Walls of Salvation

9 SIGNS OF CHRIST SOON RETURN. Tonight is the 8th night of our Bible Prophecy seminar. I am thankful to God for the wonderful turn out that we had every night. It was so good to see visitors from the Ooltewah/Collegedale community. The music was exceptional! Thank you, Larry and your team. As a pleasant addition to the scheduled music program was Snezhana Kushnir, a singer from Ukraine. She helped us remember that we belong to the world-wide family of God’s children.

Tonight the “Voices of Worship” will sing before the sermon. Remember the seven men group that sang the first night? They are back tonight! Sabbath night “The Emmanuel Quartet” will beautify our program with two songs before the message! Lots to look forward to!

Our audio/visual team will try to provide this seminar in DVD format for anyone who would want to share it with their family or friends.

BAPTISM. Tomorrow afternoon I am inviting you to a baptism on the lake in the Harrison Bay park (same place where the Pathfinders had their baptism two weeks ago). The baptism will take place at 4 P.M. Our candidates are Alyssia and Ryan Gibson and a Southern student, Eduard Smirnov. I hope many of you will want to join their celebration. It looks like the weather will be perfect for the occasion.

CHURCH MINISTRY. Tomorrow at 2:30 P.M. church Board members are invited to meet in the Fellowship Hall for a meeting with pastor Rick Greve, regional ministerial director of the GCC. Rick will introduce a potential candidate for the Ooltewah church assistant pastor’s position. Our church has a great need in an assistant pastor. Among many responsibilities the assistant pastor will provid spiritual guidance to the OAKS students, church Young Adults, Youth and lower SS classes. Please, keep this pastoral placement process in your prayers.

NEHEMIAH PROJECT. Because of the Bible seminar we kept our church renovations on hold. In a week or two the work will resume on the roof (facia boards, gutters, siding, etc). New windows will be ordered along with new glass doors. The building committee is finalizing the pews order. All these wonderful renovations became possible because of the exceptionally generous support of the Nehemiah project fund. We have received $196,000 toward the $200,000 goal! All this humbles me. God’s Spirit is truly at work in our church.

SLAVIC NIGHT. On May 9 you are invited to a Slavic night from 5 to 7 P.M. at our church Fellowship Hall. You’ll hear Russian and Ukrainian music. There will be lots of delicious Eastern European dishes to try. There will be a brief update on the upcoming mission trip to Odessa, Ukraine. People across the US send their donations to support Odessa evangelism. Some of you approached me asking how you can donate towards this mission. A donation can be made in the tithe envelope marked for the LIGHT OF HOPE Ministry mission. This will be a tax deductible donation handled by our church treasurer. Every penny will go for the Three Angels message proclamation in war-torn Ukraine.

CHURCH FAMILY. This afternoon I talked to Ed Pino, who had lost his mother a couple of weeks ago. Ed is deeply touched by your kind messages, cards and phone calls. He asked me to relate to you his sincere words of appreciation. Your prayers and caring support helped him go through this trial time of loss. Ed will be coming back later this summer after he takes care of his mother’s property.

Julia Easter is having back surgery today. Please, pray that it goes well.

SABBATH MESSAGE. Tomorrow morning I continue my “Life Renovations” series. We’ll study Nehemiah chapter 3. “The Walls of Salvation”. Isaiah 60:18 is the key verse of my message:

“Violence shall no longer be heard in your land,
Neither wasting nor destruction within your borders;
But you shall call your walls Salvation,
And your gates Praise.

NEW RUSSIAN TRANSLATION BIBLES. I could not hold my tears yesterday as I received word that 10,000 copies of the new Bible Translation Bible were delivered to the Publishing House in Zaoksky, Russia. This is the exact location where my father started the work on the Bible translation 25 years ago. I wish he could live to this day to this the results of his hard work and many prayers. Eastern Europe needs this new translation like air. I pray that many find Jesus as their Savior when they read this Bible in the language that they can understand.