1️⃣ This Week’s Highlights
- (This highlight earned an encore.) ’Tis the season of sickness. For your sake and for those around you, please wash your hands frequently, use hand sanitizer when you can, and if you are sick, please take a sick day and stay home.
- The Salvation Army of Kent County has shared that they have about 70 Grand Rapids Griffins flex tickets available for $15 each (usable for any remaining home game this season). To purchase, please reach out to Beth at Beth.Pynnonen@usc.salvationarmy.org.
2️⃣ Program Updates
- Winter 1 Session: Week 3
- Winter 2 registration opened on Monday, January 19.
3️⃣ Facility Notices 🛠️
Facility Updates/Closures
- No facility updates or closures reported this week.
Rentals
- HOAP Inc. – Saturday, January 24, 2026 from 12:00 PM to 4:00 PM – Fireside ABC
4️⃣ Staff Announcements 🎉
Green Dot Moments & Staff Shoutouts
- Shout out to all our staff for their dedication to the Kroc Center during these extra wintry days.
- Shout out to those who helped make the Kroc Church overnight event a success.
🎂 Birthdays This Week
- None this week.
👋 Welcome New Staff
- None this week.
📌 Open Positions at the Kroc Center
- Lifeguard
- Fitness Attendant
- Fitness Lead
- Swim Instructor
- Fitness Instructor
- UPREP Instructor
- Apply here: grkroccenter.org/learn-more/careers
5️⃣ Reminders & Resources 📌
- Please check your emergency contact and add one in ADP if you have yet to do so.
- The Paid in Full Membership promotion is being extended and is now available through the end of the month.
- $0 registration fee continues for new month-to-month memberships.
🙌 Missional Moment
In the early 1900s, Salvationists nicknamed “Slum Sisters” did something that looked almost foolish to polite society: they moved into the hardest neighborhoods of cities like London and New York so they could be close enough to matter. They didn’t run a “program” from across town. They became neighbors.
A typical day wasn’t glamorous—knocking on doors, sitting in cramped rooms, holding a tired baby while a mother caught her breath, nursing the sick, cooking a simple meal, doing a bit of housework, listening to stories that spilled out once someone realized they weren’t being judged. They even walked into places others avoided—bars and brothels—not to win arguments, but to bring light by presence.
That’s John 1:14 in Salvation Army clothing: Jesus didn’t save from a distance—He “moved into the neighborhood.” Nearness is not a technique; it’s an incarnational posture.
✝️ Note from the Pastor
Greetings Kroc Family,
Blessings in your life come out of the abundant love that God has for those who love Him. Blessings in life come from a place of impartiality and are dispersed among God’s children according to His will and plan for every believer, as they seek to serve Him with vigor and reverence.
Blessings can come in many forms, as indicated in Matthew 5:1–11. It is evident that we as believers who choose to stand true and faithful during the tests and the trials that we face will be blessed. When we let the love of Christ overflow into our actions and the choices that we make daily, the blessings will follow.
The biggest blessing that we can receive as believers is the gift of Salvation that comes from receiving Christ into our hearts—saving us from the inescapable death that comes from remaining in our sin. When we surrender to Christ, not only are we blessed, but we in turn can become a blessing to others, according to 2 Corinthians 9:8: And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.
- Captain Jack Huffman
🙏 Prayer Requests
- Pray that those who are sick in our community would recover quickly and fully, and that the spread of illness would slow.
- Pray for our staff as they serve during winter weather conditions, for safety, strength, and steady encouragement.
- Pray for Levarst Jr. as he prepares for a housing transition, that he would be able to move into a new apartment when his lease is up on October 1, 2026.
