JUNE 2, 2019 – NOTE FROM THE PASTOR

Dear Brethren,

We thank God for the very fruitful, maximized, and blessed trip last Monday through Thursday in the East Coast with the visits to our Pastor Emeritus Jose Luis Reunilla in Barneys Road, Kingston-Rhome, Georgia; Mam Marguerite Vella in Morning Pointe Assisted Living, Chattanooga, Tennessee; Rock of Ages Ministries in Cleveland, Tennessee; International Board for Jewish Missions in Hixson, Tennessee; and BIMI in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Thank God as well for the privilege to bring God’s message last Wednesday Midweek Service at Shenandoah Baptist Church at Cleveland, Tennessee on the invitation of their new Pastor, Rev. David Gamble, and likewise share God’s Word in the devotion time with the officers and staff of Rock of Ages last Thursday morning on the request of their President, Dr. Terry Ellis.

It is worth mentioning to see the inspiring, and encouraging countenance, and feel the sweet spirit of mam Vella who at 94, and turning 95 years of age this September, has been blessed by the Lord with good health and sharp memory. The video footages we sent you will testify to this fact. She is even engaged teaching in Sunday School with some 20 elderlies in said facility, and is much appreciated and well-loved by the staff and colleagues. We thank God for the rich legacy she and her husband, the late Missionary Joe Vella, along of course with the Woosleys, had left Bethany. Without God using them to start and nurture Bethany through the years, we would not be where we are this time, and what God envisions us to be beyond.

We safely arrived last Thursday almost midnight here in Los Angeles, California through a 5-hour flight from Atlanta, Georgia, and a prior 3-hour land trip from Cleveland, Tennessee. We truly appreciate the company of Pastor Rudy Abrot, Dr. Larry Stikeleather, and Sis. Edith Ferrer Jarrett, as well as the nice cabin accommodation by Rock of Ages Ministries. We are graciously accommodated here in Shadow Oak at West Covina, California in the beautiful spacious residence of Bro. Mike and Zeny Afable. Thank God for using many of our brethren and friends in this trip.

This Tuesday, June 04, marks the completion of my 19th year as your Pastor. By God’s enabling and sustaining grace, and with your continuing prayers, cooperation, and support, I then press on to my 20th year and beyond fulfilling God’s plan and purpose for my life, my family, and our Church. It was in June 04, 2000 when, on the recommendation of Pastor Reunilla, our Church formally recognized God’s call upon me and thereupon install me as your Pastor here in Bethany. Pastor Reunilla was thereupon formally recognized as our Pastor Emeritus and accordingly commissioned as Missionary-at-Large in USA.

Please continue to pray for this week’s 4-day Pastors’ and Leadership Conference at Montecito Baptist Church in Ontario, California. Again, my dear brethren, thank you for your prayers, support, and understanding in this on-going 23-day USA trip, with the various visits, reunion, and fellowship with my family and former Bethany brethren, as well as the diverse ministry engagements towards strengthening and widening partnership in the fulfillment of Christ’s Great Commission. We consistently press on, and stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel.

All By God’s Grace and For God’s Glory!
Pastor Gerry Nable