August 22, 2017
Dear LABC,
It was good to be back with you Sunday and talk about things that matter in ways the matter. May we continue to hear the voice of God in the voices of our congregation. It was also good for the Hopkins’ to be able to share our grief at the death of Oakland firefighter Jake Walter, a high school baseball teammate and longtime friend of our youngest son, Ethan. Please keep Jake’s family and friends in your prayers. It was good to engage in meaningful conversation about all that is happening in our country. Thank you to all who shared and listened to one another at the Forum. Also, greatly appreciated were all who sang and played as part of the service.
I hope that many of you will be able to attend the Interfaith Service of Prayer for Peace at Temple Beth Abraham, 327 MacArthur Blvd. in Oakland, this coming Saturday at 4:00. May our community be united in spirit, united against hate, and united in a vision for the Beloved Community.
My sermon this Sunday is inspired by the recent book by New York times columnist Thomas Friedman titled, Thank You For Being Late: An Optimists Guide to Thriving in the Age of Acceleration. My central theme will be the celebration of our faith communities that allow us to remain rooted in an age when accelerated change in technology, globalization and climate can cause toxic rootlessness. My text will be John 20: 19-23. Carolyn Matthews will be our lead musician. (Both Carolyn and Jessie Guiton will be celebrating birthdays on Sunday!)
The LABC Scholarship Committee met Sunday and awarded seven scholarships that will be presented on Homecoming Sunday. A gift to this month’s Outreach Offering, the LABC Scholarship Fund, will help provide these scholarships to our outstanding college students.
Prayers of the Congregation
Requesting prayer during worship on Sunday were:
- Cathy Leaks
- Carole Lee
- Virginia McClow
- Gloria Meads
- Joan Patten
- Doris Evans
- Jesus Portillo
- Dale Edmondson
- Robert Wilkins
- LeAnn Flesher
- Mark Wilson
- Jill Nesbitt
- Jessica Ross
- Luke Oladoja
- Rick McKillop
- Mary Karne
- Marie Johnson
- Julio
- LaRhonda Alexander
- Larry Sims
- Sydney Webster
- Sheila Zack
- The Hopkins Family
- Sylvia Taylor-Smith
- Barbara Hunt
- Jessica Ross
Word of Prayer Concerns Received from Haiti
You may not know that Nzunga and Kihomi live on the campus of Northern Christian University in Limbe, Haiti. Yesterday we received this word from them:
Greeting. We have come to ask your prayers for our university family and for the families that are crying right now. Two of our Agriculture students were hit by a vehicle Tuesday late evening while they were riding a motorcycle from Cap-Haitian to Limbe. The victims were going into their third year of studies. The dead young lady, from our village of Haut-Limbe, is a mother of three children and a very active member of our Haut-Limbe Baptist Church.
At this very stressed time where parents are looking ways to return their children to schools and the university is making to start a new year, the news of death is scary and very disturbing.
Please let us join hearts in presenting our sorrow to the Almighty, the creator of life and death.
In Haiti,
Nzunga & Kihomi