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Praise
the Lord for one more year of the Lord's choicest
blessings upon this Fellowship!
I
deem it a great privilege to present this annual report
as UECF completes 10 years of Service. Over the past
decade, by the grace of Almighty, UECF has a grown
considerably. I
am blessed to serve Him as an Acting President for
almost 2 years and as a President for the last 3 years.
God has protected me and my family all these years
whether I was away in
Wisconsin
or traveled to
Philadelphia
for my job. Praise the Lord for His wonderful mercies!
I
am glad to state that most of the goals and objectives
listed in the UECF Constitution have been met during the
last several years. In the last five years, as you may
have noticed, by the Lord’s abundant grace, UECF
revenues have increased three fold.
We
continued the last year events with the inspiration
gained from Revival meetings by Rev. Naveen Balakrishnan
held in the year 2005. These 3-Day meetings had a
tremendous impact on many people. Sadly at the same
time, the satan also started to disturb the unity among
the congregation, but God has sustained us from all the
troubles.
Apart
from the regular Sunday worship Services, we have had
many special programs. We tried our best to make the
worship services energetic and dynamic. In addition to
the procurement of Public Address System, special
instruments like Drums, Guitar, Key-Board, Karaoke CD
Player, Tambourines, OHP Projector, Worship songs DVDs
and other instruments were received as donations over a
period of time. Time for joys and concerns during Sunday
services gave us the opportunity to update the
congregation on the news and needs of our friends,
families and members.
We
had a great joy in celebrating special occasions on
Christmas, New Year Eve (Watch Night Service), Palm
Sunday, Thanksgiving, Mothers Day and Fathers Day. On
the scheduled Sundays, Sr. Honorary Pastor Rev. Dr.
David Ravinder and Honorary Pastor Rev. David Davis have
shared the God’s word and spiritually encouraged us
all through the year. We are also blessed to hear the
Word of God through many of the guest preachers from
India
and around
New Jersey
. The guest preachers for the year 2006 included the
following eminent servants of God:Rev. John Paul
Reddypogu, Rev. Devasahayam Dandala, Rev. Azariah
Korabandi, Rev. Dr. A. B. Joseph Kishore, Rev. Dr. N.
Krupa Rao, Dr. Oomen A. Koshy, Rev. Eli Miranda, Rev.
Darryl Duer, Rev. Anna Bhujbal, Bro. Kumar Das Villuri,
Rev. Dr. K. Jayawanth Samuel and Rev. Manoj Bhatt.
Last
June, we had witnessed a large gathering at UECF through
special Gospel meeting by Bro. Anil Kumar. When we
invited Bro. Anil Kumar for special meetings, my only
prayer to God was to enable at least one person to come
to the Lord Jesus. Thank God for the answered prayer!
Praise the Lord for the new addition to UECF family and
for their powerful testimony!! It was such a glorious
event that for the first time this sanctuary was filled
with people from not only
New Jersey
but also from neighboring states.
We
had a joyful Christmas 2006 as many families and friends
not only from
USA
but also from
Canada
and
India
joined us in Worship. This was the largest gathering
UECF ever had for Christmas, having 250 people in
attendance.
Praise
Time has been a vital part of our Sunday Worship
Services. We had the opportunity to sing praises not
only English but also in the regional languages like
Telugu and Hindi. Thanks to the efforts of the Music
Coordinator, Mr. Sushil Bhujabal. Also thanks to the
Praise Team and to Mr Peter Kollory, MR. Samuel Chilaka,
Master Philip Moodey, Mr.Junia Moses and Mr. Sunil
Robert for providing music support.
Our
special meditation programs included the Cottage Prayer
meetings during the 6 weeks of Lenten season. We had the
opportunity to join the
Community
United
Methodist
Church
in
Roselle
Park
for a combined Easter morning service. In order to
fulfill the Constitutional Objective – ‘To
participate in the activities of similar
congregations’, UECF represented the Good Friday
Meditation service at Rahway, Christian Family
conference, NAAIC Annual Banquet, UTCF special programs
etc.
I
would like to bring to the notice of the General Body
that although the UECF Constitution specifies that 10%
of the gross revenues should be designated towards the
Missions fund, this has not been implemented because of
the difference of opinion among the members of the
Board.
One
hand the Pastorate Committee has recommended
disbursement of Missions fund (10% of the gross
revenues) retrospectively, the other hand, the Board
chose to give only 5%; and that too from the future year
budget! The General Body may want to correct this
prayerfully at a later time.
However,
we were able to support the following Ministries in
India
:
Golden
Harvest Ministries (Rev. Sam Saripalli)
Good
News Messengers (Rev. Dr. Santhavardhan)
Savior’s
Heartbeat Ministries (Rev. Devasahayam Dandala)
Neu
Life Associates (Rev. Dr. Joseph Kishore)
Emmaus
Ministries (Rev. Dr. B. C. Paul)
Shalom
Christian
Ministries
(Rev. R. Vasanth Peter)
Hebron
Pentecostal
Church (Rev. N. Vivekananda)
Rev.
Azariah Korabandi
Sunday
School: Sunday
School children of different age groups exhibited their
talents on all possible special occasions. Thanks to Mr.
Louis Dundi, Sunday School Coordinator and the Sunday
School teaching staff for conducting one day retreat,
staging dramas and group dances. Thanks for their
efforts in nurturing the children with the Word of God.
Bible
Study:
UECF monthly Bible Study has been a blessing to many of
the members. Thanks to the efforts of Mrs. Susan Bushi
and for her dedication in coordinating and conducting
Bible Study.
As
we do every year, we participated in Carol rounds during
the Christmas season. In the year 2006, we had visited
36 families as part of our carol rounds and received
your prayerful gifts. Thanks to Mr. Clement Myla for his
help in coordinating the Carol rounds.
Last year, we had an Annual Family picnic at
Colonial
Park
. Mr. Ebenezer Mallepalle shared the word of God during
our picnic time. Many families have actively
participated in various items of the picnic.
Web
site:
I can only report that God has richly blessed this
Fellowship through the web site ( www.uecf.net
). The presence of UECF is known all over the World
through this web site. Many visitors have attended our
worship services and testified that they came to know
about UECF through the Web site. Some such visitors
started attending regularly. Praise the Lord for this
wonderful tool and the never tiring efforts of
Joshua ( Phani ) Pilli ! This effort has been a
blessing to many and obviously received high
appreciation from all quarters. Thanks to Joshua
Pilli’s for
his labor in sponsoring, maintaining and updating the
web site periodically for the benefit of not only to
UECF but also to others.
Fellowship
Hour: Constitution
specifies in the goals & objectives that
the Fellowship Hour is needed to bring the cohesion
among the members. Many
of our members have volunteered to host Fellowship
Coffee hour after each Sunday service while celebrating
their Birthdays and anniversaries. Special programs like
Baby showers were also taken place.
One
area where the improvement required is all the members
coming to service on time. At this juncture, I would
like to appreciate Mr. Vinod Nakka & family for
their promptness and also their help rendered in
arranging the Communion elements on Communion Sundays.
I
thank the Executive officers, Board of Trustees and
Pastorate Committee, Coordinators and all the members
for their help. I express my thanks to our Pastors Rev.
Dr. David Ravinder and Rev. David Davis for ministering
to us. Thanks to the NDUMC board of trustees and Pastor
Darryl Duer for their continued support.
Lastly,
I take this opportunity to thank my wife Saritha and
daughters Hannah & Tryphena for their support,
cooperation and sacrifices which enabled me to perform
my duties in serving Him. I request your continued
prayers as we are moving to
Virginia
.
In
Him
SYAM
PILLI
25-Feb-2007
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