This week's newsletter from Gene

Our planned work day was rained out last Saturday, so we are going to try again this Saturday, March 28th. We have 20 yards of pea gravel to move from the outside door by the Coke machine to the playground, so we need able bodies, wheelbarrows and shovels. With enough guys, it shouldn’t take more than a couple of hours. We’ll start at 8:30am. Come join us!! 

Seniors, we leave for Highland Lakes at 9:00 am Thursday, and will be back about 3:30-4:00pm. 

For the past 25+ years, Hillcrest has been a part of starting ethnic churches by letting them use our building. Over that time frame, we have provided space for Korean, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese and Ethiopian churches, as well as for Messianic Jews.  These are just the groups I can recall. Our goal has been to help them get established and grow to the point of becoming self-sustaining with their own building. I know of at least three of these congregations who are still meeting and doing a good ministry for their particular group.

 
This past Sunday, we began a new ministry to just such a group, the Japanese Church of Austin. It is unique in that it is led by a Korean pastor and his wife, Byoung and Grace Lee, but they have a Japanese congregation. This shows what the Lord can do in people’s lives, since for many Koreans and Japanese, there are still hard feelings and separation based on WWII. They have been meeting in the ABA office, and Sunday was their first day at Hillcrest. There were about 35-40 in attendance. They are reaching many families who are bilingual, so Byoung preaches in Japanese, and they immediately translate into English using headsets to allow the non-Japanese spouses to also understand the service. They will be using the Praise Hill room and Fellowship Center from 1-5:00 pm each Sunday afternoon. They will be baptizing two new converts on Easter Sunday.