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
The Lamplighter
September, 2011
People are yearning for hope
Dear Co-Laborers,
In so many ways there is a new day dawning in Maryland and
Delaware. It is a new day
fraught with concerns stresses, even dangers.
It also represents the single greatest era of opportunity we have
ever known as Maryland/Delaware Baptists.
People are yearning for hope.
Our neighbors want something authentic that works.
Young men and women want something or someone to make sense out
of all that is happening around us at such a record pace.
Maryland/Delaware Baptists know the answer is Jesus.
We are committed to
reaching Maryland/Delaware and the world for Jesus Christ.
Now is the time to raise that commitment to the next level.
Now is the time to dream new dreams.
It is time to be bold even as storm clouds gather.
In the midst of it all we know that the Son shines! . . .
Week of Prayer
for State
Missions
September 11-18
Church goal:
$500
Statewide Goal:
$215,000
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This could change everything
During the next couple months, you’ll be hearing the term,
“Transformational Church”
quite often.
According to authors, Ed Stetzer and Thom S. Rainer, of the book
Transformational Church:
Transformational
Churches make disciples whose lives are being transformed by the gospel,
so that the culture around them is ultimately transformed:
Transformational Churches are deeply committed to the essential
foundations of discipleship:
worship, community, and mission.
They practice and make disciples through vibrant leadership,
prayerful dependence, and relational intentionality—in their context
with a missionary mindset.
Simply put, Transformational Churches know, understand, and are
deeply in love with their cities, communities, and people.
We’ll be having six Transformation Churches videos on Sunday
nights starting September 18, 6pm.
JOIN US!
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Mosquitoes
didn’t deter our mission team
Greetings from Canada,
We were all given a very warm welcome as we arrived in Canada,
after a long 45 minute wait at the border.
(You’ll have to ask the man with the beady eyes about that one.)
Praise God for good drivers and a GPS.
The drivers did a great job taking us directly to the camp.
We
were happily greeted by a very thankful Arabic congregation; and, we
were swarmed by some very unwelcome guests—MOSQUITOES!.
Satan has all kinds of devices to thwart God’s work, even
mosquitoes. But, we didn’t
let that stop us from the job we went to do—minister to 24 young boys
and girls. I can tell you we
learned a lot more about ourselves than they may have learned.
God truly blessed me with a great team this year as in years
past. I gave each team
member a task and they took it and went with it.
They all made my job easy.
Sherlen
Bingham was our music leader.
I knew anyone that loves music and kids was a good combination.
The children loved the new VBS rap songs.
Thank you, Sherlen, for a great job.
When we heard the kids sing for their parents we knew they were
blessed as we were.
David and Heather Bibey, father and daughter team, had the greatest
challenge—games. I hope
David has shared all the challenges he and Heather had.
“Organizing” (I use this term loosely) the boys and girls into
“teams” was a big challenge in itself.
One of the main reasons I took on this mission was, first, I wanted to
go back to see all the friends we have made through the six years of
ministry. Since our last
mission trip, the five-year-olds were eight now and the 13-year- olds
were 16. “WOW!”
They not only grew taller; but, they were all growing in the
Lord.
Second, I wanted to introduce my new husband, Jim Adkins, to the
mission ministry. It was his
first journey to Canada, first mission trip and first time working with
international kids. He
wasn’t too sure what he could do to help; but, God is so good.
We had one young man, Anthony, and it was his first time at camp
and first time being with other boys and girls.
He decided he didn’t want to do either.
He kept wandering off.
So who had “Anthony patrol?”
Mr. Jim! Jim not only
had one on one with Anthony; but, he became “Mr. Jim, the bug man.”
because he carried the bug spray.
We truly couldn’t have done it without him.
I loved introducing him to my friends in Canada.
Many of them are widows; they were so happy for both of us.
Brock Bingham took on a last minute assignment as the older youth
leader. I told him if he
could keep their attention for 30 minutes he was a success. They
challenged him with lots of questions.
I praise God Brock came along.
I know all the parents were thankful, too.
This year we were invited to their talent show night.
We got to hear them sing praises in Arabic; and, we tried to play
some game shows (all in Arabic).
I now know a “talent” is 75 pounds, sure wish I knew that then.
God tells us we are blessed so that we can bless others.
Once again we came home more blessed than they.
Brock and Sherlen had to leave early.
Jim, David, Heather, and I ended our trip by spending an
afternoon and night with two families from the church.
Lela, a wonderful friend, took us on a bird’s eye view of Ottawa
and Quebec. It was nice to
sit back and enjoy the Ottawa Parliament Building and the other sights.
Then we went to the homes of Lena and Souhail where we enjoyed
fellowshipping and snacking; but, we were all ready for a good night’s
sleep as we were to head back to the States the next day.
Lena prepared us a Lebanese breakfast.
Everything was so good (But, the string cheese sure played havoc
with our blood pressure.).
After a sad farewell we said goodbye to our friends praying the Lord
would give us an opportunity to see them again, if not here, then in
heaven—where we’ll finally understand all their beautiful Arabic singing
and praising God.
Thank you church family for your prayers and financial
support. Praise God, the
big, red, church van brought us home safely.
In
Christ’s service,
Patricia Culver Adkins
“But
thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal
procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him
everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those
who are being saved and those who are perishing.”
—2
Corinthians 2:14-15
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TEAMKIDS CLUB
STARTS Wed SEP 21
6:30-8pm
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Fall
REVIVAL
coming in October
Richard COSS
with Tim Lambert
OCT
9-12
Sun—8:30 & 11am & 7pm
&
7 pm nightly
Block Party, Sat OCT 8, 10am-2pm
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