Greetings of the season!
I hope you enjoy a blessed Christmastime
and a New Year filled with hope and joy.
God bless you in your various
ministries for Him in the coming year. I am so thankful for all of you.
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| Church Development table at Conference in July (click on photo to zoom) |
The
CRM – My work on the Conference database continues to go well. I
recently trained the main users and created a user manual for reference. In the
fall we added two volunteers as fellow Church Development Associates on the
tech side, Dorothy Noel and Amy Stephan. I am a team lead for them as we work
to develop the database. One goal is to use the data to better encourage and network
Sabbath-keepers who are far from a local church.
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| 3 ministry directors of the SDB Conference USA & Canada: Jeremiah Owen, John Pethtel (my boss) & Nick Kersten, July |
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| Our church Farmers Market Booth, August 2018 |
New
Contacts – One of the things I especially enjoy is communicating with the
people who inquire about SDBs. One new leader in Florida came to Conference at
my urging and met the Florida pastors. Another new contact may write for “The
Helping Hand”. A prison inmate asked for a Bible and I was glad to supply that.
If you, or someone you know, is interested in corresponding (by letter) with
prison inmates who want to affiliate with SDBs, please let me know.
Partnering
– I plan to continue in this role through 2019 and hope to increase my
financial base to cover the higher cost of living in Colorado. If you want to
partner with me in this ministry, please designate the gift for me and make
checks payable to my sponsoring church, SDB Church of Boulder, 6710 Arapahoe
Rd, Boulder CO 80303. I will advise when the address changes. You can also
designate a gift through the Conference, https://seventhdaybaptist.org,
“Donations”. Many thanks!
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| Music worship team, Boulder SDB Church |
Replanting
– The Boulder SDB Church is moving forward with relocation plans and I’m
thankful to be part of the PULSE team that has been working over the past few
years on revitalizing the church. We are considering how our mission and
vision might change in the new place, and what name would be best for us. Several
church groups have interest in buying our property in Boulder and we hope to
begin meeting in a rented facility in the new area (known as Carbon Valley) in
March.
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| Pastor Steve Osborn, leading our replant |
We recently celebrated 125 years
of ministry by our church in Boulder and look forward to the next chapter.
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| Potluck I organized to meet my apartment neighbors |
Out
of the salt shaker – One revitalizing idea we are doing is committing to pray for
three people we know who are far from Christ. Then we look for ways to serve
and bless those people, developing stronger friendships with them. As we “do
life” together, we share the hope we have in Christ and explore spiritual
themes with them. Right now we are mostly focusing on the first two parts (pray
and serve) as we grow into having spiritual conversations. We’ve been sharing
stories of God at work when we gather on Sabbath.
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| Leading caroling at a local retirement home with my two children, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. |
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| Holiday food distribution in Dacono in partnership with New Horizons Christian Church. |
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| Potatoes and turkeys! |
Beyond
my comfort zone – This October was my third time to attend the “Multiply” Church
Development Conference in Colorado Springs, with the new role of primary meal
planner and preparer for the 30 or so SDBs. Everything turned out fine but those
close to me thought I would have a coronary (heart attack). I guess it’s not
where my primary gifts lie. :-) The sessions were both inspiring and practical, especially from the SDB
presenters.
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| Multiply Conference attendees, October 2018 |
We enjoyed Sabbath worship with the SpringsLife SDB Church in Colorado Springs.
Pastor JR Shick (White Cloud, Michigan) brought the morning message.
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| I love Sabbath day hikes! |
Sipping
healthy tea – As a last bit of good news, I’m pursuing another avenue of
income as a distributor for a tea company that offers a masterfully blended
herbal infusion called Jasmine Tao, designed to cleanse the body of toxins and
support the immune system. There are many great results coming from this tea
such as increased energy, weight loss and decreased anxiety but what I notice
most is deeper and longer sleep. Much needed! Email or call for more details or
view https://moreteainfo.weebly.com
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| Merry Christmas from the historic Hover Home, Longmont CO |
Prayer
requests:
- For wise use of my time to complete my goals.
- For additional financial resources.
- For a new apartment in the Carbon Valley area by June when my current lease is up.
- For Pastor Steve and all the Boulder Church in the process of replanting.
- For SDBs to continue to revitalize our churches and support church planting.
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the
government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” Isaiah
9:6
With joy and peace,
Patty
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| With my granddaughter, Jo Ana Joy Petersen |
