Missions

The Adopt-A-Grandparent Program has become so successful because of your generosity. This program provides a Christmas/holiday gift set to elderly people in the Harper Mills Nursing Home (formerly Heartland Nursing Home)

This gift set would include two great lotions, one for the hand and one for the feet and would be perfect for both men and women.

There are currently 155 people in Harper Mills and the cost of each gift set is $20(which includes tax, gift wrap, and delivery. Please make checks payable to First Baptist Church with a note on the memo line “Adopt A Grandparent”. There will be a tag on the gift saying that it came from you.

The deadline for this project is Sunday, December 10th. If you are interested in helping with this project, contact Ann Coleman at 304-253-1425.

Let’s not forget those in the nursing homes who may not have someone to show them God’s love.

The Adopt-A-Grandparent Program has become so successful because of your generosity.  This program  provides a Christmas/holiday gift set to elderly people in the Harper Mills Nursing Home (formerly Heartland Nursing Home)  This gift set would include two great lotions, one for the hands and one for the feet and would be perfect for both men and women.  There are current 155 people in Harper Mills and the cost of each gift set is $20(which includes tax, gift wrap and delivery.)  There will be a tag on the gift saying that it came from you.    The deadline for this project is Friday, December 11^th.  If you are interested in helping with this project, contact Ann Coleman or the church office.   

Donna Miller has organized a Facebook group called “Women Helping Women” and it already has over 5,000 members, she said. Women can gather cosmetics, facial cleansers, toiletries and things of that nature, and put them in a purse or handbag which will be distributed to flood victims. Every woman has a handbag or purse that they don’t carry anymore.

“I think the reason it’s successful is because it’s specific,” she said. “People know exactly what they can do. You don’t have to run to the store and shop. “They have extra, new cosmetics stuck in a drawer. They’re just getting their things together into a Ziploc bag to put in the purse.”

There are drop-off locations all over southern West Virginia and several in Beckley including First Baptist Church.  Contact Donna Miller or the church office for further info.

by Tammy Jordan, Director

Beckley First Baptist has been so kind supporting our Seeds of Recovery Program.  I wanted to let you know about a new opportunity.  We are going to start doing monthly bread boxes that are $35 and filled with our various baked goods and different breads that can go in the freezer and last for the customer.  We are trying to find 4 churches/organizations that would have at least 25 people in each organization to commit to purchasing a total of 12 monthly bread boxes per person that comes packaged and ready to pick up at the church.    This order can also be split in half  but that has to be done within the church after you place your order.  Basically this is a way for individuals to support our educational program “Seeds of Recovery” and youth program “Seeds of Hope” at the rate of $1.00 per day throughout the year and give students real product to practice their skill set.  Plus in supporting the program customers get yummy baked goods instead of just making a $1 per day donation.   Your orders will be dropped off at the church on a designated day and it will have to be paid for at that time.

Each month the bread box will include:
4 Loaves of Fruits of Labor’s bread (2 white, 1 wheat, and 1 multigrain)
2 Giant Cinnamon Rolls
6 Hamburger buns
4 Hoagie Buns
4 Croissants
1 Special:  The first order will include 1/2 dozen pepperoni rolls as the special.

If you would be interested in participating in this project, please contact either Joyce Mills or the church office and we can provide you with some additional information.

With the winter months quickly approaching,  we’ve started a program called  “Pack the Pulpit”.  During  the month of November, we are asking for non-perishable food items and new blankets which will be distributed by Helping Hands to be placed in the sanctuary on the stage around the pulpit.  Our goal is to pack the pulpit so much that Pastor Adkins has to preach on the floor on November 22^nd, the Sunday before Thanksgiving.    Please consider lending a hand so that others will be warm and have enough to eat this winter.

Ann Coleman has become involved in a great program called Adopt-A-Grandparent which provides a Christmas/holiday gift set to elderly people in the Harper Mills Nursing Home (formerly Heartland Nursing Home). This gift set would include two great lotions, one for the hand and one for the feet, and would be perfect for both men and women.

There are currently 155 people in Harper Mills and the cost of each gift set is $20 (which includes tax, gift wrap and delivery).  There would be a tag on the gift saying that it came from you.

She has set the deadline for this project for Sunday, December 6^th.  If you are interested in helping her, she can be reached at 304-253-1425. Let’s not forget those in the nursing homes who may not have someone to show them God’s love.

If you shop at Kroger and have a Kroger card, which I’m sure most of you do,  here’s a simple way to support a great organization. Kroger has partnered with Helping Hands to donate approximately three percent of your total bill  and here’s how you help.  Simply register your card or sign into your account.   Once that’s done, click on the Community link, then community rewards and enter the words Helping Hands in the search box.   Look for Helping Hands Community Resource Center, click on the dot next to Helping Hands Community Resource Center, hit enroll and that’s it.    If you need a hand completing this, call the church office and we’ll be glad to walk you through it.

by Phil Parvin

Our Missions impact has been increased as we have expanded our giving & missions budget.  We topped $55,000.00 for missions work in 2014.

Because of our faithfulness and sacrificial giving,  there are new believers in Bolivia, Central America, Mexico, Japan and many other mission fields around the world.  There have been children taken into prostitution, and child labor by human traffickers that are back home and safe.  We have impacted lives that were displaced by hurricanes, earthquakes, and other weather or war related disasters with clean water and food.

Millions of little children that may never have heard of the Love of Christ were given shoeboxes with fun things, practical hygiene items, and a loving word from a Christian that cared enough to put it together and have it sent.

Locally we have served thousands of homeless, disadvantaged families & individuals through helping hands & our backpack ministry.

The Light of Christ and the good news of His love has been evident because of our obedience to the great commission.  Please pray with me and the missions committee that God will touch our hearts to be even more involved both financially, and with our time to show God’s love in our community and throughout the World.

Dear Friends, 

This is an  URGENT request!      

We would like to share three short clips from Lauran Bethell, Global Missionary, that have been received since July 2014.  As you know Lauran travels the globe and has insight as to what is going on in human trafficking in many countries. 

What a fabulous “birthday celebration” International Ministries had this summer!  Celebrating 200 years as an organization—the longest running Christian mission agency in the USA—was a giant moment in history. 1300 people were gathered at our “heart place”—the Green Lake Conference Center:  our dear supporters, encouragers and pray-ers, church leaders/partners from more than 30 countries!  ALL the IM missionaries!  It was exciting!  It was fun!   AND, I missed a big part of it”… (because of an inner ear virus.)

“When I was home, I had many guests and numerous consultations with people.  One of my guests, a Jewish Ivy league lawyer, is doing her PhD at Oxford and is doing very  valuable research in Amsterdam in a government shelter for victims of trafficking-and she is so caring and passionate about their situations. She realized that they didn’t have adequate winter clothes, and asked me if I would ask some of the churches I attend in Holland if they would help out. With little time before Christmas, I just posted a note on Facebook, asking my Dutch friends if they could help with some good winter clothes.  Friends in 3 churches mobilized themselves and their communities-I ended up with 2 very full packed carloads of good clothing, which I delivered hours before I left for the USA.  The Social Workers now want me to come back and help with some other projects-so it’s been a great “in” to the shelter.”

“I flew to Kyrgyzstan for our ‘International Christian Alliance on Prostitution Central Asian Conference  It went really well!  We had about 70 people representing 8 countries there-including representatives from Thailand and Russia!  They came because women from Central Asia are being trafficked to their countries.  It was a great time of sharing mutual concerns, strategizing ways of ministering to the victims, spiritual nourishment for the practitioners and also lots and lots of valuable information sharing.  The 3 teams from Russia who were with us, invited us to do our conference there next November and that’s really exciting.”

As you can see from these excerpts, Lauran doesn’t waste any time. This is just a small sampling of her schedule. Our challenge is to provide the resources needed to allow her to continue on the journey to rid this world of human trafficking.  All Missionaries are now asked to help raise their support funds.  Lauran has visited several churches in Southern West Virginia and has also been the guest speaker at the WVBC.  Everyone who knows Lauran has been inspired with her compassion and dedication for her work with human trafficking in the global arena.  We know that you will want to help Lauran be funded 100%.

Lauran’s Missionary Financial Extension Team in WV consists of Yevette Shafer, Rita Barker and Joyce Mills.  We encourage you to especially share the following letter with your Congregation and Women’s Groups.  A group of friends in Oregon will be providing matching funds up to $4,000 if our money is received by the middle of February.

Your gift of any size will make a difference!

Through the church:  Be sure that the donation is designated when the remittance form is sent in.

Sent individually: Be sure to Memo: Lauran Bethell  Make checks to WVBC and send to:  WVBC, Attn: Joan Hall, 1019 Juliana St., Parkersburg, WV, 26102

Thank you so much for your friendship and commitment to Christ’s Mission!  

by Phil Parvin

Our new missions committee is working very hard to assimilate all the missions works within out church to give us a comprehensive approach to our missionaries, their ministries, and the outreach works we have locally.  This will allow us to allocate funds in specific areas of need and also to get better acquainted with each family and their prayer requests.

We have great things going on through the ABW group who have reached out to many of our missionaries and have raised money and helped in more ways than I could list in this short article.  We have included an ABW member on our missions committee, which will allow us to better assist them in their programs and they can help us know the ministry works that they have been supporting for many years.

I have so appreciated the comments and notes I have received from attendees of our church regarding the missions moments I have been presenting the second Sunday of each month.  It has been great to get to know better the missionaries and to present them to the church along with current prayer and physical needs.  I sense a real hunger from our church to know what we are doing in missions and how we can pray more specifically for our missions works and get to know them better.

There are some changes going on within our missionaries, some are changing jobs, some moving, and others are retraining for different areas of work, as the times, religious and political landscape, and the fields change.  We need to continue to pray earnestly for wisdom, and safety in this ever changing world, that the work of the Lord will continue to be fruitful.

The Reed family was our highlight for this month and we are excited to see what the Lord is doing there as they train lay ministers to preach and teach back in their home towns and villages.  How better to minister in a region than to disciple, train, and mentor locals to then take the Gospel to their communities. We support the Reeds and are also sending a special gift to help purchase tablets for the ministerial students in Bolivia.