MESSAGE.
MINISTRY.
Last Monday night the church Board had a virtual meeting. The emphasis of the meeting was on the church’s response to the tornado devastation. We heard great stories of our church members being willing to help in the very first hours after the storm. The grim picture of this natural disaster is still all around us.
Board members were also very glad to learn more about the new initiative of our Community Services. Lucas Patterson, the leader of this ministry, shared a new plan to help homeless people in Chattanooga. As the Community Kitchen downtown is closed there is another way to help people by providing sack lunches. We agreed that our church volunteers will prepare a hundred and fifty sack lunches twice a month. These lunches will then be distributed among the homeless. The Benevolence committee approved the funds needed for this project. Lucas needs volunteers. Here is what he asked me to share with the church:
SACK LUNCHES FOR HOMELESS. Our church is volunteering on the first and third Mondays of May, June, and July to purchase supplies and pack sack lunches for the homeless. We’ll assemble 150 lunches during each shift in our church social hall and deliver them to staff at the Chattanooga Community Kitchen who then pass the lunches out at various homeless encampments around town. This project is directly connected to COVID-19; the homeless would normally come to the Chattanooga Community Kitchen for meals in its dining hall, but the dining hall is closed to encourage social distancing for this highly vulnerable population. Our first packing session is Monday, May 4, at 8 a.m. Volunteer spots are limited. To sign up, contact Lucas Patterson: 423-582-1678, lucaspatterson@southern.edu.
The Board has also discussed a possible date for reopening our church for worship services. We tentatively agreed to resume in-person services on May 30. In the next week or so the pastoral staff will present the guidelines for the initial stage of our church reopening.
HOPE AWAKENS meetings continue through May 17. Many of you are receiving blessings by watching these messages. Some of you are helping as Bible instructors for the contacts. God bless you for your ministry.
LIGHT OF HOPE. I am grateful for your support and for your prayers for the satellite evangelistic meetings streaming from our church across the ocean to the Russian-speaking countries of Europe and Asia. The response is overwhelming. Click here to read more. Or here is the direct link: https://www.lightofhopetv.com/single-post/2020/05/01/Sharing-the-Gospel-Across-the-Ocean
PRAYERS. Please pray for our church members and our community. Let the Lord lead us out of this valley of the shadow of death.
SABBATH WORSHIP. Dr. David Hartman will be speaking for the worship service this Sabbath morning, Мay 2. You can watch online by either following the link on the church Facebook page (posted at 9 am on Sabbath morning) or by visiting the church website and clicking on the blue color box at the bottom of the page. The box says Sermons and Online Worship Services. Here is the address of the church website: www.ooltewahchurch.org
Sabbath school study will be presented by Greg and Arlene Leavitt. We all appreciate their weekly SS lesson discussion.
CHURCH GIVING. God bless you for your faithful support of the local church budget and your tithes. Rita shared with me the preliminary figures for the month of April. It looks like me met our monthly goal again! Praise God. We’ll be able to pay our bills and to support OAKS 🙂
RESOURCES.
If you have not yet tried the online giving option click here to access the Adventist Giving page. Also, you can access some very helpful information on Stewardship during the time of crisis if you click here.
Church online bulletin. Click here.
Happy Sabbath.
Peter
Ooltewah Seventh-day Adventist Church 