Bowling and Lunch Youth Event THIS Sunday

ATTENTION First Baptist Church Sylva Youth (6th grade - Seniors)... Please join us this Sunday for an afternoon of BOWLING and PIZZA at the UltraStar Multi-tainment center in Cherokee, NC!!!

Meet us in the back parking area following THIS Sunday's service.  We will depart by 12:00 p.m. with plans to return to the Church no later than 3:15pm. Pizza Lunch and Bowling costs will be covered for you  - bring spending money for extras i.e. snacks and games and feel encouraged to invite a friend!

In an effort to plan accordingly, please contact Rob Stokely (828.507.2783) if your Youth plans to attend. Please reach out if you have any questions.  We very much look forward to connecting with your Youth this Sunday.

Hurray for Our Nursery Workers of the Week!

This weekend was a busy one for the nursery/child care.  On Saturday night,
Autumn Burnes and Kristi Hill provided care during the choir rehersal. 
Thank you for taking time from your weekend to help!

Sunday, Autumn Burnes assisted with nursery during Sunday School.  For worship, Heather and Jeremy Ellenburg had a full house in the nursery.  They report that they had a lot of fun!
We appreciate all of you!

There is still room on the schedule to serve “the least of these”
on Sunday mornings.  It is a blessing to see their smiles and enthusiasm as you spend
time with our infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. 
Please contact Cheryl Beck (cabeck@ncsu.edu) if you would like to help.

Clothing Donations Needed

We have a clothes closet for our students in need at Jackson Community School and are currently in need of belts (both male & female), bras/sports bras in larger sizes (L, XL, 2XL). Also, hot weather clothing such as shorts, short sleeve tops, etc. in larger sizes.

I hope we can collect some donations of these items with the help of our congregation. There will be a collection box in the Loving Kindness Room. Thank you for your consideration. –Brooke Drum

Clothing Donations Needed

We have a clothes closet for our students in need at Jackson Community School and are currently in need of belts (both male & female), bras/sports bras in larger sizes (L, XL, 2XL). Also, hot weather clothing such as shorts, short sleeve tops, etc. in larger sizes.

I hope we can collect some donations of these items with the help of our congregation. There will be a collection box in the Loving Kindness Room. Thank you for your consideration. –Brooke Drum

Mission Moment 10.11.23

Carson and Laura Foushee
CBF Field Personnel, Japan

Growing up, I (Laura) do not particularly remember learning Rahab’s story or her example being highlighted as a “hero(ine) of the faith.” The story she is part of is a complex one; she makes her initial appearance in scripture in Joshua 2 as a part of the recounting of Israel’s violent siege of Canaan in Israel’s quest for the promised land. Her own background as a prostitute, though disputed by some modern scholars, may make her seem like a less-than-noble character. Yet for one who is mentioned just twice in the book of Joshua, she is noted three times in the New Testament. She is among three women mentioned in Jesus’ lineage in Matthew 1 and she, along with Ruth, accounts for one of two of Jesus’ non-Israelite ancestors. In James and Hebrews, she is heralded alongside those like Abraham who lived lives of both faith and good works. Hebrews 11:31 summarizes the model of her faith in her act of receiving, or welcoming, the spies in peace. 

Over the last few years, I have had the opportunity to preach in several Japanese congregations, including delivering one sermon that explores Rahab’s example alongside our call as the church to welcome others in peace. Her feminine and ethnicoutsider perspective challenges us to view hospitality not in terms of etiquette or politeness, but as an act of faith that may change both the one giving and the one receiving hospitality. The hospitality Rahab initiates because of her faith in the Lord God is mutually reciprocated to her by Israel as she and her family are saved during the fall of Jericho and taken to live among the Israelites. As she learns to live in a new culture, Israel is also changed as she becomes a mother in the line that would lead to the Messiah. The risk we take in offering true hospitality is that it may change our lives. The possibility of offering hospitality is that it will become an act of faithful peacemaking. 

As a part of our call to cultivate beloved community in Japan, hospitality plays a central role in our day-to-day ministry. Rahab’s example has become a challenge for me and our partner congregation to engage in a similar model of mutual hospitality that brings about peace in this world. In working with our church on how to meet the needs of the internationals in our community so that they may lead full, healthy lives as minorities in a homogeneous society, we must be reminded that these relationships are mutual. We, too, can be recipients of hospitality as we open our hearts to one another. Hospitality is sharing meals together, worshiping together, supporting our congregation together and learning from one another. In this best kind of hospitality, no one leaves unchanged by the relationship, and we have a chance to sow a seed of God’s peace in the world. 

Pray. . .Give. . .Go.

Dawnings Continues Wednesday, November 1

The second of our of four congregational meetings will be Wednesday, November 1 beginning at 6:00 PM in the Mission and Fellowship Center. A blessing for our potluck meal together will be at 5:30 PM. 

Childcare will be provided for children up through the fifth grade in our nursery. Youth are encouraged to be a part of our congregational meeting in the MFC alongside adults. 

Dawnings is a narrative-based approach for personal and congregational visioning and discernment. Our four congregational meetings this fall will help us determine together who God is calling us to be and what God is calling us to do. Our entire church's participation in this process is critical to our determining what our future will look like. 

"This is what God says,

  the God who builds a road right through the ocean,

  who carves a path through pounding waves,

The God who summons horses and chariots and armies—

  they lie down and then can’t get up;

  they’re snuffed out like so many candles:

“Forget about what’s happened;

  don’t keep going over old history.

Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.

  It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?" Isaiah 43:16-19

Brian Foreman, the Coordinator of Congregational Ministries for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, comments that "These last two lines of scripture are both encouragement and command. The former encourages us to remember that God is still in control. The latter reminds us of our responsibility to notice and join God in doing something brand new."

"Dawnings is a congregational resource that helps you accomplish both of these things. By leaning into a spiritual discernment process through listening and responding to stories, your congregation will open itself to its place in God's sacred story for the community."

"Congregational postures of prayer and curiosity cultivate a sense of calling, not just for the congregation, before individuals as well. What better way to "be alert, be present," and to be a part of the "something brand new" God is doing!"

An Afternoon on the Farm – Sunday, October 29

The next Family Fun Event will be held at Cheryl Beck's family farm in Graham County, near Stecoah, on Sunday afternoon, October 29.  Families with children and teens are invited to visit the farm, enjoy a cookout, see the cattle, ride horses, and maybe have a hayride!  We will carpool from the church right after worship service.  Please let Cheryl know if your family will be participating.