Sylva FBC continues its rest home ministry, presenting worship opportunities for the residents of Morning Star Care Center, on Sunday, August 21, at 3 pm. You are invited to attend as three of our men provide music, and a message from Holy Scripture.
Back to School Celebration Potluck!
Fall is swiftly approaching, and it's almost time for kids to head back to school! FBC will be kicking off the school year by having a Back to School Celebration / Meet and Greet! It will be a covered dish lunch immediately following worship on August 21st. Our Preschool and Children's Ministry Interns, Hannah Harris and Megan Harris will be celebrating the children in our church and getting to know the parents while giving out some basic information about the upcoming Preschool and Children's ministries. We hope you and your kids can join us and bring food to share!
Kitchen Team Meeting
The Kitchen Team will be having a short meeting on Sunday at 5:30 PM at the church to discuss this years assignments. This is for Kitchen Team members and anyone who would like to help out in the kitchen!
If They Can't Come to Jesus, Jesus Can Come to Them
Feeling adrift and unsettled? You have no idea.
Just consider the story of some stranded Filipino sailors who are currently anchored off the coast of Georgia. According to a story published this week on National Public Radio by Camila Domonoske, the cargo ship—the Newlead Castellano—is swaying without direction on the ocean swells off a Georgia beach, holding its sailors captive.
“The cargo ship had been seized by U.S. marshals because its owners had stopped paying on their loans. The ship would be sold to pay off those debts — a process "similar in concept" to a home foreclosure, says attorney Todd Baiad, who represents the lenders.
"Because it's a movable object, there's some intricacies involved," he explains. "And, you know, you've got crew members."
The crew has been marooned on their ship since April. And they haven’t been allowed to come ashore.
For many of us, we can identify with this tale of suspended animation. Although we may have never stepped foot on a cargo ship, we are quite familiar with the sensation of feeling trapped. There’s something both poignant and disturbing about this universal experience of feeling stranded.
Maritime stories abound of sea voyages plagued by the doldrums. The doldrums refer to areas of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans where the trade winds become quiet, effectively hijacking the progress of ships that were dependent on capturing the wind to fuel their sails. Sailors would bake on the decks of their ships, praying for a breeze to ripple the glassy sea and inch them closer to their destination.
As much as we may loathe the doldrums, trying to avoid them is fruitless. Sometimes, we just get stuck. Progress feels impossible and we find ourselves staring out at the distant horizon, desperate for an agent of change. In these moments, our souls are deflated and we oftentimes feel cut-off from those we love. God seems absent and impotent. We become tired of our own prayers.
In the story of the cargo ship, however, the Newlead Castellano’s prayers were eventually answered. The National Maritime Service became responsible for the crew, providing for them sustenance in the form of food and water. The crew asked for something else, though. They wanted a priest to visit them and to provide them the Eucharist, or communion. The attorney that had been assigned to them swiftly contacted his own parish priest, asking him if he had any interest in visiting the stranded sailors.
“The pastor, Father Brett Brannen, wound up making the trip offshore not just once, but several times over the course of the summer.
"If they can't come to Mass, Mass can come to them," the attorney Todd Baiad says. He says he was there for one of Brannen's visits, and that sharing the Sacrament with the stranded sailors was "a really meaningful spiritual experience."
For our Catholic brothers and sisters, Mass includes the experience of communion—of having a direct experience with Jesus Christ.
“If they can’t come to Mass, Mass can come to them.”
If they can’t come to Jesus, Jesus can come to them.
How many times has Christ come to you through the love and compassion of individuals who have ventured beyond the gap to be near you when you’ve been adrift? Personally, I thank God for the grace I have received when I have been found sitting on the deck of a ship stuck on a wide ocean, unsure if it will ever move again.
I am deeply moved by Father Brannen’s willingness to take communion to these stranded Fillipino sailors because it strikes at the heart of the Gospel. In the Great Commission, God commands us to go to distant lands to unfamiliar people and to share Jesus’s life, ministry and teachings with them. It is both foolish and disobedient to presume that these far-flung individuals should come to us in order to experience Jesus. The burden is upon us. We are the ones who Jesus is calling to go to others in His name.
The church as a lighthouse may not be the best image for us, here. Yes, lighthouses pierce the darkness so that ships can find safe passage to shore. Rather, I prefer the story of the primitive ‘lifesavers’ who were stationed on the Outer Banks during the late 1800s. More than a century ago, these committed individuals kept watch for ships that got shipwrecked on the cape’s trademark shoals. For when they did, they launched a kind of zip-line from the shore to the stranded ship in the hopes of rescuing the sailors and bringing them to safety.
It is imperative that we are a church who seeks to share Christ with those outside our fellowship. Just as it was with the lifesavers on the Outer Banks, we must keep watch; ever-prepared and passionate about saving souls in Christ’s Name. We, ourselves, have been rescued countless times. We know how to do it because we’ve experienced it ourselves. It’s now time for us to journey out to others so that they can experience the breath of the Holy Spirit filling their sails.
Sundays in August
End of Summer Picnic at East LaPorte!
Our end-of-summer picnic will be at East LaPorte on August 14th from 4:30—8:00 PM! Please bring food for your family and enough to share! We hope you can also join us in our annual Whiffle Ball Game!
A Letter from Pastor Ernesto Bazan
Greetings brothers and sister of First Baptist Church of Sylva,
I hope in the Lord that you all are well and happy. I thank God that I was able to have the chance to meet so many brothers and sisters at this church who pray and understand and open their doors to other countries. America unites us with sincerity and the desire to do things together for God's glory. I sincerely hope to come back and meet more brothers and sisters who grow every day in love. Friendship through brotherhood and solidarity will unite us forever. You received our church like it was a city of God. You will forever bless the church of God no matter where you go.
Sincerely in Christ,
Ernesto Bazan
Lights On Camp Celebration
As the end of Summer Explorers camp approaches, we would like to invite everyone to join us for a Lights On Camp Celebration! Celebrate camp with us on August 11th at 6:00 PM in our Mission and Fellowship Center. Dinner will be provided. Students will share about their summer and there will be a silent auction for art work and a raffle.
Backpack Ministry
First Baptist Church would like to thank you all on behalf of WMU and Gaye Buchanan for your support of our Backpack Ministry. This ministry helps provide children with supplies for school when they wouldn't otherwise have access to them. This ministry is very important to the children in our community, and your support is very much appreciated.
Lost (and Found) in Translation
Together, we faced one another from across a table. Between us was an iPhone. We pressed a button on the device and took turns speaking in our respective languages. After each statement that we would make, we would pause, press the corresponding button on the device, and wait for the translation.
“Ahhhhh,” one of us would say, grinning. “I understand.”
In this way, Ernesto and I got to know each other this week. It was a remarkably fulfilling experience.
My family and I have been blessed to spend time with Ernesto this week. We have had the chance to share our stories, speak about the realities of our contexts for ministry, and have been able to find places of intersection for our hopes and our dreams. Ernesto and I are brothers in Christ. We are also becoming close friends.
And we may just have technology to thank for that.
This much is true: Ernesto’s command of English is far better than my understanding of Spanish. He is able to comprehend my statements more effectively than I am able to understand his. It will not surprise you to learn that I am the troublesome one in our dialogue. Without the assistance of a translator, our conversation is pleasant but not particularly rich.
Jeff: “I like the rain.”
Ernesto: “Sí. The rain is very nice.”
Jeff: “Sí.”
Our universal connectivity through technology certainly has its drawbacks, but in this circumstance the translation software on my iPhone has provided many breakthrough moments for our relationship. My device acts as an intermediary which seamlessly allows us to speak long, coherent thoughts to one another.
The word ‘seamless’ may be a bit of an overstatement. There are times when the translation is clearly incorrect. And we laugh. At other times, we may fail to press the ‘start’ button on the application, only to realize later than our profound statement fell on deaf (or at least uncomprehending) ears. We laugh some more.
One benefit of the software is that it dictates on the screen what will be translated. In other words, the device listens to my statement and presents it on the screen for both Ernesto and I to see. Only a moment passes before the device translates my statement into Spanish. The computer then speaks the translation aloud. The upshot of this feature is that it helps me to see in advance if the device heard me correctly before it translates my words into Spanish. For, of course, if the words that appear on the screen are not a good representation of what I actually said, the translation will be meaningless—or even dangerous.
After one such translation bobble, I remarked, “This is how World Wars get started.”
We laughed together.
Because of this technological tool, we have been able to dialogue about more than just the pretty mountains or the weather. Ernesto and I have been able to speak passionately about our love for our churches and our concern for our communities. Since we’ve been able to have an intermediary, we’ve been able to talk about strategies to deepen our relationship and to grow our friendship. Neither of us want an imbalanced relationship. Both Ernesto and I want a relationship of equanimity to develop between our churches, for friendship is defined by reciprocity—not dependency, or empiricism. It is important to both of us that we treat one another as equals: supporting one another, loving one another, working together for good in our respective contexts. To that end, we believe that our next step should involve sharing our particular needs, and then working to identify projects that we can work on together.
But as we are discovering this week, huddled around an iPhone at a table, none of that can happen without a strong friendship in Christ.
As brothers in Christ through our sister-churches, we know that it is the presence of Jesus that truly connects us to one another. Jesus is our ultimate intermediary. Christ bridges the gap between us and God. And, of course, Christ bridges the gap between you and me. In a world with such violence surrounding our differences, the love of God in Jesus has never been more critical to our future.
On Sunday, Ernesto and I will be leading in worship together. With the help of a (human!) translator, Ernesto will lead from our pulpit. And together, Ernesto and I will speak the Words of Institution together as we gather around the table of the Lord for communion.
It will be a striking scene, similar to the one Ernesto and I experienced this past week. We will face one another from across the table, ready to listen, to partner, and to love. But this time, it will be Christ who is at the center--between us, connecting us together for service, now and tomorrow.