4/28 Sunday Announcements

1. *WELCOME TO HOSANNA! – *If you are a new or returning visitor, please be ushered to the gym after-service to a seat with a welcoming plate sheet, and let our Welcoming Team serve you a meal and a cup of water – absolutely free at no cost! Our church lunch is always free for all. **Today’s menu is soybean paste soup with napa cabbage (baechu doenjang guk). It is our joy to serve you! Stay with us after-service to break bread. Fill-out a yellow newcomer’s contact card so that we can keep in touch. We welcome you into this family in Christ’s love and remain here for you as His body to grow and flourish together!
2. THANK YOU for coming to SPRING PICNIC! – Thank you to all those who came out to our Spring Picnic Worship last Sunday! We had a blessed time just being the church and praying house of God for all His people. We are thankful the LORD gave us good weather and safety. Thank you especially to all the picnic crew and servants who came early to set-up and serve one another with compassion. Let’s look forward to Hosanna Spring Picnic 2025!
3. *PASTORAL UPDATES – We have two updates:
   • *Today, we are sorrowful yet joyful over the news of the resignation of assistant Pastor Hoyeon Kang of Bethany Korean Church who as served faithfully for the past two years, yet now called to missionary work to the Turkish people in the land of Turkey. Many of you know Pastor Hoyeon, who has been present throughout the transition process of our congregation into the chartering of Hosanna Church. Today is his last Sunday. Please bless the Kang family (Mrs. Eunchan who is pregnant with their third baby girl Sungyoon, with two young daughters Eliana [Hayoon] and Elizabeth [Yaeyoon]) as they prepare for missionary work in Turkey and beyond.
   • *Education and Youth Minister Ha Cho, currently in an overstay period in Korea, is experiencing difficulties securing the visa for his new bride and wife, Mrs. Sarah Seong Hyeon Cho, to return together back to Dallas. The next interview date, where he must be present with Sarah, is on 5/8 in Korea. He needs our prayers as the future of his and Sarah’s return to Dallas is unknown at this point. For the time being, the Korean Church staff will preach in the 10:00am youth worship and give pastoral care for the youth ministry. Any further questions about the youth ministry can be directed to Deaconess Kris Lee, director of youth ministry.
4. *MEN OF HOSANNA (M.O.H.) MINISTRY – NEW BOOK! – Yesterday, the men’s ministry began a new season together around the book Knowing God by J.I. Packer. Pray for our brotherhood of Hosanna to grow as strong men of God and His Word. All brothers are welcomed to the weekly gathering on Saturday. See Coordinator Jake Jeong to get involved!  
5. *TODAY, SESSION/ELDER BOARD meeting – The Board will be gathering at 1:30pm at the Corner Conference Room today. Please pray for our Elders!
6.  *TODAY, SERVANTS APPRECIATION DINNER, 5:00pm @ Goodfellas Pizza (The Colony)! – For all those servants who have helped out for the tables/chairs setup and/or cleanup in the gym throughout the month of March to serve the Sunday breaking bread ministry, we want to thank you with an appreciation dinner tonight, 5:00pm at Goodfellas Pizza (6520 Cascades Ct #100, The Colony, TX 75056). Come and enjoy the Lord’s reward and gift of serving His people through the labor of His love! Thank you for all the effort, time, and work of faith!
7. *THIS FRIDAY (5/3), AGAPE life group, 7:00pm – This Friday, in place of the normal gathering at homes, the AGAPE young adult group will meet at church in the Bethany main chapel, 7:00pm, for a special seminar hosted by the Dallas Korean Christian Church Counsel on “Countering Korean Heresies” (guest speaker: Rev. Hyung Joo Yang, Senior Pastor of Doan Church of Daejeon, South Korea). See Deacon Hana and assistant shepherd Jake for more details. *Open to all interested.
8. *THIS SATURDAY (5/4), JOSHUA life group, 4:00pm @ Ezra Chapel – We invite all adults and families to our gathering as JOSHUA life group this Saturday, 4:00pm at Ezra Chapel. See Elder Joung for details.
9. *NEXT SUNDAY, NEW HOPE COMPASSION ANNOUNCEMENT – Next Sunday, the non-profit organization “New Hope Compassion” (NHC)’s Executive Director Ken Tse, will be visiting with us and giving information about their work locally and globally to provide hope and compassion through outreach, training, and support to those in need – especially refugees in Ukraine and neighboring countries. Hosanna Church is in a discernment process of supporting and getting involved in NHC’s work in Dallas, regionally and internationally to be an avenue in spreading the new hope and compassion found only in the gospel of Jesus Christ!
10. *NEXT SUNDAY, EQUIP HOUR, 1:15pm @ Corner Conference Room – We will explore this question – “What’s next after Life Groups?” As we keep meeting to break bread, share life, learn His Word, pray together, ever wonder what’s next or what’s the purpose? It’s important to see the grander portrait of how “life groups (LG’s)” are purposed by the LORD to cultivate “missional communities (MC’s)” – moving us from being a disciple to making a disciple, from being fish to learning to fish – as fishers, catching men and women into the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ! Come share, be challenged and dream of cultivating LG’s into MC’s as we continue devoting ourselves to the LG ministry!
11. *KINGDOM EXPANSION PRAYER – We are moving to pray for a wider vision of God’s Kingdom to expand through the global prayer guide for the persecuted church and persecuted Christians worldwide from The Voice of the Martyrs organization. Today, we are praying for our persecuted Cuban brothers and sisters in Christ in Latin America.

 
**Prayer Topic: Persecuted Christians in Cuba (Latin America)
     Despite the change in leadership in 2018, churches in Cuba face unrelenting pressure from the government, which remains committed to communism’s atheistic ideology and views churches as a threat to the revolution begun by Che Guevara and Fidel Castro in the 1950s. Cubans are poor, and the government seeks to control every aspect of their lives. In April 2021, Miguel Diaz-Canel was announced as Raul Castro’s successor as first secretary of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party — the first time the country has been governed by someone other than a Castro since the revolution. Then in July 2021, Cubans protested their deteriorating living conditions and called for an end to dictatorship.
     Most Cubans are atheists. A significant number of Cubans engage in superstitious and spiritist practices, including the Afro-Cuban religion of Santeria. The government is the prime persecutor of Christians. Unlike the overt violence Christians faced during the Communist Cuban Revolution, more subtle methods of persecution are now used by the Cuban government, largely out of concern for its global reputation. Christian leaders are often summoned by government officials for questioning or detained up to 48 hours to pressure them, and churches are demolished by hired gangs so the government can deny responsibility. Legal church buildings are seized, and no new church buildings have been legally built in the country since the revolution. Many believers meet in illegal house churches, often extensions of the pastor’s home or shaded structures in the backyard of a family’s home. Churches continue to grow through active evangelistic activity, but some believers have never owned a Bible because of government oppression. Though no Christians are known to be imprisoned in Cuba, many are closely watched and are effectively under house arrest. In addition, Christians are often denied jobs and educational opportunities.
     Though great strides have been made in Bible distribution, access remains restricted. In 2017, Cuba allowed the purchase and sale of Bibles only to members of the ecumenical Protestant church organization, but most Christian literature remains illegal. There are no Christian bookstores in Cuba. There is a shortage of Bibles, which even when available can cost a third of a worker’s monthly income.
 
*The Scripture for today is found in the insert of your bulletin:
 
Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. (MARK 10:29-30)
 
Prayer by Pastor Chester:
Our Father, we lift up to You our Cuban brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ in Latin America. Lord, we pray for the spirit of atheism to be broken. We pray the spirit of superstition, communist ideologies, the false spiritist practices will be proven powerless, and the Cuban people will turn from their ways and seek Your face. Father God, we speak against every stronghold of violence and opposition from the governmental authorities against Your gospel and Your people to stop in the powerful name of Your one and only Son our Lord Jesus! We pray that churches closed by civil authorities will be opened again. We pray for Cuban Christians held for interrogation and harassed and fined will be released, untouched, and provided for. We pray for Bible distribution to be successful for all those whose eyes and ears are opening to You. We pray for the house churches meeting secretly in the backyards of their homes – Father, hear their worship, be glorified in their praises, and sustain their passion and love for Your Son that grows stronger with persecution. We pray especially you guard the children, the homeless children, the vulnerable youth of Cuba – Lord, have mercy and protect them from the evil one. Fill us with a greater burden to pray for our Cuban brothers and sisters. Make us Your house of prayer for all nations. We do not take for granted today Your grace and freedom in gathering to worship You. Lord, we long for the same in this distant land. In the risen Lord and Savior of the Cuban people, Jesus Christ’s name we pray, Amen.