Mercy Minute: Lemonade from Lemons: Continuing the Conversation
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Vol. 9: No. 3
June 23, 2021
Lemonade from Lemons:
Continuing the Conversation
by Scott Pearce, deacon, Church of the Covenant, Hackettstown, NJ
On Saturday, June 12, at the approximate time of what would have been the closing program of the OPC’s Committee on Diaconal Ministry’s fourth Diaconal Summit in Chicago, a hundred deacons from across the denomination instead gathered for instruction, encouragement, and networking…in a massive Zoom meeting!
Call it another lemonade-from-lemons moment associated with COVID-19. Call it another case of the heart of men planning a way, but the Lord directing the steps. Chalk up another “instead,” another “alternate arrangement,” another “in light of present circumstances…” after more than 15 months of cancelations, delays, and postponements. And yet, with COVID-19 seemingly fading into our collective rearview, we might each actually come to refer to the 2021 diaconal summit as the last important event on our calendar that was significantly altered by COVID-19 (even so, let it be!)
Deacon Robert Kunda with his son
Deacon Robert Kunda
from Faith OPC, Grants Pass, Oregon
Robert Kunda and his wife, Aja, grew up in Southern California. They met in middle school and were friends all through high school, getting married after Robert returned from a four-year stint in the US Marine Corps. They had two children while living in California, and then relocated to Oregon in 2013 where the Lord has blessed them with a daughter by birth, and just days ago, a daughter by adoption!
Robert has served on the diaconate at Faith OPC since 2019. He says that he was drawn to serving as a deacon because he desires to help the church in whatever way he can. For him, one of the greatest blessings of this office is having a front-row seat to members of the congregation as they serve and share in one another’s burdens—without the need of the diaconate.
Robert serves alongside two other deacons at Faith OPC: Clyde Petty and Steve Carmack.
Be Like Robert Kunda!
Don't be shy! We'd like to include you and your fellow deacons in an issue of the Mercy Minute's "Meet Your Fellow Deacon(s)". Please contact Sarah Klazinga to be featured in a future publication. It's quick and painless, we promise, and it can really help to strengthen the brotherhood of deacons in the OPC.
The COVID Pandemic Response Fund continues to supply a cup of cold water to those in need. COVID conditions here in the States, for the most part, have improved, but in some countries across the world, the situation in the wake of COVID is dire. The Committee on Diaconal Ministries continues to receive generous donations for the Fund, and is therefore able to respond to requests for aid. $95,349.19 has been raised thus far. Praise the Lord!
"We on the OPC's Committee on Diaconal Ministries (CDM) always seek to minister mercy where there is also opportunity to pair the ministry of mercy with the ministry of the Word." --David Nakhla, Administrator, OPC Committee on Diaconal Ministries (Article will appear online in early July.)
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OPC Short Term Missions and Disaster Response:
Editor: David P. Nakhla
Administrator, CDM
david.nakhla@opc.org
(215) 935-1007
Trish Duggan, Communications Coordinator, CDM
trish.duggan@opc.org
The Mercy Minute, a quarterly newsletter of the Committee on Diaconal Ministries, is intended to keep OPC deacons informed and encouraged in their labors. It may include opportunities for networking or training, describe the work that a local diaconate or presbytery diaconal committee is engaged in, or bring attention to a need in the OPC.
