[newsletter] Newsletter 08/16/06

BC NEWS --Volume 11                                                                                                  Issue 28

August 16, 2006

 

To my family in Christ,

 

                May God allow me to minister to you as I am able through His Word and his world and to encourage all of you in the faith. As this is the month when we send students back to college, I come to you to humbly ask prayer for all of our students, including me. 

               

                Pray for humility and wisdom.  Ask God to bless those who are pursuing an education.  Ecclesiastes 4:13: says “Better was a poor and wise youth than an old and foolish king who no longer knew how to take advice.”  Ask Him to help us use our education to know and serve him better.

                Pray for trusting faithfulness.  God is continuously working in our lives whether we see it or not.  Pray that he will give us the faithfulness to continue to pursue him even if he seems silent or the task is hard.  Pray specifically for parents as they give their children into the Lord’s hands at college.

                Pray for protection.  Ask God to guard our hearts and our minds that they be His alone, so that we may be rooted and grounded in Him.  John 17:11b “Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.”

                Pray for suffering.  Hebrews 2:10 “For it was fitting that he [Jesus], for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.”  If Christ, who is God, was made as a perfect sacrifice in suffering, we also, being made to be like Christ, should suffer what would bring us toward perfection in Christ.

                 Pray for God’s glory to be shown.  Ask the Lord to use us to bring the lost to him, as is commanded in Matthew 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.  And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

                Pray for strength and Love.  College is a definitive period for young Christ-followers, so many temptations are presented at this time.  Ask God to fortify his children so that they may know and love him.  Love for God gives us all motivation we need to serve Him, Love for His creation and people gives us all the motivation we need to serve others, and it gives us fulfilment.  Ephesians3:14-19: “...For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with the power through his Spirit in your inner being that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ that surpasses Knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

 

                Thank you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, for being warriors and servants in prayer, loving God through a relationship with him anchored by prayer, and serving others by interceding for us.  May God bless you and keep you,

Love,

Noelle Shelley

 

 

What’s Happening?

 

This Sunday

August 20 Rob Crust will be our speaker in the morning worship service.

 

August-September Classes

Romans, with Harold Bettger

Dust of the Rabbi, with Dean & Naomi

                Tuttle

Cross-Centered Life, with David Hunt

                & Greg Mohrman

Discipleship, with

                Bill Willcutts & David Shelley

Galatians, with Denise Blevins

Two Ways to Live, with Rob Crust

Middle School: Foundations of Christian

                Faith, with Daniel Clark

 

Prayer Group Meeting

On Wed. Sept. 23 from 6:30-8 p.m. a group of people will be specifically praying for our teachers as school begins.  Join us!  Contact Joe Bouchard for information.

 

Kool Kid Klub leaders:  Don’t forget the 2 upcoming meetings at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 30 and Sept. 6!

 

Pray . . .

For drought relief.

 

For the Lord to raise up team members for

these Children’s Ministries over the next month:

                Sunday School (Praise Factory)

                Children’s Church

                Early Childhood Ministry

                Kids’ Club

 

For those in medical recovery: Betty Arvas, Denise Blevins, Tim Sharp, Noel Shelley, Bob Staley, Joan Worthington.

 

Pray for Staley’s as they travel to CA for the birth of their new grandson. For the Shelley’s as they take Noelle to college.

 

For progress in the building project.

 

 

 

Week-end worship attendance……………...182

 Special funds…..…………..…….……….$245

 Weekly budget needed………………….$7,553

Giving towards budget…………..………$4,985

YTD giving toward budget……….…..$200,717

YTD expenses…………………….…..$206,808

YTD budgeted amount…………….…$249,249

Next level giving…………..…..……….......$20

Next Level TD….....…...……………..$178,446

Coming Events . . .

Aug. 26     4^th Annual Nursery Cleaning Party, Saturday,  8:30-2:30

Aug. 30     6:30-8:00 p.m. Kool Kids Klub Leaders Meeting

Sept. 6       6:30-8:00 p.m.  Kool Kids Klub Leaders Meeting

Sept. 7       9:30  am.  Women’s Thursday Morning Bible Study begins

Sept. 10     2:30 p.m. Baby Shower for Brooke Warkentin

Sept. 13      Family Night begins

Sept. 24     10:30 a.m. Members meeting

 

Children’s Ministry News:

 

                                        4^th Annual Nursery Cleaning Party,

                       Sat. Aug. 26,     8:30-2:30 p.m.

Children & families would appreciate your help in

washing the toys from the nursery.  Please sign up in the foyer or in the bulletin insert for a two hour slot that works best for you.  Child care, breakfast, snacks, & lunch will be provided for all nursery cleaning volunteers.  Call Christy Aldridge, Early Childhood Development Coordinator, at 356-5858 if you have any questions.

 

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Nursery News

* We are in need of two rotating Sunday School teachers at 10:30 for the Toddler Nursery.  The commitment would be two Sundays a month for each volunteer.

* We are also in need of an Infant Nursery Care Attendant during the 9:00 church service.  This is a paid position for the last two Sundays of each month.

→ Please contact Christy Aldridge at 356-5858 if you are interested. 

 

***We are in  need of a volunteer to the the VIPP for our Kool Kids Programs every other week.  Please contact Kristi if you are interested.

***Don’t forget the 2 scheduled leader/volunteer meetings on Aug. 20 and Sept 6 from 6:30-8 p.m.  We need you there!

 

Weekly Praise Factory Highlight:

 BIG IDEA: #62:  God’s People Tell Others About Him.  

      Week #1 story: Story of the Saints—the Man Who Wouldn’t Give Up. 

              Our memory verse for the week:  Romans 10:13-15.

 

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Attention Ladies!

☺☺☺Mentoring Breakfast, 10 am on September 9 for women interested in learning how to mentor women!  Our guest speaker will be Jacque VerStraten.  Cost $5.  Please RSVP to Christie Roberts if you are interested.

 

☺☺☺ Women’s Bible Study will begin on Thursday, September 7!  Cost $12.

Choice of 3 studies:  Calm My Anxious Heart

                                A Study of Mark

                                A Mom After God’s Own Heart

Family Night Women’s Bible Study begins September 13.   Cost $11.

Time:  6:45-8:00 p.m.

Study:                    Your God is Too Safe

 

 

MISSIONS CORNER

From John and Gala Dallman, BGC headquarters

                This week we finished moving and John went to work!  I know, he's been working moving but now he is beginning the ministry God called him here to do.  He is going to be working out of the BGC office in Arlington Heights but with his fingers all over the world.  We have had so many missionaries talk with us already about helping them reach those God has called them to serve through acts of love - word and deed.  And crises just keep happening!   With the situation heating up in Lebanon, there are needs there for clean water.  John is strategizing with our missionary appointee to Lebanon as to the best way to meet those needs.   Pray for God's wisdom as they plan and prepare.  Pray also for discernment.  This is only the beginning.  There are needs everywhere and it is a bit overwhelming! 

                Thank you all for praying for us during this transition time.  The transition isn't over though so keep praying!  The kids start school the end of August and there is a lot of trepidation involved!  They begin sports practices next week though and I'm praying they will make some good friends before school even begins. 

 

 

Thanks for the cards and prayers during my recent health adventures.  –Denise Blevins

 

Thank you—with the deepest sincerity, I thank each of you for the multiple prayers spoken on my behalf for a quick and full recovery of various ailments that seem to all come at the same time.  I appreciated each prayer, phone call, visit and card sent, not only for me but also for Jean as there were days that she was stretched very thin.  I got home Saturday afternoon.  God’s grace is sufficient for each and every one of us.  May His love bring joy and peace to each of you.  May all be close to His glory and in the name of Christ, our Lord.

                                                          —Bob Staley

 

Ps.  We are on our way to California on the 17^th for the birth of our first grandson.  See you when we get back.  –Jean

 

 

 

You are invited to a

Baby Shower

for Brooke Warkentin!

 

When: Sunday, Sept. 10^th at 2:30 p.m.

Where: Hospitality House of Bethel

Robert and Brooke are expecting a baby boy and are registered at Target.