Well, hello from Wrenn Memorial Baptist Church! It has been a while since our last newsletter, nearly two months! Several people have asked whether they had been removed from the mailing list, but that isn’t the case. We have been remodeling the office area and it required both offices to be emptied for about three weeks. Now that we have moved back in, we can begin our normal routines which include getting out the newsletters twice a month. If you haven’t seen the changes in the offices, come take a look! In a day when there is so much bad news out there, I wanted to restart our newsletter articles with a little bit of good! Last night we had a final fund raiser for our campers who will be leaving for Camp Awanita on Thursday, August 5 and returning Sunday afternoon, August 8. For those of you who missed it, and you should be really sad if you did, we had a spaghetti dinner and a desert auction. It was a blast! I don’t think I have seen so much genuine out right fun and hilarity at one of our get togethers in a very long time! For a one hour and a half period, we forgot about all the insanity and focused on the needs of around thirty children going to camp! Did I say it was a blast? Our social hall was nearly full, the food was delicious (The spaghetti was actually VERY, VERY good! I even loved the burned bread! I ate six pieces! What’s the matter; haven’t you heard of the new “bread, butter, and cheese” diet?) To top it all off, we raised $1,600.00 for the campers! WOW! It couldn’t have been any better! But there was something else that went on that I’m probably going to have a difficult time putting into words. The spirit of the people in the place was simply wonderful! More than raising the money for camp, it seemed the entire evening was just a blessing for everyone who ventured out. For the hour and a half we were there, we were simply one big, happy and very LOUD family. THAT is my kind of family! We need that kind of excitement; we need that kind of close fellowship! We need to hug each other (OK, Y’all need to hug each other. I’ll happily watch from a distance.), shake hands, laugh, and show the world that visited our fellowship last night – and the world was there – we have joy in Jesus! So, let me thank everyone who participated from the bottom of my heart! To those who made the preparations for the fund raiser: Thank you. To those leaders who will go with the Youth to camp, be kept up late, clean up messes, eat camp food, smell camp smells, and spit crickets (They know what I’m talking about!), Thank You so very, very much! To those who organized not just this fund raiser, but each one through the year, thank you! To those who put aside money just to buy cakes, pies and other deserts, thank you! To those who stayed behind and cleaned up, to those who showed up, bought the meals and enjoyed the fellowship, thank you! But most of all, let me say thank you to those who simply love children, no matter their ages! To those for whom it truly is a sacrifice to go through this same type of thing, year after year. To those who teach Sunday School, work in AWANA, teach music on Wednesday nights during the summer, drive the van, work in VBS (Now, there was another genuine blessing this year!), work in the nursery or in any other area who serve the children of our church, let me say from the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU SO VERY, VERY MUCH! We hear a lot from all types of people about how we should be doing this or that “For the children.” Much of what we are told we should be doing has more to do with people being able to say they are “doing something,” than children actually receiving any benefit. What children really need – and it doesn’t matter where they are, their ages, their family income or what side of the planet they live on – what children really need is to know that they are loved. You see, no matter what we have been led to believe by social and societal engineers, children are resilient. They can and do overcome many obstacles such as abuse, poverty, neglect, abandonment when someone comes into their life who simply loves them with reckless abandon. They overcome, they succeed and they grow despite what may have occurred early on in life when they are rescued by true, genuine love. One of the most quoted statements of Christ in the entire Bible is Matthew 19:14, “Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” There is no love like the love of Christ, and children need it. We have it. Thank you for sharing that love with children both last night and every time we open our hearts as we see their needs. We will continue to thrive in the work of the Lord as long as we continue to love the little children. See you Sunday!
- pastorjimduncan