by Norma Gunter
You who attend the Beckley First Baptist Church, have a great opportunity to help our GLOBAL SERVANTS around the world. At this time the World Mission Offering, WMO, is being received. You can give generously (offering envelopes are on the back of the pews) to spread the gospel around the world. International Ministries theme for the WMO is “Come over (numerous countries) and Help Us”. When you give to the WMO you help to grow and sustain IM’s missionaries and global staff who serve in more than 70 countries worldwide. Let’s rise to the challenge this year as we celebrate 200 years of missions, 1814-2014.
The American Baptist Women, ABW, fall rally Oct. 14th at the Breckenridge Baptist Church was a great success. Joyce Mills, president of the Raleigh Assn., gave the call to order and the opening prayer. Joan Clark, treasurer of the Raleigh Assn., welcomed us to the Breckenridge Baptist Church and Eula Stephens gave the devotion. The business part of the meeting, roll call, minutes, treasurer report and reports from Personal Dev., Church and Community, & Mission & Service were given.
An interesting part of the meeting was reports on projects the different ABW’s are doing. Our own Helen Green gave a great report on our backpack ministry. The nominating committee gave their report and Martha Bennett is now President Elect of the Raleigh Assn. Sharon Volpe, our ABW president, gave the offering prayer and sang a beautiful solo.
The women from our newest Raleigh Assn. Church, Sunset Hills Missionary Baptist Church, were welcomed to their first Fall Rally.
Joyce Mills introduced the guest speaker, Lisa Simmons, who is the Association Mission Support person with the WV Baptist Convention. Lisa is a very inspiring speaker and to get us all involved she started out asking about funny things we have seen in church. One was a pastors false teeth flying out during a fiery sermon. She related to keep warm with a coal stove or floor furnace you have to stay close to the source of the heat and as Christians we have to stay close to God.
Eula Stephens, from the Breckenridge Baptist Church, was honored for her years of service to ABW. I had the dedication prayer for the “Snacks For Hope” that the women donated for the patients at the Raleigh Regional Cancer Center. We were blessed with a delicious lunch, as usual, by the women of the Breckenridge Church and I had the chance to thank John and Lisa Simmons for the great job they did with Camp Global.
The Raleigh Assn. Spring Rally will be here at FBC. Ladies, if you have never been to a rally this will be the one to attend. All FBC women are invited to participate in any ABW meeting.
By the time you read this Lauren Bethel will have been here, Oct. 27, and I’ll report on her visit next month.