NLC Connect April 16 2024

TUESDAY, APRIL 16
6:00 am - NEW Men’s Bible Study on JOSHUA- Gym
9:00 a.m. - LIFT Women's Bible Study - Rooms 114/115
6:30 p.m. - HEALING ROOMS is reopened, West patio of Worship Center 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 17
6:30 pm - Prayer Gathering, Room 113
6:30 pm- Worship Team rehearsal

THURSDAY, APRIL 18
5:30 pm - CELEBRATE RECOVERY meal, worship, groups

SATURDAY, APRIL 20
10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. - ONE EVENT featuring 50 booths from local churches and ministries; 3 cars given away - RoseAnn Vuich Park.  NLC and NLC -CR will be there!
5:30 p.m. - Immanuel Schools Open House and 80th Anniversary Celebration, Reedley

MONDAY, APRIL 22
6:00 pm - CR Worship Team rehearsal

TUESDAY, APRIL 23
6:00 am - NEW Men’s Bible Study on JOSHUA- Gym
6:30 p.m. - The Healing Rooms of Dinuba - West patio of Worship Center

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24
6:30 pm - Prayer Gathering, Room 113
6:30 pm- Worship Team rehearsal

THURSDAY, APRIL 25
5:30 pm - CELEBRATE RECOVERY meal, worship, groups

FRIDAY, APRIL 26
6:00 p.m. - Dinuba Chamber of Commerce Annual Awards Banquet - Veterans Hall (purchase tickets at the Chamber)

Received Last Week (4/14):……....... $3,193
Received this year to date: ...……..$231,209
Budget to Date: ………......................$254,063
Budget Goal: …………...…...…............$400,342
Needed Weekly: …………….…….........…$8,902

PLANNING AHEAD FOR SUMMER
The Elders are preparing to invite 3 NLC young people to be interns at NLC this summer, as well as having the entire NLC CREW youth group participate in Multiply's SOAR Fresno mission/ministry program. Please pray about how you might contribute to helping fund these opportunities for our young people. SOAR Fresno is $200/person. The internships provide for a $3000 scholarship each. Talk with Josh or Jessica Aquino for details.

I've been asked to start compiling the highlights of 40 years of ministry for my final Sunday, June 16th. It's also one week before Laurie and I celebrate 40 years of marriage. So many faces and moments and miracles come to mind that I figured I'd put some extras in here that might be too long to share in person that Sunday. This one, I'll call "Keys".

In 1992, after 6 years as Youth Pastor at Visalia United Methodist Church, it was time to move forward in ministry in two important ways. First, I needed to finish my last year of seminary in Fresno, and second, I needed to trust God to guide us to a new place of ministry as a church pastor. It would mean selling our home in Visalia, moving to Fresno with our small family, securing jobs to support us for the year, finding a house, and likely taking out a loan to pay for my last seminary classes. It felt daunting.

Our home sold in 4 days! That felt like miracle #1, but it also meant we were "on the clock" to find a new place to live in Fresno. The church and Laurie's colleagues from school each gave us send-off parties, which also reminded us that we needed new jobs to pay for housing, put food on the table, and fill the cars with gas. It felt very real.

Laurie and I made an appointment at the seminary to discuss a loan for my classes. Joyce, the registrar, confirmed a 0% interest loan for the amount I needed. That felt like miracle #2. When she asked what else we needed, she immediately offered Laurie a job at the seminary that fit with my class schedule so we could split the responsibility of taking care of the kids. That felt like miracle #3. John Guinn, owner of Evans Miller Guinn Chapel in Exeter and a friend of mine back then, had already set me up for a part-time job at Stephens & Bean Chapel in Fresno. That was miracle #4. But we still needed a place to live, and that felt frightening.

As I was explaining to Joyce that we still needed a house, I lifted my hands in front of me with my palms up. I felt desperate. Just then, someone knocked on the door and walked in. It was a fellow student who was graduating and leaving for Canada with his young family. They were out in the car as he spoke. He quickly apologized, told Joyce that he had not found anyone to live in a certain professor's home for the last year in which he and his family were out of the country, and so asked if he could just leave the keys to their home with her. My hands were still in the air in front of me, palms up, as Joyce told him, "Don't give them to me. Give them to Mark!" The keys to a 3-bedroom house literally dropped into my hand!

It was a moment of confirmation, for sure, and a bigger miracle than all the others, it seemed! God had indeed been with us, guiding our steps in ways we hadn't always seen. He knew what he was doing with us and our two little kids, and was providing for us as we were obedient to him. We knew in that moment we could trust him to guide and provide for each and every step along the way. And he has!