cbm newsletter - Fellowship Bible Church

CBM NEWSLETTER
2400 Old Crow Canyon Rd., Suite A4 • San Ramon, CA 94583 • (925)820-8657
SUMMER CAMPS!
™Junior High Camp................Jul. 29 - Aug. 3
at Mt. Hope Bible Conference Grounds
™ Senior High Camp...............Aug. 5 - Aug. 10
at Mt. Gilead Bible Conference Grounds
™More details on www.cbm-bayarea.org
APRIL 2013
C
hurch planting is the heart of
what CBM is all about. From
its humble beginning back in 1956,
the founder, Pastor Sen Wong, desired nothing more than to bring
the Good News of Jesus Christ to
the world. The DNA of those early churches had been bringing
children to the saving knowledge
of our Savior. They in turn were
taught the truths of God’s word and
mentored to grow in the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ. They eventually became the leaders of the local church, and perpetuated God's
love to the new generation. With
the same blue print, children and
youth ministries were developed to
reach the community of Visitacion
Valley, and thus Hope Bible Church
was born.
Like many baseball fans looking
forward to the new season and new
possibility for their beloved team to
win the World Series, we too eagerly anticipate a "new" season at HBC
and the desirable outcome to harvest more for the Lord. Like many
springs in the past, our high school
seniors will be graduating and
moving on to college life. But, unlike years past, many students have
intentionally chose to attend college locally so that they may continue to serve at HBC. (Wow!) Tracy
is among one of them. She began
attending HBC sporadically about
four years ago when she was in
eighth grade. She would ask many
questions about the Bible, Christianity, and what Jesus had done for
her. This continued until about a
year ago when she accepted Jesus
Christ as her Savior. Although she
was the last of her group of friends
to become a believer, she's a strong
spiritual influence on them to
grow in the likeness of Christ.
What a blessing to see God's transforming power at work in these
young believers! Of course, the
change did not come overnight.
It's in part due to the consistent
teaching of God's Word, the staff's
dedication to nurture their spiritual journey, and your faithful
prayer support.
"Therefore, my beloved
brethren, be steadfast,
immovable, always abounding
in the work of the Lord,
knowing that your labor is not
in vain in the Lord."
(1 Corinthians 15:58)
A
s is common to aging stroke
patients, Pastor Sen is
requiring more assistance for his
daily routine. Praise the Lord for
providing him with a part time
care taker, but limited finances
restrains the much needed
additional care at their current
residence. A significant change is
inevitable in the near future. As
he and Mrs. Wong continue to
trust God "who owns the cattle on a
thousand hills" to meet their every
need, please encourage them with
your prayer and support.
Hope Bible Church
O
ur previous intern, Jeremy Wong,
has been led by God to become
the youth pastor at the Millbrae Bible
Church. We sent him off with mixed
emotion of sadness, that we will dearly
miss him, but also of joyfulness as
he obediently embarks on this new
journey. We wish him well. Four
months after Jeremy's departure,
God provided a new intern, Amy Ho.
Amy is tri-lingual and will be helping
us to reach the Chinese-speaking
immigrants living in Visitacion
Valley and Oceanview districts. Amy
also introduced us to a group of
Cantonese-speaking mobile young
adults who have a small church nearby
in San Francisco. With their help, we're
exploring the possibility of ministering
to more families through after-school
care and tutoring programs. Please
pray:
™ God's leading in this new
partnership, and His provision to
sustain the work
™ Preparation for the upcoming
five-week long Day Camp ministry,
starting in June
Should the Lord impress upon your
heart to invest your time and talents at
Hope Bible Church, please e-mail Pastor
Jerry Wong at "hopebiblesf@gmail.com".
Gratefully yours,
Tim Wong
"Every man shall give as
he is able, according to the
blessing of the Lord your God
which He has given you."
(Deuteronomy 16:17)
HBC Youth at the Sunset Winter Retreat
NEW LIFE COMMUNITY CHURCH
Road Trip
G
od has impressed upon my heart
that it's time to hit the road
again. Along with my family, I plan to
visit one supporting or new church
a month to share CBM's mission, and
also to acquire how we can better
serve the local assembly.
What better place to start than my
"home town" Sacramento? We plan to
be at Chinese Grace Bible Church on
4/28. If you're in the neighborhood,
please stop by for a visit.
As we continue this church visitation
through the rest of the year, we would
appreciate your prayer for:
™
™
™
™
™
Travel safety
Our children well adjust to new
environment, especially the
youngest one who's 2 1/2
Coverage for our responsibilities at
our local church in San Ramon
God's leading to new supporters
Most importantly, God be glorified
through partnership with likeminded churches
Thus says the Lord,
your Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel:
“I am the Lord your God,
who teaches you to profit,
who leads you in the way
you should go.
(Isaiah 48:17)
NLCC Easter Sunday at the Park
N
ew Life Community Church
(NLCC) in Fremont recently
had the privilege of observing and
experiencing Good Friday and
Resurrection Sunday as a church for
the first time in its brief history! As
you may recall from the previous
newsletter, NLCC began meeting as
a church just this past summer, so
this year’s Easter weekend was an
extremely special one for us!
leaving us somewhat disheartened.
Miraculously, when we arrived at
the Warm Springs Park in southern
Fremont, we discovered to our surprise that the area was completely
dry. Apparently the heavy downpour in central Fremont and many
other parts of the Bay Area didn’t
hit our venue in southern Fremont!
We planned the Easter Egg Hunt
hoping that we might get up to
For Good Friday, rather than hold a
50 kids to show up, and a lot of
traditional service, we had a conpreparation went into the event—
templative event where participants
the whole church spent a Friday
went to various stations
evening making the
themed around Jesus’
“Miraculously… Easter eggs, making
passion week. The stawe discovered signs, and so on. When
tions prompted prayer,
the time came for the
to our surprise event, over 80 kids
reflection, self-examination, and worship of
that the area showed up with almost
our great God, Lord,
equal number of
was completely an
and Savior before we
parents with them! The
concluded the evening
dry”
kids enjoyed balloon
with Communion. Afanimals, face painting,
terwards, many people voiced how
decorating their Easter egg bags,
meaningful this approach to Good
and trying to guess how many jelly
Friday was to them.
beans were in a jar before being
released to hunt down the eggs.
On Resurrection Sunday, we held
our church’s first ever Easter Egg
After the Easter Egg Hunt, around
Hunt. In the days leading up to the
25 of the children along with their
event, the weather forecast predicted
parents joined us at our Resurreca lot of rain for that Sunday, so we
tion Sunday worship service. We
prayed that God would allow the
praise God for allowing this weekweather to be good enough for us to
end to proceed not just smoothly
hold the Easter Egg Hunt outside as
but far better than we could have
originally planned. Just as my wife
imagined or hoped and for allowing
Emily and I left our apartment in
us to proclaim His Gospel to many!
central Fremont to head over to the
venue, a heavy downpour began,
- Amos Yang
2