Dear Calvary Chapel Modesto Church Family,
I don't know what your week has been like, but if it was anything like mine, and I suspect it was, last Sunday feels like it happened a month ago. A lot has happened.
As I mentioned in a previous email this week, starting tomorrow, March 22, our three Sunday morning and evening church services will occur live in our church sanctuary, but only some of the pastors, worship team members and technicians will be physically present in order to provide the rest of us with a live stream of the services. (See the March 17 update on this web page for more information on how and where to stream the church services.) It will be great to share together in a common worship experience with the Lord and a Bible study. I know the Holy Spirit will overwhelm all present obstacles and will meet with each of us personally tomorrow.
Please remember, you can submit prayer requests on our website and have well over one hundred people praying for you almost immediately concerning any need(s) in your life.
Also, remember that the pastors are available for prayer, encouragement and phone counseling. If you call the church office, you can get the names of three pastors with their telephone numbers on the recording. The circumstances surrounding this Coronavirus are causing people a lot of stress, stress we have been living with for a couple of weeks now. It can begin to produce additional stress and pressure in marriages, parent and child relationships, as well as other relationships in our lives. If you are starting to struggle in some area of your life, or simply want to talk and pray with someone, we want to help. We should be alert to spiritual warfare in the midst of all of this as well, as the devil loves to attack the institutions of God (i.e. marriage and family, as well as other personal relationships in life). As further restrictions are placed upon our movement in coming days and weeks, the introvert will be largely unfazed, even thrilled, while the extrovert can find themselves struggling mightily. Again, we are here to help. God instructs us to cast all of our cares upon Him with the realization that He cares for us (1Peter 5:7). We will be happy to lift anything up, no matter how large or small, in prayer with you.
We hope you are being blessed by the daily devotional provided on this page each day except Sunday. I certainly have been.
Yesterday, I emailed a friend of mine, Craig Quam, pastor of Calvary Chapel Montebelluna, Italy. Montebelluna is located in northern Italy where the entire population has been under a Coronavirus quarantine for several weeks now. I asked him if he would be willing to impart any observations, instruction and wisdom to us as Christians, now that we appear to be heading into the same restrictions and circumstances, in order that I might post them on this page. The following is Pastor Craig’s gracious response to my request. I know it will be insightful and helpful to you:
"Hi Damian,
I’d love to be of any help for you guys in this situation.
The first thing I would say to believers is that we still believe and stand upon Rom 8:28 "we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. God is still on the throne and even in times of desperation and darkness God is still working and causing all thing to work towards the good of his people.
The world right now is full of fear and desperation and we as believers have the answer for their lives Jesus Christ Saviour of the world. It’s a time when God has taken all of us out of our fast paced western lifestyle and basically shut us all in our own individual homes for a season. We should take advantage of this opportunity to spend more time with the Lord in prayer and in the word, with our family and minister to others through phone calls, messages or group video times of prayer and encouragement.
To all those in the church who are elderly or have major health issues especially heart, lung or diabetes and also those who have a weak immune system. these people need to take the quarantine very seriously and I would counsel them to get a months worth food and medicine and stay completely isolated. Maybe younger healthy people in the church can have a ministry of shopping & getting prescriptions filled so that those most in danger can avoid going to stores and coming in to contact with other people. if they must go out they should were masks & gloves.
We shouldn’t underestimate this virus or think this is like the common flu. Just yesterday (March 20th) In Italy 625 people died of Covid-19 and not all of them were senior citizens. 10% of those infected end up in the hospital in critical condition. So it is very important that we as believers are subject to our Governing authority’s as the bible commands Rom 13:1-8
Try and live your life as normally as possible. With church online we still do our services, staff prayer meeting on Friday mornings as usual, I teach my bible college class on Wednesday morning through Skype & Elders meetings ect…set up Skype cell group prayer times. I’m also going to use this time to work in the yard and to my wife's delight fix some of those things around the house that I’ve put off because I’m always so busy with church.
Some churches in Italy have been giving out free surgical masks with a Gospel message attached and others giving out free bottles of homemade hand disinfectant as both these items are impossible to find in stores in Italy.
Praying God will use this all to revive his people,
Craig."
God bless each of you, know you are loved, missed and prayed for,
Pastor Damian
Isaiah 40:28-31
Have you not known?
Have you not heard?
The everlasting God, the LORD,
The Creator of the ends of the earth,
Neither faints nor is weary.
His understanding is unsearchable.
He gives power to the weak,
And to those who have no might He increases strength.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary,
And the young men shall utterly fall,
But those who wait on the LORD
Shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles,
They shall run and not be weary,
They shall walk and not faint.