Friday, December 25, 2009

What's Christmas All About, Anyway?

by Ruth Bell Graham

This is the Christmas season--a time for giving and receiving gifts. And for weeks now you have probably been working on your gift list and shopping, shopping, shopping.

But in this final rush before Christmas perhaps you don't care anymore. Perhaps love is dead. Or your children are beyond your influence. Or you have no children.

Perhaps something has happened, and now you find no joy or meaning to your life anymore. Perhaps the most you look for is some temporary form of escape. Maybe you can't give anything. There's nothing left to give. Or there's no one left to give to.

Listen! What's Christmas all about anyway? Wasn't there a death, an emptiness, a need? Wasn't there a Love somewhere--infinite, eternal, unchangeable--a Love that gave His only Son away?

That's what Christmas is all about: God coming to earth in the Person of the Christ Child to do for you and for me what we cannot possibly do for ourselves.

Jesus lived among us and had the same kinds of problems that we do. You haven't a problem--and I haven't a problem--that He doesn't understand from close personal experience. He spent His entire life meeting human needs. He died on the cross to deal once and for all with our greatest need--the sin problem.

Just before ascending to heaven, the risen Christ gave this glorious promise: "I am with you always" (Matthew 28:20). That's what Christmas is all about.

While Jesus was here on earth, He invited people to come to Him: tired people, bad people, good people, bewildered people, laborers, revolutionaries, cheats, bigots ... it is the Invitation of the Ages.

Just as people went to Jesus 2,000 years ago, today we still come to Jesus that same way: just as we are. Our only credentials: our need.

This Christmas, God is asking you to come to Him. You with your failures, your sins, your problems, your fears. You. This is Christmas. Redemption's glorious exchange of gifts!

God is loving, searching, giving Himself-- to us. People are needing, finding, giving ourselves to God. This is the meaning of Christmas. This is the wonder and the glory of it all.

You can come to God this Christmas, or anytime, by praying a simple prayer like this:

Dear God, I confess to You the emptiness in my heart, the selfishness of my thoughts, the fear in my spirit, and the sinfulness in my life. I'm so sorry. I know it was for me--and because of me--that Jesus died. Please forgive me of all my sins. Thank You for Jesus, who accepts me as I am. I come to You now, ready to spend eternity in heaven with You. Thank You for giving me Jesus! Amen

Saturday, November 21, 2009


Join the fun and the opportunity to help the ministry of Gateway

Cranford Alliance Church will hold their annual
Missions Auction on December 4th.

Call Gateway Board member Betty Mabee
@ 908-276-8242 for further details

Wednesday, November 4, 2009




" Chastity is the only way before marriage "






Check out the 3:49 video clip on Tangle (God Tube)

http://www.tangle.com/view_video?viewkey=91fd34ded81daca26507

Osceola Presbyterian Church youth group presentation, Tuesday November 3, 2009













Thanks to Stacey Decastro and her sister Jennifer for sharing
their testimonies on the positive effects of abstaining until marriage.


Stacey, age 19, shared that although it's difficult, abstaining is worth it.

Jennifer, 21, is engaged. She shared with the Jr. and Sr. High youth that it is well worth the wait because she wants to obey God.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Please pray!

Would you keep the following in prayer?

Joan Vitale, our Elizabeth director asks prayer for her mom who has a pancreatic problem. The doctor has said it could be either a stones blockage or pancreatic cancer. She will have tests done this day. Joan shares this verse - Jeremiah 33:3: 'Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.'

Fran Drenth's mom went to be with the Lord last night. Fran (sonographer) and her husband Dave (male counselor) faithfully served in Elizabeth.

Sunday, October 18, 2009


We praise the Lord for a great banquet last night.


254 people helped raise the 2nd highest total in Gateway history!

















In 2000 when
469 attended our banquet with Elisabeth Elliot, Gateway raised $44,000 (after expenses).

This year Gateway raised $34,500 (after expenses) with a crowd almost half the size! Praise the Lord!.

Six people accepted our $1,000 challenge.


Thank you for all who greatly helped make this a success, especially Dr. Alveda King, the Westbrook's, Dorothy Booker, Joan Vitale, Ursula Berty and our wonderful table captains.

Further details will follow in our newsletter and on the Blog.

Blessings in Him, Dean

(More on the banquet along with photos to follow)

'Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.' Ephesians 3:20-21

Friday, October 9, 2009

Gateway's 24 Annual Banquet
Friday October 16, 2009 7:00-9:00pm

The Kenilworth Inn, Kenilworth, NJ - click on left for directions

Special guest: Dr. Alveda King
(niece of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr)


Listen in to the 14 minute radio interview with Dr. Alveda King and Gateway director Dean Gavaris on WAWZ 99.1fm, broadcast Sunday October 11, 2009 at 6:30am on "Profiles"



George Flores, Johnny Stone and Dean@ the taping
-----------------------------------------------------------

STAR 99.1 salutes Gateway Pregnancy Centers


as Ministry of the Week!

http://www.star991fm.com/whats_happening/MOW/GatewayPreg.html

Gateway mentioned on Alveda's Blog:
http://www.priestsforlife.org/africanamerican/blog/?p=263

Print out these promotionals

1. Banquet brochure
2009 Banquet Invitation

2. Banquet poster for your church
Banquet 2009 Poster
3. Complimentary guestlist
Guest List For Banquet 2009
4.Table captain responsibilities
Table Captain Cover Letter 2009
Pastors Breakfast Invitation 2009
Directions to Evangel Baptist Church


Background information on Dr. Alveda King


ATLANTA, Aug. 28 /Christian Newswire/ -- On this, the 45th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, Priests for Life Pastoral Associate Dr. Alveda King released the following statement:

"Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a man of God, a man of great compassion, and a man of non-violence, once said, 'The Negro cannot win as long as he is willing to sacrifice the lives of his children for comfort and safety.' I know in my heart that if Uncle Martin were alive today, he would join with me in the greatest civil rights struggle of this generation – the recognition of the unborn child's basic right to life.

"My uncle Martin would agree that we cannot end poverty, hunger, or suffering by killing those who might suffer. We cannot claim to guarantee equal rights if we deny the rights of the helpless. And we cannot feign ignorance of the fact that those who are torn apart, crushed, or left to die on an abortionist's table are just as human as we are.

"My uncle said that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. There is injustice in our land. We have turned being unwanted into a crime penalized by death. Today, I echo the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. – let freedom ring. From every mountain top, let freedom ring for all Americans, wanted and unwanted, born and unborn."

Dr. Alveda King Biography –

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alveda%5FKing



http://uanews.ua.edu/sep01/civrights091301.htm



Books by Dr. Alveda King

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/103-7912242-4035845?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=alveda+king&x=0&y=0


Born again

http://www.priestsforlife.org/clippings/2006/06-11-12-alveda-king.htm


http://www.courierpress.com/news/2006/Nov/14/alveda-king-tells-her-story/



Iowa School Defends Decision to Cancel Alveda King's Pro-Life Speech Sept. 2007 –

http://www.lifenews.com/state2517.html



Planned Parenthhod’s use of MLK
- http://www.blackvoices.com/blogs/2008/03/04/dr-alveda-king-to-planned-parenthood-stop-using-my-family/


Racist – genocidal aspects of abortion - http://www.onenewsnow.com/Printer.aspx?id=68669


Silent No More Campaign - http://www.silentnomoreawareness.org/testimonies/alveda-king.html

Supreme Court testimony (January 22, 2008) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzTsrMTmRcY


Video Testimony – ‘sacrificing future for immediate personal freedom’ – testimony –

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KHw84TuT04


Video by Dr. King:

How can the Dream Survive?

http://www.priestsforlife.org/video/alvedappt/


CBN Interview

http://www.cbn.com/media/player/index.aspx?s=/vod/AlvedaKing_081409_WS






Banquet 2023 ALL DETAILS

  On the night of the banquet, we will be updating our supporters about Mission England 2024 view here the promo video directly from the UK ...