Monthly Newsletter
From the Pastor's Study
Several reminders:
Follow the happenings of the church at Sedleybaptist.org and you can also read my thoughts on things several times a week, to see my thoughts just click on Pastor's Study Blog.
You can also look up Sedley Baptist on Facebook and join the Fan page and receive updates via Facebook. It is a great way to interact with others from the church and share prayer requests.
I have been blessed to be the Pastor of Sedley Baptist Church for one year now. You will never know how huge of a blessing that Sedley Baptist Church has been to me and my family over this past year. Thank you for loving, blessing, and taking care of us over this past year in a myriad of ways. Thank you for your patience and forgiveness with me as I have made some mistakes along the way. Thank you for the encouraging word, notes, cards, and visits. I wish I could express it more than this but the best I can do is say, THANK YOU!
I thought I would share some of what we have covered in the services over the past year. Let me begin with Wednesday Night Prayer services. In this past year we have completed a series on The Life of Christ. We have learned about Why We believe God Exists and have discussed in detail The Problems of Evil, Pain, and Suffering. Currently we are talking about The Trustworthiness of the Bible - how we got it and what we believe about it. We have prayed for hundreds of people on Wednesday nights as well. It has been a great time of Worship.
Sunday Nights we have mainly covered one thing and we have covered that one thing in great detail. I have been teaching verse by verse through the Epistle of Philippians. We are now up to the third chapter and the fourteenth verse and learning a lot each week. We have also had many fellowship suppers on Sunday Nights and they are some of my favorite times. I love the food and fellowship that happens. Thank you goes out to all who do such a wonderful job putting on those suppers.
Also at these we have had special speakers and happenings, which have helped, make the special.
Sunday Mornings we have done a variety of things but the main thing is going through the Life of David and we still have a long way to go in his life. In studying I Samuel we have covered 19 chapters (including Mother's day. That would be 564 verses we have covered on Sunday mornings just in 1 Samuel. We have also covered the whole book of Jonah. We also have covered the series at Christmas from Luke 1 and 2. We spent four weeks covering the vision of the church and one week refreshing it. We have also had a number of stand-alone sermons and messages. I am learning a lot going through these verses and books of the Bible and I pray you are too.
We have also had some special services along the way. We had the great revival services with Jim Goebel speaking. We had the Thanksgiving Eve service with Grace Memorial UMC. We had our candlelight Christmas Eve service. We had a Good Friday Service with Sunbeam. I am sure that I am missing some others. They all have been special times.
We have been given a Vision and a Mission from God this year to be Reaching, Moving, Building, and Serving for Christ at Sedley Baptist Church. I thank you for your support of what God has laid on my heart concerning this. I have been also been blessed to visit the shut-ins at their homes and serve communion to them this year. I have been able to make hospital visits and try to be there for those who are in need of Pastoral Care. I have been blessed to baptize several this year, which is a great joy. It has truly been a full year of ministry in a variety of ways and areas.
Let me just say it again: It is a privileged, an honor, and a blessing to be the Pastor of Sedley Baptist Church. Thank you again for giving me this honor.
Pastor Jim
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Thought for
Meditation
By: Ashby Blythe
"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." The Disciples of Jesus said "Lord teach us to pray as John taught his Disciples to pray." He gave them what we have come to know as "The Lord's Prayer". It's short but covers the whole subject.
Prayer changes people; people change things. I've witnessed prayers performing miracles. When the sniper was shooting people in the North, Pastor David asked if I would pray in accord with him that the sniper be caught within a week.
Another time, we had not had any rain for three months. We jointly prayed and the dry spell was broken in less than a week. Such prayers are answered.
I begin my prayers with "The Lord's Prayer" and when I don't feel like praying this helps me to pray.
I know that more is brought by prayers and prayers answered than this world knows of.
If you pray to receive the Holy Spirit and don't expect it or recognize it, it may pass you by.
But if without reservation you accept Jesus the Lord of your life, the Holy Spirit lives with you.
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CHILDREN IN ACTION
We opened out meeting with prayer, then we repeated out motto, verse and pledge. We had 13 children present.
Our scripture verse was "Do your best to please God. Be a worker who doesn't need to be ashamed. Teach the message of truth correctly."
2 Timothy 2:15
This month we learned that to be "Fit 4 God's Mission," we must study the Bible. Chuck and Mackenzie Jemmott, are this month's featured missionaries who live among vegetarians. We learned how the Jemmott family uses Bible stories to share the gospel with a people group in South Asia. We then discussed what a vegetarian is and what they eat. The children were then given carrots and cucumbers for a snack.
In South Asia people arrange themselves and others by a caste- a centuries old ranking by family and birth. The children were asked to line up according to height and that was how they had to sit during the meeting.
We read a story called Jatan's story. Jatan was 6 years old, he and his siblings had to work to help their family and to pay for his grandmother's medical bills. They did not go to school and no one in his family could read. The caste system-ranking people by family- was strong in Jatan's village. Men were considered more important than women of the same age. Old siblings are considered more important than younger siblings. Mackenzie Jemmott said that the caste system was very strong in their culture. It is believed that some people are born just to serve people of the upper class. Poor people are looked down upon. The lowest castes are not allowed to go into the temples to worship their Hindu Gods. There are 969 million Hindus in these countries. For every 5.3 million lost people in South Asia there is only one Southern Baptist missionary or missionary family. The Jemmotts ask us to pray for the Awadhi people they serve. Pray that there would be a Christian in every Awadhi village.
We read James 2:1-9 and then discussed how God views all people as equals and that we must treat all people as we would want to be treated.
The Jemmotts also use storying (telling Bible stories), songs and pictures to communicate God's Word to people of lower castes who don't know how to read. The children were each given a piece of paper and asked to draw a picture from a Bible story and then see if the other children could guess the story. They all complained about not knowing what to draw but they did a wonderful job and they enjoyed guessing the story. We had a variety of stories from the Bible but the one drawn the most was Jonah and the whale.
We finished our study for this month and since it was Father's Day next Sunday we made a gift to be given to someone special.
There will be no meeting in July but we will continue in August.
Anita Felts
Carol Simms
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YOUTH
May:
The youth handed out carnations to the mothers for Mother's Day. On the 4th Sunday of May, the Youth choir sang "Open The Heart Of My Heart Lord" and "Lord I Lift Your Name On High". The girls had to push their voice over the guys this time. The guys outnumbered the girls for the first time!! Usually we can't hear the guys, they sing in a whisper - too bashful - but this time they not only sang, but sang out! The girl's voices were like angels - absolutely amazing! We had 13 youth participate in the choir, one being a visiting youth from Black Creek Baptist. We can't wait to be able to sing again for the congregation! We'll be getting back into singing each month once school starts back and summer vacations are over.
June:
The youth handed out Hershey bars to the fathers on Father's day! They also participated this year in vacation Bible school. Our 1st meeting in June was all about making the decorations for VBS. They painted murals, spray painted beach balls to look like planets, and made signs for the corner and church. Grace Memorial United Church hosted a pizza dinner that night for us. We agreed that we would need a second meeting to complete the murals, which we had the night of our lock-in.
The youth had their third annual summer lock-in!! We celebrated Mark Lewis' graduation from high school with an ice cream cake from DQ! We invited the youth from Grace to join us, as well as other youth from Black Creek Baptist and friends in the community. We had a very successful turn out. Fourteen youth in all turned out for the lock-in.
We're not sure how often we'll meet this summer, but we are trying to arrange a couple events for the kids to attend - pool party, bowling, sleep over, fishing, etc. Fellowshipping with other Christian youth is so important. We hope and pray that we're building not only their relationship with the Lord, but with others their age as well.
Thank you to all that help with the youth and to the congregation for the support you've given this group.
Mitzi Lusk
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Bits & Pieces
A sense of humor makes no sense.
Knowledge comes from study, wisdom comes from God.
Is your offering accepted by God?
If there were 20 sheep in a pen and one jumped out, how many would be left in the pen? If your answer is 19 it shows you know about math.
Keep smiling
Reverend Funny Bone
Remember in Prayer!
Harold & Jane Bartlett, Phyllis Barton, Melissa Bassey, Ashby Blythe, Juanita Burgess, Capps Family, Richard Copas, Armand & Naoko, Alisha & Tim Detrich, Roger Drake, Cilda Edwards, Hoyle & Jean Green, Charles Kitchen, Jimmy & Mitzi Lusk, Morgan Munford, Rhoten and Zeno family, Edward & Carol Simms, Cecil Tillery, Leatha Whitley, Ronnie Whitley.
Sylvia Allison, Joe Anderson, Bill Bailey, Sylvia Bilby, Charles Blanton, Junior Blythe, Lena Blankenship, D. J. Boone, Peggy Brady, Judy Branche, Tammy Britt, Dale Bryant, Frances Bryant, Roy Bryant, Tom Bullock, Dot Bunting, J. T. Burgess, George Carpenter, May Carr, Barbara Clapp, Richard Cooke, Angela Dentiste, Patsy Draper, Scott Earls, Bob Ebert, Barbara Edwards, Brian Edwards, Peggy Edwards, Richard Edwards, Louise Ellis, Frank Foster, Jimmy Foster, Carolyn Funkhouser, Skip Gambill, Dylan Gittner, Dawn Glass, Aaron Graham, B.B. Gray, Suzette Gregor, Jerry Halsey, Jimmy Harris, Louise Harrup, Judy Hatfield, Angela Jeffries, Nancy Jenkins, Ada Johnson, Iola Joyner, Karen Kinney, Ellen Lawson, Carol Layer, Lena Lee, Davis Ludwick, Carpenito-Makoske Families, Cathy Matthews, Alan McDonald, Phyllis Mewborn, Rhonda Modlin, Cathy Morris, Syvilla Morris, Elizabeth Parker, Seamaeyer Parr, Dale Phipps, Ryan Poteet, Marie Raiford, Mary Raiford, Roberta Raiford, Sylvie Raiford, Jim Rainey, Rosa Rainey, Madeline Ramirez, James Rhoten Jr., Angel Ricks, Paul Rigard, Connie Rowe, Dan Sadler., Sr Ramona Sadler, Jenna Salisbury, Larry Shaffer, Gus Simmons, Elizabeth Stickle, Gracie Story, Barbara Taylor, Kaitlin Travis, Durwood Vaughan, Ruth Vaughan, Keith Vickers, Joe Volvo, Belin Watson, Katherine Weaver, Ralph Williams, Ross Wolfe, Jane Womack.
Happy Anniversary!
1 M/M J. T. Burgess
2 M/M Wayne Turner
3 M/M Gilbert Branche
8 M/M Alvin Bradshaw
12 M/M Paul Wellons
16 M/M Lloyd Oldham
21 M/M Mark Whitley
28 M/M Harold Wellons
Happy Birthday!
2 John Branche
3 Sonya Gardner
Jenna Lusk
5 J. B. Johnson
6 Letitia Austin
Irving Malcolm
10 Franci Bradshaw
11 Warren Simmons
12 Marion Boyd
Tristian Zeno
19 Tyler Stout
24 Sue Ann Blythe
25 Betsy Burgess
26 Ada Lee Gardner
Rita Tillery
26 R. J. Andleton
29 Mitzi Lusk
Rita Rose
30 Carolyn Ellis
31 Laurie Brittle
Tammy Lowe
Deadline for information to go in the July newsletter is June 20th. Please call Phyllis Bradshaw (562-2455) or Carol Simms (562-2691) or e-mail to edandcarolp@verizon.net or sedleybird@peoplepc.com