From: Darrell128@aol.com
Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1997 20:02:06 -0500 (EST)
Subject: NR 005: Ex-CRC's respond to Pacific blizzard

NR #1997-005:   Ex-Christian Reformed Churches Respond to Pacific Blizzard
        When a blizzard with 80 mile per hour winds brought six foot snowdrifts, ice
storms, and massive power outages to Oregon, Washington, and British
Columbia, it shut down much of the Pacific Northwest, including the churches.
Some of the former Christian Reformed congregations in the area not only
cancelled Sunday services but had opportunities for unusual forms of
Christian service. 

NR #1997-005: For Immediate Release
Ex-Christian Reformed Churches Respond to Pacific Blizzard

by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer
United Reformed News Service

(January 8, 1996) URNS -- When a blizzard with 80 mile per hour winds brought
six foot snowdrifts, ice storms, and massive power outages to Oregon,
Washington, and British Columbia, it shut down much of the Pacific Northwest,
including the churches. Some of the former Christian Reformed congregations
in the area not only cancelled Sunday services but had opportunities for
unusual forms of Christian service.
        In Agassiz, British Columbia, former Concerned Members executive director
Rev. Mark Zylstra responded to an unusual call from the Canadian Mounties: a
request to house eight travellers who had been stranded by snow on the nearby
expressway, including a female United Church minister and a family of
professing Gnostics.
        "We cancelled services last week Sunday but we did manage to plow ourselves
out for church Old Year's and New Year's Day; we had in the lower mainland
virtually thousands of people who were stranded in the highways," said
Zylstra, now pastoring Agassiz United Reformed Church. "We had some very
interesting conversations. We had a retired United Church female pastor stay
with us and that created some interesting discussions."
        "We had some Gnostics staying in our home. It was quite frustrating that we
had no common ground," said Zylstra. "We had opportunity to witness and to
testify God's great love in Jesus Christ and we hope and pray that God gave
us some opportunity to sow seed; we plant and water and God gives the
increase."
        In Lynnwood, Washington -- prominently featured on the national news due to
mudslides which took out numerous local homes -- Rev. J. Peter Vosteen of the
Lynnwood Orthodox Presbyterian Church said there had been no damage to the
local church or the homes of members.
        "We were all snowbound, no services on Sunday," said Vosteen. "We got twenty
inches in just a couple of days, it was much worse farther north, they really
got it bad. Seven hundred boats sank in Puget Sound, they were covered with
sheet metal covering, the same thing happened with carports, and a lot of the
businesses with flat roofs lost their roofs."
        Vosteen said a major part of the problem was not the snow but that the local
snow removal equipment wasn't equipped to handle heavy snowfall. "Most of the
time we don't even have snow here; when snow comes it melts within a day."
        In the Lynden area, 85 miles north of Lynnwood, the two local Orthodox
Christian Reformed congregations made similar reports.
        "We had six foot drifts in the road and the closest thing we have to snow
removal equipment is tractors with manure scrapers on the back end," said
Rev. Al Vermeer of Valley OCRC in Everson, who said his church and the other
local OCRC both had to cancel services.
        According to Lynden OCRC's clerk of consistory, Elder Bernie Worst, there
had been no damage to homes of members or the church building, but his church
had to cancel Christmas, Old Year's, New Year's, and Sunday services.
        "For this part of the country this is the worst snow I've seen in a long
time since the bad, bad days of the 1950's," said Worst. "There've been a lot
of barns caving in and all that. The snowplows just quit, they'd open up a
road and half an hour later you couldn't tell they'd done anything. I even
heard of a farmer who got lost in his own field."
        Calls to other former Christian Reformed churches in the Pacific Northwest
indicated that while many had to cancel services, none had experienced damage
to church buildings or the homes and businesses of members. Immanuel's
Reformed Church of Salem said the weather trouble started north of them and
the churches located farther inland indicated that the weather had simply
been a bad winter storm rather than the more serious effects seen on the
coast.

Cross-References to Related Articles:
[No related articles on file]

Contact List:
Rev. Al Vermeer, Pastor, Valley Orthodox Christian Reformed Church
        9691 Van Buren Rd., Everson, WA  98247
        H/O: (360) 966-4901
Rev. J. Peter Vosteen, Pastor, New Life Fellowship Community Church (OPC)
        5420 - 93rd Pl. SW, Mukilteo, WA  98275
        O: (206) 348-9790 * H: (206) 743-9157
Elder Bernie Worst, Clerk, Lynden Orthodox Christian Reformed Church
        1227 Loomis Trail Rd., Lynden, WA  98264
        O: (360) 354-2781
Rev. Mark Zylstra, Pastor, Evergreen Covenant Reformed Church
        PO Box  529, Agassiz BC V0M 1A0
        H/O/F: (604) 796-0228




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