Category: Stay Connected

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What a blessing we have in Jesus. I see God’s hand in our neighborhood engagement efforts. GC Pasadena doesn’t have a big budget, so we must look for other means to engage the community and share the love of Jesus with our neighbors. We began distributing donated food from the grocery store, Vons. But when that ended, we prayed for God to open another door.

Now, we’re grateful to be giving away produce from Trader Joe’s every Saturday morning. The manager of our church building even allowed us to use the hall without charging additional rent. It’s a chance to meet our neighbors, ask their names, and pray with them if they desire. Often, they ask, why are you doing this? It’s an opportunity to talk about our church. Most express surprise and gratitude.

We want to be a consistent presence. We want our neighbors to realize that we are truly intentional about loving and helping them. For this reason, it’s important that this is an ongoing event.

We’re beginning to see how the food donation is a connecting point to the larger community. My husband, Saddie, is friends with the tennis players in Eagle Rock, where Trader Joe’s is located. Two of those friends volunteered to bring the produce from the store to our church in Pasadena. On top of that, they are now attending our church service. Then they invited all the other players to the 9^th anniversary celebration of our church — half of those in attendance were tennis players! Additionally, one tennis player, Ben, who is a retired nurse, volunteered to check blood pressure and blood sugar on Sundays for our members.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. God is really the one opening the door. We just follow Jesus, and bear witness in what he is doing in the lives of our neighbors.

By Angie Tabin, Pastor

Every September 15 through October 15, National Spanish Heritage month is recognized and celebrated in the U.S. The month pays tribute to the contributions of the American Latino community. Since several Central American countries celebrate Independence Day on September 15 and Mexico on September 16, the celebration takes on greater meaning in these communities throughout the U.S.

Our Sun Valley and Hawthorne, California, congregations joined in the celebration by honoring the immigrant fiber of the makeup of these churches. In our Sun Valley congregation, the countries of Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Peru are all represented by church members. In Comunion De Gracia Hawthorne, all but one of these countries are also represented.

On September 18, both the Sun Valley and Hawthorne congregation independently dedicated their Sunday celebration to celebrating Spanish Heritage. As part of the service, prayers were lifted on behalf of these nations, and our union in Christ was celebrated as the united expression of the body of Christ.

The celebration affords the congregations a space in which church members can come together to celebrate their heritage. They do this by dressing up in traditional attire, highlighting ethnic roots, and enjoying traditional cuisine. It becomes a celebration of God’s amazing creativity and his immeasurable grace in Christ.

Additionally, Spanish Heritage Sunday also grants the opportunity to invite family, friends, and neighbors to experience the unified body of Christ in a tangible manner. It has become one of the key events for outside the walls presence in our church neighborhoods.

Since the first time that we dedicated a Sunday (on some occasions a weekend) to Spanish heritage, God has blessed us with many opportunities to meet those we receive as guests and our surrounding neighbors. Many of these relationships have become disciple-making relationships. We are grateful for God’s providence and the many opportunities that he affords to participate in his everyday mission in our community and city.

By Heber Ticas
Pastor & Superintendent Latin America

The Jacksonville, FL congregation hosted its annual Neighborhood Fun Day on Saturday, October 15. After holding our Outside the Walls event in 2016, we began this tradition to provide consistent engagement with our neighborhood. We were unable to hold the event during the pandemic, so we’re very pleased with this opportunity to do so again.

As always, there were a few minor challenges to overcome, like a leak in one of the bounce houses. We had so many guests that we ran out of food during the last hour, even though we had gone back to the store twice already! Overall, it went very well with very nice weather.

We used a new method to invite the community: Every Door Direct Mail (EDDM), a service of the US Postal Service. EDDM allows you to mail flyers in bulk to your focus neighborhood without having to address each piece. [Watch this short video about EDDM.] We mailed 3,158 invitations and spent more than $600, but it was worth it. Engagement requires a dedicated budget!

Our neighbors responded with enthusiasm and appreciation, with about 250 guests joining us. Many expressed gratitude that our church provided this for their families. Several attendees even returned for worship services the next Sunday. Our prayer is that the love and fellowship we enjoyed together will be a seed sown that will take root, and the guests will continue on the discipleship pathway!

By Marty Davey, Pastor

For three days in August, Grace Communion Zimbabwe hosted our annual Family Festival and Conference. The celebrations utilized a blended approach. The first day was a virtual meeting on the WhatsApp platform. Days 2 and 3 were held in person in two locations: Bulawayo in the southern region and Harare in the northern region. These are Zimbabwe’s major regions.

Nearly 200 people gathered in both locations. Half the participants were children and youths. We were pleased to provide the young people with vibrant activities that focused on living and sharing the gospel through play.

We adopted the 2022 GCI theme for our celebration: Compelled by Love. We were guided by 2 Corinthians 5:14: “Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died” (NIV). The festival program was composed of varied segments of preaching and workshops. One major highlight of the celebrations was the baptism of five people at the Bulawayo location.

By Marshall Dube

This GCI Buzz describes place-sharing and provides examples. #gcibuzz

Click the image below to check out the full PDF.

 

One year ago, our congregation began meeting in St. Michael, MN. Formerly, we were located in Champlin and felt that Jesus was calling us to a new location to join with him in the ministry and work that he is already doing in the St. Michael community. We rent a banquet hall in the St. Michael movie theater. Unless you go to a Sunday movie or do a Google search specifically looking for us, you wouldn’t know we exist.

We were hoping to change that by introducing ourselves more broadly to the greater community by participating in the community’s Family & Youth City Connection (FYCC) street fair on September 10. This is a fundraising opportunity for the FYCC where businesses and organizations set up booths along the street and offer some activities or prizes for kids. The community comes out and can learn about the different businesses and organizations who paid to participate.

At our booth, we had a spinner wheel where kids had the possibility of winning a sucker, a fidget spinner, or the grand prize – a miniature oil paint painting set with a back-boarded canvas. We also had a face painting station for the kids.

For adults, we gave the opportunity to enter their names into a drawing to win one of two gift cards to the movie theater where we meet or one gift card to each of the two nearby gas stations. While the kids were participating in the activities and adults were entering the drawing, we talked a little about who we were and passed out flyers about our congregation.

God blessed us with a breathtakingly beautiful day. I would appreciate prayers for the seeds that were sown at this event. If there is anyone that stopped by who could be helped by participating in our congregation, pray that God would work in their lives to help them be comfortable to take the steps to visit us.

By Jon Arnold

August 9 is Women’s Day in South Africa. We thought it a good time to have our first post-COVID women’s retreat around that date.

From beginning to end, the event was marked by a very palpable need for communing with one another and several emotional encounters happened where we could share in one another’s grief and minister with great compassion. Since we last saw each other, many of us lost loved ones, jobs, businesses, and others suffered natural disasters. All that hurt and grief came to the surface, and we were grateful to God that he made this retreat possible.

The topics chosen by the various speakers from different church areas also leaned into the mood of things and one got the feeling that, “It Can Only Be God!” That was also the theme for the retreat.

We had pastor Carolyna Katengeza from GC Malawi as a guest speaker, and she really blessed us with her presence and her message.

Activities at the retreat were early morning devotions hosted by different regions and one could hear them singing in the chapel at around 6:00 a.m. as a signal for all to come. We had an African-themed day and a gala dinner as the grand finale. The staff at Aruka really pulled out all the stops and made every experience memorable.

We had about 60 ladies in attendance with most regions in the country represented. Those who could not make it, sent their greetings via video messaging.

One of the most special activities we had was a clothes exchange! Each one brought clothing items in good condition that they do not need or want anymore. We displayed these and everyone went looking for what they want or need. Whatever was left was donated to the needy. This was such a feel-good activity and very helpful.

It was very hard to leave the place at the end of the retreat and it made the promise of the next one even sweeter.

By Margaret Musekwa
Webmaster for GCI Solid Rock Church in Riviera, Republic of South Africa