Tapestry. Refugee Sunday, Oct. 16:

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1 This Week at Wilshire Tapestry Weekly newsletter of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas Building a community of faith shaped by the Spirit of Jesus Christ Volume 64 No. 41 u October 9, 2016 See the world s needs on tour By Heather Mustain Minister of Missions World Vision will bring a new mobile exhibit to Wilshire Oct Through this exhibit, our church and community have a unique opportunity to see and hear the stories that break Jesus heart today. The World Vision Experience is a free 20-minute journey that takes us out of our everyday world and into the lives of the forgotten and oppressed in some of the world s hardest places. This event is a way for Wilshire to help educate ourselves and the greater community about global injustices and give us a chance to act according to our abilities. Walk-ups are welcome, or you may choose to sign up in advance and cut to the front of the line. Sign up through a link at wilshirebc.org/regis tration. Choose your Thanksgiving plans Options abound in the upcoming Thanksgiving season at Wilshire. See page 4 for detailed information about two options for the annual Thanksgiving Dinner on Sunday, Nov. 20. Tickets for that event go on sale next Sunday, Oct. 16. This year, also choose from two options (or do them both) Refugee Sunday, Oct. 16: We will host World Vision staff member Steve Haas in both worship services and during the Sunday School hour to help educate our congregation about the current refugee crisis. Refugee responder kits and child sponsorships will be made available to those who are so moved. Hear Steve in worship or in Discovery Class, which meets in the Parlor. The Experience Thursday, Oct. 20, 1:30 to 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21, 1:30 to 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 22, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Families are encouraged to come this day to enjoy free food, a petting zoo, and pony rides. Child care will be provided for parents who would like to walk through the experience. Sunday, Oct. 23, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Come to church early or stay late to add the World Vision Experience to your agenda for the day. Food trucks also will be on site that day so you can eat lunch and visit the exhibits. for sharing our bounty of food with neighbors in need. Wilshire will continue its longstanding tradition of collecting grocery bags filled with requested canned goods on Sunday, Nov. 20. Those donations will be shared with the White Rock Center of Hope. A second option has been added this year, though: Provide laundry baskets filled with all the ingredients, including a frozen turkey, needed for a family Thanksgiving meal. These baskets will be distributed on Nov. 16 to families chosen by the Wilkinson Center. The Wilkinson Center recently expanded to a new Continued on page 5 Today 8:30 a.m. Worship 9:30 a.m. Sixth grade open house 9:40 a.m. Sunday School 9:40 a.m. Love & Logic parenting Room :00 a.m. Worship 12:00 p.m. Deacon Nom. Committee Room 1205-H 12:00 p.m. Legal Issues Facing Senior Adults seminar Comm. Hall 2:30 p.m. Nova 3:00 p.m. Youth bells 4:00 p.m. Youth Choir and Paradiso 4:00 p.m. Carillon Ringers 5:30 p.m. Shekinah Monday, Oct :00 a.m. 42 Monday Room 1205-G 11:30 a.m. Cardiac support group Room 1205-L 2:00 p.m. Senior women exercise class Room :00 p.m. Wilshire Winds Choral Hall Wednesday, Oct. 12 9:30 a.m. New Song Choral Hall 11:00 a.m. Koinonia Café Comm. Hall 12:00 p.m. Bible study Comm. Hall 1:15 p.m. Adventurers Committee Room 1205-L 5:00 p.m. Spanish as Second Lang. Room 1205-G 5:00 p.m. Koinonia Café Comm. Hall 5:00 p.m. Beginning handbells Room :00 p.m. Music and Missions and Bible Skills 6:00 p.m. Globetrekkers for Adults Room :00 p.m. Foundations of Faith Class Room 3207 Continued on page 2

2 CBF recently published a leadership development training resource called Pivot: Turning Teams Toward God s Mission Near and Far. There s no shortage of research that suggests short-term mission trips are not as impactful on trip participants or those they intend to serve as perhaps we once believed, especially if they are executed poorly. Pivot intends to be a part of the solution in helping congregations reimagine their involvement in the mission of God, both near and far. There are three phases to Pivot: preparation, onsite engagement, and pivoting back home. This process takes about a year to fully complete, a much different approach than a normal one week to 10-day mission trip, with the real crux of transformation resting in the pivoting back home phase. For the past six months, eight of us have been working through this material together. We spent five months preparing for our 10-day learning experience in Barcelona, reading and discussing basic missiology and poverty alleviation methodology. And last week we returned home from our on-site engagement phase, where we heard from local pastors about the current state of the evangelical church, discussed Spain s social ideology and its implications for newly arriving refugees, heard testimonies of life-long atheists coming to faith in Christ, and learned how to understand a community by its assets instead of its deficiencies. But now begins the real work, where we will discuss Another Voice Pivot how we will implement what God has revealed to each of us and craft a covenant to keep each other accountable to our commitments. Barcelona was beautiful and not a horrible place to spend 10 days. The city is so charming, the Sagrada Familia takes your breath away, the Gothic District transports you back in time, the art scene is exquisite. But for me, the lifestyle was a breath of fresh air. Kids playing outside, friends dining at lunch or in cafés for hours, couples strolling through well-kept green spaces, people enjoying one another s presence. It was obvious that people in Spain work to live, not live to work, and that relationships are the fabric of society. As I ve returned to work overwhelmed with a full inbox and voic , preparation for the upcoming World Vision event and speaking engagements, and organizing our holiday giving, I ve had to take deep breaths each time someone interrupts my work day and I must remind myself that I want to be about people and relationships, not production. Transformation isn t always about monumental ideas, but oftentimes it comes in the form of simple reminders that call us back to faithfully following Christ in our everyday lives and actually doing something about it. Heather Mustain This Week at Wilshire Continued from page 1 6:00 p.m. The Sin of Certainty book study, Room :00 p.m. Spanish as Second Lang. begin., Room 1205-G 6:00 p.m. Gallery Café, James Gallery 6:00 p.m. Committee on Committees, Room 1205-H 6:00 p.m. MOPS Steering, Room :15 p.m. Yoga class, Room :30 p.m. Watershed 6:50 p.m. Table Talk, James Gallery 7:00 p.m. Sanctuary Choir, Choral Hall Thursday, Oct. 13 1:30 p.m. Knit Unto Others, Parlor 2:00 p.m. Senior women s exercise class, Room 3211 Friday, Oct. 14 3:45 p.m. Wilshire Adventurers to Bluegrass festival 6:30 p.m. Marriage Connections, James Gallery Saturday, Oct :00 a.m. Library volunteer appreciation brunch, Parlor Koinonia Café on Wednesdays Oct. 12: Homemade chili, chicken enchiladas, Spanish rice, grilled zucchini, calico corn, cream cornbread muffins, cream of tortilla soup, black bean salad, house salad, sopapilla and honey drizzle. Oct. 19: Chicken andouille sausage gumbo, shrimp étouffeé, white rice, stewed okra and tomatoes, sautéed cabbage, house salad, praline candy glazed cake, cheddar jalapeño bread. This Wednesday at Wilshire Come for lunch and Bible study at noon in Community Hall. Or come for dinner in Community Hall followed by special classes for preschoolers, children, youth and adults. New members x Benjamin Gibson x Shannon Gibson x Jimmy Dorman x Christina Principe x Parker Mosley Condolences x Family and friends on the death of Lorene Todd, Sept. 20. x Hart Robinson on the death of her father, Oct. 2. Tapestry (USPS ) is published weekly except Christmas week by Wilshire Baptist Church, 4316 Abrams Rd., Dallas TX Periodicals postage paid at Dallas, TX. Telephone: (214) Website: Editor: Mark Wingfield. Contributing writer: Sue Coffman. Postmaster: Send change of address to 4316 Abrams Rd., Dallas TX

3 Briefly... Advent devotional writers needed. Would you be interested in writing for Wilshire s annual Advent devotional guide? If so, contact Associate Pastor Mark Wingfield at mwingfield@wilshirebc.org. Writers will be given assigned passages and topics. Arts on Abrams. The next community concert in Wilshire s Arts on Abrams series is titled Titans of German Romanticism and is presented by Mount Vernon Music. The Saturday, Oct. 29, concert will feature the Brahms Trio in B Major and a stunning version of Beethoven s Eroica for piano and strings. This chamber ensemble includes Mark Miller, violin; Ute Miller, viola; UNT professor Nikola Ruzevic, cello; and Even Mitchell of the Van Cliburn Foundation, piano. This free concert will begin at 7:30 p.m. in McIver Chapel and will run two hours. Birthday offering final results. The Birthday Double Play offering in celebration of George Mason s 60th birthday has concluded with gifts totaling $160,000 given toward the Pathways to Ministry section of the 2016 Unified Budget. Reading Partners and Kids Hope USA. We are still looking for people to serve one hour a week as a reading partner to a child at Mata Montessori or as a mentor to a child at Stonewall Jackson Elementary. Our volunteer pool for both of these ministries has drastically decreased in the past few years, and we are looking to pick it up again. Contact Heather Mustain for more information. Help Syrian refugees. Gateway of Grace has received two to three Syrian refugee families every week for the last month and needs additional Wilshire Sunday School classes or other small groups to adopt a family. Additional needs include paying transportation costs for a family, which are about $300 per month. Contact Heather Mustain or Abbey Adcox for more information. Wilkinson Center needs help. The Wilkinson Center has expanded and opened a new adult education site in West Dallas. They are looking for volunteer ESL teachers or retired teachers who would like to redo their bulletin boards, or a Sunday School class that would want to redo the teachers lounge at the school facility. Elder law seminar today. An elder law seminar will be offered in Community Hall today at noon at no cost. It will address legal issues facing senior adults. The speaker will be Erin Peirce of the law firm Leu & Peirce. Senior adults and adult children of senior adults are encouraged to attend. Topics to be addressed include estate planning, funding long-term care, probate and trusts. Fall prevention class. Beginning Oct. 17, physical therapy students from Texas Woman s University will lead a class that focuses on fall prevention. It is designed to prevent falls by senior adults and address strength and balance. This class will be on Monday mornings from 10:30 a.m. to noon and will continue through Nov. 21. The class will be held in Room Anyone may participate at no charge. Registration is not required; just show up on Monday, Oct. 17. Contact Parish Nurse Linda Garner for more information. What s happening on Wednesdays? There are two weeks left in the Globetrekkers for Adults class on Wednesday evenings. Join Minister of Missions Heather Mustain to learn about places we are joining in God s work around the world. This Wednesday, hear J.R. Pershall of Preemptive Love Coalition. Next week, Oct. 19, hear Samira Izadi-Page of Gateway of Grace. The class meets in Room 3205 from 6 to 6:50 p.m. Also on Wednesday evenings, a short-term study that follows the book The Sin of Certainty. The book and the study examine some of the pros and cons of being set in Wilshire Adventurers will travel to the Bloomin Bluegrass festival in Farmer s Branch on Friday, Oct. 14. All interested senior adults are invited to participate. This is a free outing, and chartered motor coach transportation will be provided roundtrip from the church parking lot. The bus will leave the church at 4 p.m. and return around 7:45 p.m., giving participants about two hours at the festival to hear live music and visit the variety of food and craft vendors. Seating for the music is on grass, so it is recommended to bring a blanket or folding chair. Learn more about the event at com. To participate and ride on certainty about your beliefs or your understanding of the Bible. The study breaks down some of the barriers to hearing God s voice in new ways while remaining faithful to biblical authority. Its goal is to teach that God desires obedience more than correct beliefs. Coming up later this month on Wednesday evenings: Oct. 26: Resident-led Vespers and quarterly church conference in McIver Chapel. Nov. 2 through Nov. 16: Two new adult studies, one on the nature of the Incarnation and one on understanding the history and Scripture of Handel s Messiah. Adventurers plan trips to Bluegrass festival, deck park the bus, sign up at the Adventurers table in James Gallery on Sunday mornings or in Community Hall on Wednesdays at noon. In November, the Adventurers will take a day trip to the Klyde Warren deck park in downtown Dallas. The date of this free trip is Thursday, Nov. 10. The group will depart the church at 10:30 a.m. on a chartered motor coach and return to the church around 3 p.m. At the park which sits atop Woodall Rodgers Freeway between the Arts District and Uptown visit a variety of food trucks or nearby restaurants for lunch, explore the park, ride the McKinney Avenue Trolley or visit the Dallas Museum of Art for free. 3

4 Two ways to experience Thanksgiving Dinner 4:45 Tables Across Dallas 4:45 dinner seating in Community Hall Sunday, Nov. 20 n An experiential dinner highlighting the disparity of Thanksgiving tables across Dallas. n This is a learning experience more than a meal, although food will be served. n Everyone will pay the same price, yet not everyone will eat the same food. n Specific tables may be chosen so that families and friends may sit together. n What diners will not know in advance is what kind of meal they will be served. Each table will be randomly assigned to represent a particular income of a Dallas family. n This is a great way for families to teach children about the needs of others. n All ages welcome. n This event will include discussion as well as eating. 7:00 Traditional Thanksgiving 7:00 dinner seating in Community Hall Sunday, Nov. 20 n A traditional Thanksgiving banquet of roasted turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green beans, macaroni and cheese, cranberry sauce, gravy and rolls with butter. n Served buffet style. n Specific tables may be chosen so that families and friends may sit together. n All ages welcome. n Choose this option if you want the traditional Wilshire Thanksgiving Dinner experience. Tickets on sale Oct. 16 $8 adults / $5 children $25 family maximum Sign up in church office. Gratitude Beyond Abundance 6:00 Thanksgiving Worship Sunday, Nov. 20 6:00 in Sanctuary n Giving thanks to God in worship. n Bringing in bags of canned goods for White Rock Center of Hope. n Celebrating gifts of food baskets through Wilkinson Center. n All ages welcome. Child care available for preschoolers. 4

5 Two ways to share your Thanksgiving bounty BASKETS CANNED GOODS Benefitting Wilkinson Center Sign up in advance to provide a complete Thanksgiving dinner for a family packaged in a laundry basket. This is an ideal project for classes or other small groups to collaborate. Estimated cost of providing all the requested items is $60 to $70 per basket. The Wilkinson Center recently expanded to a new location in Arcadia Park in West Dallas, where they are hoping to enroll 1,600 clients in adult education classes. Baskets, including frozen turkeys, must be delivered to the church on Nov. 16. Participants also must commit by this Tuesday, Oct. 11, by communicating with Heather Mustain at hmustain@wilshirebc.org. Benefitting White Rock Center of Hope Bring a grocery bag filled with requested canned goods as we have done in years past. These staples will be used to restock the pantry at White Rock Center of Hope and to help area families with their Thanksgiving meals. Grocery bags will be distributed on Sunday, Nov. 13. Bring your filled grocery bag to the Sanctuary on Sunday, Nov. 20. Thanksgiving baskets a new option Continued from page 1 location in Arcadia Park in West Dallas, where they are hoping to enroll 1,600 clients in adult education classes or ESL. The Thanksgiving baskets will help these families in need. Sunday School classes or other small groups might work together to provide these baskets. The estimated cost of obtaining all the requested items is $60 to $70. Participation in this project requires advance arrangement with Heather Mustain, minister of missions, no later than this Tuesday, Oct. 11. Contact Heather at hmustain@ wilshirebc.org or (214) Heather will provide details about the project when contacted. Turkey dinner church partners build dinner baskets with the turkey and the sides all together in a basket, explained Bob Munro, church outreach staff with the center. The complete basket is received at Wilkinson Center and is distributed to families the same day. The turkey dinner baskets have become a family-tofamily activity whereby these baskets have food along with notes from kids, Thanksgiving decorations, tablecloths and however the giving family wants to share their love with the receiving family. We re really intentional about our turkey distribution, and the dignity and respect part of what we do is always a priority, he added. A big part of the turkey distribution is that we provide vouchers to mostly adult education students and pantry clients that our case managers have identified privately. 5

6 FOLLOW JESUS INTO THE MARGINS Step out of your world and into some of the world s hardest places. The World Vision Experience transports you into the lives of the forgotten and oppressed. Through powerful, challenging images and stories, you ll experience life through the eyes of people enduring unimaginable adversity. You will be changed forever. Reserve your FREE front-of-the-line pass to this award-winning 20-minute experience at worldvisionexperience.org.» DATE: October 20-23, 2016» LOCATION: Wilshire Baptist Church 4316 Abrams Rd, Dallas, TX A WORLD VISION For more information, visit worldvisionexperience.org. **Due to sensitive content, parental discretion is advised.** World Vision is a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families, and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice. 6

7 The numbers Report for Oct. 2 Sunday School Officers Preschool...83 Children Youth Adults Total present Total previous week Total last year Generosity Unified Budget received $86,095 Unified Budget projected $78,564 Unified Budget YTD $2,954,283 Unified Budget projected $3,638,531 Pathways Endowment received YTD $61,977 Pathways Endowment current fund value $3,679,117 December 31 goal $4,910,290 December 1 goal $4,296,503 November 1 goal $3,952,783 October 1 goal $3,559,960 September 1 goal $3,216,240 August 1 goal $2,798,865 July 1 goal $2,406,042 June 1 goal $1,988,667 May 1 goal $1,546,741 April 1 goal $1,203,071 March 1 goal $810,198 February 1 goal $466,478 Unified Budget The phrase Renaissance man has long been used to describe men with many talents and interests, but there s no parallel term for women. If there were, Haley DeVault would certainly be described that way. As a child growing up in Mesquite, she competed in tumbling at the state and national levels. I was a competitive kid, she said. I loved the pressure and the excitement of competition. At night she often climbed on the roof to look at the stars. I wanted to be an astronaut. I still love astronomy and related subjects like astrophysics, and I share these interests with my older daughter, Brooke, who is 8. At Mesquite High School, Haley participated in a wide range of activities. She was a gymnast and cheerleader; played the cello and was named musician of the year several times; served as class secretary all four years; and participated in debate, including state competitions. Haley also helped students resolve conflicts as a peer helper. In the summertime she worked as a lifeguard for four years. She graduated in 1996 and went on to Baylor University, which she chose for two reasons. I went to a small, very conservative Baptist church that encouraged youth to go into ministry and to choose small Baptist colleges, and Baylor was a good compromise, she said. On the lighter side, she was especially fond of Baylor because her parents gave her a Baylor T-shirt that she slept in every night as a child. At Baylor, Haley majored in history and minored in religion. In addition to classwork, she was a Diamond Girl, which allowed her to work with Baylor s baseball team on and off the field, and she also was a member of a service fraternity that helped people in need in the Waco area. During her sophomore year she participated in a trip I Am Wilshire Haley DeVault to Israel, and one experience there was especially memorable. In high school I had memorized Acts 26 for a Bible competition, she said. It was a speech that Paul made in Caesarea, and I went to the exact spot where he had given it and recited it by memory. In 1999, Haley spent a semester studying history in the Netherlands. On long weekends the group enjoyed traveling across Europe. We had to do the leg work to plan our trips it was a perfect introduction to adulthood, she said. I love seeing the historical places juxtaposed against modern society. After earning a bachelor s degree in history with a minor in religion in 2000, she was hired by Fidelity Investments as a trader and estate planner. There I worked with attorneys and decided I liked what they did. I wasn t happy with my job and needed to make a change, she said. I like the writing process, and though not a poet, I love words. In my current job I write contracts. For me, finding the appropriate words, in the proper sequence, to accurately convey the true meaning is like a puzzle. Because of her interests and her dissatisfaction with her job, Haley opted for a career change by enrolling at SMU s Dedman School of Law. Graduating cum laude in December 2007, she first worked for a law firm and now does real estate transactional work part-time for a restaurant franchisee. Her career change is not only more fulfilling but also gives her more time for her family. I met my husband, Brad, in Fidelity s training class, she said. Brad and I complement each other well. I think he pushes me to be the best version of myself, and I hope I do the same for him. They were married in 2003, and in addition to Brooke, they have a younger daughter, Elaine, who is 5. Haley grew up in a small, conservative very loving and nurturing Baptist church. There she was president of the youth group, attended church camps and participated in summer competitions with other churches. At Baylor I was exposed to a broader understanding of religion, developed my own beliefs and learned to think critically, she explained. My faith came from my childhood church, and then I took a purposeful step back to learn about other faiths and denominations. I attended a variety of churches and explored other religions, then came back to my Christian faith. The DeVaults joined Wilshire in We immediately loved George s preaching, she said. At a meet-andgreet at his house, I learned that the congregation and the deacons made the decisions. I was glad to hear that I would have a voice. I love that, as a woman, I can participate in the leadership of the church. They are members of Labyrinth Class, where Haley sometimes teaches. There I can struggle openly and listen to different points of view, she said. I help teach kindergarten choir and pre-k missions and have served on the Risk Management and Social committees and one of the Vision 20/20 committees, she said. She became a deacon this year. She also enjoys serving as Brooke s Brownie leader, and she is a member of the Texas Astronomical Society. 7

8 Wilshire contacts To any member of the Wilshire staff, use the first initial with the full last name and then To phone staff, dial (214) 452- and the four-digit extension: Pastoral offices George Mason (3132) Debby Burton (3132) Mark Wingfield (3128) Kathi Lyle (3130) Pathways to Ministry Geri McKenzie (3159) Timothy Peoples (3153) Kevin Sinclair (3155) Jakob Topper (3152) Business offices David Nabors (3157) Lori Gooden (3131) Susan Kimball (3108) Dale Pride (3101) Holly Irvin (3150) Beverly Faubion (3111) Adam Scheuermann (3136) Age-graded ministries Jessica Capps (3129) Darren DeMent (3102) Julie Girards (3104) Joan Hammons (3141) Carol Cabaniss (3106) Care ministries Tiffany Wright (3107) Debby Burton (3132) Wilshire Baptist Church 4316 Abrams Rd Dallas TX PERIODICALS RATE 8 Missions/advocacy offices Heather Mustain (3110) Katie Murray (3126) Abbey Adcox (3127) Music offices Doug Haney (3123) Sarah Stafford (3121) Barbara Clayton (3125) Jeff Brummel (3122) Food services Arlana Brumfield (3117) Weekday Education Mary Browder (3115) Parish nurse Linda Garner (3151) Library Barbara Peterson (3114) Reception desk (214) Spiritual gifts are gifts to give away. God gives them to us, and we use them to serve others. How are you using your gifts right now? Are you looking for a new way to use them? If your spiritual gifts include faith, mercy, teaching the faith, encouragement or knowing, consider Stephen Ministry, our congregation s one-toone caregiving ministry. This may be just what you ve been looking for. We are currently taking applications for our 2017 training class. Contact Tiffany Wright at twright@wilshirebc.org or (214) Soy beans to North Korea. With funds from the missions portion of Wilshire s Unified Budget, the Missions Committee recently purchased 1 ton of beans for Pastor Yoo Jong Yoon s most recent mission to North Korea. He and travel companions attended two churches in North Korea. At the first, they sang together What A Friend We Have in Jesus, and the pastor challenged them to share about 2 tons of soy beans that had been donated and how to raise the money to buy up to 60 tons. The congregation was excited to hear our singing and the story of 60 tons of soy beans. There were 150 people in the pews. The team also visited five orphan schools and one province hospital. We have given our energy, your power of prayer and financial resources and love in our Lord Jesus Christ, the pastor reported. We depart, hoping and praying that sown seeds are sprouting out and many others may go to North Korea in missions so that so-called end of the earth may be touched by the power of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.