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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