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 ---------------------------------------------------------- file: /pub/resources/text/reformed/archive97: nr97-005.txt