, there's an open door and inside, an empty track, banks of unused elliptical machines and quiet praise music in a corner room.

"People are really busy in this life. Some things don't get attended to," said member Aileen Leipprandt, 42. "This is a nice way to attend to it."

This is Worship at the Y, the Sunday morning faith gathering of the White Pines United Methodist Church. Worship begins before the Y opens on Sundays and is followed by a workout.

They'll have prayed and played before the regular crowd comes pulsing through the doors.

White Pines began meeting at this Y, 6555 Jupiter Ave. NE, in September, after relocating from Chandler Woods, a local charter school. In January, Wolverine Branch Executive Director Bev Thiel, a member of White Pines, began a 12-week course. It follows the 9:30 a.m. worship service at 11 a.m.

Tam LeFurge-McLeod, 50, has participated since the beginning.

"Two things I have to do every day is connect with God and get my workout in," she said.

On most days, that's time on the treadmill, track or trails.

"It helps me connect with God because it helps me focus and get rid of distractions," the first-grade teacher said. "I have a lot of distractions."

A unique identity

For some, this is new territory.

"I'm a couch potato," said Randy Boadway, the church's marketing person. "I pray every day at lunch time. I have good prayer habits, but I don't have good exercise habits, so this is my way of taking care of the physical part.

"Having the physical fitness piece, it really gives us a special identity," said Boadway, 47. "Not many churches have this identity."

Adam Bird | The Grand Rapids Press -- Bev Thiel, executive director at Wolverine World Wide YMCA, leads parishioners in an aerobics session to the tune of Christian music.

Pastor Jeff Williams said the church's charge, since it was started at Rockford United Methodist Church in 2002, was "to gather the people. We are trying to organize outreach and worship life that attracts people to the church."

They won't have a church building of their own for some time -- not because of money but because of mission.

"We need to show up in unusual places and perhaps be involved in unusual events," Williams said.

That means offering children a two-week summer music and drama camp, for instance, instead of vacation Bible school.

In terms of gathering people, the exercise class offers a great public relations value, as a local TV news crew taped the workout class for a feature story.

"I think they've gone. The cameras are gone, right?" Thiel joked, then turned on Boadway who had missed half of his workout doing interviews.

"Randy, I don't have anything I have to do until 1, so we can make up your class," Thiel teased.

She turned to the rest of the class. "We're dying, huh?"

More like living to the full.

During the first 10 weeks, Thiel tried different workout options. They've lifted weights, worked on balancing balls, did old-fashioned aerobics.

But they like what they're doing now: warming up, doing a step class, then some partner abdominal work, stretching and finishing in a circle with thoughts about how the previous week went and what's needed in the week ahead.

Positive change

"When we're in here listening to praise music, we feel like we're making a positive change in our lives," said Thiel, asking for comments.

"I dropped a dress size," announced Terri Cargill, 46.

The class whooped it up.

Aileen Leipprandt, 42, spent the day before with the church's eight senior high school students on retreat.

"It was fun to hike through the woods and walk to the lake, to have the outdoors and the peace," she said.

"You know kids. They have boundless energy, so it was nice to keep up with them and even wear them out a little bit."

Stretched out on a workout mat, Jean Bina, 48, turned reflective. A close female relative who has smoked most of her life and not exercised much in her 68 years, just suffered a stroke.

"There's no reason she shouldn't be in great shape and loving life. Instead, she's in a hospital bed, and she's paralyzed on one side," Bina said.

"It makes you think about your own life and what you're doing," Cargill said.

Thiel passed out a handout from the Web site fitfortheking.com, which emphasizes how much praise of God does for the mind, body and spirit. When she asked for someone to close with prayer, LeFurge-McLeod volunteered.

"Help us to glorify you with the body you gave us," she prayed.

As Cargill walked out, she said, "This class got me motivated to start exercising."

In addition to dropping that dress size, she lowered her blood pressure and her cholesterol.