09-21-2020 Newsletter 牧師家書

Dear Friends at 5C:

It has been more than six months since the church met on campus last time. As of now, no one knows exactly how long it will take for us to get back to “normalcy”. As the Pastor of this church, I am really proud of the dedication and resilience demonstrated by our church members. Meanwhile, church leaders are prayerfully considering how to get our members connected during this disruption of our life. We already have a few online group meetings going well each week, more groups are under the planning in order to get more people involved. Please pray for wisdom as we are dealing with the unprecedented situation here, my prayer is that our faith (as well as our commitment to Christ) is strengthened as a result of going through this tough time together.   

On Sunday we resume the sermon series of “The Stories that Jesus Told”. This is not a strange story to most of us, but it is always good to be reminded of our “readiness” before Christ. Recently it is reported that humans with implanted microchips will be widely available in 2035, since thousands of people in Sweden have already inserted microchips in their hands that could one day replace keys and cards. Our technology is evolved rapidly to pave the way for one person to rule the whole world- the appearance of the Antichrist. In another word, the Second Coming of Christ may be sooner than anybody thinks. Are you ready for His coming back? I hope that everyone reading this letter does. Next Sunday we will conclude this series with a story of portraying the final judgment of Christ.

For church members, here is the reminder: Please return the ballot for deacon election of this year no later than Oct 10th.  If you have any questions about this election, please feel free to let Pastor or any deacons know. Your cooperation is highly appreciated. Thank you!

Ministry Update:

  1. Virtual prayer meetings at 7:30pm Monday and Thursday.
  2. Pastor Chen’s virtual office hours every Friday 10:00-12:00pm.
  3. Chinese Sunday school (Pastor Chen) and English Sunday school (Bianca Lin).
  4. Pastor Chen will give a special talk in Chinese Sunday school this Sunday, “Politics in Jesus’ Time”
  5. English Sunday school will study the Book of Daniel beginning on Sept 20.
  6. We will conclude the series, “The Stories that Jesus Told”, this Sunday 9/27
  7. The deacon board has already mailed out the notice of the deacon election in 2021-2022.

Prayer Requests:

  1. Pray for the US general election in November, 2020.
  2. Pray for the Coronavirus outbreak in the US and around the world.
  3. Pray for deacon election of this year: Rachel Ma (worship); Raymond Wu (mission) and Chris Choi (Secretary)
  4. Pray for the physical and spiritual well-being of our church members.
  5. Pray for Cal Poly students in our midst, Canlin Cao, David Chen, Ping-Wei Lin, Steven Luo, Karen Ma, Solomon Zhou, Kevin Yu and Ashely Yao.
  6. Pray for Crystal’s uncle in South Korea who is still in recovery from kidney cancer surgery
  7. Pray for Samuel Lee’s epidermal inclusion cyst on his back, waiting for surgery date to remove it
  8. Pray for expecting mother- Crystal Cui
  9. Pray for Annie’s sister and Anderson’s brother who suffer Parkinson’s disease.
  10. Pray for Ed Sherman’s son Lane who undergoes treatment for brain cancer.

親愛的中岸教會朋友們:
自上次在教会聚會以來,已经過去六月有餘。目前,尚無人知道我們到底還要有多長時間才能恢復“正常”。作為教會的牧師,我為我們的教會成員所表現出的忠心和堅韌而感到自豪。同時,教會領袖正在祈禱,如何在這種生活突變的情況下,加強成員之間的聯繫。現在每週的在線聚會進展順利,我們也在籌備著以組建新的小組方式,吸引更多人參與進來。當我們在這里應對前所未有的局面時,祈求上帝賜給聰明智慧。願恩典的上帝,因著我們一起度過了這段艱難的時期,使我們的信仰(以及對基督的委身)更加堅固。

上主日我們繼續講道系列“耶穌所講的故事”。對大多數人來說,這個故事並不陌生,它时刻提醒做好基督再來的“準備”。最近,有報導說,人體植入微晶片將在 2035 年得到廣泛應用,因為在瑞典已有上千人將微晶片植入手臂中,在未來可取代鑰匙和卡片。人類的科技發展迅猛,這為一個人統治整個世界鋪平了道路-那就是敵基督的出現。換言之,基督的第二次降臨可能比任何人想像的都要快。您準備好祂的到來了嗎?希望讀到這封信的每個人都已準備好了。下週日,我們將以描述基督最終審判的故事結束本系列的講道。

請教會會員注意:請在 10 月 10 日之前將今年的執事選舉選票寄回。如果
您對這次選舉有任何疑問,請隨時告知牧師或任何執事。非常感謝您的合作。

事工更新:

  1. 線上禱告會於週一和週四晚間 7 點半舉行。
  2. 陳牧師辦公時間:每週五上午 10 點-12 點。
  3. 中文主日學將由陳牧師帶領,英文主日學由張西齡姐妹带領。
  4. 本週中文主日學陳牧師將做特別分享: “耶穌時代的政治黨派”
  5. 英文主日學在 9 月 20 日起開始學習《但以理書》
  6. 我們將於本週日 9 月 27 日結束 “耶穌所講的故事”證道系列
  7. 執事會已寄出 2021-2022 年度執事選舉提名通知。

禱告事項

  1. 為美國十一月的總統大選
  2. 為美國及世界各地的新冠肺炎的爆發
  3. 為今年的三名執事候選人:馬若曦(崇拜)、胡其健(外宣)、蔡達文(書記)
  4. 為我們教會所有成員的身體及屬靈健康為我們教會所有成員的身體及屬靈健康
  5. 為我們當中加州理工大學的學生們: 曹燦霖、陳為、林苹葦、羅智亮、马加恩、周樂、余智鵬和姚嘉林
  6. 為崔琳二姑父的腎癌手術術後恢复
  7. 為李碩俊后背的表皮囊肿祈禱,等待進行手術將其取出
  8. 為待產的崔琳姐妹祈禱
  9. 為裴師母姐姐和林恩深弟兄的弟弟祈禱,他們正在遭受帕金森的困擾
  10. 為 Ed Sherman 的兒子 Lane 祈禱,他正在接受腦瘤治療

期待週日線上見
主僕 陳金昌

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