January 2008 — December 2008

If you are not inclined to read through Calvin in a year, or if you would like a challenge in addition to that, I have posted a few variations on some bible reading schedules. By clicking, you can download a schedule that will help you - read through the Bible in a year - read through the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice in a year - read through the Bible in two years My philosophy on this is that such schedules can often become more a burden than a joy. And yet at times, we need the external discipline to keep our nose ...

I just returned from vacation today and in opening the mail received a lovely thank you card from Randy & Barb to the congregation. The card will be on the bulletin board in the foyer, but in case you miss it, I wanted to share it with you... We are always left with a sense of awe by the faithfulness and support that you all give to us year after year. Thanks once again for your generous Christmas gift, and even more deeply, thanks for the warmth of your grace, love and patience toward us. We pray that God may yet and still do great things ...

click here for the latest news from Ron & Peg Smith...

Every New Year's Eve, our friends at St. Paul's Missionary Baptist Church hold a multi-congregation service from 9:00 PM until midnight at their building on Martin Luther King Blvd. in Bradenton. Again, they have invited us to join them. Here is an opportunity to bring in the New year in worship and in prayer. If you have questions, let me know.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Our next monthly time of worship and praise – mysteriously titled 'Ora et Labora' – will be next Sunday, January 4, 2009, at 5:00 PM. When we meet, everyone is given a prayer guide which lists requests focused upon the life and ministry of the church. You can see an example by clicking here. (And if you have not yet come, we highly encourage you to give it a try.) In anticipation of this next meeting, I'd like to know if you see in this guide any glaring omissions. If you have some ideas of some ...

We will be having a Candlelight Christmas Eve service at 6 pm this year. It will include a bunch of familiar carols, the reading of the Christmas story, a short devotional, and of course candles. This is a great time to direct your hearts to the real meaning of Christmas. Come on out and bring some friends.

The Smith's will soon be on their way to Grand Caymon....here's the latest: We've JUST heard that we will soon be on our way to ministry in the Caribbean, where we'll be pastoring and church planting on one island (Grand Cayman) while training and mentoring pastors and church planters on several others. This is a most-wonderful Christmas present for us! Rejoice with us! We praise the Lord and thank you all for sticking with us through some very difficult times of searching for how the Lord may provide the additional support needed to ...

Many of you know Allison Smith and her serious pursuit of ballet. We've received some information regarding some opportunities to see Allison perform and we thought that some of you might want to take advantage of that. Here is the info from Ron Smith, her father: "Please share this information with the folks at Hope, as there are some who have expressed a desire to see her dance. "The performances will take place at the Sarasota Opera House on Saturday, Dec. 20th at 7pm, and on Sunday, Dec. 21st at 2pm (matinee). "Tickets are $25 each, ...

Last Friday and Saturday, Nigel and Cheyenne Rudolph hosted a pottery show and sale. Nigel and Cheyenne are an archeologist and teacher by day, but their love is working with clay. They are both well accomplished and regarded in this field. The show revealed the great work they are doing. Here are some pictures of the show. Go to the site and click on a picture to see a larger view. I'm sure that Nigel and Cheyenne have remaining pieces for sale if you are looking for that last minute, handcrafted, locally made piece of art.

Also beginning this Sunday in our adult Christian education period, we will examine for two weeks the 'State of the Gospel'. The first week we will listen to an audio and visual presentation given by a missionary with Operation World given in 2006 which gives an overview of what God has been doing in missions around the world. Hopefully we will gain a perspective very quickly of what and where the needs are. (Some of these slides were used in a sermon I preached a few months ago.) The second week, we will spend some time considering the ...

During Christian Ed, we will be continuing to work our way through Tim Keller's The Reason for God. This can be a helpful time to learn how to engage the skeptical friend but also to help us as we struggle with our own doubts. We'll discuss "clues," not proofs of God's presence, the fact that knowledge of God is inescapable, the presence of sin, the uniqueness of the gospel and the cross and resurrection. You need not have read the book; however, we do commend the book to you and believe it will prove beneficial to both you and your ...

click here for the latest news from Tracy & Joy Dager.

Thanks to everyone for your support of the Angel Tree Program and the Food Drive in aid of the Salvation Army. This will be the final weekend to bring food donations to the church. _You may bring your donations to the Christmas Dinner on Saturday evening or to church on Sunday morning. All donations will be delivered to the Salvation Army next week. The needs are always great, but this year our community has been particularly hard hit by the economic downturn. If you are able to assist in this outreach effort, please do so.

Don't forget our annual Christmas Dinner this Saturday, December 13 at 6:00PM. Bring a dish to share and plan on joining us. If you haven't RSVP'd, please contact Jerusha Greenwald at 538-0423 or at simplysweet1416@aim.com so she has an idea of how many to expect. This will be a wonderful evening. Please join us!

Last night we had a wonderful time of singing and prayer skillfully put together and overseen by Keith Snow. We were greatly served musically by Keith, Staci Thomas, Jessica Terry, Jerusha Greenwald, and Johnny Weichel who all did an amazing job. Thanks to you all!< > < > The prayer time, as well, was very good. Thanks to all who came together to prayer together for the whole church.< > < > For those of you who could not make it, I have posted the prayer guide from that service for your use. You can download it by clicking here.< >

Click here for the latest news from Tito and Kim Padilla serving with BEAMM in El Paso.

Ladies, don't forget our Christmas Tea at Ruth Anne's tomorrow, December 9 at 7:00PM. Please bring a plate of your favorite treats and join us. The address is 608 63rd Street NW, Bradenton.

[We received this letter of thanks from Esaie Etienne a couple days ago and thought that you would like to see it. Members of HPC gave quite a bit of items to the Etiennes after their home flooded in the hurricanes. They are grateful.] Dear Partners and friends in Christ, It has been a little over a week since I came back from the medical mission trip to Haiti and it was a fabulous trip. The medical team had 4 people which includes one dentist, one nurse practitioner who is a specialist in women sicknesses, a male nurse and an architect....

On the first Sunday night of each month, we gather for a special time of singing and of prayer. That is coming up THIS SUNDAY EVENING at 5:00 PM. This was a wonderful time last month, and will certainly be so again this month. However, prayer is work, and there will be a natural resistance in our flesh to something such as this. So, I encourage you to persevere through that and join with us for this very important, and very encouraging, time. If you are unfamiliar with what this is, you can read more by clicking here or here or here.

For those of you who do not know, you can easily listen to missed sermons, and even download them to your computer, send them to friends, burn them to a cd, or whatever. You can get started doing this by going to our Sermon Audio pages. You can even set your computer up to automatically alert you to when a new sermon has been posted, and even to download that sermon for you. You can find out more about that by clicking here. Those of you who have already set up a subscription via e-mail or RSS will be surprised to find in upcoming days ...