HIPM NEWSLETTER 2015

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HIPM 2015 Newsletter

261 Bedford Highway Halifax, NS B3M 2K5 Canada

A LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS, A HOPE TO THE HOPELESS AND A PEACE TO THE RESTLESS. IN THIS ISSUE

Greetings to you in the name of our Lord and Savior

Jesus Christ. I thank God

for enabling us to see the end of 2015. Many who started this year are no more, but God has been faithful to you and your families.

2015 has been a year of great challenges. Couple of air disasters, terrorist attacks, mass shootings, natural disasters, persecution against Christians and many others are still in the air threatening our peace. There is so much of uncertainty seen among us than ever before. Some of us have become weary and tired of hearing such news every day. Others have become indifferent as such events are part of our normal life. In addition to our daily stress, when such events pose a threat to our future, we really become tired and lose interest in life.

But God has chosen and taken care of you and your family. The scripture that comes in my mind is Psalm 147:13 For He has strengthened the bars of your gates; He has blessed your children within you. This promise is not for everyone, but for the chosen like you and me. So you and I don’t need to be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day.

I am sure the coming year 2016 is going to be a year of blessings. I believe God is going to care for His children and the church as He did in the past. There are new heights that need to be achieved and God is going to use you and your family in His kingdom. He wants you to come out of fear and discouragement as such things won’t help you anyway.

Jesus said in Matthew 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. God wants you to believe in His word, step out from your comfort zone and start doing something for Him.

Finally, I would encourage you to store treasures in heaven. Jesus said in Matthew 6:19-20 19“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. You can do this by sharing Gospel with others, being an encouragement for someone, helping those who are in need, involving yourself in establishing God’s kingdom and by giving your tithe and offering regularly.

I take this opportunity to present some of the highlights of this year. I thank HIPM church members, the congregation and the prayer conference prayer partners for standing with us. I appreciate the commitment of the board members Debby Blentzas, Roy Chacko and Sherin Sherly. I also extend my thanks and appreciation to the Prayer Conference Leaders Suguna Mohandoss, Priya Margaret, Deepa Christo, Esther Mano and Jeyalatha Chellaa. I praise God for all those who supported this ministry financially during the year 2015. Thanks to the Maritime District PAOC for their support and encouragement.

May the good Lord keep you and bless you during the holiday season and in the new year 2016.

In His service,

Children Ministry Children ministry has been one of the key ministries of the church. Vacation Bible School, Sunday School, Children Conference and some of the ongoing efforts taken during 2015. More inside - Page 3

Church Family Retreat Church Family Retreat was the event awaited most eagerly by the congregation. This year retreat was packed with entertainment and spiritual nourishment. Two days and two nights away from our routine gave a great deal of relaxation. More inside. - Page 6

Christmas event was one of the key events of HIPM as it was a great time to share the Gospel with others. Children’s performance was the highlight of this event. More inside. - Page 7

You are a chosen one… by Pastor Balan Swaminathan

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TV Ministry

Beyond boundaries, our TV program in Eastlink has been a great opportunity to bring our church services to the community. Broadcasting our church services sand associated activities have been highly beneficial for the community. After seeing us in TV, people walk into our church with more familiarity and confidence as they know whom and what to expect. Following are some of the highlights of such benefits and testimonies.

Promoting multiculturalism

Encouraging immigrants to stay in the Atlantic provinces

Reaching unchurched

Addressing social issues

Motivation to the congregation to involve

Following are some of the personal testimonies.

1. One of our church members who works in capital health has been identified couple of times as an active participant in “beyond boundaries” as they saw her on TV. They also expressed that the programs have been such a great blessing for them.

2. One of our congregation ladies told me that her husband’s aunt in a senior home watches our program regularly and she is blessed by our ministry

3. Couple of months back I received an email from someone from Bedford to know more about our church as they saw us in TV

4. Some of the senior home residents told us personally that they were comforted by the sermon and encouraged by the singing and seeing children programs.

5. Wayne from Digby, NS says, “I am an older man and a strong Bible reader. Must say- watching your television program was very inspiring”.

Church Move

Due to over financial burden in terms of high monthly rent and also in need of a better layout we moved out of the Beechville space to the current location at Bedford Highway in Halifax. God made that move easy for us and we started the service in the new place without any interruption. I thank the church family for helping us in the move.

Church Move TV Ministry Children Ministry Prayer Ministry Testimonies Women’s Ministry Church Family Days Church Family Retreat Bible Study Enlarge – 2016 Christmas Event

Highlights of 2015

Year 2015 has been a great year for the HIPM Church and the Prayer Conference Ministries. Following are some of the highlights of 2015.

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Children Ministry

The highlight of the Children Ministry of 2015 was the Vacation Bible School (VBS) conducted in the month of July & Aug 2015. It was for a week and started every day morning at 9.00 and went up to 4.00 in the evening. This year theme for the VBS was G-Force (God’s love in action). Children enjoyed the singing, craft, recreation, science and class room sessions of the VBS. More than 15 children participated in the VBS and the whole event was volunteered by more than 10 volunteers working in different shifts.

Some of the highlights of the VBS are below.

Singing VBS action songs was led by Tincy, Suzanne and Shreya

Morning assembly and storytelling was done by Grace

Meal and Snack were sponsored by church families

The most enjoyed session was the science experiments

Checkers the Cheetah Puppet was the center of attraction.

As the week progresses the G-Force power meter indicated the progress of the program. On the final day of the VBS children performed what they learned to their parents and friends during the concluding session.

Children Ministry

Sunday School ministry takes place every Sunday morning during the service. Kids are taken to the basement and engaged in various activities of learning God’s Word. During the last year kids completed the study of the book of Genesis.

Every Third Saturday during the Gospel Night, children are encouraged and trained to perform in front of their parents, friends and families. Children’s performance include singing, dancing, instrumental, skit, reciting memory verses, etc.

Children Conference is one of the major activities of HIPM that occurs every Thursday evening. Children from USA, Canada and Botswana join in the one-hour conference and share their experiences and testimonies. This session also includes singing, sharing the Word and praying for one another. This has been a great platform to build talents among the little ones.

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Prayer Ministry

Prayer Ministry has been one of the key ministries of HIPM. Prayer has been the air that we breathe in HIPM. Following are some of the highlights of the prayer ministry in 2015.

Prayer Conference Leaders (PCL) – Prayer Conference Leaders were identified and given the responsibility of strategically planning changes required in the prayer conference. Each of them periodically pray and encourage the prayer conference members those who are assigned to them. They also participate in a monthly conference with Pastor & Sister Joy to review the progress of their tasks.

Prayer Conference – Every week Mon to Fri prayer partners connect with each other over a conference bridge to pray for families and special needs. They share testimonies and a short message to encourage each other. Few non-Christians join in the prayer conference and make it their church as they are not allowed to church otherwise. Prayer conference has been a good training ground where many leaders are raised and their skills are sharpened.

Intercessory Prayer – An one on one prayer happens among the prayer partners who intercede for various common causes such as disasters, wars, persecution, diseases and various other global and national issues. Ministries, missionaries and the salvation of the perishing souls are also part of this intercession.

Early Morning Worship – Ladies love to worship early in the morning from 5:00 to 6:00 EST in the conference while others are still sleeping. This worship time has been a blessing for many of the working ladies as it keeps them productive and godly.

21 days Fasting Prayer – Four times in the year 21days fasting prayer has been conducted including both the prayer conference members and the church members. Many signed up for fasting and many prayer requests were submitted. They were effectively managed online by Aruna and Jeyalatha. As a result of this prayer, many miracles were witnessed as seen in the testimony section.

Early Morning Prayer at the Church – Early morning prayer was conducted at the church in the whole month of June. The church believers as well as the early morning conference members joined in this worship. It was a great time of having fellowship with the Lord through the Holy Spirit. Many spiritual blessings were received during this time of prayer and worship.

Testimonies

1. As a result of prayer the following individual are blessed with the baby or they are pregnant. Shantha, Esther Praveen, Jaisha, Princely, Sojila, Joyce Fibin and Saritha John.

2. God did wonders in their Visa approvals, extension and/or travel – Suguna Mohandoss, Deepa Fredrick, Prabha Anand, Gifta Vinod, Tincy Thomas, Chellaa CP, Dilip Bhaskar’s India trip and Sivakami Alagar.

3. God has been with them during their move – Priya Margaret, Silpa Chacko, Princely, Shanthi Sivakumar and Suguna Mohandoss.

4. We prayed for job for the following, God blessed them with a job – Fibin Mathew, Jofin Mathew, Tintu Thomas, Benson Eapenparambil, Jomini Mathew, Solomon Benjamin, Faith Mathew and Rajee John.

5. God healed the following from sicknesses as the prayer partners and the church prayed for them – Mercy Chacko from her eye problems, Kamala John’s mom, Joyce’s pregnancy, Saritha’s pregnancy, Jeyalatha's moms healing from Hernia infection, Debby Blentzas’ brother, Jaisha John during her pregnancy, Shalini vijay’s health improvement, Esther Praveen & Princely during pregnancy, Seraphim Blentzas’s health improvement and Dilip Bhaskar’s mom’s healing.

6. God healed Gifta Vinod’s dad who was sick and admitted in the hospital in India by giving him vision, anointing him with the Holy Spirit and tongues.

7. The following individuals took immersion baptism obeying the Lord’s command. This happened after much prayer. – Paul Nakka, Suzanne Bodapati and Melvin Chellaa.

8. Tintu Thomas, Chellaa CP, Melvin Chellaa, Paul Nakka and Suzanne Bodapati received the anointing of the Holy Spirit with an evidence of speaking in tongues

9. During the Gospel meetings four individuals gave their lives to Jesus by raising their hands for the first time.

10. God blessed Rebecca Johnson with a new house. 11. God took care of HIPM church move from Beechville to

Bedford Highway, Halifax. 12. God helped Anand Paramadhas to completed the MPH

degree & graduated in Botswana. His employment contract also was renewed for another 3 years.

13. A testimony from Sivakami Alagar - When fasting prayer started on September 1st, during early morning worship, Sister Joy prophesied that those who are waiting for a situation to change, they will get it today (Sep 01). I felt in my spirit that God is going to open a door for me. Around 10 AM on the same day I received a call from a company (which was my dream company) and they said they selected me for their project. I was so happy. Praise God! Every day I attended the morning conference before I go to work. The job was so critical and challenging, God has helped me and gave me knowledge and Wisdom to do well. In less than 2-month period, I received an appreciation for my excellent work from Clients. Praise God!

During 2015 God has done much more than what we could list here.

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Women’s Ministry

Every Thursday woman joined together for a time of prayer at the church praying for the church ministry and for the individual needs. Women joining together for a short time of prayer before starting the Sunday morning serve has been a great blessing for the service.

Women’s one-day retreat is certainly one of the highlights of this year. They kept a day aside from their routine to stay connected, to study God’s Word and to pray together.

Church Family Days

Two times in this year we as a church family could go out and gather together in a park to spend the whole day in fun, games, singing, and praying. These outdoor events helped the church

To know each other better and to have fellowship

To understand the need of such fellowship in future

To know the importance of inviting others.

The church family day evens were conducted in Victoria Park, Truro on May 30th and in Oakfield Provincial Park on July 4th. Here are some of the pictures of both the events.

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Church Family Retreat

Church Family Retreat took place from Friday, Sep 4 to Sunday, Sep 6 in Camp Evangeline, Debert, NS. Church families, individual believers and friends participated in the retreat. The theme for this year was “Get out of the boat”. This was a time of great joy, fun and fellowship among the believers. More than everything spiritually we were nourished by the Word and the Holy Spirit. The camp care taker’s family and friends joined us in the campfire and in the Sunday morning service. Following are the highlights of the Family Retreat.

Staying in the campground

Worship service in the chapel

Outdoor games

BBQ

Campfire

Sunday morning communion service

Baptism service in the river

Attached are the some of the pictures taken during the retreat.

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Bible Study

During the year 2015 we completed the study of the Book of Daniel. We also started a study on “Angels” and completed the study. During the study of Angels, the participants took a quiz before starting each session.

The book of Daniel - The message of the book of Daniel, “The message is there is a God in heaven and he ruled, still rules and will be ruling for ever and ever. One day he is going to come back to this world throw the kingdom of men and going to setup His heavenly kingdom.”

Some of the most interesting and familiar stories of the Bible are found in this book.

Daniel in the lion's den

Hebrew children in the fiery furnace

Great beast of Nebuchadnezzar and the interpretation of its prophetic meaning

Stirring challenge of the handwriting on the wall

Seventy weeks’ prophecy of Daniel dealt in Chapter 9 of the book of Daniel

Angels – Following are the highlights of what was studied.

1. Angels are mysterious, beyond our understanding 2. Angels are majestic, like no creatures on this earth 3. Angels are mighty, they truly are God's special agents 4. Angels are ministers, reaching out to God's people 5. Angels are messengers, bringing good news from heaven 6. Angels render worship, but they never receive worship 7. Angels rejoice in salvation, but they can't receive salvation 8. Angels minister to believers in death, but they never die 9. Angels praise God, but we cannot prove that they sing 10. Angels rescue some of us and reassure the rest of us.

Around ten people participated in almost all the studies. The interest and the eagerness shown to study the Word of God was so encouraging and highly appreciated.

Enlarge - 2016

Enlarge – 2016 is a church growth project just started at the end of 2015. A task team has been identified and an introduction session conducted. The team is expected to gather in the beginning of 2016 to work on the project.

The vision of this project is to see congregation and membership growing in terms of Spiritual, Numerical, Financial & Physical Growth.

So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and increased in number daily. - Acts 16:5

Acknowledgement

We would like to acknowledge the support and encouragement of the following organizations.

1. Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC) for their ongoing affiliation and support.

2. Camp Evangeline for accommodating us to have our family retreat.

3. We just received donated accounting software (QuickBooks) from TechSoup Canada for $50.00 which costs otherwise more than $300.00.

4. We extend our thanks to Eastlink for broadcasting the church services in the local community channel for free of cost.

Christmas Event

Christmas is a good time to share the Gospel with others. The church congregation invited their Christian and non-Christian friends to see their kids performing. Kids carol, skit and instrumental are the highlights of the event. A Gospel message was shared and were challenged to accept Jesus as their Savior. Everyone enjoyed the Christmas potluck meal.

To know more about us, please visit www.hipm.org