“Tis the season to be jolly!” For those of you curious about upcoming church services during this festive time of year, here is a list of scheduled services/events going on at the Protestant Church in Oman (PCO) throughout the Christmas season.
If you need any other information such as contact numbers or a map to find the church, check out the updated church website at http://www.churchinoman.com.
We are now in the first week of Advent! Here’s a nice video message (1st of 4) from Don Moen:
And last but not least, here’s a great a capella version of The Little Drummer Boy by the group Pentatonix to get you in the Christmas spirit. They put it on youtube on Nov. 25th and it’s already at 8.5 million views.
The Protestant Church in Oman is always quite busy during the Christmas Holiday. Earlier I blogged about Christmas Joy 2011. Last week, the kids of the church did a fabulous job sharing a performance with the congregation. I love kids Christmas performances so I thought I’d share. Here are a few short vids to let you see them in action!
One of our families lighting last week’s Advent “candle of joy”
There’s a new addition to the pastoral staff at the PCO (Protestant Church in Oman)!!! Reverend Barry Dawson and his wife, Shelly, arrived in Muscat on August 31 to take over duties from outgoing pastor Jack Buteyn who left this summer. The pic above is of them introducing themselves briefly during last Friday’s service, September 2nd.
It was a real pleasure talking with the Dawsons before church started. It’s very clear that are “people persons” and have a heart for serving others. Perhaps this comes from all their overseas service, having served the expat community in Tokyo Union Church, Japan as well as the American Church in Paris, France for several years.
I was really impressed with the way Pastor Barry and Shelly went to the front door and made a point of shaking hands with everyone as they left, trying to learn the names of individual members of the congregation right away. I’m sure that they will be a huge blessing to the entire church in Oman and I’m looking forward to hearing Reverend Barry’s sermons.
If you are a fellow believer, please pray:
For the grace of God to allow them a smooth transition here in the Sultanate; that they’d feel comfortable with a sense of belonging right away.
That God would use this couple to reach out and draw more new residents in Oman to the PCO.
That they (and we all) would be examples of Christ’s love to our Omani neighbors.
That there would be strong unity/support in the church office and that there would indeed be a renewed sense of unity within the Protestant Church in Oman!
How sad to know that leprosy is still a major problem in India. How nice to know that the youth of our church are doing something about it. They are raising their own funds through different means such as cake sales and such to raise funds to get 6 of them to Nagercoil, India as well as providing the financial assistance to renovate the men’s ward of CSI Leprosy Hospital. Renovation work will include painting, masonry,gardening, etc. This renovation will help uplift the broken spirits of the patients in the hospital. They will also do hospital visits and talk to cancer patients and visit some local schools and help the local YFC chapter with their ministry.
One of their projects to raise funds included making this CD. The CD is not for sale but people were/are welcome to give donations.
The inside cover explains the goal:
The CD has 7 Christian songs on it. It’s nice that they included the lyrics to all the songs:
I am so proud to have youth in our church who are stepping out in faith and trying to make a difference in this world. The main vocalist is a godly young Sudanese man, Ehab, and I can’t believe how talented he is! I uploaded what is a new song to me called “Restore My Heart” (track #7 on the CD) onto youtube to show you what I’m talking about. You can listen to Ehab sing these deep, haunting lyrics by clicking on the video below.
Not only does Ehab sing this song, he composed it himself. Talk about gifted! If you’d like more information about the trip or would like to make direct monetary contributions, please email Jess at jess.pco@gmail.com. I pray that their trip is a great success!
"The suppression of ideas and thought is a major sin, and we will never allow anyone to stifle freedom of thought." (His Majesty Sultan Qaboos Bin Said)
Andy in Oman 