MOM: 3rd July 2011

Last week we had two interesting activities in our Sakhyam meeting.

We all learned "The Lord's prayer" in Hindi, which was taught by Tony Varghese.

We also had an interesting Bible Quiz(Topic Related to New Testament ) conducted by Gibuchan.

I hope all of us remember the Lord's prayer Hindi version :-)

Bible Quiz was very interesting as it would help us to understand the theme of each chapter in the New Testament. We had two teams, Team A and Team B which lead by Sherin and Deepti. Gigichan was the official score keeper and ensure fair play:-) Finally Team A won by just "5" points:-). So special thanks to Gibuchan for conducting this programme and looking forward for more ... :-)

See you in church this weekend.

MOM: 26th Jun, 2011 - Message by Rev. Joby Achen

Today we had Rev Joby achen who is student Chaplin in Chennai as the guest speaker.Achen gave a very meaningful message on human worries and anxieties and the way out of it through word of God.

There are three major factor which leads to anxiety

• Uncertainty
  
• Agitation
• Fear

In today’s fast moving world each one of us are constantly under the grip of any one or all of the above mentioned factors.

But word of God clearly shows us the way to ward of anxiety. The word of God says in Mathew 6:25-31

25 .Therefore I say to you don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink nor about your body what you will put on .Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

26 .Look at the birds of the air for they neither sows nor reaps nor gathers in barns yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you of not of more value than they.

27. Which of you by worrying can add a cubit to his stature?

28. So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field how they grow they neither toil nor spin.

29. And yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

31. Therefore don’t worry saying what shall we eat? What shall we drink? Or what shall we wear?

32. For all these things the gentile’s seek. For your heavenly father knows that you need all these things.

33. But seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to you.

Though worry and anxiety are an indispensible part of our life, it is in a way a factor which drives us every day to perform. God does not except us to sit with hands closed, but take up responsibility without lamenting.

If we have a great relationship with God through prayer and have total submission to the will of God, we just need to do our responsibility as excepted by us and God will work through us and bring perfection in all that we do.

Some thoughts put forth by our youth member were as follows.

· One of our youth members said about the great emphasis given to Yoga as a stress buster. So during the discussion the view that was put forth was that

Yoga is akin to our prayer where we try connecting with the almighty, which our forefathers religiously followed through family prayer in morning and evening .But today we hardly find such time to kneel before God and pray.

All we need to do is understand the priorities in our life and keep aside a good amount of time to strengthen our relationship with our creator and everything else would fall in place.

Posted by Dayana Joseph

MOM: Jun 19th 2011 : Tony Varghese Testimony and Song

Today we had our Achen and Mr. Tony Varghese - the new student from Gurukul Theological College during the Yuvajana Sakhyam meeting. Tony did most of his schooling from near Jabalpur, MP and is a final year student for the B.D now.

We also had four new members to the Yuvajana Sakhyam. First of all let me extend a warm welcome to each of them. They were Subin, Cibin, Reenu and Anila.

Today Tony shared his testimony and we sang a few songs. Basically we reveised some of the songs that Jerry taught few weeks back.

Sherin gave a brief update on the Yuvajana Sakhyam Center meeting. Two of our members were selected as various representatives of the center committee. Sherin was selected as the auditor and Alan John was selected as Committee Member.

Note : we will have a Bible quiz on Jul 3, 2011. The objective of the quiz is to understand the high level objective of each book of the Bible. During the quiz, various facts/statements about that book of The Bible will be mentioned and you will have to guess the name of the book. To start with we will focus only on the New Testament.

Have a great week ahead!

MOM: May 29 Learning new songs

Today we had the choir master, Jerry teaching us some new songs that we can sing during our upcoming Cottage Fellowship.

The songs we learnt are :

• Into my heart, into my heart
• When the spirit of the Lord is within my heart. .
• No never alone, no never alone
• two other convention songs

We will have our Cottage Fellowship at Achen's parsonage, on Jun 4th Saturday - 4PM. If you missed last week's session, check out the last post for updates.

BTW : those interested to play badminton can come to church around 6:30 AM on week days and Saturdays. The recreation club of the church is ensuring a good atmosphere for this purpose and has been doing it well for the last two months.

MOM: May 22, 3Ms lead by Bishop's secretary Achen

In today's session we had Rev Jose C Joseph achen who is the diocesan Bishop's secretary speaking to the Youth members.

The main message was the necessity to be control of 3Ms. The three Ms are

• Motor bike
• Mobile
• Mouse

Each the above can impact our lives negatively if we are not careful. He called up the youth to deal with care each of these.

We need to make sure we are not addicted to say the mobile. Ending up talking when it not necessary and wasting time that can otherwise be spent productively.

Also make sure you are not addicted to the computer. Know the limits that you have to observe on your own. Listen to your conscience, and stay clearly away from bad sites.

All these point to one theme. Know your limits and make sure you do not abuse the freedom and trust entrusted on you by your family and society.

Christo Jacob George : Marthoma Students Conference Representative to the Marthoma Prathinidhi Mandalam

The St. Paul's Marthoma Yuvajana Sakhyam proudly congratulates Mr. Christo Jacob George for being elected as the Marthoma Students Conference  Representative to the Marthoma Prathinidhi Mandalam, for the year 2011 - 2014.

Prathinidhi Mandalam This is the house of representatives, the apex body of the Church, consisting of the Metropolitan, all other Bishops, Vicars General, representatives of clergy and parishes, representatives of the recognised Institutions of the Church, representatives of those who have become members of the Church as a result of the missionary work of the Church and persons nominated by the Metropolitan.

The Mandalam elects the Sabha Secretary, Lay Trustee & Treasurer and Clergy Trustee. The Mandalam decides all spiritual and temporal affairs of the Church. The annual report, accounts and budget are scrutinised and passed by the Mandalam. The decision of the Mandalam are circulated in all parishes by the Metropolitan, with the approval of the Synod.
Read more about the administration of the Marthoma Church in the sabha website.

Christo is the son of Rev. George Thomas and is a dedicated and dynamic personality pursuing his Masters in Philiosophy in the Madras Christian College, Chennai.

We believe he is a dedicated and  valuable asset to our church and will be an apt representative for the students of the Marthoma Church.

We wish him all the best and pray that, the Lord almighty will give him wisdom and understanding in all his endeavours.

 Rev. George Thomas (father) and Christo Jacob George

Gladwin, Ashish and Christo

Congratulate Christo by sending an SMS to 801-575-6246 or email to christo_grg @ yahoo .co.in

MOM: May 8th Rev. V. M Mathew, Rev. Jobi and Rev. Gigy Thomas Achen

Today we had three priests in our midst.  Rev. V. M Mathew, Rev. Jobi and Rev. Gigy Thomas Achen.

The meeting started with prayer by Gigy Thomas achen. Then Regichayan welcomed V. M Mathew Achen, Joby achen and also all new
comers to the sakhyam meeting. The main speech was conducted by V. M Mathew achen who was our V. B. S director.

Achen focused mainly on the problems of youth based on bible portion Genesis chapter 3. Though so many problems faced and the main focus was given on "temptations". The very first temptation comes to our mind from The Bible is the temptation which Adam & Eve
undergoes. Serpent tempted Eve by raising doubt whether God has really said not to eat the fruit. Similarly Satan lead us into temptation
by raising doubt in us. Here in this scenario Serpent tempted Eve by emphasizing that if you eat the fruit you will be like God. We always
think that we should be in control of everything. It helps Satan to put us in temptation. Because like Eve at times we want to be like God and
control everything.

About the fruit which made Eve to be tempted by Serpent there are 3 kinds of temptation:

• Temptation of eye
• Temptation to consume
• Temptation to possess

Temptation of eye:
Eve got tempted primarily by the sight. Even in our life we are primarily tempted by sight or eyes. In 2 Samuel 11:2
we can see that David sinned due to temptation of eye. In this era of technology chances are more for youngsters to get tempted by eye.

Temptation to consume: Nowadays we human beings are consuming or eating food not because of hunger but for taste. This is another
form of temptation which will lead us to be tempted.

Temptation to possess: We always have temptation to possess everything we desire. We human-beings are never satisfied with what we
have, that's why we always got an urge to possess. And thereby we will be easily tempted.

Being tempted is not a sin but falling into temptation is sin. We are always surrounded by the temptation of becoming God, by temptation
of eye, temptation to consume, temptation to possess. As Jesus Christ overcame the temptation which Satan raised, we will also be able to
overcome the temptations. We live in a world of temptations and the only solution to overcome this temptation is with Jesus Christ. This leads
a life with him and word of God. We will acquire the strength to resist all kinds of temptation which Satan tries like he did in Adam & Eve.

Some doubts were asked to achen:

How to overcome the peer pressure?

The only solution is that we should have strong faith and should have courage to say no to the temptation which Satan will be raising
through peer groups. Achen explained it with an example from his own experience in life.

Then Joby achen who is the new chaplain for youth ministry in Chennai gave a self-introduction and requested all youths for their co-operation in his
ministry. And he presented a urge for meeting all the students and youths, thereby extending works of youth ministry in Chennai.

Our Vicar, Gigy achen offered all support for Joby achen in name of our sakhyam and inspired the youths to overcome peer pressure. He
also asked sakhyam members to render support to others who are suffering from peer group pressure.

The meeting ended with prayer by V. M Mathew Achen.


- Jerin