April 17, 2021
Dear TCCBC church family, greetings!
It has been a little over a month since I last wrote to you. I hope to find you all doing well. In the last part of my previous letter, I mentioned that I would still write to you at the time as needed to maintain the sharing opportunity with you.
With the continuous improvements of the pandemic, infection numbers dropping, and the increasing number of people getting vaccinated, we have seen relaxing of the sheltering and various related restrictions in the state. For example, the county of Alameda where our church is located is currently in the orange tier. Indoor gatherings are permitted for up to 50% of capacity, twice the capacity as was permitted before. This capacity number was reported on March 31 this year. The report also projected that if this steady improvement continues over the coming three weeks, it is likely that the county could be in the yellow tier, with even more relaxing of restrictions. It appears that church ministries could take another leap toward returning to normal operation.
Through prayers by our brothers and sisters, and the joint efforts from team of co-laborers, everything has gone quite well since the church reopened for onsite worship in March. More and more brothers and sisters have returned to worship in person in the church. As an example, we filled the sanctuary for the Easter Sunday worship, with almost twenty others joining in the Multipurpose Room. All of us were so excited to see and greet brothers and sisters after not having been with them for so long. Even with social distancing restrictions, spiritual sharing among us was unhindered.
I think we all understand that not worshiping and meeting in the church was a temporary compromise under the pandemic conditions. The long-term plan has always been worshiping in person in the church. Therefore, we earnestly encourage everyone to begin returning to church for in person worship, trusting God faithfully that He will watch over us and protect us. Of course, the church will also be prudent in maintaining cleanliness and sanitization throughout the facility.
The Church Council has also discussed this past Sunday that the church could be fully reopened for in person worship and gatherings by the end of June or early part of July, God willing. At that time, we will resume what we used to do, with recording of the sermon messages only, and will likely not continue to livestream the services. We encourage everyone to make appropriate arrangements to return to church for worship. Should you need any assistance, please contact either the deacons or the church council members.
We will have a joint worship service this year with all three of our congregations on Mother’s Day. Besides having a Mother’s Day message and celebration activities, including honoring the mothers among us with flowers, we will also be having an installation service for Pastor Michael Kwong of the Cantonese congregation, and Pastor Stephen Choy of the English congregation. We praise God for giving us our mothers, and we give thanks for sending us our two new pastors. The joint worship will start at 10 am on May 9. We welcome all of you and your families to join us and experience God’s grace together.
Because of the pandemic, the originally planned “Leadership Training Seminar Series for Co-laborers” has been delayed for an entire year. The Church Council also agreed that the easing of pandemic restrictions will enable us to hopefully restart the leadership training in July. The leadership training seminar topics and invitations will be announced, with registration starting in mid-May. Besides deacons and Church Council members, we welcome our Sunday School teachers, fellowship leaders and co-workers to join us if you are interested. We are considering holding the seminars every two to three Saturdays, from 10 am to 1 pm.
Sharing and supporting each other in Christ together,
Job Lee
Pastor Job Lee, Senior Pastor
With fellow church leadership team
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