Tree of Life Blog
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Report by trainee Solomon (from Orissa)
Jun 15th
Solomon Ekka
Solomon Ekka is a 23 year old lad from Orissa, part of Giji and Binny’s outreach work there. He came down to Mumbai at the start of the year for a short period to get trained under the church leadership and get strengthened to go back and help the work in Orissa pick up pace. He has been doing a number of activities in the church from helping with the PA, to visiting people and from doing the bulletin to helping with the website. This talented young man with an M.Sc in Microbiology to his name, further plans to pursue his PhD but he is sure about one thing : He wants to serve God! As Franco has been training him over the past 5 months, we hope that he is able to entwine his talents and studies with the Lord’s work and bring greater glory to Him in the godless land of Orissa. Following is a short account on his stay in Mumbai:
“Mumbai is a diverse city and it was encouraging to see so many cultures live together in apparent harmony. I’ve been on the run in terms of activities since the day I got here. In the first week itself I was sent to the Leadership training in Nashik where I got to learn from the lives of many leaders like Inder & Praveen Darole. These four months have been hectic in terms of the things I’ve done and learnt. I assure you the time has been well spent. The leaders made sure of it!
“Franco encouraged me a lot to understand the principles of planning, managing my time & resources well. It is a cool thing to have a motivator like him in the Church. I always liked his way of presenting things. He preaches a sermon in a very efficient way that breaks all barriers and touches hearts.
“There are many people I would like to thank, but I was told to keep it short, So in finishing I would like to thank all the leaders and friends who have interacted with me in whatever small or big way. May God bless you all abundantly!” – by Solomon
Commitments this year
Jun 7th
Marriages are always a special occasion in the Kingdom. And our church has had two this year! Both the weddings took place outside Mumbai. Here is the picture of the two couples:
Please Click to Enlarge
Terry Virgo & Church Planting Networks
May 24th
This is a small video by Ed Stetzer interviewing Terry Virgo, the founder of Newfrontiers, a network of churches that Tree of Life Church is a part of.
Dwell London – Ed Stetzer Interviews Terry Virgo from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.
This is a praphrased post originally written by Ed Stetzer http://ow.ly/1P0CC
Update: Prerna project – Balwadi graduation day
Apr 30th
As you all know, our church organized Pre-school education for underprivileged in Lohiya Nagar, near Milan Sub-way, through Prerna. Here are the 10 children with their certificates, for completing the school. We will post you more information on the project soon.
That’s Pat Magee standing with the children and a teacher from Prerna.
Balwadi completes another batch!
Keys to Revival: PULSE
Apr 26th
Franco preached a challenging word on Sunday 11th. Here’s a reviving look at it.
We all long for breakthroughs in our life, marriage & in children. Jesus is called the Prince of Peace! Anyone who is against peace is sinning against Jesus. If you are for Jesus then you have an enemy. (Mat 24:9)(John 15:18) The enemy wants to shut the Church’s mouth because we are the only people who are speaking about peace, joy, life, salvation, unity, harmony.
How do we re-ignite our passion to see the lost saved? How do we increase our excitement to do these things? In short how do we regain our pulse?
PULSE (Acts 4:23-37)
P = Prayer
U = Unity
L = Leadership/Lordship of Christ
S = Sharing – (Possessions/ Faith/ Life)
E = Encouragement
Great prayer will bring great increase of God’s power to meet your need. How does one PRAY…
A- Adoration
C- Confession
T- Thanksgiving
S- Supplication
One can also use the Lords’ prayer for praying as a pattern .
John 17 tells about unity. Where there is unity – God commands a blessing. There is something about God He cannot keep quiet or stop but bless when he sees unity.
When we are united we are portraying the Triune God that we worship. ‘FATHER’, ‘SON’ & the ‘HOLY SPIRIT’ Christians can be at three stages concerning unity:
A. United – Hot
B. Indifferent – Lukewarm
C. Disunited – Cold.
Are you united person? Do you have a spirit of unity? Where are you, concerning the church?
The book of Joshua records (Joshua 5:13-15), Jesus coming to take charge of Jericho, to give it to the Israelites. He won the battle for them. Jesus is our leader. He is the Head of the Church. He is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.
We all want Jesus to help us in our problems. He doesn’t want to just help instead He wants to take over the driver’s seat. Are you looking for a solution to your problems? Let the Holy Spirit take the centre stage.
The apostles shared their possessions, faith & their lives. They had great fellowship and their pulse was increasing. They were like little children who were excited about Jesus.
Another most thing is that they were encouraging each other. Act 11:23 tells how Barnabas encouraged the church. Our God is a God of eternal encouragement, so speak positive affirmation into one another life.
May be your pulse has gone down. Pray for the Holy Spirit’s grace to see it increase
