FBC Carthage E-News for June 8, 2009

FBC Carthage E-News
June 8, 2009

Good afternoon,

This E-News marks the one year anniversary of my ministry as the Pastor of First Baptist Church in Carthage, Tennessee. I began last year on Sunday, June 8 and it has been a great first year together. The greatest blessing of this past year has been the relationships we have made with you. What I have found in my ministry is that the work is exciting but the relationships with people are rewarding. Thanks for making this first year a rewarding one for me and my family. We have been blessed.

Yesterday, I shared the mission and message of First Baptist Church. If you missed the message I encourage you to listen by going to the church web site, clicking on the media tab and then the section under Listen to Sermons. The Message is titled The First Year. You can also read an article that shares the mission and describes the basis of the church logo by clicking on the logo on the web site home page.

This week is the big week for our youth as we host ReFuel ’09: A Community Youth Mission Event. ReFuel will begin on Wednesday, June 10 at 8:00 AM in the Family Life Center. First Baptist Church Monterey will be leading in worship, Bible study and preparation for the community projects. From 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM we will go into the community and work on the projects that have been given. A break will be given to rest and clean-up for the evening fellowship and games that begin at 6:00 PM. Wednesday night, everyone is invited back for supper at 5:00 PM in the Fellowship Hall. Encourage your youth to participate in all the activities of ReFuel ’09. They can also invite friends to join them for the week.

On Wednesday night, June 10 our Adult Bible Study will begin at 6:00 PM in the Sanctuary. Barbara Kannapple will be sharing with us on the topic “Communication in Families”. Barbara and her husband Don lead the Campus Life group and she administers the “Breaking the Cycle” program. This will be good information for parents, grandparents and each of us as we strengthen our families. GA’s, RA’s and Mission Friends will meet from 6-7 PM this Wednesday.

Sunday, June 14 is the kick-off for the “Boomerang Express” VBS 2009 at 5:00 PM in the Family Life Center. We will have refreshments and our sharing time first and then our special guests from “Kentucky Down Under” will share in the gym. They will share animals, music and customs from Australia, the Land Down-Under. Invite all the kids you know to come for this exciting kick-off to an exciting week of Vacation Bible School.

Vacation Bible School will be June 15-19 from 6:00 – 8:30 PM for children ages 3 through youth in 12th grade. The emphasis of the week is: “It All Comes Back to Jesus.” There will be Bible stories, music, crafts, refreshments and recreation. Vacation Bible School is the greatest week of the year to invite family, friends and neighbors to come with you to church.

We heard from our daughter, Jill Frank, today and were relieved that she had made the train trip from Berlin to Stuttgart, Germany successfully. She will be there for ten weeks. We are looking forward to going to visit with her in July.

Have a blessed week and remember ReFuel ’09 and VBS 2009 in your prayer time.

Bro. Tim

Here’s the week’s news:
1. Congratulations to Teresa Whitton on her baptism yesterday in the 8:00 AM service.

2. Thank you to everyone who participated in the Relay for Life. We had a great time at the Relay as we painted faces, made balloons and played games with the children. The Relay for Life was also a good reminder to pray for those battling cancer and for the families of those who have died from the disease.

3. I will be leading the Bible Study at the Smith County Senior Citizen’s Center this Friday at 10:30 AM. All senior adults are invited to attend.

4. The JOY Sunday School Class had a delightful fellowship and luncheon today. Thanks to all the ladies who brought the delicious food. This would be a great time for you and your Sunday School class to have a fellowship. Remember to invite all your class members and prospects to your fellowship.

5. Thanks to the Youth leaders for hosting the Super Summer Sunday Night last night.

6. Jim Wilburn sent me the address to North Shores Baptist Church web site. Check it out: northshorebaptistchurch.com

7. Here is a missions update from Joey and Laruen Pratt in Papua, New Guinea:

The beginning of June finds us all but finished with our "official" national culture and language learning (NCLA) time. I (Joey) am one step shy of finishing and should be finished in a week or so. Lauren has about 4 steps before finishing her time. Of course, this doesn't mean that we will be completely finished. As we move into ministry here, we will still be learning the finer, more subtle points of both culture and language--just not as our official job.

Both Lauren and I will be moving into support roles as we await the Lord's specific direction for ministry here. We are excited about filling some of the roles necessary to the support of other missionaries in the tribe. I will be helping out with the financial side of center operations. It will certainly be a stretching time, like our time during official NCLA, but in different ways. However, before we move into our new ministry, we will be taking a great adventure into the jungles of PNG.

Bush Orientation!Bush Orientation is the icing on the cake, if you will, for our time as Orientees. We will be moving in to a tribal location for five weeks and living with missionaries who are in the process of establishing a Church with a particular people group. It will be a time for us to exercise our language skills and observe the day-to-day life of missionaries in the bush.

We will be flying in with what we will eat, and we will essentially be "stuck" there for the duration. As you can imagine this will take plenty of planning for us "newbies" since we are now used to our weekly trips to town. Not only will we be getting a "snap shot" of day-to-day life in a bush location, we will be thinking critically and praying whether that type of ministry will be what the Lord has for us. All of us are involved in church planting and we're excited to discover the way in which the Lord would have us be a part of His work here.

Please pray for us as we take this trip to have a clear vision from the Lord.I'm thankful to know that we have so many people praying for us back in the U.S., especially about our next few adventures.

To add to the prayer list, we would truly covet your prayers for us in the area of finances. We are grateful for all of you who have continued to support us during our time here. However, we need more financial supporters. We have dropped fifteen percent since we first came to PNG and are moving backwards into debt. For us to stay on here as full-time ministers, our monthly support needs to come up. New Tribes Mission has a monthly support level that they recommend for missionaries here in PNG. We are 60% below that level. We earnestly covet your prayers as we seek the Lord to direct us, and everyone that is aware of our ministry, in how He would have us increase our support. We still believe the Lord wants us here in PNG, so we are praying for 100% monthly support.

We desire to be completely transparent about our support levels, so if you have an questions, don't hesitate to write us, or schedule a time to speak with us over the phone.We as a family have been stretched this past month in so many ways. We had found out we were pregnant a few weeks ago, only to find out a little later we had lost the baby. Even though we're here without proper medical care for something like this, God has truly been good to us. We have felt God's peace and Lauren is doing well physically.

As for Ellia, she is that much more precious to us! We cherish everyday we have with her. Her health has been good as we have seen her gain weight little by little. She is learning so many things everyday, and we're pretty sure she's already cooler than we are!

Thank you all for your prayers,
Joey

Joey and Lauren Pratt
NTM Private Mail Bag
Madang, MP 511
Papua New Guinea
www.joeyandlauren.org