Tree of Life Blog
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Valentine’s Day at TLC
Feb 17th
Valentine's Day
As a family, you may know, there are only a few occasions in a year when you invite new people over to celebrate something. More often than not that occasion in church, is Christmas. This year, coincidentally, Valentine’s day fell on a Sunday. Thus, it seemed liked the perfect opportunity to encourage all the newcomers and general congregation about true love in a fun and interesting way.
So in keeping with this theme, In the Hindi service it was a pleasure to have Benny Prasad, a talented musician who’s credited with the joy of being the first person ever to create a guitar with drums in it. Benny shared his testimony with the congregation about how he came out of several crisis in his life and how God was sovereign in every situation. His struggle through rejection in his early years and the love of God that brought him back on his feet was moving. And as he finished, he played a wonderful solo on “My Jesus, My Savior” that he had played in the Olympic games in Athens, Greece.
The hall having being decorated with heart-shaped balloons and drapes, we began our Sunday with lively worship and praise. Halfway through the meeting, some youth @TLC presented a short musical play on a girl torn between the attractions of the world and Jesus. The play conveyed the message quite simply and it was touching indeed!
Hearts were distributed to couples to put their partner’s photographs on it and keep it as a memento. Franco towards the end of the meeting prayed a prayer of blessing and well being on all the couples in the church.
And at last Franco taught us on the true reason for celebrating Valentine’s day. Download the message from here. Lots of humor and practical examples kept us all wanting more of a long, but happening Sunday!
A Different and exciting Sunday at TLC
Momentum : Church Planter’s Conference
Feb 10th
Indeed it was a momentous time… a time of meeting the king of kings, a time of reviewing, understanding India, its geographical locations, the population, the need for church plantings, worshipping and hearing the heart of the Lord through prophetic utterances, fellowship, etc. all under one roof. It was a power packed 3 solid days conference for the 120 people who were present.
At the conference
Our time began with Guy Miller envisioning us about the conference, speaking from Rev. of the full purpose and plan for us – to be a worshipper who will see Jesus as He is, more than a conqueror and hence for us to be warring Christians full of the Holy Spirit. More >
Newfrontiers Annual Cricket Tournament
Jan 27th
The TLC team (L to R): Dinesh, Sonu, SIby, Arun, Allan, Neil, Errol, Neville, Don (Sunny’s brother), Sunny, Aaron & Peter. (Inset) The winning JVK team and Franco.
It was 26th Jan & our cricketers from New Frontier churches in Mumbai and Nasik, gathered together for the battle for the cup at Holy Family School Grounds. There was enthusiasm and joy and confidence in everyone to win the trophy. Lots of fellowship and fun, friendship, eating together and cheering one-another was happening there. The stadium was full of spectators and cheerers, with music & drums, placards & signs. Last year’s winners Masiha church lost the match in the first round itself. We TLC, played better cricket this year and won the first match against Living Word church. We however lost the second round after a putting up a good fight against Jeevit Vishwas Kalisiya, who won the trophy after consistently winning 4 matches. Let’s applaud these great winners.
All things are possible with God
Jan 23rd
A testimony by Sheeba Samuel.
“Lord I know it’s not possible to conceive, at least you can take away the desire to be a mother.” I began to pray this with a heaviness in my heart after a year of being married. But nothing changed initially. Then came the miracle.
I was married in May 2007 and ever since then I always wanted to conceive. Being thirty-three years old, almost 40% over weight with thyroid reports that were unstable my chances were next to none. When people around asked if there was any ‘good news’, it pricked me daily, because in my heart I knew I may never conceive at least naturally as it was just not possible .Throughout my ordeal my husband was very supportive – he just knew God would come through. It was my family and my Church that stood by and prayed for me non stop More >
Welcoming our newest MEMBERS : Membership
Jan 20th
Newest members of our family
At the end of last year, the church welcomed 10 new members in to its family:
Shriram & Chandrakala, Ashim & Ivy, Sunny & Deepina, Venkatesh & Annu, Hetal and finally, Shivprasad.
They are now officially members of TLC. They were prayed upon and blessed as they were welcomed by the church. God has taken our church from a small gathering to more than 100 members now. The kingdom of God is expanding and the church is as well!
Quite often, the whole area of membership remains in doubt. More >
