FBC Carthage E-News for September 3, 2012

FBC Carthage E-News

September 3, 2012

Good Morning and Happy Labor Day,

The Labor Day weekend means many things to different people. For some, the weekend is the last chance to get to the lake, go camping, or enjoy other outdoor recreation. For others, Labor Day is the ending of summer and the beginning of fall and winter. Still others enjoy it as a day of rest and relaxation from work. Labor Day is all this and more. It is a day, a weekend, to consider our work, our jobs, our employment and be thankful to the Lord. It is a time to remember the Lord blesses us with the ability and opportunity to labor. Labor Day is also a time to see our work as a setting in which we live the Christian life and bear testimony to Jesus Christ. In whatever employment you may work, you are a missionary to that group of people to show the compassion, strength, and hope of Christ. Our focal Scripture verse for the past four weeks, Colossians 3:17, applies directly to our workplace, our home, and wherever we go. It says, “And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”

Throughout the weeks we have many special prayer requests in the congregation and through our mission partnerships. Two special requests this week involve two of our mission partner churches. First, pray for Jim and Karen Wilburn and the North Shores Baptist Church in Kings Park, New York. Jim has accepted the call to a church in Alabama and will be moving soon. Jim, Karen, and Colin have made a great impact on the Kings Park community and it has been a blessing to serve with them on several occasions. Pray for the Wilburns as they move and also pray for the North Shores Baptist Church as begin the search process for a pastor.

The second special prayer request is similar, just in the opposite side of the United States. Pastor Vance Thomas and his wife Cathy have resigned from the First Baptist Church in Poplar, Montana to move to Louisiana to care for Vance’s mom and step-dad who are in poor health. Pray for them as they make the transition and pray for FBC Poplar as they continue to serve the Lord on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation and seek God’s man to lead them. I have copied a recent update from Cathy at the end of this E-News if you would like more details.

While you are praying for churches seeking ministers, remember to pray for our church as we seek the ones God has to lead in our worship and youth ministries. This search process is more than filling a position or hiring a person to do a job. As we search for our ministerial staff, we are seeking God’s direction to the one He has to lead. Seeking God’s direction and will is a spiritual endeavor and can only be accomplished through spiritual means. I ask all members and friends of FBC Carthage to earnestly pray for a clear discernment of God’s direction. This transition can be a great time of revival and renewal as we draw near to God and realize we are dependant and desperate for Him. Please pray.

Have a great Labor Day and a blessed week,
Bro. Tim

Here’s the news for the week:
1. Next Sunday, September 9 will be our special Deacon Ordination Service at 3:00 PM. This service will be our evening service for that Sunday as we gather together to set-aside five of our men in the service of a deacon. The five men being ordained as deacons are: Tom Broyles, Michael Collins, John Etheridge, Stephen Russell, and James Trainham.

2. Pray this week for the Personnel Committee as they meet this Wednesday night at 7:30 PM to pray and seek God’s direction in our personnel needs. In addition to receiving resumes for both a Part-Time Minister of Music and a Full-Time Minister to Youth, the committee is seeking an Interim Minister of Music to lead the worship services on a regular basis. Resumes can be mailed to the church office at 409 Main Street N Carthage, TN 37030. For more information persons can contact Tim Frank at 735-1929.

3. Friday, September 7 will be a 5th Quarter Youth Fellowship following the SCHS vs Warren County football game for students in grades 7-12. Help spread the word and invite your friends to join you for this time of fun, fellowship, and inspiration.

4. The FBC Women on Mission met this past week; during that meeting, they learned more about and prayed for the four students from our church family who have publicly professed a call to full-time mission work: Anna Maxwell, Josh Lynn, Taylor Reece, and Sam Smith. Information about each student was shared with the ladies to help in praying for them. Ladies, make being involved in Women on Mission a part of your service to God. The next meeting will be Monday, October 1 at the home of Sharon Raymond, 134 Lock Seven Lane. Block that evening out now on your calendar and plan to attend. You'll be blessed as you pray for students like these that you know personally and missionaries around the world that you know only as brothers and sisters in Christ.

5. For the next four weeks we will share information from our students who have been called to full-time mission work. This information will be in the form of their answers to a series of questions asked by our Women on Missions. Please take a few minutes to pray for the student and for God’s will to be done in their lives. Enjoy reading and praying through the first of our student mission profiles:

Anna Maxwell: Student at Belmont University, Nashville
My favorite FBC Carthage Memory: Recent experience as an intern; youth group – getting to know the younger students

Call to serve the Lord and how life has changed: Didn’t tell for six months or so; changed major from medical to education

Specific prayer requests:
1. College-life transition; parents not “right here”; huge challenge, classes, meeting new people
2. Finding a church in Nashville; visited two yesterday

6. Be making your plans to attend the Operation Christmas Child Rally at the Ag Center on Saturday, September 29 at 6:00 PM. Timberloft Restaurant is providing dinner that evening as we kick-off this mission effort. Operation Christmas Child collects shoe boxes filled with toys and items for children around the world and distribute them with the message of Jesus Christ. At the rally, our special guest speaker will be Oksana Nelson, who as a young girl, received a Christmas shoe-box in an orphanage in Russia. Later she was adopted by a couple in the United States and is now a great promoter of the shoe-box ministry of Operation Christmas Child.

7. The Senior Adult Fellowship will be next Tuesday, September 11 at 11:30 AM in the Christian Life Center. All adults 55 and above are invited to bring a covered dish and join us for our meal and program.

8. Here is an update from Vance and Cathy Thomas from Poplar, Montana.

Cathy writes, “Now I have some even bigger news for you. Vance and I will be leaving Poplar on the 17th of September. Last Sunday morning, we were finishing up our Sunday school lesson in the book of Ruth. We were just discussing Ruth and her devotion to her mother in law and how blessed she was, how many crowns she will receive,…etc. Then Bill Hess made the statement about the 10 commandment of honoring our parents. As soon as he finished talking, the Lord spoke to me and told me that we were to go to Louisiana and take care of Vance’s mom and stepdad, that we would live in her house rent free but pay the utilities and help maintain both properties. I got hot all over and I know my eyes about popped out. But I just sat there speechless. I didn’t say anything to Vance since it was almost time for church to start. So in his message, as he has done several times over the years, he commented about our grandkids asking when we were coming home and telling them that we would go when the Lord told us. Then he said that we had no plans on moving. J Little did he know!! I told him after church, and on our way to lunch, that the Lord had spoke to me about something and I sure was hoping it had been revealed to him too. He looked at me funny and let it go. We met our friends for lunch, Charlie and Elaine Stamas who were up here on mission from FL, and he said, “Tell me!” So I told him what the Lord said. He grinned and said “Really?” When we got home, he called his mom and asked her how they were doing. She gave her standard answer of “fine”. He said, “well Mom that is not what the Lord told Cathy”. He then proceeded to tell her what had happened and she started crying. She said that she had been praying and had cried out to the Lord several times for Him to send some help her way. So, in God’s perfect timing, he is sending us. I have a feeling that God had been trying to tell Vance several times but Vance would never ask the kinds of questions that women ask each other and Mom never wanted to be a burden on him. Mom will turn 79 on the 30th of September. Her husband Toby is 75 and is in the latter stages of Alzheimers. He has become a handful for her but she is doing her best to keep him home as long as she can. She still owns her home in town and they live in his house about 10 miles out in the country. Although it is not country like some of you are thinking. They have neighbors close by but she is still very isolated with him. Vance’s older sister lives about 150 miles away but her husband has health issues where she can not leave him alone either. Mom really needs male help! So we are in the process of packing and sorting. Boxes for storage and boxes bound for LA. We will live in Mom’s house in town. We will do whatever Mom needs us to do. She is still in good health but Toby’s disease is about to wipe her out. Many of you know all about that. When Mom married Toby, she just took her stuff and moved in with him. Her house is still fully furnished down to dishes and linens. We will only take a small amount of furniture and our own personal items and very special decorating items. She has told me to go in there and make that house mine. But we are not going to fully move in because she will want to move back in when she has to make the decision to put him in the nursing home. We are not real sure what the future holds but we KNOW that we KNOW that we have to go help her. This is what the Lord teaches all through scripture. We are committed to stay down there until Mom passes. Who knows how long that will be. When we see what is needed from us, then Vance will know how much he can work. Depending on the load at the houses, he will try and do some pulpit supply, or maybe a part-time pastorate. Just not sure yet. BUT we know that the Lord will supply all that we need. We are selling my white Chevy truck to one of our youth boys. I will look for a small economy car when we get down there. Mom is the only parent we have left between us. Vance was gracious to me when my parents were ill and dying. It is his turn to help out now. I am so thankful we are getting to do this for them. We don’t have all the kinks worked out, but God knows.”