Church Prayer Request

These are some prayer requests that came from our weekly prayer meeting. Please join us in prayer for these prayers. 

-Church attendance declining 

- Sound Cloud Ministry

-Church finances 

- Several people struggling with finances and employment 

- Several people need healing 

-Special Events 

     -Harvest Festival 

     -Kid's Club 

Great Commission Women National Project 2013-2014

Back in September, we re-launched our Women's Ministry. Great Commission Women is what our Headquarters is calling our Women's Ministry. Our women's ministry focus on being Women of God as well as missionaries. 

Below is a summary about our National Project that we are participating in. 

Our National Project “Let’s Have Coffee” is all about building relationships with resistant people through prayer and financial resources by partnering with:

• Ø  Cafes
• Ø  Study Centers
• Ø  Discipleship Initiatives

The goal is to fun four projects: one each in Russia ($88,900), Spain ($76,200), East Asia ($57,150), and CAMA Kosovo ($82,550).

The South Pacific District, our district, is part of TEAM SPAIN…wherein

funds we collect in our district will be going toward a Cultural Coffeehouse in an area of Spain where the work is mainly among Moroccan immigrants who move to Spain in search of a better life. These are mostly Muslim immigrants, and a variety of avenues are used to share the Gospel with them.

The coffeehouse is a proposed new place of ministry that would eventually be both a self-sustaining business, and also a very active place of ministry where Christ stands out even in the mix of cultures. The sweet aromas of North African mint tea and the rich roast of Spanish café con leche bridge two nations on common ground. The cultural coffeehouse will enable Alliance workers to meet new people and have spiritual conversations over a warm beverage. Christian resources, Bible studies, and discipleship will round the coffeehouse experience.  

If you would like to contribute to this project please send all contributions to the Church. 

Our address is 

340 East Evans Street

San Bernardino, CA 92404.  

Prayer Requests

Each week we receive an email from our Headquarters. This email contains prayer requests from around the world. Each week, these prayer requests are printed and posted to a Prayer Bulletin Board in our church foyer. I have decided to start posting them here as well, so that those that read our blog can prayer for these requests as well.

If you would like to receive these prayer requests in your email, please click here and visit our Headquarters website to sign up.

CMA Prayer Requests (October 14)

What does the Holy Spirit of God do in our lives?

Over the past several Sunday's Pastor Rosenberg has been preaching about What the Holy Spirit of God do in our lives. You can catch his sermons on our Soundcloud site by clicking here.

Below is the outline of his major points.

What Does the Holy Spirit of God Do in Your Life?

Words of Encouragement

Thank You, God for Everything

By Helen Steiner Rice

 

Thank You God, for everything--

the big things and the small--

For every good gift comes from God,

the Giver of them all,

All too often we accept,

without any thanks or praise,

The gifts God sends as blessings

each day in many ways.

And so at this time we offer up a prayer

To thank You, God, for giving us

a lot more than our share.

First, thank You for the little things

that often come our way--

The things we take for granted

and don’t mention when we pray--

Oh, makes us more aware, dear God,

of little daily graces

That comes to us with sweet surprise

from never-dreamed-of places…

And help us to remember that

they key to life and living

is to make each prayer a prayer of thanks

and every day Thanksgiving.

Generous Missions Contribution

The following is a personal hand-written note from the President of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, Dr. Gary M. Benedict. He wrote this note in response to the generous missions contribution of $2,100 that Pastor brought with him to our General Council in Tampa Bay, Florida in June.

“Alan,

Thank you and the good people of the church in San Bernardino for the generous support of Great Commission Sunday. It is a great blessing and a huge encouragement.

God Bless You,

Gary”

Kid’s Club

Introducing our newest ministry…Kid’s Club. Kid’s Club is a fun place for children to learn about God.

Kid’s club takes place on Tuesday night while our Adult Bible Discussion class meets. We are continuing to explore the themes we briefly touched on during vacation bible school.

Right now, we are focusing on the theme of Love…God’s Love and how God loves us. Each week, the children listen to a brief story, expand on the story with a craft to remind them of the story and the receive a memory verse to memorize.

You can visit our Kid’s Club photo album on our Facebook page by clicking the image below.

What does the Holy Spirit Of God Do in Your Life?

For the last several weeks, Pastor Rosenberg has been preaching about what the Holy Spirit does in our lives. If you would like to listen to the sermons, please click on the picture which will take you to our SoundCloud Page. Below is an outline of seven of things that the Holy Spirit does in our lives.

 

 

1. The Holy Spirit is God’s magnifying mirror inside of you to show you to yourself, through conviction of sin. (John 16:8-9)

2. The Holy Spirit performs a radical make-over of your character and personality, so we will be like Christ. (Galatians 5:22)

3. The Holy Spirit reveals the permanent location of where we live now…heaven. (Ephesians 2:4-6)

4. The Holy Spirit reveals your identities and enables you to be who you are. Our new identities include but not limited to:

a. ADOPTED by God the Father (Romans 8:14-17)

b. AMBASSADOR for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20)

5. The Holy Spirit controls your mind. He becomes a “firewall” to keep the devil from hacking in and stealing God words. He is like a filter that protects our minds from being messed up the devil. (Romans 8:6-9)

6. The Holy Spirit is our Guide to guide us to our individual appointed destinations. One common destination we all have as adopted children of God is the land of freedom from the prison of our bad memories. (Luke 4:14-19)

7. The Holy Spirit infuses supernatural power into our lives for specific purposes.            (Acts 1:6-8)

a. Power for constant prayer

b. Power for passionate proclamation of Christ

SoundCloud Ministry Update

On March 3, 2013, we launched our Soundcloud ministry. This ministry allows Pastor’s sermons to be around the world on the world wide web. The message becomes available immediately on Sunday thanks to the technical expertise of Mark Ragan and Ira Barker. So far, 133 people have listened. We don’t know how many people have actually accepted Christ from these sermons. But we have had people from the Netherlands and Argentina listen.

Honor thy Father and Mother

It is no surprise that there is a special day in which we honor our Mothers and Fathers, but as Christians we are commanded by God to honor thy Father and Mother. Well as a church we did just that in the month of May and June.

For Mother’s, we had a Mother’s Day Banquet in May. The men of the church had the pleasure of serving the women of the church. Ed Maxwell gave a wonderful concert and each woman in attendance received a rose.

 

For Father’s, we had a BBQ. Every father in attendance received a special gift that reminds them to be the Man that God created them to be Everyone had a blast at these events and we had great turn outs. We had about 25 people for both events.

Independence Day Celebration

On July 3, we hosted our biggest outreach event of the year, our Annual Independence Day Celebration. Each year we have a church wide BBQ complete with fireworks. Our BBQ consists of 1/2 lb All-beef Hamburger Patties, 1/2 lb All-beef Foot-long hot dogs, regular hot dogs and 2lb Baked Potatoes. Our fireworks display took place at dusk and lasted about 15 minutes. We had about 125 people in attendance.

This event was also used as a kick-off to our Vacation Bible School. We gave parents the opportunity to pre-register their children for Vacation Bible School.

Colossal Coaster World Recap

 

Our exciting week of Vacation Bible School has come and gone. It was a fantastic week.

We had an average of 7 kids each night. One night we had as many as 9 kids.

 

We had an adult vacation bible school as well. Our adult attendance varied from night to night. One night we had 11 adults in attendance.

The kids had a blast. They enjoyed everything moment of Vacation Bible School. The motto for the week was “Facing Fears,Trusting God”. The scripture verse of the week was 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love and sound judgment.”

The adults study the book of 2 Timothy in a discussion type format. They enjoyed their discussion so much that that decided to continue this discussion type format. So a new Bible Study class has now meeting on Tuesday Nights at 7pm.

We are also continuing the fun of vacation bible school for children in a new children's ministry known as Kid’s Club. Kid’s club takes place on Tuesday night during the Adult Bible Study class. Kid’s Club is a fun place for children to learn about God. In August, when school starts Kid’s Club will be a place for children to learn about God and get help with their homework. 

Why God Made Fathers

The below poem was written by a lady named Katherine Nelson Davis.

Why God Made Fathers

God knew that children all would need

Someone secure and strong

To shelter and protect them

And to teach them right from wrong.

A person to take pride in

Throughout their growing years,

Someone to laugh at childhood jokes

And to comfort childhood tears;

That’s why God made fathers.

God knew all children needed

Someone to be their guide,

To count on and look up to

And in whom they could confide;

He knew as they grew up

They’d need the reassurance of

Someone with faith and trust in them

Who would always give them love;

That’s why God made fathers.

Letter from a Council Member

Below is a letter that we received from one of the City Council Members about the National Day of Prayer event that our church organized.

Coming Soon: Colossal Roller Coaster World

"Footprints in the Sand"

One Night I had a dream....

I dreamed that I was walking along the beach with the Lord and across the sky flashed scenes of my life. For each scene I noticed two sets of foot prints in the sand. One belonged to me, the other to the Lord. When the last scene flashed before us, I looked back at the foot prints in the sand; I noticed that many times along the path of my life, there was only one set of prints; I also noticed it happened at the saddest and lowest times of my life. This worried me that I questioned the Lord about it. 

"Lord, you said that once I decided to follow you, you would walk with me all the way, but now I find that during the most troubled part of my life there is only one set of footprints. I can understand why in times I needed you most you would leave me alone." 

The Lord replied, "My precious, precious child. I love you and would never, never leave you alone during the darkest hour of need. When you see only one set of foot prints, it was then that I carried you in my arms." 

"Joy"

On Sunday, April 14, 2013, we were blessed to have a small mixed musical ensemble from the Collinsworth School of Music At California Baptist University come and inspire us through song. There was about 70 people in attendance. It was an amazing time of worship. 

If you want to find out more information about the Collinsworth School of Music. Click Here. 

Special Thanks

Thanks to a gracious donor we know have a bigger projection screen to use for our Sunday Morning Worship Service. We would also like to thank our Worship Leader and his grandson  for taking the time to install the screen that was used for the first time this past Sunday.

Our new screen.

Easter 2013

Easter is the time of year when we remember what Jesus did for us. The pain he went through so that could have eternal life.

This Easter Sunday we had 90 people in attendance. We were blessed to have two sermons given. One was a musical sermon presented by Sweet Tidings Band, a local Gospel Band. The other was an inspiring sermon given by Pastor Rosenberg.

Sweet Tidings Band

Gospel Concert: Restored Trio

On March 15, we had the opportunity to be inspired by Restored Trio, a Southern Gospel Group. It was an awesome night. We can't wait to have them join us again.

Restored Trio is a family-oriented and ministry-minded singing group. They have a song to sing and a message to be heard-- especially now in the day and age in which we live. As a group they know that there are a lot of hurting people who needs to be uplifted and with the Lords help it’s our goal as a group to see lives changed and people touched through our ministry. 

To find out more about Restored Trio, you can click here to visit their website.

"Be The Light" Missionary Convention 2013

Our Annual Missionary Convention is a one of the most important events of the year. This year's them was "Be the Light." 

Our convention kicked off on Sunday. February 10 with an inspiring message from Rev. Tuy, a Cambodian Pastor who is well informed about the Lord’s work through the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination. The Christian and Missionary Alliance is celebrating 90 years of missionary service in Cambodia this year. 

The week continued as we hosted an American Missionary couple from Russia and the Ukraine. Mr. and Mrs. Hope were with us for four days. They shared with us about Family life, Food, relationships, history of the Ukraine, church services and about their ministry in Russia and the Ukraine for the past 19 years. 

 We had a  wonderful Valentine’s Pot Luck banquet,  a Fellowship breakfast and three other inspiring services. As a church we took a step of faith and pledged $10,000 as our  Missionary Faith pledge for 2013.  As of March 17, 2013, we have contributed $1,803. 

Below is a collage of pictures from our Missionary Convention. 

Great, Grand and Glorious Opportunities

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is providing two great, grand and glorious opportunities at the same time.

My beloved brothers and sisters, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is providing our C&MA family with TWO UNPRECENDENTED OPPORTUNTIES AT THE SAME TIME.

Opportunity One: Extensive repairs of our physical property provided by Pastor Pablo Gamaz

The reality is that no repairs have been made since our “new sanctuary” was completed 30 years ago. The only exception is some emergency repairs of severe leaks during the rainy season. Why have we sorely neglected repairs? We do not have people available for the work. We do not have money to hire contractors.

Pastor Pablo Gamaz is a one-man construction company. He volunteered to fix everything. Remember, he installed new security locks in all the outside-facing doors. He has painted The Elliott Eastman Room (Fellowship Hall) and Guadalupe Avila hung lovely new curtains. He recently installed a new door to the conference room as well as having nearly completed building a totally NEW bathroom in our lovely, large nursery.

Opportunity Two: Our C&MA church is now on the World Wide Web and Facebook provided by Mark Ragan assisted by Ira Barker, and Heather Svihl assisted by Bonnie and Austin Perez

Simply put, everyone, anywhere in the world, on the internet may now hear our Pastor and can connect with our church. Already, we have had 15 people listen to Pastor’s sermons, 19 people like our Facebook page, and we have received a prayer request for a State Senator. This is just since March 4th, we launched the sites.

Now, here is the faith part for our C&MA family. Both of these golden opportunities are expensive. Reality is this. Your contributions do not even begin to cover the basic operating expenses of the church.

The General Fund of the church is empty (and the quarterly insurance payment of $750 is due). We have borrowed from the Youth Fund, with the permission of the contributor. This cannot continue.

The Lord is our Source, our provider. You are his instruments.

The traditional Easter Love Offering is designated for our General Fund. May we be united in prayer as the C&MA family?

“Whoever puts their trust in Him will never be put to shame.”

Romans 9:33

Low-tech Pastor in High-tech World Goes World Wide

Our Pastor always says he it a low-tech guy in high-tech world, but that does not limit his willingness for others to use technology to spread the gospel. This past Sunday we officially launched our Sound Cloud ministry. We are using the media website Sound Cloud to upload our Pastor's weekly sermons on so that members who can't make it to church can still listen and to reach people who don't yet know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. (Click here to check out our SoundCloud Profile)

We will know have CDs of pastor's sermon for people who want one.
God is opening doors for us to expand ministries of our church.

Our Pastor being presented with his first official CD/Web Sermon.

United in Christ

“I have given them the glory that you have gave me, that they may be one as we are one.”

John 17:22

We now have three different ethnic Christian and  Missionary Alliance (C&MA) churches meeting on the same property. This is a rare occurrence anywhere in the United States. On February 3rd, 2013, all three churches came together for a Communion-Unity Service. We gathered not  as an English congregation, Spanish congregation or Cambodian churches, but as brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. We had special music for each church in their own language, each Pastor gave an inspiring mini-sermon and we remembered what Christ did for us on that cross many years ago. Five new members were welcomed in to the C&MA. This is the most  members received at one time in the last 15 years. After the worship service, our Cambodian brothers and sisters treated us to an authentic  Cambodian lunch. This service was a spirit-filled inspiring service. 

Our full sanctuary during the service we had 122 people in attendance. 

 

 

Clothing Giveaway Ministry

On the first Saturday of every month our church has a monthly clothing giveaway. People from all over the valley are welcome to come and hear brief message about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, at the end of the message they are able to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior of their life.

Our Lord and Savior provides these clothes from our Pastor's Christian chiropractor who delivers bags of clothes each week to our Pastor's home. Our Pastor then brings the clothes to the church and we have a team of women who work hard to sort the clothing and prepare for the next clothing giveaway.

Blessed & Extraordinary January

As a church, we want to thank our Lord Jesus Christ for 11 blessed and extraordinary events that happened in January. This is the strongest start of a new year in decades. 

1. Attendance: Average attendance in January increase nearly 10% over 2012 average for the year
2. Church Secretary: Heather Svihl now serves as the creative, efficient church secretary
3. Clothing Distribution: The distribution on First Saturday of month and every Sunday was reorganized and improved
4. Fiances: Two Large unexpected, generous gifts were contributed to the church. 
5. Improvements were made in the physical facilities: Too many improvements to list everything, but here are a few: west exterior wall was repainted, many rooms have been reorganized and our lawn and grounds are beautiful now.
6. Inspiring services were held: 
1. Teen Challenge came with 25 beautiful women who shared how the Lord transformed their lives 
2. Unity-Communion Services with the three ethnic congregations who share the Lord's facilities...English, Spanish, Cambodian. 122 people were in attendance and after the service a nice Cambodian lunch was served.
7. Membership: Five people were welcomed into official membership. This is the largest number of new members at one time SINCE Novemeber 1997.
8. Mission Contribution: Your missionary contributions for support of missionaries were more than $9,000 when the missionary pledge year ended in January. 
9. Nursery: A completely new bathroom was built by Pastor Gamaz who contributed his construction skills. Bob Bellet helped with termite elimination.
10. PowerPoint: For the first time we have Power Point for our Worship Services.
11. Sing-Along, Evening Service: Ed Maxwell volunteered and led a Sunday Evening Sing-Along in which 27 people were in attendance. There are more sing along services to come. 

All these blessing and benefits happened in just ONE MONTH.  

Our Pastor and his wife have been encouraged for many years by Galatians 6:9, 

"We shall reap in DUE SEASON if we FAINT NOT."

Will the year 2013 be our churches "DUE SEASON" ?