Dear EM family,
I pray that this email finds you well physically and spiritually.
She said, “One day, I asked God to do whatever he needed to do to make things right in my life, because I just knew how wrong everything was and how miserable I was. At the end of that day, the man I was living with beat my two-year-old daughter to death.”
Dr. Linda Barkman shared a great testimony. She asked God for help; instead, God allowed her man to take more away from her. If you think that was horrifying enough, Dr. Barkman was also charged with “implied malice.” California Supreme Court felt that she could have known what her boyfriend could do to her toddler. And for that reason, she was incarcerated. She spent the next thirty years in the CIW, California Institute for Women. In her story, you breathe in how God works mysteriously and unconventionally in our lives.
PC: KTLA5.
While in CIW, God began to show Dr. Barkman how He could use her if she would let Him, despite her anger towards God. God then channeled Dr. Barkman to minister to female inmates in the psychiatric unit and prison church as a lay pastor. In all brokenness, being the mother of the victim and a battered woman, God, raised her from ashes and served in a ministry that our church knows very little about.
Dr. Barkman’s testimony gave me a new meaning to the passage in the book of Isaiah:
3 a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice.
(Isaiah 42:3, ESV)
I had a chance to take the “Practices of Worship” class with Dr. Barkman, and that’s how I came across her amazing story. Her interview with Christian Today shared how God turned her hardship into ministry and transformed her through the California Institute for Women and the Fuller Theological Seminary.
PC: seminariesandbiblecolleges.com
11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare2 and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
(Jeremiah 29:11, ESV)
With her permission, I am sharing her testimony with you. I pray that you are touched as much as I was. Thirty years is a long time. Then again, God used Moses for forty years when he was 80.
He alone “does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without number” (Job 5:9, ESV).
God affirmed that, “I will turn their mourning into joy; I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow” (Jeremiah 29:13b, ESV). That’s His promise to His people.
Are you ready to let go and let God?
Announcement:
- Elder Jay & Simone Lam have sold their house and ready to start their next chapter of life in Toronto, Canada, on September 19 (The following Saturday).
CM, EM, and MM are organizing a farewell drive-by caravan at 9:30 am, September 19, to say our farewell. If you are available to bid your farewell, please let me know.
We will be forming a caravan at Cameron Dr. and drive down in sequence to 88 Spindlewick Dr. and waive our goodbyes.
- CBCGL English Ministry Sunday Service Reopen Survey. If you haven’t filled out the survey, please take the time to fill one out.
- Friday Night’s Bible Study will start a new book from Lifeway. You may dial in or login via your phone or personal computer:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/685376249?pwd=cWtyUk1pckJiRHJxZVZCSGdJZWw2UT09
Meeting ID: 685 376 249
Dial-in from your phone: +1 929 436 2866 US (New York)
Meeting ID: 685 376 249
- This Sunday, Youth Ministry Candidate Minister Cody Riggins will be sharing God’s word with us:
- Live stream Youtube: http://cbcgl.org/resources/live-stream/
- Title: Unity in Christ
- Text: Acts 2:42-47
- Coworker reminder:
- EM Sunday School
Topic: CBCGL EM Sunday Class “52 Major Stories of the Bible” (9:45 am – 11:00 am):
Join Zoom Meeting (Note the different link)
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/491248585?pwd=RnpLcnpjQ01nTGZLSmhaZ3l4L3dKQT09
Meeting ID: 491 248 585
Dial-in from your phone: +1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
Meeting ID: 491 248 585
YAs Sunday School (via Microsoft Teams)
YAs Sunday School signup sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1H0oSS1kpU8JUZAv0JcmivEIzR-tvDtihkrEtBLE8tJo/edit?usp=sharing
- English Ministry will host Alpha Online starting on September 8 (Tuesday) from 7:30 pm to 8:30 pm. Please invite your friends and family to experience the Alpha Online.
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Signup for EM Alpha Online! https://patch.com/massachusetts/chelmsford/signup-free-cbcgl-alpha-online-nodx |
Contact: Marina Lam
Email: marina.lam@lowell.church
Google voice phone: (201) 824-2922
- A new health waiver form has been posted online at http://bit.ly/cbcgl-covid19-waiver
You are required to fill out the latest form if you plan to participate in any activities at church.
- Deacon nomination is ongoing. Please go online to fill out any recommendation:
http://bit.ly/cbcgl-deacon-nomi
- All other announcement items can be found here.
Prayer Request:
- Prayer is an essential part of the Christian life! Please consider joining our Wednesday night prayer meeting (7:45 pm – 9:15 pm) even if you can’t participate the whole time.
Zoom Meeting:
https://zoom.us/j/758587937?pwd=aS9sZUdxcm1janNNM2I2aXJ6Smx2QT09
Meeting ID: 758 587 937
Password: 030086
Join by phone: +1 929 436 2866 US (New York)
Young Adults:
Wednesday night EM prayer meeting @ 7:45 – 9:30 pm – https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86893982884?pwd=Q2RIWEtVMGtmdGJ2ZHNJdDJ3Rng4dz09
Meeting ID: 868 9398 2884
Password: 197791
- Here is our list of prayer and service requests. The service request tab is for brothers and sisters to ask for assistance or announce any give-away items. It is a new attempt from EM to reach out and take care of those in need among us. You may also enter yours:
Blessings,
Jeremy