First Meeting with LightHouse

For the summer, New Hope will be meeting with the LightHouse Church at our ministry center, Connections. Our two churches met in this new format for the first time last Sunday. Preceding the service, both congregations had a good time getting to know one another over a brunch of fruit, bagels and quiche provided by members of LightHouse. The Service included contemporary worship led by Sarah and Zack (former members of New Hope, present members of LightHouse), a sermon by Doug Cherry, and opportunities for all to share their insights and pray together. Overall the Sunday service was very similar to a typical New Hope Sunday Koinonia meeting, the only real differences being matters of style. The LightHouse Church is led by Doug and Kiki Cherry who are also campus ministers of CrossSeekers of CMU.

Click here to view an album of the rest of the photos.

Missionary Video Chat

Instead of our usual sermon last Sunday, we had a nice, long chat with two of our missionaries to Russia, Warren and Andrea Caron. But they were not here in Pittsburgh. We used one of the coolest, virtually free features of the Internet, the live video chat. We had a very enjoyable time talking with the Carons about their family life in Russia, their ministry and outreach to the Russian people, and even what kinds of food they eat (i.e., borsh), and what kind of foods they miss (i.e., Gold Fish and peanut butter). We spent over an hour getting to know them in a way that was far superior to emails and letters, and they got to know us better too. Check out the video below to get an idea of how it went.



We used Skype (a free download) for the video chat. If you would like to be added to New Hope's Skype contact list, please send your Skype name to newhopeml@gmail.com. We would be especially interested in chatting with former members of New Hope who have moved to other parts of the country or the planet to see what you have been up to.

Resurrection Day Potluck

Songwriters Circle

Connections had one of their largest turnouts ever at their concert on March 24, the Songwriters Circle. It was organized by Joy Ike, who also performed at the event. Below is a video of Joy's performance.



Joy was joined by two other musicians in the circle, John Robinson and David Dickerson. All the music was outstanding and at times inspirational. Check out the links below to sample videos of their performances and music.

Connections Podcast
Joy Ike's website and MySpace
John Robinson's MySpace
David Dickerson's MySpace

He Intends Victory

One of our members is starting a Pittsburgh Chapter of "He Intends Victory," a Christian HIV/AIDS ministry. A local support group of this ministry plans to begin meeting in March 2007.

For more information about He Intends Victory, please visit www.heintendsvictory.com. For more information about the Pittsburgh Chapter or the support group, please contact Emily at 412-252-3570 or emexl2@msn.com.

Christmas Party Potluck

We had a Christmas Party Potluck last Sunday after our morning Koinonia and a good time was had by all. Lots of good food and fellowship. Afterward many commented how much they enjoyed the get together. Click here to view the photos.

If you did check out the photos, you may notice that added to our ministry center was some new coffee making equipment and coffeeshop style tables and chairs. They were of course purchased for our Connections ministry, which btw was open all this week to give the local college students a place to study during finals. Stay tuned to this blog and of course the Connections website for more info on that ministry.

A Tale of Two Joels

After being a member of New Hope for a few years, Joel Martin, a graduate student of the University of Pittsburgh, became our financial secretary and my right hand man. As financial secretary he not only faithfully fulfilled his responsibilities of financial secretary but also covered the treasurer's responsibilities after our treasurer sort of went incommunicado. He also helped keep our computers running and frequently helped me and others from New Hope in many practical ways. I am most grateful that he helped me on many occasions get to church services and also moved things too heavy for me like my AC. But then the day came for Joel to graduate and get a real job. :-(

The photo on the left is from August when we prayed for Joel before he left for his new job in Maryland.

But then a couple of months ago another Joel, Joel Lim, who was also a graduate student started to come to our Sunday meetings. After a few weeks the new Joel said he planned to stay on at New Hope and even brought his parents to New Hope one Sunday for a visit. Turns out they are all from Singapore, home of at least two former NewHopers, Min and Yu Hsien, who have since graduated and returned home. Some of us kidded that God was replacing one Joel with another, and of course we told each of the Joels about their counterpart.

Then the day of their meeting arrived. Joel Martin came for a visit last weekend. When the two finally met, much to the relief of local particle physicists and trekkers alike, the local universe did not implode. ;-)

Joel Martin is now back in Maryland. Please pray that God would lead him to the church where he should be and for some good Christian friends and fellowship. BTW God already answered one of our prayers for Joel Lim. When he first came to New Hope, he was also looking for a church and asked us to pray about it.

Dave

Dedication of NHCC Ministry Center

Last week, Sunday Night Koinonia met for the first time at our new ministry center. We started with worship led by Ted, Greg and Eric, followed by the dedication of our new building. About ten of us gathered in a circle outside in front of the entrance to pray for our new ministry center and anoint the building as the rest were inside watching the children. Sue started the dedication by reading Leviticus 8:1-12 which records how Moses anointed the tabernacle according to the command of God. Tying into this, Dave spoke on how the first tabernacle was literally inhabited by God's Spirit, but now God inhabits buildings, such as this one, by inhabiting his people with his Spirit. And by inhabiting his people (you and me) God in effect can inhabit not just this building, but all of Oakland, Pittsburgh and wherever we go. As Jesus said, "for where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst." Dave then anointed the doorframe with olive oil in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and we all prayed together for God's blessing on our new ministry center and that God would use it and us to be a blessing to the students and community of Oakland.

We then went back inside for a tour by Greg of the building and some great goulash (pasta in a tomato meat sauce) made by Kelly. After the tour we gathered for some prayer together and had a quick meeting to decide Koinonia's meeting time. We decided to meet 11 AM Sunday mornings starting October 15 until such a time as a regular Sunday worship service begins at our new center.

Click here to see the photos/slideshow of the building tour.

At the time of this writing, CSF Friday Night Fellowship and New Hope's Sunday Koinonia are meeting weekly at the new center. Future plans include a coffeeshop type ministry called Connections Student Center which will feature free wireless internet. Also, discussions and prayers are in the works to start a new Sunday morning worship service there with the help of student ministers, Doug and Kiki Cherry, from CrossSeekers.

New Location for New Hope

New Hope is in the process of moving our meetings and ministries to our new location at 3495 Bates Street in South Oakland. CSF has already started meeting there on Friday nights and our Sunday Night Koinonia meeting is scheduled to start meeting there Sunday, October 1. This move has been orchestrated primarily by Greg and Ted who found the location and are in the process of renovating the facility with the help of many volunteers from CSF and New Hope. If you would like to give them a hand, I'm sure they would appreciate it. To help or for information regarding our new location, please contact Ted at ted@csfpa.com.

Our new location at the corner of Bates & Semple

Bob O'Connor Remembered

JoAnn's Baptism

Listen to Dave's short homily on baptism followed by JoAnn sharing why she decided to get baptized at this time. Complete with water sounds! :-)




Slideshow of JoAnn's Baptism.

Thanks from Urban Fuel

We recently received this video from Jim Herbst and Urban Fuel in thanks for our help. It features the renovations to the Hazelwood Christian Church basement for use as a coffeehouse outreach. This is only one part of Urban Fuel's three stage plan to reach out and minister to the youth of Hazelwood. To find out more about Urban Fuel's ministry, click here.