Weekly Newsletter 01/20/2022

January 20th, 2022
by Dmitriy Zherebnenkov

Peace to you, beloved!

This year began with sickness for many of us. But I want to encourage you not only with your obtained immunity, but that sickness and difficulties are allowed by God for our good. Yes, it isn’t pleasant; yes, it limits us; yes, we want to escape it at all costs, but remember Job. God is sovereign and His ultimate goal is our spiritual growth and us becoming like Christ. Also, we can agree, that sickness reminds us that we are not gods.

James 4:13-16
¹³Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— ¹⁴yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. ¹⁵Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” ¹⁶As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.

How applicable is this truth to us, especially when we are planning and deciding our goals and tasks for this upcoming year. My prayer is that God would give us a healthy balance between our responsibility to plan and look ahead into the future with our ability to trust God and be calm in His loving hands.

Continue praying for each other, especially for those who are sick. Let us experience this team unity in prayer. Continue praying for guests who visit our church and their living faith in Christ. Pray for the young generation and their ability to form a biblical worldview for many of life’s questions. Pray also for parents and their readiness to talk to their kids (on their level) about questions that are important to bring to the surface before the world presents its own sinful alternatives.

If you have not received the proposed budget for 2022 via email, you should receive one today. Please, read the document, and if you have any questions, please get in touch either through our secretary or directly with Roman Cucias. If you would like to hear a more detailed report on ministries from the last year, please, join the meeting of all church volunteer staff this Saturday, at 9:00 AM.

Announcements

As previously, due to the restrictions and orders from the health department, we remind you:

Keep social distancing and wearing masks in public places
Wash and sanitize hands more often
If you have flu-like symptoms, were in contact with a person with COVID, or are in the “high-risk” group, then we ask you to stay home

Scripture To Memorize

Acts 17:24-31

²⁴The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,²⁵nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. ²⁶And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,²⁷that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, ²⁸for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said,“‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
²⁹Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. ³⁰The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, ³¹because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

Upcoming Services and Meetings

Today, Thursday (6:30 PM) Children’s Bible School in church (open to all but required for parents), followed by Bible Study for the whole church at 7:30 PM, in the main sanctuary.
Saturday (9:00 AM) / (8:30 AM breakfast & coffee) Meeting for all staff and volunteers at GFC (the meeting is open for all willing to hear a detailed report of the previous year from various ministries at the church and to pray together for this year).

Sunday services

Worship Service in Russian at 9:00AM
Worship Service in English at 11:15AM
Church Family Service at 6:00 PM (at the end of the service there will be a members’ meeting with a report about the previous year and a vote for the 2022 budget). Please bring some sweets or fruits to the table for our fellowship afterwards. Thank you.