December 2012

First Baptist Church of Eagle Butte

P.O. Box 170, Eagle Butte, SD 57625

(605) 964-3617 (Office) / (605) 891-1704 (Pastor’s Cell)

December 7, 2012

Dear Friends,

 

Since I last wrote to you, Autumn has changed to Winter, and many things have changed here in Eagle Butte.  Yesterday, We were greeted by the first major snowstorm of the season (the first of many to come).  But as long as we have our homes to take refuge in, the ice and snow will be no trouble.

Early this November, Tiffany had the opportunity to live out one of  her lifelong dreams-to ride in a combine during a harvest.  One of the local farmers, Perry DePoy,  kindly offered to let her ride with him while he was harvesting sunflowers.  She loved it!  I don’t know if I’ve ever seen her so excited.  I was also surprised to learn how advanced modern farm machinery is.  While the combine is harvesting sunflowers, it is simultaneously linking up with satellites that provide a map of the field they are in, and storing data about how much moisture and nutrients are contained in the soil at every point in the field.  Farmers use this to figure out the best way to fertilize their crops during the next season.  And to top it all off, when it comes to the end of a row, the combine tells you to turn around by making a really cool laser sound effect!  Okay, I’ll admit it-I enjoyed the combines as much as Tiffany did.

 

RENEWING OUR SPIRITS AT A MARRIAGE CONFERENCE

An organization called Family Life held a marriage conference this November in Sioux Falls, SD.  They called it, “Weekend to Remember”, and offered free admission to any pastors and their wives who wanted to attend.  So of course we jumped at the chance.  The weekend featured many guest speakers, some heartbreaking testimonials from real couples, and an in-depth look at managing the challenges that relationships face in the 21^st century.  Tiffany and I went into the conference with no real problems that we wanted to address, but we still left feeling refreshed and happy, glad to have gone.  If other couples in our church wish to attend this conference, we will recommend it to them next year. 

A MUCH-NEEDED REPAIR

While we were gone, Some very good friends of ours from Brandon Valley Baptist Church in Sioux Falls, SD came to do us a huge favor.  Our carpet had been growing very old and ragged, and needed to be replaced.  So a group led by Mike, who is father to our own Amanda Benson, brought brand new carpet to replace the old.  Working together with some of our own volunteers, they installed the carpet in such a way that you would never know they weren’t trained professionals!  Thanks a lot, guys! 

CELEBRATING A THANKSGIVING FEAST

 

On the week before Thanksgiving, we were blessed with a visit from our friends at Hamilton Baptist Church in Virginia.  Each year, Hamilton Baptist Church pays us a visit around this time to help us prepare a Thanksgiving meal for the community.  Everyone is invited to attend, and it always amounts to a big celebration.  While this year was no exception, there was an interesting twist: Whereas volunteers from our two churches usually serve tables, we recruited young men and women from the Off-the-Wall ministry to serve the meal instead!  This turned out to be a very wise decision-so wise that I wish it had been my idea.  While a few of the youth only came to cause trouble, most of them were very helpful. 

In the left-hand picture above, you see the volunteers from Hamilton before the meal, praying over each individual chair that people would be sitting in, and asking God to use the meal to impact their souls.  In the center, you can see Brenton Veit, the hardest-working young man from Off-the-Wall who attended that day.  If Brenton does not leave the reservation when he grows up, he will be running the place.  And on the right, you see the meal in progress.  A record number of people attended this year-nearly 150!  Praise the Lord for all that He has done!

EAGLE BUTTE WALKS THROUGH THE VALLEY OF

THE SHADOW OF DEATH

 

What follows is a series of tragic events.  None of them could be photographed directly, out of respect for the dead.

Our town was met with a shocking surprise when one of the most cheerful and kind-hearted men in the city, Mr. Andre Cowins, passed away in his sleep from a heart attack.  He was only 32, so no one was expecting it.  Since I was privileged to know Andre as a friend, the family asked me to preach his funeral, and requested that it take place at our church.  This marked only the second time in our church’s history when a funeral has been performed on church grounds.  Our church is an unpopular location for local funerals, since we do not allow Lakota drums in our services, and Lakota spiritualism places a high importance on their use.  So you can imagine how honored I felt to be performing his wake and funeral. 

              Andre had many friends, so on the day of the funeral the place was almost bursting.  We will long regret the passing of this dear friend.

 

Sadly, one tragedy often follows on the heels of another, and the next one hit very close to home.  Tanner Gray, who had been a student in my wife’s class last year, committed suicide by hanging himself a few weeks ago.  He had been a good and helpful student, who did all the work of an adult ranchhand before he came to school each morning.  In May of this year, on the last day of school, Tanner stayed behind to help my wife put things away when all the other children had long since left.  In my own experience, I found that talking to him was more like talking to a short adult than to a child.  He was only in seventh grade, and the entire town mourned his passing.

But as soon as I heard what he had done, I began to be concerned for the other youth in our community.  In small towns like this, suicide traditionally comes in large numbers.  First one person kills themselves, and then everyone in town who was thinking about doing so finds the nerve to follow suit.  I sent out an e-mail to the church, and we quickly joined our prayers together. We asked that God would not allow the devil to turn this one death into a massacre.

Within a week of the funeral, it was evident that our fears were justified.  Four additional students, all of them in their teens, attempted suicide, one right after the other.  But praise the Lord, all of them were unsuccessful!!!  They are all currently in various stages of recovery, and no more suicide attempts have been made in the past week.  Please pray that this is a trend that continues!

Even so, our church wished to take a more active role in preventing future suicides, so we again decided to make use of our Off-the-Wall program.  Here we had a large group of young people (numbering as many as 60 on a good week), all of whom were within a few years of Tanner Gray’s age.  It seemed we had the perfect opportunity to speak to them on this subject.

 

To this end, we hosted a special Off-the-Wall which, in addition to the usual food and games, contained a pointed message about suicide.  I gave a brief talk to the group about the reasons people commit suicide, and why these reasons are not enough to justify killing oneself.  I talked about the pain and guilt with which this world is filled, and how many people seek suicide as a means of ending this pain.  Then I shared the Gospel, and showed it to be the ultimate solution to all guilt and all pain.  Afterwards, flyers were distributed to all the youth, giving numbers that they could call toll-free, to talk about anything, day or night.  One of our church members, Leslie Morrison-Veit, even arranged to have counselors come in from Four Bands Healing Center, to make themselves available to any of the young people who wanted to speak with them.  While the youth were a little too shy to talk to the counselors directly, nearly all of them took  the emergency phone numbers home with them.  One of them even asked a lot of questions about the Gospel and salvation.  We are hoping that this seed of curiosity will germinate into repentance and faith.

Though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we will fear no evil, for He is with us.

 

CHRISTMAS!CHRISTMAS!CHRISTMAS! CHRISTMAS!CHRISTMAS!

I love Christmas!  And I love celebrating it with my church family!  Last Wednesday, First Baptist Church engaged in our annual Christmas party-by which I mean that we all shared a meal, then pitched in and put up the Christmas decorations.  The sanctuary was decked with boughs of holly, a Christmas tree was put together and decorated, many lights were strung, and a little manger scene carved out of Cottonwood root by a Native artist was placed down front.  But the newest addition to our Christmas decorations was a beautiful nativity scene that we arranged in front of the church.  Its figures light up at night and are very visible to everyone passing on Main Street.  Most churches here do not put decorations on the outside of their buildings, for fear of vandals, but we feel that this is a risk worth taking.  Everyone passing in the street now sees a reminder of the true meaning of Christmas, and that makes the holiday just a little bit sweeter.  This nativity scene, together with our Christmas tree and other related expenses were made possible by a gift from Mineral Springs Baptist Church in Louisiana.  God bless you all for your generosity!

My wife helped set the festive mood for the Christmas season by organizing our church’s second annual Cookie Swap!  All the women of the church baked a dozen cookies each, then swapped them around and went home with a dozen different kinds of cookies.  It was a lot of fun!  And so tasty, too! 

GIFTS SENT BY WISE MEN AND WOMEN FROM AFAR

 

            Eagle Butte is a very poor community, and many of its people (particularly its children) often go without.  But our church is richly blessed by many generous donors who help us to make the winter a little bit merrier for the people of Eagle Butte.  This year is no exception, as we have received gifts from people all across the country, from such far-flung places as Virginia and Iowa.  There are warm socks, assorted assorted winter clothing, Beanie Babies, and all kinds of useful Bible study materials!  We will all get to work immediately, preparing to put these things to work for the people of this town.  A special thank-you to James Griffith of Charlestown, West Virginia; Christine M. Carver of Brightmoon, Virginia; Brenda Halls of Douds, Iowa; Burkemont Baptist Church of Morganton, North Carolina; Bethlehem Baptist Church of Clarkesville, Georgia; Ellen Mustoe of Washington, Virginia; Ms. Kim Gilkey-Breeden of Amissville, Virginia; the District N Retired Teachers’ Association of Flint Hill, Virginia; Larry and Vivian Sutton of Washington, Virginia; The Rappahhannock County Retired Teacher’s Association of Washington, Virginia; and Frieda Herman of Washington, Virginia, and all the people who helped them gather all these wonderful gifts to send to us.  May God bless you all.

 

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

 

If you wish to give a donation in memory of another person, or in that person’s honor, we will recognize the person you designate in our newsletter. 

 

May God bless you all, and draw you closer to Himself each and every day.

Yours in Christ,

Rev. Ben Farrar

Pastor

First Baptist Church of Eagle Butte