16th Church Anniversary Celebration
July 27, 2008
Praise the Lord that more than 400 guests and members joined and celebrated our 16th Anniversary on this Sunday in our new realm – the Tsuen Wan Hope Centre! The theme for this year is “Stepping up”.
“Venture into the New Realm” was the theme. Before the start of the service, sisters from SD3 gave us an amazing dancing performance as a token of celebration of the 16th Anniversary of the Hong Kong Hope of God Church. Their impactful performance showed their passion and hard work in serving the Lord in expanding His realm. The performance stirred up a lot of excitement among the congregation, preparing our brothers and sisters for the following Praise and Worship session for our Lord Jesus Christ.
After welcoming each other, Brother Allen led the congregation into a series of powerful Praise and Worship. Many brothers and sisters danced to their hearts and lifted up their hands in giving praises and thanks and worshipping the Lord. Brothers and sisters were reminded through this session that we should stay strong in expanding the kingdom of God.
The congregation then settled down for a pre-recorded video in which Sister Agnes (SD5), Sister Sonalyn (SD6) and Brother Giano (SD3) testified how their experience in “”stepping up”” with the Christ. Agnes shared with us that she has been lost for a number of years when the Lord brought her back through brothers and sisters. She realized the importance of being grateful of God’s daily blessings. Now she was working hard to spread the Gospels to the others, especially her husband. Filled with joy and hope, Agnes said that she would like to step up by bringing more family members and friends to know and serve Christ.
Sonalyn said in her testimony that she was once stubborn and self-centered and did not know how to seek God’s approval. After receiving Christ, her life was completely changed. She realized that God always has a purpose in her life. Now, under the joy and peace of the Lord, she learnt to develop a close with brothers and sisters and friends. More importantly, she learnt to seek her shepherd’s advice and to obey before taking any action.
Giano was once a lost sheep in the flock of God’s people. Before truly coming back to Christ, he was arrogant and had even done bad things. Therefore his relationship with his peers was not very favourable. However, he demonstrated a significant change after coming back to Christ and his peers found comfortable to accept him once again. Now, Giano felt obliged to “step up” by serving more faithfully and encouraging more youngsters to receive Christ.
The Sermon – “How to Step up?” (Phil 3:12-14)
Pastor Gavin shared with us that in order to step up in our lives, we should accept our challenges, defeat our enemies, avoid the dangers, grab the opportunities and develop a biblical attitude to press on towards the goal to win the prize of God. Like building the kingdom of God, we cannot stop half-way!
The Response: 9 Said “Yes” to Jesus
Praise the Lord also for the 9 new believers. Halleluiah! Praise the Lord!
