Bulletin for December 25

English fellowships are scheduled to set up lunch and clean up next Sunday. Please note and come early to help.
Awana Clubs will be off today and next Sunday, Jan 1 and will resume on Jan 8. There will be children program provided during 9:30-11:00am.
2016 Winter Camp will be held in Countryside Camp in Cambridge tomorrow to Thu (Dec 26- 29). The theme is Inside Out. Please pray for the speaker, Pastor Aaron Owen, the message and the open hearts of participants.
Year-end Thanksgiving and Worship Night will be held this Sat (Dec 31) New Year Eve at 7:30pm. Please reserve that night to praise Our Lord and share the grace of God together.
Finance announcement: Our church deficit amounts to $90,761.88 at the end of November. By God’s grace, we would need $209,876 offerings in December in order to balance and meet our bank’s requirement. As of Dec 18 we received $111,283. Therefore we need to have $98,593 offering this week. Please continue to pray for our needs and brothers and sisters’ steadfast offering. We will collect offerings until Dec 31, Sat. In addition, if you have any claims for 2016 expenses, please submit it by Jan 8, 2017 (Sunday).
English Prayer meeting will be cancelled next Wed. (Dec. 28) due to the English Winter Retreat. Prayer meeting will resume on Jan. 4th, 2017 at 8 p.m.
Elder Board Resolution in December as follows:
i) It is resolved that the appointment of Rev. Daniel Tang as Acting Senior Pastor effective Jan 1st, 2017 be approved.
ii) It is resolved the 2017 Fellowship Counselors / Committee list of Hebron Fellowship, Carmel Fellowship, Zion Fellowship and Canaan Fellowship be approved.
1st quarter of 2017 Sunday School will start next Sunday (Jan 1) at 11:15am. There are three courses:
a) Ephesians (suitable for Junior High School students, room 5)
b) Joshua (suitable for High School students, rooms 6-7)
c) Gospel of Matthew (suitable for University students and adults, rooms 10-11)
Encourage everyone to study the God’s Word together.
Mission Fund Faith Pledge and Mission In Germany Faith Pledge (Original targets were:$114,515 & $10,000 respectively): Until last Sunday, we have received 8 pledge forms of Mission Fund for $5,150, 9 pledge forms of Germany mission for $3,250.
Currently, applications for next June’s (2017) baptism is OPEN. We are promoting baptisms early as the deadline for the English congregation is Feb 26, which is different than the Chinese congregation. The reason for the change is mainly to allow for more time to prepare the candidates. Please take note of the date, if it is missed, the person desiring to be baptized will have to wait for the next round in Dec. Please hand in application forms to either Pastor Darren Tsang, Cecilia Ho, or Philip Cheung.
We will be launching our newly redesigned church website in Feb. The website will have information about our church for seekers, sermons, announcements, and various forms which people can download, and more! As such, we will be printing a decreased amount of worship bulletins to encourage members to refer to the website either on their tablets or smartphones. We hope that the new website will be a great tool for us to use while also being more environmentally friendly and decreasing wastage.
Rev. Daniel Tang will take days off on Dec 28-29 (this Wed – Thu), Jan 3,4,5 (Tue – Thu).
Pastor Anthony Yuen will take a day off this Thu (Dec 29).
Rev. Joe Chan will take his leave from Jan to Apr next year to complete his D. Min thesis. The details are as follows: From January 2 to March 9, is his remaining annual leave of 2016, annual leave of 2017, study leave of 2017 and make up holiday. And from March 10 to April 30 is a no pay leave.