I invite you to join the communion service at our church tonight, March 25, at 6:30 PM. Twice a year our Communion is celebrated as the Agape Feast. We come together, share food, music, and testimonies. I hope to see you at the Lord’s table tonight.
This Sunday our church is presenting a major health event for the people in our community. The Health Expo will take place on the parking lot of the Samaritan center. The Expo starts at 1 PM. The tent is already up. Memorial hospital is bringing their mammogram van. There will be many booth/stations where people will find many helpful tests, consultations, and resources. Come and support our Health Ministry team. This is what our mission is all about.
Talking about our mission I m happy to share with you a few photos sent to me by Laura. This is our Love is Action ministry team helping a local family.
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Heartfelt Thank You to everyone who contributed to the Light of Hope ministry. You’ve raised over $40,000 for the families in Ukraine. Because of your donations, food is being provided for the starving people in Kharkov, Kiev, Chernigov, and many other locations in Ukraine. East Ukrainian conference pastors and administration are grateful for your financial support as they continue to move families from the active war zones. Here are a few fresh photos from the conference president.
When I feel overwhelmed with the evil in this world I open Psalm 18 and find comfort and assurance in the following words of the Psalmist:
I will love You, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my [a]strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the [b]horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I will call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies.
This is the fourth week of the conflict in Ukraine. Millions are displaced. Thousands have been killed. Big cities are in ruins. It may seem that there is no hope, but when I talk to the pastors there I feel a different kind of spirit. They remain in the war zone. They help move families to safety. They deliver food to the starving people. They remain strong in their faith that the Lord is their Rock. What a great spiritual lesson for all of us.
In the last 10 days the Light of Hope Ministry has received $19,083 for the suffering families and food delivery ministry in Ukraine. The funds keep coming. Here is a short video showing our pastors from the East Ukraine conference moving refugees from the active war zones and helping them with food and shelter inside the church and school buildings. They are still smiling!!!
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I am absolutely thrilled to let you know that we are very very close to our first $1,000,000 in the Cornerstone Fund. We are all praying about reaching this amount by April 1. God is making miracles through you! We are only $25,000 short. Exciting, right?
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Please do not forget to schedule your photo for the new church directory. You can also do that online at www.ooltewahchurch.org
Just a few minutes ago I received a message from my dear colleague/pastor from Ukraine. I will not post his name here as he is risking his life every day helping families with food deliveries and shelter. The message below is not from any big news corporation. It is from a real human being who is in the middle of this horrible disaster.
“Peter,
Every day we are helping to move hundreds, hundreds of evacuees from Kharkov, Donbass and other cities .. We move, we feed, we help as much as we can from morning till night, and through the night. Terrible situation in Mariupol, the city which you know well. The city is blocked and subjected to terrible shelling. Thousands of victims… No light, no natural gas, no water. We can only pray.
Please pray for us! You cannot even imagine what’s going on here…. My family and I are in one of the church buildings. . By the grace of God, we are alive. The city is simply wiped off the face of the earth. It is completely destroyed, there is no electric power, all the wires are on the ground. There is no natural gas, the gas pipeline is blown up. People cook their food by making fire on the streets; there is no water. There is no gasoline. We have a water well in the church with salty water. We boil this salty water to make a cup of hot tea. We are grateful for the little we have. People are hungry, stores are broken and looted, storms of bullets, cannons, aircrafts… bombs exploded just a few meters from the church. God controls these meters… our window frames fly out, but we are alive. Now the generators are turned on, and we have charged the phones and the network has appeared…, and I writing as fast as I can until it disappears. Pray for us! I hope the Lord will do something for us. Even if the fighting ends, people have nowhere to live. Whole sections of apartment building are burned out. There are holes through the multistory apartment buildings. Everything is broken! Schools are destroyed. God’s Word tells us not be horrified because this is not the end! But it’s very scary. The corpses lie on the streets, there is no one to move them. Very difficult! By the grace of God, we are fed twice in the church. Yesterday I washed my children for the first time. We don’t know what to expect tomorrow, but we know that the Lord is here with us. He is strong!”
Many of you donated your help through the Light of Hope Ministry. Your donations have been received in Ukraine. Your generous gifts are helping to deliver loaves of bread and other basic necessities to Kyiv and other cities. Your donations are also helping specific Ukrainian families with little children. If you are donating via the online AdventistGiving, please let me know about your contribution and the money will be sent to Ukraine the next day. (Otherwise, the detailed AdventistGiving report comes to our office only twice a month. We do not want to wait that long.) If you are using a regular church tithe envelope please mark your donation “Light of Hope.”
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The weather forecast is not very good for tomorrow morning. The church will be open for both services. If you do not feel safe driving to church you are welcome to join our online worship service. The link is on the church website www.ooltewahchurch.org and on the church Facebook.
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Jenny Spicer shared the following Youth Update with me with a couple of photos:
“Several of the Ooltewah Youth went to the Regenerate program. Noah Patterson performed for the afternoon program and did a fabulous job!”
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Last Sabbath we celebrated one more baptism. Colton McCormick was baptized by Ron Malloch. I am very excited for Colton.
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This morning I had a wonderful experience speaking for OAKS chapel. What a great school we have. Teacher Margo’s class just finished the bake sale fundraiser. They received $545 for the people of Ukraine! What a great way to show the spirit of Christ. Here are a few photos taken by the school principal, Shelly Caswell.
Our Church is creating a new photo directory! We want everyone to get a new picture made so that our new directory will be complete. IT WON’T BE COMPLETE WITHOUT YOU! You can make your appointment at the church on the sign-up sheet, or you can click on the link below and make your appointment online.
Photo dates are: April 18 – 20, 2022 & May 2 – 3, 2022
You will have a professional photography session, schedule a ZOOM meeting to see your proofs on the computer and have the opportunity to purchase extra portraits for family and friends. Every family photographed for the directory will receive a copy of the directory and an 8×10 portrait at no cost. So please, sign-up today!
This weekend Pastor Matthew Shallenberger will be speaking at the Conference Pathfinder event at Cohutta Springs. We’ll miss him at our church tomorrow.
This is the second week of the devastation in Ukraine. Innocent people are being killed. Hundreds of thousands are seeking safety for themselves and their families. Wounded people are trapped under destroyed apartment buildings. Every day I am talking to pastors and church members suffering horrendous hardships. Let’s never get used to this reality. It seems like with every passing day the pain of Ukrainian sufferings shocks us less and less. These are our brothers and sisters needing help. A couple of days ago I talked to a pastor in Ukraine. His team buys 300 loaves of bread in the western part of Ukraine and transports them daily to Kiev under the firestorm of bullets. This is what Christian love and courage is all about. Talk to me if you are compelled to help at least one family in Ukraine.
Ultimately, only God can put an end to the sufferings of this broken world. However, there is something we can do today to help one human being from dying without food or water.
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OAKS had a great fundraising event last Sunday. Summer shared a few pictures:
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Last Saturday night our church had a perfect international festival. I was impressed with the number of people featuring their ethnic cuisine and national costumes. We truly have a wonderful spirit of unity in our church. Here are a few photos from that event:
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Our Church is creating a new photo directory! We want everyone to get a new picture made so that our new directory will be complete. IT WON’T BE COMPLETE WITHOUT YOU! You can make your appointment at church on the sign-up sheets, or you can click on the link below and make your appointment online.
Photo dates are: April 18 – 20, 2022 & May 2 – 3, 2022
You will have a professional photography session, schedule a ZOOM meeting to see your proofs on the computer and have the opportunity to purchase extra portraits for family and friends. Every family photographed for the directory will receive a copy of the directory and an 8×10 portrait at no cost. So please, sign-up today!
Ooltewah Seventh-day Adventist Church 