Evangéliumi Hírnök, 2000 (92. évfolyam, 2-12. szám)

2000-02-01 / 2. szám

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Baptíst Retirement Home

December at Bethesda

The Celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior is not forgotten here at Bethesda. For more than seventy five years our Home has celebrated the occasion by reminding our residents and guests of the real reason for the season. We look back with grateful thanks for Gods blessing throughout the course of years. Our prime concern over all those years had been the well being of our ageing residents, and in our own way, preparing them for their meeting with our heavenly Father. Whereas we have not been successful in many cases, there were times when we where present at their final moments and we saw the contented look on their faces as they left this Vail of tears and entered into their heavenly fathers presence. I am sure that as long as we are present here at the Home, the presence of the spirit of God will prevail.

The preparations for the blessed season started in mid December when we began to decorate our Home with beautiful lights and angelic forms to remind our people that the Christ Child was bom and that He deserves the very best from us. We had many performing groups come in to sing the praises of the season. These groups included little children as well as adult groups. These were wonderful presentations and our residents joined in the festivities.

These groups brought sweets and presents for each of our residents. Our ageing children were like little children once again as they opened their gifts with expectations and joy on their faces. Our Home also presented each of our residents with a lovely gift. This we have done for many years. But we were not only on the receiving end of gifts. Our employees work hard all year long to add to the comfort of our people. Therefore, we presented each of our employees with a monetary gift to indicate to them that we really appreciate their services. Our residents also presented our employees a ^ift of money in appreciation for their services throughout the year. Our Home also “adopted*’ a destitute family of six children. If it were not for Bethesda, they would have little joy during this joyous season. We bought meaningful gifts for each of the children and our residents presented these gifts to the children. There was much joy for the

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children as well as for our residents. These activities indicate the humanness of Bethesda. Our Christmas eve services were conducted by Dr. Ladislau Biro. He told the story of the birth of Christ in his own inimitable way. It was a night to remember and it will remain in our memories.

We have now passed into a new millennium. What the Lord has in mind for us in the future we do not know. But we do know that whatever will take place will be through His grace and good will. We place our future into His hands.

At the present time, we are negotiating with a buyer for the sale of the Home. He has made an offer, but we do not agree with all of the conditions. We will not agree with those conditions until they are all acceptable to our Board. We will advise you all of the results as soon as our counter offer will be accepted. In the meantime, it is business is usual at Bethesda. God has been good to us and we trust Him for whatever comes our way in the future. This is a critical time for all of us and we ask for your prayers throughout these trying times. God bless you all and it is our prayer that you have a Happy and Prosperous New Year. Ernest J. Kish

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LIGHT THE NATION

An estimated 1 million Christians from 80 denominations participated in Light the Nation, a live, two-hour broadcast of the Lighthouse Movement. They gathered in Madison Square Garden, churches, auditoriums, and homes across the United States Oct. 16 for the broadcast. It began a month-long Christian media campaign aimed at recruiting Lighthouses of Prayer — individuals throughout the country who agree to pray for, care for, then share their faith with their neighbors, co-workers, family, and friends. The practice is referred to as “prayer evangelism.”

...The program was televised to individual homes by the PaxNet network and downlinked to 580 host churches in every state. The broadcast featured Christian leaders, performances by Christian musicians, and testimonies from active Lighthouse families.

..."With the grace of God we will see America become a nation where praying for blessing upon others will become a lifestyle," Ed Silvoso of Harvest Evangelism host of the broadcast, said. The broadcast also was presented by Mission America a coalition of denominations and evangelistic ministries.

For more information, see the Lighthouse Movement Internet site www.lighthousemovement.com or call (888) 323-1210. ReligionToday.com

THE BAPTIST WORLD ALLIANCE elected a new president. Korean Baptist Billy Jang Hwan Kim was chosen to lead the group during the 18th Baptist World Congress in Melbourne last week. A search committee chose the conservative pastor and broadcaster, who was later ratified by the BWA’s governing body, the general council, Ecumenical News International said.

...More than 6,000 Baptists attended the World Congress, held every five years, which concluded Jan. 9, ENI said. Evangelism was a main topic. Leaders agreed that outreach is central to the faith, but diverged on tactics for seeking converts. Randy Springer of the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board told delegates about opposition to an evangelism campaign in Chicago. Baptists must continue to reach out, “even if it’s politically incorrect and even if other don’t want us to,” he said.

...Baptists comprise the world’s largest Protestant denomination, figures show. There are 43 million Baptists worldwide, compared with 33 million nine years ago, Tony Cupit, an Australian pastor who directs evangelism activities for the Baptist World Alliance, said. The Baptist community worldwide numbers 100 million, including children who have not been baptized, he told

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STATISTICS. About 33% of the world’s people are Christians, at least in name, American missions statistician David Barrett says. Church members total 1.898 billion, and 1.3 billion attend services. Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity is growing fastest; 482 million belong to such movements and 680 million can be described as “Great Commission Christians,” Barrett said.

...Muslims comprise the secondlargest faith group. Followers of Islam number 1.215 billion, followed by 786 million Hindus, 362 million Buddhists, 225 million members of tribal religions, and 102 million members of “new religions.”

...The world also has a large number of unbelievers. A total of 774 million consider themselves “nonreligious” and 151 million say they are atheists, Barrett said. (ReligionToday.com)

Making a will? Don’t forget about the Convention, our Hungarian mission.

Végrendeletet készít? Ne feledkezzen el Szövetségünkről, az amerikai magyar baptista misszióról.

2000. február