Fortuna Seventh-day Adventists

THE FOCUS

NEWSLETTER OF THE FORTUNA SDA CHURCH
2301 ROHNERVILLE RD. FORTUNA, CA 707-725-6164

February 2025

Blessed Assurance
One of the great Christian hymns is the well-known “Blessed Assurance.” The melody was written by Mrs. Joseph Knapp. Her husband was the president of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. One day Knapp
invited the prolific hymn writer Fanny Crosby to her home. Knapp wanted her to listen to a new melody she had composed.

Knapp sat down at the piano and began playing the melody. As she played, she asked Crosby what thoughts were coming into her mind – what the melody suggested to her. Crosby responded, “Mrs. Knapp, your husband deals in life insurance. My heavenly Father deals in assurance. This melody suggests to me, Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.”

The word “assurance” means an inner confidence. Assurance is a sense of security. It also speaks of a sense of belonging and acceptance. In Christ we are accepted as children of God. In Christ we have the absolute
confidence that our guilt is gone, and our sins are forgiven. In Christ we have complete assurance that the gift of eternal life is ours.

The book of Hebrews reveals that as children of God we can have “the full assurance of hope until the end” (Hebrews 6:11) and the “full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:22). It is certainly not God’s will for His children to be filled with uncertainty. The plan of salvation offers much more than nervous anxiety regarding our salvation. God longs for us to be filled with assurance.

Satan hates it when a child of God accepts Christ by faith and receives the blessed assurance of forgiveness, pardon, and freedom from guilt. Ellen White wrote, “Satan is ready to steal away the blessed assurances of God. He desires to take every glimmer of hope and every ray of light from the soul; but you must not permit him to do this. Do not give ear to the tempter, but say, ‘Jesus has died that I might live. He loves me, and wills not that I should perish. I have a compassionate heavenly Father; and although I have abused His love, squandered, I will arise and go to my Father.” (Steps to Christ, page 53).   

In the parable of the prodigal son the father accepted his boy back home. With his father’s signet ring placed on his finger, the wayward son received the absolute assurance of his father’s love. Like the prodigal son, we too find love, acceptance, and forgiveness in the Father’s heart. What confidence, what security, what hope, what blessed assurance.

May God bless you richly today and every day
with His grace!
Pastor Dan    

Beginning The Year With Prayer    

As we began our year with our annual prayer Sabbath, we were blessed. Lalita has invited us all to meet the first Sabbath of the month for group prayer. We will meet in the Pastor’s office after potluck, around 2:00. You are invited to come share your burdens, your, heartaches, your thanks and praise. If you know someone who has requested prayer, please bring those requests as well.

Speaking of prayer and love, we have a family from, the McKinleyville church that are in desperate need of both, Monday night the tragically lost three members of their family in a  house fire. There is a go-fund-me page but Caleb Wright says one might be a scam. You could also send any donation directly to the McKinleyville church, marked for the “Chance Family Fund” and they will ensure that donations are sent where
needed. Lost in the fire were Sarah Chance, her daughter Faith and a grand-daughter named Sophia. 

A light dinner is planned tonight, Friday at 6:00, with candle-light vigil at 7:00pm.

FJA

Even though our school has taken a year to reset we still hold school board meetings. This  month’s meeting will be Tuesday, February 13 at 4:00.   

PATHFINDERS

 Get ready….. .the annual Pathfinder dinner and auction will be on February 16 at 4:00pm at the FCSC. We will be having a delicious Greek meal followed by our dessert and other auction items. Tickets are $8.00 for adults, kids 12 and under are $5.00. They will be for sale at the door! Little ones 3 and younger are free. Come and fellowship with our young folks and support our Pathfinder club. Some of the honors they are working on are back-packing, edible wild plants and animal tracking. Our Pathfinder team works so hard to help these kids earn their honors. Pray for our club that along with their honors they learn the love of Jesus.      

FEBRUARY OFFERINGS

01      Local Church Budget
08      NAD TV MINISTRIES
15      LOCAL BUDGET
22      NCC  Advance Ministries

CARE TEAM

One of the ministries that came from our Steve and Karen Nikola grief presentation was the start of our own “Care Team. It will be the first Sunday of the month in the Fireside room. The goals are to come together to pray for guidance on how to establish positive, loving relationships within our Church. To brain storm on creating ministries that will create love amongst each other. Too come up with sermon topics your heart longs for to share with others and to hopefully mend or at least repair and heal relationships with others in our own
HOUSE OF THE Lord. That love will develop in to discipleship. A god-like, unconditional, such pure love that we can’t help but become missionaries within our church, our families, communities and the world. That is after all,
our Mission Statement in our hearts and in our daily lives as we minister, care and love one another so that our light shines out to one another and to our community.

FOOD BANK

Remember that our Dorcas Food Bank is in desperate need for non-perishable items. Please make sure they are in their original box, package or can. Check the date as well, we want to make sure we give current food to our
clients. There is a barrel in the lobby for us to drop food off in on Sabbaths. You can also drop items off at the center including frozen or perishable items at the center on Tuesdays and Thursdays during center hours.             

Vegetarian Foods

After 55 years of providing our vegetarian food items, Rita Roberts is retiring from doing it. She will continue selling until her stock is gone. If you have any questions or what she has left and the prices, please give her a call 707-764-5375. We want to thank Rita for all these years of being the one that kept us in stock of the vegetarian items that we use. We appreciate it. Maybe we will get you a gold-plated can of Tender Bits for your retirement.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS   

FEB. 08      SKATE NIGHT HBCS 6-9
FEB. 10      PATHFINDERS-FIELD DRESS
FEB. 13      SCHOOL BOARD 4:00
FEB. 14      VALENTINE’S DAY
FEB. 15      CHURCH POTLUCK
FEB. 16      PATHFINDER DINNER/AUCTION
FEB. 17      PATHFINDERS -FIELD DRESS
FEB. 20      CHURCH BOARD 6:30
FEB. 24      PATHFINDER STAFF MEETING
MAR.01      CHURCH POTLUCK
                  GROUP PRAYER 2:00
MAR. 08     SKATE NIGHT HBCS

2025 MINISTRIES

Here are some ministry opportunities that Emily shared with us last month. Click on the links to access them. One is for prayer warriors and the other is on scripture memorization. May you be blessed by these sites and thanks Emily for sharing. Word Warriors – You’re invited to join a new     international online scripture memory group started by Martin Kim of Amazing Facts just a few week ago, with already over 1000 new members since
mid-December and growing daily. We are using the Telegram app found on your smartphone and computer. This is the link to join Word Warriors https://unitedprayer.org/word-warriors/Prayer Warriors – Since it’s been hard for us to pray  in person lately, we are connecting our members digitally. We will now be able to pray for each other using the Signal app, which is available for your smartphone and computer. See the handout for basic guidelines. We will still have in-person opportunities to pray together but this gives us more flexibility, especially for those of us who live remotely. This is the link to join Prayer Warriors on
Signal:
https://bit.ly/3W56v7x Emily has left some flyers out in the lobby.

The greatest Love

 “Have you ever wondered when Jesus burst forth from the tomb, why he didn’t summon His disciples, or 10,000 angels or his mom? He had just ripped eternity from Satan's snare, he had just shown the universe his father’s promise fulfilled and His LOVE for humanity. But, instead he revealed himself to Mary Magdalene. Broken-
hearted, weeping Mary. Perhaps to show her that He died for His LOVE of her and all sinners. Her weeping ended that day with the joy of that morning. Joy comes because Jesus comes. He has engraved your name on the palm of His hand. Your name is not in some file. Keeping track of your wrong-doings. God needs no name tag for you.  Your name is tatooed, engraved, carved on the palm of His hand, YOU are everything to God. Do
you think I am talking about someone else? Someone who doesn’t sin as much as you do? Someone nicer, holier? Someone who didn’t mess up their marriage, who didn’t lose their job for stealing. Who isn’t addicted to gambling, pills, alcohol and being popular. Wrong. God LOVES you. He LOVES you even if you don’t love Him.
You don’t earn His LOVE. Nothing you can do will change His LOVE. If you lose your temper He still LOVES you. If you ignore Him, he still LOVES you. If you lose your way….guess what? He still LOVES you. His LOVE will not change even if you do. You have never lived one day in your life where you have not been LOVED by God. He LOVES you if you do wrong. He LOVES you even before you get to know him. He chose a woman of the night, who had been possessed by seven demons to reveal himself to first. That is what he did for Mary Magdalene and He shows up for us in the same way, when we least deserve it. That is what He does. He LOVES us unconditionally and the joy He brings every morning and watch LOVE grow in your heart.”” -
By Max Lucado-  

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3:16         

FEBRUARY BIRTHDAYS

01     JONATHAN STOCKTON
05     TAMMY FISH
07      DAN DEL FIORENTINO
          NOE JEREMIAH VAZQUEZ
10      RON STEVENS
11      TIMOTHY WHITCHURCH
          CAROLINE DEL FIORENTINO
13      NATHAN BRINCKHAUS
15     MS. DALE
17      IVETTE GOMEZ STEVE WILSON
18      KARINA O’SHAUGHNESSY
21      JUSTIN BURZO
24     MARY JO RENNER
25      STEVE BURUM
27      JESSE PERRY
28      MEREK SEARS
                                                     

FEBRUARY ANNIVERSARIES 

02    LARRY & SHERRY KENNEDY

14    DAN & CAROLINE DEL FIORENTINO

22    NOE & ZOILA VAZQUEZ