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1 A Salute to 2017

2 World Reports

3 Gallery PICS

4 Living Holy in Our Free Time

4 Evidence for the Resurrection

On the final day of 2017, the congregation gathered for a look back at highlights of the past year. A slideshow of pictures taken by regular photographers Kenny Cripps and Ryan Parker, as well as some photos of special events from David Heintz and Debbie Lee, were compiled into various categories that walked the audience down memory lane of the year 2017.

Each section of the slideshow began with a related quote. For example, a series of Sunday school photos was preceded by a quote from Cuyler Barre, “In Sunday school, I can learn that God helps me and takes care of me.” This was followed by pictures of several dozen smiling, singing, and listening students in their classes. The photos from Easter began with these words from Barry Morgan: “I’m thankful that I left my burdens at the Cross and Jesus saved me long ago.” The photos of everyone hard at work on the Memorial Day campground work day were preceded with Dayle Lee’s comment, “It’s a

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A Salute to 2017beautiful thing to see the Body of Christ work, where people are committed and everybody serves their purpose and does their part.” His words were proven true!

The quote from Lily Oilar about the Palooza was interesting and informative: “My favorite part about the Palooza is fishing in the fountain. You get to take the fish home. But you don’t want to eat it—it doesn’t taste good.” And Betty Davis’ comment prior to the Senior Christmas Luncheon photos was a warm reminder why Christmas is one of the best times of the year, “My favorite part of the Christmas season is that we still have a living Jesus; that is what the Christmas season is to me.”

Following the slideshow, snacks were served in the Narthex as everyone visited, no doubt reminiscing about the memories brought back, as well as looking ahead to the upcoming events of 2018!

A P O S T O L I C F A I T H . O R G

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The presentation showed highlights of 2017 such as the Easter concert (top) and the camp meeting sing-a-long (bottom).

January 2018

Excerpts from Monday, January 22 Bob and Cheryl Downey arrived in St. Vincent and the Grenadines on January 19. On Saturday, Brother Bob conducted a session for ministers and workers from various locations, with the primary topic being the experience of sanctification. On Sunday morning, the Downeys traveled up the coast to our church in Gorse. Many had gathered for the service, including several from nearby branch churches. The Sunday evening service was held at the Paul Over church, with some visiting from our church in Lowman’s Hill. Several mentioned that they had faced a number of difficulties during 2017, but are thankful that God brought them through. The Downeys concluded their report by saying, “This is the rainy season in St. Vincent, and while we have had considerable wind and rain, we are rejoicing in this opportunity to fellowship with the saints and experience the ‘showers of blessings’ in each church service.”

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Excerpts from Tuesday, January 23 Our India churches held Vacation Bible School (VBS) January 19-22. Deanna Moen and Jane Burton, who are in India visiting the saints, reported that about 300 children attended at several locations. They also said the children were so excited for the activities to start that nearly all of them arrived an hour early! This year’s theme is based on Matthew 4:19 and during the activities, the children learned how they could ask Jesus into their hearts and become “fishers of men.” At the close, every one of them prayed (pictured above).

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Excerpts from Tuesday, January 30 John Musgrave and Harlan Lee continued visiting locations in Romania this past week, traveling south into the Oltenia region where they visited with pastor Nicu Cacalete. While there, they toured some property acquired by the congregation, which Brother John said is in a good location, close to the center of town. The group is reviewing design options for a church building.

The next day, a service was held in Margaritesti. Though the temperature was around twenty-five degrees, this did not deter about twenty-five who gathered to worship. Brother Harlan commented that this was a testamony to their hunger for God. A Thursday evening service was held in Craiova with forty-five in attendance. During the testimonies, two gave God glory for healings. At the close, a few were in need of salvation and all prayed earnestly. About fifteen were anointed and prayed over, and after the prayer service, many raised their hands to acknowledge having received something from the Lord.

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Gallery PICSselections from our online albums

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(Clockwise from top left) Jesse Hopkins enjoying Sunday school as much as the students; the choir sings; Charlie Moen testifies; Junior students feast on their favorite Sunday school treat; Laura Moberg teaches a fitting lesson to Beginner students; Austin McCarville testifies; Jason Sobol celebrates a big milestone; Youth focusing; A father-son duet from Norman and Dan Hall.

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Living Holy in Our Free TimeThe fifth Bible study in the Living

Holy series was led by Dayle Lee, who focused on how Christians can maintain holiness in their leisure-time activities. He said the way Christians choose to spend their free time comes from who they are and what is in their hearts. Therefore, receiving the second definite experience of sanctification is an important step toward making good choices in this area, because it changes a person’s natural inclination away from the world and toward the things of God.

Highlighting the danger of being inclined toward the world, Brother Dayle read 1 John 2:15 and said this verse does not refer only to sinful things, but to anything that would draw one’s attention away from God. As an example, he said there is nothing wrong with enjoying sports, but this can become worldly or sinful if it is done

post is edifying to others. He suggested that a good thought to keep in mind would be, Does this post match my testimony and glorify God?

Brother Dayle said for any leisure pursuit, whether sports, music, books, or something else, it is critical to set a standard of holiness and to honor God with our choices. For help in making the right choices, the Bible offers many examples of how godly people spent their free time.

In closing, he challenged everyone to make a standard of holiness for the time spent in leisure and endeavor to follow it with God’s help.

to excess and begins to interfere with serving God. Then he cautioned against letting any temporal pursuit gradually take over one’s time.

One activity with the potential to absorb more and more of one’s time is using the internet. Brother Dayle said Christians should be careful about how much time they spend on it and in what ways they use it. While the internet has many good purposes, there are many aspects of social media and other

online content that is not edifying. It is important for us to guard against becoming desensitized to sin in these settings. Brother Dayle also said that when a Christian posts something on a social media site, it is important that the

“Whether sports, music, books, or something else, it is critical to set a standard of holiness and to honor God with our choices.”

Evidence for the ResurrectionThe January 26 youth focus session

began with a meal of chicken fajitas and brownies for dessert, followed by a get-to-know-you game. Each person was given a paper with twenty-eight random descriptions such as “Can say ‘good morning’ in three languages,” and the participants had to find someone who fit each description. Everyone learned a lot about each other, and three fast finishers won Starbucks gift cards as well.

The evening’s discussion topic was the historical evidence for Christ’s resurrection. Trent Paulsen was the teacher, and he began by laying out four facts relating to Christ’s death which most historians accept as true: 1) Christ died on the Cross and was buried; 2) His tomb was empty and no one found His body; 3) His disciples

the most logical explanation for the facts surrounding His death. Brother Trent concluded with the comment that most people who reject Christ’s resurrection do so because they don’t believe it is possible, not because there is contradicting evidence. If people looked only at the evidence, they would have to agree that Jesus’ resurrection is the most probable explanation for the outcome. The evening closed with a time of prayer.

believed they saw Him resurrected; and 4) After His death, His disciples became bold and willing to die for their faith rather than fleeing at the threat of physical harm. Brother Trent said these facts would be used to evaluate the seven most popular theories about what happened after Christ died. For example, one theory was that the disciples hid Jesus’ body and then lied about it, only pretending to have seen Him resurrected. As a group, everyone concluded that this theory contradicted fact #4 since the disciples’ lives would not have been transformed from cowardly to bold based on their own lies.

The other theories were considered in like fashion and in the end, the group determined that Jesus’ resurrection is

Trent Paulsen leads the group discussion.