Joven served as a pastor and educator in the Church of the Nazarene in the Philippines for over 20 years. Prior to immigrating to the United States, he served as the president of Luzon Nazarene Bible College, Philippines for 3 1/2 years. Two years before his appointment to the college leadership, he and his wife were appointed as specialized assignment missionaries at the Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary in Manila where he served as a professor of pastoral ministry and Christian education, and Dean of Students. Rev. Laroyas finished a Doctor of Philosophy in Education at Saint Louis University, Philippines, and Master of Divinity at the Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary in Manila.

Imelda Laroyas served as a nurse and teacher for over 10 years at the Luzon Nazarene Bible College and 2 years at Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary. She is also a licensed minister of the Church of the Nazarene.

Joven and Imelda are blessed by God with three children. Joshua, 19 years-old, is in his 3rd year of college. Jonathan, 18 years-old, is in his 2nd year of college and Jovy Melody, 17 years-old, is in her 1st year of college.

"My family appreciates your every effort and show of concern to help us become settled in our new ministry assignment. Our first Sunday worship service last April 3, 2005 has revved up our desire to put more efforts to minister among Filipinos in the San Jose area."

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Nazarenes join Global Day of Prayer Pentecost Sunday

The Board of General Superintendents is calling the Church of the Nazarene to join with other denominations around the world in a concerted prayer effort through the Global Day of Prayer on Pentecost Sunday, May 15, 2005.

Under the auspices of the International Prayer Council, the planning for this outpouring of prayer involves leaders from all 6 continents and currently includes more than 240 countries around the globe. On May 15, Christians will begin praying as the sun rises in the East in New Zealand and pray through the different time zones until the sun sets in the West in the United States.

The Global Day of Prayer is the culmination of a five-year process that began in Cape Town, South Africa in 2001 with 45,000 Christians joining in a Day of Repentance and Prayer. The movement spread to 8 locations in South Africa in 2002, 27 countries across Africa in 2003, and the entire continent of Africa in 2004. To date, more than 22 million people have participated. At the recent Lausanne Conference for World Evangelism, plans for the 2005 Global Day of Prayer were presented to more than 1,700 Christian leaders.

Nazarenes everywhere are urged to take advantage of available resources to plan, promote, and conduct the Global Day of Prayer in local churches and communities around the world. Free downloadable resources, manuals, and prayer guides ranging in topics from how to pray for one hour to how to organize a stadium event are available. In addition to the Global Day of Prayer on May 15, guides are available to plan Ten Days of Prayer Toward a Greater Pentecost (May 6-15) and 90 Days of Blessing (May 16-September 30). To access these and other resources, visit the Global Day of Prayer web site at www.globaldayofprayer.com.

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Long Term Care Insurance Primer

by Dr. Terry L. Irish, Sunnyvale

While helping my mom, I recently learned some hard lessons about Long Term Care Insurance (LTC) and hope that, by sharing what I know, you will not have to struggle when you are in need of LTC.

1. I recommend that people check out the proposed LTC insurance provider carefully before signing on the dotted line. There are some very good companies, and there are some others, like the one my Mom has - Life Investors Insurance Company of America (merged with Banker's United Life Insurance Company) - which are very difficult to deal with.

In the process of preparing to move my Mom from her home of 45-plus years, I hired a Geriatric Care Specialist to assist me. This lady gave me a lot of excellent help with case management, placement location and evaluation, etc. (She is the one who told me up front that Banker's Life is a very difficult company to deal with.)

2. Any LTC policy worth the paper it is written on should offer at least these three options:

#1 Benefit Increase Option -- This option increases the face value of the LTC policy by a fixed percentage every year the policy is in effect. Thus, a policy that starts with a face value of $120,000.00 with an increased benefit option rate of 5% a year will increase the face value to more than $200,000.00 over a period of ten to twelve years. In addition to providing the insured a much higher maximum coverage limit, this option also increases the maximum daily benefit. For example, the starting benefit of $80.00 per day at an approved facility would grow to above $120.00 per day in ten to twelve years. This increased amount will help mitigate inflation and cost of living increases over the life of the policy.

#2 Upgrade Option - The policy should also provide for periods of time in which the insured can add additional options to their coverage (each added option at the price of an increase in premium, of course). For example, an LTC policy which is limited to Nursing Homes where 24/7 skilled nursing is required might offer the added option of including Assisted Living communities as covered facilities. In my Mom's case, since she was offered this option twice, but did not accept this it, her present assisted living community is being paid totally out of her limited income. Life Investors has refused her claim, and are not paying anything for Mom's care at the present time. If and when Mom moves into a skilled nursing facility, then I am hopeful that Life Investor's will approve Mom's claim for benefits.

#3 Premium Return Option -- It is possible, in some tragic and unforeseen cases, for the insured to die before any benefits from a LTC policy have been paid out. If this happens, the insurance company keeps all the premiums paid into the policy, and all the benefits that were connected with this policy are lost. If, however, you have this option in the policy, all premiums paid by the insured will be returned to the surviving spouse or heirs, or placed in the estate of the deceased. In the case where a policy had been in effect for ten to twenty years, and yet no claims were paid out on the policy for either assisted living or skilled nursing facilities, this Premium Return Option could amount to tens of thousands of dollars for the heirs and/or surviving spouse.

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Single Adult Retreat

SoloCon is a gathering of single adults supported by The Church of theNazarene Sunday School Ministries. This year's SoloCon West takes place on Memorial Day weekend at PineSummit Camp in Big Bear Lake. This year's speaker will be Dr. Harold Ivan Smith, a very well known andinspirational speaker. The weekendwill include workshops, devotional times, as well as outdoor activities andfellowship opportunities. Theweekend is geared toward all single adults-the never married, divorced, andwidowed. For more information orregistration forms, you can visit the SoloCon website at www.solocon.org.

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Kidz Corner

by Gerry Hauser, Castro Valley

Josiah Hoi from our Cupertino Church will be representing our District in Children's Quizzing at the General SS Convention. Yeah! Josiah!!!

Nazkids Roundup

May 27-28. The cost is $65.00, (after May 1 the cost will be $75.00). We'll be meeting at Redwood Glen in Scott's Valley, CA.

* I am still looking for staff. Please respond before May 15. The first 30 adults volunteering as staff will not have to pay.

* There is still room for kids. Bring a counselor for every 7 boys or girls you bring.

Be sure to let me know what you're planning!

Phone: 510-357-5035

Fax: 510-357-6410

Email: gh4nazkids@aol.com

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King of the Jungle

by Rev. Tim King, Salinas

Does your church need musicians??? Start investing now!

Be part of a Musical Drama titled "King of the Jungle."

Castro Valley is running a Music Day Camp for kids in the Castro Valley Community. There are 50 available opening for kids across the Norcal District. Contact the Castro Valley Church for details (Phone: 510.581.8377).

Pre-Registration is $30 - which includes music (CD and Book). The cost for district participants would be $120.00 which includes all meals, housing (in church family homes), afternoon and evening outings, chapels, etc.

Probable list of activities:

* Choir rehearsals

* Piano classes

* Guitar classes

* Percussion classes +

* Drama classes

* Crafts

* Chapel

* Swimming (Cull Canyon)

* Miniature Golf

* Picnics at the lake

The Musical will be performed on Saturday, August 6th at 10:30 with a Family Barbecue afterward.

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The Importance of Connecting

by Robin Wagganer, Editor

Several years ago I attended a variety of Churches in my area. One that I attended is a large community Church that has a lovely building and always had signs out front announcing some new activity. I used a pew card to write down my information as a visitor and dropped it in the collection plate.

The following week I received a call from a lady who attended the Church. While the actual conversation lasted several minutes, part of our conversation went something like this:

She: I hope you enjoyed the Service on Sunday. Did you attend the first service or the second service?

Me: Second service.

She: Did you also attend any of our Sunday School classes?

Me: No, I just came for Church.

She: May I tell you about some of our Sunday School classes now? I can tell you how to get to the right classroom for those that sound most interesting to you.

Me: Not right now, thanks.

She: Are you a new Christian? We have a class starting soon for new Christians.

Me: No, I was raised in Church. I’ve been a Christian for quite some time.

She: I’ll be staffing the Information Desk next week. Be sure to ask for me so I can meet you in person. I attend the first service and staff the Information Desk during second service.

Me: Thank you. I’ll be sure to stop by to meet you.

She: Thank you for your time. I’ll watch for you on Sunday. Have a nice week.

Nice lady, right? She asked lots of great questions, engaged me, learned about me, and offered to make my transition to their congregation much easier.

However, this was not my only call from that Church. For one month after my first attendance, I received eight calls from different people. None were from the Pastoral staff, which I thought was interesting. Unfortunately, these people received my contact details but apparently did not recieve any of my comments from the first call. One call invited me to the new Christians class, another wanted to make sure I knew about the new Christians class, and a third called to let me know the location of the new Christians’ class. (sigh)

When I visited several Nazarene Churches in my area, I was surprised at the importance of signing the guest book. One lady followed me out after service to make sure I signed theirs. At another it was the Pastor who escorted me to sign. I attended two other Nazarene Churches, both of which made a big deal of my signing the guest book. None of the Churches followed up with me. No calls. No mailings. Nothing.

The aggressive approach only ocurred at one Nazarene Church when a lady approached me after service and, within 5 minutes, asked if I would be interested in taking over the leadership of their Women’s Group.

As a professional event planner, I’ve learned that, of the millions of leads collected at trade shows every year, only 3% are contacted. None of the 5 Nazarene Churches contacted me. But the community Church did not handle it any better since I was put off by their aggressive approach.

I’m not sure what the answer is, I’m just offering some observations. We need to allow people to come to us in their own way. When visitors attend, we have to make it easy for them, find a connection and pursue the relationship. But we should not go after them like hungry sharks. Most important, we must follow-up. It’s better to make some contact than none at all.

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