ABC Newsletter - Atwater Baptist Church

January 2015
volume 11 issue 1
atwater baptist church
ABC Newsletter
United in Christ • Growing in Grace • Reaching Out in Love
The Pastor’s Corner:
Do you make New Year’s resolutions? I do. But I almost never get past the
Contents
• Pastor’s Corner
• The Moderator
• Ken’s Observations
• Christian Ed
• Calendar
• Bonnie’s Blog
• Worship Committee
• Special Events
• Fellowship Committee
month of January before they’re gone from memory!
God has a New Year’s resolution for us and He repeats it every year. “I
know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you
and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call
upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek
me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:11-13
The Apostle Paul put it another way: “We know that in all things God works
for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his
purpose.” Romans 8:28
My wife, Jule, has a new kind of resolution along with a unique way to assure it will stay in her memory throughout the year. I’ve been challenged to
join her and adopt it as well.
Her resolution is contained in the words of a hymn. Every morning, when
her alarm goes off, that hymn is what she hears:
May the mind of Christ my Savior, live in me from day to day,
By His love and power controlling all I do and say.
There are six verses to that little hymn. Six challenges that can and should
change the way we love and move and have our being. Six ways to respond
to God’s call to seek Him with all our hearts. Six challenges that will allow us
to love our Heavenly Father and respond to His call and His purpose.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Pastor Paul
Pastor Paul Lundberg & wife Jule
January
Sunday Messages
(Available on our website each week)
• January 4
Pastor John Motz preaching
• January 11
No King
Judges 21:25
• January 18
Any King
Joshua 24:16-28
• January 25
Upside Down Kingdom
Romans 8:28-37
Atwater Baptist Church
ANNUAL MEETING
Sunday, January 18th • 12:05 pm
Immediately following worship.
Your attendance is important!
Plan to Attend Our
February Hymn Sing
Sunday Evening • February 1st
Worship Committee
The next meeting of the Worship Committee for
the month of January will be at 9:30 am January 7th at the
home of Carole Kamerer.
Our next Hymn Sing will be a Potluck Supper served at 5:00
pm, followed by the Hymn Sing at 6:00 pm on February 1st.
On Friday, January 9th, at 10:00 am, the Happy Trails Social Group will be traveiling to Hilmar Cheese for lunch. Those
who choose may attend the tour.
O
Christian Education
ur Sunday School Adult Class has been
exploring various books of the bible, old and new testament. I wish that each member be part of a small group
in 2013. Please contact Pastor Paul or myself to learn
more. Come be a part of this wonderful time to be with
other believers!
Jeri Maddox
Helen Swickard
From the Moderator
C
Annual Meeting Reports
due to Michelle Pacheco, ABC Secretary, no later than
Monday, January 12, 2015
Bonnie’s Blog
hristmas, this is the time when many of us prepare our homes
to accept our extended families or travel to be with them. We tend
to forget about those who are not blessed with the support of other
family members. In our excitement of bearing gifts and love for our
families we must not ignore those around us in our own church and
community who lack what we take for granted. I ask God’s kindess
for them. It is for them also that each one of us should pray.
Happy New Year!
Morris Puku
later, though doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that
her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal life,
were next to zero. Dana went home from the hospital, just as her
mother had predicted. Five years later, when Dana was a petite
cold March wind danced around the dead of night in
but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable
Dallas as the doctor walked into the small hospital room of Diana zest for life, she showed no signs whatsoever of any mental or
Blessing. She was still groggy from surgery. Her husband, David, physical impairment. Simply, she was everything a little girl can be
held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news. That and more. But that happy ending is far from the end of her story.
afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced Diana,
One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in
only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency Cesarean
Irving, Texas, Dana was sitting in her mother’s lap in the bleachto deliver the couple’s new daughter, Dana Lu Blessing. At 12
ers of a local ball park where her brother Dustin’s baseball team
inches long and weighing only one pound nine ounces, they
was practicing. As always, Dana was chattering nonstop with her
already knew she was perilously premature. Still, the doctor’s
mother and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly
words dropped like bombs. “I don’t think she’s going to make
fell silent hugging her arms across her chest, little Dana asked, “Do
it,’ he said, as kindly as he could. “There’s only a 10 percent
you smell that?” Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a
chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some thunderstorm, Diana replied, “Yes, it smells like rain.” Dana closed
slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel
her eyes and again asked, “Do you smell that?” Once again, her
one.’ Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the docmother replied, “Yes, I think we’re about to get wet. It smells like
tor described the devastating problems Dana would likely face if
rain.” Still caught in the moment, Dana shook her head, patted her
she survived. She would never walk, she would never talk, she
thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced, “No, it
would probably be blind, and she would certainly be prone to
smells like Him. It smells like God when you lay your head on His
other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete
chest.” Tears blurred Diana’s eyes as Dana happily hopped down
mental retardation, and on and on. “No! No!” was all Diana
to play with the other children. Before the rains came,
could say. She and David, with their five-year-old son Dustin, had her daughter’s words confirmed what Diana and all the members
long dreamed of the day they would have a daughter to become
of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their hearts,
a family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was
all along. During those long days and nights of the first two months
slipping away. But as those first days passed, a new agony set in
of her life, when her nerves were too sensitive for them to touch
for David and Diana. Because Dana’s underdeveloped nervous
her, God was holding Dana on His chest and it is His loving scent
system was essentially “raw,” the lightest kiss or caress only
that she remembers so well.
intensified her discomfort, so they couldn’t even cradle their tiny
“I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.” This morning
baby girl against their chests to offer the strength of their love.
All they could do, as Dana struggled alone beneath the ultraviolet when the Lord opened a window to Heaven, He saw me, and He
light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would asked: “My child, what is your greatest wish for today?” I responded: “Lord please, take care of the person who is reading this
stay close to their precious little girl. There was never a moment
message, their family and their special friends, They deserve it and
when Dana suddenly grew stronger. But as the weeks went by,
she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce there. I love them very much.” The love of God is like the ocean, you can
At last, when Dana turned two months old, her parents were able see its beginning, but not its end.
Agape. Bonnie Gottschalk
to hold her in their arms for the very first time. And two months
Do You Smell That?
A
Page 2
ABC Newsletter - January 2015
January 2015
SUN
Events • Birthdays • Anniversaries
TUE
WED
THU
MON
FRI
SAT
2
1
NEW
YEAR’S
DAY
7:00 pm
Phoenix Group
4:00 pm
NLCC Practice
6:00 pm
NLCC Worship
Office
Closed
4
9:00 am
NLCC Worship
7:00 pm
Phoenix Group
5
6
7
9:30 am
Worship
Committee
9:30 am
Sunday School
11:00 am
Morning
Worship
9
10
10:00 am
Happy Trails
Hilmar Cheese
11
9:30 am
Sunday School
11:00 am
Morning Worship
12:05
Congregational
Budget Mtg
8
9:30 am
Prayer Group
Jeri Maddox
9:00 am
NLCC Worship
3
12
13
14
8:00 am
Brown Bag
Distribution
7:00 pm
Phoenix Group
Laura Carter
USDA Commodities
Distribution
15
9:30 am
Prayer Group
7:00 pm
Phoenix Group
4:00 pm
NLCC Practice
6:00 pm
NLCC Worship
16
17
7:00 pm
Phoenix Group
4:00 pm
NLCC
Worship Practice
6:00 pm
NLCC Worship
Annual Meeting
Reports Due
18
19
9:00 am
NLCC Worship
9:30 am
Sunday School
11:00 am
Morning Worship
20
7:00 pm
Diaconate
Meeting
25
9:00 am
NLCC Worship
9:30 am
Sunday School
11:00 am
Morning Worship
12 Noon
Keenagers
Luncheon
Office Closed
NEWLETTER
7:00 pm
Phoenix Group
Deadline
26
7:00 pm
Phoenix Group
22
9:30 am
Prayer Group
23
7:00 pm
Phoenix Group
24
4:00 pm
NLCC
Worship Practice
6:00 pm
NLCC Worship
National
Hug Day
Day
12:05 pm
Annual Meeting
21
27
28
30
9:30 am
Prayer Group
8:00 am
Brown Bag
Distribution
10:30 am
Fellowship
29
Yadira Taylor
8:30 am
31
Men’s
Breakfast
4:00 pm
NLCC
Worship Practice
6:00 pm
NLCC Worship
Dale Etchison
Small Groups Information:
• Mon - 900 Summerfield Dr., Atwater
• Wed - Pastor - ABC Church Office, 631-7491
• Thur - Gasaway - 9240 W. Fruitland, Atwater, 358-2615
Newsletter Team
Carole Kamerer, Michelle Pacheco,
Richard & Jeri Maddox
ABC Newsletter - January 2015
Page 3
atwater baptist church
2124 First Street
Atwater. CA 95301
209•358•5427
FAX 209•358•5425
email: [email protected]
Website: www.atwaterbaptist.com
Office Hours
9:00 a.m. to 12:00 Noon
United in Christ
Growing in Grace
Reaching Out in Love
Atwater
Baptist Church
Board of Directors
Morris Puku
Moderator
Jule Lundberg
Christian Education
Richard Maddox
Property
Katie Luxon
Financial Secretary
Donna Plett
Church Clerk
Remember
in
Prayer
Gladys Alexander
Ken Edwards
Doris Green
Leslie Hendricks
Hanna Hoyt
Lena Johnston
Marie Pimentel
Strong Family
Helen Swickard
Our Missionaries:
Reverend Lauran Bethell
Eileen Gasaway
Steve & Cari Wendel
Our Military Families:
Vella Maddix
Johnny Mobley
Ryan Mobley
Michael & Kerry McCollum
Mike Blase
Leslie Hendricks
Our President & Vice President
Helen Swickard
For a more complete prayer list
visit our Website
Ola Gail Garrett
Treasurer
Stewardship
Fellowship
Worship
Carter Luxon
Outreach
Ruth Ann Gasaway
Missions
Hanna Hoyt
Chaplain
Jeri Maddox
Pastoral Relations
Our Leaders:
www.atwaterbaptist.com
Prayer Requests?
Call Jerri Maddox at 209-358-7542 or
Donna Plett at 209-358-3693
Ken’s Observations
Trust and Obey, for There is No Other Way
N
ow that I’m past the big 80, I’ve wondered,
“why has God let me live this long?” I still don’t
know the answer, so I’ve come to understand I’m
not to ponder why, but I’m just to be content with
life under His sky.
Each one of us will, during our lifetime, be a help
to others. Some of which we will never meet or
come to know. As we walk down the street, stroll
through the mall, or sit in the church, someone is
watching you. And they are sometimes wondering,
“Why can’t I be more like her or like him?” Some
of my dearest friends are those that we read about
in the bible, God’s Holy Word. Reading God’s Word
I’ve found is a sumptuous feast for the wise and the
simple. The beautiful metaphors of the psalmist
accompany us through every moment of our day
and night. And to read the gospels and hear the
beautiful poetry of Jesus is to glimpse the ultimate
truth of God.
The only way for us to know about Jesus Christ,
is to read His Holy Words. Listen to His words and
you will find life, as He meant for you to have. In all
things may I hear the voice of Jesus and obey Him.
In Christ’s Love,
Ken Edwards
Don’t forget Love, INC, and the ABC Food Pantry!

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