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Note from the Sun, August 16, 2015

  The word “tradition” comes from Latin “trader” or “traderer” literally meaning to transmit, to hand over, to give for safekeeping. Often tradition is seen as boring or irrelevant - we love the new and exciting, the fresh and the novel ideas and sometimes we shudder when we hear the word.
  Not all traditions are bad, though. Here at Hope Fellowship we do have some traditions we love. We love to greet each other in our services. We have an evening service on Good Friday instead of in the morning, as many other churches do. We love to get together and share food. All great things and wonderful traditions that we have come to appreciate over the years, but I daresay that the most important tradition we have is the Week of Prayer and Fasting that we share together each September.
  The Week of Prayer and Fasting was birthed out of pain. Hope Fellowship had undergone some terrible struggles and we were broken, hurting and unsure what was coming next. As a community, we were called by our leaders to come together and cry out to our God. When we did, when we opened our hearts and our minds and our lives to hear what God really wanted for us as a community, that’s when the healing began. It was an amazing experience! We decided that, rather than run ahead of God and his timing, we would continue to turn to him regularly to hear his voice and to ask that his plan be worked out in us. And thus the Week of Prayer and Fasting became an annual tradition.
  Every year, before we begin our new ministry year, we pray in community.
  Why not just pray at home? Well, there’s a sense of setting things aside, and taking the time to come together and be in God’s presence. Jackie, one of our two prayer coordinators says “When one person prays, a thousand angels are put to flight. When two people pray together, ten thousand are put to flight”. It’s not a magic formula, but a way of expressing that there is power when God’s people come together to pray. And when fasting is added to that, we open our lives to God’s transforming work and are equipped to focus on God and his purposes. And, honestly, shouldn’t that be our first desire? To do what God has in mind for us – not asking him to bless our plans and ideas, but to show us his, because what he can come up is so far beyond what we could dream of.
  This year our focus for the week is a little bit different than in previous years. Just because something is a tradition, doesn’t mean we can’t shake it up a little bit. This year the focus is on the people of Hope Fellowship. This thing we are doing together called “church” works best when each person is involved and contributing. Wayne Cordeiro, in his book “Doing Church as a Team” likens church to a war ship as opposed to a cruise ship – in a war ship, everyone is invested and working toward a common purpose, as opposed to a cruise ship where a few people look after the majority of people who are relaxing.
  So, will you join with the people of Hope Fellowship this year as we take time to come before God to seek his face? For five days, from Monday, Sept. 14 to Friday, Sept. 18, we will get together from 7:00-8:00 p.m. We will meet in the sanctuary and every evening we will lift up a different zone before God. Final details are still being worked out, but look forward to hearing more about this as we get closer to September. And, if you can, set aside at least one night to come and pray. You will not only be a blessing, but you will be blessed. It doesn’t get any better than that!

OUR ZONES:
ADMINISTRATION—Chris Ritskes
CHILDREN ZONE—Joan Doorenspleet
COMMUNITY LIFE ZONE– Melissa Claxton-Oldfield
OUTREACH ZONE—Lisa Witvoet
WORSHIP ZONE—Mike Broersma
YOUTH ZONE—Alice Brink



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