Join 1st Explorers tomorrow, Thursday, October 25th to celebrate Lights on After School beginning at 4:00 PM in our Mission and Fellowship Center. We will have a variety of projects on display and we welcome visitors to participate. Please join us as we celebrate the work of 1st Explorers in After School and After School Programs across the nation.
National Lights on After School Day
On October 25th, 1st Explorers will participate in National Lights on After School Day. We will be sharing various projects and videos in the Mission and Fellowship Center beginning at 4:00 PM. Additionally, we will be receiving a proclamation from the Town of Sylva acknowledging our work! Please join us on October 25th as we celebrate After School!
1st Explorers Hurricane Relief
For the past week, we have been talking with our Explorers in After School about Hurricane Florence and how devastating it has been for many families who have lost their homes, belongings, and even have lost loved ones. I have been in contact with the North Carolina Baptist Men who provide a significant amount of disaster relief and support to communities. During chapel we have been talking about community and how we can support the Body of Christ with our gifts and out of this timely discussion the kids have been able to create a list of things we will be putting in bags to deliver to a donation processing center to support those have been affected by the storm. Until October 12th we will be accepting donations for the following items:
Gallon Ziplock bags
Toothbrushes/Toothpaste
Hand sanitizer
Snacks (Poptarts, granola bars, trail mix, etc.)
Soap
Notebooks
Pens and Pencils
Items can be dropped off at the back door during pick-up. After the 12th, we will put the bags together as a part of our weekly chapel service on Monday, October 15th, then we will organize a time to have the items delivered to a Mission Camp in Shelby, NC.
Parents Night Out
You can register via the church website for Parents Night Out care on Friday, September 14th from 5:30 - 9:00 PM. All ages are welcome. Participants will be making pizza toast and salad for dinner. We will make fall wreaths as our craft for the night. Join the fun!
Remembering Summer Camp 2018
Summer Explorers Camp 2018 has come and gone. We now have memories of songs, time spent on field trips, memory verses from our daily and weekly chapel and bible study moments, and, most of all, the relationships that we have shared as we learned, shared and grew together this summer! This is a video of the many memories 1st Explorers shared together this summer. I hope you will enjoy this video of our summer camp memories.
Kelly,
1st Explorers Director
Summer Time and the Livin’ Is Easy
Although Memorial Day Weekend typically signals the unofficial start to summer, First Baptist Church got a week’s headstart.
No, I’m not referring to the typical summer-like pattern that evolves in our mountains with foggy mornings and afternoon thunderstorms. I’m referencing our children’s campout and sleepover this past weekend. As our 1st Explorers Ministry Director, Kelly Brown, details in his own reflection, the young men in our Royal Ambassador program went on a campout to the Davidson river while our Girls in Action had a sleepover at the church.
On Saturday morning, I drove across Highway 276 to rendezvous with the boys as they began to strike camp after a wet night in the Pisgah Forest. Yes, the boys and their leaders were a bit damp, but the bacon that Chris Moore was frying had everyone in a festive mood and the boys played whiffle ball beneath the drippy canopy of leaves. There was an unmistakable feeling of accomplishment among them, and I delighted in the sense of community that had sprung up among the men and boys. With the smell of a campfire flooding my nostrils, I couldn’t help but smile as the men drank coffee and the boys acted like boys. After a long and at times torturous winter, we had finally made it to summer.
Summer is a time for Sabbath-taking. It is ripe for new rhythms, late dinners and walks along a lush river valley. Summer is also a unique time for service and ministry as the season provides unique opportunities to assist our friends and neighbors while we tell them the “old, old story” of Jesus and his love. At First Baptist, we will strive to honor both rest and mission.
Here are some highlights of what we have planned for this summer:
-Sylva First Wednesdays concludes for the spring on Wednesday, June 6. Our Wednesday night programming in the fall will begin anew on August 22.
-Our joint Vacation Bible School with other downtown churches will run from June 11-15 in the mornings at Bridge Park. There are countless ways that you can serve the children and our families that week. Join us to help lead the children’s small groups, or to provide water for volunteers, or to visit with parents, or to help set-up tables and tents, or to simply be a part of the joyful chaos that is Vacation Bible School. Truly, the sound of children’s laughter is a balm for a sick and weary soul.
-Speaking of children, our 1st Explorers Ministry will again be offering their robust offering to the community with our Summer Explorers Camp. Although you may not have a child or grandchild participating in this wall-to-wall summer ministry opportunity, your Sunday School class can choose to partner with Kelly and our staff to provide unique opportunities of connection with children and their families this summer. I can think of no better ‘home’ mission opportunity than for a group, ministry, circle or couple to adopt a summer camp group of children who will be on campus with us over 40 hours each week. Think of the relationships that could be built and strengthened!
-As a church family, we’ll gather for fellowship on three Sunday afternoons this summer to relax, play and devour ice cream. Yes, we’ll be headed to the pavilion at Deep Creek in the Great Smokies Mountain National Park on June 24 where we’ll eat and play, and we’ll have our traditional potluck picnic at East LaPorte on August 26. But sandwiched between these two events will be a new gathering where we’ll have supper on the church grounds. On Sunday afternoon, July 15th, we’ll enjoy a hot dog supper followed by a veritable feast of ice cream afterward. It’s been some time since we crowned an ice cream maker champion, so get your recipes primed and ready for our contest after supper that evening.
-Of course, it’s not summer without the crack of a bat. Although our children and youth will be at their respective Passport Mission Camps the week of July 4th, that won’t stop the rest of us from taking in an Asheville Tourists game on the 4th of July at 7 PM. We’ll drive separately but sit together. And after the game, we’ll be invited to head out onto the field to take in their fireworks display. Tickets are $10 each and must be purchased by June 4th in our church office.
-Oh, and there’s much more. Our youth will be meeting together on Mondays from 4-6 PM each week, and there will be church hikes and a host of other mission opportunities to be a part of, as well. We know that your family will be traveling and vacationing this summer, but we also hope you’ll choose to broaden your chumminess with our own church family this summer, also.
Summer is a sweet, sweet gift and we’re not about to waste it. So, look around and see God at work in our beautiful mountain home. Feel the mist from a thundering waterfall. Take in an evening with friends by a fire pit. Barbecue on a rusty grill by a cement picnic table in the national park. Listen to the melody of the songbirds. And above all, be thankful.
It’s summer, and the time is ripe to play, rest and serve.
Parents Night Out
Parents Night Out
Friday, April 6th from 5:30 - 9:00 PM
Dinner will be Pancakes and Hashbrowns. Participants will create shaving cream eggs.
1st Explorers Wishlist
1st Explorers is doing great things in our Wee Explorers Pre-School, After School Ministry, Summer Camp and many other offerings!
From time to time we need assistance with supplies. I wanted to share with you some needs:
- Bottle glue and glue sticks
- Washable markers
- Sharpie Permanent Markers
- Expo Dry Erase Markers
- Crayons
- Pencils
- Scissors
- Varied colors of construction paper
- Loose leaf paper
- 1-1/2inch binders
- White Computer Paper
- Scotch Tape
- Beach Balls
- Hand Sanitizer
- Rulers
- Lysol Spray
- Clorox Spray
- First Aid Kits
- Sanitizing Wipes
- Pots and Pans
Please consider helping us with some of our needs throughout the year! Check out our Amazon wish-list at: https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/LKIDY053QS5O/ref=bnav_topnav_lists_2
If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at 828-339-0130 or brownkellyg@gmail.com
Spring Break Care
We invite school-age children to sign-up for Spring Break Care, March 5 - 9, 2018. Care will be provided each day 7:30 - 5:30 and students must bring their own lunch. Each day students will go on field trips and participate in fun and exciting activities!
Fee are:
$100 for one child
$150 for two children
$225 for three children
$35 per day if you would like to attend specific days.
Spaces are limited for Spring Break Care!
Sign up here: http://firstbaptistsylva.com/giving/
Parents Night Out
We will be having Parents Night Out on February 2nd from 5:30 - 9:00 PM.
Sign up for Parents Night Out here: http://firstbaptistsylva.com/giving