News from Mid-Valley Southern Baptist Association

Mid-Valley Southern Baptist Association News and Notes October 24, 2007 Church News... Pastor Alci Rengifo of Iglesia Bautista Central de Riverdale reports a new attendance record of 56 people for service last Sunday and 6 baptisms. Sierra Baptist Church of Ahwahnee is in need of a baptistery. If you have one not being used and would like to donate it to Sierra Baptist please call Pastor Bob Dickson at 977.9570. Golden Valley Baptist Church Madera will be hosting the Heartfelt Quartet in Sunday morning service, November 4, at 10:15 am. Call 645-5236 for more information or directions. All are invited to come and be blessed! October is Pastor Appreciation Month. Let us know what your congregation did to show appreciation for your pastor. NOTE: we love to pass along church victory reports. Please send them to us at mvsba@yahoo.com Disaster Relief Update.... The Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Teams are already on the scene of the fires in Southern California. Don Hargis of CSBC reports that both the mobile feeding kitchens are in place. How your church can help: Pray that Disaster Relief vehicles and volunteers would arrive safely and that all involved would be protected while in the fire areas. Donations for Disaster Relief efforts are needed. Please send donations to CSBC, Disaster Relief, 678 E. Shaw Avenue, Fresno, CA 93710. All donations will be used for the disaster. Disaster Relief teams are in need of donated or loaned heavy-duty equipment to clean homes after the disaster, specifically front-end skid loaders and excavators are needed. To donate or loan equipment please call Cathy Glover, CSBC Disaster Relief office, either by calling 299-9533 ext. 255 or by email cglover@csbc.com. Church Finance Workshop When: Saturday, November 3, 2007 Where: Mt. Olive Baptist Church, 101 West Clinton Time: 8:30 am Breakfast 9:00 am - Noon Workshop Topics: Budgeting (budget development, monitoring, reporting) Legal Checkup (IRS requirements) Procedural Checkup (petty cash, record keeping, requisition policy, auditing policy) Who is invited: Finance leaders of sister churches Presentation by: Rod Wiltrout, Church Finance Specialist, CSBC To register: Please call or email Rita at the MVSBA office ASAP. Phone 297-5550 or email at mvsba@yahoo.com. Juvenile Hall/Boot Camp Christmas Parties 2007 December 3 and 4 - Juvenile Hall December 5 - Boot Camp Goal $7,000 more information to follow. It's time for Turkey Bowl.... The 13th Annual MVSBA Turkey Bowl Flag Football Tournament will be hosted by Trinity Southern Baptist Church on Saturday, November 17, 8:30 am - 3:00 pm. Registration: 8:30 - 9:00 am Cost: 1 or more canned food items per player Lunch and equipment will be provided by the MVSBA (you may bring and wear your own cleats -- no metal cleats) Church address: 4890 E. Holland Avenue, Fresno For more information or to RSVP your group please contact Ken Hinman at 559-291-5521 or ythguyken@yahoo.com. An information letter, rules and flyer will be mailed to each church next week. Details are also available here. Upcoming events, retreats... November 17 - 13th Annual MVSBA Turkey Bowl Flag Football Tournament (see article for details). December 27-29, 2007 - Tsunami Student Conference in Long Beach, CA. You may register for Tsunami Student Conference and for housing here. Don't forget to check Cyber Tsunami blog for additional information. Children's Winter Retreat - February 8-10 at Jenness Park. Youth Winter Retreat - February 22-24 at Jenness Park. On Target - February 18-19, 2008, Sheraton Park Hotel, Anahiem. Look here for more information. April 13-23, 2008 - A Journey to Jordan and Israel. Join friends from CBF, Strongtower Financial, and Golden Gate Theological seminary for a special time of adventure, worship and Bible study. Cost is $3,100/person. Contact Carol Leathem at (888) 607-7494 ext. 505 or cleathem@californiabf.org for more information or to make reservations. CSBC Annual Meeting November 13-14, 2007, Russian Baptist Church, West Sacramento. This year we have new Messenger Cards for the 2007 CSBC Annual Meeting. The new card is yellow and must be used when registering for the meeting. You may call the MV Association office at 297-5550 for Messenger Cards. Churches must elect and certify messengers to the annual meeting according to Article III of the CSBC constitution. The pastor or church clerk must sign the card before it is presented at the registration desk. Please remember that giving to the cooperative program is indication that your church is an active, participating SBC member. Only messengers from active, participating churches will be permitted to vote. This meeting is open to all, messengers and non-messengers.

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Scenes from Mid-Valley Annual Meeting

21 Mid-Valley churches participated in the Annual Meeting last Saturday. First Southern Baptist Church hosted the meeting and feed the congregation lunch. Pastor Gary Comer, having recently returned from a five-week overseas trip, delivered the message. Ted Cole, Seminary Extension Director, presented a diploma to Steve Cutler of First Baptist Church of Madera. Three training workshops were conducted also. Derek Chitwood, IMB missionary to East Asia, led a workshop on Becoming an Acts 1:8 Believer. Randy Brannon, pastor of Grace Community Church of Madera, led a workshop called Teaching to Change Lives. Also, Jeff McGhee of the California Baptist Foundation led an inheritance workshop. While most were in one of the workshops, five people, led by Pastor Comer, went into the community to give away tracts and seek opportunities to engage people in spiritual conversations. Eight people make first time commitments to Christ.

Disaster Relief Update - Tuesday 10/23

From: Cathy Glover on Tuesday, October 23, 2007: Disaster Relief Update

We really need some volunteers to e-mail in to Renee McKinley at c-r.mckinley@sbcglobal.net and volunteer for a week or more at a time. That helps the kitchens run more efficiently. Also, both of the mobile feeding kitchens that were going to be at Mira Mesa and Escondido are presently being moved to Petco Park at 100 Park Boulevard, San Diego, CA 92101. So if you were assigned to Mira Mesa or Escondido you will now be at Petco Park. I have attached a pdf file to this e-mail with two maps/directions on it.

Other Ways to be Involved or to inform your church on How to be involved….
Don Hargis asked California Southern Baptists to pray that Disaster Relief vehicles and volunteers would arrive safely and that all involved would be protected while in the fire area.

Hargis also said donations for Disaster Relief efforts are needed. Those wishing to donate can do so here or can send a check to CSBC, Disaster Relief, 678 E Shaw Ave, Fresno 93710. Hargis noted 100 percent of the funds received will be used for the disaster.

He said it cost $80,000 in 2003 to clean 400 homes destroyed by wildfires. Both Hargis and Dan Cookson one of our CSBC missionaries agreed this fire could be worse than the 2003 fires which destroyed 3,000 homes.

Hargis also said Disaster Relief teams are in need of donated or loaned heavy-duty equipment to clean homes after the disaster. He specifically said front-end skid loaders and excavators are needed. To donate or loan this equipment contact Cathy Glover in the CSBC Disaster Relief office either by e-mail or by calling (559) 229-9533, ext. 255.

Thank you,
Cathy GloverMissions Advancement GroupMinistry Assistant

Networking, Fellowship and Prayer

The next two weeks' Pastors' Breakfasts are "Miss Nots" as Donna Cooper brings a report from Christian Women's Job Corp next week and introduces a guest with resources from our very own community college system. On the following week, Phil Ensley will challenge us with the work and opportunities of hospice.

All meetings are from 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM at Country Waffles on the west side of Blackstone between Ashlan and Dakota.

On a personal note, prayers are appreciated for my (Tom Sims') family as we are dealing with issues of our grandchildren being removed from their mothers' home and, consequently, from us for the time being. CPS is trying to fast track the approval process for them to be placed with us in foster care since there is no clear, legally established relationship. One of the boys is our grandson through our son, but he was in the process of trying to prove parentage when this happened. The other is simply our grandson through love and mutual choice. We have been raising them half of the week for quite a while and are very anxious about their well being. The good part is that they have been removed from a dangerous environment and a young couple is being compelled to get some help that they really need. There is also a little baby girl involved who is only a few weeks old with whom we have no real relationship, b ut much concern. Her name is Adriana and she needs our prayers along with Kaibian and Elijah.

Thank you so much for praying with us.

I am in Virginia at the moment, having performed a wedding in which my mother was the bride. I will return tomorrow night.

If you have any prayer requests, please let us know. We pray all the time for each other, but every fourth Tuesday at our Pastor's Breakfast, we have a special, focused time of prayer for pastors and churches in our Association.

Let me add my congratulations to my friend, Johnny Mendez for his recent award as an outstanding leader in our community. well done, brother.

- Tom Sims