NOVEMBER 2021

From the Pastor’s desk –

The Cornucopia November, 2021

As we all know the funnel-shaped basket that we see (picture on the right) so often at Thanksgiving time is called a Cornucopia, which is also known as a basket of a “horn of plenty”. Traditionally, it is modeled and shaped after a curved goat’s horn, which is filled with the abundance of the fields. The cornucopia is a symbol of all the blessings God has given to us. As the Thanksgiving season begins, we turn our thoughts to how God has once again provided the grain of the fields, the vegetables of the garden and the fruit of the land to sustain us.

Imagine a cornucopia at least as big as a house and it is filled with those things for which you personally are most grateful, specially in this season of Thanksgiving. The blessings that we continue to receive from God would spill out of our cornucopias. What would you like to include in the “horn of plenty?

It’s your cornucopia, imagine it as large as it needs to be to include all for which you are thankful. Then we offer a silent but continuous prayer of thanksgiving unto our Almighty God.

Let us remember, “the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness”, Lamentations 3: 22-23. Even in our tribulations, struggles and sorrows, let us continue to trust God of victory who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. With prophet Habakkuk 3:17-19a we affirm our faith, “though the fig tree does not blossom, and no fruit is on the vines; though the produce of the olive fails, and the fields yield no food, though the flock is cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength”.

Our cornucopias could include even our hardships as through our struggles we experience God’s presence, protection and power. Praise and thanks be to God in Jesus Christ.

A blessed thanksgiving to each one of you.

Grace and Peace

Pastor Saroj Sangha

The Main Thing

Pastor Olivia Gross

1. Verse Luke 10:41-42 “You beloved are worried and upset about many things, but few things areneeded—or indeed only one” [NRSV] or “only one thing is essential” (The Message, Eugene Peterson).

2. Don’t confuse the urgent with the essential. “If I were to let my life be taken over by what is urgent, I might never get around to what is essential” [Theologian Henry Nouwen].

3. First spend time with God, do what is essential—put God at the top of your list, everything else will fall into place.

4. Your worries and distractions may still be present, but you will not be overpowered by your cares because you would have been strengthened and nourished by God to withstand whatever comes your way.

5. You are not alone for God is with you from this day forth and forever more.

6. You have been called to serve in ways that only you can with unique gifts God placed within you. Don’t squander it.

7. God loves you just as you are, not as you want to be.

8. We live in tension of doing what is urgent (our day-to-day responsibilities) and the tension of doing what is essential—take time to inhale the Spirit of God.

9. Don’t be that person who calls on the name of the Lord only when you are in need and have nowhere else to go. Don’t be that person who says day- after- day, just let me finish what I am doing before I get to you.

10.Pray for strength and courage to do the essential which is spending time with God.

Pastor Olivia Gross, who brought the message on UMW Sunday, on the 24th October, 2021

is a part-time pastor at Mount Zion UMC in Gaithersburg, MD. She is a wife, mother, grandmother, a student at Wesley Theological Seminary doing her Masters in Divinity program. At present she is a staff member at the Baltimore-Washington Conference as an Administrator and reporting directly to Superintendent, Rev. Dr. Gerard A. Green, Jr.

She’s an avid reader and loves to read and pray the Psalms. She is your sister in Christ and believes the words of Psalms 27: 9, “I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”

Prayer Requests

There is POWER in prayer –especially prayer together. We ARE the Church, and together we will lift our friends and family in faithful prayer before our Heavenly Father! We are mindful that “faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” and that “through faith . . . the worlds were framed by the Word of God . . .”

[Hebrews 11: 1, 3]

PRAYER CONCERNS FOR THOSE WHO ARE RECOVERING AT HOME:

Mr. Paul Jerome Kola, Mrs.

Pramila Naini, (friend of Dr. Prabha Clarence), Ms. Kabina McCabe

(Ahan Brown’s sister), Mr. Noble Samson, Mr. Sherlock Ratanjee, Ms. Avril Bryce

(Diane Smith-Brown’s sister), Mr. Raphael Neville Victor, Mr. Richard McMullen,

Mrs. Rachel Augustine (Pushpa Sonty’s sister), Mrs. Esther Cornelius (Angela’s mother-in-law), and Mrs. Asuntha Francis (Rachel’s sister).

CHILDREN RECEIVING CARE AT HOME: Abigail Channuri and Elysia Durgam.

Bereavement Notice

Deaconess Santhosha Peter, from the Bangalore Conference suffered a massive heart attack and went to be with the Lord on 27th of October, 2021. We pray for God’s comforting arms to surround the bereaved family.

Ms. Ruth Kaushal, Dr. Michael Henry’s mother-in-law and Dinah’s mother slept in the Lord on 24th October, 2021 in Chicago, IL. She’s survived by her son, daughter Dinah, grandchildren and host of friends and relatives..