Greetings to you in the Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
It has been a great blessing to Serve the Lord and I thank God for this wonderful privilege. God has been faithful to us all these years in expanding the congregation and growing us in our faith. Praise the Lord for His continued blessings! Our regular worship services have been a great blessing to many. We are enlightened by the word of God through our honorary pastors and many guest preachers.
Apart from the regular Sunday worship services, we had the wonderful opportunity to celebrate the 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.
As you have witnessed more than 400 people have gathered to worship the Lord on the last Christmas Worship Service. We thank you all and all 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.
The 3-day Special Deeper Life Meetings were conducted in last September to strengthen the congregation in the Word of God Our special meditation programs included the Cottage Prayer meetings during the 6 weeks of Lenten season. UECF participated in Christian Family conference and TTCA annual conference.
Missions Support: As part of the missions support, 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.
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 out millions of people through our special Music programs in Aradana TV, Subhavartha TV and Miraclenet TV channels. Thanks to the choir members and to Mr. Samuel Sudhakar Chilaka, Mr. Josiah Srigiri, Mr. Nishanth Dwaram, Mrs. Emily Gopal, Ms. Yuko Unehara for providing music support. We appreciate the sincere efforts of Mr. Naveen Thammadi, Mr. Ramesh Saripalli, Mrs. Satya Srigiri, Dr. Solomon Pagolu, Mr. Paul Gummadi and Mr. Victor Gollamandala for their support in Photography/Videography.
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 choreographies. 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: We praise God for His protection throughout the Christmas season. God enabled us to visit 41 families as part of Carol rounds during the Christmas season. We thank all the Carolers and the families who opened their doors and for their prayerful support.We appreciate the efforts of Mr. Clement Myla for his help in coordinating the Carol rounds.
Picnic: We had a wonderful time of Annual Family picnic at Thomson Park. Rev. Dr. David Ravinder shared the word of God during our picnic time. Congregation especially children had lots of fun at the picnic and enjoyed the activities..
Fellowship Hour: Fellowship Coffee hour has been useful in bringing cohesion among the congregation. 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:UECF Website has been a blessing to many. The presence of UECF is known all over the world through this web site. God is using this website as a channel to bring in more people to join us in worshipping the Lord. 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.
I thank the Executive Committee, Board of Trustees and Pastorate Committee, Coordinators and all the members for their help. Our thanks are due to God in His abundance strengthened our finances in spite of the recession.
I express my profound thanks to our honorary 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.
Apostle Paul in his first letter to Corinthians reminded that – For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as He chose. (1 Corinthians 12:12, 18).In Him,
Joshua(Phani) Pilli