Have you ever been in a room and no one

approaches you, it as if you are not even there? The Psalmist wrote. “The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth” (Psalm 145:18). God, as in the Holy Spirit, is with us at every moment in time, and all we have to do is acknowledge Him, but He is often ignored as we neglect the fact that His presence is right here. The tragedy is that the Holy

Spirit is our helper, our guide and gives us strength when we are weak. The Holy Spirit brings us a supernatural power to assist us in all circumstances, but that power is underutilized by most.

The Bible writes, “Do not be anxious about any-thing, but in every situa-tion, by prayer and peti-tion, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6). Not only is God with us all the time. He wants to be

included in every aspect of our lives. No matter how small or how big your prob-lems, situations, or ideas are, they matter to God.

Isn’t it a wonderful thought to live your life in constant prayer? The truth is that we all can. When I was a colporteur director, I learned a valuable lesson about prayer. My job was to drop off my students, as they would go and knock on the doors to whatever neighborhoods they were

continued on page 2

Always with Us by Cary Fisher

Find Rest

I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beau-tiful; but I have never read in either of them: Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden.

—St. Augustine

INSIDE

Talent Show Pics page 3

Avoiding Temptation page 4

Taste & Inspiration on page 5

What’s happening? see pages 6 & 9

Our Church Family page 7

Kid’s Page on page 9

For the members, family and friends of the Downey Adventist Church

San Gabriel Academy Chorale

The San Gabriel Academy Chorale will be at

Downey Adventist Church on April 16th to lead the worship service with their music and God-stories. As these young people share their music, we are given a glimpse of what it must be like in heaven when the heavenly chorus sings prais-es to God.

Everyone is invited to join us for this special wor-ship service. If you know some high schoolers who are interested in music or may be interested in attending SGA, this would be a great opportunity for them.

Make sure this is on your calendar! =

THE LATEST WORD

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in. Then, I would scout the area for new streets to work on, and also pick up the students as they were finished with their routes. While I was driving, I felt the need to pray, but I thought I needed to close my eyes, but to do that and drive was a bit dangerous to say the least. So, I learned to pray with my eyes open. If can pray with my eyes open during this ministry, what is stopping me from praying this way in all circum-stances.

As we listen to the words found in 1 Chronicles 16:11, “Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always,” let us be people that do just

that as in seeking the Lord at all times. Let us remem-ber that we are never apart from Him as God is always waiting and willing to be there for us. Let us learn to pray with our eyes open.

Sermons for April

April 2 - Communion Sabbath. The Communion Service is always a special Sabbath as we partake in

the Lord’s Supper. This is a time to contemplate the immense love that God has for us, and rededicate our lives to Jesus.

April 9 - Looking Up. After Jesus resurrected out of the tomb, he spent

40 days with his disciples, and then, ascended to Heaven. For this Sabbath, the message will follow the accounts that led to Jesus’s ascension and what that means to us today.

April 16 - San Gabriel Academy Chorale. For this Sabbath, we will be blessed to have our wor-ship service led out by the talented Choir group from SGA. It is always wonder-ful to have them come and inspire us with their beautiful voices and their youthful energy.

April 23 - With Your Eyes Open. We have a powerful God that is with us at all times, and therefore, we can pray to Him at all times. The Bible says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, pres-ent your requests to God” (Philippians 4:6). Our message will encourage us to live a life in continuous prayer.

April 30 - God’s Rest for His People. Paul of the New Testament wrote, “for somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in these words: “On the sev-enth day God rested from all his works” (Hebrews 4:4). The Sabbath is cer-tainly not just for the people of Israel as it was something for Christians to experience as well. This Sabbath, we will be reminded of the blessings that God has for us as we rest in Him.

See you when the church gathers. =

WE

D

ID

IT

The Latest Word V 28 N 04

BILL AUMACKresponsible for this

LINDA AUMACKcopy editor

ALEX AUMACKpaper distribution

CARY FISHERpastor

address mail to: Downey Seventh-day Adventist Church9820 Lakewood Blvd.Downey, CA 90240office: 562.869.6013fax: 562.622.1691 downeychurch@gmail.comwww.downeychurch.com

distributed monthlyissue date: Apr. 2016 copyright 1992-2015

No matter how small or how big your problems, situations, or ideas are,

they matter to God.

“

”

Always with Us ... (cont. from page 1)

April 2016

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April 2Cary Fisher

Communion

April 9

Cary FisherLooking Up

April 16Cary FisherSGA Chorale

April 23Cary Fisher

With Your Eyes Open

April 30Cary Fisher

God’s Rest for His People

Worship Schedule

Talent Show Pictures

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Heidi Mann tells the story about how her

10-year-old loves playing on his father’s tablet but may use only the touch-screen because he’s mis-used the keyboard and sty-lus. One day, after receiv-ing permission to play, he detached and handed over the forbidden objects. His dad said, “Just leave them there,” but our son replied, “No, I might be tempted to use them.”

Oh, the wisdom of this 10-year-old! To often we keep our temptations too close to us. We say we want to eat healthier, but we still buy goodies at the grocery store. We want to get out of debt, yet we keep those credit cards or we allow ourselves to spend more than we should on shiny new gad-gets or the spiffy new car. We want to get into shape, but not enough commit to an exercise program. We don’t want to gossip, but we spend way too much time at the company water cooler getting the scoop on what is happening. We even want to have a better relationship with Jesus, but it’s too hard to put down the cellphone or turn off the TV.

Why is it so hard to do “the right thing” in these situations? We know what we should do, but we don’t it. Sometimes it seems like we act as small

children who just can’t resist touching that forbid-den object. It’s silly when you think about it, but it is the way we operate many times.

We often pray the Lord’s prayer and ask God “lead us not into tempa-tion” and “deliver us from evil” but it is like we hope for some kind supernatual miracle to do it. Basically

we expect God to do it for us with no effort on our parts. That’s kind of crazy.

Now, there are times when this approach may be the only way, like in some cases of drug addic-tions. Often times God needs to take the addiction for the drugs away for the person to be healed. But so many times we expect a miracle when all we need to do is get up and throw away the double stuff ding-dongs.

I think we should be more proactive about removing temptations. What if “Lead me not into temptation” means “God, help me keep myself away

from that which tempts me toward poor choices.” We need to exercise our self control. If our self control is so weak that we are afraid to use it, then we need to find someone we trust to help us. Let them hold the credit cards for you. Take them gro-cery shopping with you so you stay out of the sweets aisle. Whatever it takes. The Bible mentions cut-

ting off your hand if it causes you to sin. While I don’t rec-ommend that strate-gy, it does tell us that we are

responsible for removing temptations from our lives. God isn’t just suggesting this, it’s very forcefully put forward. We have a part to play and shouldn’t expect God to do every-thing for us.

I like the wisdom found in the saying, “Pray like it depends on God, work like it depends on you.” I sus-pect an approach like that will have a high chance of success.

What is one temptaton you can work on removing from your life? =

Avoiding Temptationby Bill Aumack

What if “Lead me not into temptation” means “God, help me keep myself away from that which tempts me toward poor choices.”

Pray like it depends on God. Work like it depends on you.

April 2016

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Ingredients

• 14 ounces Rotel Tomatoes

• 15 ounces black beans drained

• 1/4 cup jalapenos

• 1 cup frozen corn

• 1/2 cup vegetable broth

• 3/4 cup quinoa

• 1/2 teaspoon garlic pow-der

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cori-ander

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

• 1 cup cheddar cheese

• to taste sour cream

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400.

2. Combine all ingredients except cheese and sour

cream in a 2 quart cas-serole.

3. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

4. Remove and stir.

5. Bake for anoth-er 20 minutes or until all liquid has

been absorbed and quinoa is tender.

6. Cover with cheese and broil till cheese is melted (usually around 1 or 2 minutes).

7. Serve with sour cream.

Enjoy! =

Southwestern Quinoa Vegetable Casserole

Taste & Inspiration

Pilar & Phillip

Abundant Giving Project for April

We have some won-derful projects

planned for our Abundant Giving in 2016. Hopefully you made it to our Business Meeting and heard about them.

We are starting out the year with a project for Adventist Union School. As you know, this is the elementary school we sup-port in Bellflower. AUS has a wonderful field and playground for the chil-dren. It is one of the big-gest in the area. However,

the state requires a lot of bark (6 inches deep to be exact) under the swings and climbing bars. This is a very large expense.

This is where we come in. We are going to help raise money for bark for the

playground. Our goal for the month is $2000. There are 5 weeks in April, so that’s only $400 a week.

If we can raise more than that, that would be awesome. To cover all the needed areas of the

playground we would need to raise at least double that amount.

Let’s help us AUS keep the children safe on the playground.

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

1 2

3 5 7 8 9

11 12 13 14 15 16

17 18 19 20 21 22 23

24 25 25 27 28 29 30

7:18 pm sunset

7:24 pm sunset

7:29 pm sunset

9:30 am S.S.

9:30 am S.S.

9:30 am S.S.10:50 am Worship SGA Chorale

2 pm Pathfinders

9:30 am S.S.10:50 am Worship Pastor Cary

Visit www.downeychurch.orgS.S. – Sabbath School

6

10:50 am Worship Pastor Cary Communion

2 pm Pathfinders

10:50 am Worship Pastor Cary

4

7 pm Band Practice

10

Downey Adventist Church

7 pm Wed. Fellowship

7 pm Band Practice

7:13 pm sunset

9 am Pathfinders

7 pm Wed. Fellowship

7 pm Band Practice

7 pm Wed. Fellowship

7 pm Band Practice

7 pm Wed. Fellowship

7 pm Church Board

7:34 pm sunset

7 pm Band Practice

9:30 am S.S.10:50 am Worship Pastor Cary

April 2016

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April Birthdays Jessica Michel – 6 Gabriel Gomez – 7 Ella Fisher – 8Jessica Ramirez - 18Ricardo Gonzalez – 18 Daniel Michel – 19 Judy Joseph – 19Joshua Perez - 19Edwin Morales – 20 Erik Concha – 20 Miranda Gomez – 21 Roschelle Fisher – 24 Debra Martinez – 28

If your birthday is left out in the monthly newsletter, please contact the church office so we can put it in.

Upcoming EventsWednesday - 7 p.m. Wed. FellowshipFriday - 7:00 p.m. Band Practice

Apr. 2 - CommunionApr. 2 - Pathfinders @ 2pmApr. 3 - Pathfinders @ 9amApr. 16 - SGA ChoraleApr. 16 - Pathfinders @ 2pmApr. 27 - Administrative Professionals Day

The Latest Word deadline is the 5th of the month.

Coming Soon

May 7 - Mother’s Day Sabbath / BreakfastMay 21 - La Sierra’s RootsJune 18 - Father’s Day SabbathJune 25 - Parking Lot Movie NightJuly 18-22 - VBS

Be sure to keep up with the latest news by signing up for the Wednesday email. You can sign up here www.downey-church.org/Signups.html or send us an email at DowneyChurch at gmail dot com and we’ll add you.

THE LATEST WORD

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The Latest About

Our Church Family Congratulations to

Eddie and Sarah Rivas. They are pregnant with their first child. The baby is due in Sept.

Congratulat-ions to Alex Aispuro. He was honored for being on the Principal’s Honor Roll. He has also been accepted to

quite a few colleges. Ask him about it.

Congrat-ulations to Ernesto Rojas. He’ll be giving a 20-minute presenta-tion at the National Under-graduate

Bioethics Conference,

NUBC. This is regarding his research on the ethics of editing DNA (using the CRISPR/Cas9 system). It will be at Case Western Reserve University April 8-10th.

If you have any Church Family news, please contact the church office so we can get it into the newsletter. =

Thank you to everyone who has been saving Box Tops for Education. That is greatly appreciated.

For the Box Tops for Education, please save the Box Tops coupon.

Please give your labels to Linda Aumack. Thank you for your support! =

“Mommy, if Jesus comes to live inside my heart, will I explode?” One of missionary Katie Davis’ adopted daughters surprised her with that question as they headed to the Nile River for some baptisms.

Although Davis imme-diately replied, “No!” she later realized: “That is exactly what we should

do if Jesus comes to live inside our hearts. We will explode with love, with compassion, with hurt for those who are hurting, and with joy for those who rejoice. We will explode with a desire to be more, to be better, to be close to the One who made us.”

—adapted from Kisses From Katie =

A Love Explosion

April 2nd

April 2016

9

April 2016

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Downey-Florence Seventh-day Adventist Church9820 Lakewood Blvd., Downey CA 90240

Return Service Requested

DATED MATERIAL

Ponder This...

= “The greatest gift we can give back to our great God is to let his love make us glad.”

—Ann Voskamp, The Greatest Gift

= “The devil knows your name but calls you by your sin. God knows your sin but calls you by your name.”

—Ricardo Sanchez

= “Wisdom is oftentimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar.”

—William Wordsworth