NLC Connect September 6 2023

September 6th, 2023
by Mark Isaac

connect with God's Word

Praise the Lord that a man at Celebrate Recovery accepted Jesus at last week's gathering! He has found new life in Christ that will last forever! Remember, the Gospel is the power of God that brings salvation to anyone who believes. Let's keep sharing it, trusting God and his Word to bring life to others.

connect with ministries

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6
6:30 p.m. - Worship Practice - Gym
6:30 p.m. - Prayer Gathering - Room 113

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7
5:30 p.m. - Celebrate Recovery meal and ministry. TESTIMONY. Small Groups. Solid Rock Cafe.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 10
NEW CLASSES BEGIN SEPT 17 and 24
9:30 a.m. - CONNECTING POINT (Dining Room)
10:00 a.m. - WORSHIP - NLC CREW - NLC KIDS - NURSERY

Pastor Mark preaches on Giving God's Grace: Forgiveness
NLC KIDS will have THE BIG MESS!

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12
6:00 a.m. Men's Bible Study on 1 Thessalonians - Dining Room
NOTE: Healing Rooms of Dinuba will not be open tonight

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13
6:30 p.m. - Worship Practice - Gym
6:30 p.m. - Prayer Gathering - Room 113

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 14
5:30 p.m. - Celebrate Recovery meal and ministry. LESSON. Small Groups. Solid Rock Cafe.

FRIDAY-SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15-17
Women's Retreat at Hartland Camp

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 17
8:30 a.m. - New Video Class begins: Haggai - Room 111
Pastor Mark preaching on Giving God's Grace

connect with giving

Received Last Week (9/3): .....….. $6,296
Received this year: ……………........$6,296

We're beginning a new budget year this month. Look for a Church Member Meeting to be announced soon to approve a new budget for 2023-2024.

A preliminary financial report shows we ended last fiscal year on August 31st
with a surplus of over $62,000. Praise the Lord!

Pray for the following people dealing with cancer, testing, waiting, or treatments: Lanisha Washington (and her mother Tanisha, who is caring for her Lanisha's two children along with her own); Kristel Salazar, Eugene Enns, Glen Zimmerman, Carolina Corrales, Pastor Bill Nicolay, Bea De La Cerda, and Manuel Madrid's mother, Mary.
Mike Naylor is scheduled for radiation seeds to be implanted on September 12th.
JR and Janet Southard have a final month at home together before she returns to work. Pray for JR's healing, and for wisdom and provision to meet his health needs.
Pray that Ron Froese will regain his hearing.
Pray for Johnny Esposito's back. He continues to have intense pain that makes his travel for ministry extremely challenging.
Stan & Ann Isaac's daughter, Stephanie Cabrera, has started an 8-month dental surgery process. Please pray for endurance and ongoing healing.
Pray for Lorry Felland, scheduled for hip surgery this month.
Keep R & G in your prayers as they make caregiving decisions with an aging family member.
Remember Chinoh with the Air Force in Qatar. He is on the Saturday evening worship team.
Pray for Stephanie Morales as she leads worship during her pregnancy.
Pray that Tom Regier has a safe flight home in his open cockpit plane from the Midwest.
Give thanks to God for supplying NLC's financial resources!
Pray for a team of volunteers to work with youth on Sunday mornings, and with children and youth on Thursday evenings.
Praise the Lord for a new believer at last week's Celebrate Recovery gathering!
Remember our missionaries: Rudy & Cristina Ancheta in San Francisco, Cecil & Tracy Ramos in Thailand (they'll be at NLC on December 3rd), Pablo & Maricela Chavez in Peru.

connect with KIDS!

Last weekend was Labor Day. I know of several people who were able to take the weekend away and enjoy time with family. Laurie and I went to Chaffee Zoo and came home to grill burgers with our daughters and future son-in-law. I hope you had a similar time of relaxing or serving others.

On Sunday, 146 of us arrived to worship the Lord and encourage each other in our faith at NLC. I was grateful for those who came, and happily surprised to see so many kids. There were 50 children under the age of 18 at NLC on Sunday, and they all lined up on stage as we dedicated the MCC School Kits they assembled. It was hard to miss just how many were up there!

You're doing the math, aren't you? I did, too. Those 50 kids in church last Sunday made up 34% of last Sunday's total church attendance. That's a lot! That's also very close to the percentage of children that make up the population of Dinuba. The 2020 census counted 35.6% of Dinubans under the age of 18, with as many under age 5 (8.6%) as there are adults 65 years and older (8.3%). Amazing, isn't it?

We never set a goal that our church demographics would be the same as Dinuba's, but it does make sense that our shift outward toward community transformation ministries would change us, too. We're beginning to look at lot like Dinuba. And Dinuba is seeing Jesus in us.

Loving and serving so many children requires an "all hands on deck" attitude. Jessica Aquino is an excellent leader for our children's ministry, and Joanna Brooks is a great partner in caring for the little ones on Sunday and a growing number of children on Thursday evenings. They have a great team, too, and would be glad to have your help. Each volunteer goes through a background check and receives training. Why not you? What I've found serving the kids is how quick they are to connect and how eager they are to engage in learning.

Thank God for entrusting us with the children of this community and their families! Pray for a growing number of adults to love and serve them toward growing faith in Jesus.