Camp POst Office

Unfortunately, we will not have a camp post office this year.  Due to COVID, we believe this is the best choice for the health of our congregation.

Time Change

Don’t forget to set your clocks back an hour this Sunday.

Giving as of October 28, 2020

OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD

Collection week for Operation Christmas Child is fast approaching.  Due to COVID, First Baptist did not make boxes this year for vacation bible school, but we can still supply boxes to this great ministry. There are a few ways you can participate in the ministry.

1. Pick up an empty OCC box from the sanctuary or church office, make your box, and bring It to our collection center during collections week.
2. You can create and pay for a box on the OCC website.  https://www.samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child/buildonline/
3. If you do not want to pack your own box, you can drop supplies off at the church offices. We have a few church members that will fill boxes from supplies dropped off. To comply with social distancing, we will not have a church-wide packing party.

Allowed Items: Toothbrushes, baseball caps, playing cards, coloring books, scissors (Fiskers-child size), children’s socks, flip flops, bandannas, plastic animals/bugs, small cars dolls, hair barrettes/bands/bows, costume jewelry, stickers, party favor toys, tools (hammer, screwdriver, nails, screws) 

 Items that are not allowed due to customs regulations are toothpaste, candy, liquids (soap, shampoo, lotion, mouthwash, deodorant, etc.), war toys, and glass items. 

FOOD PANTRY

The food pantry needs replenishing. We can use items such as canned vegetables, canned meats, cheese, spaghetti sauce, soups, crackers, and peal top foods.

Contact Jane Smith or Suzi LaRocca for more information.

HARVEST OFFERING

Each year, during our Harvest Banquet,  we take up a special offering as a chance to thank God for His boundless goodness throughout the year. Due to COVID restrictions, we will not have a banquet, but we are setting aside November 8^th for a special harvest offering. This offering is a special gift above and beyond your regular giving and an excellent opportunity to see God work through the generosity of His people.

From Our Family and Music Minister

If you know me, you know that I still struggle with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder).  Luckily, as an adult, I have learned to cope with it without any form of medication now; however, as a middle school student, it was a full-blown problem. To emphasize its severity, I was the only one in my school diagnosed with it. I sat in a cubicle during class so that I wouldn’t be distracted by the people around me.  As I got older, I learned to cope with it and came off medicine altogether. I had to learn to have control over my distractions.

The Christian life is very much the same way.  On Sunday nights, our youth are going through a series of several ways Satan tries to infiltrate our lives. A prominent way the devil attacks us is by putting distractions in our lives; but for us to have a distraction, we have to have something that receives our focus.

The crucial question is: what or who receives the majority of our focus?  As parents, we may say it’s our children.  As a young person, we say school. We will tend to name something that takes up a lot of our time. But as a child of God, our most significant focus or priority should be our relationship with Christ. Even as nurturing parents, we can still put God as a priority and focus plenty of attention on our children.

When you have identified and accepted Christ as the prominent focus in your life, you must be aware of the distractions. What are things in your life that compete with the focus you should be putting on Christ?  In Mark 4:19, Mark records Jesus teaching and identifying possible distractions.

". . .but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful." Mark 4:19

This verse comes in the explanation Jesus gave on the parable of “The Sower and the Seeds.” In this verse, He’s talking about those that hear the word and possibly begin to accept it, but the world’s distractions pull them away from God, like a shiny lure attracts a fish. Is there a lure in your life right now that Satan is trying to use to draw you away from God?

As I got older, it became easier for me not to get distracted in class or while working.  I had to be aware of those things that could easily pull my focus.  I can easily pull up YouTube to listen to a song, and 45 minutes later, I have gone down a rabbit trail and still haven’t heard the song.  As a Christian, we must identify what distractions Satan is using to take our focus off God.  And as Barney Fife would say, “You have to nip it in the bud!”