Connecting with Business Owners on the Island of Yap

Sherwin Nobuo

 Maitland DePinto of Home for Humanity in the NAD came through a while ago and shared a tool with me that has really helped me connect with local businesses. I pastor on Yap, a small island in the Pacific that is unique because many of the families are interconnected. 

Sample Prayer and Blessing: Your First Visit

Introduction

"Hi! How are you doing? Let me introduce myself. My name is ________________. On behalf of my church, we want to let you know we're thinking about you and your business [identify by name]. We'd like to pray for you, and with you if you would like. We know how tough these times are, and as a church we realize how important our community is to us. You're part of our community, and we want share with you and other businesses here in your concerns. Our way of saying how important you are is to speak to God and to ask for a blessing on you and your business. This is not a gimmick; it's the way we believe we can share together and that we are truly a community.

Is there anything special that you would like us to think about and pray about?"

(Before praying make sure you know the first name of the person you are praying for, and the name of their business.)  Read More 

Stories We Tell: Not as Good as You

A pastor was cleaning out his desk, preparing to move to a new assignment. He felt someone staring at him and he looked up to see the cleaning lady standing in the doorway, leaning on her dust mop with a doleful expression on her face.

"Oh," said the pastor, "You startled me."

'Pastor," said the lady, "I sure hate to see you leave. You have been such a wonderful pastor; I just know the next fellow won't be anywhere near as good as you."

She continued to be very effusive in her praise of him to the point he felt he'd better say something about his coming replacement. "Well, thank you for your kind words, but the next pastor will be a fine person, you'll see. He'll have some qualities I didn't have and he'll be a blessing to the congregation. Give him a chance, OK?"

"He WON'T be as good as you, and I know what I'm talking about."

"Oh?"

"I've been the cleaning lady through the last eight pastors and each one that came was worse than the one before. He won't be as good as you."  

John Glass recently retired and is now serving as the interim pastor of the Oklahoma City Central Seventh-day Adventist Church

When your Deaconess team needs to coordinate a meal for those who are new moms, recovering from a surgery or injury, or preparing for a funeral - Meal Trainis a great organizational resource. Simply fill out the in-take form with dates and special dietary needs, mail it to your team, and individuals can sign up for the meals they will cover. Meal Train will even e-mail reminders to your volunteers. Organizing a Meal Train is completely free!

Randi Zuckerberg, sister of Facebook's co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, believes that we need to take A Digital Sabbath, some time off from social media and electronic devices each week. "This is really in line with Facebook's message of sharing with the people you want to share with and doing it mindfully and consciously," says Zuckerberg. "Unplugging and connecting to people in the real world ... just strengthens the relationships you have with them online as well."

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