Dear Brothers and Sisters:
"Grace and peace to you from God our Father
and from our Lord Jesus
Christ"
Let me
begin by stating how grateful
to God I am for
allowing me to
be at
this place in my
life. The more I think
of it, the more I realize how truly
blessed we
are as
a Church family. I
pray and I praise God for each and
every one of you. The Lord has used us
to have a
truly magnificence
year
in 2006,
and I eagerly look forward to
what the Lord has in store for us
in
2007. So many
blessings have come our way: The Gospel was preached,
souls were saved, lives have been changed, hearts
have been comforted,
families are prospering and are in good health,
and we have
served our
-community through our outreach ministries.
This year marks a
milestone in the life of our
congregation. For 130
years
the Good Lord has blessed our church to be a
vital, vibrant,
significant
part of the lives of God's people and in our
community. It is only befitting
that we
pause to give God
thanks and praise for all the truly great and
marvelous things God has done in and through us.
Let us remember
however that while we
give thanks to God for
the favor that has be shown
to us, God is not through with us
yet! Our
best days are not in
our past,
but are in our future. I am
grateful for the
wonder way our Church
family has responded to the challenges and
opportunity that are before
us in
terms of building for our future. Not only are we
contributing
sacrificially to our building fund, but we
are doing it with
enthusiasm and
with joy. I believe that we
are learning to appreciate
that God moves in a
mysterious way, and even as
we make sacrifices to
the Lord and for the
work of kingdom building, God continues to bless us
in many profound
and unusual ways. Many of our Disciples have
shared their testimonies
with me
concerning the way
that the Lord has opened up the windows of
heaven and showered blessing on
them until it is hard
to keep up with all
of them.
Since we
are in the Lenten Season, let
me encourage
all of us to
use this
time period in the Christian calendar to
focus upon
strengthening our
relationship with the Lord. Traditionally, the
People of God use Lent to
focus upon helping those who are in need and who
are less fortunate than
we are,
enriching our prayer lives, practicing the discipline of fasting,
engaging in charitable work, and learning to
live in totally dependency on
God (see Matthew 6).
It is my
prayer that we
will discover that the
real
power and renewal of Lent is not experienced by focusing
on the
things
that we
give up like meat,
sweets, coffee, etc. But rather, the real power
and renewal of Lent is achieved when we focus
on what
we can
gain in
terms of our relationship with the Lord. The Lord
wants us to gain
a
greater sensitivity to the needs of those persons
who are less fortunate
that we
are, more fruitful prayer
lives, breakthroughs as a result
of
fasting, and an
assurance that God will
supply all of our needs. If we
experience these things during Lent, then we
have achieved a
closer walk
with the Lord.
As we
prepare for spring, and the
power of the resurrection on
Easter, it
is my
prayer that we
will all experience new
life in Christ Jesus.
If this
happens, then we
are in a
very real sense
experience the true meaning our
Annual Church Theme for 2007
as we strive
to become
a congregation
that is
committed to
"Casting The Vision -
A Church That Builds
One
Life At A Time"
Love Always,
Pastor, Sister Maria &Family
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