Weekly Newsletter 01/13/2022

Greetings!

Dear church, we thank God for your patience with the changes to the schedule and format of the church services and gatherings of various ministries. God has allowed yet another wave of sickness and we don’t want to risk anyone’s health. But, God-willing, we are planning to gather as normal in the church building this upcoming Sunday.

We remind you that if you have symptoms of sickness or you’ve been in contact with a sick person, we recommend that you abstain from coming to church.

Some personal news… from the face of a small church in Minneapolis, where the pastor is Igor Borisov, I pass on to you, beloved, a greeting and gratefulness. Gratefulness for what? A few months ago, their church contacted us with a request that the elder board allow me (Dmitriy Z.) to lead a church retreat for their whole church body (on the second weekend of January). This is why we were missing at our church’s services this past Sunday. The topic of the retreat was how to personally read and study Scripture. We hope that we will be able to continue collaborating with their church. They have a small community, 26 members, but they are very friendly and growing (about 50-70 people attend their service). Beloved, this was your investment into the development of this church! Praise God!

This Sunday we are starting an unusual sermon series called “You are destined.” This series will touch three spheres of a Christian’s life which are under great attack by this world: accepting yourself (sexuality), our accepting of the world around us (evangelism), and our accepting of other believers (friendship). Please pray that this series of sermons helps the church to be capable of answering the demands of these end times.

As previously, due to the restrictions and orders from the health department, we remind you:

• Keep social distancing and wearing masks in public places
• Wash and sanitize hands more often
• If you have flu-like symptoms, were in contact with a person with COVID, or are in the “high-risk” group, then we ask you to stay home 

Thursday (6:30 PM – Zoom) – Kids Bible School meeting on Zoom in English (open to all), immediately followed by a Bible Study for the whole church in Russian: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86459925034?pwd=eGo4MlBtd1g3cTVxNHF6WlBpYzlPQT09

Sunday services

• Worship Service in Russian at 9:00 AM
• Worship Service in English at 11:15 AM
• Fundamentals of Faith (FOF) Class introductory meeting at 10:30 AM (Room 205)
• Meeting for group leaders and their helpers at 6:00 PM

Notice the service schedule and other special events happening in January:

• January 22, Saturday (9:00 AM) – A gathering of all people in ministry in the church
• January 23, Sunday (6:00 PM) – Church family service (vision for the upcoming year, report, and voting on the budget for 2022)
• January 27-30 – Winter camp “Fathers and Sons”