ANNOUNCEMENTS - March 31, 2020
1. Be informed that the cancellation of Sunday Worship services continues until further notice, subject to County and State order guidelines. Consistory is watching our situation closely and will be extending the cancellation of services as needed. All our Weekly Bible Studies (i.e., Monday Adults', Tuesday Men’s, Wednesday Women's), our Children’s Church and Sunday School, and Ukulele and Hula Fellowships; are cancelled as well. The Joong Festival planned for May has also been postponed.
Finally, the previously planned Joint Good Friday Ecumenical Church Service has been cancelled this year due to coronavirus exposure concerns but plans are being worked out to stream our CCC Easter Service online. Instructions on how to access our online Easter Service will be posted here on our church website and will be sent by email.
2. Though most of us are required to “shelter in” and refrain from going out because of the recent State- and County-wide Shelter-in-Place/Stay-at-Home Orders, we as a church are here to assist or support you in any way. If anyone would like assistance with shopping for groceries, to share items, or needs prayer, we encourage you to contact the Consistory or Pastor Doman.
3. As we monitor the COVID-19 Pandemic situation, Consistory will continue to reassess measures and strategies for our church as the degree and intensity of this serious public health threat develops. Please continue to be vigilant to keep yourself and others safe and healthy. Safety guidelines can be found at be found on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website. Please stay tuned for future mass email Special Advisories we may issue.
4. Pastor Doman will continue to share through email his usual Sunday sermons in written form. Please open your email this coming Sunday morning for "Jesus and Palm Sunday", his standalone sermon with pre-Easter reflections based on the Bible. For any urgent concerns and for prayer requests, members of the Consistory stand ready to help you.
5. You can visit the Christ Community Church website, which has spiritual-themed readings available to stream. If you prefer simple graphics and read-only material, the websites of My Utmost for His Highest, Our Daily Bread, and 385 Promises provide easy-to-use and bite-size resources for daily devotions. For a more comprehensive coverage of help topics in a likewise easy-to-navigate format, In Touch will be an excellent source of spiritual support resources.
6. Please continue to contribute your tithes and donations to CCC which you can mail to our church address at 5600 Gilgunn Way, Sacramento, CA 95822.
7. As many of you know, our sister Melanie Ramos has been recovering from a mild heart attack in recent weeks. This process has involved a series of expensive medications and procedures that have created a financial hardship on Melanie’s family. If you would like to make a love offering, please write your check to CCC, earmarked “Melanie”, which you can mail to our church address. On another note, Melanie and Gabriel Ramos have offered fresh eggs from their chickens to anyone that needs them. If you are interested, please contact Melanie at (916) 335-1106.
8. The CCC Church Office remains closed. The office administrator’s on-site operating hours will, as the current shelter-in situation warrants, be limited and staggered. He will largely be performing his core tasks and assignments via telework within and around the Monday-Thursday/9:00am-12:00pm time frame. You can still email your non-urgent relevant questions and concerns to ccc95822@yahoo.com, where you can also inform us if you would like to subscribe to our CCC Weekly eMail Update.
9. Even with the suspension of Sunday services, CCC will continue to accept names for those who want to volunteer for our pool of Scripture Readers and Sunday Morning Greeters/Ushers. If you are interested to participate in any of these Sunday ministries, please indicate whether you want be Scripture Reader or Greeter/Usher then email your choice to ccc95822@yahoo.com. The only requirement is that you have an active email address through which you can be contacted and you can promptly respond, and to which we can send assignment instructions.
10. Did you know? Grocery stores in Northern California continue to allot special shopping hours only for older adults, people with underlying health conditions, and pregnant women. In the Sacramento region, here are some of the stores offering special hours for vulnerable members of our population, usually within the first one-two hours of business: 1) Dollar General, 2) Safeway, 3) Whole Foods, 4) Smart & Final, 5) Target, 6) Walmart, 7) Raley’s/Bel-Air, 8) Costco, 9) Grocery Outlet, and 10) Pharmacies like CVS, Rite-Aid, and Walgreens. Be advised that despite these special shopping hours, there will most likely be a long queue when you arrive. You may also want to consider convenient online or phone ordering of basic groceries for home delivery, but all require minimum purchase between $50 and $75, and tipping is expected. Make sure to check first with individual stores as these courtesy services differ by store and are subject to change anytime.
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A Note from our Pastor:
Dear Members and Friends of Chinese Community Church,
We live in uncertain times and have been uprooted in American history: Pearl Harbor, the start of World War II, 9/11, and now the Coronavirus altering our way of living. Paul reminds us in Romans 8:28 "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose". This verse reassures us that everything will work out and that God reigns over our lives in the midst of uncertainty. So let us be vigilant and safe as we go about our daily tasks and remember that it will all work out for us.
In the following Sundays, I will continue to share through email my written sermons until the time our leaders tell us that it is safe to meet as a group, as a congregation. In the meantime, please do continue to worship the Lord in the comfort of your home. If you have a problem, are experiencing a crisis, or have other concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at domanlum@gmail.com or (916) 832-4607. I and members of the Consistory stand ready to help you.
May God richly bless and protect you in the coming days,
Pastor Doman Lum
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This week's reminder:
God is (very much) in control.