May “Name That Tune”

Don’t you wish we could end every month with a beautiful baptism service?  There was no better way to usher out the month of May than by joining together with a neighboring community of believers, and welcoming 11 brothers and sisters into the baptism of Jesus Christ.  Surely, the Spirit of God is working in our hearts and minds to prepare us for even more worship and praise to come.

As ever, for lyrics, chord sheets, or recordings of any of the worship songs we lift up in praise together, please feel welcome to speak with or contact any member of our Worship Team.

As-Am Heritage Festival: Reviewlet

It’s late and it’s been a long day, but in case you were waiting by your computer with bated breath, refreshing your browser over and over again to see if a recap of NHF’s day at the Westchester County Asian American Heritage Festival had been posted, here’s a little tidbit.  (When we’ve all slept off our fresh-air tiredness, we’ll post some pictures too, and perhaps some quiplets from those who joined us to spend the beautiful day together.)

Before anything else is said, glory & praise must be lifted up to God for the incredible opportunity for NHF to get out there and represent, before our immediate community, the expression of our Christian faith as an integral part of the Asian-American journey.  Thanks also to our brothers of the Men’s Ministry for doing all the hard work, all the little but significant things that are always taken for granted but should never be.  And finally, God bless Weijing for his infectious love for our community, his unending enthusiasm to motivate us together for this day, his deep desire for all to come to know Christ, and his encouragement to us to play a vital role in being Christ’s ambassadors.

A short but wonderfully touching reflection from Weijing, after the jump …

Update: D. & J. (China)

We’ve just received a note with some praises & prayer requests, from our friends D. & J.  Please lift them up this week:

• T. Keller. is there right now, to meet with 8 urban house-church leaders to “explore a strategic mission global partnership between two urban intellectual centers.”  Keller will also meet with 25 young leaders to train & empower them on the issue of church-planting among urban intellectuals.  Please pray for safety, trust, vision and follow-up.
• The consulting business / language school was recently fined approximately $700 USD for a recent legal / immigration infraction.  Rather than fight this fine in court (and face the great potential of this business being shut down), they have decided to pay the fine, resolve the case and move forward in power & grace.  Praise God!
• They are looking forward to early June’s Lausanne International Leadership Meeting in Seoul.  3 of the country’s top house-church leaders will be meeting world Evangelical leaders for the first time!
• They are also hoping to bring 10 Young Leaders to Urbana 2009 (taking place in St. Louis, MO, at the end of the year).

Chalk Up Another …

Yipee!!!

NHF Softball went from a 25% to a 40% winning percentage at 7pm on Sunday evening by outworking Chodae 21-13 at the Sleepy Hollow H.S. in Tarrytown.

Down 3-7 going into the 5^th, NHF resisted the temptation to swing and waited patiently for Chodae’s pitcher to throw strikes. The strikes failed to come and NHF’s batters galloped to the free bases. With Dennis on 2^nd and James at 1^st, the strong bats of Ken, Paul, and David powered the runners around the diamond and home for some scores.

U09: Days Are Limited, So Act Now!

It’s not too late to still be thinking, praying and deciding about being part of U09, this year’s trip to our sister church, New Hope Church, in Kremenchuk, UA.

Please see Robert N., and/or Cathy C. for more details; the sooner the better!

• Trip Dates: July 21 – 31 (Tue. – Fri.)
• Weekly training: begins Sunday, June 7

Find decision-making help after the jump …

Spring Baby Boom: 3 – 3

If you put the April/May 2009 baby arrivals up against the April/May performance of the NHF Softball Team …well, the moms sure are delivering.  (Pun fully intended; comparison made to simply urge NHF Softball to bring it all home for U09!)

Jimmy, Jenny and Jason are happy to welcome the newest member of their family: Katharine (Katie) Ehwa.

She arrived at 12.12a this morning, weighing in at a whopping 8 lbs/2 oz, and measuring 20.5″ long.  All four of them are doing great.

Jenny & Katie will be at Phelps Memorial Hospital through Saturday; please call first, before making plans to visit.

Join noreSERVations at “The Cliffs” next Friday

Please join us next Friday, May 29th, for indoor rock climbing and dessert.

6:30 pm – Meet at “The Cliffs” in Valhalla

9:30-10:00pm – Head to Jen C.’s home for dessert and possibly “Slumdog Millionaire”

RSVP with Will and/or John.

noreSERVations @ “Anything Goes”

By nhfnews columnist Will L.

Last week in Manhattan, the hottest ticket in town wasn’t to Wicked at the Gershwin Theater or to West Side Story at the Palace Theater.  On Thursday and Friday, crowds left Broadway and were flocking to Simon Baruch Middle School’s production of Anything Goes at M.S. 104.  Fortunately for us, NHF decided to send us to experience the show firsthand.  When we arrived at the box office, the ticket cashier asked us, “Do you have a reservation?” – to which our response was “noreSERVations.”  With playbills in hand and no reservations, we walked into the packed theater and thoroughly enjoyed the 8th annual production from Gramercy’s most beloved director, Ken Ko.

Bring it! .. it’s been Broughten.

Our beloved NHF Softball team has done it. NHF held onto a large lead for their first win this season by a score of 18-15. Their first win came as a road win against a youthful Arcola Covenant team in Paramus, NJ this past Sunday evening.

What was it? It had to be the synergy, no doubt. In addition to the momentum of NHF’s bats, the consistent pitching, and the cat-like reflexes of NHF’s infielders, the return of team regulars John K., Andrew, Tom, and Ken proved too much to handle.

“God Talk, Pt. II” (Stanley Fish)

In today’s New York Times, author, professor and noted literary theorist Stanley Fish writes “God Talk, Part 2,” continuing a conversation begun in his earlier op-ed piece, “God Talk.”  He responds and dialogues with those who commented on his earlier piece, namely the representative sample of “95% of Times readers” who apparently don’t (or profess that they don’t) believe in God.

You can find the full text of the piece here, but here are some choice bits:

To bring all this abstraction back to the arguments made by my readers, there is no such thing as “common observation” or simply reporting the facts.  To be sure, there is observation and observation can indeed serve to support or challenge hypotheses.  But the act of observing can itself only take place within hypotheses (about the way the world is) that cannot be observation’s objects because it is within them that observation and reasoning occur.

And:

If there is no thought without constraints (chains) and if the constraints cannot be the object of thought because they mark out the space in which thought will go on, what is noticed and perspicuous will always be a function of what cannot be noticed because it cannot be seen.  The theological formulation of this insight is well known: Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Hebrews 11).

And finally:

So to sum up, the epistemological critique of religion — it is an inferior way of knowing — is the flip side of a naive and untenable positivism.  And the critique of religion’s content — it’s cotton-candy fluff — is the product of incredible ignorance.