As I recently preached on Hannah, the wife who prayed for a son and miraculously gave birth to a boy who would become the great Old Testament Prophet Samuel, I ran across an illustration I had never heard before.  E.V. (Ed) Hill, who pastored Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles for 42 years, tells the story of how the love and prayers of his adopted “Mama” changed his life. Mama believed in two things: Prayer and Ed.  She saw to it that he graduated from high school and even insisted that he go to college.  As he boarded the bus to leave for college, Mama said to him, “Remember, Mama is praying for you.” When he arrived at Prairie View College in his native Texas, he stood in the registration line and soon learned that the $1.90 he had left from his bus trip would not pay for his tuition, room and board. He started to get out of line, but then remembered his Mama’s words. She was praying for him. As it came his turn to register, Dr. J.M. Drew approached him and asked if he was Ed Hill from Sweet Home, Texas. Ed told him he was, then Dr. Drew said, “We have a four-year scholarship that will pay your room and board, your tuition, and give you thirty dollars a month to spend.” And Ed says he heard his Mama say, “I will be praying for you!” Indeed, there is great power in a mama’s prayers! July has been a good month with 314 in Bible Study.  I am so proud of you for meeting and exceeding our Annie Armstrong North American Missions Offering goal of $15,000 with a total of $15,4412.26. We also did well in the month of June and had, at month’s end, a total of $653,175.62 toward our new Student/Young Adult Building! As I write this, Vacation Bible School is taking place. Thanks to our Director, Rene Hubbard, and all who worked with her and Maria Brannen to make this one of the best V.B.S.’s we have ever had! We also look forward to our Youth Choir Dinner Theater on the evenings of July 27^th and 28^th.   August has some very special emphases:

August is going to be a great month!   COME EXPECTANTLY!

For Father’s Day this summer, I shared a message called “Proverbs for Fathers.” The Old Testament Book of Proverbs offers short, pithy statements of practical, godly wisdom. There is good, biblical advice on marriage, parenting, discipline, money management and a host of other areas of life. An alcoholic husband went to the doctor and was told that he had a serious drinking problem. He didn’t want to admit that to his wife so he told her the doctor had said he had “syncopation,” a word he thought he made up figuring his wife would just think it was a big medical word and not investigate it. But he was wrong. His wife looked up the word in a dictionary and it’s a word from the world of music that means “erratic wandering from bar to bar.” Yep, he had syncopation! Now, there is nothing that is more difficult for a child than to live in a community where one of his parents, especially his father, is held in disrespect because of some illegal or immoral act he has committed. The disrespect that the father has brought upon himself spills over into how other children treat his child.          But, thankfully, it also works the other way around. Proverbs 20:7 says, “The righteous lead blameless lives; blessed are their children after them.”  Don’t be put off by the word “blameless” in that verse. It doesn’t mean perfect. Rather, it refers to  a life lived with integrity, honesty and goodness.  When a father lives such a life, the whole community treats him and his family with respect. In other words, his family is blessed by his behavior! June has been a good month with 320 in Bible Study. We enjoyed Father’s Day on the 16^th with a couple of Baby Celebrations. We kicked off our Annie Armstrong North American Missions Offering on June 23^rd with an attractive envelope board created by Joe and Judy Andrews, along with an excellent video that explained its use by Cara Grobbelaar and Carrianna Simmons, all to help us reach our $15,000 goal.  We had a couple of Work Days at Hope Tree Food Bank on the 21^st and 22^nd.  We had a Family Movie Night on the 28^th and we’ll celebrate God & Country Day on the final Sunday, June 30^th. July has some very special emphases:

On Mother’s Day Sunday, I kicked off our FAMILY EMPHASIS 2019 with a message on marriage called “Till Death Do Us Part.” It is no accident that the Bible envisions the relationship between Christ and His Church as a marriage. Why? Because marriage is the most meaningful, the most intimate and the most beautiful relationship of life. Recently, I was listening to a civil wedding ceremony from another state where, when the officient performing the ceremony got to those last words of the traditional wedding vow, she made them very untraditional. Instead of saying the words “…as long as you both shall LIVE,” she said, “…as long as you both shall LOVE.” Well, that sounded cutsy and creative, but it betrayed a deadly flaw in modern marriage.   It is the idea that you only need to stay married to someone as long as you FEEL LIKE YOU ARE IN LOVE WITH THEM! Love is not a feeling, it is a commitment!  John Drakeford, my professor of counseling at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, shared a principle that that can help every marriage: “It is much easier to act your way into a new way of feeling than it is to feel your way into a new way of acting.” If you wait until you feel like you love your spouse to treat them like you love them, then you won’t have a very good marriage. On the other hand, if you will go ahead and treat your spouse like you love them, regardless of the way that you feel, then once again that “loving feeling” will eventually come back! May has been a very busy month with 353 in Bible Study.   We had a nice community crowd for the National Day of Prayer on May 2^nd.  Mother’s Day with its Baby Celebration on Sunday, May 12^th was a special day for us all. Thanks to all of our Mission Friends, R.A. and G.A. workers who made our Missions Recognition Program on May 15^th a success.  Graduate Recognition and the luncheon provided a record number of graduates and their families a great time of celebration.  Our Children’s Music Recognition Program on May 19^th celebrated our preschool and children’s choirs and their workers.  Last night, I greatly enjoyed our Faith Friends Academy Commencement program.  And, as I write this on May 22^nd, tonight is Baccalaureate at the Lamar County Fine Arts Center. June has some special emphases:

June is going to be a great month!   COME EXPECTANTLY! I Love You, Garth

Jeff Foxworthy has made his mark as the most recorded comedian in history.   Several years ago, Jeff agreed to lead a group of homeless men in a weekly study at the Atlanta Mission. As Foxworthy tells it, he felt led to teach these men about giving even though they had next to nothing. He proposed giving a $50 bill to the 250 homeless men and then withdrew $12,500 from his bank account and distributed the cash to them. Jeff then told the assembled group of a dire need in a local elementary school at which the teachers were short on supplies and money. Jeff suggested they take up a collection and was shocked as every single man gave up his $50 bill and then dug into their collective pockets searching for more change to give! Jeff reported that he had to dismiss himself to the hallway and cry.   Those men who had nothing gave all they had and did so with great joy. That story gives us an appreciation for those who give generously and sacrificially.      You have given to our GENERATIONS FOLLOWING campaign in a similar way, and, on behalf of the entire leadership team, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for your awesome generosity.   To date, we have $1.26 million in three-year commitments, received over $40,000 on our First Fruits Sunday, and presently have $550,000 in cash on hand! We had a good month in April with 353 in Bible Study.  Our women enjoyed the Priscilla Shirer Simulcast on Saturday, April 6^th.  Our Easter Musical, “Triumph: Victory of the Cross,” was especially moving this year.  We had a great Easter Sunday worship attendance on April 21^st of 537!  And, as I write, we are looking forward to our women’s worship event called The Canopy on April 25^th and our Church-wide Picnic on Sunday, April 28^th at The Rock Ranch. May is filled with some great opportunities. The National Day of Prayer is scheduled for Tuesday, May 2^nd, beginning at 12:10 P.M. in our C.F.L.C.  Mother’s Day and Baby Celebration is on Sunday, May 12^th.  Our Missions Recognition Program is on Wednesday evening, May 15^th at 6:30 in our Sanctuary. Our Children’s Music Recognition Program is on Sunday, May 19^th at 6:30. And Baccalaureate is on Wednesday evening, May 22^nd, at the Lamar County Fine Arts Center beginning at 6:30. May is going to be a great month!   COME EXPECTANTLY! I Love You, Garth                                                                                                                 First, I would like to thank everyone that worked on the prayer and fundraising committees of the Generations Following Campaign. These members stepped up in a huge way to help our church have a successful campaign. Thank you for your willingness to serve! After much prayer and sacrificial giving, our church members have pledged $1,260,432 over the next three years to fund the Student/Young Adult building.    In addition, we also have received $500,000 in cash for a grand total of $1.76 million dedicated to this building that is estimated to cost $2.1 million!   What an amazing God we serve! For our “First Fruits” Sunday, we received another $40,676 toward out new building on April 14^th.   We are off to a great start.   Please continue to pray about future opportunities in this new building to share Christ.   It’s very exciting to see our church embracing the generations that follow us and give to them like others before us gave!   Truly, God is at work at FBC Barnesville!!! Kim Wall, Fundraising Chair