Yard Sale! Yard Sale! Yard Sale!
Just like everything else, the price of Passport has gone up this year! The children who are planning to attend from our church hope to defray some of the expense of this wonderful camp by hosting a yard sale in early May.
As you do your spring cleaning over the next few weeks, look through your house to see what you could contribute to make the yard sale a success. You may bring your items to the Sunday School room beside the choir room, beginning Wednesday, April 10. If you need help transporting items, please let Cheryl Beck know and we can arrange to have items picked up at your home. The date of the yard sale will be announced soon. Thanking you in advance for your contributions!
Recipes Appreciated!
Each week we include a recipe in the Church Chimes and we hope that you are enjoying reading and trying them. You can add your favorite recipes to the Chimes by sending them to Cheryl Beck at cabeck@ncsu.edu. This is an ongoing WMU project.
Thanks for participating!
Mission Moment 4.3.24
Lita and Rick Sample
CBF Field Personnel, California
Fremont, California, is home to the largest concentration of Afghans anywhere outside of central Asia, with more than 60,000 Afghans living in and around Fremont. Right after my wife, Lita, and I moved here from Houston, Texas, we became involved in various ministries directed toward Afghans, particularly refugee families. For years, we prayed that the Lord would bring to the Bay Area a compassionate, educated Afghan Christian—a gifted evangelist to plant and pastor the first Afghan Christian church in our area, perhaps one of the first Afghan churches in the nation.
God answered those prayers by bringing Isaac from Afghanistan to northern California a few years ago. I met Isaac when he first arrived at a Persian New Year Nowruz festival at a local park where our local team of church leaders interested in evangelizing Afghans had a booth at the festival. I was immediately struck at how Isaac was able to share the Gospel with Afghan Muslims with sensitivity and clarity while being completely true to the Gospel message without any compromise to Muslim objections. He really is a powerful evangelist. Isaac and I quickly forged a very close friendship and partnership in the gospel that becomes richer all the time.
Lita and I were thrilled when Isaac started an Afghan church based in Fremont and were honored to attend his wedding to his lovely bride, Mary. Together, Mary and Isaac are an Afghan ministry power couple. Having reached 20-plus years of Afghan ministry in this city, I am happy to report that we now have a strong leadership team of various local pastors, church leaders, lay people and others serving in the Afghan ministry with Isaac as our ethnic pastoral leader. Our entire Afghan ministry team looks to Isaac for guidance and leadership as we all seek to bear witness to Jesus Christ. His wisdom on how best to present the gospel to Afghans has been pivotal in our ESL programs, outreach events, volunteer enlistment and basically every element of what has become a powerful Christ-presence among our local community of Afghan Muslims. That is in addition to his pastoral direction of his own ethnic Afghan congregation with its young-in-the-faith community of Jesus-followers.
One of the things that has impressed us most about Isaac is that, in addition to all the ministries with which he is engaged locally and in person with Afghans in our community and with the many times he speaks in local churches to interpret what is happening within the Afghan ministry network here in the Bay Area, Isaac has also developed an effective and flourishing global ministry in which he engages in discipleship with Afghans around the world via the internet. Under his tutelage numerous Afghans who are recent converts to Christianity are benefiting from his teaching and discipleship as they meet with him regularly online.
Easter Escape Room Coming This Sunday!
All youth and children ages 8 and up are invited to enter the Easter Escape Room this Sunday morning promptly at 9:00 a.m. Come to the Children's Sunday School Room, grab a quick bite to eat, and then work as teams to solve 4 mysteries of Easter. We can't leave the Escape Room until the mysteries and a Final Mystery have been unlocked (hopefully by 10:30 worship service time!).
Easter Egg Hunt Winners Announced
On Easter Sunday, the playground was a colorful sight with hundreds of Easter eggs hidden (and in plain sight) by the youth and their volunteer leaders Brooke Dills and Rob Stokely. It was such fun to watch the children gather the eggs and search for the golden prize eggs.
In the 5 and under age category, Siler Messer and Strider Drum were the winners, while in the school-age category, Brayden Linder, Alex Wittekind, and Liam Nelson were the lucky winners. Each will receive a gift certificate from Jack the Dipper.
Cutlines (click on each image to enlarge):
Far Left: Friends Siler Messer and Strider Drum display their golden eggs.
Second: Brayden Linder and Alex Wittekind found the Golden Eggs in the school age category.
Third and Fourth: It was Sparrow's first time to hunt Easter eggs … as well as Xander's.
Babysitting Training to Be Held
All young people in grades 5 and up who are interested in receiving training to be a good babysitter are invited to participate in a Babysitting Clinic beginning April 8, in the Children’s Sunday School room. There will be 3 sessions: Monday, April 8, Monday, April 15, and Tuesday, April 23, from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Included in the training will be ages and stages of children, basic care, first aid, planning activities, healthy snacks, and setting up a babysitting business. The clinic will be led by Cheryl Beck with resource people assisting.
Please call Cheryl at 828- 421-3820 for more information.
Church Family Potluck Dinner
TONIGHT, April 3, 2024 at 5:15 p.m.
Please join with our Church family for our monthly potluck meal followed by time in Bible Study. Our Bible study will be in the form of a Bible Trivia game led by Dennis Wilkey with the support of Linda Minor and Nancy McConnell. There is a rumor that prizes will be given. So, brush up on your obscure Bible facts and embrace our time together for some good-natured fun. Please bring your favorite homemade or take-out meal or dessert to share. Water and tea will be provided as well as paper products and plasticware. Note: The Cooperative Baptist Student Fellowship students have been invited to join us again.
Join Us for Worship!
Join us for worship on Sunday morning at 10:30 a.m. in the sanctuary! Also join us for Sunday School at 9:30 a.m. for all ages!
The CDC recommends that you wear a mask indoors.
Maximize protection from the Delta variant and prevent possibly spreading it to others.
Our worship service will be streamed online at firstbaptistsylva.com.
Send Us Your Prayer List Updates
Add this email address to your contacts list on your devices so that our staff and Pastoral Care Team can learn of your prayer requests as quickly as possible. And yes, you may still contact the church office directly at 828-586-2095 to share your prayer concerns, as well.