Daily Prayer Emails

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The season of Lent begins Wednesday, March 1. Lent is a season of preparation as we look ahead with anticipation to Jesus’ death and resurrection on Good Friday and Easter. During this season the Church throughout history has emphasized the daily practice of praying and reading Scripture. As you enter into this season, we would encourage you to do the same and to try create a daily habit of such a practice.

To help assist you and your family, we are excited to let you know that we have designed and created daily Morning and Evening Prayer emails. These emails include the Bible reading plan that is currently printed in the back our Order of Worship broken up into morning and evening readings, while also including several prayers and the liturgical drama taken from our previous Sunday morning worship services. There is also a section with suggestions for family devotions.

Setting aside time in your mornings and evenings where you can pause, rest, change gears, be reminded that God loves you, and meditate on God’s Word and pray it back to him may be hard at first (as with any practice), but overtime is extremely formative and life giving.

The language in the prayers are corporate, letting you know that you are not praying or even reading the scripture passages alone, but are doing so together with your church community. They also are created to encourage you to let your Sunday worship flow over into your daily practices. The beauty in how the emails are formatted is that it can be made more simple or complex as time allows.

For Lent (March 1 – April 15), try starting a new habit to help prepare you for the joy of Easter. If you are interested in receiving these Morning and Evening Prayer emails

If you already have a regular daily habit of praying and reading scripture, that is wonderful and there is no pressure to change your practices. We are simply suggesting another tool for people to use.

Contact Kem Erskine, kem@redeemeroc.org, for assistance in signing up for the daily prayer email list.

Prison Ministry Update

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December is always a busy time for Redeemer’s Prison Ministry. Here are some ways Redeemer ministered to inmates across Orange County in December of 2016:

Bible Donations

“Free on the Inside” Bibles were donated to Lisa Cram with Prelude Foundation. These bibles go directly to incarcerated men and women who are taking Chaplain Cram’s Christian Life Skills course.

Angel Tree & Heart Cards

Our congregation ministered to 20 families in 2016, providing Angel Tree gifts to 36 children with an incarcerated parent. Redeemer has participated in this wonderful program for 9 years. The congregation also graciously sent Heart Cards to 12 inmates, offering hope, encouragement, and the love of Christ to these men. Included in the Heart Cards were hand-drawn personal cards made by Redeemer children!

Other Donations

Year-end financial donations were sent to Serving California and Prison University Project. Serving California is a faith-based, nonprofit organization committed to helping inmates re-enter into their communities. Prison University Project is a nonprofit which transforms the lives of inmates at San Quentin through higher education. Prison University Project was named a recipient of the 2016 National Humanities Medal. President Obama awarded the National Humanities Medal to Jody Lewen, Executive Director, at a White House ceremony last September.

Thank You

Our gifts of time, cards, bibles and other donations give hope and encouragement to men and women who desperately need the love of Christ. The cards pictured here were created by inmates and sent to their friends at Redeemer in response to this ministry.

Host Families for Japanese Students

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Wed-Mon, March 8-13

Redeemer is hoping to host 10 Japanese students, and 3 leaders from our global partner church, Grace Harbor Church in Tokyo, Japan. Grace Harbor runs these trips annually as an outreach to Japanese college students. As our global partner, this is an amazing opportunity for us to support their mission and also to let God use us as hospitable hosts for these Japanese students. The students will also be joining us for worship on Sunday March 12th. If you are interested or able to host students (and some leaders) in your home from March 8th -13th (5 nights) please contact Adam Feichtmann, adamf@redeemeroc.org.