Brethren,
Greetings.
Peace, mercy, and grace be with you all from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We seem to be out of winter's grip, but our weather continues to fluctuate. Nevertheless, spring is finally in the air!
Working with the Brethren
We have done well this month in terms of spending time with brethren. We have been able to share meals with many. We have also begun having a game night; we hosted the second one this month at our house, and we hope to have it at different houses monthly.
Lessons and Classes
Sunday morning lessons in March focused mostly on how the Bible describes hell and why it is so necessary to work to avoid it. Sunday evening lessons have featured a series on why Israel failed, looking at how Israel sinned and how we can avoid to fall into the same traps. The lessons, as always, are available in outline and mp3 form at norwalkchurch.org.
The class on the major doctrinal issues that come up when presenting the Gospel ended this month. The class went well; the members seemed to benefit from it, and many have gained understanding our beliefs and practices and can more ably defend their hope (1 Peter 3:15). I will be teaching the Gospel of Luke in the adult Bible class next quarter.
We have decided to discontinue the Tuesday night studies on account of lack of interest and participation. We are going to try instead having a monthly study hosted by different members and focusing on one particular topic per month. We shall see how this works out in April.
Evangelism
Since March was at least warmer than February we were able to get out and knock on some doors. We knocked on approximately 103 doors at the beginning of the month. We also knocked on doors at the end of the month in preparation for the gospel meeting beginning on April 1; we knocked over 100 doors again. We have been working in an area with a high density of apartment buildings, and so we expect to double our production in May. We will not knock doors in April.
There are now five tracts available. We have paper versions available at the building, and I have established an e-tract section of our website (E-Tracts) for electronic distribution, either as a webpage or an e-mail.
Much of our evangelism this month has focused on the gospel meeting in the beginning of April. We have posted announcements on community message boards and have encouraged members to hand out announcements themselves and/or to invite their friends and neighbors.
Nursing Home Matters
I have spoken before of our work with Briarfield of Milan, a nursing home facility where we have held monthly services and a weekly Bible study. We have seen strong participation from the residents in our efforts there and they seem to appreciate our presence. Unfortunately, we have been asked to make our studies every other week with the residents; we will still do what we can to provide them with some insight into God's Word.
We have also begun going to New London Healthcare Center, a nursing home in a small town about 15 miles southeast of Norwalk, for a monthly service. We will be going there every third Sunday for a short service. We look forward to helping the residents in any way we can spiritually.
Funerals
I was asked to preside over two funerals in March. The first was for a 10-month-old child that was a nephew of one of our members, and the second was for an elderly lady who a long time ago was a member here in Norwalk but had since moved away. While funerals are often difficult, especially for a small child, we hope that the families have found some form of peace and have been given an opportunity for reflection upon their own lives. We will see if there will be any noticeable fruit from these events.
Current Studies
Cindy. Things are going well with Cindy; we continue to study in John.
Ben and Katie. After many months without a study, I am pleased to inform you that studies with Katie have started up again. We will be studying in John.
Debbie. We are going to re-structure the study with Debbie; I will send her questions regarding the Gospel of Luke, and if there is opportunity we will sit down together and go through her answers. We hope that this will go well.
Andrew. One of our members has been dating Andrew. We have been working with him on a very informal basis to help him better understand what the Bible teaches. While no formal studies have occurred or look to begin in the near future, he has many questions and we find opportunities to answer them.
Support
I would like to thank all of you for your participation in the work here in Norwalk, either through your prayers or through encouraging me or through financial support. I would like to solicit your continual prayers so that the work here may prosper.
May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits.
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