As Orthodox we do emphasize the importance of the role of the church’s leader(s) or the priest(s). We often underestimate the role of the priest’s wife. In my opinion, her role is of a higher importance. She is the behind-the-scene support. If he is the father of the church she is the “Mother of the Church” who works behind the scene in love and humility to support the priest to support the church.

On the occasion of Mother’s Day I would like to recognize my wife “Irinie” and her role in supporting me and the church. I always told her “I think God chose you for the job before choosing me”. All the blessings that I have experienced in the ministry have to do with her and her support. I would have never been where I’m now without her and the church would have never been where it is now without her.God wanted to confirm this message to me (and to the church) lately in a strong way. She went last week by herself to Canada to visit her sick mother for a couple of days. I had to stay with the kids for these couple of days and tried to do my ministerial work as usual. It was a challenge! I used 15 baby sitters, I got sick with a bad flu, didn’t get any thing done and finally we had to cancel a service on Sunday! If I leave the church for a couple of weeks no body notices but she leaves for a couple of days every thing turns upside down!

Just wanted to recognize my dearest wife on Mother’s day. Happy Mother’s Day!

So many people are enslaved to their jobs. They have no life but don’t know what to do. No time even to look for another job; if there are any available jobs! Some brave people decide to give it up for God. It’s a test of faith: is God going to find them another job? Will they be unemployed forever?!

Just wanted to share with you what this young lady did bravely. She has a very good position in a consulting company …I will have you hear the story from her. May be this will encourage you to do it. if you have a similar experience please feel free to post it as a comment.

“I had been struggling with the idea of leaving my job for the past 3 years.  The main problems I had with my job were the long hours and travel.  After I began serving as a Sunday School teacher, the problems I had with my job intensified because I couldn’t give to the service the way God wanted me to.  One evening, during my weekly Servant’s meeting, I confessed to my fellow servants that it was a huge challenge for me to adequately give to the service due to my job.  At the same exact time, two servants said “Just Quit”.  For the next week, all I kept hearing in my head was “Just Quit” and it was becoming more and more clear that this was from God.  Without thinking about the outcome, I contacted my Partner and met with him right away.  I walked into my Partner’s office and said, “I am here to formally resign”.  I had no back-up plan, but I had a peace within me that I knew was from Heaven.  My Partner asked me why I wanted to leave and I told him that my job was getting in the way of me being able to serve my God.  To my surprise, he told me that he would find a position within my firm that would provide me with a 40 hour work week and no travel.  He also told me that if the new position didn’t work out, he would personally help me find another position within or outside of my firm.  The last thing he said to me was, “I wish there were more people at this firm with your values”.  It was then that I knew this was from God.” –G. O.

Oh by the way she is now working half the hours she used to work and getting the SAME salary!!!

February 8, 1998 his Holiness Pope Shenouda III along with 9 other bishops consecrated the alter of our church on the name of St. Mark the Apostle.

This is the time to think about reading the bible in one year. I have used this before, I will use it this year also (by God’s grace) and I do recommend it. After looking at many options I came to this schedule/system that is designed by Tyndale publishing.

You can get it as a hard copy or soft copy.

https://www.orthodoxbookstore.org/product.details.aspx?ProductID=1822

http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/

You can find it in many translations. I’m using the NIV because it’s easy to read and understand. It’s not the most accurate but again this is just ready through the entire bible and not a study.

I found many advantages of using the one-year-bible:

1- It puts you on a system: what you should read every day vs if you leave it up to you. You may read a lot some days and other days you might not read at all.

2- It helps you develop the habit of reading the bible daily.

3- It let’s you go through all the books of the bible including the ones you do NOT like to read and will NOT read if it’s up to you!

4- It gives you a variety of Old Testament, New Testament reading and also a psalm and a proverb.

5- You will find a message in it in case you don’t get a message from the Quiet Time.

6- If you do it with the family it gives you chance to discuss together and even to read it together. I know couple of families who did that before.

Have fun with it!

Here are some more resources:

http://www.oneyearbibleblog.com/

http://www.amazon.com/Bible-Companion-Questions-Answers-Reading/dp/0842346163

https://www.orthodoxbookstore.org/product.details.aspx?ProductID=706

https://www.orthodoxbookstore.org/product.details.aspx?ProductID=97

On the same day that an employee received his salary, a thief took advantage of the crowded situation on his bus ride home and stole it all from his pocket.  When the poor employee arrived home, he searched through his pockets for the money to give his family to take care of their monthly expenses and then realized that he had been robbed.

B G is a good nine-year-old kid went to the liturgy 5:30 AM yesterday because it was the feast of St. Mary. After the liturgy he went with group of missionaries and did mission work in DC. They were serving other kids their age and talking to them about Jesus. They had a blast and God really did great things in their ministry. Because he is a good kid he decided to treat his mother with a car wash even though it was already a very tiring day. When he was getting his stuff ready for the car wash he got hit by a careless driver who was backing up very fast like a rocket. He was rushed to the hospital but when he got there things became really scary. His head was swollen really bad as well as his belly (almost like a soccer ball in his stomach). That’s when we really called on God and His blessed Mother St. Mary (because it was her feast).
He went into CT scan, X-ray, you name it …doctors said it looks like an internal bleeding and don’t know what to expect. But, when he came back from the scans and tests he looked normal as if there is nothing happened to him! All tests came also very normal as of a very healthy kid. He went home same night walking and talking. His mother said “my son was dead and now he is alive”!
 

If God said “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” James 5:16. How about the prayer of the mother of God wouldn’t avail much? If God said “honor your father and mother” wouldn’t He honor His mother first? That’s why she said in the Spirit “For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. Luke 1:48

The man was expected to die from bleeding; he asked to buy a burial site from our church just 2 days ago. After the best doctors in America gave up God decided to intervene and prove His power! Read what his relative doctor said: the miracle.pdf

A year ago my car was hit by another car from the back. I stopped and looked; it wasn’t too bad and my bumper is decorative any way. The man was going to give me his info in order to repair my car but something told me “forgive and you will be forgiven.” I told the man, “I’m cool it’s not a big deal … have a nice day!” As I meditated on my bumper a couple of days later, I doubted the voice. “Why didn’t I just get his info even if I don’t use it?” I said to myself; but I remembered the sound was very clear “forgive and you will be forgiven.”

Two weeks later, I hit the door of an SUV. I left my info and was waiting to hear from these people. Now it’s a year after and I haven’t heard from them - I guess they forgave me!

Just last week I hit another car when I was parking (that’s why the church decided to dedicate a special parking spot for me next to curb - to avoid constant lawsuits!). Anyway, I left my info again and still haven’t heard from them; maybe they forgave me too!

So I guess the lesson from this is: Do you want to save on car insurance? You don’t have to switch to Geico; just start forgiving!

Yesterday’s Quiet Time was so powerful (Acts 16:16-34)! St. Paul had the Roman Citizenship that could have saved him from beatings and jail and yet he never opened his mouth or mentioned it. He preferred to wait on God to save him not his power, position or people. He preferred to be beaten and imprisoned over saving himself by his own power. That’s why God did a great miracle and opened the doors of the jail for him; He even saved people through this experience. Had he claimed his rights as a Roman citizen he wouldn’t have experienced God’s power and miracle. We need to learn to sit still and wait on God even before we open our mouth, before defending ourselves, before solving problems OUR way. Waiting on God to do things His way at His own timing. We often loose great opportunities seeing God’s miracles because we don’t wait on Him. There is always human solutions and godly solution to every problem; Godly solution shall come by waiting on God NOT by forcing our agenda on Him.

This blog would have been very different if it was written a year ago. God has done a lot of positive changes in my life lately; specifically the past year. I thought I am something but He humbled me with great gentleness to show me that I’m nothing. He didn’t strike me with sickness or trial but He put amazing people in my life. The missionaries!

Someone gave me a book about the life of George Muller (a missionary in the 19^th century) …this book made me decide to go to a mission trip to Africa last November. Over there I saw missionaries in action. I came back with great zeal and read more about more missionaries: Sadhu Sunder Singh, Amy Carmichael, Correy Ten Boom, Lillian Trasher and the best of them all Brother Yun (the heavenly man) from China. These people shared their faith through their blood …they made me feel that I’m worldly, slothful, spoiled and cold spiritually! You can’t read their lives and continue to live the same way.

If you are like me (one year ago) living in your comfort zone, think that you are ok, not doing any thing extraordinary for God or even stagnant in you spiritual life I would encourage you to read their bios.

Thanks be to our gracious Lord who is long suffering and compassionate … He is so patient with us until we come back to our senses.