May - New Faces

May 6th - (posted by Joan)
Gideon & Esmerelda Loh - Josh's brother and sister in-law
-just moved here from the island
-plugged into TCG as of June 24th

June 3rd - (posted by Joan)
Vin Jonker - friends with Pastor Emily
-planning to go to the next TCG

June 24th -  (posted by Joan)
Iris, her husband and her mom: The caucasian elderly trio
-91yr old granny REALLY enjoyed the service
-Found us online and came to check things out for a Korean friend before they bring her next week

June 24th -  (posted by Joan)
Michelle Sui and Cindy visiting from Tenth and RCAC
-really enjoyed service and want to come back again soon
-plugged Catalyst events

Team members & Contacts

TEAM 1 (July,September,November)
Jacquelyn - son.jacquelyn@gmail.com 778-789-5507
Esther - angel_essence47@hotmail.com 778-322-9110
Daniel Shim - sanghakshim@hotmail.com 778-706-0452
Joyce Chan - joycechan.110@gmail.com
Joan Wong - joanyeung1@gmail.com604-970-2524

TEAM 1 (June,August,October,December)
Wilson - agentorange013@gmail.com 778-899-8731
Mida Huang - Midahuang@hotmail.com 604-787-0191
Rebecca - ysum@sfu.ca 778-881-2850
Ying Yuan - cloudwatchin@yahoo.com778-322-1273
Lina Kim - linakkim@gmail.com 778-388-5462

Standby/Events Team:
Ling Tan -  ling.tan86@gmail.com 604-727-1773
Mariam - mariam_al-sayed@hotmail.com 778-862-4299

Ushers (Permanent)
Kris Wong kriswong1@gmail.com 604-805-0147
Daniel Chen daniel.kt.chen@gmail.com 778-858-7888
Sterling Wong sterlingwong@yahoo.com 604-836-0506
Joel Slanisky jslanisky@hotmail.com 604-351-2330
Donald Fung donaldfung85@gmail.com 604-616-4918
Mike Chan mike_c_007@hotmail.com 778-232-7192

Hospitality = Building/Facilitating Relationships

Hi guys,
Just a quick post here. I was meditating today and I asked God what the purpose of our ministry was. I think a lot of the times we let fear come in and make serving in Newcomers Ministry a lot harder than it should be. Or sometimes we minimize the work we are actually doing! We all know that our roles are to bring people into the family and make them feel welcomed. That may look different for every single person we greet...so really, there is no formula! There's only the Holy Spirit ;)

Some of our fears as greeters or ushers:
■Fear that a visitor to their church will come a few times and still not feel welcome.
■Fear that a church visitor will be overlooked.
■Fear that greeters/ushers will be too overzealous and drive visitors away.

I say let's just stomp those fears out and let God take the wheel.

We are here to build and to facilitate relationships. It's always about people, not programs or rules. Our God is a relational God and it's made me realize how much he wants us to be the same with our visitors. It's hard being intentional with strangers but you'd be surprised by how just remembering one name each Sunday could make a world of a difference to that individual. Or even introducing them to person that they may have common interest or passion with is great too (ie. they can tell them about CAG group or Catalyst ministries etc etc).

We have a huge responsibility in this ministry but at the same time we have the most rewarding honour and priveledge of seeing people come and get radically transformed through love and community. We get to see the whole process from seed to fruit and no other ministries really get to witness that.

I have my own testimony about awesome hospitality and I'm sure you all have yours. A question I want to leave for you tonight is how did you feel welcomed coming to NJ and what is your heart for this ministry? We will go around and discuss this at our meeting :D

See y'all tomorrow morning!
Love,
Joan