Hope Blog

Lenten Fasting

A Group Christmas Reading

Dearly Beloved,

I have encouraged Hope Chapel to share the Christmas story with someone before Christmas day.  Or, in lieu of the Christmas story, to share the gospel of Jesus or one’s own testimony of salvation.

Just in case you desire to bear witness to Jesus in this season, but have not found an opportunity to do so, all is not lost!

I have developed a document I have prepared for my family’s use which includes the main portions of the Christmas story and a list of characters with both speaking and non-speaking roles.  You can find the Word.docx here and the .pdf file here.

My hope is that in your family time on Christmas day you will find time to read the story as a group, passing around the task of serving as the narrator, and finding small figurines or statuettes or even paper cut-outs to serve in place of the characters in the story.

The idea is a simple one:  as the narrator approaches a speaking role someone assumes that part and reads out the words of that character.  This can be accompanied by the holding up of the symbol for that character.  A very large group of people can be included in the story with this methodology.

Feel free to conduct the reading in whatever way suits your family unit.  This will be a blessing to all and, perhaps, will morph into a cherished family tradition.

–geno

Where Do We Go From Here?

Dearly Beloved,

Several folks have asked me how we as a congregation will follow-up our weekend conference with Sally Gary.  While we are in the incipient stages of answering that question at this point, I thought it would be good to make a few suggestions and solicit your ideas.

I have posted several ideas on my blog here.  Please take a look and offer your suggestions for moving forward.

Thanks,

–geno

Giving With A Generous Heart–A ‘Plunder’ Story

This past Sunday, I shared the story of an ‘Aha!’ moment God gave to one of our congregation’s members, Bonnie Watkins. I have shared Bonnie’s story a couple of times publicly to encourage people as we continue to pray about helping to fund repairs to Hope’s main building complex this summer. When presenting the need as our Sunday night service, Bonnie exclaimed, involuntarily ‘Ah!’ out loud, and then told us how the Holy Spirit was stirring her that night. It’s a great God story. Be encouraged…and ask God for your own plunder.  –geno

You can find the text of Bonnie’s tale on my blog site here.

Repairing Hope Info

Dearly Beloved,

I have written a recent blog post that presents three different slide presentations and one sermon all with the express purpose of explaining how we have come to need significant repairs and remodeling for Hope Chapel’s main building complex.  My hope is that with these presentations all gathered in one spot each of us can become fully informed to the depth we desire, while praying about how to support this project financially.  You can go directly to my blog post here.

Please consider giving generously to help fund our much-needed repairs to Hope’s main building complex.  Here is the link:  Pledge/Give Now.

–geno

Beauty and Inspiration

Dearly Beloved,

I recently posted to my blog what I consider a most beautiful and worship-filled video of the Australian singer Dami Im performing ‘This is My Desire’.  If you are looking for five minutes of inspiration, put on the headphones, go to my blog here, close your eyes and worship with this singer.  –geno