EFCSB - 2010 主題：「凡事謝恩 各處傳揚」

Dear Mandarin brothers and sisters:

First I like to wish you a Happy New Year.

Today, one thing has brought to my attention and I need help from you.

Basically, most of us have joined the church Sunday lunch. Today, I heard that the Taiwanese Congregation members been taking the responsibilities of setting up tables, serving in filling the plates, and the cleaning up. Both the English and Mandarin congregations have not participated much in it. Since we have benefited from the lunch service, I feel we should share the workload as well. Due to the Mandarin Sunday Service time, I think, it is harder for us to participate in setting up the table. It is better for us to assume the responsibility of cleaning up.

I would need two kinds of persons:

1. volunteers to participate in cleaning up: every week, we will need two people to wash things like the containers, … We also need to clean the floor of the dinning areas and the kitchen. If we have 16 people signed up for this, you will only need to stay behind once every two months. The task is simple and all of us are qualified to do this. Unless you always need to rush home early or already committed to too many things, it is a good opportunity for you to serve the Lord and other church members.
2. We also need a coordinator to arrange the schedule and make sure the persons who are scheduled to serve know it before hand. Currently, we actually have a list of people to serve in the kitchen but our people failed to show up. It could be as simple as that the persons do not notice that they are supposed to serve. I would suggest this person don’t sign up for the first group but make sure he (she) makes phone calls or send emails in notifying people to serve.

For a challenging year of 2007, let’s start it by serving others from something small.

這些事你們既作在我這弟兄中一個最小的身上、就是作在我身上了。 (太 25:40)

Peter

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

Praise the Lord. God The old story that happened more than two thousand years ago is still amazing in this fast moving Information Technology era.

Though we thought about our special Christmas program around September, we really didn’t do much until we came back from the Mandarin congregation retreat in the first weekend of December. I have the privilege to witness how brothers and sisters devote themselves to prepare for it. When I read emails from brothers and sisters making various suggestions trying to make the night special and a better one, my heart has been touched many times by them. This is an example of what means of working together for the gospel as one body. I believe there are more unnoticed efforts that I am not aware of at all. Yet, people may not see it, God knows everything.

I am also thankful to Taiwanese congregation members. Though this is a Mandarin Congregation event, I saw Rev. and Mrs. Hsu came to help out. Huang Mama, Liu Mama, Elder and Mrs. Paul Huang, Deacon Jason, … also make themselves available. There are probably some more I didn’t notice. Their helping hands are really appreciated. We are one Church not just three independent congregations gathering separately in the same building. Tomorrow evening (12/24), there will be a church-wide celebration starting with dinner together and a program follows. I know some of you will be out of town or have other engagements. If you are around, please do come to show your support and share the Joy.

It is a new phase of our congregation. For those new friends, we need to follow up. The congregation will prepare some books or something similar to keep in touch with them. We will prepare a list of contact information. I hope all of us continue to care about them and show our love to them.

You are all wonderful. I enjoy serving the Lord with you.

Peter

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

Our Friday’s Christmas Outreaching Meeting is just less than two short days away. Let’s pray more .

“Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it;

You may pray for

• The people you have invited. May God prepare their hearts and open their eyes.
• The other newcomers you don’t know yet but are going to meet on Friday. We expect to have many newcomers and many of them you have never met. It’s very likely they may be neglected.
• Yourself: May God adjust ourselves to be an instrument of His Grace. Give us a sensitive heart for the needs of others and a tendering heart that cares.
• Other brothers and sisters: Remember we are a team and other brothers and sisters need power and support as desperately as yourself. Let’s support each others starting by praying for them. Pray especially hard for those who serve in various capacity in the event.
• Our speaker Rev. Lee: May God use His servant to deliver a message that would win more souls. His wife, Mrs.. Lee, is recovering from Cancer surgery and chemotherapy. Rev. Lee is taking vacation with Mrs. Lee to have some personal time in his busy preaching engagement. Rev. Lee will come to us the very next day after he comes back to town.

Peter

Dear All:

Seeing many brothers and sisters devoted their time voluntarily and initiated suggestions, I am really touched. I am not expressing something diplomatic. From bottom of my heart, I am thankful. If we keep up this spirit and working together, we will see our congregation be very different next year.

From the information I have received, we are expecting many newcomers to show up on coming Friday’s Christmas Special meeting. It is a very challenging task for us. When we invite our friends to come to our Church, we want them to have good impression and come back in the future and eventually can join God’s family. We cannot over-emphasize the importance of caring the new-comers:

We will do the following:

• We will prepare a brochure introducing the congregation and fellowships. It will be distributed when we take records of their contact information
• Everyone will have a name tag
• We prepare a goodie bag for the every kid and a CD/DVD package made by 傳神 (one for each new family)
• Jessie has been coordinating and forming a team to care the newcomers.

I believe the above actions are not enough. I would urge you to

1. Introduce you friend(s) to other members of our congregation. It would be bad if at the end of the meeting, your friend still do not know other members from our church. The more people he (or she) know in our church, the more likely he (she) would feel at home at our place and has less resistance to come back again.
2. Whenever, you notice someone is alone and no one is talking to him (her). Go ahead introduce yourself and start conversation. You may ask some personal information to get acquainted with him (her). You may also introduce him/her to other members of our church.
3. We have many chances to chat among ourselves. I hope I won’t see our members just enjoy getting together by ourselves and ignore newcomers. Let’s offer the night to the Lord and spend our time for the newcomers. I feel such an offering is more precious than offering money because it can make direct impacts in drawing people closer to the Lord.
4. We should also avoid that the newcomers just have good time by getting together of themselves. If you notice a group of newcomers having good time talking together but no our own members in the group. Join them. Introduce yourself. You may welcome them on behave of the congregation. At that night, every member should consider himself (herself) as the host of a party and that is EVERYONE’s responsibility to care our guests.

I am proud of our congregation and I appreciate what you have done so far for the meeting. Let’s walk for an extra mile, put up a little extra effort to make sure all invited friends enjoy the night. I believe we do our part and God will do His part. Let’s pray that miracle occurs not only on 34th street but also on Sharynne Lane, Torrance.

Your brother,

Peter