Aloha!

Wow! Last night’s luau at North Danvers was such a fun experience. There was a great crowd and the food and fellowship were fantastic. Many thanks to all of those who planned, coordinated, and worked to make this such a fun evening. Special thanks to the Fellowship Team for their work on this!

Next Sunday is Palm Sunday and then the Sunday after is Easter. Be sure to check on the services come up on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday morning. On Easter Sunday we will begin with a Sunrise Service will be at 8:30am and then our Fellowship Time following. Then our Easter Morning Worship service will be at 10:10am. It’s a great time to invite your friends and family to come along with you to a service!

In my sermon yesterday I had mentioned the persecution of Christians in China. I thought I would share a few of the resources that I used in preparing for this. The new policy in Guangzhou of paying a reward to people who turn in underground religious groups has been widely reported in Christian media. Here is some original reporting from the South China Morning Post: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3003825/chinese-city-offers-us1500-reward-help-snare-foreign-religious. This article reports that this is largely directed at Protestant churches. Much of the statistical information came from this report from the Council on Foreign Relations: https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/christianity-china. This report relies heavily on the research of Purdue professor Fenggang Yang.

There are many families and individuals in our congregation and community who are in need of our prayers and our help because of various difficulties they are facing. Let’s always be aware of our need to act in a loving and caring way toward others.

God bless,

Brian