News & Views February 17 2022

February 17, 2022
 
FEBRUARY MEMORY VERSE
So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in Him,
rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as  you were taught,
and overflowing with thankfulness.
Colossians 2:6-7
 
 
FEBRUARY 20th WORSHIP AND PRAYERWALKING
Life Lesson Classes for Adults
8:30 - PSALM 119 video series with Matt Chandler - Ron & Judy Brown leading - Room 111
8:30 - Clase de Estudio Bíblico en Español - Docente: Ruth Serrato - Room 113 (starts Feb 27)
8:45 - WELCOME Class: James - Leroy Bumbaca & Laurie Isaac teaching - Rooms 114-115
 
Connecting Point
9:30 A.M. - Dining Room
 
Worship and Prayerwalking
10:00 A.M. -  Family Center Gym/Online -
 
NLC Kids and Prayerwalking
10:00 A.M. - Rooms 101,103

Pizza Party
11:15 A.M. - Dining Room (after we return from prayerwalking)

Worship and Prayerwalking Information
Please bring comfortable walking shoes and a charged smartphone if you have one.

At 10:00 a.m we'll gather to sing and receive instructions for prayerwalking. Pastor Mark will share the vision and goal for Pray & Go. Nori Naylor will give instructions and provide a demonstration. We'll dismiss in groups of 2-5 to assigned neighborhoods before returning for pizza. NLC Kids will prayerwalk around the block with their leaders before returning for pizza.

For those unable to prayerwalk or guests who may feel unprepared or uncomfortable, Nori Naylor and Bruce Smith will remain in the Family Center to lead a time of prayer over Dinuba.

In 2019 our church voted to change its name and work toward a new vision.
We envisioned our In 2019 our church voted to change its name and work toward a new vision. We envisioned our church as a diverse family of faith. We envisioned ourselves continuously transforming through Jesus. And we envisioned ourselves loving God, each other, and our community. We immediately set a goal: to shift our church more strongly and cohesively to community transformational ministries. We aimed to bring the transforming love and power of Jesus into the community of Dinuba.

We Retrained ourselves to live out new values (welcoming, prayerful, hopeful, joyful and reconciling), Retooled for transformational ministries (ACE Overcomers, Faith & Finances, Celebrate Recovery, and Pray & Go), Rebranded as New Life Community, Realigned church operations, teams and budget priorities toward our goal, and have begun to Redesign our facilities to support and symbolize our new church vision. You can see for yourself the many ways our church vision is becoming a reality.

The community of Dinuba has been watching, too. We’ve gone to meet people where they are, invited their participation in our ministries, and collaborated with them in projects too big for us alone. We once asked ourselves in our vision planning just what the community would miss if we didn’t exist as a church. As someone put it, we had few answers and the answers we had were troubling. There was a wide gulf between “us and them”. Bridging that gulf was exactly what Jesus did and modeled for his followers when he left heaven to come to earth to meet our need. By God’s grace, the gulf between “us and them” in Dinuba has been bridged! 


Pastor Mark receiving news that New Life Community was selected as Dinuba's Non-Profit of the Year; with Cheryl Jackson of Open Gate Ministries (left) and Maria Rocca (right) at the Dinuba Chamber of Commerce.

Last week the Dinuba Chamber of Commerce selected New Life Community as Non-Profit of the Year! The award and check (from Ed Dena’s) will be made at the Chamber’s banquet Friday night (Feb. 18th). We were nominated by Armando Villareal of Dinuba’s Parenting Network, one of our partners in the toy and food distribution to Jefferson and Grandview schools this Christmas. He was in church on January 30th with one of his employees to help with our Grab & Go meals, and I had him share a bit about his own non-profit organization at lunch.

New Life Community has also been hosting the new Dinuba Community Task Force, an organization developed with the guidance of Sam Estes (Mennonite Brethren pastor from Reedley/Sanger). The goal of the task force is to bring together people of faith with people of goodwill to join in meeting the needs of our community that no one organization can accomplish alone. Homelessness has topped the list. But this week the task force found new energy not around a meeting table, but out on the streets working together.


John Hayward, Kelly Friesen, and Tom Regier removing furniture.

Cece Olea and Phyllis Enns clean the house with members of the family and Dinuba Police and Code Enforcement behind them.

Dinuba Police Officer K. Babcock scrubbing walls with bleach.

Left to right: Pastor Mark, Angie Molina (Dinuba code enforcement), Cece Olea, Brandon (Dinuba Public Works), Mike Naylor, and Thannia Chavana posing between projects.
Others involved from NLC not pictured include Stan R. Isaac, Marcia Sawatzky, John Warkentin (photos), Heathe Jones, Leo Olea, and Joe & Carolyn Ehoff.

A local police officer alerted Carolyn Ehoff to a family needing furniture. If the children didn’t have beds they would be removed from the home. Our Home Resource Center sprang into action and found that the need was much greater than furniture. Ultimately a coalition of people came together including Dinuba City police, fire, public works, and code enforcement, the Chamber and Dinuba Women’s Club, Dinuba Lumber, many from NLC plus members of two other churches. We repaired and cleaned the house, removed debris and a condemned shack on the property, provided furniture and a working washer/dryer, and blessed and prayed with the family. Praise the Lord!

Our Giving
 
Received Last Week (2/13):......... $6,405
Received this year to date: .….$204,688
Budget to Date: …………......…..$204,465
Budget Goal: …………..…...........$443,008
Needed Weekly: ……….…..….....…$8,519

New Life Community recommends wearing masks indoors to avoid the spread of COVID-19.
Please refer to State and County Public Health Agencies for more information.