News of Hope July 2014 - Hope Adventist Fellowship in Moore, OK

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July 2014
NEWS OF HOPE
Interview with a Missionary
Story by Misty Wilson
I recently sat down
with the president
and co-founder of
R3 Missions to find
out what being a
missionary is all
about. I’ve heard
the term missionary
and I always think
of men and
women out in
some remote
village in Africa or on
some island with a name I
can’t pronounce
preaching the “Good
News” and passing out
Bibles to people who may
or may not even
understand English. But,
the R3 missionaries are not
traveling to remote
locations they are in big
cities, like Dubai and
London and countries
we’ve all heard of, like
India and the United
States. Even in small
homegrown communities
like Moore, Oklahoma. I
think our church would
agree with me when I say
I’m glad R3 made it to our
community. Sebastien
Braxton and his team
arrived at Hope in May
and their presence has
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What’s Inside
Health News
touched each member of our
church. Sebastien says one of
his most memorable times spent
at Hope is our last Sabbath
together with the sermon
regarding home. “Seeing so
many fathers, grandfathers and
uncles kneeling before the altar,
many in tears, praying for the
Lord to use them to present
Christ to their families and to see
their role in the shape of the
church, society and nation.” He
says, “what makes this mission in
Moore significant is that it is in
America. We hear stories of
mass conversions and
exponential growth in the
developing world and we write
it off as something that only
happens there. We say that
because we believe that the
success is due to the poverty,
government corruption, or the
culture. Thus, if we can see the
Holy Spirit move here, in the
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A Note From
Our Pastor
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Match & Find
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SDA History, Pt. 1
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Dear Church
Members…
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Recipe of the
Month
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developed world, then we can trust the
issue is not so much the location as
much as the servant.” To Sebastien and
R3, location is irrelevant. It is the person,
the servant of God, which is the key. The
young person, in particular that will be
redeemed and revitalized to spread
God’s word throughout the community
in which they live. R3 stands for
Redeeming. Rational. Radical. This is not
only their name but as Sebastien put it,
Story continued on page 6
July 2014
South Asia Health Expo
Health News
Long Thanh Health Expo was the first health event organized by the Seventh-day
Adventist Church in Vietnam for the purpose of exposing the general public the Adventist lifestyle.
This was held on 8-9 December 2013 in Phuoc Thai high school and clinic. This was the first time the
church conducted a program in a government place.
The opening ceremony held on December 8th at 9am was officiated by Pr. Tran Thanh Truyen,
Executive Secretary of Vietnam Adventist Mission. Each participant enjoyed a series of health
screenings such as BMD (Bone Mineral Density), BMI (Body Mass Index), body fat analysis, blood
pressure, glucose and cholesterol test (optional) where all the data was reported by a computer and
then presented to the doctors who provided health counseling for each participant.
The Health Expo emphasized the 8 principles of healthy living namely, NUTRITION, EXERCISE, WATER,
SUNLIGHT, TEMPERANCE, AIR, REST & TRUST in Divine power, also known as NEWSTART. The event also
included hydrotherapy demonstrations and the anti-stress
chair message where people enjoyed a time to relax. The
children had their own corner with health activities and
crafts also.
Altogether these services were provided to 357 people,
and each was given a gift. You can view more photos of
this event at their website.
A Note from our Pastor
The Holy Spirit & Revival
In the last days God says, “I will
pour out my Spirit upon all people.
In those days I will pour out my Spirit
even on my servants, men and
women alike and they will
prophesy.” Acts 2:17,18 NLT
God has promised to pour out His
Spirit in these days!! Before Jesus
ascended to heaven He gave some critical
instructions to His disciples saying, “You shall receive
power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and
you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all
Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Acts 1:8 NKJV
Prerequisite for the Promised Blessing
“These all continued with one accord in prayer and
supplication.” Acts 1:14 NKJV It was by…confession
and forsaking of sin, earnest prayer, consecration of
themselves to God, that the early disciples prepared
for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of
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Michael Smith
.Pentecost. The same work, only in greater degree,
must be done now” Review and Herald, Mar. 2, 1897.
The Bible often uses agricultural terms when referring
to the Holy Spirit…
Pray for Rain
God’s Promise – “Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of
the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds and
give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the
field.” “He will cause to come down, the rain, the
former rain, and the latter rain,” Zechariah 10:1; Joel
2:23. (emphasis added)
Farming 101 – In the East the former rain falls at the
sowing time promoted germination. The latter rain,
falling near the close of the season, ripens the grain,
and prepares it for the sickle. “The early rain is also
applied to a preparatory personal experience
prerequisite to receiving the latter rain. As a result of
the early rain experience of the individual, the heart
is…” Emptied of every defilement and cleansed for
the indwelling of the Spirit.
Continued on page 5
July 2014
Match & Find
Which One?
David said, “God will be with me.”
Find and circle the stone that hit the giant’s forehead.
Bible Lesson
• What part of the Bible is 1 Samuel in?
• What book of the Old Testament is 1
Samuel?
Read 1 Samuel 17:2-11, 16, 40, 45-50 2 Saul and the
army of Israel gathered together. They camped in the
Valley of Elah. They lined up their men to fight against
the Philistines. 3 The Philistine army was camped on one
hill. Israel’s army was on another. The valley was
between them. 4 A mighty hero named Goliath came
out of the Philistine camp. He was from Gath. He was
more than nine feet tall. 5 He had a bronze helmet on
his head. He wore a coat of bronze armor. It weighed
125 pounds. 6 On his legs he wore bronze guards. He
carried a bronze javelin on his back. 7 His spear was as
big as a weaver’s rod. Its iron point weighed 15 pounds.
The man who carried his shield walked along in front of
him. 8 Goliath stood and shouted to the soldiers of
Israel. He said, “Why do you come out and line up for
battle? I’m a Philistine. You are servants of Saul. Choose
one of your men. Have him come down and face me.
9 If he’s able to fight and kill me, we’ll become your
slaves. But if I win and kill him, you will become our
slaves and serve us.” 10 Goliath continued, “This very
day I dare the soldiers of Israel to send a man down to
fight against me.” 11 Saul and the whole army of Israel
heard what the Philistine said. They were terrified.
16 Every morning and evening Goliath came forward
and stood there. He did it for 40 days. 40 Then David
picked up his wooden staff. He went down to a stream
and chose five smooth stones. He put them in the
pocket of his shepherd’s bag. Then he took his sling in
his hand and approached Goliath. 45 David said to
Goliath, “You are coming to fight against me with a
sword, a spear and a javelin. But I’m coming against
you in the name of the Lord who rules over all. He is the
God of the armies of Israel. He’s the one you have
dared to fight against. 46 “This very day the Lord will
hand you over to me. I’ll strike you down. I’ll cut your
head off. This very day I’ll feed the bodies of the
Philistine army to the birds of the air. I’ll feed them to the
wild animals. Then the whole world will know there is a
God in Israel. 47 “The Lord doesn’t save by using a
sword or a spear. And everyone who is here will know it.
The battle belongs to the Lord. He will hand all of you
over to us.” 48 As the Philistine moved closer to attack
him, David ran quickly to the battle line to meet him. 49
He reached into his bag. He took out a stone. He put it
in his sling. He slung it at Goliath. The stone hit him on
the forehead and sank into it. He fell to the ground on
his face. 50 So David won the fight against Goliath with
a sling and a stone. He struck the Philistine down and
killed him. He did it without even using a sword.
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Big, Bigger, Biggest
10/23/12 10:41 AM
Goliath was much bigger than David!
Circle the picture that is bigger than the first one.
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10/23/12 10:41 AM
July 2014
Oklahoma Seventh-day
Adventist History, Part 1
What type of Box Tops clipper are you?
Excerpt from the Oklahoma
Conference, submitted by
Johnny Flores
Seventh-day Adventist work was
started even before Oklahoma
became a state. With the state’s
population booming after the land
run on April 22, 1889, God was
already there.
In 1888, as a result of evangelism by
two German preachers, Pastor
Schrock and L.R. Conradi, Kansas
became the second largest
conference in the denomination.
Because of a severe drought and
plague of grasshoppers, some
Seventh-day Adventists, moseyed on
down to the Oklahoma territory.
If you have been collecting them for
One of the early settlers, H. G.
Parkview, the deadline is in October.
Buxton of the Chandler Company,
There is a box in the front foyer to drop
was a Seventh-day Adventist. He
in your Tops. Parkview and I thank you in wrote to the Advent Review and
Sabbath Herald with an invitation,
advance for all your help! -Julie Russell
which appeared in the May 3, 1892
issue. “Two railroads run parallel
through it (the Territory) about 30
miles apart, affording easy access to
Please help me in
most of the towns. To any who may
congratulating our
be sent here to canvass, I would
Pastor, Michael Smith suggest that two could, by taking the
lines of the two railroads, soon work
on his ordination this over most of the territory and would,
Sabbath, July 5, 2014. I think, be justified in the effort, thus
preparing the way for the living
We, as a
preacher. This is going to be a
magnificent country for raising fruit,
congregation, are
vegetables and small grains and good
blessed to have
for raising corn. Wood and water are
Michael and Holly at plentiful and good. We hope
Hope. You are in our someone can come here or be sent to
help us in the truth as we believe
prayers and our
these two territories can be made a
conference.”
hearts!
Stay tuned for another installment of
Oklahoma SDA History in the next
News of Hope…
Art icle II. The
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July 2014
A Note From Our Pastor continued from
page 2
Most Urgent Need
As the members of the body of Christ approach the
period of their last conflict, “the time of Jacob’s
trouble,” they will grow up into Christ, and will partake
largely of His spirit. It is the latter rain, which revives and
strengthens them to pass through the time of trouble.
Testimonies Vol. 1, p. 353
Practical Application
1. Take a close inventory of your life. Remove
every hindrance by confession, repentance
and humility. Surrender our will to God and die
to self, Gal 2:20; 5:24. The Spirit can never be
poured out while variance and bitterness
toward one another are cherished by the
members of the church. Envy, jealousy, evil
surmising, and evil speaking are of Satan, and
they effectually bar the way against the Holy
Spirit’s working. Ye Shall Receive Power, p. 301
2. Pray daily for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. 777,
the worldwide Holy Spirit prayer fellowship.
3. Join Seventh-day Adventists praying seven
days a week at 7 a.m. or p.m. for the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit’s power and
presence.
The key to unlock the promises of God is prayer. Jesus
promised the Holy Spirit and the disciples unlocked the
promise as they prayed in the upper room before
Pentecost! Daily Pray and claim this promise found in
Luke 11:13. “If you then, being evil, know how to give
good gifts to your children, how much more will your
heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask
him!”
Thank You!!!
Ernie Wilson would like to extend a big thank you to
those Deacons who have been doing a wonderful job
maintaining the grounds around the church. A special
thank you to Dan and Pat Trine who have made our
flowerbeds look beautiful!!
Dear Church Members,
In April of this year, I was contacted by Alexey
Novoselov, the President of the West-Siberian
mission of SDA in Russia. He is a very close friend of
my parents. Novoselov was their pastor and baptized
them in Russia in 2012. He told me about people in
Nyagan, the city in the Near Polar region of Siberia.
They are building an SDA Church. For a long time,
since 1998 our brothers and sisters were gathering in
different apartments to worship. They didn't have a
permanent place of worship. In 2012 they found out
that there was a piece of land for sale. They gathered
their finances and bought the land. Construction
started with the blessing of the General Conference
of SDA. People were dedicating their vacations,
finances and weekends to build their church. They
set a date on when they will open the doors of the
church to the members and visitors. They chose
September 27, 2014. But, they are still a long way
from completion and need our help to finish the job.
Our elders and board members have approved the
adoption of the SDA Russian church of Nyagan. This
is our Sister church. This is the only SDA church in
this region! If you would like to help, you can make a
donation by placing it in the box in the foyer or you
can mark your tithe envelope to donate to our
Russian sister church. This will be an ongoing
process and I do believe that we can show our
brothers and sisters our giving Sprit. If you have any
questions or would like more information, please
contact me. Sasha Larson 514-0836 or
[email protected]
Thank you!!!!!
Missing Members
Please keep the following
members on your prayer
list…
Judy Lowe, Steve Nelson,
Haag Family, Rios Family, Covell Family, Bronson
Taylor Family, Braxton Family, Tommy Duvall, Karel
Duvall, Ralph & Brenee Taylor, Stephanie Stevens,
Tate Family, Goble Family, Houser Family,
Tannehill Family, Nate Byerly Family, Seth Byerly
Family, Williams Family and Nickie Mowles Family.
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Russian church brother from Serbia, living in Canada laying
tile in the sanctuary during his visit to Nyagan.
July 2014
Story continued from page 1
Sebastien believes, “many in the church have
“the philosophy of everything we do. R3 is a
experienced this revival and will continue to stay
movement. It is a movement that is emerging strong with the Lord and definitely be active in His
from a dream. A dream that we, as the youth ofwork.” “However,” Sebastien says with a smile,
the church, could be that generation that sees “there are always wheat and tares unfortunately,
Jesus return in our lifetime.” R3 combines
and we just pray that the tares are very low in
innovative approaches to spiritual awakening number in this church!” Many of our members went
with traditional forms of evangelism. “We want out and visited the community with the R3
to utilize every God-given gift and means to
missionaries and made some real connections with
draw others to surrender their all to Christ.” Way people who are genuinely interested in what they
back in 2012 while speaking at a youth
had to say about God and his message. Sebastien
convention in Cape Town, South Africa,
hopes that after the missionaries have all left Moore
Sebastien Braxton was preparing for a message that the church will remain excited about
on the Power of One, the power of unity. He
evangelism and reaching out to its community. “We
said he had recently read an article about how also hope that many of the Bible studies that we
Delta Airlines employees, out of gratitude to the have generated will be followed up by various
company for giving them a raise when the
church members that would lead to decisions for
company value dropped, decided to pull the Christ. Most importantly, we want to be changed.
monies together ($30 million) to purchase a
Changed more into Jesus’ likeness.” Sebastien and
Boeing 737 for the company. Sebastien says, “I the other R3 members raised their own funds to
thought to myself, Jesus did more than give us a come to Oklahoma. He says what drives all of them
raise, He gave us life! And so the idea was
to spend their own money to bring God’s message
born.” Then, he says, “Candis (Braxton) and I
to Moore is, “that we have all experienced the
prayed together to ensure that God was
power of Jesus’ love, His gospel and His word and
leading us and to seek who He would have
we believe that if others experience the same, they
help us with this idea.” The idea was born, but would also be changed and join the movement of
now it was time to test the idea. “Jesus says in taking this gospel to all the world in this generation.”
Revelation 3:20 that He stands at the door and Sebastien says, “for us, money is a means to do
knocks. If any man will open, thus, it is up to
God’s work in blessing others.” I think for many and
each individual in the church to open their
sometimes for myself, it is hard to look at your hardhearts and homes to the Spirit and the Word for earned money as God’s money. But, the way I look
revival and reformation.” Referring to Hope,
at it, I wouldn’t have this money if it weren’t for
God’s blessing in my life. R3’s goal is not to raise
more money, but to create opportunities of service
for young people who want to do the Lord’s work.
The mission has been to India and will be headed to
Germany and Scotland in September and Dubai in
the United Arab Emirates in October. But, Moore
won’t just be a blip on their radar, we will be a
community redeemed and revitalized. We will
remain in their prayers and on their hearts. Sebastien
closed the interview with this, “see what the Lord did
at Hope by watching the Oklahoma Mission videos
on our youtube channel (R3 Missions). Pray about
what Jesus wants our youth to do to further His
kingdom in anticipation of His soon return.”
Personally, I feel their presence here at Hope has
Pastor Michael Smith and the R3 Missions team in the
changed us and will continue to change us as time
sanctuary at Hope Seventh-day Adventist Fellowship,
marches forward. We will anticipate your soon
May-June 2014.
return, R3, and will pray for you on your travels.
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July 2014
Recipe of the Month
Ingredients
For lemonade with sugar: Pour
boiling
water over sugar, stir until
1 ½ cup sugar
sugar is completely dissolved.
1 ½ cups boiling water
Add optional hibiscus flowers if
Optional: For pink lemonade add 1-2 you want them. Set aside.
tablespoons dried hibiscus flowers
6 cups cold water
Juice lemons and strain out seeds
and pulp. In a large pitcher
combine sugar water (strain out
hibiscus flowers if using), lemon
juice, and water.
Optional: fresh mint leaves for
garnishing
Add ice and lemon slices. Garnish
with mint leaves and serve.
6-8 lemons (enough for 1 ½ cups of
lemon juice) plus 2 lemons cut in half
lengthwise and sliced 1/8 inch thick
Preparation
Tips:
Optional: For lemonade with
agave nectar, reduce the
amount of water by 1 cup, and
add to 1 ½ cups of agave nectar.
Set aside.
Homemade
Lemonade
For sugar-free lemonade sweeten with
stevia.
Give your lemonade a fizzy update with
sparkling water. Also, try substituting frozen
strawberries for the ice cubes, for an extra
taste sensation.
Prep Time: 15 Minutes
6 servings
Difficulty: Easy
Birthdays
JULY
Mark Campbell
Jennifer McMains
Larry Nossaman
3
3
3
David Jennings
6
James Daman
7
Charlotte Fuchs
8
Adrian Angala
Valerie Huebsch
12
12
Katie Johnson
13
Samantha Covel
17
Hope Seventh-day
Adventist Fellowship
77
1426 NE 12th St.
Moore, OK 73160
405.799.2220
hopeadventistfellowship.org
Shannon Rios
20
Samantha Smith
23
Russell Gerling
Elizabeth Saner
Steve Tresca
24
24
24
Faith McMains
25
Jaedyn Watts
25
Johnathon Johnson
26
Ashley Clark von Riese
29
To tithe online, scan the QR
code with your smartphone
or go to
hopeadventistfellowship.org.