Churches working together to fulfill Jesus Great Commission. Matthew 28:18-20

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1 E-Encourager North Grand River Baptist Association The Encourager 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 Volume 39, Number 4 April, 2015 Churches working together to fulfill Jesus Great Commission. Matthew 28: North Grand River Baptist Association s Purpose- To mutually and prayerfully support, encourage and challenge one another as churches to exalt Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, to edify and equip His disciples to serve him and one another, and to evangelize those who have yet to come to know Him personally. Matthew 28:19-20 VBS Training Clinic Fair Monday- April 27th Tenth Street Baptist Church Registration 6:15pm Joint Opening 6:30 Alpha Edinburg* Gallatin Galt Jameson Jamesport Laredo Lineville Medicine Valley Mercer Modena* Princeton* Ravanna Rural Dale Salem Shelburne Spickard Tenth Street Trenton First* Union * No Pastor U N I T E D O N M I S S I O N In This Issue DOM Report 2 WMU Report 2 BSU Report 5 Financial Report 7 Church Reports 6 Men s Breakfast 3 Bookstore Sale 3 Executive Board 3 RA Congress 3 NGR Osborn Offering 8 Sparrow Ministry 9-10 Bucket Project 4 NGR VBS Director Dianna Crawford Preschool- Children Grades 1-4 grade Scott Earnst VBS X Preteen Adults Steve Dennis Pastors- EJ Barnes Music Laura Bonta Missions Christina Boatright Crafts Cathy Rice Nursery- Caina Chapman New Format this year following the opening the groups listed above will be set up in booth style. Come and see! Director of Mission s E.J. Barnes Ministry Assistant Debbie Dickinson BSU Director Diann Barnes BSU Ministry Assistant Christina Boatright

2 E-Encourager 2 The Global Concise Dictionary shares some significant truths concerning Christ s resurrection (1) PROOF OF JESUS DEITY. Paul says that Jesus was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead. (Romans 1:4) All that Jesus claimed for himself is verified by the fact of his resurrection. (2) GUARANTEE OF OUR OWN RESURRECTION. Paul calls Jesus the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep (1 Cor. 15:20). Because Christ was raised, those who believe in him are assured a personal resurrection. (3) GUARANTEE OF OUR SALVATION. The everliving Jesus has a permanent preisthead and is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them (Hebrews 7:24-25) (4) SOURCE OF PRESENT POWER FOR HOLY LIVING. Christians are united with Jesus in his resurrection (Romans 6:5). Through this union and enablement by the Spirit who raise Jesus from the dead (Romans 8:11), believers are able to live Christlike lives now, despite the limitations imposed by sin (1 Peter 3:21). (5) KEY TO THE FULFILLMENT OF O.T. AND N.T. PROMISES ABOUT THE FUTURE. God s purposes will be achieved, and his plans carred to fruition, when the risen Jesus returns to earth. Jesus has risen from the dead! He is alive! We must praise Him and thank Him! We must celebrate!! Let s faithfully serve Him this month! For His Glory E.J. Barnes P.S. Don t forget our Executive Board Meeting (20th at 7:00 pm) and our VBS Clinic (27th at 6:15 pm at Tenth Street). Pray for our State Bible Drill participants (Youth on the 11th and Children on the 25th). Pray about our 1st Annual Jean and Nellie Osborn Associational Missions Offering to be taken by participating churches during the month of May. Associational WMU Members from 6 churches in the association met Tuesday March 17 for our monthly meeting. Prayer requests were taken and included a special prayer for the unsaved parents of members, a prayer for member Belinda and David Hogan who will be starting ESL training in Milan and Bev Martin s son Eric who will be going to Nicaragua this summer to install water systems. Doris Pilcher informed the group that Trenton First is planning an Associational Worldcraft Party, the tentative date is September 12, more info will be coming later. The group also talked about planning a mission fair for Bev announced that Paul and Lori Babb will be at the June meeting. Virginia Crumpacker gave our devotion on Galatians 2:11-13, about walls that we put around people or ourselves that discourage closeness with the Lord. The rest of the meeting was spent assembling items from all the members to make three baskets for the silent auction to be held at the State WMU meeting April We ended up with a Dorcus basket full of sewing supplies, a tea basket and a book basket. The proceeds will go to the Alberta Gilpin Fund which helps retired Missionaries. Our next meeting will be April 21 st at 10:30 am. All women interested in missions are welcome whether they belong to a WMU group or not. 1 John 4:9- God showed how much He loved us by sending His only Son into this wicked world to bring us eternal life through his death. (The Way) Happy Easter to all!! Shelly Sims

3 E-Encourager 3 NEW! What it Means to Be a Christian 100 Devotions for boys or girls and/or I m a Christian Now What? 100 Devotions for boys or girls 30 Days to a More Beautiful You A devotional for girls Minute Devotions for Women $8.00 The Case for Grace by Lee Strobel Looking Up Devotional by Beth Moore Several Veggie Tale DVD s and other items Open during the noon hour on Wednesday s During the month of April NGR Executive Board Meeting Monday, April 20th, :00 pm at Mission Center Please submit department reports by April 14th. All items on agenda need submitted by April 6th. At this time the Finance/Administrative Committee are working on the finances of NGR and are planning on having a report. You can pick up a copy of the Agenda and reports on Friday, April 17th, to review over before the meeting. Pastors Prayer & Fellowship Time at Pizza Hut 2nd Monday of each month Youth Camp- June 22-26, 2015 Children s Camp- July 27-31, 2015 RA Congress 2015 April 17-18, 2015 MO State Fairgrounds, Sedalia MO All 1 st 6 th Grade Boys are invited to Attend. For help in registering or to receive a mail-in registration form, call Sharon Paris ext. 324 Find Details and Register online at Early Deadline: April 1st! You will want the boys of your church to experience RA Congress! They do not have to be an RA to enjoy the events, activities, music and missionary speaker. Galt Baptist Church Saturday, 8:00 am April 18th, 2015 All Men Invited! Mission s Celebration- Annual Meeting April St. Charles, Missouri ALL FOR YOU Surrender Sacrifice Serve Early Bird Registration Fee $30 After March 25, 2015 Fee $40 Student Fee (Grades 7-College) $10 Events Include: Missionary Speakers Breakout Sessions WMU Age Level raining Praise 7 Worship Bookstore & Exhibits Silent Auction Baskets (Alberta Gilpin Fund)

4 E-Encourager 4 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 Cooperative Program Sunday- April 12, 2015 How does the Cooperative Program work? It begins with you your tithes and offerings to your local church. Your church, in turn, gives a percentage of its annual budget to the Missouri Baptist Convention. The MBC invests nearly 60 cents of each dollar in Missouri missions and sends the rest to the Southern Baptist Convention, where CP gifts from 45,000 churches are pooled to support nearly 10,000 missionaries, six seminaries, ethics and religious liberty causes, and more. CP enables every giver to make an impact for Christ in Missouri and around the world. Baptist Global Response (BGR) is the Southern Baptist international disaster relief and community development organization with a heart for helping people in need. BGR connects people in need with people who care. The BGR Hospice Bucket Kit is a collection of medical/hygiene supplies placed in a 5 gallon, heavy-duty plastic bucket with a sealable lid that will provide assistance to caregivers and quality of life to homebound terminally ill patients. These buckets will go to countries like Swaziland, Lesotho, Mozambique and South Africa where HIV/AIDS is crippling populations, and in many cases, wiping out communities. In addition to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, thousands in Sub-Saharan Africa die each year from sicknesses like cancer, tuberculosis, malaria and other devastating diseases. Our area is responsible for Ziploc gallon-size freezer bags;.35 oz SQUEEZABLE Carmex Lip Balm tubes (suggest 3 ct. pack for economy) and 8-10 oz FRAGRANCE FREE moisturizing body lotion. NO PUMP bottles (suggest Equate (Wal-Mart) for economy). If your church chooses they can fill a bucket or collect the items above and bring to the office before April 1st. There are ladies going to the WMU Annual Meeting and they can take them. This project will be for the year and there will be other times that items can be delivered to collection points as they are announced through the year. Information has been put in the church mailboxes at the Mission Center and you can go online to buckets.

5 E-Encourager 5 NCMC, April 2015 Allow me to introduce our BSU student, Diana Ngonyamo from Zimbabwe. Diana arrived in the USA, December 12, God arranged for her to move in to the Barnes home January 6th, the day after our Ghana student, Sophia Gogo, moved to Kansas City. Jan. 13th, Diana experienced her first college worship with NCMC- BSU students at Communitas Tuesday 9pm worship. This was something different for her as her background was 7th Day Adventist. Diana then participated in our BSU Winter Retreat, the last weekend in January. Then Feb , she went with 6 other NCMC students to our statewide BSU Engage Leadership Conference at Midwestern Baptist Seminary, KC. There she learned that as a follower of Jesus we are commanded to Make Disciples. Through this training she realized that in order to make a disciple you had to first become Jesus disciple. The next Sunday Diana publicly declared she had become Jesus disciple, and Sunday, March 15, Diana was baptized by Pastor Ron. Diana s baptism becomes the 7th BSU student baptized out of 8 Salvations in the last 3 years. 2 of these students have or are serving as Youth ministers. Two other BSU students, in the last 2 years, have served IMB in dark Muslim speaking countries for 4-month short term missions, teaching Muslim women about Jesus. (One of these is currently there in the Middle East.) Of the 7 baptisms, four of these students have served as summer missionaries for NGRBA, and 5 of these have participated in the foreign mission trip to Canada, where they shared Jesus with 1st Nation s People on Grassy Narrows, Shoal Lake #39 and #40, and White Dog Indian Reserves located in NW Ontario. Other BSU students are Patrick Lyasara-Nigeria, who will be playing basketball for NCMC this coming year. Pray for him. Pray for Jefferdson Jiminez-Curacao, who plans to be a Sports Crusader for MO Baptist this summer. Pray for April, Gracie, Maggie and Christina as they work in summer missions this summer. Pray that God will provide a home for these 4 missionaries this summer as the Barnes home is full to capacity with international students. Pray for Leedward and Geuel as they face teasing from the other Curacao students because they stand for Jesus. Pray for Alex, Alyssa, Dawn, Krystina, as they seek God s plan for their life. Pray for the other 12 Curacao students, that God will pierce their hearts with HIS Truth as they witness Jefferdson, Leedward, and Geuel standing for Jesus. Recently, there have been questions of why we spend money to take students to events or mission trips. Let me simply say, the obvious results of the Engage conference was 7 lives impacted by God s Truths. Those of you who pray for the BSU, enjoy the following photo proof of your prayers. He is Worthy Diann Barnes, aka MamaD

6 E-Encourager 6 Medicine Valley- We look forward to the celebration of Easter and the commemoration of the sacrificial death and glorious resurrection of our eternal savior, Jesus the great deliverer. On Easter Sunday we will be hosting our Easter breakfast, followed by special worship services, with a traditional Easter egg hunt for children to follow. In April and May we will be making a food drive throughout our local area. We invite other churches and individuals interested in our food ministry to also make food donations during these two months. Of special need are canned vegetables; corn, green beans, and tomatoes in particular. Along with E.J. and other associational leaders we have been making tentative plans for an associational assisted Evangelism Crusade at Humphreys, sometime this year, in late spring or early summer. Our concern is for the hundreds of people in this area, from Osgood to Humphreys and Reger who are without Christ in their lives. With the recent closing of the former Christian Church in Humphreys it is yet another village without a local church family. While we do continue to have a Tuesday night children and youth Bible study and Celebration Station at our home and Adult Bible Study on Wednesday nights, much more is needed. A few families and individuals in our service area do attend services and/or are members of churches outside the community, but there remain many who are entirely unreached. We urge others throughout the association to keep this very real mission field and these people in your prayers, and to be open to God s leadership at the possibilities of assisting in other ways in development of this mission in your own backyard. We pray God s continued blessings upon you all. Jamesport Baptist Church will be celebrating Passion Week with nightly services beginning Monday, March 30 th through Saturday, April 4 th. All nightly services will begin at 7 pm. Pastor Rich Neeley will be preaching through what Jesus and His Disciples would be experiencing each day of the week. The church will be taking open communion on Thursday evening during Maundy Thursday and will have a special Good Friday service. The Saturday evening service will conclude the week and prepare us for Resurrection Sunday. All nightly services The Jamesport United Methodist Church will be joining us on Sunday morning for Sunrise Service. Breakfast will be serviced at 7:00 am and our Sunrise Service will begin at 8:00 am. Our morning Sunday School begins at 9:45 am and our Easter Service will begin at 10:45 am. There will be no evening service. If you have any questions please contact the church at or Pastor Rich Neeley at Trenton FBC Our Senior Adults had a luncheon for their March meeting. Lots of green was among the delicious foods. Our program was quite interesting. Elsie Mae Browning shared about the missionary life of St. Patrick. Ron Ratliff shared about the cowboy church on Route F, by Jamesport, and Jack and Marilyn Bain played several string instruments and sang. Senior adults have a vey busy schedule in April and May- Gaither Concert- April 11 in Raytown, Pella Iowa- May 9th for the tulip festival and Heartland Dairy- May 15th in La Belle, Missouri. Many people are planning mission trips this summer. Our capital campaign to update our building and grounds is coming along very well. We want to thank our sister churches for praying for us as we seek a new pastor. He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Matthew 28:6

7 E-Encourager 7 February 2015 Reports Church Giving Monthly Inc. North Grand River Baptist Association Church Service Times BSU Inc. SS AM PM Weds. Alpha $ $ :30 10:30 6:30 7:00 Edinburg $ $ :00 11:00 6:00 7:00 Gallatin $ $ :30 10:40 6:00 7:00 Galt $ $ :00 11:00 6:00 7:00 Jameson 9:30 10:30 Jamesport $ $ :45 10:45 7:00 6:30 Laredo $ $ :30 10:30 6:30 6:30 Lineville $ $ :45 10:45 6:00 6:00 M. Valley 9:30 10:30 6:00 Mercer $ $ :30 10:30 6:30 6:30 Modena $ $ :15 9:00 6:00 6:00 Princeton $ $ :40 10:40 7:00 6:00 Ravanna $ $ :30 10:45 Rural Dale $ $ :45 10:35 7:00 7:00 Salem $ $ :00 11:00 6:00 Shelburne $ $ :00 10:55 6:00 6:30 Spickard $ :30 10:30 6:30 Tenth St. $ $ :30 10:30 6:00 7:00 Trenton FB $1, $ :30 10:40 6:00 6:00 Union $ $ :00 11:00 6:00 6:00 Total $5, $1, Join any of these churches in worship Chilli, FBC $ MBC Gilman BC $ Seminary Checking $ Seminary Savings $2, Benevolent Savings $ NGR Savings $ BSU February Income to Expense Beginning Balance $2, Income $2, Total $4, Expenses $3, Ending Balance $1, General BSU Fund -($224.51) Designated BSU Fund $ February 2015 NGR Account Beginning Balance $7, Income $10, Total $17, Expenses $11, Ending Balance $6, Line Items in General Checking Designated Funds $4, General Fund $1, Checking Balance Total $6, NGR October 2014 February 2015 (Does not includes designated funds) Income $54, Expenses $53, Difference $ N Main Director of Missions Trenton, MO Rev. E.J. Barnes Fax: Ministry Assistant ngrmission@sbcglobal.net Debbie Dickinson BSU Telephone BSU Director DOM s Office Telephone Diann Barnes Web Page BSU Assistant Christian Boatright

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