Post on 21-Jul-2016
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IFGF Pinole Monthly Newsletter
April 2015
#FTWInterview with
Julietha Pangemanan
Poem by Saskia Soedarjo
Summer Mission: Tiffany Hendric
The story did not end when our hero go to the grave. Death did not have
the last word. We all know that Jesus, the Hero, has risen from the death
and is the reigning victor over the power of darkness. He win!
How about us? Are we victors too? The reality is often
harsh. We fail, fall and feel defeated when we look at
the frequency of poor-moral choices we made. We are
disappointed, disgusted and disillusioned when we see
injustice, wars and sufferings around us. It seems like
Christ and His army is not winning the battle.
But despite all weaknesses, apostle Paul calls us victors. He said:
“But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus
Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:57). In other words if you believe that Jesus
had defeated life’s most gruesome enemy, death, it is a given that we
also enjoy the same victory despite temporary setbacks.
The full picture of this victory has not been seen and will not be seen until
the day of judgement. But the faith is sure: Christ, and His children will be
vindicated at the end. We will be victorious.
The big question is how do we walk, as the crowned kings and queens,
until then. How do we keep being strong until the end?
This month, let’s learn together For The Win!
#FTW
#ResurrectionPower
#LivinginVictory
From
Pastor’s
Desk
Shown on Front Cover: Audrey Pangemanan
Hi, Julietha. How are you doing?
Very busy life since I have three kids, who are living in
three different worlds. One is in college, one is in middle
school, and the other one is still a toddler. Three different
worlds together that I have to deal with. They all face
different challenges and I as the mother also connect
with them differently. While they go along well, it is hard
for them to understand each other’s world. For example,
the toddler can live with his sisters, but it is hard for him
to understand their lives. At the same time, Andrea and
Audrey have to deal with Bibo while they also have to
deal with their own challenges.
I see. So how do you deal with each of them and cater to their diff erent needs?
Well, at some point, I just have to try to understand them
according to their own ways. How I speak to each one of
them will be different. The content of our talks will also be
different. So I have to know, update myself and be more
involved with their worlds. Communication is essential to
be able to get through them. It is not just once in a while,
but all the time. We need to communicate all the time and
follow up with them daily.
Particularly for us, coming from an Asian background, that
is very different from the culture here. Regardless how
they were born here, the children will still need guidance
to value their Asian background, and more importantly,
their Christian faith. This background has a big role in
communication and in our approach towards a confl ict or
a problem.
Do you think it is diffi cult for your children to cope with their lives as Christian Indonesian here in the US, considering that they are born and raised here?
Yes. Very hard actually. For instance, Andrea went
through it during high school. What she believes and
what is presented at school and upheld by her friends are
very contradictory. Even until now. I believe that family
relationship and the church that she is in play a big role
in shaping her values. Sometimes it can be frustrating
for her to see her friends with different perspectives,
This Is Our Church
JuliethaPangemananWife and Mother of Three / Amazing Cook / Care Group: Family
APRIL 2015 • 03
regarding life confl icts, sex, relationships, etcetera, even
inclusive family values. Many times she found herself in an
argument with her friends. Thank God, faith grows in her
heart that she is able to stand strong in her own opinion
as a Christian growing up as a teenager. Praise the Lord,
she now can reach out to her friends and bring them to
Care Group. Manny, for example, is a living testimony. Even
Audrey also starts to reach out.
For Audrey, she is starting to be more involved with usher
ministry. At fi rst she only attempted to help out with
ushering, just to try out the ministry. It turned out she
likes it and stays with the ministry. It really has opened
her heart and mind. Slowly, she starts to reach out even
though she tends to be shy and quiet. With ministry, she is
able to grow and open up not only to her own family but to
everyone else at church.
What about your youngest son?
For Bibo, it is nice to see the sisters bring faith values at
home. Although he is only fi ve years old, he can pick it
up from his sisters. For instance, he can call himself as
a Christian and Jesus is God. He knows that his papa is
Enrico, at the same time, Jesus is his Father. He picks it
up from our daily conversations. I don’t need to explain so
much, not as much as I needed to with Andrea. His sisters
can also infl uence each other. Bibo also enjoys worship
seeing her sisters worship. And the whole family starts to
enjoy the worship too. So defi nitely, alot easier with him.
Hopefully he can grow and learn as he grows up. Hope he
can understand faith even more as he will grow up.
It is defi nitely alot easier for me to raise my kids
understanding that they are growing in the church. It
reduces some of my burdens. I think it’s God’s grace
working and involving in our family. Sometimes parents
can get worried of how to take care of their kids. We
do have family values; but when the kids are out in the
world, parents have little role over them. They will grow
up and sometimes, without me being there. So the basic
foundation of faith value, along with family value, also
helps set boundaries of what they should accept from the
outside world.
For sure. What about Family Care Group? Do you see your involvement in Care Group play an important role in your daily life?
Yes, of course. Especially knowing that most of the Family
CG members are leaders, such as David, Martin, Jeffri,
even Pastor Sugi too. So when we share, we build each
other. We open up and everybody shares his own struggles.
We also pray for each other.
Also, most of them are younger, so they adopt a younger
point of view that is more related with my children. Not
to forget, those leaders are also involved in Warriors. So
04 • GENESIS NEWSLETTER
SUPERMOM:
Julietha surrounded
by her three children,
Audrey, Adriel and
Andrea.
whatever Andrea and Audrey are going through, they
kind of understand because that is what they have been
sharing in the caregroup. They can feel me with what is
going on with my life. This is really helpful for me in raising
my kids. I grew up in Indonesia. Sometimes, I can feel
disconnected too with the younger generation. But for
Martin or Jeffri’s family, especially since they have been
here for a long time, they can relate more with the children.
So it’s really helping.
How diff erent is your faith today now that you have a family compared to when you were still single?
When you are single, I feel that you can know the values
according to what people tell us but you don’t really
understand it until you get through it. Although I grew up
in a Christian family, I felt that I had less burden since I
was living under the shadow of my parents. We felt secure
under their care. After marriage, you are more independent
and you need to handle things yourself. So what you learn
as a Christian, not only because you know it like when you
were small, but you know deeply because you are living it.
You are living it and applying it. It is a part of learning. No
longer just going to school. When you are actually working,
whatever you learn from textbook, how you apply what you
learn becomes relevant in real life.
Ah, I see. Just curious, what made you stay in the US? And how have you liked the Bay Area so far?
I came in 1994 in the Bay Area. I’ve been 21 years in this
country. I love it actually. It actually has become my
hometown more than Indonesia. I no longer live under
someone (parents), so my life here has more ups and
downs.
It’s really nice how you cook Indo food for the church often. Do you want to share with us as to how it all got started?
It’s a blessing to me. I never thought about it in the
beginning that I would do catering.
Wow. So what made you decide to cook then?
Actually cooking is not my hobby but my family loves
to eat, which makes them love to cook. I can say that
they love cooking. Alot of my mom’s siblings in Indonesia
actually do alot of catering. But none of us learn by the
recipe. We adjust it to our taste as we cook. But yes, I
never thought of doing catering. It started by helping kids
who miss the Indonesian food.
APRIL 2015 • 05
I realize that this is what God wants me to do. During
that time, my husband lost his job. (Praise God, he has a
job now.) Soon enough, the church asked me to cook for
a Leader’s meeting. So I started to cater for events, such
as birthday party to help friends as well as to help my
husband. After I catered to the Leader’s event, I remember
Karen and Glorio approached me and asked for a catering
as she said she missed Indonesian food. Basically, they
were the ones who taught me how to take orders and
deliver. This is God’s grace for me. Within a week after my
husband lost his job, God offered me the idea to start the
catering. I never had the experience before and no interest
it all. I believe this is God’s blessing in my life.
Wow! God is really good and His plan is never late, right?
Yes. God is in control in our life. No matter what happens
to us, good or bad, He is under control. Once we claim His
as our Lord and Savior, what we will do or face are under
His guidance. Even when we fail and weak, God knows and
allows things to happen to strengthen us more in our faith
and maturity in Him. I believe that it is only by His grace
we have been saved and survived through our problems.
He will never stop loving us and will never abandon us.
Amen! Do you have any advice for the younger generation families in our church?
One thing that you guys need to know: the church has
young leaders, younger than me. The younger families are
also leaders in the church. Even the kids are also leaders,
which is really amazing. What I can say is that as long as
they can stay true in their faith, grow and stay faithful,
everything will be fi ne. How can I say more. Just keep
growing in faith since you are already in the right track. •
LET’S PRAYFOR APRIL
with Joan Wirolinggo
Our pastor and leaders that
they abide in Him.
Our care group gathering.
Let’s pray that Jesus wil l
be the center of each care
group and relationship as
brother and sister in Christ
wil l be built .
Our new friend who are new
to the states or just trans-
ferred that they may found a
new family in Christ through
this church .
Our friend who are stil l look-
ing for job.
God’s conviction for our
brother and sister in Christ
for water baptism and
prayer
In awe
On bended knees of the blind
The call of the victory emerges
And to The Divine,
We owe nothing more than
the luxurious tip of life
No reply needed
even for a miligram of water
Thy sacrifi ces reacted,
thousands crumb of truth
in fl esh—that decomposes
through the blood—that is shed
Where O death is your sting?
death is swallowed up chewedand
glory penetrates
Poem
Triumphantby Saskia SoedarjoCare Group: Faith
In Christ
Not winner’s trophy I hold
Nor gold medal I wear
Victorious over
the enemy of addiction
A pedestal that never collapse
Beneath the dazzling light
Beyond the depth of lust
You shall fi nd
You shall seek
More than conquerors
We are
We are, through Thy might
And victorious life: a manifestation
manifestation of Thee
Manifestation of grace
Will be never dimmed
Never doubted
Permeates in ours
In our abundant life •06 • GENESIS NEWSLETTER
Poem
Triumphantby Saskia SoedarjoCare Group: Faith
Could you share with us one memorable thing about your summer mission experiences.Imagine the gorgeous Himalayan Mountains behind you.
Looking around, it looks like you’re in an old Hollywood
set from the Wild West, and you’re about to get into a
jeep to go to explore a part of the world that we often
don’t think about—Nepal. One of the crazy memories
while I was in Nepal was driving around in these jeeps
on the mountain roads. The roads were unpaved and
very rocky. There were parts of the road where it was
basically on a cliff side next to roaring river down below.
And for American standards (and maybe for Indonesian
standards too!), the road was definitely for only one
car. But nope, think again. For the Nepalese, no cliffs
or small roads would stop them from getting to where
they needed to. It was a bumpy, swervy, exhilarating,
and quite a scary ride. But, it was a memorable
adventure!
How different it is to share gospel here vs there / in Nepal?There was one time when we flew to a rural village
called Jomsom. We were only supposed to stay for only
about 2 days, but because of bad weather conditions,
we weren’t able to fly back to the main city, Kathmandu
and was stuck there for 10 days. However, the local
team didn’t want to stay any longer because they
didn’t want to spend any more money there lodging and
decided to travel back by bus. When we were finally out
of the village, we heard about the crazy travels that the
team had to do to get back to Kathmandu. They walked
for hours through knee deep mud carrying our sound
system equipment and luggage when the bus that was
taking them couldn’t go any further. Then when they
reached a village to stay the night, instead of resting
from all the tiring travels they did, they instead chose
to have an impromptu service and chose to share the
gospel with the villagers instead, and people accepted
Christ! I was amazed at how much they were willing to
go through for the sake of sharing the Gospel and the
Summer MissionTestimony by Tiffany Hendric
urgency they felt to share it. 2 Tim 2:10 says “Therefore
I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they
too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus,
with eternal glory.” The Nepalese locals were really
living this out. It challenged my faith and made me
wonder, how much are we really living to endure for the
sake of His gospel and the lost people?
Why should anyone be interested to join?Do you want to visit a part of the world that you’ve
never been to before? Have you ever wondered what
how people around the world worship God? Is God
challenging you in your faith to be able to endure
things for the sake of the Gospel and reach people
who may have never heard the good news before? If
you said yes to any of those questions, then I strongly
encourage you to consider going to summer mission
or any missions trip! Sometimes we’re so caught up
with our life bubble that we don’t really think or realize
about what’s going on in the world. Going on a missions
trip really helped to open up my eyes to a lot of things
that sometimes we don’t really see in our comfortable
“Western” lives. Even though going overseas is not the
only way to do a missions trip (because our lives should
always be missional!), going overseas gives a different
perspective and it’s always amazing to see God alive
and working in different parts of the world. On top of
that, even though you kind of go in with the mindset
that you’re going there to be a blessing to the people in
the place that you go, I ended up being so much more
encouraged and blessed by the people there.
Interested? Come join our mission trip to Nepal this summer to serve God and his people. Dates: June 28 – July 8, 2015
APRIL 2015 • 07
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Biblical Teaching
Apr 4 Easter Musical
Production and Message
Apr 11 Water Baptism
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Apr 11 Deliverence Prayer and
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6pm at Church
Apr 3 & 17 Care Group Gathering
CG LEGENDS
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