March Newsletter

Pentecostal Church of God

Northern California/Nevada District

Newsletter

Rev. Lonnie J. Cox, District Bishop

April 1, 2012 (for March)

To all the beloved Pastors, Ministers, and Congregations of our District Church,

Special District Convention 2012 Edition!

Ordination Service!  An evening to remember!  Heaven came down and glory filled our souls!

Some District Convention Stats: 

            Every Pastor counts! 44 of our Senior Pastors attended at least one service at District Convention! That’s 62% of our pastors, an increase of 6% over last year.  Also this year we had 115 delegates registered compared to 96 last year (An increase of 8.3%) PTL!  I thought this was amazing faithfulness by our pastors, especially since we had no elections this year and only one resolution.  To me, this means that worship and fellowship are becoming stronger motivators for our faithfulness, as compared to business; and I believe they should be. PTL! We missed every pastor who couldn’t come.

   

            Every Sermon counts!  Each sermon was anointed and outstanding!  Don Cox, preaching on “Don’t tell me I can’t do it!” said, “If the lack of vision, money and youth are the reason for the decline of the church in America, then they are also the answer for the increase of the church in America.”  Ken Malone, preaching on “A Mission for Fishermen!” said, “Preachers who are NOT fishing are the cause for concern. (i.e.: Fishing for men!)”  Aldair Queiroz, preaching on “A Prophet mighty in deed!” said, “More important than walking where Jesus walked is taking Jesus where He has never walked before!”  Margaret Cox, preaching on “Here comes the bride!” said, “Impure Brides need to be washed with R.I.D.  That is: Redemption, Insight, and Deliverance.”  My daughter Amy filmed the Ordination service for her blog (Christian things my dad says) and I didn’t even see her.  She rode me pretty hard about wearing my glasses when I preach.  I told her I only wear them when I want to see.  Did you know: if every pastor present got 6 sermon ideas at District Convention, that’s 264 sermons that will be preached across our district church in the next few months; inspired at District Convention. PTL!

            Every Joke counts!  Pat Jacobsen said of her church, “PBFC does not stand for Palermo Bible Family Church; but Peanut Butter Fish and Chips!”  Now there’s a church I can attend!  Margaret Cox said, “Be transformed by the renewal of your mind, not the removal of your mind.” Great advice!  The $1 Million Joke!  Pastor Jon Gee left his check book at the registration table.  You can imagine his shock when he returned for it and found this check written in it on behalf of Steve Nalley Ministries, who just happened to be working the registration table at the time!  Good one Pastor Steve!

            Every Appointment Counts!  At the Post-Convention Board Meeting the following annual appointments were made: Ken Malone, Dist. Home Missions; Margaret Cox, Dist. Women’s Ministries; Shawn Marshall, Dist. Discipleship Director; Dana Poe, Dist. Kings Men Director; Tim Stewart, Dist. World Missions Director; Giovanna Cox, Dist. Junior Director. God bless these excellent leaders!

            Every Dollar counts!  Between the three Missions Projects the District Convention raised over $22,000.00 for Missions! PTL!  At last count (money is still coming in) we are at: $16,000.00 for the Ahikam Project for teen and pre-teen mothers in Central America; almost $5,000.00 for the Philippine Drainage Project (meets our goal); and $1,000.00 for Missionaries Aldair and Hillary Queiroz from Brazil.  Wow!  And, it’s not too late to give!  Just send your offering to the District Office and we’ll see that it gets to the mission field! 

                       

            On behalf of Margaret, myself, all of our District Executives and Directors, “thank you all” for making District Convention 2012 a wonderful success.  God bless you!  

Vision Visits:

V Mar. 4, with Missionaries Adair, Hillary and Addison Queiroz at Orangevale!  It’s been 6 years since we visited with the Queiroz family. They were fresh out of Bible College then, but they are well seasoned Missionaries now; with a local church that runs 200 and a field ministry that covers three countries.  OCCC raised $700.00 for their itineration in the Sunday morning service and Pastor Don was very proud of his congregation. PTL!    

V Mar. 11, Family Bible Church, Corning, with Pastors B. J. and Joan McCarty.  We heard Joan had an operation on her foot, and that BJ wasn’t feeling well either; so we went to check on them.  It will be 2 months before Joan can put her foot on the ground. Pastor BJ is getting some tests.  They need our prayers!  We thoroughly enjoyed Bro. Gary’s Sunday school class.  It was good to see Secretary Lenore again.  Pastor preached an excellent sermon from 2 Chr. 20:15 on “Connect the Eye!”  “Make eye contact with God and soon good things will begin to happen.  Lose eye contact with God… disconnect… and soon bad things will happen!”  Amen to that! 

V Over the mountain to Winnemucca!  In this photo we were nearing Donner Summit, elev. 7,200 feet.  All week the weatherman had predicted an impassable storm, but when I prayed the Lord told me to leave as planned (Saturday morning at 11am).  Friday night the weatherman said, “There will be a break in the storm tomorrow and we’re lifting the severe weather watch at (you guessed it) 11am!”  PTL! We made it without a slip or slide!

V Mar. 18, Christlife Family Ministries at Winnemucca, Nev. with Pastors Allen and Darla Peavy.  8 years ago, Allen and Darla, along with his parents Leumoin and Etta, started CFM on 2^nd street as an independent Pentecostal church.  They are now blessed with 50-75 wonderful members who love the church. Our Sunday school teacher, Bro. Ragsdale, is related to friends of ours in Visalia.  The building was built in 1869 and had a downstairs boxing arena in it.  Rooms are still rented upstairs, and with the old plank floors the sound of worship flows into those rooms.  When I made the altar call, I included the folks listening upstairs. 4 souls raised their hands for salvation!  PTL! The snow storm we missed on the drive over hit while we were there. It snowed about 12 inches.  Every time we left the room my truck was covered with snow. The elevation at Winnemucca is 4800 to 5200 ft.  It is a high desert gold mining community, famous for being robbed by Butch Cassidy.  In fact, we saw the bank he robbed.  We loved every minute with these fine pastors and congregation, and look forward to visiting with them again! PTL!

V Two days at Carson City, Nevada.  After Winnemucca, our plan was to visit Lakeview and Klamath Falls, OR, but the snow drove us south. We didn’t get out of the snow until we reached Reno.  Carson City is the Nevada State Capital.  We went sightseeing at Virginia City and restaurant eating at Adele’s, Heidi’s, and Red’s 395 BBQ.  The golf courses were closed, but we still enjoyed the rest and change of venue.  We were only about 20 miles from our church at Gardnerville, Nev.  Beautiful country! PTL!

V 3-25, at Bridgeway in Vallejo, Pastors Scott and Becky Nalley. Our first visit to the Hogan Middle School Auditorium. Bridgeway also hosts a Philippine & Samoan church. Daughters Laura and Melissa led worship which we enjoyed tremendously. 1 soul was saved and several recommitted to Christ. PTL! The church is gearing up for a BIG Easter.  After church we ate at the Pastors favorite BBQ with kids Chris, Laura & Raegan Mankiewicz.  We laughed a lot and loved every minute of it!

Special “Congratulations!”

    

“Congratulations!” to Javier and Maria Aparicio, the new Pastors of the Covelo Indian Mission.  The new National Indian Missions Director, David Petty, informed me of the Aparicio’s appointment.  We welcome these fine folks to our District church and wish them God’s speed!

“Congratulations!” to Roy and Mindy Gross, on their appointment as the new Pastors of Living Word PCG on Loma Ave. in Lodi.  Roy and Mindy are remodeling the building now in preparation for a grand opening coming soon.  At District Convention Roy told me, “We’ve got 5 new families committed to the church and we haven’t even opened the doors yet!”  PTL!  Welcome Roy and Mindy to our family

Margaret and I love you all more than words can say!  Please remember to pray for Bro. and Sis. Gee, along with all our loved ones who need a miracle.  In Him,

Rev. Lonnie J. Cox

District Bishop/NCAPCG