Easter Celebration 2022
April 17, 2022
Because of the coronavirus outbreak, the Easter Celebration was broadcast live on the internet. The theme of this year’s Easter Celebration is “He Was Punished”.
First of all, Pastor Gavin explained the meaning of Isaiah 53:5. Isaiah wrote this prophecy 700 years before Jesus was crucified. Yet, he wrote it in past tense, meaning that the incident happened according to God’s plan. He wrote it with the direct revelation from God that it would certainly be accomplished. The prophecy was perfectly fulfilled by the life of Jesus and His crucifixion on the cross. The effect of the cross is everlasting and not limited by time.
Brother Wai Hong and sister Carrie welcomed everyone to join the celebration online, and then passed the time to brother Jun and sister Stephanie to lead a joyful praise and worship, celebrating Jesus’ victory.
Then brother Jack from Goodness Group and sister Natalie from Gentleness Group testified about how God blessed their wedding. First of all, they thanked God for blessing them with a furnished apartment in spite of having limited time to find one before the wedding. Natalie also thanked God for reminding her to pick up their wedding rings earlier so that they could have just enough time to fix the problem with the size. Another challenge they went through was the stricter Gathering Rule for weddings. They were upset because the rule limited the number of attendees for wedding ceremonies to 20 people only. However, they were really thankful for sister Penny, their wedding coordinator, who gave advice on how they could arrange the ceremony and also comforted them emotionally. Moreover, thanks to Pastor Arlene for her guidance and counselling, they were able to resolve the conflict they had just two days before the wedding. They praised God for taking care of all their needs and hope to continue to grow in the Lord and serve Him together.
Pastor Gavin preached on the Scripture Isaiah 53:5. The title of the sermon is “He Was Punished”. Jesus is the perfect lamb of God that could permanently cleanse all our sins. Jesus’ atonement has an infinite value and power to forgive our sins, giving us eternal forgiveness and eternal life. He defeated death and the power of the enemy. We are alive now and do not need to give in to sins or temptations. Besides, the punishment on Jesus brought us peace. The word “peace” in Hebrew is “Shalom”, which means complete or whole. The punishment on Jesus gives us “Shalom”, that is, makes us complete. Before we accepted Christ, our relationship with God was broken. However, because of what Jesus did on the cross, the brokenness was restored; we are reconciled to God, thus having a “Shalom” relationship with God.
Praise God for giving us peace through Jesus. Let us stand firm in His peace and bring peace to the world!
“Breakthrough Creative Bazaar”
After the Easter Celebration, we organized the first-ever online bazaar as one of our whole year events of fundraising for building our new home in 2023.
Brothers and sisters set up 21 shops and seven workshops in this online bazaar. There was an array of products available for us to choose, ranging from food and beverages to clothing and ornaments. The four hosts of this event, brothers Man Lung, Chun, Martin and sister Lemon introduced the products and highlights of some of the shops and workshops. They even invited several shop owners to give detailed introductions of their product designs. Brothers and sisters were very excited to shop at different shops and attended the workshops.
Praise God for the amazing creativity and teamwork of the brothers and sisters who made this online bazaar possible. It was such a wonderful time for both the organizers and shoppers!
Design:
