Trinity United Methodist Church "Reverend Dan's E-Message" for Thursday, 28 August 2014

Trinity United Methodist Church "Reverend Dan's E-Message" for Thursday, 28 August 2014
Dear Friends, I share with you three important things:
1.  First about our Disciple Bible Study and Christian Believer programs that begin next week; there are spaces available for each class, but you must register this week; you'll be glad you did.
    A.  The Tuesday Evening Disciple I class is nearly full, with room for one or two more.
    B.  Disciple I (a new offering Sunday Afternoon (3:00).  If you've never taken Disciple Bible Study before this is something hundreds of us at Trinity recommend.  
    B.  Disciple IV (Tuesday Evening) has room for 5 or 6 more.
    C.  Christian Believer (Tuesday Evening), great course to understand our Christian Faith; room for 6 or more persons.
Please click here to register  here for the above classes. 
2.   We received this important prayer request from one of our members.  It's about the crisis in Iraq and the horrific persecution of Christians by the extremist group, ISIS.  Please keep this matter covered in serious prayer.  I'm hoping to attend a special summit in Washington D.C. in September called the In Defense of Christians.  
Just a few minutes ago I received the following text message on my phone from Sean Malone who leads Crisis Relief International (CRI). We then spoke briefly on the phone and I assured him that we would share this urgent prayer need with all of our contacts. 
"We lost the city of Queragosh (Qaraqosh). It fell to ISIS and they are beheading children systematically. This is the city we have been smuggling food to. ISIS has pushed back Peshmerga (Kurdish forces) and is within 10 minutes of where our CRI team is working. Thousands more fled into the city of Erbil last night. The UN evacuated its' staff in Erbil. Our team is unmoved and will stay. Prayer cover needed!"
Please pray sincerely for the deliverance of the people of Northern Iraq from the terrible advancement of ISIS and its extremist goals for mass conversion or death for Christians across this region.
3.  I'll be leading a six week conversation around Adam Hamilton's latest book:  Making Sense of the Bible on Wednesday nights starting on September 10.  Esther will also be preaching in the chapel during this time on the themes in Adam's book. It's an important book, because it addresses key questions we and our youth are dealing with:  the Bible and Science, Violence in the Old Testament, Suffering, the "No One Comes to the Father but through me" passage; what the Bible says about Homosexuality, and the implications of this topic for the conversations going on in the larger UM Church around possible schism, and other difficult and challenging topics. I hope you can attend the classes at Church, but if you can't and want to connect with these conversations, I'll be doing a blog that you can follow and engage.  Our bookstore has copies of Adam's book.  
Blessings, Dan
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Trinity United Methodist Church
4000 NW 53rd Avenue
Gainesville, Florida 32653 United States
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