August 2026 Newsletter

Sunday Worship

10 AM

Sunday Fellowship

11 AM

Worship services will continue to be live streamed on Sunday mornings at 10 a.m. You can either use the Facebook Link or the YouTube Link to see the live feed, or even worship a little later if you need to. Use the buttons below to choose which link fits your needs best. 

Worship Series

"Where can I go from your spirit?

Or where can I flee from your presence?"

-Psalm 137:7

"The SACRED practice is designed to help us become more deeply aware of what we are truly experiencing in joyous as well as challenging moments. Through the practice, we can feel more connected to ourselves and to God(or any other sacred source)."

-Aizaiah and Nereyda Yong, Sacred Parenthood, Page 34

God is always here. There is, as the psalmist says, no place we can go that God is not already there. Contemplative practices are a way that we open ourselves to God's presence wherever and whenever we might be. In our awaremess of God's presence we begin to see our beloved-ness as created in the image of God. We discover that we are SACRED.

August 2nd

Settling

Psalm 46

August 9th

Acknowledging

Genesis 2:4b-9

August 16th

Being Curious

Matthew 7:7-11

August 23rd

Restoring

Luke 19:1-10

August 30th

Enjoying

Psalm 16

September 6

Dancing

Exodus 15:19-21

Pastor's Ponderings

“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

  all the days of my life,

and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord

  my whole life long.”

- Psalm 23:6 

“So teach us to count our days

  that we may gain a wise heart.”

- Psalm 90:12

“Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin into the future.”

- Steve Miller Band

“Fly Like an Eagle”

I've been thinking a lot about numbers lately — specifically numbers in reference to time. It makes sense, given how many things are converging this year.

Ankeny Christian Church is celebrating its 50th anniversary — you already know that. What you may not know is that on October 20, I'll celebrate the 25th anniversary of my ordination. I've been ordained for exactly half the life of this church. But wait, there's more: around September 14, I'll have served ACC as Senior Pastor for 12½ years — meaning half my ordained ministry has been spent here, serving through a quarter of ACC's life. I find that a remarkable coincidence.

But there's still more. Something else happened in 1976 when ACC was founded, though I was completely unaware of it at the time — my wife Lori was born. Now, you might notice that the church is celebrating its 50th anniversary while Lori celebrates her 30th birthday, and yes, the math seems a little off. It gets better: my mother-in-law Judy, Lori, and our youngest, Elian, are spaced in age so that they always celebrate 0s and 5s in the same year. So Judy must also be celebrating her 30th — weird, I know! And Elian will be 10, which means that for only the second time in our lives, Lori and I will have no single-digit-aged children in the house.

So yes — I'm thinking about numbers, and about time, and I am remembering how extraordinarily blessed I am because of every single one of them. Scripture invites us to mark time. It is vital to our understanding of who we are and of God's faithfulness in our lives. As Psalm 90 says: count your days. Celebrate them. Love the people who fill them. Trust that God's goodness and mercy follow us all our days.

Shalom,

Pastor Owen

Meals From the Heartland - 2026

This year, the Missions Committee is taking a two-fisted approach in our Ankeny Christian Church effort to help support the mission

of the local area Meals From the Heartland. During the month of August, we will have a special offering to help in the purchase of

the materials needed to provide the packaged meals. We’ve been told the cost of the ingredients going into each meal comes to about $.25. The second part of our approach is going to happen in October when we take part in the Des Moines Hunger Fight. The goal of the event this year is to package1.75 million meals in five days – October 6-10. We hope to package meals for two hours on Saturday, Oct 10 and for two hours on one of the weekdays. There will be more details about this in the September newsletter.

ACC Missions Committee

Reading, Playing, Connecting

Judy Krase spent some time with the kiddos at Ankeny Christian Childcare, and they were delighted! They had so much fun together reading, playing, and connecting.

There is plenty of opportunity for you to have this much fun. ACCC is always looking for volunteers to come and read or spend time playing, or maybe even rocking a baby or two. All it takes is to contact Tarah Widaman or Courtney Hartkopf. They will let you know how to proceed!

Clean Up Days

Youth Mission Trip

The Youth left for their mission trip to Ft. Worth on Saturday, July 4 at 6:30 a.m. They worked hard, played hard, and shared the gospel with each other and people in different communities in Ft. Worth. We look forward to hearing about their experiences as well as all they did and learned while they were there. They also got the chance to see a couple of friends from Iowa: Tiff Williams and Pastor Alison.

Kudos and Celebrations

• PRC Committee for its faithful service, patience, and leadership.

• June Love Lunch Volunteers: Cyndi B., Shanon B., Chuck F., Karen F., Angela J., Judy J.,

Judy K., Marlys L., Kayla L., Morgan L., John L., Bev M., Zach N., Georgene R., Steve R., Madilyn S., Larry S., Nancy S., Mary St. C., Gwen S., and Bob T.

• June Special Offering contributors for supporting the Love Lunch ministry.

• Des Moines Homeless Shelter Meal Servers: Gwen Stafne, Steve Raver, John Lindley, Judy

Krase, Larry Squier, Nancy Squier, Latisha Ukpabi, Madilyn Shreffler, Chuck Fausch, Darin Leach, and Lori Leach.

• Care Connection Committee: Pat Warner, Colleen Porath, Shelby Skinner, Judy Johnson, Marlys Lapham, Vicki Ulrich, Susan Dawson, Ursula Miers, and Georgene Raver for their compassionate support of grieving members.

• Sarah Green for faithfully maintaining church attendance records.

-Those who helped in worship in Lori's and my absence while on vacation 7/19- Melanie Tipton(Lori's sister), Lisa Grace, and Larry Squire

-Those who helped while I was preparing for camp- Joel Aurand, Karen Faush, and Shanon Buckroyd

-All the people who helped with brush clean up- Rob Duffy and Arnie Porath for several weeks help. July 4th helpers Owen and Elian Cayton, Gary Black, Glenn Smith, Steve Raver, Chuck Fausch, John Lee, and Colleen Porath.

-Pastors Class Mentors, Arnie Porath, Cathy Helmke, and Georgene Raver.

-Judy Krase for reading to the 3 and 4 year old

August Birthdays

Lori Krase- Cayton 8/3

Sarah Wright 8/3

Laura Dolley 8/8

Allison Nicoll 8/13

Latisha Ukpabi 8/14

Tom Hanley 8/17

Suzette Hart 8/26

Karen Rawson 8/29

August Anniversaries

Owen Cayton and Lori Krase-Cayton 8/10

Eleke and Latisha Ukpabi 8/20

David and Karen Rawson 8/20

Tom and Sara Hanley 8/26

Joel and Diane Aurand 8/28

If you would like to continue (or begin) to contribute to the work of the church financially, you can mail in a check to 2506 SW 3rd Street Ankeny, Iowa 50023 or you can give online by clicking the link below. There you can set up one time or recurring donations. 

Do you have a prayer request?

Send your request to Morgan Leach

morganleach02@gmail.com

Current Office Staff:

Pastor Owen Cayton, Senior Minister

pastorocayton@gmail.com

Nathan Green, Music Director

nategreenaccdoc@gmail.com

Sarah Green, Office Manager

ankenyccdoc@gmail.com

2026 Leadership

Officers:

• President: Eleke Ukpabi
• President Elect: Shanon Buckroyd
• Past President, Chair Personnel Committee: Randy Wehofer
• Secretary: Latisha Ukpabi
• Treasurer: Curt Narwold
• Member at Large: Bob Turner
• Check Writer: John Lee
• Chair of PRC: Shanon Buckroyd
• PRC Members: Shanon Buckroyd; Rob Duffy; Karen Rawson; Dan Fliger; Bob Turner; Linda Lamont
• Nominating Committee: Lisa Duffy; John Sayre; Lisa Vroegh

Current Committee Chairs:

• Christian Education: Lori Krase-Cayton and Mary St. Clair
• Stewardship & Finance: David Rawson
• Property: Arnie Porath
• Worship: Daette Lambert
• Social Life: Team Party Squad
• Missions: Robert and Emily Dalluge
• Evangelism: Open
• Endowment: Judy Krase

Ankeny Christian Church

2506 SW 3rd Street

Ankeny, Iowa 50023

515-964-1083

ankenyccdoc@gmail.com