In 2017 Congress formally recognized April as National Arab American Heritage Month. However, this does not include the diversity within the region and excludes the cultures that do not speak Arabic, so there is a movement to instead recognize the month as National Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) History Month.

Culture, heritage, country of origin, and more impact how we live, how we experience things, and our perspectives. It is essential to recognize these differences to better love, understand and appreciate each other. The Bible celebrates diversity, and God asks us to love and embrace all nations. This requires humility and curiosity to understand our differences such that we can better understand each other's experiences and then ourselves experience biblical unity in Christ. 

Matt 28:18-20 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

As the United States celebrates National Middle Eastern & North African History Month, we encourage everyone to get to know more about their MENA neighbors, coworkers, and friends. 

Today specifically is the end of the Persian New Year celebration called Nowruz, and it marks the beginning of the Iranian official solar calendar. It is a two-week celebration filled with food, family, and friendship. Therefore, we wish our Persian friends a very happy Persian New Year! 

Some of the sisters have been meeting once a month to have a breakfast and an opportunity for fellowship!

This month the monthly breakfast will be on Saturday, April 30, at Katy's Kreek in Walnut Creek and all women are invited to join!  

So that there is enough room we are asking that all who would like to attend RSVP in advance by April 17. Please email Liz Mbachu if you would like to attend at bekindtodaytomorrowalways@gmail.com.

For April-June of 2022, we will be on Zoom for a midweek series called "Six Hard Passages in the Bible - What They Might Mean and What We Might Learn from Them." We are going to explore six passages in the Bible that are either wrongly interpreted or wrongly used.  We will explore some of the deeper things of who God is and continue to develop our own Theology.

Please join us for our kickoff on Zoom this Wednesday, April 6 @ 7:30 pm, as we reflect on how our past sessions went and we learn more about our upcoming session on Zoom.

We hope you can join us on our journey of greater biblical understanding and spiritual growth!

We have some great opportunities to serve this month thru Hope Worldwide Bay Area Chapter. Please sign up and join us as we have fun serving and encouraging each other.