Vicar's
Message (July 2010)
Dearly beloved in Christ:
Greetings in the precious name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. It is indeed my pleasure and privilege to address
you through the pages of our church news letter "Inner
Voice". I thank God for this opportunity.We are very
grateful to you all for your warm and loving reception
during our arrival here in Detroit two months ago and for
your cooperation and support in many ways during these days.
I appreciate and congratulate you for the way in which you
have arranged our stay in the parsonage. Few people took
much pain and effort to clean and arrange it. I would like
to
express my sincere thanks to them and to all the members of
the parish and especially to the office bearers, executive
committee members and prayer group leaders for your prayers,
care and concern towards us. We pray that God almighty bless
you and your family abundantly both
spiritually and materially. We hope that we will have a
meaningful Christian fellowship and deeper personal
relationship and understanding during our tenure of three
years here, in Detroit. We know that God has send us here to
pray and plead for you, to share your joys and sorrows and
be with you all in your life experiences. we will do our
level best to have a fruitful service
trusting in Jesus Christ. Please continue to uphold us in
your prayers too. What God seeks from human beings ? "a
contrite and grateful heart". "The Lord is near to the
broken hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit "
(Psalms : 34 :18). God is impressed upon those who
sincerely thank Him for everything. A person can sincerely
thank God only when he thinks that he is undeserving for all
that he enjoys today. Nothing is ours , all that is given to
us is the grace and gift of God. How can we express our love
and gratitude to God ? It is by a creative response through
worship and witness. we have a mission to accomplish and
that is by doing
our responsibilities to God and our fellow beings . As
Eph:2:10, Paul says " we are his workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand
so that we would walk in them. Let us fulfill our duties and
live as responsible Christians before God with a sincere
heart". On July 3rd,our church celebrated St. Thomas day.
Saint Thomas, one of the apostles of Jesus Christ who is the
founder of St. Thomas traditions and Christian faith in
India ,is remembered on that day. July 4th Sunday is the
Christian stewardship day. God has called us to be good
stewards in wealth, time, and talents. God demands our
faithfulness and willingness. God loves and blesses the
cheerful giver. July 11th Sunday, we acknowledge our
ordained ministers. On that day we pray for our theological
institutions and take the special offertory of our Diocese
"The Suvisesha Nidhi". Every Family must offer at least $30
as offertory in the special cover provided. On July 18th
Sunday,the emphasis is CHURCH-a kingdom community. Since we
have our VBS final day programme on that day,our Holy
communion service in Malayalam lead by Rev Alex Peter will
be at 9.30am.Please notice the change.July 25th Sunday is
observed as fellowship Sunday-fellowship to God and to
men.We are a privileged community, called by Jesus Christ to
be in fellowship with Him and to each other.We must extend
our fellowship boundaries to our neighborhood. This years
Family conference at Dallas from July 1-4 was a great
success. Our vicar and three other families represented our
parish.A total of 227 families attended. Our VBS programme
will start on 12th monday.Please see that all our children
participate in the VBS.Parents must take special interest to
send their children. The Edavakamission meeting this month
will be on 20th Tuesday at 6.30pm in the church along with
the intercessory prayer. The National conference of MTEA is
at Philadelphia from July 23-25th.Our Edavakamission members
are planning to attend the same. The National youth
conference will be held in Chicago from July22-25th.We are
planning to arrange conveyance, and all our Youth members
are requested to attend the same. Our Sunday school
anniversary will be on 24th Saturday at 3pm.The parents are
also requested to attend the programme. This years Parish
Picnic is arranged to be held on 31st July from 10am onwards
at Boulan Park,Troy.The rate has been reduced to $10 per
family,so that all the members can participate. The prayer
group leaders are in charge of collecting the registration
amount. Picnic is the time of fun and personal interactions.
Please make use of the time for building our personal
relations and fellowship.
Please pray and prepare for our parish convention in
August(13-15).The main speaker is Mr.JoyPullad from Kerala.
Also for our parish retreat in September (10-12) at
ECHO-GROVE camp center. At least 250 members must attend.
This is the fist time we are arranging our retreat in
a camp center. So please co-operate with the picnic
committee to make it a success. I appreciate all the
participants and winners in the Diocesan Sunday school
examinations. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, please
come forward and participate in all our summer programmes
and make our parish life more lively. As the apostle Paul
says in1cor.15:58,"Therefore,my beloved
brethren, be steadfast ,immoveable, always abounding in the
work of the Lord,knowing that your toil is not in vain in
the Lord." July God bless you abundantly.
With prayerful regards
Rev Abraham Thomas(Abeyachen)
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