Apr 2010 The Latest Word

For the members, family and friends of the Downey Adventist Church

The Greatest Ornament

A Fresh Start

by Pastor Mitch

The disciples glanced around the table to see who would flinch first.

Their dirty feet required a bath. Not the full emersion, but a good washing.

Why? Their custom required clean feet before the Passover meal started.

No one volunteered. No one stepped forward. Why? Their collected thoughts knew the one who washed those dirty feet would, in their actions, admit he was their servant. No one wanted to serve the other. Their temptation was not to do wrong but to do right.

Temptation has two streets it can travel. One street is temptation to do what we know is wrong. The other street is the temptation to leave out

what they know is right. Our Lord was faced with the temptation to come down from the cross to avenge himself.

The Easter message, on April 3, is entitled Faith for Life. The chief priests and the teachers of the law mocked . . . “Let this Christ, this King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe” (Mark 15:31-32, NIV). What we learn from our Lord who was tempted to step off the cross is life changing.

If you’re going through difficulty, don’t despair, the Lord’s words will encourage your heart.

On April 10, Adventist Union continued on page 2

Easter Sabbath n the first Easter morning, three women found an empty tomb.

The discovery left them trembling and afraid. They didn’t know there was more — a resurrected Lord.

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Please join us as we celebrate the Lord’s resurrection. On Saturday,

April 3rd, we will have our Easter Celebration. Invite your friends to join us for this important service.

Also, make plans to stay for a catered luncheon after the service.

The fellowship and the food is great! =

“The church knew what the psalmist knew: Music praises God. Music is as well, or better, able to praise him than the building of a church and all its decoration; it is the church’s greatest ornament.”

—Igor Stravinsky

I N S I D E

Enduring on page 3 Who Is He? My Peace! is on page 4 Chris’s Kitchen on page 5 What’s happening? see pages 6 & 9 Budget Bloops is on page 7 Kid’s Page on page 8 Our Church Family page 10

THE LATEST WORD A Fresh Start (cont. from page 1) On April 17, we begin a two part message entitled A Fresh Start. The Bible says this, “A clean slate and a fresh start come from God by way of Jesus Christ” (1Cor 1:30, MSG). In other words, Jesus is ready to give you a new life.

Maybe you don’t feel connected to God. Or you’ve never really considered yourself a religious type person. No one gets married on the first date—at least not most people. Give yourself a chance to hear and evaluate the message for yourself.

“ How differently

you would approach life if you had a fresh start.

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Have you ever wished you could start over? What if you could begin again with the painting project or cleaning out your garage or raising your kids? How differently you would approach life if you had a fresh start.

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tism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life” (Romans 6:4). The Lord says I’m going to give you a new life. And I’m going to give you a changed life. The natural question is what changes? What changes when God gives new life?

What’s new in the new life? What’s fresh in the fresh start? Those questions and a lot more will be answered.

See you when the church gathers. =

The Bible says, “We were therefore buried with him through bap-

The Latest Word V 22 N 04

WE DID IT

School will lead us in worship. Mr. Terry Tyron and Mrs. Linda Aumack will lead the students in song and message. Mr. Tyron’s message that day will be filled with illustrations that bring home his message of faith.

The students have worked hard on their music and songs to share with us.

Bring a friend to be part of this service.

BILL AUMACK el jeffe

BILL AUMACK layout

LINDA AUMACK proof reading

LETTY DURAN distribution

MITCH WILLIAMS pastor

address mail to: (we like letters!)

Downey-Florence Seventh-day Adventist Church 9820 Lakewood Blvd.

Downey, CA 90240 office: 562.869.6013 fax: 562.622.1691 downeychurch@gmail.com www.downeychurch.com distributed monthly issue date: April 2010 copyright 1992-2010

April 2010 God, Webster & You

by Linda Bewley ebster says “endurance” means “the ability to withstand hardship, adversity, or stress. . . suffering” (Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary).

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od says, “For everything that was written in the past [including the story of Jehoshaphat] was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4 NIV).

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Have you ever felt the weight of the world on your shoulders? Felt as though your very life is hanging in the balance? That, even though you know God is in control, everything threatens to crush your very existence? If so, you are not alone. One of my favorite passages of Scripture is the story of Jehoshaphat found in 2 Chronicles 20.

Jehoshaphat was told that a huge army was coming after him and his people. The Bible says he was

Enduring alarmed and “resolved to inquire of the Lord and proclaimed a fast for all Judah.” Then he led the people in prayer. And what a prayer it was!

There appears to me not one word of pretentiousness, just complete

and utter dependence on the Lord. I often read this prayer when feeling uncertain or overwhelmed. The last words of the prayer frequently match my feelings: I have “no power to

Worship Schedule Apr. 3

Mitch Williams Easter Faith for Life

Apr. 10

Terry Tryon

Adventist Union School

Apr. 17

Mitch Williams A Fresh Start I

Apr. 24

Mitch Williams A Fresh Start II

face” what is happening and I “do not know what to do but [my] eyes are upon [God].” If you’ve never read that prayer before, or even if you have, take a moment to do so.

And don’t stop at the prayer! Keep reading, and you will see God’s faithful answer to His people.

You’ll hear God assure you, as He did Jehoshaphat, that you are not alone, that the battle is not yours but His. Your soul will be refreshed as these words echo through your being: “Go out to face your troubles, and the Lord will be with you.”

Who knows, you might even find yourself singing and praising God resulting in God crushing your enemies and problems through your own praise. And you will carry away from this trial something meaningful not the least of which may be increased or renewed faith in the Living God. And, last but certainly not least, you might be able to say, “My life is at peace, because my God has given me rest on every side.” =

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THE LATEST WORD Before the Father

by Linda Fernandez

Who is He? My Peace!

“The Lord will give strength to his people. The Lord will bless his people with peace.”

Ps. 29:11 NJK ooking for just the right scripture to use for this month’s article, I came across the passage above. I thought how it could have been used last month as well as I studied God as my strength. I did a little comparison study of the word Peace and found it interesting that in the Complete Jewish Bible, the wording for this scripture is: “May the Lord give strength to his people!

May the Lord bless his people with peace!” Although I chose to use the New King James Version’s wording, I like that in the Jewish Bible, an exclamation point is used in both comments for emphasis.

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The name I chose for this study is YHVH-Shalom or Yahweh-Shalom.

Jehovah and Adonai are also used as the first part of this wonderful name attributed to our Lord. Peace.

Where do I begin a study on peace?

It is probably the most needed sense or feeling in our lives right now, but also the most difficult to hold on to or maintain.

I didn’t have to look far to see a need for peace all around. As I write this, Haiti is still trying to recover from the massive earthquake that devastated that small country.

Although Chile was much better pre-

pared for the quake and aftershocks that hit it, even the best prepared area would suffer damage and loss by an earthquake of such great magnitude. The Eastern portion of the U.S. has been pounded all winter by one mindboggling storm after another. And that is just the weather-related trouble.

In my local news this week alone, another young woman has been (allegedly) raped and killed.

Another innocent newborn was thrown away in the trash like last night’s takeout. Closer to home, the city officials have sent out a warning to the residents in my city that home invasion burglaries and robberies are on the rise and have advised us to keep our windows and doors locked, even when we are home! Nearer still looms the threat of my health issues rearing their ugly head or financial problems returning once more.

And yet, over and over again in the Word of God, we find the promise of peace to those who love and serve the Lord. In Judges 6, we have another story of how the Israelites turned away from God and then cried out to him. He responds by sending an angel to Gideon, who promptly asks, “…if God is with us, why is all this happening to us?”

Gideon is stricken with fear as he realizes he is speaking to an angel, but is comforted by the words, “Peace be with you, do not fear….”

Gideon built an altar there and called it The-Lord-Is-Peace. Had his situation changed yet? No. Did he know what his role would be in the changing of his situation? No. Had God yet laid out his plans for turning their circumstances around? No. Did Gideon jump at the opportunity to be of service when called? No. Nevertheless, he built that altar and called it The-Lord-Is-Peace. I want to have that kind of faith.

Father: Just as is predicted in your Word, the world around me is spinning out of control. As I face the news of each new day help me build an altar to you in my heart and call it The-Lord-Is-Peace. =

April 2010 With Love From the Kitchen of Chris Hogan Chocolate Truffles 1 - 18 oz. pkg. Oreo Cookies – crushed (fine like coffee grinds)

Dip rolled-balls into melted chocolate.

1 - 8 oz pkg. cream cheese –softened

Cover a cookie sheet with wax – paper. Set cookies on sheet.

1 - 8 oz. white chocolate – melted or chocolate chips (melted)

Refrigerate to harden. Store in refrigerator.

Mix cream cheese and Oreo Cookies – roll by hand into 1 inch balls.

*You may also roll in fine crushed nuts instead of dipping in chocolate. =

Refrigerate rolled-balls until firm.

Remember to bring some canned or dried food to church. The food is given to Downey PTA HELPS to help people right here in Downey. Thanks for your help.

The Influence of the Crucified Christ Nikolaus Zinzendorf was a child of German nobility born in Dresden in 1700. When he was a young man he entered a public hall and saw a large painting of the crucifixion. On the bottom of the painting were the words: “This I have done for you.

What have you done for me?”

Zinzendorf was so deeply moved by the words that he never forgot them. He said, “From this time I had

but one passion, and that was He, only He.” He dedicated his life to the cause of Christ and eventually became a bishop of the Moravian church. His zealous religious activities resulted in his exile from Saxony. But that didn’t stop him. He traveled the continent proclaiming the Christian message. His strong faith and spiritual depth had a great influence on

19th century Protestant theology and on John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. Later, Zinzendorf helped establish the Moravian movement in America.

All of this was Zinzendorf’s answer to the question on the painting, “What have you done for me?” =

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Downey Adventist Church Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

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Friday

Saturday

2 7:14 pm sunset

7 pm Women’s Prayer Group

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9:30 AM S.S. 10:50 AM Worship

Visit www.downeychurch.org C.S. - Community Service S.S. - Sabbath School

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6:30 pm Band Practice

Mitch Williams Easter 12:30 Luncheon

9 7:16 pm sunset

10 9:30 AM S.S. 10:50 AM Worship Adventist Union School

7 pm Women’s Prayer Group

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6:30 pm Band Practice

16 7:25 pm sunset

10 AM C.S.

17 9:30 AM S.S. 10:50 AM Worship Mitch Williams

7 pm Women’s 6:30 pm Band Practice Prayer Group

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23 7:30 pm sunset

24 9:30 AM S.S. 10:50 AM Worship Mitch Williams

7 pm Board Meeting 7 pm Women’s Prayer Group

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6:30 pm Band Practice

30 7:36 pm sunset

1 9:30 AM S.S. 10:50 AM Worship Bill Aumack

7 pm Women’s 6:30 pm Band Prayer Group Practice

April 2010 Stewpot

by Gordon Botting, DrPH, CHES wo of America’s favorite television programs over the years have been “Candid Camera” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos.”

We laugh and sometimes cry as we watch people do the silliest and dumbest things, such as underestimating their speed and crashing into a wall or window, or overestimating their ability to stand on a narrow wall and falling into the mud puddle below. Other times, it is that unexpected moment when a roof caves in and before they know it, they’re heading earthward, or one moment they are going in one direction and suddenly find themselves going in the opposite direction, with unanticipated and unexpected consequences.

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We love to laugh at the blunders and slip-ups of other people because we often see ourselves in similar situations. In the financial world of household money management, similar gaffes happen too often and they are no laughing or crying matter. To avoid such oversights and missteps, it pays large fiscal dividends to have a household budget or well-oiled financial plan. The price you pay for failing to develop a well defined household budget is a series of budget bloopers.

Income Bloopers The biggest budget blooper on the income side of a household budget is that many individuals overestimate their income when developing their financial plan. They add in hoped for cost of living raises, tax refunds, annual

Budget Bloopers bonuses and salary increases. When you write down your income on the positive side of the ledger, make sure it reflects exactly what you receive after the appropriate state and federal government taxes have been extracted. It is much simpler to increase your budget when that extra windfall comes, rather than having to reduce line items and the bottom line because your income fell short.

Expense Bloopers

Vacations are often shrugged off either as “We don’t take vacations,” or “We’ll see what pops up financially at the time”. Planning beforehand for that summer cruise or trip to an amusement park is much smarter than putting it on your credit card and having to pay it back, with interest, over the next several years or so. . Overlooking these three words, “maintenance, maintenance, maintenance,” when making up your household budget. From the day you purchase your first home, you are

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There are a number of items that are true budget bloopers on the expense side Budgets are designed to of the average family budget. These would decrease your expenses and include the following:

increase your income.

. Leaving out major expenses, such as vehicle or house insurance or property taxes. It’s easy to understand why these are often forgotten because they are not regular monthly expenses and may be billed only once or twice a year. But leaving these major expenses out is like sky diving without a parachute.

They need to be included in the household budget as proportionate monthly line items.

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. Forgetting to include the following line items that practically every family needs: Birthday, wedding and other gifts.

Most people are faced every year with gifting occasions for parents, siblings, children, grandchildren, friends and coworkers. Having a gift line item assists you when you need to purchase that extraordinary gift for their special occasion.

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constantly faced with maintenance and repairs. They are not necessarily large items, but they do add up.

Like a musical ditty: “it’s a sprinkler head here, a picture hook there, a few nails there, and spots of paint everywhere.” Aside from the cost of gasoline, vehicles have a way of constantly draining dollars from your wallet. Repairs and maintenance are a necessary part of vehicle ownership. Plan for a timing belt every 60,000 miles, a new battery every five years and brakes every other year.

Writing in two separate line items for household and vehicle maintenance will help keep your home and automobile in top condition. . Neglecting the one item that may save your budget roof from collapsing. Every week there are

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continued on page 11

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THE LATEST WORD

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April 2010

this month

April Birthdays Jessica Michel – 6 Veronica Lozano – 7 Gabriel Gomez – 7 Daniel Michel – 19 Edwin Morales – 20 Erik Concha – 20 Miranda Gomez – 21 Whitny Braun – 22 If your birthday is left out in the monthly newsletter, please contact the church office so we can put it in.

Upcoming Events 2nd Sunday - 10 a.m. Community Service 3rd Saturday - Adventurer Club Thursdays - 7 p.m. Women’s Prayer Group Fridays - 6:30 p.m. Band Practice April April April April

3 - Easter Service & Catered Luncheon 4 - Easter 21 - Administrative Professionals Day 22 - Board Meeting, 7pm

The Latest Word deadline is the 5th of the month.

If you are looking for a new, fun way to read The Latest Word online, be sure to check out the newest format at http:// issuu.com/downeychurch. Same great content in a richer environment. Be sure to check out all the reading modes. As usual, you can still get read it at our website at www.downeychurch.org.

Coming Soon May 8 - Mother’s Day Service May 15 - Parking Lot Party May 22 - SGA Chorale June 19 - Kids’ Sabbath July 19-23 - VBS

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THE LATEST WORD The Latest About

Our Church Family Congratulations to Pilar Centeno and Phillip Mondragon who were recently engaged.

Congratulations to Patricia Jackson.

She is officially an American citizen!

Way to go Patricia!

Congratulations to Raul Lozano and Marisella Guillen who were married on March 21. We wish you many happy years together!

We need graduates. If you know someone who is graduating this year, please contact either Letty or Bill and let them know.

Thanks.

If you have any Church Family news, please contact the church office so we can get it into the newsletter. =

Thank you to everyone who has been saving Campbell Soup Labels for education and Box Tops for Education. That is greatly appreciated.

On the Campbell Soup labels, all that is really needed is the UPC (the bar code). You don’t have to save the entire label, just the UPC bar code.

For the Box Tops for Education, please save the Box Tops coupon.

Please give your labels to Linda Aumack. Thank you for your support! =

We welcome Phillip Mondragon to the family! He was baptized on March 20th.

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The Real Meaning of the Cross “At the cross we understand what God means when he talks of loving us, begin to take it in that there is nothing that he will not do, no sacrifice he will not make, no suffering that he will shirk, if only he can help us. ‘He loved me,’ said Paul, standing upon Calvary and gazing in a stunned way at the

cross, ‘I who was a persecutor, and a blasphemer, and injurious, and yet he loved me and he gave himself for me.’ And with that [Paul’s] heart broke, and the old life was gone.”

—Scottish preacher Arthur John Gossip, in a 1926 sermon titled “What Happens at Calvary” =

Good Friday?

At first glance, Good Friday appears to be a misnomer. It seems inconsistent that the day of Christ’s crucifixion should in any way be described as “good.” But that seeming inconsistency vanishes when we understand that the ancient meaning of good was “holy.” The word holy is entirely consistent with the suffering and cross that Christ endured for us. Hence, Good Friday is also known as Holy Friday. =

April 2010 Budget Bloopers (cont. from page 7) items, such as your child asking for money for his class picture or a magazine subscription, that don’t fit into any other budget category. It you don’t have a catch-all miscellaneous line item, you may end up paying for these items over time and at a high interest rate, if you have to put them on your credit card.

viduals and families try to get by without a financial plan and then wonder why they are always coming up short when it comes to money management. The person who stated that a person without a budget is like

The Ultimate Budget Blooper Without a doubt, the ultimate budget blooper would be to NOT have a household budget at all. Far too many indi-

Adventurer Schedule There have been a few changes in the Adventurer program. Here are the dates and the topics for the remainder of this year.

April 17 - Community Food Drive for P.T.A. Helps May 15 - Sunbeam Curriculum June 19 - Awards Ceremony Also, the Adventurer club will do the curriculum as part of Sabbath School. Please be sure to be present during Sabbath School to meet all the requirements so you can get an award.

a vehicle without a steering wheel was financially right on. Probably the only two exceptions for not having a household budget would be those who are so wealthy they could never spend all the money they have accumulated, such as billionaire Bill Gates or Warren Buffet, or those who, like two friends of mine did when they got married, make the decision to live on only one salary and bank the other.

In this current economic situation, take a few moments and look over your household budget and see if you have a budget blooper that needs to be turned into a budget bloomer. =

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April 2010

Ponder This... = “Awake, thou wintry earth — Fling off thy sadness!

Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth Your ancient gladness!

Christ is risen.”

—Thomas Blackburn = “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

—Jim Elliott = “Christ is not valued at all — unless he is valued above all.”

—St. Augustine

Downey-Florence Seventh-day Adventist Church 9820 Lakewood Blvd., Downey CA 90240

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