Heartbeat: November/december 2008

Volume 20 • Issue 6 • November & December 2008 1 Non-Profit Org. U.S. Postage PAID Wichita, KS Permit #1657

3474 S. Meridian • Wichita, KS 67217 316-943-3446 • www.hoksba.org

Developing and Planting

RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED

Healthy Churches From your Director of Missions • Glenn Davis

The Heart of Kansas Southern Baptist Association is an association of churches with many resources and opportunities. In my first few months as your Director of Missions I have come to appreciate the pastors and churches. I look forward to this next year with excitement and expectation. Jesus calls us to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and throughout the world. As we take that calling seriously, we must realize that the task is too great for any one church. It is a task that will require that we work together, under His Headship. That cooperation among believers in the local church, and among like-minded churches, is the means by which God intends that His work be done.

If you do not wish to receive this newsletter, please contact the association office.

“ Jesus calls us to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and throughout the world. ”

God could do this without us at all. But in His divine and perfect plan, He calls us to serve in His Kingdom work. This is a great opportunity given to us. We have the privilege of serving our King.

Surviving the Holidays Immanuel Baptist Church-CLC Dining Room Saturday, November 15 1:00 pm-3:30pm Friday, December 19 6:30 pm-9:00 pm

As we consider what that looks like in HOKSBA, our strategy involves developing healthy churches, and planting new ones. • As an association we want to work with our existing churches to develop healthy churches who are actively sharing the gospel of Christ and moving people toward spiritual maturity. Jesus called it “making disciples”. Healthy churches have an inherent desire to join with other churches in cooperation and fellowship for the purposes of Christ. • As an association we want to assist churches in planting new churches. We want to provide resources and encouragement to existing churches and church plants that will assist them in their mission of reaching people with the gospel. Our goals in 2009 are to either begin or continue to support two Anglo church plants, two Hispanic church plants, and work with a new African American church. We anticipate Abraham Arevalo serving full time with HOKSBA as a Hispanic Church Planting Strategist. And we will continue to see International Students coming to faith in Christ and being discipled to return to their homes on mission for the extending of His Kingdom. Thank you for your assistance in these ministries. 1

Baptist Campus Ministries

2008 In Review By Brad Simmons

As I look back over the last calendar year, it is great to see how God has been at work. Every semester and every year brings new blessings from God. In January, we went to Life Impact in Denver. Life Impact is a collegiate conference held every two years that focuses on evangelism, discipleship and missions. The conference featured some great speakers, and was organized by Max Barnett. We were all challenged to be more disciplined in our walks with God. Many of the students who went had never seen the Rocky Mountains, so seeing that beautiful part of God’s creation was an added bonus. As usual, we welcomed many new students in January. We picked up several dozen new students from the airport, and helped them to get settled into life at Wichita State University, and in the United States. Olivet Baptist Church opened up their fellowship hall to us, and allowed us to host a welcome dinner. We planned and cooked for 150, but by the time the night was over, more than 200 international students were fed. We were not sure how the food went so far, but we were thankful it did. Many of our students spent time connecting with the new students, and telling them about The Mission’s ministry on campus. We also promoted our annual Valentine’s event.

The First of Several Keys to Success

Organization Terry Beasley, Sunday School Team Leader

What does a successful Sunday School program look like? Can we measure its success by looking at the number of attendees each week? Perhaps the level of teacher training or preparation is a contributing factor. Are class members involved in discussion and interaction during the lesson or are they sitting quietly, absorbing the wealth of knowledge being shared by the teacher? Obviously, there are no easy answers to these questions. However, those who study and report on growing Sunday School programs would agree on several “keys” to developing a successful, program. Simply, I would contend that a successful Bible Fellowship Group is one that is growing—both numerically and spiritually. Growth does not come accidentally. We must plan and organize for growth—not only the teachers of the Sunday School groups but the classes as well.

Early in the summer we received word that Clear Creek Baptist Association in Arkansas, was going to be donating a van and a trailer to The Mission. This wonderful gift has already been put to use in picking up students from the airport, and hauling our sound equipment to and from campus each Sunday. In fact, during the week prior to classes starting in August, I was in the van with six other people, and all of us were from different countries. We are very thankful to the people of that association, and for their vision to partner with us.

One area in which we can prepare for growth is to organize our classes in such a manner to accommodate new and present members. In addition to the Sunday School teacher, every class should have the following leaders in place or in training: A substitute teacher or “teacher in training” - this individual could be called upon to teach when the regular teacher has to be gone on a Sunday morning. This also becomes a natural opportunity to develop new teachers who may be asked in the future to fill vacancies in other classes or programs; Secretary—this duty may be filled at the Department level which is fine, as long as the teachers are getting the necessary information. The secretary is responsible not only to count heads each week but to give the teacher or small group leaders a reminder of those who haven’t been seen in recent weeks; one or more greeters to welcome visitors to the class and to assist these visitors in finding the worship center and feeling welcome to our church; an outreach leader to lead the effort of following-up on visitors and to assist the class in identifying new prospects; several in-reach or cell group leaders who would be responsible to contact members who have not been in attendance and to communicate ministry needs from these individuals to the class and church body; a fellowship director to organize class-wide or department-wide fellowships; a prayer leader to record weekly prayer requests and praises. While a Bible Fellowship teacher could assume many of these responsibilities, the class will be better served by dividing these tasks so that many members are a part of the growth of the group. As you begin organizing your class, you may have a few leaders filling more than one role. However, over time, if you communicate the positions and purposes of the positions that you need to fill – God will provide individuals with the desire and spiritual giftedness to fill each of these organizational roles. If your class has not yet organized for growth—prayerfully consider these adjustments. I believe that God will bless your efforts.

As we look ahead, there is still much work to be done. There are around 13,000 students at Wichita State University, and about 1,500 of them are international students. So many of these students are curious about Americans, and about the American way of life, and for many of them this includes an interest in Christianity. We are thankful for the lives that have been changed so far, but we continue to pray for the harvest that is yet to come.

It is not too soon to begin planning for Vacation Bible School 2009. Lifeway has already announced their two new curriculum options for the summer. The annual “Jumpstart” training for Vacation Bible School directors, teachers, and leaders will be held on Saturday, March 7th at First Baptist Church in Salina, Kansas. The Heart of Kansas Associational VBS training will be on Thursday, April 2nd at Sharon Baptist Church in Wichita. Place both of these training opportunities on your church calendar!

February brought our fourth annual Valentine’s “drovie.” This dramamovie-musical-dancing show has grown in popularity each year. Despite the cold and rainy night, this year around 300 students came out to see the show, which ended with the message of God’s love for us. Over Spring Break, about 20 of us went to Webster Conference Center to help with projects there, and do some leadership training. We planted trees, cleaned gutters, tracked down railroad ties that floated away, and cleaned out a very dusty, dirty storage shed loft. The week was spent casting a vision for changes that were coming in the way we do our small groups. It was also spent in worship and prayer, and refocusing ourselves on what God had for our lives.

Special Education By Mary Lou Pratt

Fall is here with the beginning of the holiday season. There was a chill in the air, but not in our hearts. The Pumpkin Patch and Cox Farms were our first two stops. I would like to mention the special care we received at Cox Farms from a man named Juan. He made sure we had a special trailer so that everyone was safe and gave each of our wonderful special needs people personal attention. The excitement on their faces when they found the biggest pumpkin was amazing to see. After everyone picked their pumpkin, we went back to South City Baptist Church to eat lunch and decorate our pumpkins. The menu for the day was a lot of smiles and laughter along with chili dogs, veggies, apple cider and carrot cake. Thank you Mike, Jody, Mike, Wendy and Janet who helped make this day happen. What wonderful people to share this ministry with!

Ministries & Evangelism By Loren Phippen

Monday, November 3, 2008

Good Neighbor Center

Disaster Relief

Our Good Neighbor Centers continue to minister to the needy providing food, clothing, and most of all, the Gospel. They can always use food and clothing for the 250 people ministered to each week. The dollars you give to the centers are stretched greatly due to the ability to purchase food for 16 cents per pound. Work projects are always available and youth groups are extremely valuable in reaching the youth of those neighborhoods. The West Side good neighbor center is in need of volunteers from 9-Noon on Wednesday’s and Friday’s. Please contact me or any of the centers if you would like to get involved.

The shower trailer has been out on several deployments. We are looking for a retired couple that would like to make Disaster Relief their ministry and deploy with the shower trailer as needed. We are getting close to fielding our chain saw trailer. The trailer and much of the equipment has been purchased. Chain saw training is now complete which makes us that much closer to putting to use that invaluable ministry tool. Basic DR training as well as food preparation will soon be available. Disaster Relief will open many doors to tell the lost and hurting about Jesus. If God is calling you to this ministry, please contact Loren Phippen, Bill Riley or Elmo Brawley.

Evangelism Missions Trips Pastor Jerry Smith and I attended the ICE event in Denver, Colorado to share the Gospel during the Democratic National Convention. We worked with 20 other ICE team members in downtown Denver. Over 50,000 tracts were handed out and 150 decisions for Christ were made. The Colorado convention fed two meals a day to 4,000 police officers and firemen. We used this as an open door to share the gospel with a number of them. Start marking your calendar for our annual evangelistic trip to New Orleans during Mardis Gras. We will be leaving on Thursday, February 19, 2009 at 4:00 from the Associational office and we are planning to return late in the afternoon on February 22nd. In the past few years we have had a group of seven. This year, we are praying for at least 12 to fill two vans. This is a great experience to share the Gospel to people who are hurting. Please pray about coming along with us. Also, please start praying about going to the Rose Bowl parade with us this year. Over a million people line Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena and thousands of them arrive the day before to save their spot for the parade. There are many opportunities to share the Gospel. We will leave here on December 30th and return late on January 1st. We provide our own transportation and living expenses. It is best to fly in and out of the Ontario airport so it will be easier for the team to pick us up. Please let me know as soon as possible if you are interested. The River Festival runs from May 8th-16th. Our events will be from Thursday, May 14th to Saturday, May 16th. We will have a Team Impact type of event on Saturday. Street evangelists from around the country will be helping us all week during the River Festival. Our goal this year is to have one of our church members along side the evangelists every day. So start praying about when you would be available to work the streets and learn a very productive way to share the Gospel. Thousands of lost people are at the River Festival every year and we need to reach out to them. We will also need help with music and volunteers to man the inflatable's and snack food station. Let’s make this the most productive festival yet for reaching the lost and dying in Wichita. Midway Baptist Church has recently started a Celebrate Recovery Ministry. They are having a great response and are seeing fruit from this ministry. This is a great outreach ministry tool to our community. Tom and Marilynn Melton are leading the ministry and God is using them in a mighty way. Many participants are now members and/or regular attendees at Midway. If you know someone that would benefit from this ministry, please contact Tom Melton for more information. You can contact Tom, Mark, or I if you would like information on starting this ministry at your church. We are continuing to minister in some of the area’s youth detention facilities. There is a need for ministry at the juvenile facilities. These youth need to hear about our Lord and see His love in a real way. Please call me if you have an interest in getting involved. Please continue praying for the Set Free house and for the ministry. Many of our local churches have “work days” at the house. We have also had a mission team from Arkansas work there. The work is coming along but we still have a lot left to do. Please contact Bart Buresh at 316-619-8648 if you are interested in taking a work group there. We will soon be starting on the drywall and finish work.

Christmas Party

HOKSBA Annual Meeting What:

HOKSBA is inviting all church staff to the annual Christmas Party.

When: Where:

December 8th @ 6:30pm Corporate Caterers 3920 E Douglas · Wichita

RSVP:

Ellie @ 943-3446 by November 26th so that we can be good stewards with the Lord’s money.

Midway Baptist Church at 6:30pm

Come and see what the Lord is doing at the Heart of Kansas Southern Baptist Association.

Samaritan’s Road By Chaplain Marvin Daniels

Greetings to our brothers and sisters in the Lord! We thank all of you who take an interest in the ministry of Samaritan’s Road. We appreciate your prayers and your support more than you can know. When speaking of the work of the Spirit, Jesus said "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit." John 3:8 (NKJV) It still remains the same story today. We as believers and witnesses of the Salvation available through Jesus Christ cannot guess who God’s Spirit will draw to Himself for saving grace. One driver who visited our ministry was Mike, from Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada. He has been a driver for several years. As he tells it, his life basically consisted of drugs and alcohol. He was lost, and extremely unhappy with his life. He started working for a new company, Jade Trucking in Canada. The owners of this company are strong believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, and they treat their drivers as Jesus would. Mike said that he noticed the difference, felt the love of these people, and knew from their clear testimony that the reason they acted as they did was because they were Christians. Over the course of time, Mike accepted the Lord through their ministry. He had been saved for three months at the time we met him. It was great to meet Mike and hear his testimony. We were excited to hear of a Christian trucking company, and Marvin even has had the opportunity to correspond with the folks at Jade. It will also be good to have a friend on the road to spread the word about Samaritan’s Road. On another Sunday, we had a driver named Randall. Part of the text for the service was "10 Be still, and know that I am God" Psalms 46:10 (NKJV) Randall got very excited at this point and began to share with us. He was another who had been caught in the snare of drugs and alcohol. His life was spiraling out of control, and he was losing everything, including his wife. He said that he was sitting at the table, depressed, with his head in his hands, when he heard a voice say "Be still and know that I am God". He looked around, but there was no one there. This experience resulted in his trusting Christ for salvation, and Randall has been a Christian for three years. He is on excited and on fire for the Lord! As exciting as these testimonies are, there is one more that I would like to share with you. One Sunday, as sometimes happens, no drivers came to the service. Marvin was still at the chapel taking care of some odds and ends when a driver named Paul walked in. He was having trouble with a daughter, and came to get some advice from a chaplain on how to deal with her. Little did he know the things that the Lord had in store for him. During the course of their conversation, Marvin discovered that Paul was not a believer, and had the opportunity to share the Gospel with him, and lead him to the Lord! We have an entry in our guest book that states "On 9-14-08 Paul Schmidt gave his life to Jesus". These are just a few of the stories of faith, love, and hope that your support and prayers make possible. We could share hundreds more. Thanks again for lifting us up before the Lord and allowing His work to go forward through this ministry. To learn more about the ministry of SAMARITAN'S ROAD visit us on the web at www.samaritansroad.us. We are in need of volunteers to help with staffing of our Trucker's Chapel. If you have time to serve and would like to know more about becoming a volunteer with SAMARITAN'S ROAD then contact Chaplain Marvin Daniels at 316-322-7133 home or by cell phone at 316-519-5602.

WICHITA FAMILIES WASTE NO TIME SPREADING CHRISTMAS CHEER MONTHS BEFORE THE HOLIDAYS Local Families Joining Global, Year-Round Effort to Help 8 Million Suffering Children—While Teaching Lessons in Generosity WICHITA, KS October 2008—U.S. kids have no time to waste helping to bring joy to millions of needy boys and girls this holiday season. Sending hope to hurting children worldwide is a full-time, year-round effort that requires the contagious compassion of local Wichita families right now! Operation Christmas Child, the world’s largest Christmas project, is calling on local kids, families, churches, businesses, schools, scout troops and civic organizations to join this massive effort by sending shoe box gifts to children overseas who are suffering from disease, famine, war, terrorism and natural disaster. Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child, a project of international Christian relief organization Samaritan’s Purse, has collected and hand-delivered more than 61 million shoe box gifts to hurting kids in some 130 countries. “This is a wonderful chance to teach children in this country about generosity and compassion, and bring hope and joy to hurting children in other countries,” said Ruth Claybrooks, area coordinator for Operation Christmas Child. WHY NOW —MONTHS BEFORE THE HOLIDAY SEASON? Although National Collection Week is Nov. 17-24, Operation Christmas Child is not limited to just one week a year or during the holiday season. It is a year-round project, requiring months of organization and preparation to reach millions of kids around the world. Volunteers and shoe box gifts are needed during all seasons to help spread Christmas cheer and the spirit of giving that lasts all year long.

HOW TO HELP: PREPARE—Enlist families, churches, community groups and businesses to take part in making shoe box gifts for needy children. PACK—Fill shoe boxes with toys, necessity items, school supplies, candy and a letter of encouragement. PROCESS—Sign up to join thousands of Operation Christmas Child volunteers this fall, at one of hundreds of collection sites across the US to collect and prepare millions of shoe box gifts for delivery to underprivileged children on six continents. For more information on how to participate in Operation Christmas Child, call (800) 435-2436 or visit www.samaritanspurse.org. National Collection Week is Nov. 17-24; however, shoe box gifts are collected all year.

WMU Report By Ellen M Noeller, WMU Director

“Walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” (Col. 1:10 NKJV) As I was thinking about the article for the news letter, I thought of my 4 year old great granddaughter in Germany. She started preschool at a Southern Baptist Church just around the corner where they live. When I talk to her mom on the computer she tells me about the Bible verse that Megan has to learn for the week. Last week she had to learn “Children Obey Your Parents”, she did not want to learn that verse., but she did. I thank God that she is in a Christian Preschool. She is always asking her mom and dad questions, and then if they don’t know the answer she will ask me. I think of the verse in Isaiah 11:6, the last part of the verse where it say “and little child shall lead them.” Are we like children who still have questions? We are all Gods children and he has a task for us to do. Pray for our missionaries as they reach out to the people they are working with. I thank God for are missionaries who are serving in Germany. WMU held a council meeting in September at the Associational Office. We went over the July Women’s Conference and we decided not to schedule it for next year. The Pastor’s Wives Coffee was held on October 10th, at Immanuel Baptist Church. We had 23 in attendance. Patti Boswell (KNCSB Ministry Wives Consultant) spoke to the ladies. It was a time of fellowship. We are scheduling another Pastor Wives Coffee for next year. Baptist Women World Day of Prayer is November 3rd at 10:00am at Immanuel Baptist Church. It is when the Baptist Women meet all over the world to pray. Ladies, have you been to WCC and had to climb the stairs to the conference rooms? Let’s help raise the money so that we can get an elevator. Mail your donations to WOMEN IN MISSIONS AND MISNISTRY, 5410 SW 7TH, TOPEKA, KANSAS 66606. International Mission Emphasis is November 30-December 7,2008. “Go Tell the Story of Jesus.” The International Mission Study 2008 materials is on Venezuela. Our next council meeting will be January 10, 2009. If you have any questions or need help with missions organizations just give me a call me. Our consultants are trained and ready to assist you in any way that they can.

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