We had a tremendous turn out on our Fall Festival this past Thursday. The parking lot was full and the carnival area was also jammed packed with adults and children playing games and eating some good food! Considering all the New Life members who didn?t receive the meal tickets but ate the food anyway, I think there were well over 700 people who were there to enjoy the evening!
Peter Lee, our Ministry Team leader, and all the committee members together with every New Life member/attendee who came out have done a marvelous job of putting the event together making it a great success. We have invested, served and sacrificed very generously for our community and I sensed that they were all very thankful for what we have done. One lady from the neighborhood came at about 9PM just to see who did all this and she was extremely grateful to us for serving the community. In the end, however, we were the ones who had the most fun and experienced the greatest joy. Jesus? words are so true: ?It is more blessed to give than to receive.? (Acts 20: 35)
The following is what Peter wants to convey to all of us in relation to the Fall Festival we just had. Please read it, pray over it and indicate your interest to him in serving the community.
Thanks, everyone, for serving the Lord and the community with me! Our Heavenly Father was deeply pleased during the Fall Festival because we so brightly shined the light of Jesus to our neighbors!
Your pastor,
Eric
Dear New Lifers.
Last night our members who manned the welcoming tables handed out 699 meal tickets. That number not only included our guests, but also our own members from NLF and SBC. In the end we estimated that 60%-70% of those who attended came from the community, which is equivalent to 420-490 people.
Back in September we prayed for 400-500 kids and parents to attend this wonderful event, and once again, God was faithful through our prayers and planning. We saw the power of Christ uniting 24 house churches, now 25, together to serve wholeheartedly for 3 straight hours, but much of the work was accomplished through prayer and commitment from the committee members. The fruit of much of your hard work, patience, love, and prayers could be seen in all the smiles from the children, and from the unending praise from the parents. Last night kids and parents from the neighborhoods forgot about the dangers from their neighborhoods, the violence associated with their community, and the emptiness of compassion from their neighbors. You guys took one vision that started two years ago from a couple of NLF members, and have acted faithfully by stretching yourselves through last night’s wonderful act of service. The amazing thing about last night was that we all had a blast, and it was fun and exciting to see how God could use us, a bunch of people who were once dead to sin, but now alive through his Son.
So what’s next??? Do we stop here?? Do we wait for FALL FESTIVAL 2003???? NO!!!!! If last night was a complete failure, I would say let’s wait on reaching out to our neighborhood. But that wasn’t the case last night, AMEN!! Last night I saw some beautiful people from our community: kids and parents with kind hearts, and some with faces that were ready to hear the Gospel of a changed life. We have a treasure that cannot be found anywhere in this world, and we cannot keep the light of Christ hidden any longer. We need to foster friendships and trust with our guest from last night, and then we can invite them to our service, and hopefully, by only the grace of God, they will know Christ as their personal savior. Of course, I am only talking about those who do not know Christ.
So how can I get involved??? No, this is not a plug to join the Ministry Team. See, last night we asked our guest to fill out a questionnaire, and one of the questions asked was, “If NLF were to start up a tutoring program, would your kids be interested in attending?” I haven’t seen all the questionnaires yet, but I expect a pretty good response to the tutoring program. After much discussion, NLF would like to take its first step out to our community by starting with the kids of our neighborhood. It is surely an effective and godly ministry. We have several bright teachers and gifted servants who can teach English, Math, Science, History and a Foreign Language. If you didn’t do well in school like me, that’s ok, you’re bright enough, we just need your commitment and desire to impact these kids? hearts.
This is only an after school program that will supplement their learning, and will only be open to our community (non-NLF member’s kids or non-SBC member’s kids).
Lynette Shin will administer the tutoring program, and our NLF members will be the teachers. Who are we looking for? People who can commit a couple of hours each week, or every other week, or even once a month to tutor one child. God has raised the level of expectation from us, because he has blessed us through last night’s event, and through our education and resources. Let’s continue to pray for our community, but this time let’s specifically pray for the tutoring program so that we can raise for 25 volunteers.
Please encourage your HC members to sign up. Lynette will have sign up sheets starting this Sunday or the following Sunday, and we’ll have more details to follow.
Thankfully,
Pete
No Comments to "Fall Festival 2002!"
