Our mission is to KNOW Jesus, SERVE Jesus and SHARE Jesus

Transcription

1 October 2016 I recently had a Christian say to me, I don t think I m even going to vote in this election, and then he continued to state his reasons. I found his comment very troubling especially since it came from a professing Christian. Since when are we, as citizens of this great nation and as citizens of Heaven, simply to give up or give in? How can we just sit back and do nothing? Our faith is to be much more than simply something we believe. It must have hands and feet. James 2:17 tells us that a faith without works is dead! I remember a song I used to sing as a child, This little light of mine. I m going to let it shine. Hide it under a bushel? No! I m going let it shine. Jesus said as recorded in Matthew 5:14, You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. It is during the darkest hour that our light must shine the brightest! If a Christian stays home and does not vote that person is hiding their light under a basket (Matthew 5:15). We don t have to look far to realize our nation is in crisis. Prayer is now prohibited in our public schools. The Bible cannot be distributed to students inside a classroom on school property although the Bible was the sole textbook in the first public schools. Nativity scenes are no longer allowed on government property. Many stores and businesses have traded their traditional greeting of Merry Christmas for Happy Holidays fearing they may offend the nonreligious. Life has been degraded to the point where in many cases animals are treated far better than humans. God declares that mankind is created in His image, sacred and of eternal value. Yet in America an estimated 49 million babies have died through abortions since How did we get to this point in a nation which was founded as One nation under God? Christians, have for too long hidden our light, silenced our voices, and sat passively on the sidelines while our nation continued to slip away from God. It s time to rise up church! God uses people and it is through our involvement that God accomplishes His ends. Will you allow God to use you by going to the polls and casting your vote for morality and Godly values? The Christian vote should be in line with God, not a party. Righteousness exalts a nation. Proverbs 14:34a. I want to encourage you to vote for those candidates who support God s definition of marriage, who hold all life as sacred, and who treasure and protect our religious freedoms. This nation is at a serious crossroads. Christians rise up and vote! November 8, 2016 is election day! OCTOBER 4TH Dawn Rhodes home (See WMU article for address) OCTOBER 2ND, 9TH, 16TH, 23RD, &30TH OCTOBER 31ST Trunk or Treat OCTOBER 4TH Western Sizzlin OCTOBER 29TH Youth to Judgement House 5:00 PM Pastor Mike Our mission is to KNOW Jesus, SERVE Jesus and SHARE Jesus

2 Oakdale Family/Friends, Thanks to each of you for the prayers, cards, and visits after the passing of my step-mom, Mamie Dail. It is nice to know that others care during a time of bereavement. You are a very special church family! Love, Ann Rhodes & Family *********************************************************** On behalf of the Edgecombe County Public Schools and the Migrant Education Program, we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the 40 book bags and school supplies you gave to our migrant students. Our parents and students benefit tremendously and without your gracious assistance, we could not do what we do for our students. A special thank you goes to the members at Oakdale Baptist Church. Thank you very much for your generous support. Araceli, Angel, Olga & Silvia Migrant Education Program Staff ************************************************ Oakdale, Thank you to everyone for all of your prayers, cards, visits, and thoughts for me during my illness. They were truly appreciated. Karen Ezzell Income & Expenses General Fund Income $17, August Expenses $24, Difference $(6,597.43) August Designated Fund Receipts AUGUST 2016 TITHES & OFFERINGS (Not Account Balances) Building Fund $5,452.66* SCLO $ Upward (2015 sales tax refund) $ WMU (Beth Moore Simulcast) $ Youth Fund $ *Monthly Building Fund payment is $3600 Balance of Building Loan as of 9/26/16 $16, Oakdale members have a history of meeting financial challenges: If you would like to put flowers in the church in memory or in honor of someone, or for some special occasion, please contact the church office at Ann Rhodes & Family in the passing of her stepmother, Mamie Dail Educational building Family Life Center Paving parking lot Sewer pump system Audio-Visual upgrades Building connection (with elevator and additional restrooms!) The challenge now is to pay in full, by the end of 2016, the loan with Southern Bank ($16,602.72) Are you willing to accept the challenge? Family of Carson Rhodes in his passing Debbie Lewis in the passing of her brother, Jerry Goff

3 3:30 Student Ministries In the month of October, the youth will continue to meet Sunday Nights through November 20th for discipleship classes. The study is titled Dare to be a Daniel. Renee Howell and Sandy Howard are teaching it. Youth October Events: Friday, Oct. 7th Youth to SWE Game Friday, Oct. 29th-5:00 PM Youth to Judgement House The Oakdale youth (3:30 Student Ministries) is a group of 7th 12th graders who meet regularly. If you are not involved, we invite you to come join us. Please stay informed about the student ministry through Facebook page, newsletter, and calendar in the youth room. Cooler days and nights, bright colored leaves, mums, bonfires, and hayrides. All of these remind us it is Fall. God provides changes of seasons for the earth and He provides changes for us. Take the time to notice the changes around you. On Monday, October 31st from -8:30 PM, we will be having the 3rd annual Trunk or Treat in Oakdale s parking lot. We need people to sign-up to decorate their trunks for this event. We will have hot dogs, chips, and drinks. The cake walk and hayride will also be available for fun. There will be sign-up sheets for cakes and for people that are going to decorate their trunks on the table by the Welcome Center. The children will be participating in the fruit sale this year. If your child will be going to camp, help reduce the cost by selling fruit. See Angela Spain to get a form. The children will be going ice skating Saturday, November 12th from 1:00 PM-3:00 PM in Greenville. More details will be available at a later date. STEP OUT SCHEDULE FOR OCTOBER (CHILDREN S CHURCH) 10-2 Dawn Rhodes & Justin Hipsky 10-9 Rickey & Karen Murray Jeff & Joy Eatmon David & Kim Wells Trina Rhodes & Susan Sturgill Please contact Sue Lassiter at if you cannot serve your Sunday so we can make alternate arrangements. Thank You! If you would like to help, contact Sue Lassiter. TeamKid is now on Wednesday nights from -8:00 PM. There will be a rotating schedule with children s choir. First grade & under will be one group and 2nd 5th Grade will be the second group. For example: Frist grade & under may have choir one Wednesday and 2nd-5th grade will have TeamKid. Then the following Wednesday they will switch.

4 Wow! It s time! It s still hot outside but it s time to begin practicing for Christmas. I m excited this year for all that we have going on. The Sanctuary Choir would love to invite anyone interested to come out and help with our musical drama Searching For the King. We will be presenting this program on Sunday night, December 18 th. We practice on Wednesday nights at 8:15 in the choir room. The children will be doing The Christmas Cupcake on Sunday night, December 11 th. We ll be practicing on Wednesday nights and Sunday nights through November 20th for this program. Angie Ruffin ATTENTION CHURCH FAMILIES Joy Group Meeting October 20, :00 PM to 4:00 PM Fellowship Hall Program- Devotion- -Carolyn Lawrence Guest-- Edgecombe County Sheriff-Mr. James Knight (Safety and Security for Edgecombe County Seniors) Games & Snacks As many of you know, when there is a death in the family of one of our members or someone in the Oakdale community who is unchurched, we offer and most often do provide a meal for them on the day of the funeral service. This is one of the duties of the hostess ministry team. It is called Hostess Team which has three sub teams at this time. There are two ladies who head each team, and when it is their time to do so, plan the meal for the number of people to be served. This number is provided by the family. The team leaders try to make sure there is always enough food for everyone who comes. However, even though they plan and prepare for the meal, they cannot do it without the help of all of the church members. They have to have your help! Your name is placed on one of the teams and when you are called upon to donate either money or a dish, please be kind and cordial in your response. Please have the attitude you would want others to have if the calls were to provide for your own family. Since there are three teams, each one will be asked to provide something for every third time of need. Hopefully, we can keep the number of teams at three by having enough people willing to do this. You just never know when. EVERYONE IS WELCOME

5 2016 Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 2 5:00 PM Interpretive Dance Practice Operation Christmas Child Project Starts PM Men s Supper/ Meeting (Western Sizzlin) Women s Fellowship (Home of Dawn Rhodes) 5 Children s Choir Practice/TeamKid Special Business Session & Regular Schedule 6 Messianic Synagogue 7 Youth to SWE 8 9 4:30 PM 10 10:00 AM :15 PM Deacon Meeting Pastor Appreciation Day Missions Prayer Group at OBC Mission Team Mtg Children s Choir Practice/TeamKid Red Springs Mission Camp Speaker Messianic Synagogue JOY Group to Dunn Center 16 5:00 PM :00 PM :00 AM Interpretive Dance Practice Children s Choir Practice/TeamKid Regular Schedule JOY Group Messianic Synagogue Messianic Synagogue 23 Operation Christmas Child boxes to be turned in 30 5:00 PM Interpretive Dance Practice Trunk or Treat Children s Choir Practice/TeamKid Regular Schedule :00 PM Youth to Judgement House

6 SECURITY FOR OCTOBER 10/2 Chris Webb & Tony Lassiter 10/9 Shawn Webb & Justin Hipskey 10/16 Jett Webb & Rickey Murray 10/23 Bert Peele & Wayne Walston 10/30 Danny Calhoun & Brad Summerlin USHER TEAM FOR OCTOBER EMMETT TATUM-HEAD USHER BUTCH HARRELL WAYNE CALHOUN RICKEY MURRAY 10/1 Joy Eatmon 10/19 Elton Pridgen 10/2 Bruce Rhodes 10/20 Jameson Moore 10/6 Rebecca Chadwick 10/21 Kip Ruffin 10/8 Kaitlyn Harris 10/22 Dawn Rhodes 10/8 Debbie Lewis 10/23 Brenda Fulford 10/9 Tommy Hopkins 10/26 Payton Carraway SEPTEMBER /10 Linda Ruffin 10/27 Justin Cobb 10/12 Rachel Clements 10/27 Melissa Dixon 10/12 Bobby Rackley 10/27 Mary Harrell 10/13 Justine Wells 10/27 Taylor Rhodes Here are a few reminders about the nursery. Most important, if you work in the nursery and have NOT submitted a background check, please do so immediately! Crib nursery is for babies birth to 18 months to 24 months old (parent discretion depending on the individual child). In crib nursery, please make sure that your phone number is left with the workers in case you are needed. Please, also make sure your child has a nursery tag on his/her bag when you leave it in the nursery. We are asking you to use the shelves to put bags on instead of setting them in cribs. Toddler nursery is for toddlers ages 18/24 months to 4 years old. Once a child turns 4, they can go into the sanctuary with their parents and join Children s Church with all the other children. Please make sure your phone number is left in case you are needed. Thank you all for your help with this. October nursery coordinator Meghan Smith please contact Meghan if you are unable to serve on your Sunday so that she has plenty of time to find coverage. 10/2 Crib Barbara Whitehurst &Judy Walston-Brianna Lewis 10/2 Toddlers Rose Ruffin & Lisa Whitley 10/9 Crib Angela Spain & Kathy Calhoun-Collin Spain 10/9 Toddlers Susan Cobb & Sandy Howard 10/16 Crib Lynn & Phillip Eason-Samantha Wells 10/16 Toddlers Paige & Brad Summerlin 10/16 April Roach 10/29 Taylor Harris 10/17 Lynette Tatum 10/30 Allen Dunn 10/19 Johnny Joyner If you are not already on the Security Team and would like to serve on it, please call the church office at Also, if you are not already on the Usher team, please call the church at or Glenn Howell at /23 Crib Amy & Chris Webb-Lane Hodge 10/23 Toddlers Justine Wells & Terin Chapman 10/30 - Crib-Susie & Shawn Webb-Cody Calhoun 10/30 - Toddlers-Shelby Webb & Katie Lassiter

7 MISSIONS BAPTIST MEN We are excited to see new faces each month at our monthly fellowship meetings. We had 26 last month at the Western Sizzlin and were missing some due to school activities. We had a group of 12 to travel to Greenville on Saturday, September 17th to a Beth Moore simulcast. It was a full day of learning, fellowship and lots of laughter. Maybe next year the date will not be right on top of our Homecoming Services. We appreciate those that stayed behind and gave of themselves in service to our Lord while getting things set up back at Oakdale. If you missed last month, mark your calendars right now and make your plans to met with this awesome group of sisters on October 4th at 6:30. We are trying to have these meeting the first Tuesday night of each month at. Hope this will help you schedule this time on your families calendars. I love the mixture of ages and backgrounds. All ladies are invited. This is a great way to get to know others that you might just see their face on Sunday. We are planning a Fall outside meeting at the home of Dawn Rhodes, 503 Melton Road, Tuesday, October 4th at. It will be a simple no cost meal and s'mores by the fire. Hopefully we will have some cooler weather, so bring your jacket and a friend. If you haven't attended one of these fellowship nights, please make yourself get up and get there. I promise you will enjoy it. Men of Oakdale, Thanks to everyone that attended the last Baptist men s meeting at Western Sizzlin. We had a great turnout and began discussing the direction and goals for our men this year. Several great ideas were presented and plans are being made on how we will begin to implement those plans in the coming weeks and months. Our focus will be on missions at home, in the community and beyond. We will be needing all of the Oakdale men to work with us if we are to accomplish these goals. Our next meeting will be Tuesday, October 4th at 6:30 PM at Western Sizzlin. Please make plans to join us for a great meal as we begin to put together this year s Oakdale Baptist Men s vision. Hope to see you there. Robert Chadwick Baptist Men s Director OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD KICK- OFF OCTOBER 2016 Did you know??? Samaritan s Purse offers their 12-lesson discipleship course The Greatest Journey to many children that receive shoe box gifts. What a blessing to show your love and know that you have helped open the door for the gospel to be shared with many children and their families by filling shoe boxes!!! Please pray about what God would have you do and work together to reach our goal of 150 gift-filled shoe boxes. Thank you, Operation Christmas Child Mission Team

8 Oakdale Baptist Church US 64 ALT WEST HWY Rocky Mount, NC Address Service Requested Oakdale Staff Pastor: Pastor Mike Dixon Music Director: Ms. Angie Ruffin Upward Director: Mr. Aaron Rhodes Secretary: Mrs. Sharon Lynch Prayer Coordinators Kaye Bulluck May Howell them at: DEACON BEACON News from Deacon Ministry Team A guiding light to the rock How do you know that you have eternal salvation? Over the past years I have asked this question and probably at least a few of you have asked it as well. Let me explain what has been revealed to me through personal Bible study, conversations with spiritual leaders that I trust and years of life s experiences trying to follow Jesus. In my case this has been a threefold experience emotional, intellectual, and commitment that was revealed over time. I did not attend church and had limited Bible knowledge until after I was in my early twenties. I now realize how important early Christian exposure through organized Sunday school and Church would have been in my life. My exposure to the Bible was in the public school system and the military; you won t get that today. It is evident that in our current society, more emphasis is placed on the social and entertainment aspects of life than on the Christian aspects. The Bible clearly tells us that we are only here for a season and we will spend eternity either in heaven or hell. We must prepare for eternity. Look around at what is going on in our world today. Let me give a brief explanation of the three phases: Emotional- During my military service the Holy Spirit began working on me. This was God giving me an opportunity to turn to Christ. He caused me to understand that the life that I was living (even though it was not a bad life by most people s standards) was not pleasing to God. This led to beginning to attend church (OBC) regularly. During the summer of that year, after gaining a limited understanding of the acceptance of Christ, I walked the isle with my wife to publicly accept Christ and be baptized. There is a lot more to say about this phase but we don t have the space. This is just the beginning of my walk with Christ; however, some people elect to stop their Christian walk and growth at this point. Intellectual- I wanted and needed to better understand the meaning of being a Christian. I became move involved at church by attending Sunday school (and actually studying the lessons), training union classes and a more in-depth personnel Bible study. Investing the time and energy to study God s word helped me clearly understand that being a Christian is more than just accepting Christ. We must strive for Christian maturity. God has a plan for each of us; however we have to seek after it. He may not reveal his entire plan at once. When we identify God s plan, we must work to implement the plan. Commitment- Gaining the intellectual knowledge of God s word allowed me to understand that I had to move beyond just the acceptance of Christ. Now I had to make a commitment to Him and take more responsible roles doing God s work. At this point, I began to accept positions of responsibility in the church to include the deacon role and to teach Sunday school, which caused me to develop a more focused Bible study. As a teacher, you will always learn more than your pupils. Also committing to financially support God s work here on this earth as outlined in the Bible was imperative. These three phases have helped me more clearly understand what it means to trust and believe in God, do the things that He outlines in the Bible, and to have the security of eternal salvation that He promises. This is not based on feelings. Knowing, understanding and committing to what God wants us to do are essential for living a Christian life. Will you still have difficult issues to deal with in you life? Will you still commit sins? The answer to both these question is yes. However, God is there to forgive you and He will guide you through the good and difficult times that you will encounter. James Walston