Issue 20 Volume 1. January Making Our World A Better Place

Transcription

1 Issue 20 Volume 1 January 2015 Making Our World A Better Place

2 MESSAGE FROM THE PASTOR Greetings to you and your family. Happy New Year! May it be a year of great exploits for you in Jesus Name. Amen! Please permit me to bring you an update on our Ministry. A. Annex Building Caught Fire As you may have heard, on January 1, 2015 at about 4.05 am, our Church Annex Building caught fire. The building and the content in the building was damaged. The cause of the fire is still being investigated by the local and State fire Department. We do thank God that there was no loss of life and the building is fully insured. Furthermore, the fire will not stop any of our Church activities by the grace of God. In short, all is well! Please be assured that our Church leadership is attending to the matter and we will keep you posted of any development. B. Application of the Jethro Principle In the book of Exodus chapter 18, the Bible describes the Jethro principle. Basically, it is an organizational plan that enabled Moses to minister to the congregation of Israel more effectively through the process of delegation. This year, our Church will apply the same principle to minister to all of our members more effectively. Briefly, let me explain how it will work in our situation. Our current membership roster is more than 4,000 people; The number of family units in the Church are 1,667; Like the Israelites, we have divided the entire congregation into 12 tribes; Each member of the Church will belong to one of the 12 tribes; Each of the 12 tribes will be assigned to a mixture of Ministers, Deacons and Deaconesses; The assignment is based on a person s last name and it is done in alphabetical order; Currently, our Church is blessed with 51 Ministers, 15 Deacons and 19 Deaconesses. So there is plenty of help for each of the tribes; The leaders will be trained on what to do with the tribes and how to do it.

3 The leaders will be trained on what to do with the tribes and how to do it. C Capital Projects As I have mentioned to you before, this year, we believe God to work on one or two Capital projects namely: Parking lot Theatre seats As to the Parking Lot, a task Committee has been appointed to come up with the budget, plan, and execution of the project from start to finish. The names of the task Committee members are: Tracy Clayton Harrel Davis John Harley Lisa Harris Daphne Robinson Each of the above listed group brings to the table a level of commitment and expertise that is needed to get the project completed. Please feel free to share your suggestions with them and pray for them. For your information, their appointment begins on January 1, They will report to a select group of Deacons and Deaconesses, who will be report to the Pastor. Likewise, the Pastor will report to God and the Congregation. Finally, the theatre seat project is being planned and coordinated by our Deaconess Ministry. Before the plan is executed, we will seek the opinion and support of the congregation. I am quite excited about what God is going to do this year in our congregation. We have a lot of great ideas and insight that God has placed in our heart to be more effective in serving His people. Be assured that we will begin to share these things with you as the year unfold. Again, I thank you for all your support and I certainly wish you and your family a wonderful year in Jesus Name. Amen! Yours in Christ Jesus, Dr. Joshua Joy Dara, Pastor

4 Have you ever considered how integrated technology is in our everyday lives? Our generation and even future generations will always be deeply immersed in technology. I ve been around long enough to remember the rotary dial phone which was hard wired. Technology went from the rotary dial phone to the push button phone, yet still hard wired. Then phones became digital with caller id, call forwarding, etc. and mobile phones came along and really involved making our daily interactions seamless. Because technology makes our daily lives seamless with the gadgets we used to stay connected and informed with all that we associate, it also makes us very vulnerable to attack, identity theft, and maybe financial losses. Recently our church ministry accounts, administrator@zionhill.com and some others suffered a vicious attack causing disruption in receiving and sending . The only s that went out were controlled by hackers and the only s received were undeliverable mail notices. We apologize for this disruption and how it might have affected you. Because of this attack, the new official admin address is ministryassistant@zionhill.com. Please start using this current address. Nevertheless, what the devil meant for evil you better believe GOD was ready to turn it around for our good (Genesis 50:20). Zion Hill basically moved from an unsecured (meaning not encrypted) server to the Google platform server which encrypts incoming and outgoing messages. That s right; zionhill.com has gone Google with the benefits of the google apps. Our ministry continues to use technology to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and reach the masses. Our administrative and newsletter team can now send up to 3,000 messages daily which is an increase from 500 daily. To GOD be the glory. PROTECTING YOUR ACCOUNTS: When you are receiving messages from friends or family you correspond with and it is just spam mail, this simply means one of your accounts might be compromised. You should change your password: 8 characters minimum, avoid words, make it strong, and never ever click on the link in the message. This will save you headaches and $. PROTECTING YOUR PC: I get requests to help when a PC malfunctions (virus in boot sector) or will not load correctly (virus in windows) or uncontrollable popups (malware). In every case the user account had administrative rights to control the PC. Here is how I keep my home PCs (Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7) protected. I simply avoid utilizing a user account with administrative rights for day to day activities. I have as a minimum on each owned PC: One (1) admin account, one (1) do what I want to account, and one (1) do financial/secure stuff account. These are just for me and not the rest of the family. Oh, I also have a different password for each account too and I don t use a word as part of my password.

5 This is just how I m safeguarding my seamless interaction with all that I am associated in a technology driven world. Your admin user account should only be used to make changes, install new software, add/remove users, install updates, and drivers. If you don t do anything else consider having a strong password with a special character, lower case letter, upper case letter, and numeric value(s). SOCIAL MEDIA: I want to thank all of you that are friends with us on Facebook. It is good for brothers to dwell together. Being our FB friend is not a biblical requirement but it s good for brothers to dwell together. You should know that we have friends from all over the world that want to be associated with this great ministry. To God be the glory. When you become our FB friend, the first thing we do is unfollow you. We only want to follow our Senior Pastor Joshua Joy Dara. This way we can only see his posts to share. We only see your post when we are tagged. So c mon and be our FB friend at May God truly and richly bless you for liking our public page, zionhillmedia, as we share the gospel of Jesus Christ. This public page is where we monitor our outreach across Facebook and the internet as we target Facebook users and nonusers. Thanks for taking a few minutes to let the world know that you Like Zion Hill Church Family. UPGRADES IN THE WORKS: We are upgrading some equipment in our theater to enhance your movie experience. Specifically, we purchased a new blue-ray player and projector lamp with some accessories. January 2015 is the target date for switching our phone and data services to both reduce our monthly costs and enhance our network/online experience. Our dedicated live streaming internet access and shared (staff/visitor) internet connections will go from 1.5mps to 20mps which is 13 times faster. Once we complete the upgrade, we will switch on the 5 GHz wireless connection for your mobile device. Remember access to our wireless network is one word zionhill. Eric Ford Media Ministry

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7 Sunday School Annual Can Food Drive The Sunday School Can Food Drive has become a tradition on the Hill. This year the event continued to be very successful. Each Sunday School class, for six weeks, gave a weekly contribution for a total of $ The money was used to purchase food for the Manna House and HOPE House, both located in Alexandria, LA and serve people throughout Central Louisiana. On Sunday, December 21, 2014 during the 8:00 am services, our church family and visitors gave $ to purchase meat to go along with the can goods. Both Manna House and HOPE House were given equal purchase cards for meat. The Manna House serves lunch daily (365 days a year) to those in need in our local community and surrounding areas. Everyone is welcome. The meals are nutritious with generous portions. HOPE House is a temporary shelter for homeless women and their children. HOPE House residents are offered a full array of services including child care for working mothers, job skills and interview training. Other services to meet individual needs are also available. Kim Shafer, Office Manager for HOPE House and Chris Soprano, member of the Board of Directors for Manna House were present and gave Thanks to the entire Zion Hill family for their prayers, support and donations. Our grand total of donations was $ We take this opportunity to say thank you to Pastor Dara for his on-going support of this project. We offer special thanks to our Sunday School Ministry and our entire church family. Together we are making our world a better place. James W. Smith Adult Sunday School Director

8 High Flying Markel Brown named Cenla Sportsman of the Year! Hometown Man Makes Good Those four words have been quoted and typed in countless headlines over the years, and they are the words and themes of movies and music and books and poetry. The statement goes to the heart of the kind of joy and satisfaction a community can share when "one of their own" succeeds in a big way beyond the borders of their town or parish or even our state We are so proud of you!!! Congratulations to Lydia Stevenson She graduated on December 13, 2014 From Louisiana College with a Masters of Art in Teaching

9 We Decree and We Declare the Year of EXPLOITS You should be walking into 2015 WITH something! Be it a word from God, a vision, a purpose, a fresh anointing or an assignment. If you enter the new year expecting nothing, NOTHING IS what you will gain. Purpose it in your heart to chase, pursue, and capture the heart of GOD above ALL other desires. Declare that 2015 owes you EVERYTHING that God has promised. If you're fed up with being fed up, be desperate enough to FUEL UP with the knowledge of God in order to do great things. -T. Bowie Over 1,100 saints in attendance!! What a Time, What a Time, What a Time!!!!!

10 Bereavement Ministry When an immediate family member dies such as (mother, father, sister, brother, spouse, Child,Grandmother, Grandfather. Please remember to contact the Office first when planning services for your family. The office will contact Pastor Dara and Pastor Paul. Directors Needed for Vacation Bible School 2015 We are currently in the process of recruiting our next generation of Vacation Bible School leaders to take our ministry to higher levels! We are praying for committed Christians with youthful energy, enthusiasm and Holy Spirit guidance to become directors of the 2015 children s Vacation Bible School and food service. If you feel that God has led you to be a blessing in this area, please contact one of the following persons: Linda Burgess: noahschristian@bellsouth.net Patricia Davis: pat34@aol.com Carolyn Clarkston: clarkston54@aol.com Lisa Henton: lhenton@bellsouth.net Pam Baker: pamelabaker2125@yahoo.com Office Hours: 9:00am - 4:30pm Administrative Assistants: R. Diana Mitchell Patricia Wilson Mark Your Calendar The church Leadership Meeting will be held on January 24, 9:00am, be sure to mark your calendars. The location is LC Grandberry Building ZionHill.com JoyDara.org AlwaysJoy.org youtube.com/zionhillmedia livestream.com/zionhillmedia facebook.com/zion.h.church KALB CHANNEL 5 - ALEXANDRIA 8:25AM - ALEXANDRIA 5:00PM - ALEXANDRIA KALB CHANNEL 2 7:30AM - ALEXANDRIA KMCT CHANNEL 39 - WEST MONROE KLMD CHANNEL 23 The ZH Newsletter is printed monthly at Zion Hill! KWDF 840 AM 9:15AM MON.-FRI. 15 MINUTES - PINEVILLE KAYT 88.1 FM 8:00AM SUN. 1 HOUR - ALEXANDRIA KAYT 98.9 FM 8:00AM SUN. 1 HOUR - MONROE KAYT 92.5 FM 8:00 AM SUN. 1 HOUR - SHREVEPORT KAYT :00 AM SUNDAY 1 HOUR - JACKSON, MS

11 THE ZION HILL SCHOLARSHIP FUND COMMITTEE WILL HAVE ITS ANNUAL COLLEGE FINANCIAL AID WORKSHOP FOR PARENTS AND STUDENTS IN GRADES 7 to 12 ON JANUARY 31st. THE WORKSHOP WILL BE NOON TO 4:00 P.M. IN THE FAMILY LIFE CENTER. LUNCH WILL BE SERVED. NO COST INVOLVED. Volunteer! Volunteer! Volunteer! It s that TIME again! Sign up now to volunteer at the Manna House. Zion Hill volunteers every 4 th Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm. We are asking each ministry to volunteer at least one time during this year. Also, individuals may volunteer, as well. Your cooperation is anticipated and appreciated. To volunteer, please contact James W. Smith at You may leave a message.

12 Dr. Joshua Joy Dara Sr. 312 Hunter Street Pineville, Louisiana January Fear Not Step into the New Year, with no fear! Of course, there is one to fear, but it is not man. We should not have any fear of man. And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul (Matthew 10:28). Seek the Lord. I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears (Psalm 34:4). In seeking the Lord, Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me (Hebrews 13:5-6). Zion Hill Family Life Center James Smith, CEO 312A Hunter Street Pineville, LA Phone: Office Hours: 9:00am - 4:30pm Administrative Assistants: R. Diana Mitchell Patricia Wilson Mailing Address: P O Box 3914, Pineville, LA Phone: Fax: Newsletter Staff: Krystal Wimbley, Graphic designer / Reporter Rose Vanburen, Reporter & Photographer LaQuonda Burise/Photographer The ZH Newsletter is printed monthly at Zion Hill!