Sabbath School

Garments of

Splendour Isaiah 61:10

The Church at Study 9:30 a.m. to 10:40 a.m. Superintendent: Ray Thompson

Musician: Marylin Topper Praise Leader: Pat Carter

Next Week: Super: Pastor Alex & Teens Class Music: Pastor Alex Praise: Teens

Worship Hour

Song and Praise …………………………………………………………..Gibsons

Opening Song……………..No.195……………….Showers of Blessings

Intercessory Prayer……………………………………………………Earl Biggs

Praying for Singles Next Week Praying for anniversaries

Offering Appeal…………Church Budget……………..Shaquille Sealy

Children Story…………………………………..…………......Faith Maphosa

Special Music………………………………….………………Children's Choir

Scripture Reading…..Ezekiel 16:13-14.....Joe & Erdine Beckles

Sermon “Steps to a Free Fall” Elder Edwin Onyango

Closing song….............No.183.................I will sing of Jesus Love

Benediction….......................................................Teresa Ferreira

Sunset this Sabbath 8:46 pm Next week 8:53 pm

Please send all the bulletin related information to: bekorben@hotmail.com

Announcements 1. We invite every church member to the time of Prayer,

every Wednesday 7 pm. A Prayer Group is also meeting at North London Church every Wednesday morning 10am-12noon. You have an option of “shifts” to come and interceded for our church family, for our city, for leaders. We have seen miraculous answers to prayer, and experienced the goodness of God, connecting to His Mystery and presence in prayer.

2. Today is the “Restful Sabbath” for fellowship and relationship building, with no meetings of any kind. Enjoy the opportunity to invite friends over for lunch, to go for a walk in the park with friends. Once every month we set a day for purposes of generous hospitality. June 18, July 23, August 20, October 22, November 26 are reserved for these purposes. On these Sabbaths please plan to invite someone to your home, or plan to go and visit someone in their place.

3. The Sabbath School Council will be meeting next Sabbath, May 28 at 6:00 pm, before the Church Business meeting. The council met last Sabbath to draft plans, and needs all teachers and superintendents to meet for discussing how we are to improve the Sabbath School as our Mission and outreach venue.

4. The School viewing. The Highland and Manor Elementary school is being considered for purchase by our congregations for the School and the multipurpose ministry centre. Members of the Board and some church members who were updated by emails were able to see the facility this past Wednesday. Another viewing is scheduled for Wednesday May 25 from 12 noon to 2 pm. The School is located at 77 Tecumseh West (Warncliffe & Springbank). The asking price on the property of 2.2 acres and 25,000 sq ft building is only $725,000. The facility has 8 classrooms, kindergarten, many office rooms, staff kitchen, large library, 3,000 sq ft GYM, and more. Please take your time and look at the facility as we will be meeting to make a decision on partnering for this purchase.

5. Church Business meeting is called for May 28, Saturday night, starting with sundown vespers at 8 pm. This summer we will re-shingle the roof, to prepare for the interior renovations in the worship centre and in the fellowship hall. Your presence is needed to help making right decisions on contract, timing and choices.

6. Next Sabbath, May 28th – the Youth Rally with Abner Lopez, the youth pastor of the Windsor SDA Church. He will speak to the youth about making a difference in the world around us, and then will have a seminar in the afternoon.

7. Coming Live from Las Vegas: Babylon Rising - May 25 - 28 – a four-part “seed-sowing series,” an opportunity for you to start a house group evangelism, by inviting your friends to watch the It Is Written broadcast together. For more details visit http://babylonisrising.com. Live broadcast will be at 2 pm and at 10 pm.

8. The annual Simcoe is on June 10-11, 2011 at Norfolk County Fairgrounds, Simcoe. The main speaker is Pastor Lonnie Melashenko, former Voice of Prophecy speaker/director. Pastor Sung Kwon, executive director of Adventist Community Services, North American Division, will speak on the camp theme, “Young Enough to Serve”. Dr. Mansfield Edwards, Ontario Conference president, will lead the main Sabbath School discussion.

9. Church Board decisions (selection) from Monday, May 16th:

Pathfinders will be cutting the lawn around the church as a fundraiser toward the camporee in Quebec.

Two Sundays are set for community garage sale, organized by Pathfinders – June 12 and July 10. Bring your extras, declutter the house, and sponsor a Pathfinder.

Next Lord’s Supper will be served Friday night, June 17th by elders Mantiri and Munro.

June 18th during the worship hour pastor will present friendship Evangelism workshop.

Funds from the HST rebate remaining after the installation of the ceiling projection, will be used to purchase the rear monitor LCD screen, instead of currently used small floor monitor.

Logistical survey will be done this summer preparing for possible Second Worship Service on Sabbath, starting in September.

Depression Seminar will be offered by Health Ministry in September and October.

10. Membership Update. First reading: Transfer IN: Mayfair Appiagyei, from Columbus Ghanaian SDA Church in Ohio.

11. Adventist Youth Camp for Western Ontario – July 1-4 in Plymton Wyoming, Ontario. Registration fee is $50 per person (food included) Ages 13-30 are welcome. Anticipated attendance is 80 people, if more are registered, additional capmsites will be provided. Transportation will be organized by the church. If interested in attending – contact Stepan Golovenko or pastor Alex.

12. CELEBRATE THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE IN OUR CHURCH! On June 18th, during the worship hour, we will be celebrating the year-long accomplishments of the children (ages 0 - 12) and youth (13 - 25) in our church. Parents, grandparents, or other family members can register their children and youth for this special recognition day. Please fill out a card with the child's/youth's name and age and special accomplishments over the last year and drop it off in the box in the foyer marked "Celebrating Our Children & Youth". Accomplishments come in all different forms depending on the age of the child for example: learning to walk, learning to cross the street by themselvs, learning to swim, learning to read, overcoming an obstacle, learning to drive, graduating from highschool/university - the list is endless! Our young people are valuable members of our church and we would like to recognize as many as possible so we encourage you to register those special young people in your lives by the deadline of June 11th. If you would like to make a donation towards this special recognition day, or would like more information, please contact Lucy Simoes.

13. VBS, it’s almost that time again and we are looking for volunteers to work as leaders and assistant leaders. VBS this year is on July 18 – 22 for children ages 4-12 from 5:30-8 pm. If you can help; please contact: Doris Van Leeuwen @ (519) 452-7073. Thank You.

14. May 29th at Springbank Park at 11am. Joined picnic for North, South & Spanish congregations. Come to fellowship with families in the nature. Please bring your picnic lunch and outdoor games. Rides and other attractions are available as well. Everyone is invited. (Please plan to enter from Commissioners Road W at North Street traffic lights and follow the signs to the parking and picnic area). For more information please see Don Topper or Bill Dowdell.

15. Our church will be camping at Dalewood Conservation Area on Friday June 3rd to Sunday afternoon, June 5th. There is still room to sign up, so please talk to Don Topper or any member of the Social Life Committee for more information. We should be getting some nice sunny warm weather by then!

Happy Birthdays May 23 Kathy Rayner May 29 Jean Kaleb

May 23 Nancy Keim May 30 John Reeve

May 25 Teresa Ferreira May 31 Shelly Morris

May 29 Andrew Stajfer Jun 1 Lawrence Gilbert

Pastor’s Blog. May 21st...and you are still here? What are you going to do on May 22nd?

If you are reading this, that means you missed the “rapture” of believers! That’s what is promised by the billboards and websites promoting the beginning of five months long Judgment (Revelation 9:5) after which God is supposed to destroy the world on October 21 this year, 2011.

But wait....this is not the 6 pm yet! (which time zone?) the greatest earthquake ever is supposed to hit..... This “date setting” preaching has built up a significant interest around the world. The movement is led by Harold Camping (born 1921) who was a Christian radio broadcaster and president of Family Radio, based in California. Originally a Calvinist he left the Christian Reformed Church in 1988, and since then is teaching that all churches are apostate and must be abandoned.

The people behind this movement are aware of the Biblical verse that “no man knows the day or the hour” but they argue that it was relevant during the time of the church. And since God has withdrawn the light from the church in general, those who exit the church, every church and join the movement do know! In fact one of the sites is entitled www.wecanknow.com

The movement claims about 200 million followers to be raptured (that’s 3% of world’s population)! And, of course, more are ready to be raptured from the impoverished countries than from North America. This teaching is not new. Back in 1970 Camping published his Calendar of the world, dating the flood in 4990 B.C. Some are asking if “Camping will be stoned on May 22nd?” by people who invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into billboards?

There is also another preacher, Ronald Weinland, who is saying the date is wrong, it will actually be next year, May 27th on the Pentecost 2012 (www.the-end.com). People who are preaching this are also “adventists” as they are anticipating the Advent of Christ. They are sincere. But, are they sincerely wrong? Many of them had invested all they had into this movement of warning the world. I would compare their feelings to those of the Millerite movement expecting Christ’s coming in 1844, yet misunderstanding prophecies.

Doug Batchelor and Amazing Facts had produced a website dedicated to this topic, www.aftermay21.com asking the simple question “Will the Judgment begin on May 21st? It does not offer much explanation or answers but offers brochures and books produced over the past decades on various Biblical subjects. I guess, every sensational event makes a good venue for literature distribution.

Some Adventist churches are even getting baptismal requests in a hurry because of this date-setting. Yet in the long run all these failed expectations just lead to more

disappointements, and create more ex-christians. It becomes more difficult to reach people with the message of Christ’s return, as they become more jaded, sceptical and cynical.

There are various reactions to this. Wikipedia informs that the group Seattle Atheists formed the Rapture Relief Fund which they will use "to help survivors of any Armageddon-sized disaster in the Puget Sound area" if the rapture fails to come as predicted, the money will fund a camp that teaches children about critical thinking. The group American Atheists has sponsored billboards in several American cities declaring the Rapture to be "nonsense", and are holding a party during the period of the predicted rapture.

It is sad that such speculations only bring more embarrassment to faith, point out to “what’s wrong with religion,” and make believers and churches even more passive toward proclamation of the repentance for the end times.

How should we react to all this? Should we stop looking for the blessed hope of Jesus returning? Never! We remain to be Adventists, anticipating the Soon Return of Christ. How must we hasten the day? Not by looking for schedules and calendar dates, but by being current in relationship with God and inviting people into the same. Know your Bible, and do not forget that God’s prophetic movement has certain identifiable characteristics, seventh-day Sabbath and respect to God’s ordinances for holy living are among them. No matter how sincere some prophets may sound – their disobedience and ignorance of the WHOLE Bible makes them false.

LONDON SEVENTH-DAY

ADVENTIST CHURCH

Review

A Place where Every Believer is a Minister. Discover Your Calling!

Sabbath, May 21, 2011 805 Shelborne Street, London, ON. N5Z 5C6

Pastor: Alex Golovenko (519) 281-9706 agolovenko@adventistontario.org

www.adventistlondon.ca