Greetings Church Family,

Happy New Year!  The start of a New Year is a great time to remember the faithfulness of God in the previous year and reset our hearts and lives on God and His kingdom.  May the New Year bless you with unwavering faith that guides your steps, illuminates your path, and fills your heart with hope and strength throughout the year ahead.  The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning, and great is His faithfulness (Lamentations 3:22-23).  We are looking forward to and expecting God to do great things this year through this ministry! 

Bella and I are thrilled to share with you our plans for the month of January.  We are happy to announce that we will begin this month focusing on trust-building activities and games to create an atmosphere of engagement and community.  We want to build a culture of trust and build relationships.  In the later part of January, after getting to know each student, we will dive into a 4-week series on Kingdom Identity.   

Series Overview:

We live in a culture that values shallow, superficial, and temporary things. Students are told lies every day about what’s important in life and how to be important in life. This dramatically affects their view of their identity and their value—and though we can’t unhear the lies of the enemy, we can replace them with the truth from God’s word. In this four-part series, students will learn that their identity is not dependent upon what others say about them, or even what they say about themselves, but by what God says about them.

Scope and Sequence:

 Lesson 1 – God Knows Your Heart

God does not look at the things that man looks at, He looks at the heart. Our identity is not dependent on the things people see, but on how God sees us.

Lesson 2 – God Knows Your False Identity

On Earth, there are certain things that make us feel valuable (our position, appearance, wealth, skills). However, these things can all be taken away, so our value and identity have to be dependent on something eternal—being a child of God.

Lesson 3 – God Knows Your Real Identity

Just as we have temporary and worldly Position, Appearance, Wealth, and Skills, we also have all of these things in the spiritual sense. These things make up our REAL identity and value, and cannot be taken away by man. 

Lesson 4 – God Knows Your Purpose

Our identity cannot be separated from our purpose. God knows WHO we are on this Earth, but also WHY we are here. This message will let students know their purpose (to glorify God) but also their potential through the power of the Spirit.

This month's article titled, "The Importance of Family Faith Conversations" by Jim Burns - President of HomeWard Center for Youth and Family at Azusa, shows how critical healthy faith conversations within the home are on a regular basis.  Studies show that when young people have a healthy spiritual life, they make better decisions about their friendships, school, sexuality, and obedience to  authority, and they tend to experience much fewer at-risk behaviors.  We hope that this article encourages your family to have faith-forming conversations on a daily basis while having dinner, traveling to sports activities/events, bedtime, etc.

In other news, we wanted to provide you with a quick update on the progress of the makeover currently underway within The Loft.  Over the past few weeks, Bella and I have been dedicated to freshening up The Loft with new furniture, painting interior walls and committing to a dedicated space for a cafe bar.   We are delighted to inform you that we have successfully reached a significant milestone with painting the interior walls and getting the room cleaned in preparation for the reopening on Sunday, January 7, 2024. 

We would like to express our gratitude for the support and guidance of the Pastoral Staff throughout this project and transition.  Bella and I are excited about the progress made thus far and are on track to have the majority of the work completed by January 07, 2024.  The cafe bar will hopefully be completed for the open house on January 28, 2024.  We would also like to take this opportunity to express our appreciation to Rob Morin, Charlie Glazier and Bruce Bird who were instrumental in fulfilling our vision for the space.  Their contributions have been invaluable in getting us to this point. 

Bella and I are excited to announce Charlie Galzier as Rhema Student Ministries Volunteer of the Month for January 2024.  We were truly blessed to have Charlie's expertise during the remodeling phase.  Charlie volunteered to help rejuvenate The Loft through painting and improving the overall appearance.  We are forever grateful for his willingness and kindness to help throughout the holidays so that The Loft can reopen on January 7th.  Charlie, your dedication was invaluable and we can't thank you enough.  We truly appreciate you!!  Congrats on being Rhema's  volunteer of the month.  Please say hi and thank Charlie next time you see him!  Here are a few interesting facts about Charlie:

What church ministries are you a member of? 

Usher

Security 

Maintenance 

How many years have you been a member at Calvary Life Family Worship Center?

12 years

What is your favorite hobby?

Keeping busy working on projects for people. "Charlie is never not working."

What is your favorite bible verse?

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13

What is your favorite worship song? 

Shout to the Lord by Hillsong Worship

PASTORAL CORNER

21 Day Daniel Fast starts January 7, 2024

Daniel Fast Guide 

Copy and paste link in your browser to view guide:

https://calvarylife.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/firstfruitsguiderecent-1-1.pdf

RHEMA STUDENT OF THE MONTH 

Coming Soon!

RHEMA PARENT OF THE MONTH

Coming Soon!

We hope you enjoyed reading this newsletter.  We will develop monthly publications to communicate and convey ministry details and upcoming events.  We will also curate gospel-centered articles and resources that we hope will be encouraging to your family.