First Baptist Life: A Mission oriented Sunday at FBC

We had a great weekend at church. It started on a low note though. We postponed our youth outing to the Haunted Graveyard on Friday night because the weather forecast was awful. They were predicting rain/snow and temperatures in the 30's. After the snow showers on Thursday I began bracing for the worst. I woke up on Friday to a cold rain and decided to make the move. We rescheduled the outing for next weekend.

The rationale was simple. I wanted to make the call early enough so everyone could make other plans and not wonder all day if we were going to be crazy enough to go despite the weather. Well guess what! The day turned out to be pretty good. The rain stopped. The sun came out and the temperature rose. I had egg on my face. Oh well. The good news is that the weather held up for Saturday.

On Saturday morning we met at church for our coat giveaway. Cynthia Strouse, Sue Ferguson, Judy Dupont, Amanda Duntz, Kelly Bolin and Cheryl Dimmock loaded up their cars and headed across the street and up the road to Jenkins Park. They set up tables and laid out the coats and sweaters. It wasn't long before people started coming by. By the end of the day we had about forty people pick out more than sixty coats and sweaters. Things went so well that we decided we are going to continue collecting coats and sweaters and give more away at our January event at the Martin Luther King Center.

On Sunday we got to church to discover that the heat in the sanctuary was not working. We called in the service man and got it up and running in time for worship. We had to scramble a little bit for Sunday School. We moved Cliff Vanase's class out of the sanctuary into the chapel. It was a little busy but it was the best we could do.

The service was good and it included a children's talk by Muriel Roderick that focused on the story of Jonah and the whale, a talk by Lou Palshaw of the Gideon's ministry and my message on living with integrity. The service went a little long but most people took it with a grain of salt.

Immediately following worship a group of us went down the street to American Ambulance. We had quite an assortment of goodies. We went over to show how much we appreciate what the men and women of the ambulance service do. It was our way of saying "We care" and thank you.

At the same time a few of our folks stopped in to say good-bye to Pastor Michelle Madsen-Bibeau. It was her last Sunday at Central Baptist and they had a farewell reception for her. We got there late but had the opportunity to wish her well.

Our day concluded with our monthly ministry at the Interfaith Luncheon. Lee and Hilary McFalls did the cooking. They made up some barbecued chicken for the folks. We had lots of help. Oliver Bray, Muriel Roderick, Amanda Duntz, Zelda Earle, Lee's mom and her friend Dwayne, Michelle Chaffee and her daughters Taylor and Elsie all came to help out. It was great. We served about 55 people and all of the food went.

Amanda brought down several boxes of clothing to share with the folks and you'd think it was bargain days at Kohl's by the way the people rummaged through things. It was great.