Laclede Update
August
August is about in the books. It has slowed down some in our Association, but there were busy times during this month. It started out with the mission trip to Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. We had five of our Association churches on this trip and three churches from neighboring associations. We had eleven people who rode the bus, and the rest went on their own. I want to thank Second Baptist for the use of their bus on this trip. We had a couple offers from other churches for the transportation, but Second Baptist van was just the right size.
The mission team got to worship and encourage the Transformation Church family on Sunday after arriving in Wisconsin Saturday evening. They were a friendly group of folks who loved to invite people into their fellowship. There was a young man that gave his life to the Lord the Sunday that we got to worship with this part of our family. That afternoon we went out and canvassed the neighborhood handing out flyers for the VBS that started on Monday night August 4. The flyers also invited the community to the block party at the end of VBS on Thursday of that same week. All of our team went out to the neighborhoods around the church to invite people to Transformation Church VBS and the block party. The goal was to greet people and to have a personal invite to the church. We had many conversations and some of those conversations turned into gospel conversations.
On Monday we had four men that took on building changing rooms close to the baptistery. They designed and got a material list together and began to build. There was a team of people who worked at the church preparing for VBS each evening. We also took a group to work at Calming the Storm women’s shelter on Monday though Wednesday. We painted and deep cleaned a room that had been vacated because the young lady had graduated from the program. The room needed to be ready for the next woman entering the program. There were lots of things done at the women shelter during that time period.
VBS attendance averaged around thirty children. The church completely took care of the leadership roles, and our team supported them wherever needed.
On Wednesday we worked on landscaping and installing an outside basketball goal in the parking lot of the church. On Wednesday afternoon the team loaded up and went to a local dairy, The Sassy Cow.
On Thursday we helped a young mother and her children move from Calming the Storm women shelter to an apartment in Madison. Some of the team who had children went with a lady from Transformation Church to the zoo in Madison. We finished all the construction projects at the church and at the women’s shelter on Thursday. Thursday night was the Block Party. I would say that there were 150 to 175 people that took part. The Mission team worked the block party and let the members of the church visit and make connections with the guests that came from the community.
Friday was the fun day for the team we went on north in Wisconsin to Winnebago Lake. There was a nice park area and a light house. We went to another creamery and the Mouse House cheese store. The van was full of of people enjoying time together and an enormous amount of cheese was brought back to Missouri. Lasting friendships were made as we ministered together with fellow believers.
We have had several churches use our camp this summer with one more in September. If we do not have anyone else on the schedule, we will be looking at draining the pool soon. There are plenty of things to do at camp without the pool if you want to make use of your camp.
Russ church has a scheduled date for the floor replacement. Scott and Heather Pruitt have gone through the assessment retreat to be the church planters. Roger Sherrer also went to the assessment retreat to learn the role that First Baptist will play in making it a successful church plant. Russ Church also has its own Facebook page now. Scott and Heather have been doing updates to keep people informed on the progress of the church.
We have just a few announcements to put out to you that we would love for people to attend:
September tenth is the annual meeting at FBC in Lebanon at 7pm.
Also, on September fourteenth is a Men’s Prayer breakfast at camp at eight in the morning.
Next, a Mini Conference hosted by Little Creek Baptist Church in Wright County on Saturday September twenty-one, it starts at 9am and goes to 1pm. Mark Fugitt is the pastor at Little Creek; everyone is invited to take part. You can register at LITTLECREEK.LIFE/LEAD
Lastly, Mark Clifton, who works for the North American Mission Board will be conducting a workshop on church revitalization on Nov. 15th and 16th at Calvary Baptist. You can listen to Mark on the Pod Cast “Revitalize and Replant.com.”;(@
