God Stuff Happening in Our Churches July 2014

God Stuff Happening In Our Churches – July 2014 MISSIONS  Urgent Request from Church World Service: Church World Service is in need of School Kits! CWS School Kits give children in impoverished schools, refugee camps, or other difficult settings some of the basic tools for learning. Please follow this link to see how you and your congregation can help: www.cwsglobal.org/newsroom/appeals-and-updates/urgent-appeal-for-more-cws-school-kits.html.  Sentinel Haiti Outreach - On June 9th a team of 8 Sentinel staff and volunteers went to Port au Prince, Haiti, to be God’s hands and feet. Their mission was to build classroom furniture for the students at Loving Hands preschool and kindergarten. They built 40 class room chairs, five 2-student desks, fixed a toilet, sink and shower and gave and received God’s love. It was an amazing opportunity for missions work and they were blessed with the opportunity. Thank you for those who prayed and supported the mission outreach! Check out their stories and more pictures from the trip at www.facebook.com/sentinelhaitioutreach.

 Bethany Edwards, daughter of Dale and Laurie Edwards, will be going to Cambodia this summer to lend some support to missionaries John and Debbie Coats and to gain exposure to the mission field in that part of the world. Bethany writes, “I woke up one morning a few months ago and knew in my heart that I had to go to Cambodia. After a few emails and phone calls I was set to go. “For six weeks I will be living in a small village in Cambodia, immersing myself in Khmer culture and staying with local missionary friends. I will be helping out these missionaries with household chores and cooking. Along with this I will be teaching English part time and working in a clinic in the village. “I am excited beyond all belief and look forward to experiencing Cambodia, having my eyes opened to the Lord in new ways and being able to share with you all when I return.”  International missionaries Ann and Bill Clemmer are serving in South Sudan. They are in the midst of the strife, danger and turmoil resulting from the country’s civil war. They decided to help the refugee children who are living in camps and not able to attend school. In the hope of having these children keep up a bit with their school work the Clemmers are purchasing workbooks and pencils for them. Middle Street Baptist Church, Portsmouth, has reached out to help these children by sending a check to the Clemmers to help with the purchase of the school supplies.  The Mission Committee of the Community Church of Milton is keeping busy. They have a prayer shawl ministry going and small bags of basic toiletries are being collected for the Goodwin Community Health Center in Somersworth. Additionally, Pastor Betsy Webber and committee member Laura Noseworthy sewed 18 Church World Service School Kits bags which were then filled with supplies.  How does your church support our International Ministries missionaries? Each month Melvin Village Community Church’s Outreach Committee sends a card sharing their prayers and encouraging sentiments to one of the ABC/VNH special interest missionaries.

1 | P a g e God Stuff Happening In Our Churches – July 2014 CHURCH NEWS  Please be in prayer for Rev. Karen Heavey as she begins a new church plant in Hill, NH. The church will be applying for official church plant status at the Lakes Association annual meeting in September.  There’s a saying that good things come to those who wait. That has happened for the folks of Cavendish Baptist Church. After 10 years of planning and construction the congregation celebrated the comple-tion of their handicap accessible building addition with a dedication ceremony and open house on Sunday, May 18. The church had a free cookout lunch at noon with the dedication ceremony and cake and coffee following.  In March First Baptist Church of Berlin welcomed Kim Landry and Mary Deblois into membership with the right hand of fellowship.  The Federated Church of Sandwich has voted to change its name to The Community Church of Sandwich. This change will take place once they have filed the necessary paperwork with the state and federal governments. The name change is bringing the name in line with reality as the church ceased being a federated church in the 1990s. They report, “This new name means that we now see ourselves more in terms of our community. Hopefully it will be reflected in a new attitude toward the greater Sandwich area and new attitude of the community toward the church.”  First Baptist Church, Hudson is eagerly anticipating the arrival of their new pastor and his family. Rev. Moa Imchen, his wife Akum Longchar, and their 2 children will arrive in July. Rev. Imchen and family are coming from San Francisco. They are originally from Nagaland, a small corner in the north eastern part of India. Moa’s educational preparation for ministry began at Eastern Theological College in India. He taught Old Testament and biblical languages at a seminary in India before coming to Union Theological Seminary in New York for his Master of Sacred Theology in Hebrew Bible. He is finishing up his PhD dissertation in biblical studies, specializing in Old Testament, at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA. He was ordained at First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco in 2010. He served as English Pastor at the Chinese United Methodist Church in San Francisco from September 2009 to April 2014. He served as Assistant Minister at First Baptist Church, Antioch, CA, from 2004-2006. He also taught biblical Hebrew at San Francisco Theological Seminary, San Anselmo, CA from 2006 to 2009. Pastor Moa believes his call to ministry is to work as a minister, teacher, mentor, spiritual guide to the believers to help them grow from being disciples of Christ to becoming disciplers of others in Christ. As Jesus described the Kingdom of God as growing from a mustard seed to become a large fruit bearing tree, Pastor Moa wants to be part of the mustard seed miracle of God’s new life – called for the realization of God’s Shalom. He is passionate about being an effective intercultural leader, bridging between people of different generations, ethnicities, and walks of life. He senses that God has called him to minister and to facilitate the holistic growth of the community of believers and to build an authentic faith community that is committed to reaching out in mission – that embraces the beauty of diversity, that is loving, friendly and open, and to live out Christ’s mission in the world. Moa and Akum met at seminary in India. Akum was raised in the mission center established by the American Baptist missionaries in Nagaland. After high school she followed God’s leading to devote her life to following Christ. Akum comes with her ministry experiences as an active lay person and a youth and young adult minister in a Baptist church in Nagaland, and currently she is doing a doctoral program in Homiletics (Pastoral Preaching) at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA. The coming of Pastor Moa and his family to First Baptist Church of Hudson, NH is a remarkable story. It is a story of the Gospel coming full circle. They are the results of the seed sown by the American Baptist missionaries in Nagaland in the 1870s. Now, God, in his amazing way, is bringing them as missionaries to serve at First Baptist Church of Hudson, NH.

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 Congratulations to Rev. Ramsey and Betty Michaels who will be celebrating 60 years of marriage on July 31. They are members of Middle Street Baptist Church, Portsmouth.  First Baptist Church, Newport, NH held what was called a “Church Restoration Banquet” on Saturday evening, May 31. The church has a developing tradition now of holding banquets for various occasions of focus and fund raising. This year, due to some new expenses concerning the roof and siding, the banquet was given this title with the idea of the physical restoration of the building – but also with an overtone of a spiritual restoration of the fellowship to be found in both the meal and the opportunity to give beyond what’s expected. And it doesn’t hurt that a couple of the deacons consider put- ting on a fancy meal to be downright fun. Not only did those attending give joyfully, but many who could not come still made donations.  The First Baptist Church of Lyme celebrated the baptism of 10 people on May 4th. Each of the baptized received a beautifully monogrammed towel along with flowers, a Certificate of Baptism and a Bible. Those baptized were Amanda and Megan Forward, Hazel Garrity-Hanchett, Caitlyn, Molly and Richard Pippin, Christine Rondeau, David and Kathleen Santaw, and Randy Snelling.  On May 7 First Baptist Church of South Londonderry, VT, posted the following on their website: “ First Baptist Church of South Londonderry invites the community to check us out on Sunday, May 18th for our worship service. Everyone is always welcome to check us out, but we know that sometimes the first time can be intimidating. Once a year we try to make it easier by having a special ‘Check Us Out’ Sunday. We’ll explain each part of the worship service, and a lot of others will be checking us out, so you will not be singled out. We’re all about growing followers of Jesus by planting seeds of faith and nurturing them to grow fruit. Come join us for coffee and muffins at 9:30am, and for worship at 10:00am.” However things did not go as planned. Here is their post dated May 20: “We are thrilled that 105 people came out to check us out last Sunday! The day, however, did not go as we expected. About a half an hour into our worship service, a fire was discovered two houses up the road from the Town Hall, where we meet for worship. The house was not lived in and no one was hurt. Thankfully, we had a bunch of people who are on fire departments and the rescue squad who were able to respond quickly. “In an attempt to help the fire departments we decided to end the service early so that we could get out of the way. We had lots of muffins left from before the service, so we set up a table with them for the responders. We are so thankful for their service to the community, so it was the least we could do for them. “Our pastor, Chris (Blackey), challenged the congregation that if 125 people came he’d get a mohawk, and if 150 people came he’d dye it blue. We didn’t quite meet the challenge, BUT it’s been recom- mended that we include all the fire fighters in that number. We would make the 150 person challenge for sure! “Chris has agreed to get his hair done after worship on May 25th. If you came and checked us out last Sunday, we would like to invite you to come check us out one more time. We promise that what happened last Sunday does not happen, pretty much ever. We don’t want people to say church is boring, because we know it’s not. That was not how we wanted to show that church is not boring though! We appreciate that you all gave us a try and we would love you to come back for another week!” Well true to his word, Chris did get a mohawk, albeit a green one. Here he is sport- ing his new look:

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 On June 8 First Baptist Church, South Londonderry held a groundbreaking ceremony for their new church building to replace the one that burned to the ground almost 4 years ago. The ceremony included singing of hymns and songs, a prayer of dedication, a brief message by Region Minister Rev. Dale Edwards, and the breaking of ground. Refreshments and a time of fellowship followed. Much of the site work has been done and construction is scheduled to begin the last week of June. The congregation is hoping that they can begin worshiping in the new building next spring.

Above, Pastor Chris Blackey (4th from right) gathers with members of the building committee and representatives from the firm that will be constructing the new building to break ground.

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