Where Are We With That? Catching up on some projects at Zion...

We’ve been talking a lot about various projects and maybe you’re wondering where we are with them.  Here’s a quick update.  If you need more information about a specific project not mentioned here or even one that is, please contact me and let me know and I’ll be happy to let you know what’s happening.  

Pastor Van Lal Ringa, our Mizo speaking pastor. 

Pastor Ringa and I are in communication weekly.  He has applied for his passport and is waiting on that document to come to him.  After he has his passport and we have that information from him, we can then proceed with finishing the paperwork we need to do to complete the application for the R-1 Religious Workers Visa we need for him to enter and stay in the US.  To help with this involved and complicated process, we have hired Ta-Yu Yang, a noted immigration attorney, with funds provided especially from the 1:00 service.  Mr. Yang intends to donate 50% of his fee back to Zion as a gift.  We’re grateful for his generosity and for his wisdom in guiding us through this process.  So we hope to welcome Pastor Ringa sometime in the spring of 2013. 

Buying another church van.

We received half the money we needed for the van as a stock donation.  We are very grateful.  It took much longer than we expected to get the stock sold and for the check to arrive.  Now, with the increase in activity at church because of Christmas and all the events and good works associated with it, it may be the first of the year before the van actually appears in our parking lot.  But don’t give up!  It will get here!  Until then, we continue to borrow a van from Meredith Drive Reformed Church for our weekly needs.

The new van will be especially useful to us when we can’t borrow the Meredith Drive van, like on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings.  We’re so happy so many people want to come to Zion and we will be so relieved to be able to double our capacity for people to come.  

The Great Mosque Food Challenge.

Our friends at the Bosniak Mosque challenged our congregation and our youth to collect food items for the needy.  So far, Zion has collected over 1,000 food items for this challenge.  We’ll have a full report to share with you once we combine our items with those the mosque collected.  

Thanks for reading!  God bless you.  PJ