First
Baptist Church of Eagle Butte
P.O.
Box 170, Eagle Butte, SD 57625
(605)
964-3617 (Office) / (605) 891-1704 (Pastor’s Cell)
October 19, 2012
Dear Friends,
Autumn has come to Eagle Butte, and with it the many marks of the season. The fields are full of giant bales of hay, preparing the livestock for the long, cold winter. Two weeks ago, we had our first snowfall-and although it didn’t stick, it was still a good indicator of things to come. As I write this, a windstorm is raging outside which is so violent that it has ripped a large chunk off of a neighboring building. Good thing nobody lives there!
While the weather is going through its usual changes, the human population of this area has been happily involved in many annual celebrations. The Lakota celebrated their annual Pow-wow, where they enjoyed sing, dancing, and festival food. A parade accompanied the Pow-wow, at which lots of floats from all over the community (including our own Windswept Academy) were represented. A traveling carnival came to town, complete with ferris wheels, tilt-a-whirls, and cotton candy. There was a rodeo near the Pow-wow grounds, giving local cowboys and ranchers a chance to showcase their skills. And all of this took place in the course of a single weekend! There was even a baking contest at the local community center and (I’m proud to say) my wife took third place! We are enjoying our lives here more than words can say.
WINDSWEPT ACADEMY BEGINS A NEW YEAR
Of course, the coming of Fall also
brings a new school year, and Windswept Academy is starting this year off on a
better footing than ever before. Since
the time of the last newsletter I sent, the school has added six, count ‘em,
SIX, new students to its roster, for a total of 41! They are now running at their absolute
maximum capacity- they can’t fit any additional students into the
building! Clint Holley, the Headmaster
of Windswept Academy, has even asked me to do my weekly chapel service twice,
so that they can divide the students into separate groups and not have the room
be so crowded. It is such a privilege to
be given the opportunity to preach the Gospel to so many young people.
These two wonderful people are
Julia Osthus and Adam Cowan. They were
hired as teachers for the school to handle all the extra workload, and they
have been doing a marvelous job teaching the older students. On the left, you can see them in one of the
classrooms, preparing for the school’s open house. On the right, Julia leads the music during a
typical Tuesday afternoon chapel service.
A BETH MOORE SIMULCAST
At First Baptist Church, we welcome
any opportunities we can get to enrich our members in the Christian life. So when we learned that Beth Moore was going
to be hosting a women’s conference in Nashville, and that it was going to be
simulcast all over the world, and that we could have it broadcast to us for a
very reasonable price, we jumped at the chance.
On the appointed day, we had several women from the church in
attendance, as well as one woman from the nearby town of La Plante. It turned out beautifully. We used the back wall of the church as a
projection screen, and easily created the effect having Beth Moore standing
right there in the room. Our women left
the church that day with their spirits renewed, and their hearts
gladdened. What a great God we serve, to
give us such wonderful opportunities!
SERVING THE COMMUNITY’S YOUTH AND
CHILDREN
Due to the harsh weather that
Winter brings here, travel conditions are often rendered very difficult. For this reason, whenever anyone wants to do
any significant traveling, they do it in the summertime. So for the last few months, many of the
children (who might otherwise have attended Sunday School or come to our Friday
night youth events) have been visiting relatives in other cities. But with the advent of the new school year,
the kids are back with a vengeance, and First Baptist Church is ready for
them! On the left, you see some the
children of the community enjoying breakfast before Sunday School on a typical
Sunday morning. This is very helpful to
them, as it is the best meal that some of them will receive all weekend. On the right, you see some of the young
people from our Friday night youth activity enjoying a game of basketball. The Off-the-Wall ministry is now so
successful that we routinely have in excess of 40 young men and women visiting
the church every Friday night. It is a
great honor to be a part of God’s work in this community.
AN UNEXPECTED CHALLENGE
Unfortunately, when any person or
group of people devote themselves to doing God’s work, it may be guaranteed
that the Devil will try to fight them.
Our church is no exception to this rule, to be certain. This month, the Devil’s attacks came in a
more obvious form than usual: our church and a sign next to the parsonage were
vandalized.
The first two acts, which you see
on the left and in the middle, came from an unexpected source. Some of the young people from the Friday
night Off-the-Wall activity were responsible.
At the left, you can see where they twisted our gate off of its hinges
by carelessly using it as a swing. In
the center, you can see where one young man, who was angry about having to
follow some of our rules, kicked out some of the slats in our fence. The vandalism which you see on the right comes
from a more sinister source than the other two, as it was done by one of the
local gangs-the Crips. You can tell that
the Crips did this because the initials “BK” are a reference to the Crips’ arch
enemies, the Bloods. “BK” stands for
“Blood Killer”. The “B”, which is
crossed out, is a further sign of disrespect to the Bloods. Did I mention that this mark was placed right
outside my house?
I confess that I was very angry
when I saw that these acts had been committed.
I was both furious and sad to see that some of the people from
Off-the-Wall, for whom we had worked so hard, were willing to treat this church
so carelessly. And I was sad to see this
mark of hatred and violence placed outside my house. But then God convicted me of the way I was
feeling. After all, not all the young
men and women who come to Off-the-Wall act in this way-only a very few. And there is not a single young man or woman
who comes to my church, for any reason, that God did not send. He sends them to us so we can minister to
them, and if they do act badly while they are here, then we will repay good for
evil. Always. As for the Crips, they are just as lost as I
once was before God saved me. And they
need my prayers-not my anger.
Therefore, this is the policy of
First Baptist Church toward vandalism:
We will show all vandals that our ability to endure and recover is
greater than their ability to destroy.
If they break something a hundred times, we will repair it a hundred and
one times. And we will never, under any circumstances, seek vengeance or allow
bitterness to grow in our hearts. We
will meet destruction with repair, anger with love, and ugliness with
beauty. We will turn the other
cheek. And now, as you can see below, we
are as good as new once again! Praise God
for guiding me through this.
HELP FROM FRIENDS FAR AWAY
On behalf of First Baptist, I want
to extend great thanks to Burkemont Baptist Church of Morganton, North
Carolina, who graciously sent us a year’s worth of Sunday School Curriculum for
the children of this church. We promise
to put it to the best possible use for His Kingdom.
Our thanks also go to First Baptist
Church of Waldorf, Maryland, who sent us additional educational materials,
whose use can be applied in Sunday School and other areas. We will make good use of these materials, as
well.
Thank you to all the Brothers and Sisters in
both of these churches, as well as all our supporters throughout the
country. God is using you to make our
ministry here possible.
So
perhaps you are wondering how you can become a partner with us in our ministry
here in Eagle Butte? If so, then we are happy
to tell you, since we welcome assistance from the body of Christ. Here is what
we need the most:
Prayer. It may be true that our
church is getting along very well at the moment, and that God is doing great
things here. But it is precisely when a
church is being used by God that Satan does all in his power to destroy
it. So please pray, my brothers and
sisters. Pray that our leadership will
keep their hearts pure and humble, and that we will live at peace with each
other. Pray that we will be protected
from the power of the enemy, and that God’s Holy Spirit will shine through in
our lives. Pray that the Lakotas in the
community will come to know the Lord, and that the commitment they make will
not be a superficial group of words, but a real change in their Spirits that
will alter the course of their lives for eternity.
E-mail addresses. For those of you who have e-mail addresses,
please send them to me. That way, these
monthly newsletters can be forwarded to everyone in your church who wants one! Just send your name and e-mail address to me
at benfarrar777@hotmail.com,
and I’ll make sure you receive this newsletter as often as it comes out.
Financial Assistance. Our church is fortunate to have members who
are generous in their giving. But some of our most generous members are,
nevertheless, very poor. We have long
been blessed with assistance from outside churches and individuals, and we try
to use those gifts wisely and well.
If
any one of you wishes to bless the church with a financial gift, you may send
it to:
First Baptist Church of Eagle Butte
P.O. Box 170
Eagle Butte, SD 57625
A
donation to the church has been made this month in honor of Annie Laura Henkle
Russell, who passed away on September 29, 2012.
Yours
in Christ,
Rev. Ben Farrar
Pastor
First
Baptist Church of Eagle Butte
