Pastors’ Update 07-05-2024

Hi Everyone and Happy Sabbath,

Last weekend several of us gathered at the Gurnsey Creek Campground in Lassen National Park for our first annual NorCal church campout and Sabbath service in the woods. It was a delightful weekend of fellowship with activities for all ages including meals together, gathering around the camp fire each night (including smores), singing, children’s games, playing in the creek and fishing. We enjoyed cool evenings and warm days. Thanks to all who participated and especially to the Provines, Lindenbergs and Braswells. They planned the weekend, reserved the group campsite, purchased food for group meals and cooked Sabbath lunch. Also, special thanks to William Halsted who provided a vocal concert of songs!

No doubt, we have all been suffering from this “Heat Dome” hovering over the West Coast area. High temperatures have been breaking decades-long records almost daily! Hopefully, all of you are staying cool, one way or another.

Because of the record high temperatures forecast for this weekend, we have decided to CANCEL SABBATH SERVICES this Sabbath in all three locations (Red Bluff, Reno and Lodi). After consulting with Elders in the area, we thought it best to encourage all of you to stay off the busy highways and stay home or in cooler places than our church halls this week. As many of you know, the older AC in the Lodi meeting hall has difficulty keeping up on hot days, and several members are out of town vacationing in cooler locations this week.

Taking all this into consideration, we thought it would be wise to cancel Sabbath services in NorCal and Reno this week. I checked with Mr. Pinelli and they are planning Sabbath services at 2:00 PM in Portland, Or. (It’s forecast to only be in the 90’s up there this weekend and they have “very good air-conditioning” in their church hall. You may tune into COGWA.TV and go to the link for the Portland Sabbath services this week. The password is “fot” (lower case). 

The latest Member Letter from our President Mr. Franks is attached (was emailed).

Feast of Tabernacles registration for all sites in now underway. Please register through the COGWA portal, if you have not already done so. Registering early is very helpful in planning each of the Feast sites. Our assigned site is Redmond, OR. For those who wish to transfer to another site, transfer registration is now open. If you have any questions, you may contact our Festival Advisors – Bob Besore` (Stockton), John Cornelison (Redding), and Mark Fike (Reno). Members can register at the COGWA member portal (portal.cogwa.org).

Camp registration is also now open through the COGWA Portal. If you plan to volunteer to help at one of our camps, or you plan for your children to attend camp, please register at the link in the Camp announcement below. There seems to be some confusion about the Sequoia camps for this year. The preteen and the teen camp will run simultaneously, starting on the same date (July 14th). However, the camps will be operated separately. Everything for the two camps will be run separately, but the same facility will be used.

We will have NO Sabbath services tomorrow for the Redding, Stockton, and Reno congregations this week.