Greenwich Church celebrates 25th with special services

Pastor Jackson Senyonga of Kampala, Uganda

Harvest Time Church in Greenwich, CT is hosting a series of special services this week to celebrate its 25th Anniversary. Among the evening speakers are:

October 15: Jackson Senyonga
Founder and pastor of Christian Life Church in Uganda, with 40,000 members. Jackson delivers an unforgettable message and his ministry has planted 600 churches in Africa. He is featured in the Transformations II video.

October 16: Jan Nel
Jan is the founder of TEEM.Net, an apostolic network of ministries in South Africa, Australia, and the U.S. He is a true teaching father and prophetic trainer in the Body of Christ.

October 17: Raymond Mooi
Raymond is the founder of the School of Acts, a ministry training center with branches in Malaysia, the Phillipines, and Indonesia. he travels extensively throughout Southeast Asia conducting mass healing and evangelistic campaigns in closed nations.

The Town of 1000 Realtors(R) hits hard times

Not even Greenwich is safe from the economic tsunami. Connecticut's balance sheet gets whacked, too, as we've pointed out previously.

Connecticut budget woes coming

Says Mrs. Rell:

Rell's budget office estimated Monday that state's budget deficit for the current fiscal year will be about $300 million, more than double previous estimates. Rell said much of that projected red ink is due to falling state revenues, especially from the income and sales taxes and the state's share of the slot machine take at Connecticut's tribal casinos.

The estimate does not account for any fallout from the recent large fluctuations on Wall Street, she said.

Of course, those "fluctuations" will likely hurt us, given how much of our State's income depends on a relatively few people having big capital gains, mostly in Greenwich, as the Courant recently pointed out:

As the good times rolled in recent years, the state budget became increasingly dependent on Greenwich. Despite having only about 60,000 people, the town contributed nearly $600 million in state income taxes in 2006 — more than three times the income taxes paid by the combined populations of Hartford, Bridgeport, New Haven and Waterbury. With only 1.8 percent of tax filers, Greenwich provides nearly 13 percent of all state income tax, helping to pay for schools in West Hartford and road repairs in Rockville, not to mention every other cost related to running the state.

Pray CT main site temporarily down

For some reason unknown to me, our main site at www.prayct.org is down. I've contacted the host and hopefully we'll be up and running soon.

In the meantime, I'd like to ask your prayers for Harvest Time Church in Greenwich, which is running an ambitious Alpha Course this winter and has over three dozen groups meeting both at the church and in other locations. Pray that people will find new life in God through this outreach.

Attorney Admits Guilt in Church Pornography Case

Back in February we blogged about the case of Attorney Phil Russell, who was accused of obstructing justice by destroying a church computer containing child pornography. Yesterday, Russell pled guilty in a case that lawyers think will hinder their ability to represent people effectively. From the Courant:

After signaling for months that he intended to fight the charges, lawyer Philip Russell disclosed in federal court that he had reached a negotiated settlement with prosecutors. He then pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of misprision of a felony, which means he was aware that a felony had been committed, but did not report the crime to authorities.

Russell had been charged with obstruction of justice and destruction of evidence. He was accused of destroying a laptop computer after his clients, officials of Christ Church in Greenwich, found the computer and determined that it contained pornographic images of children. The computer was the property of Robert Tate, the church's former longtime choirmaster.

The problem here for lawyers:

The Connecticut Criminal Defense Lawyers Association argued that Russell learned of the computer's contents in a confidential conversation with his client, the church. To turn the computer over to authorities would violate that confidence [creating potential problems for Russell with the Bar]; to retain it would violate federal child pornography laws.

(Read the full story here.)

Not a good choice - ruin your career or be be prosecuted for violating child pornography laws! In any case let's continue to pray for Christ Church in Greenwich and all the persons involved.

Christian Events in Connecticut This Week (August 6 - 12)

Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Community Church

The following events are taking place in Connecticut this week. For more information, or to add an event to our Connecticut Christian Events Calendar, please visit our website here.

(Ed. note: sorry this information is being released late this week!)

Monday, August 6:
Litchfield County Regional Prayer Meeting (Torrington)

Wednesday, August 8:
Intercessory Prayer (Colchester)
Fairfield County Pastors' Fellowship Lunch (TBD)

Thurdsay, August 9 - Saturday, August 11:
Willow Creek Leadership Summit (via satellite in Bloomfield, Greenwich)

Thursday, August 9:
Prayer in the Park (Hartford)
Regional Prayer Meeting (New Haven)

Friday, August 10:
Men 4 Men Ministries Coffeehouse (Clinton)
"The View From The Top" Youth Leadership Development Summit (New Haven)

Saturday, August 11:
Statewide Intercessors Gathering (Kensington)
House of Grace Community Coffeehouse (Milford)

Connecticut Churches Support Katrina Rebuilding Efforts

Numerous Connecticut churches have been active in helping communities and churches in the Gulf Coast affected by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

The New London Day recently ran a nice piece about Calvary Chapel of Uncasville's efforts in Hancock County, Mississippi.

Covenant Church of Easton just wrapped up a fundraiser for a church in Phoenix, Louisiana.

Harvest Time Church in Greenwich is preparing to send a large team to Chalmette, Louisiana.

We salute these churches and urge Connecticut believers to support the ongoing efforts to rebuild this area which is still shattered.

Backyard Festival Comes to Greenwich

Mid Point Cafe announces the 2007 Backyard Music Festival at Harvest Time Church in Greenwich, Saturday June 9th. This event will feature six great Christian music groups ranging from rock to rap to soul to gospel. In addition to musical acts on the main stage, there will also be children’s activities, fresh food from the grill, and iced coffee drinks.

Musical guests include: SilOam Band, Tyrone Birkett, Brothers Inc., NuSoul Generation, Craig Crawford and Sam Cintron.

General admission is free; parking is $10 per vehicle. Gate opens at 12 noon. For information, contact Harvest Time Church at (203) 531-7778, or visit: www.midpointcafe.com.

Christian Events in Connecticut This Week

The following events are coming up this week... for more details please visit the Connecticut Christian Events Calendar!

Monday, April 16:
Litchfield County Regional Prayer Meeting (Torrington - Advent Christian Church)

Wednesday, April 18:
School of the Spirit with Pastor Jan Nel (Darien - St. Paul's Church)

Friday, April 20:
NCS Men's Breakfast with Guest Speaker, Jerry Root (Stamford)

Saturday, April 21:
Reclaiming Our Spiritual Heritage Tour (Torrington)
Christian Coffeehouse (Danbury)

Sunday, April 22:
Unity Service with Pastor Jan Nel (Greenwich - Presbyterian Church of Old Greenwich)