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Greetings
to you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
It
has been 9 blessed years since United Evangelical
Christian Fellowship (UECF ) started. I am delighted to
report the progress as we are entering into the 10th
year.
The
last UECF General Body meeting was held on 22nd
February 2004 and the leaders were elected for a 3 year
tenure. The present leaders took charge after their
installation on 7th March, 2004.
As
per UECF constitution, UECF Annual General Body should
be held in the month of January. My sincere apologies
for our inability to hold the Annual General Body
meeting last year due to various activities.
I
praise the Lord for the privilege to serve Him. I thank
Him for watching over us all these years and helping us
in growing both spiritually and in numbers. Last couple
of years have been very fruitful to UECF. More families
have joined UECF and the receipts also increased
progressively. Praise the Lord for His continued
blessings. It has been exactly 3 years since we
relocated to
New
Dover
United
Methodist
Church
,
Edison
. By God’s abundant grace, we are able to worship the
Lord in this sanctuary continuously. Our regular worship
services have been a blessing to many. We are privileged
to hear the word of God through our honorary pastors.
Apart
from our honorary pastors, many servants of God from
India
had ministered to us during the last couple of years.
These ministers from
India
included Rev. Dr. Joseph Kishore (New Life Associates),
Rev. Dr. B. C. Paul (Emmaus ministries), Rev. Daniel
Kalayanapu (Ecclesia Ministries), Rev. Azariah Korabandi,
Rev. Syam Babu (Zion Evangelistic & Care
Ministries), Bro. Harry Gomes (Caramel Ministries), Rev.
Dr. Joshi (Jesus Followers Ministries) and Rev. Sam
Saripalli (Golden Harvest Ministries). Missionaries from
other countries such as Rev. Richard Bailey (Missionary
from
Pakistan
) and Rev. Rafael Flores (Missionary from
Paraguay
) also shared us the Word along with the updates about
their ministry. Locally, Rev. Darryl Duer, Bro. Rajan
Mathews, Rev. Santosh Thadigiri, Rev. Navin Satyavrata
and Bro. Kris Samudrala served us as guest preachers.
Special music was provided by the visiting Indian
Gospel singers like John Bilmoria Rapaka and Mrs &
Mr John Charles Pilli.
As
the Psalmist asked for revival, we had been seeking for
God’s revival for a long time. I am extremely happy
and praise the Lord for the much awaited 3-Day Revival
meetings that were held from 28th October
2005 to 30th October 2005. A series of
powerful messages were delivered by the faithful servant
of God, Rev. Naveen Balakrishnan.
This series included the inspiring topics such as
Salvation, Supplication, Sanctification, Scripture and
Sharing. Many of our fellow Christians from the
neighboring areas attended the meetings and were
spiritually benefited by the messages. The impact of the
meetings is such that some of the attendees were
inspired and started reading the Bible regularly 4
chapters-a day as suggested by Rev. Naveen Balakrishnan.
I praise the Lord for this tremendous impact!
Apart
from our regular Sunday worship services, we had special
programs on Christmas, New Year Eve (Watch Night
Service), Palm Sunday, Thanksgiving, Mothers Day and
Fathers Day. As we do every year, Lenten Cottage prayer
meetings were held for six weeks and we are looking
forward to start the same for this year from next week
onwards. UECF joined the
Community
United
Methodist
Church
in
Roselle
Park
for a combined Easter morning service on 27th
March, 2005. UECF actively participated in Good Friday
Meditation service, Christian Family conference, NAAIC
Annual Banquet and NJIC special service on their tenth
Anniversary.
As per the UECF Constitution, ten percent of the gross
revenues should be designated towards the Missions fund.
As part of the missions activities, we supported Rev.
Stephen Nash’s mission trip to
India
. We are happy to be part of the various activities
organized through Rev. Azariah’s ministry in
India
. UECF also supported the ministries in India such as
Carmel Prayer Tower, Good News Messengers, Golden
Harvest Ministries, Lutheran Revival Forum, St. Paul’
Lutheran Church. We also supported the needy through
UMCOR and RZIM’s Wellspring ministry.
I
appreciate the Missions Coordinator, Mr. Ajit Lakra for
his eagerness in helping out the poor and needy. We hope
and pray that our support will bring light in the lives
of many poor and unreachable.
As
you know, the end of the year 2004 witnessed a most
tragic disaster. Exactly fourteen months ago, on
December 26, 2004, the Indian Ocean Tsunami devastated
several countries including
India
and
Sri Lanka
. UECF raised to the situation and contributed towards
the relief efforts through Hindustan Bible Institute (
HBI ) and Rev. Joe Thomas’ ministry in
Sri Lanka
. I thank all the members for your generosity and
prayerful support.
Praising
the Lord with Songs and Hymns has always been the
important part of our Sunday Worship Service. We sang
praises in different regional languages in bringing
glory to His name. The choir practices really helped us
in bringing out good music on special occasions. I thank
our Music Coordinator, Mr. Sushil Bhujabal for his never
tiring services. I hope and pray that we will continue
to glorify the Lord using further more musical
instruments.
Proverbs
22:6 states -Train up the child in the way he should go,
when he is old he will not depart from it. Following
this, UECF children are getting inculcated with Biblical
teachings from the very childhood. 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 teaching staff
for their efforts in nurturing the children.
Bible
Study was held in NDUMC premises on second Friday of
every month except during Lent and Christmas seasons.
Thanks to Mrs. Susan Bushi for conducting Bible Study on
regular basis. I pray for God’s wisdom in
understanding His word and for His guidance in applying
the word in our lives.
Many
guests have visited us and worshipped with us during
regular Sunday worship and other Special services. Mr.
Thomas Kalyanapu as Stewardship Coordinator has helped
to reach out the visitors and ensured they signed the
Guest Book with their addresses. Appreciate his efforts
in helping to procure the filled in member data forms.
This helped us in updating the database with Birthdays
and Anniversaries.
It
was a great joy to participate in Carol rounds during
the Christmas season. This year, we had visited 36
families as part of our carol rounds and received
maximum contributions so far. Thank Mr. Clement Myla for
his help in coordinating the Carol rounds. Thanks to all
the families for opening the doors and all those members
and the children for their active participation.
UECF
Annual Family picnics are generally filled with lots of
fun, plenty of food along with the spiritual food. Last
year we had a great fun time at
Colonial
Park
. Saturday, the 30th July, 2005 had a perfect
weather and all the members including children have
taken an active part in playing variety of games and
number of new activities.
We
were privileged to have an opportunity to take part in
the secular event of India Independence day parade which
was held for the first time on
Oak Tree Road
on 14th August, 2005. It was a great
experience to hold the UECF banner and marching on
Oak Tree Road
along with Tricolor flags. This certainly helped us in
getting some mileage in letting our presence known in
the neighborhood.
UECF
Members have always volunteered to host Fellowship
Coffee hour after each Sunday service while celebrating
their Birthdays or anniversaries. Special programs like
Baby showers were also celebrated. I thank Mrs. Padma
Borugadda, Women’s fellowship coordinator and the
women’s fellowship for their help in successfully
organizing the Fellowship Coffee hours.
The
Married Couple’s meeting usually held on the 4th
Saturday of every month in various homes that are
pre-decided. Couples discussed and debated on various
topics that are very practical and tried to use the
Bible as a guiding tool. Thanks to Rev. Dr. David
Ravinder & Mrs .Sarita Ravinder for leading this
ministry. Thanks to Mr. Kanthi Paul Rapaka for
coordinating.
Web
site has been instrumental for the growth of UECF. Many
have visited us by knowing our presence through the web
site. Members and others are able to get the updates on
Fellowship’s activities which are being regularly
posted on web. The web site has facilitated in making
UECF well known all over the world. Website’s Guest
Book indicates the popularity as people from many parts
of the world sign the Guest Book and witness how the
site has been blessing to them. This site has become a
home page for many and all are blessed by the collection
of songs. I take this opportunity to thank Mr. Phani
Pilli for sponsoring the website, maintaining and
updating it periodically for the benefit of the
Fellowship and also to others.
As
the journey of UECF continues, I hope and pray that the
10th year may be a remarkable year for UECF
and bring much more glory to His matchless name. I would
request all of your whole hearted support in carrying
out what God has asked us to do. More focus is needed on
our youth activities. We need to work towards procuring
a building of our own for Worship. We need to reach out
the people with good news of Christ, probably in the
neighboring areas. Much more work needs to be done in
helping the un-reached through missions support. At this
time, I request all the members to maintain the
discipline by coming to service on time. As Christ’s
body, it’s our responsibility to follow the principles
in achieving the goals and objectives laid out in the
UECF Constitution.
I
would like to thank the Executive officers, Board of
Trustees, Pastorate Committee and all the congregation
members for their help and support. I prayerfully
request the leadership to extend support by adhering to
the Constitution. My thanks are due to our Honorary
Senior Pastor, Rev. David Ravinder for not only sharing
the word but also for his able guidance in running the
Fellowship. He has been always there with us - may it be
home prayer meetings or cottage prayer meetings or any
other celebrations.
His readiness to get into the shoes whenever a
scheduled preacher was unable to make it is highly
appreciated.
I
express my thanks to our Honorary Pastors Rev. Stephen
Nash and Rev. David Davis for ministering to us on the
scheduled Sundays. Thanks
to Rev. Anna Bhujbal for sharing the Word on all
possible occasions and helping the Communion services.
Thank
the NDUMC board of trustees and Pastor Darryl Duer for
their continued support.
Lastly,
I thank my wife Saritha and lovely daughters Hannah
& Tryphena for their support and cooperation without
which I wouldn’t have been able to perform my duties.
Above
all, I thank and Praise the Lord for His immense mercy!
In
Him
SYAM
PILLI
26-Feb-2006
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