"Recently we hosted the youth group from a local church partner to work at Welcome House, an apartment setup for arriving refugees awaiting long-term affordable housing. After we shared briefly with the youth we sent them out into the apartment community to meet other youth and children. The youth were all over the place playing and making friends with their international neighbors. It was an amazing scene. The next morning I got an email saying some of the youth had been asking when they would be going back. This is what mission engagement looks like sometimes in North Raleigh."
Kim and Marc Wyatt, CBF field personnel in the Research Triangle of North Carolina
BALL Club Breakfast Trip
BALL Club is going to Fryemont Inn for breakfast August 14, leaving church at 8:15 am. Breakfast is family style and total cost including tip is $12. Please sign up on board in church hall, or call church office. No excuses! No, it is not too early! Jennie Hunter 399-0623.
Nursery Director
Please welcome our new Nursery Director, Meredith Keskula to our church family!
Meredith started at First Baptist with the church nursery in December of 2015. She is excited to be back in Sylva full time and in a more permanent role with the church. She is a graduate of the University of Georgia with a Bachelor’s degree in Health Promotion. Meredith hopes to attend a graduate program in physical therapy in the future. She grew up in Augusta, GA and was an active member of Wesley United Methodist Church. She then joined the Wesley campus ministry while at UGA and was a part of several small groups. Meredith also went on a mission trip to Port Maria in Jamaica with Wesley. Some of her interests include traveling, cooking/baking, and spending time with family and friends.
Mission Moment
A member of the church in Nesvady told me that he had begun bearing witness to Jesus Christ with the Roma family next door. Along the way, the two households began a transformative relationship. People who lived next door to each other for decades slowly became neighbors. And that is when, and how, his attempts at bearing witness bore fruit. Concluding his story of how wonderful it was to see his neighbor become part of the church, he held back tears and said, "After she was baptized, she asked me 'Why didn't you tell me sooner?'"
- Dianne and Shane McNary, CBF field personnel in Slovakia
Summer's Final Checklist
As we head into the last few weeks of summer, be sure that you don’t miss out on the following opportunities as the days begin to get shorter.
-Drop by and hear the laughter of children and their leaders at our Summer Explorers Camp each day of the week. You are also invited to our End of Camp Celebration in our Mission and Fellowship Center on Thursday, August 10th beginning with dinner at 5:00 PM.
-Drive up on the Blue Ridge Parkway above 4500’ in elevation and pick blueberries. And watch out for bears.
-Attend our final Enneagram seminar this Sunday, August 6th at 4:30 PM in our Gathering Place room and learn more about the complex and dynamic person God created you to be.
-Stroll through campus at Western Carolina University and pray for the incoming students and returning faculty. Also, linger by the stadium and put in a few extra prayers for the football team and their coaching staff.
-Attend ‘Unto These Hills’ in Cherokee before their summer season ends and enjoy their new/old take on a powerful story.
-Go to Wal-Mart for no particular reason and spend an hour catching up with old friends in the aisles. One suggestion, though: Don’t make mental notes of what brand of toothpaste they have in their carts.
-Put Wednesday, August 23rd on your calendar and make plans for your family to be a part of our ‘Sylva First Wednesday’ offerings for children, youth and adults. Dinner will begin at 5:15 PM, followed by activities for all ages beginning at 6:00 PM. Lastly, Bob would love to have you join the choir at 7:15 PM.
-Find a hammock and dig out that book you intended to read this summer. Then get cracking on it!
-Eat some ice cream. See a movie at the Quinn. Eat a couple of hotdogs from B & Al’s Grill and wash them down with a milkshake.
-Make plans to develop one new spiritual discipline for the fall. Look at your daily rhythms and find a time to pray, read, listen and reflect.
-Commit to printing out a copy of each week’s prayer list and lift-up our church family each day.
-Find someone to watch the eclipse with on Monday, August 21st.
-Can some beans. Make some freezer jam.
-Plan a Sunday School gathering before fall starts in earnest. It can be grand like a day-trip, or simple like an after-worship picnic.
-Visit our ‘Loving Kindness Center’ and make plans to be generous.
-Surprise a loved one with a squirt from a water gun. (Extra points for those who attempt this during the ‘Passing of the Peace’ segment in worship)
-Stop and give your attention to a summer thunderstorm and be mindful of the work of our awesome God.
There are only a few weeks left in what’s been a glorious summer. Make the most of the time we have been given and savor it.
Backpack Blessing
We will have a backpack blessing on Sunday, August 13th. We invite children and youth to bring their backpacks to church and place them around the communion table prior to the start of worship (Worship starts at 10:30). During the service we will have a time of prayer and encouragement for our children and youth. We are collecting various school supplies for students who are in need.
Circles of Hope Update
The long term goal of Circles of Hope Jackson County is to move 10% of the county’s population out of poverty. We have 9000 people in the county living below the poverty level making our goal 900 people. Our goal each year is to move 20 families out of poverty.
We work to help them get a living wage job or an education that will lead to a living wage job. The Circle Leaders (those living in poverty who must take a leadership role in their journey out of poverty) attend 16 weeks of training after which they are assigned an Ally who serves as a friend, cheer leader, and resource person. The Circle Leaders continue to come each week for the next year or two. We provide a healthy meal each week and child care.
We have been in operation only 3 years and are now ranked in the top 30% of the national Circles organizations. The first year we spent 6 months getting organized and then worked with only 5 Circle Leaders while we learned the program.The second year we worked with 2 groups of six each and this year we have 7 in each class. Only 2 of the 31 clients we have had in the program did not graduate from the 16 weeks of classes. 50% of our graduates have gotten better paying jobs. 30% now have stable housing, and 30% have gone back to school. One has started her own business.
First Baptist Church has been an integral part of this effort by allowing Circles to use our facility for meetings and childcare. We are very thankful for your continued support.
Ginger Fullbright
Ann Melton
Circles of Hope Volunteers
Enneagram Group Meeting
Join us on Sunday, August 6th at 4:30 PM in the Gathering Place for our Enneagram group meeting. The Enneagram (which means nine-sided figure) is an ancient Christian tool that can help us to better know ourselves and to be gracious with others.
All are welcome to join, even if you missed our other meetings! The book that we will be using, while helpful, is optional. We will be offering childcare for our 90 minute experience.
Community Prayer on Tuesday
Join our community churches for the FCA Prayer at the Stadium on Tuesday, August 1 at 6:30 PM.
Dangerous Heat
Today: Expect a mix of sun and clouds with a slight chance of afternoon thunderstorms, mainly over the high terrain. Winds light and variable. High of 88 F. Heat index approaching 100 F in spots. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
It has been hot lately. And that means one thing: I’ve been complaining about it.
I despise the heat and I love to bicker about it. I know, we mountain folk don’t experience the oppressive heat that our other southern neighbors experience. One friend of mine in Mississippi described the summer heat and humidity this way: “When you leave Wal-Mart at night and walk out the front door, the heat assaults you as though someone has taken an afghan quilt, immersed it in boiling water, and then flung it over your head.”
When I lived in Tucson, Arizona shortly after seminary I discovered that people simply didn’t go outside until the sun went down. Even then the temperature was well-over 100 F. “But it’s a dry heat,” some will say. Yes, just like an oven.
Social psychologists, researchers and scientists alike have been studying the effects of heat on people for years. Most of us are aware that heat waves are more than just a nuisance, or cause for people to hydrate and care for their pets. We know that violent crime spikes when the temperatures rise. We know now that the riots during the summer of 1967 coincided with heat waves on the east coast and in the Midwest. A well-documented study from the mid-1990s found that “aggravated assaults roughly doubled in Dallas when the average temperature rose from 75 F to 95 F.”
And then there’s road rage. One study proved that motorists were quicker to lay on their horns on hot days when cars at intersections were slow at responding to a changing traffic light. In another study involving our nation’s pastime, pitchers on Major League Baseball teams were more likely to throw at, and hit batters in retaliation, when it is hot rather than when it is cool.
Yes, the heat makes us cranky. But it can also affect the way in which we think or perceive the world around us. As it turns out, we’re far more likely to ‘project’ whatever we’re experiencing in the moment into the future even though the facts don’t support it. Social economists tell us that this ‘projection bias’ distorts our worldview and can make us far more reactive in the moment. To put it simply, the heat can make us overreact to stuff. As you can imagine, this can lead to some very bad decision-making.
In my experience and observation, the results of these studies ring true. Regardless of the setting, I have found a correlation between my own temperament—and the temperaments of others—during the mid-summer heat. Tempers flare more easily in July than they do in February. Disagreements and casual silliness linger longer when it’s 90 F than when it’s 50 F. People fuss and are more anxious in the heat and humidity than they are when it’s crisp and cool. We are more prone to make snap judgements that we will later regret when our internal thermostats are turned up.
So be aware, people. The experts are correct. Heat is dangerous. It can sap your strength, make you sick, and yes, hurt your relationships.
Both Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well come off as a bit testy when they meet up in the mid-day sun. Jesus is thirsty and requests some water. The woman’s reply seems uncharacteristically sharp and Jesus seems to match her tone with a pointed reply.
“Living water,” she retorts. “Ha! You have no bucket and the well is deep. Where will you get that living water, pray tell? Who do you think you are?”
When Jesus replies that the water he gives will be like a spring of water gushing up to eternal life, the woman mocks him and says with great sarcasm and eye-rolling: “Sir! Give me this water, so that I will never have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Jesus plays his prophetic card and reveals that he knows about her checkered past and why she chooses to visit the well alone during the heat of the day. The woman’s skepticism and cynicism melts when she realizes that Jesus is the Messiah, and she returns to the village to reveal what she’s experienced.
The heat can make us thirsty. And in our attempt to quench our thirst we can be tempted to drink from the wrong sources. Bitterness, anxiety-fueled tirades, and rage do not slate our thirsts—they inflame them. Jesus, however, can cool us off. He can give us the space we need to chill out and to prayerfully reflect on life and the world around us. Whether it’s time up on a mountain with the Father where the breeze is more pronounced, or if it’s immersing ourselves in the cool, truth-revealing waters of Christ’s presence, Jesus is the antidote to that itchy, irascible feeling we get when life’s heat gets too hard to bear.
Stay hydrated these last weeks of summer by drinking deeply from the well of God’s goodness. Like a sip from a good, old mountain spring, Jesus’s presence can make us cool, calm and collected.
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Read more about how the heat affects us our sensibilities. Click on this link to read Katherin Milkman’s excellent article in the Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/07/21/heat-doesnt-just-make-us-cranky-it-makes-us-dumb-shoppers/?utm_term=.ef475e1ceab3