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Eastern Regional Association
June 2025 Newsletter
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Josh Cheney is the co-vocational pastor of the Dunntown Advent Christian Church in Wade, Maine. His wife Alex and their four kids do their best to hide, but disaster often finds them anyway.
“It is a joy to be hidden, and a disaster not to be found.”
― D.W. Winnicott
In the garden, after Adam and Eve sinned, their first impulse was to hide - they recognized their vulnerability before God, and their vulnerability towards one another, and so they sought to hide. In that hiding, they felt safe, even though it didn't actually make them any safer from God's judgement.
Since then, our default instinct is to hide our vulnerability. We try and hide from God by pretending he doesn't exist or remaking him in our own image; we try and hide from others by not letting them get close enough to see the soft spots in our hearts; we even try to hide from ourselves by a constant stream of events and entertainment. We hide from God by neglecting his word and distancing ourselves from his people; we hide from others behind a protective veil of superficiality; we hide from ourselves by being too busy to stop for 10 minutes and consider our own thoughts.
However, for Adam and Eve, they hid out of fear, trying to prevent a disaster, but God found them, and extended grace to them. The greater disaster for them would have been if they had been able to successfully hide from God. If they had been able to successfully hide, then they never would have received the grace and love that God intended to show them, and they never would have heard that first word of salvation, of the one who would crush the serpent forever.
The same is true for us - we can try to hide from God, but no matter what bad things we think will happen if we are found, the greater disaster is to never meet him. To meet him requires that we acknowledge our vulnerability and walk toward him in faith that he is for us, and not against us, and it is through that faith that we are met in our vulnerability with compassion, mercy, grace, and ultimately, protection.
In our relationships with one another, we can keep up those walls and protect our vulnerable parts, but as with God, to do so successfully means that we will miss out on the blessed joy that we experience when we meet with another person in our vulnerability and we are met with compassion and protection rather than pain.
That is a part of what it means to be the body of Christ - we are a people who have had our vulnerability before God met with compassion, protection, and ultimately love, and so we should - we must - become a people who meet each other's vulnerability with compassion and love. In doing so, we are being Christ’s body, we are welcoming them as God has welcomed us, and as God welcomes them.
When we sin against one another - confession and repentance is an act of vulnerability. When we fail, we can try and hide it, or we can own up to it, but owning up to it puts us in a very vulnerable position. When our lives spiral out of control, it's a fleeting joy to be able to put a happy face on it, but if we do that then we are disastrously missing out on the opportunity to be loved by others the way that Christ has loved his church. How beautiful could that be, if we were known as a group of people where anyone could come in their vulnerability and know that they would not be ridiculed, demeaned, or torn down, but only shown love and care in their failure and suffering?
Are you truly vulnerable with God and with others, or are you too careful about the walls that you build and maintain? It might be a joy to hide behind those walls for a while, but it's a disaster if we live our lives behind them.
| | Explore Missions Coming to New England | | |
ACGC's next Explore Missions program will be held on September 5th and 6th at Dunntown Advent Christian Church
Explore Missions is all about helping you engage in God's work of missions in a deeper, more effective way. It's informative, inspiring, and challenging. You'll meet Advent Christian mission leaders, pray together for the world's unreached peoples, hear first-hand stories about life and work in various mission fields, learn what it looks like to become a missionary, enjoy international foods, and much more. Please join us at Dunntown Advent Christian Church in September! Come, and find your place in God’s work among the nations. For more information, please contact ACGC's International Missions department at imissions@acgc.us.
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The 73rd Eastern Regional Convention will be held on October 24-25 at the Alton Bay Christian Retreat Center in Alton Bay, NH.
The following speakers and topics have been confirmed for the convention:
Adrian Dixon, ACGC Church Planting Coordinator - Church Planting
Erik Reynolds, Pastor at Oak Hill Bible Church - Mentoring
Doug Foss, Pastor at Hope Church - Roman Catholicism
Daniel Karl, Pastor at Redemption Community Church - Church Planting Nathaniel Bickford, Pastor at Whitefield Christian Church - The Whitefield Declaration.
We will also be hearing from Tim Soucy, ERA Superintendent, Lou Going, President of the Maranatha Conference, and Justin Nash, Executive Director at ACGC.
This year's convention will be a time of challenge, inspiration and fellowship.
Accommodations will be available at the Retreat Center. These will include a limited number of individual rooms as well as spaces in which to room with others. More details concerning lodging will become available soon. The rate for Friday night guests will be $80 which includes 1 night lodging, Friday lunch, banquet, and Saturday breakfast. The rate for Thursday and Friday night guests will be $126 which includes 2 nights lodging, Friday breakfast, lunch, banquet, and Saturday breakfast. There will also be a meal only package for those that will not need lodging. We will also have a block of hotel rooms available to reserve at a local hotel. Registration details and a detailed schedule will be sent out by email and available on the ERA website in the next two weeks. Please add the convention to your calendar. We look forward to seeing you all!
| | ACGC International Missions Update | | AC Missionaries Plant New Church in Tanzania | | |
TANZANIA – Mang’ola is the small city (population 6000) where our missionaries, Johnson Odoyo and Amos Komanya, stay while ministering daily in the bush to the Datoga tribe. While staying at a hotel in the evenings, they found themselves ministering to hotel staff, laying their hands upon them in prayer.(read more)
| | Penny Crusade Turns 70: A Legacy of Generosity | | |
This year marks the 70th anniversary of Penny Crusade!
It all began in March 1955 at the Seabrook, New Hampshire Advent Christian Church, when Chester Randall handed over thousands of saved pennies to missions director Clarence Kirby, saying, “I give them to you for missions.” From that humble moment, Penny Crusade was born.(read more)
| | Request for Prayer for Malawi Trip | | |
Ken Perkins, Pastor of the Advent Christian Church in Bear River, Nova Scotia, and his wife, Darlene, are making final preparations for their next trip to Malawi. This will be Ken's twelfth trip and Darlene's eighth. They will be leaving on July 22 and will be in Malawi until August 11. Darlene did not go in 2024, but her presence is requested this year. One pastor's wife told Ken not to come again without her. "We want our woman," she said.
Ken and Darlene will be visiting and encouraging pastors and churches. Their time will conclude with a week of seminars for pastors, wives, and church leaders from both Malawi and Mozambique. Ken will be continuing and expanding of the material presented during the 2024 trip.
Your prayerful support from now through the mission trip is greatly appreciated.
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45 Oakdale Avenue, Marion, MA 02738
| |  | | | Lakeside Advent Christian Campground | | |
100 Campground Road, Belgrade, ME 04917
| | | Washington Advent Christian Campground | | Mechanic Falls Advent Christian Campground | | |
Routes 11/121
]128 Lewiston Road
Mechanic Falls, Maine
| | | Green Mountain Bible Camp | | 891 Queen St, Southington, CT | | |
CAMP MEETING 2025! July 26th - August 3rd
THEME: 'They will know we are Christians by our love.'
“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” -John 13:35
Evangelist: Rev. Doug Tourgee
Bible Teacher: Rev. John Jones
Vacation Bible School for Ages: 4-12
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229 Big Lake Road
Big Lake Township Princeton Maine
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19 Pine St.
Stanstead, Qc
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CAMP MEETING 2025! July 6th-July 13th
Theme: Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever! - Hebrews 13:8
Speakers: Dave Ross & James Perkins
Bible Teacher: Dave Davis
Music: Bruce & Sharon Marshall
| | Upcoming Events in our Churches | | |
The Attleboro Advent Christian Church invites you to join them on a three day, two night, chartered bus journey, to Lancaster, PA. Sight and Sound Theater August 13-15, 2025. This years production is "Noah"
Cost is $425.00 per person which covers all expenses except lunches, snacks, and souvenir's. Contact Pastor Paul Carter at 508-222-8407 or PM them for more information and registration forms.
| | | ANTIOCH BASED LEADERSHIP TRAINING FUNDS AVAILABLE | | The ERA has available funds to aid our churches in their Antioch Based Leadership Training. These funds are available for attending the BILD International in Ames, Iowa, purchase BILD curriculum, and First Principles. If these funds can be of help to your church please send a request for funds to the ERA Treasurer, John Jones. His email address is: pastorjoj@gmail.com. | | Scholarship Opportunities | | Previous copies of the monthly newsletter are on our website. | | Online Prayer Meeting Tuesdays from 9-10 AM | |
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ERA Board of Directors
Rev. George Karl, President - sumkarl@yahoo.com
Rev. Erik Reynolds, Vice President - ebreynolds87@gmail.com
Pastor Jonathan Price, Clerk - jonathan@faithchurchac.org
Rev. John Jones, Treasurer - pastorjoj@gmail.com
Rev. Bill Krulish, Heritage Conf. President - wakrulish@gmail.com
Rev. Darrell Young, Maine Conf. President - VYOUNG4212@roadrunner.com
Rev. Roger Brown, Maranatha Conf. Vice President - cbcbrown@myfairpoint.net
Rev. Derek Irvine, New Life Conf. President - drick1221@gmail.com
Mr. Adam Facteau, New York Conf. President - afacteau@twcny.rr.com
Rev. Ken Perkins, Nova Scotia Conf. President - Ken.perkins@EastLink.ca
Mrs. Deb Reed, ERA Representative to ACGC - deborahjoreed@yahoo.com
Rev. Justin Nash, ACGC Executive Director - jnash@acgc.us
The Eastern Regional Association Newsletter is published as a ministry of the Eastern Regional Association of the Advent Christian General Conference.
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Eastern Regional Association
P.O. Box 214 Winchester, NH 03470
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