So this coming Sunday (26 April 2020) will be the sixth week in a row since I have been able to meet with the congregation of the church where I am the pastor. Six weeks ago my wife pointed an iPad at me in an empty sanctuary and we went live. It was not the best production but it served to get us started.
Don’t think though that it was just she and I that made this happen. There are many others and I want to thank them all. So thank you Kenny and George. Thank you Carl and Paul as well. I can’t leave out Dr Steve and brother DJ. I know that you all put your heart into the work that you did and I know that I can count on you to continue to make great things for us going forward.
My greatest thanks though must go to my wife Diana and my friend Mary. These two have put in so many hours that I’ve lost count (ok I wasn’t really punting). They have turned our weakness into strength. We have all learned a lot about ourselves and each other as we navigate all of this change. Our next challenge will be to figure out how to continue this higher level of streaming when we are back together as a congregation. But I am confident that we will.
This is important because it seems to be working. We are engaging more people than we have for quite some time. I believe that the message of Jesus is reaching many new people and more people are connecting with that message. Our ability to be able to reach people is being multiplied. We are making real connections with believers around the world.
Here is an email I received a couple of days ago:
Dear most respected pastor Peter Ceccardi
Greetings to you from our Heavenly father and soon coming savior Jesus Christ!
How are you and your family especially your country? We are praying for you and the situations from there.
We heard every news from your country through the news telecast and terrible incidents.
We are also in the strict lockdown down days because of corona virus, our government extended lock down days till next month may 3rd. Our church believers ,orphans and some of our poor tribal pastors in very need of food and groceries. Some of our poor church believers sleeping with empty stomachs with their family and their children because there is no way to go outside to do any labour work.
Our Government passed rules not to conduct any Sunday services so; we did not conducted Sunday services or any gathering from last four weeks.
Please pray for me and my family, church believers and the poor tribal pastors.
In his service
Pastor mary
INDIA.
For those of you that don’t know this India is the 10th most dangerous place in the world to be a Christian. I know this because for many years outside of my family and congregation most of my prayer efforts are for persecuted believers around the world. This is the first time someone from one of these places has reached out to me for contact. I get prayer requests often through various organizations or by the church website but these never include a way to reach a person directly.
At first I was going to ignore this request fearing it was a scam of some kind. But as I prayed about it my heart softened. I will be reaching out to Pastor Mary. I’ll keep you posted.
prayersandpowerchords 