June 2012 Newsletter

First Baptist Church of Eagle Butte

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

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

July 10, 2012

Dear Friends,

          Whew! What a month that was!  Please accept my apologies for taking so long to send you the newsletter.  So many interesting and exciting things were going on that I scarcely had time to write about them! 
Early last month, a group from the church decided to take a hike up Crazy Horse Mountain.  This mountain is an artistic work in progress, which is designed to memorialize the Lakota Chief Crazy Horse in the same way that our Presidents are memorialized on Mount Rushmore.  When completed, Crazy Horse will be the largest statue ever carved in the history of the world.  Once each year, the mountain is opened to the general public, so that anyone who wants to climb it is free to do so.  I went with a group of younger, more physically fit church members to tackle the mountain myself.  But due to my lack of exercise and failure to get any sleep the night before (long story), I found myself lagging far behind the others.  I am proud of them all for the attitude of Christian charity they showed me that day.  Even so, when I preached the following day, I was so sore that I could barely walk to the pulpit!

One of our members and Sunday School teachers, Saomony Cheam, has recently been married!  Her new name is Saomony Luh, and her new husband, Sean, has recently come out to see us!  Sadly, the wedding took place in Taiwan, so no one in the church was able to attend.  But when Sean arrived in Eagle Butte, we had an idea: Why not throw a wedding reception for them right here at the church?  We got them a nice cake, applauded and congratulated them, and watched with great interest as the happy couple showed us pictures from important moments in their relationship.  It was a time to be cherished, and a great honor to be allowed to do this for them.          

            Speaking of honor, my wife and I were positively floored two weeks ago when, without any mention of it beforehand, the members of our church honored us in traditional Lakota fashion.  They presented us with a special quilt, decorated in a star pattern, and draped it areound our shoulders.  Then they each took turns telling us what we meant to them.  Tiffany and I wre moved to tears as some of our most quiet and reserved members stood to speak on our behalf!  All of this was done to commemmorate the one-year anniversary of our having first come to the reservation.  God has blessed me beyond what I deserve, since I have the privilege both of being a minister, and of ministering to people I have come to see as my family and friends.  I wouldn’t mind living to see a good many more anniversaries after this one!

Tiffany and I were not the only ones to celebrate an anniversary this month.  Clint and Amy Holley, who operate Windswept Academy, also arrived her almost exactly one year ago.  The members of our church honored them, also, presenting them with a star quilt in honor of all their tireless work for the church, as well as their tremendous efforts to educate the young people of this community.  Thank you so much, guys. We love you!

MADDIE

Madeline Holman, our summer intern, has done just about everything in the past month except disappoint!  Every task I have assigned to her, no matter how large or small, has been done quickly, thoroughly, and without complaint.  She has led morning worship, taught Sunday School, written a newspaper article, assisted no fewer than four visiting church groups, vacuumed the church building, painted various things, and probably half a dozen other tasks that are slipping my mind at the moment-all while juggling fifteen chainsaws with her teeth!  It is a shame that she will be leaving us in one month’s time, but I suppose that all good things (except Heaven) must come to an end eventually.  We have been very pleased to have her here among us, and we look forward to seeing what the next month will bring!
Incidentally, I have a correction to last month's newsletter, where I said that Maddie was from North Carolina.  She is actually from Tennessee.  Sorry, Tennesseans!

MUCH-LOVED VISITS FROM OUR FRIENDS AND ALLIES

This summer, First Baptist church has had the privilege of hosting four visiting church groups in rapid succession.  The first of these was Cross Current Baptist Church, which is based in Virginia.

As soon as they arrived, Cross Current began to work on the numerous projects they had planned for that week.  They organized two outreach events-one for the children at Windswept and one for the general community.  They painted the entire church, from ground to steeple-a task that had not been done in some time.  They even applied some muscle to straighten and stabilize a fence at Windswept Academy, which had been blown into a crooked position by the wind.  But they were not content to stop there.

One of the students at Windswept Academy, Aiden by name, was living with his family in a house with a leaky roof.  The group from Cross Current resolved to fix that problem.  So they removed the roof from the house, all the way down to the beams.  Then, they replaced it with a completely new roof, all in the span of a few days!  There won’t be any leakage in that house for a long, long time to come, thanks to these servants of Christ.  They all went home exhausted, but satisfied with a job well done.

Less than a day after SevierHeights departed, another group arrived from Hamilton Baptist Church, of Virginia. This group also got right to work, and many wonderful things began to happen. They hosted a VacationBible Schoolthat week for the entire community. There was something for everybody. An ordinary VBS took place in the evenings, for the younger children. A second VBS, designed for an older audience, was held for the teenagers in the afternoon. Yet a third Bible study, geared for adults, was held each evening. Over a hundred people were in some way touched that wee. But Hamilton was not content to stop there.

            Hamilton brought with them three men who were very skilled with tools. These men used their skills to fix many things at the church, the parsonage, and Windswept Academy. They installed two toilets-one at Windswept and one at the church. They installed an alarm system at WindsweptAcademy. They fixed a rain gutter on my house. They planed down and installed the door of my office, fixed our refrigerator, and paid to construct a chain-link fence on the front of our property. But Hamilton was not content to stop even there.
             A few men came with them who were skilled basketball players. These men, led by a retired All-Star player, used their skill to set up a basketball camp for the young people of Eagle Butte and Cherry Creek. Each day, they would have drills, shoot-arounds, and several games. The young people who played were elated. Then, at the end of each day, one of the leaders would lead the group in a devotional, leaving no room for doubt that this was a Christian basketball camp. It was awesome.

            About 1 ½ days after Hamilton BaptistChurch left, we were visited by two other churches-at the same time! The first of these was Mineral Springs Baptist Church of Louisiana. They organized the largest Charitable giveaway this church has had since I became Pastor. In the picture on you left, you can see the room full of clothes, toys, and miscellaneous items that Mineral Springs brought with them. They also brought their skills to bear in other ways. They painted two of our Sunday School rooms, as well as two of the classrooms at Windswept. One of them, a carpenter, used his talents to turn Windswept’s library into another classroom-adding about 30 square feet to the room in the process!

 

At the same time as the group from Mineral Springs was here, another group arrived from First United Methodist Church in Tennessee.  This group scraped all the old paint off of a building at the back of the property and repainted it, making it look like new!  Then they stained the fence that bordered the edge of Windswept Academy (which was no small job), and constructed some bookshelves for the Windswept Library.  Maddie was delighted to discover that many of the young people on this trip would be attending college with her this Fall!

Each group who came here sacrificed their time, their energy, and their money so they could help the ministry of First Baptist Church and of Windswept Academy.  We were greatly blessed by their presence here, and owe each of them a debt of gratitiude.  God used them all as His hands and feet this summer.

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE

Despite all the wonderful and exciting things that have been happening here in the last month, there are still more delightful things in the pipeline for the near future.  Here are some of them:

One of Maddies' projects this summer was to research, plan, develop, and assist in the implementation of a community outreach project that targets a new subdivision being built around our hospital.  She has completed the research phase of this project, and is now working on putting together the plan for how to reach this place.  Pray that God will grant her wisdom in doing this, and that the rest of us will be shown how to best assist her.



This week, we will be visited by a group from Maddies’ home church-Sevier Heights Baptist Church in Tennessee.  They plan on hosting a Vacation Bible School-not in Eagle Butte, but in some of the tiny outlying rural communities whose residents often cannot afford the gas money to come into town.  In this way, if the Lord allows, they will bring the Gospel to the communities of both Red Scaffold and Bear Creek.  Please pray that God will use them to accomplish His purposes.

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-and you can get it in color!  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 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

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