URC Weekly 3/28/10: Passion Week
Hi Church,
After close to 40 days of Lent, we’ve reached the most Holy week of the Christian calendar. The events of this week include the Last Supper on Thursday night, Jesus’ crucifixion from 9 AM – 3 PM on Good Friday, and the glorious resurrection on Easter Sunday. In many ways, it’s a season of losing everything: Many of you have fasted or made other sacrifices to identify with Jesus on the Via Dolorosa (Way of Suffering), and you’ve caught a glimpse of what it means to be “crucified with Christ.” Others of you have learned a little more about the perspective of God the Father, who lost His son in the most unjust and horrific way possible.
Lent and Passion Week are also a time of gaining everything: Some of you have claimed the victory of Christ and conquered long-time demons that have plagued you. Others have hit low points of your lives but found hope of renewal in the power of His resurrection. Jim Elliott said, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose,” and so in this final week, let’s make that trade of the temporary for the eternal, the worldly for the holy, the selfish for the loving, the arrogant for the humble.
1) MORNING WORSHIP: THIS WEDNESDAY – FRIDAY @ 5 AM @ LARGE SANCTUARY, SATURDAY @ 6 AM. If you can only make it to a few days, Thursday @ 5 AM will include Holy Communion and Saturday @ 6 AM will be only silent prayer.
2) GOOD FRIDAY FASTING: THIS FRIDAY FROM 9 AM – 3 PM. These are the hours of Jesus’ murder for our sake. If possible, let’s fast and pray, as we consider the crucifixion in a deep, fresh way.
3) URC GOOD FRIDAY SERVICE: THIS FRIDAY @ 7:30 PM @ ENGLISH CHAPEL. We’ll have a separate URC worship service on the day of the crucifixion, followed by our traditional cross-carrying ceremony with the KM @ the large sanctuary @ 9:20 PM. Hope to see all of you there for this important time.
4) JOINT EASTER WORSHIP: THIS SUNDAY @ 10:30 AM @ LARGE SANCTUARY. We WILL NOT meet @ 9:30 AM in the English Chapel that day, but return the week after. Yes, it will be a joint service, but it will cater much more to English-speaking members with contemporary praise, everything translated into English, etc. PLEASE COME BY 10:20 AM! There will be a Korean-only Easter festival @ 1 PM.
PRAISE TEAM, Rev. Ahn wanted to practice just two songs @ 10 AM on Easter Sunday @ the Large Sanctuary. Please come by 9:45 AM, so you’ll have plenty of time to practice and set up.
5) PROFESSOR’S SAT PREP: THIS SATURDAY AND SUNDAY FROM 2:30 – 6:30. Yes, class will be in session even on Easter. Now I know these students are gonna be ready. Please help out, as usual, with grading and teaching this weekend, and thank you for your hard work!
6) UNION ALL-CHURCH RETREAT: MAY 29-31 (Saturday – Monday of Memorial Day weekend) @ CAMP CEDAR CREST, BIG BEAR. The cost is $60 per person, and the mother church will subsidize the rest. Please save the dates and try to work out your schedules!
7) SCRIPTURE READING: Hyunjoo Yi (Please come by 10:15 AM and meet me at the large sanctuary entrance)
8 ) DEVOTIONS: John 10-21 (two chapters per day): “Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” (John 20:27)
9) LETTER FROM MINSOO IN INDIA: Please read below. Praise God for His mighty hand, and let’s faithfully lift up their new requests…
I’m praying with you, and let’s worship together this Friday.
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Hello Pastor Sang, it’s Minsoo. It’s been a while since our last e-mail. Well, to catch you up, we are finally in India. It has been about a month since we were here. India is really nice. God has watched us the whole way here. He helped us ride four planes, get past the luggage safely, and even though we knew that our luggage was over the limit, God helped us. God brought us to the city called Siliguri. It’s in state of West Bengal. In Siliguri, there are the original Indians, and then there are people from the tribes of Nepal. They look really similar to Koreans. Also in Siliguri, there are about ten missionary families.
During the second week here, God gave us a great house next door to another missionary. The missionary introduced us to this place, and God worked everything for us. Thankfully, God gave us a Christian owner. The owner was so nice to give us the house for a good price and helped us with all the things we needed.
As we continued to live here, we were wondering to which church we should go to. We decided to go to a Nepal church called Himalayain Free Church, where the house owner goes to. The church uses the language of Nepali. The first time we went for service, we didn’t know it was three hours long. It was so hard to even sit there. The second time, we got to know a lot more of the people there and they helped us with like language problems and told us more about the city of Siliguri.
We have a some big prayer requests we need to pray about. First of all, it’s praying for Mina and I to go and get into Hebron School. We got the e-mail for us to go and take the placement test and my interview. Second, is the transportation problem. We decided to go by train, but there are hardly any cheap and good tickets left. Also, the train ride will take about two days. So please pray that we will find good tickets. Third is for our health. Its getting really hot here now, so we need to stay cool and be able to stand the heat. If we’re not healthy, we can’t even go out, so please pray for that as well. That’s about it, please pray that the prayer requests will be fullfilled. Thank for your prayers and support. BYE~BYE
Hello, you used to write great, but the last several posts have been kinda boring… I miss your super writings. Past several posts are just a little out of track! come on!