Your April/May 2017
Annie Armstrong Offering for North American Missions Ron and Kim Carr founded the International Learning Center (ILC), a missionary organization that takes a compassion-based approach to reaching internationals. Students take English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, undergo cultural training and learn about citizenship, health and other topics. Most importantly, the Carrs set up a supplementary reading course—a class where instructors use the Bible as the reading text. “Students sign up and welcome the reading help, and many of them are exposed to a biblical worldview for the first time,” Kim says.
The course includes a survey of the Bible and reading excerpts about Christ’s death and resurrection. When students hear about the love of Jesus, many respond in faith inside the class. The Carrs’ advice for community-based outreach? “Make sure the gospel is in the DNA of your ministry. We do this by our teaching and also by inviting church planters into our classes, so they can connect ESL students with local churches.”
The ILC has flourished in Jacksonville, and the ministry is now in the process of being replicated in other cities, such as New York. To find out more, visit anniearmstrong.com
National Offering Goal: $70 million
Annie Armstrong Offering for North American Missions
The Annie Armstrong Easter Offering® is named after Annie Armstrong who was the first corresponding secretary for the Woman's Missionary Union (WMU). This annual offering celebrates Annie Armstrong's life and legacy--one that centered around encouraging and stirring up others to support and be involved in missions endeavors. She wrote over 18,000 letters in one year to spur on giving towards missions. Her love to reach the lost did not start there. Annie Armstrong also worked diligently in her community to reach out to those around her through a kind word, giving a hug, or handing out clothing. The offering is given to missionaries serving in North American through the North American Mission Board (NAMB).
In Blue Ridge Baptist Association, we have two church planters who are partially supported by NAMB and the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering. First, Alan Myers who is the planting pastor at TriState Community Church in Hancock, MD (tri-state.cc). Alan and his family started the church several years ago and are working hard to reach the tai-state area for the kingdom of God.
Eli Choi and his family are working hard to launch a House Church in Frederick/ Urbana area (housechurchfrederick.org). The church is scheduled to launch in the fall of this year.
With out the gifts of Southern Baptists to the Annie Armstrong Easter offering, both these men and their families would have a more difficult time getting their churches up and running. What will you and your church commit to give this year?
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GREAT KINGDOM RESURGENCE REVISITED From Bruce Conley Your Director of Missions
It has been 7 years since the SBC passed GCR (The Great Commission Resurgence). In short, GCR was a plan to get the gospel to more people through a concerted effort to put huge amounts of money, resources, and strategic planning for new church plants in and around major cities in America. Those who came up with this plan were convinced that God had led them to push this effort forward in order to get the huge numbers of population in urban areas into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. On the surface, it seemed to make sense.
But the strategy was not without concerns and difficulties. In order to make money and resources available on such a large scale, NAMB (the North American Mission Board) had to lay off and/or retire many staff employees. In addition, Associations (the life blood of denominational connection to local churches) were completely de-funded. That meant that hundreds of Directors of Missions lost health benefits, and in some cases MAJOR financial help towards their salaries. Across America, Associations became damaged or disappeared off the map altogether - leaving their churches without a local support person for pastors, leaders, and church matters. Many associations simply could not provide what they had before with the very limited resources that became the new reality.
It's hard to know how many associations have folded or become severely handicapped in the aftermath of GCR -- no one keeps track of those kind of negative results. Safe to say, though, that Associations could become a endangered species if we do not take some action to adjust, reformulate, and plan for the future. I have been a Southern Baptist since I was saved in a small Baptist church in Maryland at age 15, and I have to tell you that MY conviction is that nothing can replace the local Director of Missions or the association to be a help, a resource, and a partner to come along side of churches for future success in ministry.
Even in Maryland / Delaware, there are 11 Associations that were once healthy and vibrant examples of excellence in denominational support and leadership prior to 7 years ago. Today 5 of those associations are without full time Directors. In response to that the DOM group that meets monthly in MD/DE is forming a group called the RNBA (Regional Network of Baptist Associations) ... and we are hopeful that we can help associations all around our state convention in doing whatever it takes to make sure that ALL of our churches have healthy, vibrant associations to support missions and ministry regionally in the future.
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One of our neighbors - the Mid Maryland Baptist Association (Carroll and Howard Counties in MD) has approached the Blue Ridge Baptist Association and asked if we would be interested in a merger between our two associations. If such a merger takes place, it would be the first of its kind in our region, but it may help set an example for what other Associations who are struggling might do in order to stay a viable organization that has ample resources to help existing churches and plant new ones in areas like ours that are distant from major cities and the GCR funding flow.
We have barely started discussions about Mid Maryland's proposal, but if it seems that God might be leading in that direction after a few meetings and a season of prayer with leaders from both sides, then we will undoubtedly set up a series of meetings, question & answer sessions, and times of concerted prayer for God to reveal what he might be up to. It is possible that any potential merger could be a part of both Associational meetings in October of this year, where church members and leaders could vote on the matter.
As your DOM I am asking for you to pray about this NOW…do not wait. We need to hear a fresh word from the Lord about what he would have us to do given the landscape of things over the last 7 years in the SBC, and only God's plan will serve the churches in the BRBA with maximum success for advancing Kingdom causes.
If you have any questions or concerns along the way, I would love to hear from you about those. We will try to keep you posted with a good flow of information as these matters are considered.
May God continue to bless you and your church as you seek to venture into the darkness that so often takes over our world, and replace it with the life, love, saving grace, and mercy of Christ the Savior
In His Service,
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by Tammy Guttry
This was my third opportunity to travel with Pastor Pedro Guadalupe and his wife Isabel to the Dominican Republic. We assisted Pastor Fidel Lorenzo and his wife Altagracia in distributing Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes in the areas around Santo Domingo. I cannot fully express what an emotional experience it was to share these Gospel Opportunity (GO) shoeboxes on this mission trip.
I began packing OCC Shoeboxes years ago to involve my children in sharing with others less fortunate, and teach them the blessings of giving to others. Like many on this mission team I LONGED to be able to see the faces of the children on the receiving end of an OCC shoebox. This mission adventure granted me fulfillment of that yearning.
I have worked year-round as a Community Relations Coordinator, and volunteered at the Processing Center with members from my place of employment and my church. But now I have seen the journey of a shoebox from THIS side of the operations. Being able to participate with the distribution in this way has been a humbling experience.
On our Tuesday distribution the team traveled to an extremely remote location on the island. The local contact indicated that the people felt blessed and thankful to have us as visitors. We were told, “No mission teams ever come here, because we are so far out.” I understood why. It was a very difficult road to traverse, and there was a waterway that blocked passage to the school. We had to exit our vehicles for the last 100 yards, and cross a creek on foot with the men carrying the cartons across the water like pack mules.
It was overwhelming to imagine that no other mission teams had visited them to share the good news of the Gospel of Jesus. How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things: Romans 10:15. What a blessing to be part of this team that shared the gospel of Jesus with these children as part of this ministry.
That afternoon I shared my testimony with the children who were at the second church on this distribution day. I explained to them how I had grown up attending church and catechism (in a Catholic church), but I did not have a relationship with Jesus until I was 13. A girlfriend of mine had shared her knowledge of the scriptures. She encouraged me to read the Bible for myself. My first memory verse was Matt 6:33: Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Now I know Jesus as my personal savior, and know that He is always with me, even when I’m sad or going through difficult times.
Thank you for the opportunity to be part of this wonderful ministry of sharing the gospel with children. Lord willing, I will be part of this mission team again next year
To see pictures from the 2017 trip, visit dr17.blueridgebaptist.org
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Chambersburg Baptist Church, a growing local church, is seeking a church music leader part time. This person would lead the church choir and congregation in both traditional and contemporary worship services. Submit resume' by e-mail preferably to cbcsbc@embarqmail.com or to PO Box 43, Chambersburg, PA 17201. Taneytown Baptist Church, 4150 Sells Mill Road, Taneytown, Maryland, is seeking to fill the position of full-time Senior Pastor. Through prayerful consideration, our congregation has targeted a candidate with qualities that would include but not be limited to: ∞ A Masters degree in Divinity (or working toward this level of education) ∞ A God loving and Bible preaching family man with a desire to nurture and grow our congregation ∞ Willing to relocate to the greater Taneytown, MD area If you are interested in applying for this position at Taneytown Baptist Church, please submit your resume to the Pastor Search Committee via email: tbc.pastor.search.17@gmail.com Faith Baptist Church Knoxville is also continuing to search for a full-time Senior Pastor. Please contact them at faithsbc.org for more information.
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The Amani Children's Choir will be in our area during the 2nd and 3rd week of May. They are looking for churches interested in hosting a concert. The commitment would involve housing/ feeding the group of about 25-30 children and leaders and opening the church for a concert. For more information or to book the choir, please contact Sandi Bonesteel at sbonesteel@gmail.com.
If you are interested in attending this simulcast please contact the following churches for times and ticket information:
Faith Baptist Church 2212 Jeerson Pike Knoxville, MD
301-834- 7755 | faithsbc.org
Covenant Baptist Church 7485 Shepherdstown Pike Shepherdstown, WV
304-876-2212 covenantexperience.com !7
VBS 2017 Training Opportunities April 29, 2017 9am to 2pm First Baptist Church, Upper Marlboro 7415 SW Crain Highway; Upper Marlboro, MD April 21, 2017 6 to 8:30pm First English Baptist Church 130 E. Main Street, Frostburg, MD
As you make your purchases of Vacation Bible School materials, please remember that Lifeway Christian Bookstore in Hagerstown will give the Association 10% back on ALL Lifeway VBS products if they are ordered through the Association. This money goes to help support Associational missions. If you order at Lifeway Hagerstown, tell the store at the point of sale that this is part of the BRBA cluster order. Randy Williams is the store manager and Mae Argilan is your BRBA contact at mae@blueridgebaptist.org.
April 5 @ 8 AM Pastor’s Breakfast at Bob Evans on Route 40 in Frederick, featured speaker is Ann Holcomb a local attorney who will be speaking to us about immigration issues. May 3 @ 8 AM Pastor’s Breakfast at Bonnie’s at the Red Byrd in Keedysville
Mae Argilan is stepping in to help BRBA while we are in between staff contractors for administration and publishing. We want to thank Mae for coming out of retirement temporarily to fill the gap. She can be reached at mae@blueridgebaptist.org.
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July 29 - August 5 Blue Ridge Baptist Association is partnering with Ocean City Baptist Church and the Eastern Baptist Association to sponsor a youth mission trip to Ocean City, MD. Teams will be working with the church to do outreach to the local community.
The church likes to embrace the recreational focus of the resort community by hosting sports camps for children, surf lessons, Vacation Bible School and sports on the
beach. Thousands of young adults from around the world also come to Ocean
City for summer employment through a cultural exchange program. We oer
meals, Conversational English classes and a variety of fun activities for them in
their free time.
The cost of the trip is $300 per person, some scholarships are available. If you are interested in participating in the trip, please contact Bruce Conley at 301-821-0370 or bruce@blueridgebaptist.org.
Summer Missionaries Blue Ridge Baptist Association is looking for a few good high school juniors, seniors, or college age students to act as summer missionaries to help our churches. If you are interested, and have your own transportation, please contact our Director of Missions, Bruce Conley at 301-821-0370 or bruce@blueridgebaptist.org.
If you are a BRBA church looking for help, with Vacation Bible school or other outreach projects, you may also contact Bruce with your requests.
Missionaries should be available for the majority the summer.
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After the devastating floods last June in southern WV, Harvest Pointe Community Church began praying and searching for ways to help the flood victims. Our church collected supplies for sixtyfive flood buckets and began to organize a group of volunteers to go serve alongside the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief teams. At the beginning of August, HPCC sent ten members of the congregation down to Rainelle, WV to help with recovery and rebuild. Our team was able to help a local family with cleaning out their trailer and yard by hauling away several loads of debris. We also helped with mold clean up in a few houses and we cleaned out a crawl space area of a home with water damage. The last couple days we worked alongside the Southern Baptist teams from New England helping to rebuild a home in the town of Rainelle. We installed new insulation and drywall, helped with framing a new bathroom, and cleaned out the garage.
After we returned, our team knew we wanted to go back down to help as soon as possible. For some of the missionaries this was our first experience working outside our local area helping to serve others in need. The work we accomplished was because God guided and directed our trip and kept us safe during our trip. Our team grew closer together because we could see how God was working by placing us in strategic locations each day to help victims and the disaster relief teams.
HPCC planned to take another team in October, however, with a lack of funds by the homeowners to purchase supplies the trip was rescheduled for this April. HPCC is sending another team of six men the week of April 17-21 to Clendenin, WV to help with the rebuilding of homes destroyed by last summer's flooding. We are planning to stay at a church in Charleston, WV and commute each day to Clendenin to work. HPCC has reserved the Blue Ridge Baptist Association Van to travel to our destination. Our team was blessed last Sunday with a Missions Oering to help fund our lodging, gas, and food on our trip. HPCC is looking forward to our trip and sharing how we helped the local families start to rebuild their lives. However, what we we are most excited about is serving others and sharing the love of Jesus Christ! Please keep HPCC in your prayers as we still prepare for the trip and pray during the week of April 17-21 for traveling mercies, safety on the work site, and most importantly opportunities to share the gospel!
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Event Calendar
April 5 - 8:00 AM - Pastor/Staff Fellowship Breakfast at Bob Evans on Rt. 40 in Frederick.
April 5 - Round Table Church Planting Strategy Discussion with Dr. Kevin Smith and Michael Crawford. 11:00 AM. Dutch’s Daughter Restaurant, 581 Himes Ave., Frederick, MD. For pastors and spouses. Meeting includes a free meal.
April 9 - Language Church Music Celebration. 5:00 - 9:00 PM at Global Mission Church, Silver Spring, MD. A celebration of worship in song, prayer, word and costume representing the tapestry of God’s people.
April 9 - Cooperative Program Sunday (SBC)
April 16 - Happy Easter from the staff and volunteers of the BRBA
April 21 - VBS Rally. First English Church
April 29 - Vacation Bible School EXPO/Celebration. 9:00 AM–2:00 PM. First Baptist Church, Rockville, MD. Presentation through Worship/Music featuring a Children’s Choir and Media.
Birthdays April 04 Debbie Buchman 09 Kevin Marsico 10 Terri Wills 12 Donna Rose 18 Candice Burcher May 07 10 20 21 22 22
Michelle Johnston Shawn Shceffers Joe Goforth Dan Housam Bob Gerstmyer Aaron Miller
Anniversaries April 12 Graves
April 29 - Unplugged Conference. Freedom Church
May 1-31 - May Health Kits. A time when health kits are collected from our churches and used in a variety of ministries including international student ministry, migrant workers, prison inmates, homeless, and seamen.
May 5 - Kids’ Ministry Seminar. 10:00 AM-2:00 PM. Baptist Mission Resource Center.
May 08 10 13 19 23
Sheffers Goforth Krauss Argilan Cherry
May 6 - Created in God’s Image: Christ’s call to love families with special needs. 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Cresthill Baptist Church (x204)
May 13 - Groups Ministry Resource Team. 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Baptist Mission Resource Center.
May 15-17 - Ports of Call. Skycroft Conference Center. Retreat for Senior Adults.
May 20 - Worship Workshop (TENTATIVE) Freedom Church
May 23 - Worship Diversity Seminar
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In the Churches Summit Trace - Frederick: The church will host an Easter Egg hunt from 2-4 at Lincoln Elementary School from 2 - 4 PM on Saturday, April 14.
Berkeley Baptist - Berkeley Springs, WV: The church will host an Easter Egg hunt at 1:00 pm on April 15 at the church.
First Baptist Church - Brunswick: A Beginning American Sign Language Class on Monday evenings from 6:30 - 8:00 PM from April 3 - May 22.
The church is collecting feminine hygiene products to help homeless women in Frederick County. Donations are being accepted until April 14.
Harvest Pointe - Charles Town: The church will be taking a missions team to southern West Virginia to continue to help recovery eorts from the flooding of 2016. See page 10 for more information.
Paramount - Hagerstown: The church will host an Easter Egg hunt at 11:00 am on April 15 at the church.
South End - Frederick: The church will host a Maundy Thursday Service on April 13 at 7:00 PM.
West End - Hagerstown: There will be a Baptism service on April 9th at 11:00 AM.
The church will host an Easter Egg hunt at 12:00 pm on April 15 at Pangborn Park.
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Prayer Requests: Dean Pryor (former pastor at Greenbrier Baptist and Director of Chaplains for Washington County Hospice) is asking for prayer for his dad - Paul Pryor (66 yrs. old). He has a liver full of cancer and it's also in the portal vein. They want to claim total healing. They are requesting as much prayer as possible. Larry Theisen (DOM in Keystone association - PA) is in Dothan, AL with his mother who has been in critical condition in the ICU at Flowers Hospital. Pray for her kidneys, lungs & hemoglobin count to all improve. Pray for Pastor Tim Kraynak Pastor of Berks Bible Church in Reading, PA who had been getting glowing reports about his cancer being in remission, but now the oncologist says that since the last surgery the pancreatic mass has nearly tripled in growth and his liver which was declared "clean" has 50+ spots. It only had 5 in this last year. Pray for Tim's recovery and healing. and that the cancer has not spread through his body through his blood. Pastor Thom Smith's (FBC Hagerstown) mother went home to be with the Lord recently. Pray for the Smith family in their loss, but also as they rejoice in her rejoining family members in heaven.
Praise Reports: FBC Hagerstown had several young people give their lives to Christ at their recent revival. The church also received a bequest recently from a devoted Christian woman in the Hagerstown area. She gave multiple gifts to multiple churches in the Hagerstown area as she went to glory! The BRBA mission team celebrated a very successful week in the Dominican Republic and is now home safe and willing to share of their experiences. If you need a speaker for a missions event at your church, let us know. The BRBA received a grant from the BCM/D to outfit a 2nd block party trailer (since the one we have is booked solid most of the summer, and we sometimes have to turn churches away). We're grateful for our continued partnership with our State convention! Billee Jo Myers (wife of Alan Myers - Pastor/Planter at Tri-State Comm. Church in Hancock) had a health scare recently when doctors discovered some cancer. After an operation and 3 radiation treatments she is on the better side of things now and healing well. We're grateful that the doctors caught this early and that Billie Jo is feeling better!
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THE NEWS JOURNAL OF THE BLUE RIDGE BAPTIST ASSOCIATION
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