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Good morning, Church. My name is Kelsey Zarko, and I get to serve here in Little Village,

as well as serve as a small group leader with Blue Haven Ranch.

And our passage I'm reading today is Acts 1-11.

In the first book, Otheophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do in

teaching, until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit

to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many

proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem,

but to wait for the promise of the Father, which he said,

you heard from me for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit,

not many days from now. So when they had come together, they asked him,

Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them,

it is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority,

but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and he will be my witnesses

in Jerusalem and in Al Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And when he had said these

things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight.

And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes

and said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken away from

you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven. This is the Word of the Lord.

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