Friday, April 17, 2020

Dear Church Family,

While we don’t know the future, we have been clearly forewarned that:

There are many who are at ease, who are, as it were, asleep. They say, “If prophecy has foretold the enforcement of Sunday observance the law will surely be enacted,” and having come to this conclusion they sit down in a calm expectation of the event, comforting themselves with the thought that God will protect His people in the day of trouble. But God will not save us if we make no effort to do the work He has committed to our charge.…
As faithful watchmen you should see the sword coming and give the warning, that men and women may not pursue a course through ignorance that they would avoid if they knew the truth.—LDE 127

In the news:

Tonight marks opening night of Hope Awakens. The presentation will begin at 7 pm EST. However, they will archive the messages if you need to view them later. However, you must register at HopeAwakens.com to view the presentations, whether live or archived. Then tonight, you can go to the same site and you will be directed to the site where the program will be offered. Note that you will sign in for the presentation tonight using the same email address that you used to register for the event. So please register now if you haven’t done so yet and help us get the word out today.
Remember that we have a prayer line open each weeknight at 6:30 p.m. for those interested. We also gather for prayer on Sabbath mornings at 9:30 a.m. While we use the same number and access code each week, I will send out another email with the information for your convenience.
Some of our SS teachers for the younger ones are providing resources. Here is this week’s lesson from Kindergarten and a nature corner from Primary. More will be posted online if and when they become available.
Our Sabbath School lesson will be shared by Milton Siepman this Sabbath via Zoom. I will email the NEW ZOOM room link to you via email later today. If you never got your Sabbath school lesson, you can stop by the church on Monday or Tuesday to pick it up or if needed, call the office to have it mailed to you. (The reason for the new ZOOM link is because our month subscription was set to expire soon and I was able to create a new account with a discounted rate through our North American Division which offers us extra features. We had 70 devices logged in to Zoom last Sabbath at one point during the worship service. That represents a gathering of well over a hundred.)
Pastor Jared will have another family devotional available this Sabbath. It will be available by clicking on the worship tab on our church homepage.
I will be sharing the message this Sabbath. This Sabbath we will look at the arrest of Jesus and seek to glean there A Glimpse Ahead to the closing scenes of church history prior to the 2nd Coming. This is the 1^st of a two-part series entitled, “A Glimpse Ahead.”
This helpful document from the North American Division lists several helpful online tools that you might like to consider. It was shared by their IT director and something helpful I learned from it is a handy little phone app called SIGNAL. It is for text messaging and is much more secure than what most of us typically use for texting. It has the ability to encrypt your messages and having installed it, I really like it and have made it my default app for texting. It’s a painless transition and imports all your previous messages.
Prayer Meeting will be discontinued until May 20 due to the Hope Awakens series which we are participating in. Remember, Hope Awakens is at 7pm on Friday, Saturday, Tuesday, and Wednesday each week.
Here is a free sharing resource from Signs of the Times. Please share it far and wide.
ARISE online training school is offering a free 60-day access to all their training materials which usually requires a fee. You will have over 180 hours of material made available for free. To access the material click here. This offer expires April 26.
Wildwood has a special offer for those interested in their training program.
Finally, we as a church as of the end of March had a decline in tithe by 22% and our church budget suffered a decline of roughly 3%. We will be curious to see what the results are for April. Some are perhaps concerned about online giving but this is a preferred method during this time of crisis. Some are concerned about the security of online giving but the truth of the matter is your information is already pushed through the internet by banks and government. Some are concerned with the cost to the church of using this method. While the local church doesn’t bear the cost, the cost is minimal if you use the preferred method of a bank draft. I personally have my tithe and offering set up for automatic withdrawal twice a month. The cost associated with such a draft is only 0.45 cents per draft I was told this week by our conference president, Gary Rustad. While you can use credit card, it’s not preferred because the conference incurs much greater fees. Click here to learn more about how to use this online option.