33^rd Anniversary Celebration 2025

Aug 3, 2025

Happy 33^rd Anniversary to Hope of God Church Hong Kong !

The theme of this year’s celebration is “We are Celebrating! Glory to God”. At 1:00pm, Pastor Gavin shared about the Bible verse Joshua 8:1 during Refreshing Moment. The Israelites dealt with their sin after their defeat at the battle against Ai. Then God told Joshua not to be afraid or discouraged and attack Ai again, for God has given them the city. Ai is a picture of our flesh. We often feel defeated because of our weaknesses. God encourages us that He wants to help us stand strong and remove the feeling of defeat within us.

After that, sister Elaine led us to dwell in a powerful praise and worship, expressing our thanksgiving to the Lord.

Following the Holy Communion, sister Gloria from Faithful Group testified how she experienced God’s guidance and blessings upon her work in a video. Her family has a company based in China selling kitchen ware. Due to the pandemic, their business was greatly affected. Moreover, because of the tariff war between the US and China, many of the deals from their US clients were cancelled. Thus, they had to find clients from other countries. She then went on a business trip to Germany with her colleagues. The weather was extremely cold that her feet were like frozen. Her colleague suggested her buying boots to keep warm and she said if she saw a pair of boots that cost 10 euros, she would buy them. The usual price of a pair of boots was around 100 euros at that time. However, she miraculously found a pair of boots on sale, which cost exactly 10 euros. Sister Gloria was so touched as God knew her needs and concerns indeed. She was also thankful that God opened up the Germany market and other markets for their businesses. God is really the Mighty One that provides.

After that, Pastor Gavin preached on the Scripture Joshua 8:31. The title of the sermon is “We are Celebrating! Glory to God”. God has already given us all spiritual blessings, but we still need to get them; there are victories we have to win. The Battle of Jericho represents how we conquer the world full of temptations. The Battle of Ai represents the battle within us, the biggest enemy is ourselves. We all have lots of weaknesses, for example, bitterness, anger, hatred, laziness, etc. but God wants to help us. When the Israelites tried to conquer Ai in their second attempt, God told Joshua to set an ambush. The attack included an “ambush”, meaning that men should be involved to cooperate with God. The ambush symbolizes that we should expose the pride and overconfidence of our flesh. Ai represents flesh, sinful nature or self. We have to be alert and have full attention of our focus to make sure our sinful nature will not take charge of our lives. “Attacking Ai” means we have to deal with our sins head on with the Lord’s help. The hanging of the king of Ai on a tree symbolizes Jesus taking all our sins and be nailed on the cross. When Jesus died on the cross, He has won the victory for us, so we can take the victory and blessings. By keeping celebrating and giving glory to God, we can maintain the victory, joy and faith in our lives. Praise the Lord !

“Spiritual Feast”

After the service, at about 3:30pm, brother Lawrence and sister Rachel welcomed everyone and announced the start of the anniversary’s “Spiritual Feast”. First of all, the starter was presenting membership awards to members who have joined the Hope Family for 7, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years. Then came the soup which was the “Recap 2024-2025 Video”. It captured the joyful and touching moments of our church in the past year. Thank God for such a fruitful year.

The main course included snack time and the making of a painting from modelling clay. After Pastoral Lead Team’s (PLT) toasting and cake-cutting, pastor Gavin gave thanks to start the snack time. Each group had prepared different kinds of food to share – Love Group, fruits; Kindness and Faithful Groups, Ribena juice (symbolizing Jesus’ blood); Joyful Group, mini cakes; S&C Group, square biscuits made of 33 layers (same number as our church’s birthday); Goodness Group, fish biscuits (fishers of men); Gentleness Group, dried fruit and Peace Group, homemade desserts.

Then everyone was given a wooden frame where we could decorate it with different colors of modelling clay. We all became an artist decorating our frame with colorful shapes and also went around to decorate others’ frames, representing our willingness to be a part of the family. We enjoyed the activity so much and took group photos with our masterpieces.

Then the dessert was another round of praise and worship. Pastor Arlene closed the feast with a prayer at 6:00pm, blessing all brothers and sisters.

Praise the Lord for this wonderful family of God !

恭祝香港希望教會33周年快樂！

今年周年的主題是「我們慶賀！榮耀歸於神!」。主日崇拜在下午1時開始，卓成發牧師在「牧靈時刻」中分享了約書亞記8:1的經文，當時的以色列人在艾城戰敗後要面對自己的罪，隨後神鼓勵約書亞不要懼怕，也不要驚惶，起來再次攻打艾城，因為神已將這城交在他們手中。艾城象徵我們的肉體，我們常因自己的軟弱而感到沮喪，但神鼓勵我們，祂必幫助我們堅強剛強起來，除去心中的挫敗感。

接著，Elaine姐妹帶領大家進入滿有能力的敬拜讚美中，把一切感恩歸與天父。

在聖餐後，來自信實組的Gloria姐妹見證神如何在她工作中經歷神的帶領和祝福。她家族在中國經營廚具公司，因為疫情生意大受衝擊。加上美中貿易戰，許多美國訂單被取消，因此她們只好開拓其他國家市場。這次她與同事到德國出差，天氣非常寒冷，她的雙腳凍得發僵，同事建議她買雙靴子保暖，她隨口說: 「如果看到10歐元的靴子就買下來。」當時一雙靴子的市價約100歐元，但她竟奇跡地找到一雙特價靴標價正好10歐元。Gloria姐妹深受感動，因神連她細微的需要都看顧，她也感謝神為他們的生意開拓了德國和其他市場，神真是供應一切的全能者！。

接著，卓成發牧師分享約書亞記8:31，證道的題目是「我們慶賀！榮耀歸於神!」。神已將一切屬靈福氣賜給我們，但我們仍需親自領受；有些勝利需要我們去贏得。耶利哥之戰代表我們如何勝過充滿誘惑的世界 ; 艾城之戰則代表我們內心的爭戰，而我們最大的敵人就是自己。我們有很多軟弱，如苦毒、憤怒、仇恨、懶惰等，但神願意幫助我們。當以色列人在第二次攻打艾城時，神告訴約書亞要設下伏兵，這次進攻包含了「埋伏」，意味著人需要與神合作。「伏兵」象徵著我們要揭露肉體中的驕傲和過度自信。艾城代表肉體、罪性或自我。我們必須保持警醒專注，確保罪性不會掌控我們的生活。「攻打艾城」意味著我們要靠著主的力量面對自己的罪。艾城王被吊在樹上預表耶穌已背負我們一切的罪被釘在十字架上。 當耶穌在十字架上死去時，祂已為我們贏得勝利，因此我們能領受這份勝利和祝福。藉著持續慶賀、將榮耀歸給神，我們就能持守生命中的得勝、喜樂與信心。讚美主！

「屬靈盛宴」
在崇拜結束後，大約下午三時半左右，Lawrence兄弟和Rachel姊妹歡迎大家，並宣佈周年「屬靈盛宴」正式開始。

前菜: 首先是為加入香港希望教會的大家庭7年、10年、15年、20年和25年的會員頒發會員證書。

湯: 接下來是「2024-2025回顧影片」，記錄了過去一年教會中弟兄姊妹們喜樂與感動的瞬間。感謝神帶領我們渡過如此豐盛的一年。

主菜:包括小吃時間和用黏土畫製作。在牧養團隊（PLT）致祝酒辭及切蛋糕後，卓成發牧師帶領禱告並開始小吃時間。各小組準備了不同的食物分享:

仁愛組的水果；恩慈組及信實組的利賓納果汁（象徵耶穌寶血）；喜樂組的小蛋糕；剛強勇敢組的33層方塊酥（與教會慶賀周年數相同）；良善組的魚形餅乾（寓意得人如得魚）；溫柔組的乾果；平安組的自製甜品。

隨後每人獲得一個木製畫框，各人用不同顏色的輕黏土進行裝飾。大家都化身為藝術家，不僅裝飾自己的畫框，也互相點綴他人的作品，象徵著我們願意成為彼此生命的一部分。活動充滿歡聲笑語，最後各小組都帶著自己的作品合影留念。

甜品:最後是一場讚美和敬拜。晚上六時，卓成發牧師以祝福禱告為這場盛宴畫下句號。

感謝主賜予這個美好的神的大家庭！

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