There’s a neat function on Facebook that allows you to take a look into your past with the click of a button. Opening your “Memories” brings up a curated list of posts made on the same day of previous years. You can review friendships made, jokes shared, events recorded – all good things! You can also be reminded of some of your very first social media posts – not as good. The primary reason I open up my “Memories” anymore is to delete them.
While the worst things Facebook might recall are a dumb comment or embarrassing profile picture, I sometimes look back on my not-quite-twenty years of life and already wish I could delete a few things – if not from experience, at least from memory. When I expressed this sentiment a while back (on Facebook, ironically), a past teacher of mine responded “I would rather cringe at an old memory than a fresh one!” (Further proof that English teachers are the wisest and best.) Another teacher (not in English class, this time, but still wise) described the process of growth as “the revelation of a tender Father” – a God who reveals what we need to know only when He knows we’re ready. After we’ve grown accustomed to a level of maturity, He encourages us to dig deeper, but never so quickly that we can’t handle it if we rely on Him. This understanding of maturity takes a great weight off our shoulders!
As I learn to keep digging, I am realizing that, from a Christian perspective, “growing up” doesn’t mean “leaving your heart behind”. After a few cringe-worthy and downright painful memories have accumulated, it’s easy to want to ditch this thing in the chest cavity that causes so many issues. However, the elimination of a part of yourself is not growth. Don’t get me wrong: there are unhealthy, sinful, distorted parts of our lives that need to be cut out through the process of sanctification (spiritual maturity). But the heart that God gave you is not one of those things. Our deep desires exist as a result of the imago Dei on us. Through sanctification, God purifies our hearts and reveals to us their intended goodness. Divorced from His will, our hearts are not worth following. At the same time, though, God designed us with deep longings in our hearts – longings that may be left unmet and aching in the dissonance of this fallen world, but which can ultimately point us back to Him.
A couple friends and I have a group chat in which we ramble about everything from theology to the upcoming raid of Area 51. (The name of the group changes every so often, but right now it is aptly titled “Void Discourse”.) One day, when we were all waxing particularly romantic, I described the pursuit of human longings and their fulfillment as a “quest” – a quest for an ideal, for wisdom, for intimacy, for peace, or for any other longing our hearts may contain. These are good things worth pursuing – even if there is pain along the journey. Another wise teacher (though one I didn’t know personally) wrote that “Deeper natures never forget themselves and never become something other than they were. So the knight [of faith] will remember everything; but the memory is precisely the pain, and yet in his infinite resignation he is reconciled with existence.” Eliminating the heart under the pretense of maturity may be a way to avoid potential pain, but it’s also a surefire way to miss out on the adventure. To go full-on King Arthur: as “knights”, navigating our quest requires some guidance. Real maturity, in a way, provides a map; subjective feelings will not suffice for direction.
Last week, I had the opportunity to preach through a chunk of 1 Thessalonians as part of a series on faith, hope, and love. My sermon specifically focused on enduring suffering by participating in Christ-centered community, sharing and deepening the three theological virtues within the Church. These are not shifting emotions but principles by which, through the Spirit in us, we can and must choose to live. In the car on the way out of church, something in my brain made the simple connection (a bit too late to fit into my D.T.): a life characterized by faith, hope, and love should also be increasingly characterized by joy. Founded on our relationship with God and resulting from a faith-, hope-, and love-filled heart, true joy outlasts other emotions as they come and go. During the drive back to the house, I had another quasi-epiphany so suddenly I actually took notes on it while I was on the road. (At a stoplight, okay? Don’t tell the police. It pays to have index cards on hand at all times.)
If you’ve been keeping up with my blog, you may already know that I have found the Enneagram to be a useful tool in recent months, and that I identify most strongly with type Four. Apart from other insights the Enneagram may hold, one simple thing I’ve learned about Fours is that we are very easily drawn into melancholy. It’s our desired state, really. (If you knew just how many hours of Adele I’ve listened to in the past month, this would be no surprise to you.) Melancholy has been defined as “frustrated desire” – highlighting the Four’s tendency to envy. Some people (looking at you, Sevens) may enthusiastically encourage us to embrace joy by leaving behind our moody ways, but to no avail. The epiphany that caused my most recent case of distracted driving was that joy and melancholy need not be opposite extremes – they can be reconciled.
Our hope is in Christ alone – hope for our future life with him, but also for present security on this side of the second coming. It is a now-and-not-yet hope. Obviously, this is cause for great joy! All our security, contentment, and comfort stem from this. At the same time, it is not yet. Our desperate longing for what we know should be is not satisfied – and still, to give up longing for it would be foolish. Our frustration with the way the world is now must be held in tension with our contentment in the midst of it. Just as joy allows us to not be ruled by difficult feelings, melancholy teaches us not to repress them. It is not selfish sadness, but the frustrated desire for wholeness; joy is an experience in that very wholeness. We must embrace the former in order to experience the latter!
We can see this fleshed out by the only example of perfect humanity, my favorite of all the teachers mentioned in this post: Jesus. At the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus weeps with sorrow over his friend’s death, knowing full well that resurrection power is ready to break loose. When confronted with the greed infiltrating his Father’s temple, righteous anger courses through him, sinless frustration with the fallenness of humanity on display. In the garden, he chooses to follow the Father’s will over his own even when it means isolation, torture, and death. Jesus’ longing for the unity intended between God and man, frustrated for a time though it was, is inspired by the Father and submitted to His will.
“Some might find it convenient enough that desire is no longer alive, that the smart of pain has dulled; but such people are no knights. A free-born soul who caught himself at this would despise himself and make a fresh start, and above all would not allow himself to be deceived in his soul.” – Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling
Our quests are not worthless ventures. When something tugs at your heartstrings, pay attention! Perfection, intimacy, peace, fill-in-the-blank – these longings are not the goal in and of themselves. Their frustration points us to the One who planted them in our hearts. They may be expressed in simple ways on the surface level of our lives, but tracing them to their roots brings us to desires in their original created intent.
It’s not easy to let the ache drive us to the Father, especially when there seem to be so many immediately tangible satisfactions. I know Jesus is waiting at the finish line… but sometimes I don’t want to keep running. It would be a gross lie to say this ache is joyful. In this longing, there are no arms to fall into, no companion to keep in step with, no belonging. My head tries to remind my trembling heart that none of us will truly belong separated from the Father, but sometimes I fear my heart is incapable of deeply recognizing that truth here.
As C.S. Lewis wrote, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world” – or at least for a perfected one. And yet we can also imitate Abraham, whose faith “was not that he should be happy sometime in the hereafter, but that he should find blessed happiness here in this world.” Now. And not yet.
When happiness is defined by the Father and our hearts are continually sanctified by His Spirit, our longings – even in frustration – serve to enrich our stories. Longings create great tension, which is necessary for any good plot to advance! Not only that, but our questing is a way God reveals His heart to us (and to others through us). Pursuing something the Father also longs for can be a way of pursuing the Father – the source of our ultimate joy! This requires us to persist in longing, no matter the ache, and let it remind us of the Kingdom of heaven.
My heart may often be steeped in melancholy, but somehow it cultivates joy all the more in the day-to-day. Each morning of “coffee and contemplation” reminds me of God’s presence. Investing in community serves as an expression of His love. Even this act of writing – chiseling out a thought from the marble brick of my brain – alleviates some internal weight and points me to our Creator. We would experience less beauty without the ache!


First of all, thanks for reading the blog. Your thoughts have been encouraging … and if you have a subject you’d like me to blog about, please let me know.
Second, as we enter this new year, I will again be posting three times a week: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
This past week, I did a post on resolutions – here’s another perspective from Deb del Villar.
New Year Resolutions. Do you make them or encourage your children to make them? Maybe you call them goals for the new year. How many times have you done this annual activity; only to give up within months because you have been unable to keep them. There is always next year right? Wrong!
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.
As Lamentations 3:22-23 states, we can start over each and every day. It is like getting a do-over, a fresh start. We do not need to wait until next year to start over with our goals. We can start over whenever we need too.
I think of sports players who mess up big time and cannot wait until the next game to do better and make amends. They practice harder, focus their attention more on the teaching and training, all with the intent of not making that same mistake. Sports commentators speak about how hard it is for players when their last play of the season is a bad one. They have to go through the entire off season, replaying and reliving that mistake, that error – all with the hope that next season will be better. Some players never get another chance and are left with that last defining moment etched in their mind.
I am so glad that as a Christian when I mess up (and I do), I do not have to wait for next season! I do not have to wait a minute – I can go boldly and confidently to God’s throne knowing His steadfast love and great mercy is available now. And not only that – I can start over whenever I need to for His mercies are new every morning. Added bonus – His mercies never run out! Scripture does encourage us to learn God’s Word better and lean on His Holy Spirit more so we will do better in this game called life.
So if make resolutions or set goals for this new year, remember you can start over the next day. Do not wait, any changes made to help you get healthier physically and spiritually are good. Above all, run to God through Jesus if you mess up, thanking Him for His forgiveness and strength to do better the next time. Yes, this is a new year – yet each day is a new day!


And just like that, they’re off!! My JJ started Kindergarten today! Jules is now in 3rd grade. Emmy was still sleeping when this pic was taken but you know she would’ve been right next to her siblings. She starts a 2 day/week preschool class in a couple of weeks so I get some one on one time with her until then.
Daddy is so proud of his little ones.
You guys, I didn’t even shed one tear. #itsamiracle
Btw, those chalkboards were made from thrifted Christmas placemats. They are really sturdy and perfect for chalkboards. My kids loved drawing on these along with their cousins and creating their own pieces of art over and over again.
Did you read my post yesterday on our back to school tradition? Hope everyone has a wonderful start to the new school year!
And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19


People said life is a journey and every journey has a start.
For sure my life started at the time God gives me the soul.
But I have to live my own life at the day my parents leave me forever.
Never thought that they will leave as soon as that.
I thought I have time to spent with them, but I did not get that privilege.
My life begins at that point.
I have to stand on my own.
But, that is one thing that makes me strong.
I believe God always take good care of me.


Biscarini in Italy!
ITALY... a mission
field ?” What about all those great churches and cathedrals? Isn’t there a rich Christian heritage in the country?
“Occultism, magic, and superstition are rampant in Italy with over $4 billion spent on fortune telling. An estimated 100,000 licensed witches, 3 times the priestly population, contributes to Italy’s reputation as a graveyard for missionaries (less than 10% of them ever returns for a second term).
In the words of one missionary: “In Italy you need two callings…one to come and one to stay!” There are less Evangelicals (0.73%) than in India, Africa, Russia, Japan or China. Divisions among evangelical churches is a reflection of what goes on in government with over 32 political parties, and a chaotic state. Pastors are the first to admit: “we are few and well divided”!
As in most societies, the upper echelon of society may have experienced a great deal of worldly success, yet many are also experiencing a deep emptiness, with lives devoid of meaning and love. They are spiritually bankrupt...The new youth generation, unlike my days, is growing outside of the church walls and learned to distrust the Institution. So the answer to the initial question is a resounding YES!


Our friend, AOW, lost two of her three beloved cats to cancer within the last six months. Cameo on Easter Sunday, and Mysti three days ago, also on a Sunday. The following was written to honor their memory. It seemed the least we could do to mark the passing
of two dear friends and family members.
To Two Departed Too Soon
Hello, you two!
I wonder if you ever knew
How much we‘d miss you
If you moved away?
You’re no longer within reach,
You’ve taught us all you had to teach,
I guess, but between us there’s no breach,
And so no need to say
“We love you, and we always will. ––
We’re grateful that you joined us here to fill
Happy days and times we went downhill
With antics that brought smiles each time you’d play.”
… When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, … shut thy door, pray to thy Father … in secret; and thy Father … shall reward thee openly.
Your Father knoweth what things ye need
before ye ask him.
Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.
[I]f ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you …
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
[Instead] lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven … For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be [pure], thy whole body shall be full of light.
But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. …
Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? …
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
And yet I say unto you, … even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, … shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
Therefore [do not worry], saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? …
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and [everything you need] shall be added unto you.
Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself … ~ § ~
GET RID OF ALL ILLEGAL ALIENS INCLUDING THE DREAMERS?
Two Differing Points of View
Welcome one of your newest fellow citizens. Let's say just for the sake of discussion that this is a hypothetical scenario:
46 year old woman. Gets pregnant. No father listed on birth certificate. Unemployed, gets no prenatal care, presents to hospital in labor, baby born slightly premature and very small size. Has Down syndrome. Has significant medical abnormalities. Will probably be hospitalized for weeks to months in intensive care. May need major surgery. Mother speaks not a word of English. Immigration status? Who knows, not allowed to ask. Mom on Medicaid. Baby on Medicaid.
Where is the responsibility of this woman who is old enough to know better? Where is the responsibility of the father who gets his pleasure with no skin in the game? Where is the responsibility of this mother's nation of origin who outsourced her dependency onto us? Where is the concern from our politicians for the taxpayers, the hardworking citizens of this country who are going to pay for this child's medical care for years to come? Where is a simple thank you America, for being kind hearted and generous. But no, the Dreamers have a dream. Fuck the taxpayer and his/her dreams. F-ck the future of the taxpayer's child and his/her dreams. This woman and her child are entitled to the sweat of your brow, comrade!
YEAH YEAH YEAH, but you've taken the worst case scenario, exaggerated it, and then presented it as the NORM for ALL the so-called Dreamers.
Not only is that not KIND and not FAIR, it's not TRUE either.
There really ARE a great many brought here as infants and underrage children who have graduated from our schools, and lived their entire lives AS Americans.
Some of them have served in the Armed Forces with honor and distinction; many have gone to college, graduated and have found a niche for themselves as full-fledged members of American Society.
Many of them have married Americans, and had children whom they are raising in an admirable fashion. Many of them have bought property, and do their best to maintain it and enhance its value.
It's a moral OUTRAGE even to CONSIDER deporting people of good quality. Many of them are better behaved, have better values, and lead more productive lives the many "Natural Born" citizens hundreds of thousands of whom really are worthless and despicable.
That said, I would like to see any and all illegal aliens who've committed CRIMES tossed out immediately with no ceremony, and I firmly believe
WE MUST SEAL the BORDER NOW
so that no more of these poor lost souls are physically able to pour in, and eventually overrun us.
The whole rotten, stinking mess is OUR fault for not electing and supporting a government that has the GUTS, the WILL and the HEART to do the Right, Decent and Sensible thing.


The Community Mission is pleased to announce our new affiliation and partnership with the Lighthouse Community Church & Academy!
Our Partner School is located in Lyon Station, Pennsylvania! The Academy, Lighthouse Christian Academy (LCA) was founded in 1978 and works with hundreds of homeschoolers worldwide, assisting them to achieve excellence in academics and their Christian lives, and enabling them to receive a well respected diploma. Our Ministry is based on the Word of God. We are non-denominational, and strive to seek the Holy Spirit for direction.
LCA is registered with:
For an application to enroll in one of our programs, please contact us at 570-573-8089What Academics are offered by the School?
All students are tested on a yearly basis to check their academic achievement. We also provide our students with college admissions testing and guidance. Lighthouse will also provide connections with Local Career and Technology Centers, for students that are interested in a vocational program.
LCA provides three diplomas:
3. College Prep
Graduation requirements are printed in the LCA handbook. All information concerning the operation and guidelines of the school are listed in the school handbook. This is discussed and reviewed at the parent orientation.Home School Program
LCA provides administrative support and evaluation services for home school students. Parents can also purchase the Accelerated Christian Education Curriculum from LCA. Home schoolers are enrolled as an extension of LCA and are allowed to take their achievement tests when offered by the school.
Children that complete all of their high school studies and are evaluated by the principal of LCA, will qualify to receive their high school diploma. LCA maintains an academic transcript of each student which is transferable to employers and colleges. SAT or ACT college entrance exams are available to home schooled students by registering on line at www.collegeboard.com, please use 391-389 as your high school code number. Tutorial services are also available to home scholars.Lighthouse Bible Institute
LBI offers a continuing education college level program for Christians who are interested in furthering their education. Up to 60 credits are available and can be taken by correspondence. We also work in conjunction with other Christian Colleges and help students to make up courses over the summer in order to graduate. These courses must be approved by the college registrar. High school students can also take college courses in their junior and senior years.Adult & Continuing Education
LCA has the perfect program for adults that would like to receive their high school diploma, take Bible courses to teach Sunday School, Bible studies, or to get involved in an active ministry in your church. We offer courses in Christian Counseling, Lay Ministry and Christian Education. Feel free to call 570-573-8089 for more information, or e-mail us at [email protected].
Tuition is $3,000 per student, $2,000 for each additional student per family. Registration cost for the BIBLE INSTITUTE is $100.00 and $150.00 per credit. Tutorial sessions will cost $20 per hour.
Go to: http://thecommunitymission.webs.com/apps/donations/ for a secure donation through PAYPAL or mail your donation to: THE COMMUNITY MISSION 825 Mahantongo St. Pottsville, PA 17901
PARTNERING CHURCHES(over $1,000), MINISTRIES & INDIVIDUALS will receive a LIFETIME DISCOUNT of 20% of tuition for every applicant they refer.
If you are able to help us on a regular or 1 time basis, please let us know. Also, please go to our website to see our list of MINISTRY NEEDS and/or to donate to us securely through PAYPAL.
Pastor Bob Alonge [email protected] 781-413-7604


The Diocese of Rumbek started its activities in Yirol in November 1991. Yirol is a small town in Yirol West County in Lakes State, a state in the middle of the Republic of South Sudan. The Comboni missionaries who following the steps of their founder St Daniel, were working there had to leave Yirol during the military occupation from the North (April 1992 – May 1997) and then resumed their support from Mapuordit. In 1999, the mission of Yirol was fully reopened as Holy Cross Parish.
Father Parlade Escobar Jose Xavier, a Spaniard, was the first Comboni missionary to settle in yirol in 2002. Being the parish priest, he worked together with Fr. Benjamin Madhol, a diocesan priest. In 2008, arrived Fr. Titus Makhoka, a comboni missionary form Kenya. He dedicated himself to the pastoral especially with youth and women groups. After three years of service he was transferred to the community of Mapuordit. Fr. Fernando Colombo mccj joined both Fathers in 2007 and became the superior of the community until mid-2011 when he was appointed responsible of the Pastoral, Liturgical and Catechetical center of the diocese in Rumbek. He inspired the community in its prayer life and pastoral care. In 2009, the big Holy Cross Church was inaugurated. The same year, came Fr. David Octavio, mccj, who became the superior of the community after Fr. Fernando Colombo. Late Fr. Hector Ayon has been an active member of the community of Yirol from august 2011 to 2014. At the beginning of 2012, Fr. Antoine joined the religious community and was appointed its bursar. He served as administrator of the three parish school and principal of one of them. In 2012 came the scholastic Gilingere Cornelio Lwanga. The community had the pleasure to journey with him until his ordination in july 2015. In the meantime, arrived also Fr. Girardi Giovanni and in 2014 Fr. Tacuri Samaniego Pedro and Br. Pomykacz Jacek. Lastly Father Boris Ketemepi in march 2015 and Father Krzysztof Zebik in August 2018.


ACT - The Association of Christian Teachers
for Christians working in education
Supporting the work of ACT
Prayer and fellowship, Advice, Encouragement, Advocacy, Reflection and action, Support... ACT works in many ways to help Christians involved in education. Your support will make a difference, helping us to help others.
You can financially support us in two ways:
By becoming a member of ACT.
By leaving a donation using the form below.
We naturally would encourage everyone to become a member, but recognise that some would prefer to support us with a small donation, or perhaps leave a gift greater than the cost of annual membership!


Photo by Sapan Patel on Unsplash
By Olivia Bastin
Who doesn’t like Christmas? The festive period filled with yummy food, merry carols, finding your inner artist by drawing a semi realistic Rudolf, receiving cute Christmas cards, and best of all the presents! Christmas is celebrated differently all over the world. I’ve had a lot of British Christmas’s at home. However, I celebrated Christmas with a good friend of mine in Venice, Italy so I thought I’d reflect on a typical British and Italian Christmas.
I’ve always wondered what the Mediterranean looks like at Christmas and 2 years ago I found out. It looks just as beautiful as it does during the summer except it’s a bit colder and when I splashed about in the water I got some odd looks from the few Italians sitting on the sand in puffy winter coats, wooly scarfs, and warm hats. It was the first-time celebrating Christmas abroad!
The main impression I got was that Christmas in the UK is more commercialised whilst Christmas in Italy had a more religious element to it. Even when we were driving through the countryside, there were several nativity scenes beside bus stops and at the side of the road. On New Year’s Eve my friend, her family, and I all went to their local church and attended midnight mass. The service generally felt very reflective and calm until the moment when the priest brought out the wine and bread; everyone stampeded up to the altar and nearly knocked the poor guy over. That is just an ordinary Italian Christmas experience!
As is eating seafood instead of turkey which we do in Britain. I suppose turkey is out and seafood is in. In France, most people have a big meal the night before Christmas day called a reveillions. You would find foie gras, a goose, and marrion glase on the Christmas table. Another interesting difference I noticed was that in the UK we open our presents on Christmas day whereas in Italy they open presents the night before. I remember rushing down the stairs to enthusiastically see a bundle of brightly coloured presents pouring out of my Christmas stocking. In Italy, they put the Christmas presents underneath the tree like we do in the UK too.
Overall, I loved experiencing Christmas in Italy, and I would totally recommend trying Christmas somewhere new. Why not create new traditions? Make new memories? Aren’t you curious to see how this Christian holiday is celebrated all over the world? Clearly, Christmas is a special time of year wherever you are in the world!


I give all glory to God almighty that made this testimony possible. I thank God for using Dr Babatunde Ogunkile, the embryologist Dr Dayo and the entire team of Origene health services to make this miracle possible after 3 years trying for conception.
The day I met with Dr Ogunkile he was so kind, smiling and ever encouraging and I knew I was in the right place with the right team of specialist.
It was not an easy journey but every step and procedures were backed up with encouragement, prayers and hope.
I believed God will make a way where there seem to be no way and by the special grace of God, it was a success after 2 failed transfer cycles as am currently pregnant.
It was like a dream when I tested positive and I just had to wait for my first ultrasound after pregnancy test to confirm that I was truly pregnant, even though I was not so expectant, God blessed me and I know that God that has started the good work will perfect and see me through to the end.
My advice to every couple praying for the gift of children, is do not lose hope and faith in God and as you have stepped your feet in Origene health services that God will answer your prayers and also have it at the back of your mind that every successful IVF requires patience and persistence and always stay positive.
Mr. & Mrs. Solid


Greek Easter is one of the most important religious celebrations in Greece’s annual calendar. And it’s even more special in Corfu with an array of traditional customs that have been faithfully preserved over the years.
We invite you to come and live this experience with us at MarBella Nido!
The Resurrection Liturgy will take place in the hotel Chapel “Saint Spyridon”. You will be offered Easter candles to use during the service. After “Christ has Risen” and candles have been lit, the traditional cracking of red eggs begins and that is followed by the Resurrection Dinner with a traditional Greek Easter menu, accompanied by live Greek music.
Easter Sunday offers BBQ from 11:30 onwards at outdoor area, where all guests are invited to join in the festive atmosphere with ouzo, wine and traditional delicacies. Weather permitting, preparations for the traditional Easter Meal begin at the outdoor area with the traditional Greek roast lamb on a spit followed by Easter Festive Lunch with live music.
While in Corfu during the Greek Holy Week don’t miss the religious services starting on Palm Sunday with the Litany of the Seventh Camp of St. Spyridon, a procession that has taken place since 1630 in memory of the liberation of the island from the terrible disease of the plague that in 1629 afflicted the people of Corfu. This Litany is the largest, and 18 Philharmonic Orchestras of the Island take part.
On Holy Thursday, you can join in the dress rehearsals of three of the island’s most notable Philharmonic orchestras at 8pm.
On Good Friday the procession of Epitaphs begins in the early afternoon. Starting with the church of St George at 2 pm it in the Old Fortress. The processions continue until 9.30pm, with the Epitaphs coming out of every church accompanied by the orchestras, choirs, and the little girls with flower baskets, full of the colourful and fragrant flowers found in Corfu at this time of year.
At 10.00pm in the evening, the last Epitaph of the Diocese comes out for its procession. Majestic with the philharmonic orchestras, the great choir of the Diocese, the schools, the sacred clergy and the local authorities in attendance. Following the tradition, the “Old” Philharmonic (dressed in red) plays Albinoni’s Adagio, the “Mantzaros” orchestra (dressed in blue) plays Marcia Funebre by Verdi while the “Kapodistrias” orchestra plays the “Sventura” by Mariani and Chopin’s mourning march.
On Holy Saturday the re-enactment of an artificial earthquake is a long-standing tradition for the Church of Panagia ton Xenon. It takes place on the morning of Holy Saturday at 6.00am. It is a representation of the earthquake described in the Holy Gospel, as a subsequent triumphant event of the Resurrection of the Lord.
At 9.00am, the procession of the Epitaph of the church of St Spyridon starts. In 1574, the Venetians forbade the Orthodox to carry the Epitaph on Good Friday and so the people of Corfu have since performed the Litany of this Epitaph together with the Seventh Shrine of the Saint on Saturday. Holy Saturday is the oldest and most comprehensive Litany that comes out in memory of the miracle of the Saint, who saved the people of Corfu from the wheat famine. The procession moves rhythmically under the mournful sounds of the three city philharmonic orchestras.
Enjoy the sounds of the mourning procession of the Italian composer Franco Faccio from the opera “Amleto” by the “Old” Philharmonic, the “Calde Lacrimae” (Hot Tears) by C. De Michelis played by the “Mantzaros” orchestra and the Kapodistrias march from Beethoven’s “Heroic Accord” played by the orchestra bearing the same name.
At 11am, on Holy Saturday morning, it’s time for the “first” Resurrection. At the end of the service at the Diocese, the church bells ring and thousands of clay pots are dropped in celebration from the windows of Corfiot houses onto the streets with a loud bang. Another Corfiot Easter custom that is revived every year is the Mastelo (barrel). In “Pinia” and under the metal Koukounara that hangs still in the intersection of Nikiforos Theotokis and the Philharmonic street, the Fakinos, the porters of the city, gathered with the Piniadors, who used to place a wooden barrel in the middle of the sidewalk. They would decorate it with myrtles and verde, poured water on it and would then ask the passers-by to make a wish while throwing a coin in the water. When the time of the first Resurrection was approaching, the Piniadors would scatter in the area of Piatsa to find someone that would be happy to be thrown inside the barrel. He would then soak all the people around him, while the city’s bands would pass by, playing the cheerful “Do not be afraid Greeks”. In the end, he would come out of the barrel with laughter and joy and take the money that had been thrown in.
On Holy Saturday evening, the Resurrection service takes place in the Upper Square and is a truly extraordinary, unique spectacle. All the windows of the surrounding houses are open with lighted candles. They together with the amazing spectacle of the thousands of lighted candles held by the faithful who watch the Resurrection ceremony in the largest square of Greece, compose a magnificent image. The Resurrection service continues at the Holy Temple of Agia Paraskevi.
At midnight, as soon as “Christ is Risen” is heard, colourful fireworks adorn the Corfiot skies creating a true spectacle under the sounds of the Philarmonic orchestras of the island playing the “Don’t be afraid Greeks” march, associated with the 19th century Greek revolution against the Ottoman empire.
On Easter Sunday from 7am every church, as is the case with the Epitaphs, celebrates the Resurrection of the Christ with the Philharmonic orchestras as well as the schools, scouts, choirs of the city. At noon, the Corfu Naval Station in the New Fortress, continuing the long tradition, offers fun and joy with traditional Greek dancing performances and plenty of mouth-wateringlocal delicacies. At 6.30pm, the Litany of the Holy Trinity in Garitsa is held with the same formality.


Daniel 2:47 "The king said to Daniel, "Your God is indeed God of gods, Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, since you were able to reveal this mystery."
I think that it’s important to understand that just because there are many mysteries, it does not mean that there are not answers. It simply means that there are things that are kept secret, or remains unexplained or unknown for a time. Interestingly enough, when looking at the definition of mystery, it also mentions that a mystery is something that is unknowable except by divine revelation and this is precisely what we will explore.
Creation is full of mysteries and it could be said, that for many even Father Herself is a mystery. For those of us who are a part of creation, these mysteries intrigue and for many, elude. When I think back to my childhood there were many things about religion that I did not understand. I was to accept them simply as mysteries, but in recent years I have learned that while mysteries exist, there is One who is also revealer of these mysteries and that is Yahweh.
It seems appropriate to me, that as the source of all knowledge that Father would reserve Her knowledge and reveal it only to those whom She choses. As we seek Her knowledge, understanding and wisdom, She also, via Her Spirit, searches our hearts to determine if we are worthy. It should be with all our heart and soul that we seek Her and let our intentions be chaste when we do.
Deuteronomy 4:29 But from there, you will search for the LORD your God, and you will find [Him] when you seek Him with all your heart and soul.
Jeremiah 29:13 You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
Romans 8:27 And He who searches the hearts knows the Spirit’s mind-set, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
It stands to reason, that if we seek Her knowledge for reasons that are not righteous in Her eyes that it will not be given. Throughout time Father has revealed many things, some to only a chosen few and She also keeps things hidden from many.
1 Corinthians 2:10 Now God has revealed them to us by the Spirit, for the Spirit searches everything, even the deep things of God.
We have learned that this is one reason why The Word was created as a jigsaw puzzle, so that the revelation of its mysteries might be given to those of Father’s choosing and hidden from those who are undeserving. It is the Spirit that reveals, as it is also the Spirit that searches everything.
Psalm 25:14 The secret counsel of the LORD is for those who fear Him, and He reveals His covenant to them.
Matthew 7:7 [ Keep Asking, Searching, Knocking ] “Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you.”
To even be able to speak on this subject today reminds me yet again of how blessed I have been, to have come to know Father as I have and receive the instruction that has been revealed because where it left up to me I would not find myself worthy of receiving it. In a way the world has opened up for me because I see things in a different light. It is Father’s light that has been shed on many mysteries and it is She that has revealed them to me. And continues to...
I have also learned that Father does not reveal things all at once, but instead in small portions allowing time for digestion of these things before we are ready to receive more. So it’s also important that while we continue to ask, search and knock that we also realize that all things come according to Father’s timing and Her plan. While we should continue our quest we should also be ever mindful to not rely on our own understanding but instead allow Father’s knowledge, understanding and wisdom time and when it is given, accept it graciously and without demand because in time, all will be revealed by the revealer of mysteries Herself, Yahweh.
Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and rely not on your own understanding
Psalm 16:11 You reveal the path of life to me; in Your presence is abundant joy; in Your right had are eternal pleasures..


Chris Seddon, Chairman of St Cuthbert's Society, writes:
St Cuthbert's Society was founded in 1854 and has had a proud association with Ushaw ever since. Originally an association of Alumni of the College, the Society now invites membership from all who have an interest in the future of the former St Cuthbert's Seminary and look to it performing a wider mission but one still rooted in Catholic educational activities.
Please consider joining us; you would be very welcome.
Becoming a member will not involve you in any need to give any time, it will only involve a modest yearly subscription fee!
It is intended that the society maintains its original object of forming a centre of union for the alumni and friends of Ushaw.
However, the closure of the seminary brings new challenges and new opportunities.
Become a member and help shape the future of the society.


- Healing and Deliverance Training | Fall 2017
- 10-04-2017 - 10-15-2017
- Healed People Training Center - Murfreesboro
Introductory Level Biblical Healing & Deliverance Training
The introductory healing and deliverance training is being offered in October 2017 in Murfreesboro, TN.
WHO SHOULD REGISTER
Those who have a desire to help people receive healing in your local church. Click here to download the registration form.
Promptly at 5 pm CST on Tuesday, August 15
Wednesday, October 4 | 6 to 9 pm
Thursday, October 5 | 6 to 9 pm
Friday, October 6 | 6 to 9 pm
Saturday, October 7 | 9 to 12 noon; 2 to 5 pm; 6:30 to 9:30 pm
Sunday, October 8 | 3 to 6 pm
Click here to view what you'll learn during seminar one.
Wednesday, October 11 | 6 to 9 pm
Thursday, October 12 | 6 to 9 pm
Friday, October 13 | 6 to 9 pm
Saturday, October 14 | 9 to 12 noon; 2 to 5 pm; 6:30 to 9:30 pm
Sunday, October 15 | 3 to 5 pm, Celebration meal in Murfreesboro, TN
Click here to view what you'll learn during week two.
These seminars are designed to equip a believer in the basic healing & deliverance tools.
INCLUDED IN THE REGISTRATION FEE
Hard cover book
Certificate of completion [if the two weeks are completed successfully].
Both weeks must be completed and you can progress to week two if you have a passing score for week one's competency test.
If you complete these seminars of the introductory, church-level of healing and deliverance, you should be released to do issue-focused ministry in your local church only. Because you pay and attend the training does not mean you will be released to do ministry. This is the decision of the spiritual oversight of your local church and the recommendation of the team conducting the training.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Is this my calling?
Please seek the Lord because this is divinely serious and rewarding work. As you know, the bride of Christ is already wounded. You want to be used as an instrument to facilitate healing. Many of you have already shared the Lord has spoken to you – meaning this is the work you’ve been called to do within the body of Christ. I applaude you if you choose to be trained for your niche calling.
How is integrated healing & deliverance different from other ministry models?
Your qualified ministry team is interested in you, your life’s story, we are there to listen to you. We co-labor with you and the Holy Spirit to identify the roots of your life’s issues. We understand that once the roots are identified, dismantled and destroyed, the regular symptoms that have bothered a person for so long are forced to die. Through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, it has been learned that there are four key components that must be addressed to destroy the roots of the identified issues.
Do I have to receive ministry before I train?
No, you do not have to receive ministry before you train. Receiving ministry will be part of your training; however, this will be done by one of your fellow trainees.
- Healed People Training Center
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2019 Vacation Bible School
The Downtown, Central and Northwest regions are partnering to organize a Vacation Bible School at the new Arlington Church building.
What: Vacation Bible School - "ROAR: Life is wild. God is Good."
Where: 75 Pleasant Street, Arlington MA
When: July 22nd - 25th (Monday - Thursday)
Time: 10 AM -1 PM (children bring a bagged lunch)
Who: Children ages 3 - 11 years
Cost: $30/child or $50/family
Registration & Payment online only.
This is a drop off event, though parent volunteers are welcome!
Online Registration has closed.
- Arlington Church Building


Welcome to St Luke’s CE Primary School
Where children flourish, are happy and succeed. Living their life to the full.
A very warm welcome to St. Luke’s CE Primary School. We hope our website gives you the information you need and tells you about our happy, caring and successful school.
You can visit our school Twitter page by clicking here to find out more about our school life. Also click here for our school blog page.
St. Luke’s CE Primary school provides a journey to discover ‘life in all its fullness’. John 10:10. Where children flourish, are happy and succeed. Our distinct Christian values: friendship, love, trust, patience, forgiveness and respect are woven throughout the day, the learning, the gathering, the school.
At St. Luke’s the children are at the heart of every decision we make to ensure that they are happy, confident and that the opportunities that are provided for them are relevant to their needs both now and in the future. We achieve this by providing an inspirational and creative curriculum, rich in opportunity and full of challenge.
The school has a dedicated team that works hard to reach high standards in everything we do and this is further embedded through our successful relationships with parents and the local community.
We firmly believe that education is a partnership between home and school and regard you as an active partner in your child’s education and value your interest and support.
We pride ourselves on our happy, friendly and caring atmosphere, as well as our strong Christian ethos, which underpins all that we do. We have excellent links with St. Luke’s Church and we endeavour to help all our children develop their understanding of the Christian faith.
We look forward to welcoming you!
Mrs Kim Farrall


by Richard Dawkins
There is in every village a torch – the teacher: and an extinguisher – the clergyman.
I begin with an anecdote of nineteenth-century Italy. I am not implying that anything like this awful story could happen today. But the attitudes of mind that it betrays are lamentably current, even though the practical details are not. This nineteenth-century human tragedy sheds a pitiless light on present-day religious attitudes to children.
In 1858 Edgardo Mortara, a six-year-old child of Jewish parents living in Bologna, was legally seized by the papal police acting under orders from the Inquisition. Edgardo was forcibly dragged away from his weeping mother and distraught father to the Catechumens (house for the conversion of Jews and Muslims) in Rome, and thereafter brought up as a Roman Catholic. Aside from occasional brief visits under close priestly supervision, his parents never saw him again. The story is told by David I. Kertzer in his remarkable book, The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara.
Edgardo’s story was by no means unusual in Italy at the time, and the reason for these priestly abductions was always the same. In every case, the child had been secretly baptized at some earlier date, usually by a Catholic nursemaid, and the Inquisition later came to hear of the baptism. It was a central part of the Roman Catholic belief-system that, once a child had been baptized, however informally and clandestinely, that child was irrevocably transformed into a Christian. In their mental world, to allow a ‘Christian child’ to stay with his Jewish parents was not an option, and they maintained this bizarre and cruel stance steadfastly, and with the utmost sincerity, in the face of worldwide outrage. That widespread outrage, by the way, was dismissed by the Catholic newspaper Civiltà Cattolica as due to the international power of rich Jews – sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
Apart from the publicity it aroused, Edgardo Mortara’s history was entirely typical of many others. He had once been looked after by Anna Morisi, an illiterate Catholic girl who was then fourteen. He fell ill and she panicked lest he might die. Brought up in a stupor of belief that a child who died unbaptized would suffer forever in hell, she asked advice from a Catholic neighbour who told her how to do a baptism. She went back into the house, threw some water from a bucket on little Edgardo’s head and said, ‘I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.’ And that was it. From that moment on, Edgardo was legally a Christian. When the priests of the Inquisition learned of the incident years later, they acted promptly and decisively, giving no thought to the sorrowful consequences of their action.
Amazingly for a rite that could have such monumental significance for a whole extended family, the Catholic Church allowed (and still allows) anybody to baptize anybody else. The baptizer doesn’t have to be a priest. Neither the child, nor the parents, nor anybody else has to consent to the baptism. Nothing need be signed. Nothing need be officially witnessed. All that is necessary is a splash of water, a few words, a helpless child, and a superstitious and catechistically brainwashed babysitter. Actually, only the last of these is needed because, assuming the child is too young to be a witness, who is even to know? An American colleague who was brought up Catholic writes to me as follows: ‘We used to baptize our dolls. I don’t remember any of us baptizing our little Protestant friends but no doubt that has happened and happens today. We made little Catholics of our dolls, taking them to church, giving them Holy Communion etc. We were brainwashed to be good Catholic mothers early on.’
If nineteenth-century girls were anything like my modern correspondent, it is surprising that cases like Edgardo Mortara’s were not more common than they were. As it was, such stories were distressingly frequent in nineteenth-century Italy, which leaves one asking the obvious question. Why did the Jews of the Papal States employ Catholic servants at all, given the appalling risk that could flow from doing so? Why didn’t they take good care to engage Jewish servants? The answer, yet again, has nothing to do with sense and everything to do with religion. The Jews needed servants whose religion didn’t forbid them to work on the sabbath. A Jewish maid could indeed be relied upon not to baptize your child into a spiritual orphanage. But she couldn’t light the fire or clean the house on a Saturday. This was why, of the Bolognese Jewish families at the time who could afford servants, most hired Catholics.
In this book, I have deliberately refrained from detailing the horrors of the Crusades, the conquistadores or the Spanish Inquisition. Cruel and evil people can be found in every century and of every persuasion. But this story of the Italian Inquisition and its attitude to children is particularly revealing of the religious mind, and the evils that arise specifically because it is religious. First is the remarkable perception by the religious mind that a sprinkle of water and a brief verbal incantation can totally change a child’s life, taking precedence over parental consent, the child’s own consent, the child’s own happiness and psychological well-being . . . over everything that ordinary common sense and human feeling would see as important. Cardinal Antonelli spelled it out at the time in a letter to Lionel Rothschild, Britain’s first Jewish Member of Parliament, who had written to protest about Edgardo’s abduction. The cardinal replied that he was powerless to intervene, and added, ‘Here it may be opportune to observe that, if the voice of nature is powerful, even more powerful are the sacred duties of religion.’ Yes, well, that just about says it all, doesn’t it?
Second is the extraordinary fact that the priests, cardinals and Pope seem genuinely not to have understood what a terrible thing they were doing to poor Edgardo Mortara. It passes all sensible understanding, but they sincerely believed they were doing him a good turn by taking him away from his parents and giving him a Christian upbringing. They felt a duty of protection! A Catholic newspaper in the United States defended the Pope’s stance on the Mortara case, arguing that it was unthinkable that a Christian government ‘could leave a Christian child to be brought up by a Jew’ and invoking the principle of religious liberty, ‘the liberty of a child to be a Christian and not forced compulsorily to be a Jew . . . The Holy Father’s protection of the child, in the face of all the ferocious fanaticism of infidelity and bigotry, is the grandest moral spectacle which the world has seen for ages.’ Has there ever been a more flagrant misdirection of words like ‘forced’, ‘compulsorily’, ‘ferocious’, ‘fanaticism’ and ‘bigotry’? Yet all the indications are that Catholic apologists, from the Pope down, sincerely believed that what they were doing was right: absolutely right morally, and right for the welfare of the child. Such is the power of (mainstream, ‘moderate’) religion to warp judgement and pervert ordinary human decency. The newspaper Il Cattolico was frankly bewildered at the widespread failure to see what a magnanimous favour the Church had done Edgardo Mortara when it rescued him from his Jewish family:
Whoever among us gives a little serious thought to the matter, compares the condition of a Jew – without a true Church, without a King, and without a country, dispersed and always a foreigner wherever he lives on the face of the earth, and moreover, infamous for the ugly stain with which the killers of Christ are marked . . . will immediately understand how great is this temporal advantage that the Pope is obtaining for the Mortara boy.
Third is the presumptuousness whereby religious people know, without evidence, that the faith of their birth is the one true faith, all others being aberrations or downright false. The above quotations give vivid examples of this attitude on the Christian side. It would be grossly unjust to equate the two sides in this case, but this is as good a place as any to note that the Mortaras could at a stroke have had Edgardo back, if only they had accepted the priests’ entreaties and agreed to be baptized themselves. Edgardo had been stolen in the first place because of a splash of water and a dozen meaningless words. Such is the fatuousness of the religiously indoctrinated mind, another pair of splashes is all it would have taken to reverse the process. To some of us, the parents’ refusal indicates wanton stubbornness. To others, their principled stand elevates them into the long list of martyrs for all religions down the ages.
‘Be of good comfort Master Ridley and play the man: we shall this day by God’s grace light such a candle in England, as I trust shall never be put out.’ No doubt there are causes for which to die is noble. But how could the martyrs Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer let themselves be burned rather than forsake their Protestant Little-endianism in favour of Catholic Big-endianism – does it really matter all that much from which end you open a boiled egg? Such is the stubborn – or admirable, if that is your view – conviction of the religious mind, that the Mortaras could not bring themselves to seize the opportunity offered by the meaningless rite of baptism. Couldn’t they cross their fingers, or whisper ‘not’ under their breath while being baptized? No, they couldn’t, because they had been brought up in a (moderate) religion, and therefore took the whole ridiculous charade seriously. As for me, I think only of poor little Edgardo – unwittingly born into a world dominated by the religious mind, hapless in the crossfire, all but orphaned in an act of well-meaning but, to a young child, shattering cruelty.
Fourth, to pursue the same theme, is the assumption that a six-year-old child can properly be said to have a religion at all, whether it is Jewish or Christian or anything else. To put it another way, the idea that baptizing an unknowing, uncomprehending child can change him from one religion to another at a stroke seems absurd – but it is surely not more absurd than labelling a tiny child as belonging to any particular religion in the first place. What mattered to Edgardo was not ‘his’ religion (he was too young to possess thought-out religious opinions) but the love and care of his parents and family, and he was deprived of those by celibate priests whose grotesque cruelty was mitigated only by their crass insensitivity to normal human feelings – an insensitivity that comes all too easily to a mind hijacked by religious faith.
Even without physical abduction, isn’t it always a form of child abuse to label children as possessors of beliefs that they are too young to have thought about? Yet the practice persists to this day, almost entirely unquestioned.
Source: Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion. 2006


Russ Hardesty, PhD
One aspect of the Razor’s edge that makes a phenomenal leader is Clarity. Clarity operates on several levels, giving definition to the tribe of the leader. It creates the opportunity for a collective unconscious for the tribe to operate as a single living organism with its many complex subsystems to function seamlessly. The various members of the organism or organization each find their purpose and meaning in their various and unique contributions.
Clarity allows the intuition and creativity of the members of the organization to be aware of the many opportunities available for the taking in abundance. Abundance isn’t “things” but an experience for the organization or individual. Jesus spoke of this in the Sermon on the Mount, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
Confusion, mixed messages, or neurotic behaviors create an environment of distrust and a fear driven culture. Clarity allows the heart and soul of an organization, trust and respect, to prosper and proliferate which becomes the filter for greater clarity and abundance.
 Matthew 7:7-8


How to Plan an Anniversary or Milestone Celebration
Anniversaries are exciting times of life. They make us look back to where we’ve been, and compel us to look forward to the path ahead, and each participant brings their own perspective to the remembrances. A church’s anniversary can be a time of uniting to celebrate the growth of God’s kingdom.
When properly done, an anniversary can be a bonding experience for the church, and can have many lasting benefits for the congregation. A church anniversary celebration is a lot of work, and should be headed up by a very organized person. The church should allow at least a year to complete the task with maximum results.
Many things happen in connection with anniversary celebrations. Many churches use this opportunity to spruce up their facilities for homecoming gatherings. Others use these celebrations to springboard into special projects in the church.
Organizing an anniversary celebration involves the 3 P’s: Prepare, Plan, and Pull it together.
- Appoint a committee. This special committee should be created at least a year before the celebration. All the major areas of the church should be represented by a member on the committee: chair of deacons, chair of the finance committee, Sunday School director, WMU director, Church Training director, children’s committee chair, music committee chair. The pastor should serve ex officio, and while the committee need not be chaired by the history committee chair or church historian, both those people need to be on the committee. While these are only suggestions as to the makeup of the committee, the essential things in selecting committee members is that they should have an interest in this activity, and that they should be capable of giving input into the process. If the chair of a committee is either unable or unwilling to take on this commitment, they should appoint someone to serve in their stead who fits the essential criteria.Subcommittees may need to be broken out of the larger group to focus on plans as they develop. Larger churches may wish to enlist representative staff members to add input into specific areas.
- Get the event on the church calendar. Often activities can be scheduled to enhance the celebration. The earlier the event is calendared, the more activities can be planned around it. While the observances may be scheduled for a single day, or a week or month, it needs to come to the attention of the full church as soon as possible to make sure that other activities do not get scheduled against it that might take volunteer energy away from the anniversary.
- Decide the objective. Is this celebration intended to look back only, or to provide a springboard into the future? If you want your congregation to come away from the celebration invigorated, it is important to show them how far the church has come. Preparing a timeline may be helpful in this; having a church history will make this step easier. If there is no church history available, one will be necessary for the celebration, and the anniversary program may help to interest church members in preparing one.
- Decide on the program. The type of program a church chooses to use in commemorating the anniversary will determine the number of days for the celebration. Some churches may wish to observe only one day; usually the Sunday nearest to the actual anniversary date is selected. Other churches may wish to start activities on Wednesday evening to culminate on Sunday. Larger or older churches may use a full week, Sunday through Sunday, to commemorate the event.
Once these four points have been established, it is time to set to the real work of planning. To do this, the scope of the anniversary program will need to be decided.
- Church history. A church history is crucial to the success of an anniversary celebration. If no up-to-date history exists in a church, one should be prepared, either by the history committee or the church historian, or by a subcommittee of the anniversary committee. If a church does not have a history committee or historian, this may be an opportune time to get them in place. If a history is already prepared, copies should be available for church members who do not have one. If a new printing is being published, be sure to have enough to give to all church members, and save enough for new church members.Funding the printing. If there is no church history published and the history committee or church wishes to have one published, this will be an expense that may not have been figured into a budget. If funding is a problem, start ahead of the year lead-time usually allotted for an anniversary event, and begin a special fund-raising project. Often churches will print a cookbook as a fund-raiser. This is an excellent way to promote the theme of the church’s past by getting recipes handed down from generations of church members, or including small pieces of church history in the cookbook.Plan a service highlighting the church history, as a way to bring attention to the history and the fund-raising project, and to introduce thoughts about the anniversary celebration to the congregation.
- Prepare a brochure or booklet. If your church history has recently been updated, preparing a brochure or booklet giving the historical outline of the church may be enough to distribute during the anniversary observance. Pictures of historical interest could be used for illustration. Think about including programs from the anniversary services as part of the booklet.
- Plan the activities for the observance. These may include a pageant depicting historical events from the history of the church, a banquet or reception to honor special guests from the church’s past, or a reenactment of early services in the church. One congregation celebrated their centennial by having an outdoor service, where the minister arrived on horseback, in the manner of the circuit-riding preacher who helped start the church. Some churches create a time capsule. There are many ideas for the actual celebration. Contact the Historical Commission or your association for churches that have had celebrations, or contact the Historical Commission or MBC liaison for ideas.
PULL IT TOGETHER:
Once the preparation and planning are done, it is time to pull together the last details, and to get visiting dignitaries invited to the occasion. These activities should start about one month before the celebration.
- Send the invitations. Usually churches invite former pastors who are still living, or their children to represent the family. Often people raised in the church who have gone on to become ministers or work in church-related vocations are invited as well. Be sure to include a portion of the celebration to recognize those guests, and some may even be included in the program. If the church plans to defray the costs of travel and other expenses for these guests, that should be clearly stated in the letter of invitation.
- Promote the event in the church. Put up historical exhibits in the weeks before the celebration, to raise awareness of the event. If the church does not have an archives or history room, this celebration can spark interest in starting one.
- Gather and display a visual history. Display pictures of former pastors, church buildings, charter members, and other photos of interest. These will create interest in the celebration. If the church does not have any of these pictures, this interest may cause the members to come forward and donate any materials they may have.
- Spread the word. Publicize the event locally to encourage former members to come, and to spread word-of-mouth to others who may have moved away.


We envision a faith community that fosters and enriches our personal walk with God. We strive to be a community where the worship, learning, service, and fellowship are so important to us that we always want to be involved.
We envision a church where the spiritual gifts and talents of each person are identified and fostered, where all feel empowered to live out the specific calling God has for them as individuals and as part of a community.
We envision a place where on-going enrichment opportunities make people want to learn more and to share that knowledge with others in a way that invites and inspires them to become part of a community of faith.
We envision a congregation that identifies service opportunities that are meaningful and fill the needs of our wider community. We strive to be people who use their individual gifts and talents in ways that reflect a unique blend of leadership, compassion, and thankful living.
We envision a fellowship of believers who make life-sharing such a part of their daily lives and part of our church that young people and new families will choose to join us in making Zion the warm, caring and compassionate place that it is now for many more years to come.


London Christians is a new organisation with the aim of enabling Christians from across London and the Home Counties to socialise with other Christians.
It exists to offer Christians the opportunities that are available to the secular world, whereby they can go to any pub, bar or club and meet new people all the time.
But where can Christians go to meet and socialise with other Christians?
The answer is virtually nowhere, except for their own church, which in most cases offers a very limited number of people with whom to socialise.
London Christians aims to address this and will offer regular parties and social events. The intention is that, in time, there will be a London Christians event every week, offering regular and frequent opportunities to meet new Christians, outside of any existing social circles.
Our guests will always be made to feel very welcome by our Christian hosts, whether you come with friends or on your own. We also intend to hold special outreach parties, where people will be encouraged to bring their non-Christian friends along to join in the fun.
So don't be shy. Come and join us at one of our events to find out more!
In the meantime, if you have any questions, or would like to find out any additional information, please don't hesitate to contact us on: firstname.lastname@example.org


Evangelicalism is a Christian movement which generally supports traditional Christian doctrinal positions (esp. concerning Christological and Trinitarian issues), stresses a high view on Biblical authority, and places a great deal of emphasis on evangelism, missions, and being "born again".
Evangelicalism is not the same as Christian Fundamentalism. The label "evangelical" may be applied differently around the world and can be political liberal or conservative.
cs:Kategorie:Evangelikalismus mk:Категорија:Христијански евангелизам ja:Category:福音派 sv:Kategori:Evangelikalism vi:Thể loại:Tin Lành
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Since its inception in 1995, Daywind Music Publishing has emerged as the premier source of new songs for the Southern Gospel and Church Print/Choral markets. In early 2012, Daywind expanded publishing to include Christian Contemporary staff and writers and has already made an impressive start to their year including cuts by Hawk Nelson, Hyland, Jamie Slocum and Nate Sallie.
DMP boasts of an exclusive staff of 13 prestigious songwriters. Daywind Music Publishing has been blessed with more than 75 Singing News Song of the Year and Gospel Music Association (Dove) nominations as well as 37 radio singles hitting the top position on the charts – #1. BMI awarded DMP’s Christian Taylor Music, Christian Music Publisher of the Year in both 2002 and 2004.
Daywind Music Publishing remains committed to the exhortation and encouragement of the church through the advancement of quality Christian music.
Rick Shelton currently serves the Southern Gospel music industry and the church print market as Director of Publishing for Daywind Music Group. He developed a keen sense of anticipating audience response as an artist, music minister, Christian television producer, and music manager at Salem Communication’s Solid Gospel Radio Network. This distinctive background prepared him to serve as Director of Publishing at Centergy Music until he accepted his present position. He has secured a little more than 2,000 recordings for Daywind’s staff of exceptional writers including 25 #1s and 10 BMI Awards. Daywind Music Publishing received the prestigious GMA Dove Award for Song of the Year in 2011. Rick resides in Nashville.
Rick Shelton, Vice President


You can connect with Dann on Social Media through
Dr. Dann Stouten
Teacher, Preacher, Author,
11436 South Lake Dr.
Holland MI 49424
Dann has always been known for his storytelling. He is currently refining a story called "Tommy and the 6 Kings." It is a retelling of the Christmas story with a surprising twist...
"There is a real world all around us. We taste and feel it everyday. There is also another world where God dwells and those who have gone before us live with Jesus. Dann Stouten helps us discover that those two places intersect more than we often notice. If we pay close attention, we just might see, smell, and learn to taste the goodness of a world beyond this one." Kevin Harney, author of Reckless Faith


"One Nation Under GOD"
RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION LETTER
RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION LETTER
A WORD FROM THE FOUNDER
A WORD FROM THE FOUNDER
Is your job being threatened? Are they trying to FORCE you?
Don’t let them BULLY or INTIMIDATE you! Use your letter of Religious Exception and fight back!!!
Sadly, today many are being forced to take the COVID-19 vaccine, whether through direct or indirect threat of losing their jobs. Yes, the world has gone mad. But you can fight back.
No one should be forced, bullied, or intimidated to take any vaccine, especially an "experimental" vaccine, and when it goes against one's religious conscious and beliefs. However, this doesn't mean that your employers or companies will honor it, but it will at least leave a legal paper trail if you are fired or forced to resign from your job, which violates the American citizen's constitutional right of freedom of choice and religious act. They will eventually have to answer for it.
In case you did not know, this COVID-19 vaccine contains ingredients of aborted fetal tissue. I believe in the sanctity of life and that GOD is the giver of life. So, I get the right to consciously choose what foreign thing goes in and out of my body.
As believers, if we do not know how to hear and move to obey the leading of the Holy Spirit for our own personal lives, we will be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine like the waves of the sea. I these latter days friends and with so many voices speaking, we better have OUR OWN OIL and know how to discern the voice of the LORD. This document is available for those who hold a firm religious belief against the government mandate for any imposed vaccinations like COVID-19.
Below is a copy of the Religious Exemption Letter you can read and then download and print your copy to share with your employers or agency or any government official. Just click the pink button.
GOD gave you a conscience.
Don’t violate it because it is His innate internal warning ⚠ system He gifted to you.
Follow the way the Holy Spirit leads and directs YOU and leave those who have chosen to trust GOD and live and walk out their lives like Daniel and the three Hebrew boys alone who knew when to bow and render honor to the king and when not to bow. The just lives by faith.
In these trying and challenging season, rest assure that Biblical prophecy must come to fast, but it doesn't mean we ought not to use our God-given wisdom and rights. Man can heal but only GOD can cure. Government is not the final answer to man's crisis. GOD IS!
~2021 Narda Goodson
I am writing to formally request a religious exemption from our company’s COVID-19 shot directive. Due to my sincerely held religious convictions, I am not able to receive this shot. While I understand I am not legally required to justify the basis for my sincerely held religious beliefs, nevertheless, I am providing a few of the reasons why this policy violates fundamental aspects of my Christian faith - and why I cannot, therefore, in good conscious take part in it.
As a devout Christian, I am guided in everything I do by my faith in GOD and the Bible, which I believed to be GOD’s revealed and inspired Word (2 Timothy 3:16-17). In 1 Corinthians 6:19–20, the Apostle Paul exhorts Christians about the importance of their bodies: “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from GOD? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. Therefore, glorify GOD in your body.” Likewise, Romans 12:1 exhorts Christians: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of GOD, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to GOD, which is your spiritual worship.”
These Scriptures are just a few of many that have informed my religious convictions regarding my physical and spiritual health that I live by, including my sincere religious objection to receiving any of the COVID vaccines. I must honor GOD with my spirit, mind, and body, and therefore, I must guard what I put into my body. That includes avoiding, whenever possible, knowingly receiving foreign toxins with harmful or unknown effects, while also maximizing nutrition and cultivating a healthy natural immune system in accordance with GOD’s design. I firmly believe that the experimental COVID vaccine ingredients are contaminants that are harmful to my body, and that in addition to the known health risks, there are many unknown risks due to the lack of standard testing and long-term study of these substances.
The COVID-19 vaccines are unique in that they do not contain the typical viral ingredients, but rather they have never before been used (at least to this extent) components and designs such as synthetic mRNA and lipid nanoparticles. Very little is scientifically known about these substances in humans including the short term or long term effects on the body. In taking this vaccine, I will be taking part in an experiment. Not only is this unsafe, but most importantly to me, it would be dishonoring to GOD with my body (i.e. “would not be glorifying GOD in my body”, as Christians are called to do, nor taking care of the body GOD gave me, which “is the temple of the Holy Spirit of GOD”). Especially when there are other known, safe, and effective alternatives both to treat and prevent COVID-19, including well-known substances as holistic methods to nurture and boost our GOD-given immunity, I cannot justify being injected with the COVID-19 vaccines and still will be consistent with my sincere Christian faith.
It is also my sincere religious conviction that human life begins at conception, that the sanctity of life is precious to GOD, and that it is morally wrong to destroy innocent human life. (See, e.g. Psalm 139:13-16, Jeremiah 1:5, Psalm 127:3, Exodus 20:13). The experimental COVID-19 injections manufactured by Moderna and Pfizer both used aborted fetal tissue in the testing process, and those manufactured by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson used aborted fetal tissue in every step of the process – development, production and lab testing. It violates my Christian faith to be injected with substances that were the product of such an unethical and morally repugnant process that included the destruction and use of innocent human life.
I have been a Christian for many years. As a believer in Yeshua, the Holy Spirit lives in me. Yeshua said the Holy Spirit will guide each person who repents of their sin and believes upon Him into all truth. I seek GOD‘s will for my life through prayer, reading the Bible, and relying on the power of the Holy Spirit to help me to do GOD’s will. I believe GOD‘s promise that “if any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of GOD, who gives to all liberally.” (James 1:5)
I have prayed about how to respond to the COVID shot directive in light of my religious beliefs. As I have prayed, the Holy Spirit has moved on my heart and conscious that I must not accept the COVID shot. If I were to go against the moving of the Holy Spirit, I will be sinning and jeopardizing my relationship with GOD and violating my conscience. I want to thank you in advance for honoring my sincerely held religious convictions.
_____________________________ ___________ ______________________________
First & Last Name (Print) DATE SIGNATURE


Daniel 9:27And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”
Leviticus 26:1-46“You shall not make idols for yourselves or erect an image or pillar, and you shall not set up a figured stone in your land to bow down to it, for I am the Lord your God. You shall keep my Sabbaths and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord. “If you walk in my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely.


Through the ancient region of Maragatería, the Camino winds up the Montes de León and finally to the Cruz de Ferro (Iron Cross). The cross marks the highest point of the Camino Frances, and pilgrims traditionally leave a stone at its base along with a wish. It is believed that this tradition dates back well before Christian times, to Roman and even to Celtic rituals.
You then descend to the fertile region of Bierzo, home of some excellent wines. Passing the old Templar’s fortress near Ponferrada, you will walk to the final destination of this stage: Cacabelos.


The following writing is inspired by Acts 8:26-40, ” And he commanded the chariot to a standstill, and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.” Water is extremely important, not only to us but to the planet. We sometimes forget that it is not just some resource that gathers in a pond, river, lake, or ocean, it is more than that. Water is so much more than words and thoughts stumble not only of its meaning, but it’s existence also. When Philp ran up to the chariot where the Ethiopia Eunuch was, the eunuch was reading at a place in scripture that was talking about Jesus Christ. As they went their way, wrote Luke, they came to a certain water, and here is where the eunuch wanted to be baptized. Baptism is more than just a symbol, it is actually a new birth. If anyone wants to be a Christian must be born into it, the gateway is water, through the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit family’s name Christ, Jesus Christ.


In Revelation 17, the Bible reveals that during the Tribulation there will be a false religion that will dominate the world stage leading countless numbers astray. In Revelation, John records that this false religion was revealed to him in a vision as a prostitute or harlot riding a scarlet-colored beast. Like John when he saw the vision of the “Great Prostitute” in the wilderness, biblical scholars today marvel at her. There have been several theories throughout the centuries as to her identity, but one of the most common suggestions that the Roman Catholic Church will be revived and become the religion of the Antichrist during the end times. Also known as, the “Mystery Babylon the Great”. There are three basic reasons why I believe that Islam not the Roman Catholic Church is the best candidate for the Antichrist’s religion.
The first reason is that the Bible clearly presents the Antichrist’s theology. John writes that the Antichrist will be one who denies that Jesus is the Messiah and who denies His divinity (1 John 2:22). Now, I understand that the Roman Catholic Church has some strange obviously man-made doctrines (Mariology, the pope, purgatory, confession, etc.), but you will never hear the Roman Catholic Church deny the trinity. At the beginning and end of every Catholic prayer, Catholics make the sign of the cross to remind them of the doctrine of the trinity.
The Catholic Church as always taught, stood for, and even in some cases, died for the doctrines of the trinity, the deity of Christ, and that through His shed blood on the cross, Jesus is the Savior of the world. There is a better chance of Donald Trump declaring that Joe Biden was rightfully and fairly elected as president of the United States than the Vatican denying the deity of Christ or salvation through His sacrifice on the cross… Every Sunday at Mass Catholic priests declare, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” There is a crucifix placed high in a place of prominence in every Catholic church to remind people about the sacrifice of Jesus that saves them from their sins. Such a religion despite its other strange man-made traditions, hardly fits John’s description of an “Antichrist” who denies that Jesus is the Savior and the Son of God.
Islam on the other hand, believes everything the Bible teaches about Jesus (virgin birth, miracles, healings, second coming, etc.) except that Islam denies the doctrine that Jesus is the Son of God and that He died on the cross for our sins. That is as John wrote in his epistle, the very definition of the doctrine of the Antichrist. If someone were forced to choose which religion, Catholicism or Islam, rejected Jesus as the Savior and His divinity, the choice would without question be Islam.
The second reason I think it is unlikely that Catholicism is the false religion of the last days is because the Bible describes a confederacy of Middle Eastern nations during the end times. If you look that end times prophecies, the nations that the Bible says will make up the Antichrist’s kingdom, none of them are European/Western nations. All of them are from the Middle East or North Africa (Daniel 11:41-43, Micah 5:5, Ezekiel 38-39). They are all Muslim countries. Sometimes people forget the Tribulation and the end times in general, is very Israel focused. In fact, the Tribulation is an answer to Daniel’s prayer asking God for forgiveness for Israel’s idolatry and deliverance from Babylonian oppression (Daniel 9). The nations that the Bible describes as key players during the end times are all Arab nations that surround Israel.
Lastly, the third reason I reject the Roman Catholic Church as a candidate for Babylon is because of Islam’s explosive growth. There are approximately 1.8 billion Muslims in the world, most of them in the Middle East. There are only 1.2 billion Catholics in the world, most of them in North and South America. Catholicism is declining while Islam on the other hand is the fastest growing religion in the world. If we are to believe that the Roman Catholic Church is the “Great Harlot” of Revelation 17, then we have to believe that these 1.2 billion and shrinking Catholics will convert these 1.8 billon Muslims and growing to Catholicism. That doesn’t make any sense.
Catholics are being beheaded (the method of execution in Revelation) by Muslims in the Middle East for not denying the doctrines of the trinity, the deity of Christ, and His crucifixion. Just recently, leaders around the world are concerned that ISIS and its affiliates are taking over Western Africa. The “beast” is rising… Are we to believe that the deception we will face in the last days comes from the church of the people who are being beheaded because of the name of Jesus and not the ones beheading them because of the name of Jesus? Honestly, there is no way to know who the Antichrist is or his religion until he decides to show his demonic face. The idea that the Roman Catholic Church is the Great Harlot in Revelation 17 is intriguing, it’s just not biblical nor does it make any sense.
 Clarence Larkin, The Book of Revelation (Coppell: Pantianos Classics, 2021), 121.
 “Catechism of the Catholic Church,” United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, accessed June 25, 2021, https://www.usccb.org/sites/default/files/flipbooks/catechism/64/.
 “How Is Jesus Perceived In Islam? – Muslim Unity Center,” Muslim Unity Center – Where Faith, Family and Fun Come Together, accessed June 25, 2021, https://www.muslimunitycenter.org/how-is-jesus-perceived-in-islam/.
 “Muslims and Islam: Key Findings in the U.S. and Around the World,” Pew Research Center, last modified December 8, 2020, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/08/09/muslims-and-islam-key-findings-in-the-u-s-and-around-the-world/.
 Why Muslims Are the World’s Fastest-growing Religious Group,” Pew Research Center, last modified May 30, 2020, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/04/06/why-muslims-are-the-worlds-fastest-growing-religious-group/.
 “Isis-linked Groups Open Up New Fronts Across Sub-Saharan Africa,” The Guardian, last modified June 25, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/25/isis-linked-groups-open-up-new-fronts-across-sub-saharan-africa.


Giving is important in the Kingdom of God. At St. Thomas Church, we want your understanding of giving to be based on God’s Word. “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again” (Luke 6:38)
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Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9
The teenager lost a contact lens while playing basketball in his driveway. After a fruitless search, he told his mother the lens was nowhere to be found. Undaunted, she went outside and, in a few minutes, returned with the lens in her hand. "I really looked hard for that, Mom," said the youth. "How'd you manage to find it?" "We weren't looking for the same thing," she replied. "You were looking for a small piece of plastic. I was looking for $150." Source Unknown.
Our society is very competitive in every way. We celebrate those who are the best at their craft. We reward CEOs and other top executives with financial incentives that can far surpass the yearly salary of a regular employee. Star athletes are acclaimed and idolized by many. The best and most lucrative scholarships and academic opportunities are given to the best students.
Most people will never be considered the “best” in what they do. Indeed, most of us are just trying to do our best though we may not be the best. It is said, doing our best is more important than being the best. This is because being the best can be too subjective at times. The standard for being the best depends on many factors, including, context, age, expectation, and talents. However, anyone can do their best at any time regardless of their level of talent or skill.
Doing our best is about perseverance, drive, dedication, personal integrity, and a great sense of honor. Our best may not be the best, but it can be inspirational and transformational to others. The only thing we must be the best at is doing our best.
In today’s text, the saints in the church at Galatia are encouraged not to become weary in doing good. It is important to remember that doing good is its own reward. Even when we are not acknowledged or celebrated as others, we should continue to do good to the best of our ability so we can reap a harvest in due season. Therefore, we should never stop doing our best or give up on our pursuit of excellence in the Lord.
The best motivation for doing our best is to bring glory to God. Colossians 3:23-24 says, “whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.” God knows when we are doing our best. He does not treat us or evaluate us as the world does. He celebrates our feeble attempts to do His will to the best of our ability despite our talent level.
We must resist the temptation to compare our best with someone else’s best. God deals with us based on our unique design. Lest we forget, “our best deeds are as filthy rags in the sight of God” (Isaiah 64:6). Yet the Lord delights in all our efforts to do the good works He created us to do. So, don’t beat yourself up if you are not at the top of your career.
At times God humbles us and abased us so we can bear more spiritual fruits for His glory. You may not be a top executive in your company, the leader of a national organization, the author of a bestseller, the pastor of a megachurch, graduating summa cum laude, or on the starting lineup of a professional team, or a multi-platinum artist, your life is still notable to God and to those He purposed for you to serve. Therefore, continue to do your best and be your best even when more gifted people get all the accolades.
Questions for Personal Reflection
What is the difference between doing your best and being the best?
Why is it important to always do your best?
Prayer- Blessed Lord, please help me not to grow weary in doing good when best is not acknowledged. May your Holy Spirit give me the discipline and steadfastness to work with all my heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since I know that I will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.