Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
If you haven’t visited our two blogs recently, you might want to take a look. They are good sources for study and sermon ideas. Here are links to The Surprising God Blog http://thesurprisinggodblog.wcg.org/ and the Trinitarian Worship Blog http://trinitarianworship.blogspot.com/. You can subscribe to these blogs by clicking on the “subscribe” link at the bottom of each blog’s main page.
San Fernando, California
Spanish-speaking pastor Heber Ticas of our San Fernando, California, congregation reported that on April 18, the church held the first of two planned anointing and blessing services for children this year. They anointed 127 children, and had 340 people in attendance, including 102 first-time visitors. Children from the church had gone out the previous weekend to invite neighborhood children to the event. Besides the spiritual blessing, the invited children made crafts, played games, and received free pizza while their parents listened to the sermon.
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Church Planting
April 19-22 twenty-six GCI pastors, CMM staff and GenMin staff attended the Exponential Conference in Orlando, Florida. Exponential is an annual trans-denominational church planting conference with more than three thousand in attendance. Key speakers included Ed Stetzer, Alan Hirsch, and Francis Chan. Participants attended plenary sessions and workshops that provided equipping and resources for various aspects of starting new churches. Several GCI participants are in the process of starting new GCI churches.
Prayer Requests and Updates
Lateef Edalere
From the family of Lateef Edalere:
With gratitude to God for a life well spent, we announce the death of Lateef Edalere: husband, father and grandfather.
Lateef was a native of Nigeria, and remained a faithful minister and member of the Body of Jesus Christ for more than 35 years. He lived and served in England, Nigeria, America and Jamaica.
He will be sadly missed by all who knew him – including his wife Yvonne of 44 years, sons Peter (Australia) Paul (England); daughters Anthea (Jamaica) and Alison (America) as well as their spouses – Shehana, Charmaine, Gregory and Leaford.
Lateef and Yvonne were blessed with 5 grandsons and 3 granddaughters. He was known and loved by many, young and old, as “Daddy Edalere” as he touched the lives of those he pastored.
A Thanksgiving service to honor and celebrate his life will be held at 12.30 p.m. on Thursday, May 29, at Herongate Wood, Woodland Cemetery, Billericay Road, Brentwood, Essex, CM13 3PS.
Your love, support and prayers for the entire family at this time will be appreciated.
Cards can be sent to:
Mrs. Yvonne Edalere and Family
29 Kiln Way
Badger’s Dene
Grays, Essex – RM17 5JEUK
United Kingdom
Maxine Neff
A graveside service was held for Mrs. Maxine Neff, wife of retired long-time minister Leroy Neff, on April 27 at Gladewater Memorial Park in Gladewater, Texas.
Cards can be sent to:
Leroy Neff and Family
PO Box 432
Big Sandy, TX 75755
Archie Hall
Retired long-time Pasadena employee Archie Hall died April 21 following a battle with cancer. He was 73. Archie worked in the Transportation, Postal and Security departments. He is survived by Lavern Hall, his wife of more than 55 years, and by his son Stephen Hall, who also worked in the Transportation department in Pasadena.
Archie and Lavern came from West Virginia to work for Ambassador College, and he began as Service Manager in Transportation in 1968. He retired from active employment in 1996. A memorial service will be held in the Halls’ local community.
Cards can be sent to:
Mrs. Lavern Hall and Family
27930 Mallard Rd.
Montague, CA 96064
Remember that prayer is the battleground where we fight the good fight of faith. Let’s encourage everyone to join together in prayer, for we belong to Christ, and by the Spirit it is in Christ that we pray. Prayer and other spiritual activities help keep our hearts in tune with God and remind us of who we are in Christ. He is our all in all, and in him we are eternally beloved of the Father and blessed to share his good news with others.
Love from my family to yours,
Joseph Tkach
