Online? Got ? Taking the Gospel to Oaxaca, Mexico! July 13-20, 2013 C A. Oaxaca: Pronounced [wah - HAW - kah] June and July

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1 N O C A E B T S I T P A B Y E BRADL June and July Taking the Gospel to Oaxaca, Mexico! July 13-20, 2013 Oaxaca: Pronounced [wah - HAW - kah] Online? Got ? Sign up for our e-letter for the latest and most up-to-date news from the Bradley Baptist Association and our partnering churches! You may sign up online at bradleybaptist.org or by calling and providing your address. Additionally, many of our past Annuals and printed Beacon newsletters are accessible at under the Publications menu.

2 FROM OUR DIRECTOR Phil Taylor, Director of Missions Over the past couple of months many of you have received a phone call asking for some of your volunteer effort. During the summer months, you always hear the church or association office asking for volunteers to help fill the gap during a busy time of the year. When I started out in ministry I was warned of the summer slump. I never figured that out. My experience has been summer time is a great time to reap a harvest and serve. This is always an exciting and challenging time. It is also a joy to see so many of your seeking to follow the admonition of the Lord to be servant-leaders. Let me provide a profile of servant-leaders: 1. Servant-leaders recognize the ministry team needs many different players. They are not threatened when others do something better, but understand an effective church requires cooperation and coordination of gifts and talents! Musicians recognize this concept of harmony: many players working together to present beautiful music. 2. Servant-leaders have learned to "die to self." They have nothing to prove. While they enjoy a sense of accomplishment, they are not motivated by ego or recognition. Our Lord Jesus Christ focused on avoiding the spotlight, taking center stage only when necessary to accomplish the purpose His Father had planned. 3. Servant-leaders are encouragers. They are longsuffering and go the extra mile. They encourage, enhance, and enable others without a judgmental or inflexible attitude. They know they are called to teach others both in words and in deeds. 4. Servant-leaders model their lives after Jesus. They may not always be successful in this, but they realize the importance of reflecting and representing Him. They gain an understanding of this model by constant consideration of His Word. 5. Servant-leaders seek unity, not division. They agonize over conflict in the body of Christ and seek to lovingly resolve disagreements and disunity. Over the past ten years we have seen that people everywhere, especially in the church, are looking for projects in which to become personally involved, They are looking for a place where their lives can make a difference. Widening ministry involvement to include volunteers increases the opportunities to fulfill the Great Commission. Volunteer skills and experience expand the tools in God's treasure chest. Volunteers can do construction, mission trips, teach crafts, tutor children and fill in as a teacher. They can and will do just about anything they are asked to do. What a difference it makes in a family and a church if these principles of leadership are faithfully followed. May God help us to be like Him in our lives. Thank you, volunteers, for helping with many of the great needs that are around all of us. In His Grace Media Resources The association has many media resources available for our churches to use. You may call to reserve materials in advance. Many of the leader kits include videos, one leader guide, and one member guide. Check out our full list of resources at media.bradleybaptist.org.

3 WHAT S HAPPENING IN RANDY S WORLD Randy Bonner, Ministry Evangelism Director Ocoee Outreach: Home Repair & The Home of Peace This June and July, Ocoee Outreach has created a unique network to unite churches in our communities and across the nation who partner with us on mission to help widows, single mothers, the elderly, and handicapped individuals by repairing their homes. Our Home Repair Ministry provides free home repair for homeowners who are elderly, low income, shut-in, widowed, disabled, single parent units and more. Many live in substandard conditions and have lost their home insurance or face the possibility of losing their insurance if repairs are not completed. Projects will include exterior painting, roofing, repairing damaged walls and ceilings, hanging drywall, installing new toilets, constructing wheelchair ramps, clearing debris, replacing doors, floors, and windows, and many other smaller jobs. Our crews repair over 80 homes each year in neighborhoods throughout Bradley County. Many of our churches that make up the Bradley Baptist Association have been part of this unique network each summer in various ways from mobilizing volunteers to serve as runners, to providing evening meals to visiting mission teams, to providing follow-up to individuals and families that we reach for Christ. This summer, we are following God s leadership in becoming more focused than ever before in reaching the unchurched for Christ, discipling them and teaching them to become fishers of utilizing the various ministry tools that God has providing for us. Our summer missionaries will be discovering Homes of Peace & People of Peace who are expressing a desire to hear more about Christ and the Word of God. We are praying that several BBA Churches will rise up and be ready to adopt a Home of Peace that our summer missionaries and summer volunteers have initiated. By adopting a A Home of Peace, a church is willing and ready to take God s Word to unchurched families that desire to hear more about Christ. To find out more information about this process, please let me know. I would like to also encourage you to attend the T4T Training that will be taking place on Sept In His Service, Welcome New Summer Missionary Volunteer Staff Couple! Randy & Wilma Day from First Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, Greenwood, SC Randy will be serving as one of our Construction Supervisors and Wilma will be serving as our Lunch Coordinator & Office Support. We are extremely blessed to have the Days serve with us this summer. Keep them in your prayers and make them feel welcome. This month pray for our summer missionary team: Whitney Stevison, North Cleveland Baptist Allie Morrow, North Cleveland Baptist Ethan Taylor, North Cleveland Baptist Mike Jones, Big Spring Baptist Kara Cook, Hagood Ave Baptist, Barnwell, SC Noah Tuten, Valley View Baptist Clay Keller, Westwood Baptist Kaley Hill, Westwood Baptist Keshana Fox, Clingan Ridge Baptist Stephen Lee,The Church at Grace Point Anna McFarland, FBC Cleveland Alex Lowry, Christway Church

4 TEAMWORK...working together for victory! Reaching Oaxaca, Mexico... together! On September 6, 2012 several of our partnering churches gathered for a time of prayer asking God to open a door for our students to have another opportunity to fulfill the Great Commission. After assessing gifts, talents, gender, age, opportunities to impact unreached areas with the Gospel, the result is 34 high school and college students will leave July 13, 2013 for Oaxaca to work with Southern Baptist Missionaries Jeff & Liesa Holeman. Jeff and Liesa have a huge task engaging unreached people groups in the hills of southern Mexico and they believe in using student teams to accomplish the task. Oaxaca is a cultural melting pot for southern Mexico. With about 3.6 million people, it is home for at least 16 indigenous people groups. The most numerous are the Zapotecs and the Mixtecs, both with long histories predating colonial times. These cultures have survived due to the area's rugged and isolating terrain. While Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion across the country, the state of Oaxaca has quite a large number of unengaged and unreached people groups. Despite its cultural riches, Oaxaca is one of Mexico s poorest states, and the city highlighted the tensions and disparity between the Mestizo elite and the indigenous poor. Because of our strong partnerships and your faithful support to the association we are able to send these students by supplementing the cost. Now, since you are sending them, we need you to pray. Take Jesus Christ s words in John 15:5 to heart. Apart from Him, these students can do nothing of eternal significance. He longs to work through each student; each student must be with Him every day, surrendering to His will, seeking His face. Prayer is the source of power, strength and boldness. It will be the foundation on which our ministry in Oaxaca, Mexico will be built. It is amazing how a coalition of churches (such as the BBA) with its powerful partnerships can introduce students to the activity of God in remote parts of the world. Here's a word from our host missionary: "We have a huge task here, and our vision for Oaxaca will require many student teams, semester missionaries, and Journeymen to help us." IWC has been assigned the task of using sports and day camp activities to reach out to teenagers, partnering with several local churches to build trust and credibility with the community. IWC will also provide much-needed construction renovations and repairs of a seminary facility. Our Director of Missions, Rev. Phil Taylor, will serve as the Project Coordinator. As the PC, he will be coordinating arrangements, communicating with participants and supervising the staff and participants at the project. Tha nk you r pa rtne rin g ch urch es for mtoakou in g th is possib le! Our students are coming from: Big Spring, North Cleveland, Thompson Springs, Westwood, Gum Springs, Waterville and Clingan Ridge.

5 ASSOCIATIONAL NEWS Exciting Information For Our Pastors & Churches T4T Training Sept with Jeff Sundell Friday 6PM-9PM & Saturday 8:30AM-5PM at FBC Cleveland Instead of DOING something, BECOME something Don t focus on all the things you can DO to reach the lost. Become someone whose heart is so connected to the Father that it becomes who you are. We have been tasked to continue what Jesus began. Are you aching to share your story with the lost? You are welcome to join us as we look at how to effectively share the Gospel through your story. If you would like to be more engaged with proclaiming the gospel, and discipling new believers - we invite you to learn more about T4T and ask God how he might use it to multiply new believers in your own community through your church. What makes T4T different is that it is not a program but a process. Its goal is to train believers who can train others in a very simple yet effective method of evangelism and discipleship. The goal of the training is to establish rapidly reproducing groups of disciples across relationship networks. Please call the association at to register. "The Goldens" Volunteer Appreciation "The Goldens" will be a special feature of our 2013 annual meeting that will combine elements of our Christmas Banquet and our Annual Meeting to honor the hundreds of volunteers from our churches that serve together through various ministries such as Ocoee Outreach, Project Helping Hands, CWJC, VITA and more. This night we want to go all out in saying "Thank You!" to all our volunteers and our churches. Our hosts for the evening will be the comic duo, Bean and Bailey. Their mission is to bring clean, wholesome humor to audiences across America. Love & Respect Conference Coming Feb. 28 Mar. 1, 2014! (Fri. evening & Sat. First Baptist Cleveland, TN VITA Update The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program (VITA) has been a great tool to reach our community with the message of hope through Jesus Christ in assisting those who need help in filing their tax returns. This year, we helped with processing 100 income tax returns. PRAISE GOD FOR THIS OUTREACH! A special "Thank you" to our VITA coordinator, Linda Finnell, and all our wonderful VITA volunteers. Annual Meeting & Volu ntee Sun. Nov. 3, W r Appreciation estwood Baptist AboutConferences Love & Respect Love & Respect Conferences provide resources to the married, divorced, separated, dating and single. Men and women will learn how to resolve conflict and deal with negative reactions. Participants will also learn how to motivate each other by meeting each other's needs. Even those who feel hopeless in their relationships will gain understanding on how to handle an indifferent or unresponsive partner. Jobs Ministry The BBA Jobs Ministry is in its start up phase and will be dependent on Christian business men and women from local churches posting job openings for their business. Churches can also use this to list job openings for support staff positions. Please visit jobs.bradleybaptist.org online for our current postings or to add an opening.

6 Bradley Baptist Association 2707 North Ocoee Street Cleveland, TN RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED Non-Profit US Postage Paid Permit #288 Cleveland, TN Ph (423) Bradley Baptist Association Staff Fx (423) Phil Taylor Director of Missions Randy Bonner Ministry Evangelism Director Dimple Cox Ministry Assistant Sign up for our e-letter David Hewitt DOM Ministry bradleybaptist.org! Continue praying for our churches without pastors: Valley View and White Oak Welcome! Welcome to Rev. Larry Bryant, the interim pastor at Michigan Ave. The Bradley Initiative for Church and Community (BICC) is looking for adults to volunteer as mentors. Bridging the Gap mentoring program pairs youths between ages of 6 & 16 with an adult from the community for the minimum of a year. The adult (mentor) meets with the youth (mentee) once a week for a least an hour. The mentor & mentee can do a variety of activities together including playing, reading, homework, and crafts. Mentors will go through training to prepare them for the responsibility & must also pass a background check & drug screen. Mentors don t have all the answers & don t solve the mentee s problems, but they are a friend who can be consistent and walk beside a mentee on their journey. Youth who have a mentor show more academic success & are less likely to experiment with drugs & alcohol. Adults who mentor receive new perspectives & pass on their legacy. If you would like to serve as a mentor, please contact Chrissy Jones at or cjones919@gmail.com! Macedonia Baptist has a regulation size soccer goal with netting attached that they would like to donate to a church or Christian group. Anyone interested would need to pick it up as Macedonia does not have means to transport it. Call or macedonia_baptistchurch@yahoo.com for more info. Free Baldwin Acrosonic Piano for any interested church. Call if interested. July 4 Aug 17 IMPORTANT DATES BBA Closed Sep WMU Leadership Training Nov 3 T4T Training Annual Meeting / "The Goldens" MUSIC DIRECTOR NEEDED First Baptist Church Charleston is currently accepting resumes for Music Director. Please send your resume to the following address: First Baptist Church, ATTEN: Music Search Committee, PO Box 463, Charleston, TN