I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
John 8:12
October, 2009
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Y’all
Come!
A word from the Pastor
Dear church family,
Greetings in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Janet and I are going to be grandparents again!
Our lovely daughter Laura and her husband, Rev. Chris Moyer are
expecting a little addition in April.
We are so excited.
Praise the Lord. We have
already seen several sonogram pictures of the baby.
He/she has 2 arms, 2 legs, and 1 head; so far so good!
Psalm 139:13-17 NIV says:
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's
womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are
wonderful, I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were
written in your book before one of them came to be.
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of
them!
I hope we never get over the wonder of a new life
coming into the world, made in the image of God.
The more science discovers and the deeper we are able to look,
the more we should be in awe of our creator God.
Then to think that this God has revealed Himself to us and that
He loves us. In fact He is
especially fond of YOU.
He actually desires to fellowship with you.
He wants you to spend time with Him.
He delights in you.
In the next few weeks we will be studying the
epistles of John. The theme
of 1 John is “fellowship”, in Greek the word is KOINONIA.
KOINONIA is the expression of genuine Christianity among the
members of God’s family. We
have so much that we share in common because we have been born again.
Let’s start to enjoy our spiritual family.
John says, “we proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so
that you also may have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the
Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.
We write this to make our joy complete” (1 John 1:3,4 NIV).
My prayer is that we will come to truly enjoy our
fellowship together.
Your fellow laborer with Christ.
Dr.
Stephen D. Hokuf
Fall Festival’s primary focus will be OUTREACH
Greetings in the precious name of Jesus.
It’s time to gear up once again for our Family Fall Festival!
This outreach will be on Saturday, October 3, 2009, 11am to 4pm.
This year we have changed the entire event to a Motorcycle Rally
to benefit Operation Christmas Child.
We will be collecting filled shoe boxes and items for the boxes
from the bikers on this day.
We’ll also have a couple of new activities.
Our special guest speaker is John Cook (see page 5
for information on Cook). We will have games, music, a silent auction,
door prizes and so much more.
God has truly blessed us this year since it looked
as if The Festival wasn’t even going to happen at all.
I personally have seen the power of the Holy Spirit in so many
ways in the past month or preparation for The Festival.
The response from the church family and the community has been
tremendous.
I would love to share some testimony with you all
after The Rally and The Festival about the things God has done and the
people and places he has sent me to recently.
God gets all the glory in this ministry.
I would also like to add that ALL the monies from
the event will go directly to Operation Christmas Child.
We will start next year with a zero balance.
Please pray in the days to come for God’s continued blessing,
great weather the day of The Festival, and that souls may come to Christ
through this outreach ministry.
I’ll write a re-cap of
The Festival in the next issue to let you all know how it all
went. May God richly bless
and keep you.
Love in Christ,
Mr. Phil
(Phil Meekins)
P.S. We have a
slip sheet in Sunday bulletins that lists many different areas of
donations and/or needs.
Please pick one up
and fill it out and place it in the offering plate.
Orders and money for mums are due. Sun., Sept. 27.
Our Maryland/Delaware State
Missions Goal:
Our church
goal:
$900
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$Budget time is approaching!
We are approaching that time of year again—time to begin discussing the
church’s budget for 2010.
If you are a leader of a ministry in the church, you will receive a “budget
request letter.” The Finance
Committee would like you to write down your plans for your ministry for
2010 and how much you would like the church to budget for your ministry.
All budget requests are due into the church office.
The Finance Committee will be reviewing all the
requests and will prepare a proposed budget for 2010.
The proposed 2010 budget will be available for the church members to review.
The proposed 2010 budget will be discussed at the Business Meeting.
Any changes to the proposed budget
will be voted on at this Business Meeting.
This is YOUR opportunity to ask questions and suggest changes to
the
proposal.
The 2010 proposed church budget will be voted on at a special Business
meeting after Sunday worship.
Recycle to benefit others
We have a few people from our church who are helping to recycle some items.
They invite you to help.
It will not cost you a penny.
The proceeds/equipment will all go to those less fortunate.
Here’s the ladies to contact if you’d like more information along
with a description of the items in need.
Wendy Clough—has put out receptacles for aluminum can pop tabs.
These go to help with kidney dialysis/research.
Kate Galyen—has a receptacle in the library for all types of plastic
lids from sodas, food products i.e. peanut butter, milk bottles,
etc. These will help provide
chemotherapy for cancer patients who
cannot afford it. ALL
those lids we take to the landfill remain there.
They are NOT recycled according to Kate.
Jane Brandenburg—works with Joni and Friends Wheels for the World.
Items i.e. manual wheelchairs/parts, aluminum canes,
crutches, walkers, etc. are received at the church.
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Who is John COOK?
John Cook will be
our guest speaker during the Family Fall Festival on Saturday, October 3
(about 1pm or so) and on Sunday, October 4 at our 8:30 & 11am
& 6pm services. A love
offering will be received for Cook.
John’s wife, Dee, will be here as well.
Here’s some highlights of Cook’s life:
Founder/Director of Indigenous Ministries International (IMI), ministry
with a focus on educating, mentoring and partnering with Indigenous
pastors in church planting, primarily in
31
years of ministry experience in youth, churches and missions
Passion for God’s people and work both in the
Raised
in the
Has a
deep love for cultures
Has
served as pastor, church planter and missionary
Has a
natural gift of bringing people together in the ministry harvest
Double
Masters in Biblical Theology and working on a Doctorate
He
brings a unique mixture of biblical knowledge with a passion and
excitement to share the Bible and bring it to life to his audiences as
he speaks throughout the
John
and his wife of 31 years, Dee, live in north
New Members Class
Sat., Oct. 24
10am-12:30pm
If you are a new church member or interested in becoming a member of First
Baptist this 1-day class will be very beneficial.
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Operation Christmas Child
14th Year to Pack Boxes of
Love
by Nancy Hudler
Two thousand nine (2009) marks the fourteenth (14th) year that
First Baptist Church of North East has participated in Operation
Christmas Child. Twelve of
those years we’ve served as a
Our shoe box dedication will be Sunday, November 15th.
Bring your filled shoe boxes at that time for a special prayer of
dedication.
Our
Mon., Nov. 16-Sat., Nov. 21,
10am-4pm
Sun., Nov. 22, 1-6pm
We will have some decorated shoe boxes available for you to fill, or you can
use your own. Be sure to
wrap the lid separately from the bottom of the shoe box.
Plastic shoe boxes can also be used.
Just make sure that it is not a rigid plastic but flexible like
Sterlite or Rubbermaid.
If you would like to volunteer for the
Don’t forget to pray for the child, or children that will be receiving your
box/es, and may the Lord richly bless you!
How to
pack a shoe box:
1.
SHOE BOX
Use an empty shoe box (standard size, please) or a small plastic container.
You can wrap the box (lid separately), but wrapping is not required.
Most importantly, pray for the child who will receive your gift.
2. BOY
OR GIRL?
Determine whether your gift will be for a boy or a girl, and the child’s age
category: 2-4, 5-9, or 10-14.
Mark the correct age category on a label, and tape the label to
the top of your box.
(We’ll have extra labels if needed.)
3.
FILL WITH GIFTS
Fill the box with a variety of gifts that will bring delight to a child
4. INCLUDE YOUR DONATION
Please donate $7 or more for each shoe box you prepare to help cover
shipping and other project costs. You can give online
(www.samaritanspurse.org) by using the EZGIVE option, or you can write a
check to “Samaritan’s Purse” (note “OCC” on memo line) and place it in
an envelope on top of the gift items inside your box. If you or your
family are preparing more than one shoe box, please make one combined
donation.
5.
DROP OFF
Place a rubber band around each closed shoe box and drop off at the
DVD
Showing: EPICENTER
Sun Oct
18, 6pm
Are We Living in the Last Days?
Islamic leaders say end of the world is near
Jewish
leaders plan
Evangelical leaders say Bible prophecies coming true
EPICENTER
WHY THE CURRENT RUMBLINS IN THE MIDDLE EAST WILL CHANGE
OUR FUTURE is a
one-hour documentary with over two hours of in-depth special features,
including exclusive interviews with:
Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli prime minister
Natan Sharansky, former Israeli deputy prime minister
Tim LaHaye, author of the Left Behind Series
Church Smith, senior pastor, Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa
Greg Laurie, senior pastor, Harvest Christian Fellowship
Joel C. Rosenberg, author and founder of the Joshua Fund
Leading Iranian dissidents
Are we living in
the last days? Come on
Sunday, October 18 @ 6pm to find out what the experts say.
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TeamKid Club balances learning activities
The season opener for this year’s TeamKid club was Wednesday, September
16th. The location is
downstairs at
What makes TeamKid unique is the way it balances high-energy activities and
games with high-impact Bible lesson, scripture memorization and life
application. TeamKid
includes a mission emphasis in every meeting and utilizes a recognition
program that rewards kids for their accomplishments.
Billy Graham’s Prayer For Our Country
Heavenly Father, we come
before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and
guidance. We know Your Word
says, “Woe to those who call evil good,” but that is exactly what we
have done. We have lost our
spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.
We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
We have shot abortionist and called it justifiable.
We have neglected to discipline our children and called it
building self esteem. We
have abused power and called it politics.
We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it
ambition. We have polluted
the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of
expression. We have
ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it
enlightenment. Search us, Oh
God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us
free.
Amen!