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Let Not Your Good Be Spoken Of Evil Dear Brothers and Sisters, Congratulations GMI for its 38th Anniversary! This church started with only three families with the intention of fulfilling God’s will and desire especially in the area of world missions. God has truly blessed the humble beginning in which only He can take all the glory. May we continually be the church that solely relies on the leading and the power of the Holy Spirit, purposely giving to make Christ known to all nations. Let us also truly honor and imitate the leadership and the zeal that were shown by our spiritual forefathers like Pastor David Kim, Pastor Paul Han, and all the first generation missionaries whose lives were truly exemplary in forsaking all for the cause of the furtherance of God’s kingdom. In the meantime, some of us may be wondering when the church can physically get together to worship, enjoy fellowship, and do the works of God like before. You may have heard in Southern California that there will be some churches, regardless of the instructions given by the state of California, that have decided to meet on May 31st to worship and resume church functions. However, our church’s leadership has not decided to set a date to resume church activities including Sunday worship yet. We will wait and see if our government and the state give to the general public some level of clear guidelines on when and how physical gatherings would be feasible in the consideration of the health of the people. As you have been informed by the health organizations and the government, coronavirus will last in the upcoming months and perhaps at least towards the end of this year. Therefore, we must learn to live around it while we fervently seek God’s mercy to completely eradicate this virus. To give you an idea on how it will look like in the near future when we do get back to the church building for worship and other activities, here are ways we will ensure safety and good health of our church members. We will maintain a social distance of 6 feet apart by arranging chairs in the sanctuary to meet this requirement. We will ask the members to come to church with masks on and the church will have sanitizers available. When using bathrooms and eating lunch in the atrium, certain guidelines will be imposed to prevent any possible spread of the virus. Also, online livestream worship will continually be available for those who may feel sick or feel unsafe to physically come to the church campus. Parents with children may be asked to worship at home until further notice as it can be difficult for young children to maintain physical distance. We are not certain with the timeline of different phrases we will abide by in the coming weeks, but we will try to communicate the details of the guidelines as the days and weeks come by. To remind us again, the reason why the churches cannot meet physically during this pandemic season is not because we are being persecuted for our faith. This is to follow the government’s guideline together with the general public for the sake of the safety and the health of the people joining the common efforts of containing the virus or at the minimum level, trying to stop the furtherance of the spreading. Not only the church, but all people have been suffering and sacrificing for the common cause. Many areas of life including the economy, mental, and emotional condition of the people have been suffering. The patience of the people is thinning as we have been witnessing pockets of other people in different states demonstrating, demanding the country to open up. Even churches have been raising voices and declaring their own claims to meet again physically. However, as Christians and the churches, our good deeds should not be spoken of as evil (Rom 14:16). Our good desires and intention to be able to worship God, enjoy fellowship, and function like a church must not be spoken of as evil by the people outside the church. Other than being persecuted due to our faith in Christ, we must strive to set a good example, be the light and the salt in the world, always edifying within and without. In the meantime, let’s continually focus on our personal holiness and walk with God, building strong families, and being faithful to a house church/cell group. Let us continually be good. Love you all. Serving God and His people, Pastor Shine
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