Greetings to you in the Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
I thank and praise God 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. Praise the Lord for His continued blessings. Our regular worship services have been a great blessing to many. We are privileged to hear the word of God through our honorary Pastors and guest Preachers.
Apart from regular Sunday worship services, we had special services on Christmas, New Year Eve (Watch Night Service), Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Easter, 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 2009 included the following eminent servants of God: Bro. Moses Jangam, Rev. Dr. Yesupadam Bandela, Rev. Amoon Sharon, Rev. Dr. Augustine Pagolu, Dr. Joshi Jayaprakash, Rev. Israel Suppogu, Rev. Dr. Thomas Nalla, Bro. Rajan S. Mathews, Rev. Anna Thomas, Rev. Herford Urlica, Rev. Lilly Daniel, Bishop Spurgeon Raju Pachigalla, Rev. Dr. Joseph Kishore, Bro. Ratna Raju Rapaka, Bro. Prasanna Kumar Devarapalli, Rev. Dr. Akumarthi Daniel, Rev. T. K. Jai Kumar, Rev. Dr. Samuel Mohan Raj, Rev. Solomon Raju Kunchanapalli, Rev. K. Kurian and Rev. Dr. Richard Ruch.
About 400+ people attended the Christmas service. We want to specially thank those who visited us from Canada, St. Louis, Kansas, North Carolina, Boston, Atlanta, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New York. Praise God for the grand celebration! Thanks to Pastor Jim Miller and board of trustees of First Baptist Church, Metuchen for allowing us to celebrate Christmas in their facility.
Our special meditation programs included the Cottage Prayer meetings during the 6 weeks of Lenten season. UECF participated in New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia and TTCA annual family conferences.
UECF supported Neu Life Associates(Rev. Dr. Joseph Kishore), Emmaus Ministries(Rev. Dr. B. C. Paul), Golden Harvest Ministries(Rev. Sam Saripalli), Good News Messengers(Rev. Dr. Santhavardhan), Savior’s Heartbeat Ministries(Rev. Devasahayam Dandala), Shalom Christian Ministries(Mrs. Sasikala Vasanth Peter), Bro. Philip Gundala, Hebron Pentecostal Church(Rev. Vivekananda Nakka), Rev. Azariah Korabandi, IEM(Bro. Suresh Gundala), Bro. Venu Gopal Yagnamurthy, Bro. Johnson Samuel, Rev. John Nakka as part of missions support. Also UECF supported Bowery mission, flood victims in Andhra Pradesh and other evangelists.
Music Ministry: Praise time has been a vital part of our Sunday Worship Services. We had the opportunity to sing praises not only in English but also in the regional languages like Telugu and Hindi. I thank and praise God for giving UECF an opportunity to reach millions of people worldwide through our special programs in Aradana, Subhavartha and Miraclenet TV channels. God has given UECF choir an opportunity to lead the praise and worship in Delaware, Virginia and TTCA conferences. Thanks to the Praise Team and to Mr. Samuel Sudhakar Chilaka, Mr. Josiah Srigiri, Mr. Nishanth Dwaram, Mrs. Emily Gopal, Ms. Yuko Unehara for providing music support and Mr. Naveen Thammadi, Mr. Ramesh Saripalli, Mrs. Satya Srigiri, Dr. Solomon Pagolu, Mr. Paul Gummadi and Mr. Victor Gollamandala for Photography/Videography support.
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 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 Mr. Ravi Rapaka for taking lead in conducting the Bible Study.
Christmas Carols: As we do every year, we participated in Carol rounds during the Christmas season. In the year 2009, we had visited 41 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.
Picnic: Last year, we had an Annual Family picnic at Thomson Park. Rev. Dr. David Ravinder shared the word of God during our picnic time. Many families have actively participated in various items of the picnic.
Fellowship Hour: Many of our members have volunteered to host Fellowship Coffee hour after each Sunday service while celebrating their Birthdays and anniversaries. I thank all the congregation members for keeping the sanctuary and the fellowship hall clean and neat after the usage.
Women’s Prayer Fellowship: UECF monthly Women’s Prayer Fellowship has been a blessing to many of the members. Thanks to the encouragement of Mrs. Shanthi Bhaskar and Mrs. Udaya Pulipati, Rev. Lilly Daniel, Mrs. Grace Tsappidi, Mrs. Susan Bushi for leading the fellowship and Mrs. Jyothi Nakka for co-ordinating these meetings.
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 website. Some such visitors started attending regularly.
Many guests have visited us and worshipped with us during regular Sunday worship and other Special services. Mr. Thomas Kalyanapu as a Stewardship Coordinator has helped to reach out the visitors and ensured they signed the Guest Book with their addresses, also thanks to Mr. Vinod Nakka and Mr. Clement Myla for arranging the Communion elements on Communion Sundays and Mr. Chittaranjan Lam and Mr. Anand Devi for auditing the UECF finances.
I thank the Executive Committee, 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 Rev. Dr. Richard Ruch and Board of Trustees of Reformed Church for their continued support.
I am extremely happy to conclude that the Lord has blessed the UECF ministry with wonderful messages, praise and worship, offerings, children activities and bible study programs, and our Lord’s name was glorified.
In Him,
Joshua(Phani) Pilli 24- Jan- 2010