The First Baptist Church of Redlands
T A PE S T R Y
OCT 2021
Wo v e n To g e t h e r I n L o v e : C o l o s s i a n s 2 : 2
Issue No. 10
IN GOOD COMPANY A Message from Pastor Shawn
I thank my God every time I mention you in my prayers. I’m thankful for all of you every time I pray, and it’s always a prayer full of joy. I’m glad because of the way you have been my partners in the ministry of the gospel from the time you first believed it until now. I’m sure about this: the one who started a good work in you will stay with you to complete the job by the day of Christ Jesus. I have good reason to think this way about all of you because I keep you in my heart. You are all my partners in God’s grace, both during my time in prison and in the defense and support of the gospel. God is my witness that I feel affection for all of you with the compassion of Christ Jesus.
House, a home for families who are victims of domestic violence. Deliris and Moise consider our church their “home” church. We support them financially, but we also support the ministry that they do with our dental team, which goes down to Tijuana and serves people who are in Deborah House and mostly Haitian migrants who are in Tijuana. After more of the restrictions of Covid are lifted, and the numbers come down, and when Deliris and Moise are settled in Tijuana, we are looking forward to sending a team. With our partners in ministry in Tijuana, we find ourselves in good company.
Philippians 1:3-8 CEB
October is World Mission Offering Month. Though we support our Global Servants all year round, in October we make an extra effort to help our missionaries through this offering. We will be meeting another of our Global Servants later this month, on the 17th. Ruth Fox, Global Coordinator for Education, will be with us in-person to share with us about the priority of Education in the work that we do around the world. I hope that you will be able to be there to hear Ruth, whether it is in the Sanctuary or Online. Let us be good company to Ruth, all the Global Servants that we support, and all our partners in ministry all over the world.
Paul wrote these words to the people who were part of the church at Philippi. Remember how that church started? Paul and his fellow ministers went to Philippi because Paul had a dream of a Macedonian man saying, “Come to Macedonia.” When he got there he found a group of women, led by Lydia, who had a prayer group that met outside the city gates. It was Lydia, who when she heard about Jesus and chose to follow him, who insisted that Paul and company stay at her house. This was the beginning of the church at Philippi. You can see that the church supports Paul in his ministry in all different ways, especially financially. In a way, they become Paul’s “home church.” They were in good company. Earlier in September I was invited to take part in the commissioning service of Moise Joseph. He is joining his wife, Deliris, “officially,” as a commissioned Global Servant to serve among immigrants who are at the border in Tijuana. They will also be serving at Deborah
I hope that you will consider a generous gift to the World Mission Offering. As American Baptists all over the country are coming together for this offering, we are in good company. Grace and peace in Christ, Pastor Shawn