Newsletter December 2014

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 16, 2014

Dear Friends,

Autumn has come and gone, and here in Eagle Butte the farmers and ranchers have hunkered down for a long winter’s chill.  Here you see a picture of a pile of freshly-harvested corn, as well as the snow-covered peak of nearby Bear Butte.  

I confess that I am somewhat distrustful of the weather here in the wintertime.  The locals insist that, even though I have lived here for three and one-half years, I have yet to experience a “real South Dakota winter”.  I have seen some very cold days, to be certain, but I have heard stories of six-foot snowdrifts and wind chills that drop as low as negative fifty degrees.  So as I head into the month of December, I have to ask myself, “Is this the year that I see a REAL winter?”  Who can say?  But one way or the other, I’ll be staying indoors.

                                                 

                                               Thanksgiving Giveaway  

Each November, our church hosts a giveaway at which anyone in the community who is in need can come and get what they want.  This giveaway is made possible exclusively through the donations of clothing, shoes, and other things from our friends in every part of the country.  For those of you who sent us these useful items in the past several months, you have the thanks of all the people here in Eagle Butte.  We will be a little warmer this winter because of your efforts.

The Thanksgiving giveaway is also significant because it is used to promote one of our biggest outreach events… 

Our Annual Community Meal

Every Thanksgiving, First Baptist Church hosts a community meal, with the help of our friends at Hamilton Baptist Church in Virginia.  People from all over the community are invited to come and enjoy a good meal, as well as give thanks to our Lord for the blessings we enjoy.  In addition, some of our young people from the Off-the-Wall ministry usually volunteer to serve tables.  This year, word got around fast.  Over two hundred people were served, which is a new record for us!  And afterward, it was clear that many of these had read the tracts that we had laid at each place setting.  Only the Lord knows all the different ways He used this evening for His purposes.  But I know that a lot of people left the church that evening with full stomachs and happy faces.

A New Feature in our Sanctuary

It always makes me happy when I can find something that no one wants, and put it to good use.  This happened recently when I was at the local unemployment office.  A number of pew bookracks were sitting there, in a corner.  When I asked about them, I was told that no one seemed to know what they were, or what to do with them.  When I asked if I could have them, they happily agreed.  When I got them back to the church, I screwed them all into the wall of our sanctuary.  Then I filled them with Bibles, which had been  donated by a friend of ours.  I put a sign on the wall, indicating that anyone who needed a Bible could take one-no questions asked.  I am happy to report that in only a few weeks’ time, over a dozen Bibles have gone missing from these racks!

  

Sunday School at First Baptist

Every Sunday Morning, we make it a priority to bring the Gospel to the children of this community.  For this reason, we send out vans to all corners of Eagle Butte, for the purpose of giving children rides to the church.  Once here, we serve them breakfast. For some of these children, it will be the first substantial meal they have had since Friday, when they had school lunch.  Afterward, the children are divided by age groups and sent to their various classrooms, where they learn the teachings of scripture.  Then they are given a ride home.  It is a wonderful thing that we have the opportunity to perform this service!

  

The Christmas Season Begins

Here at First Baptist Church, we are often the recipients of gifts and assistance from friends of ours who are more fortunate than ourselves.  It is only right, according to the way the Kingdom of Heaven works, that we should also reach out to those less fortunate than ourselves.  This is doubly true at Christmastime, when we celebrate God’s greatest gift to us-the gift of His own Son.  

For this reason, we have developed a tradition of donating shoeboxes full of needful things to Operation Christmas Child every year.  With the help of this charitable organization, our gifts will be flown to other countries: nations torn apart by war, poverty, and despair. They will then be given to needy children who would otherwise have nothing for Christmas.  A toothbrush, a comb, a candy cane and a small toy can mean the world to a child.  And this year we managed to pack and send enough boxes to make ten children’s Christmases a little bit merrier.

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 

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

Newsletter October 2014

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 29, 2014

Dear Friends,

The warm weather is, at last, coming to an end.  But as summer has faded away, we are left with a great collection of memories, and bright hopes for the future. 

On Labor Day weekend, the town was gripped with its usual excitement as three large events took place in our city.  The annual Pow-wow was a huge success, as dancers from all over this and other reservations gathered to perform their traditional dances.  The Pow-wow went on for three days, attracting hundreds of onlookers. 

The ranchers who live nearby hosted a rodeo at the same time, and entertained crowds with everything from bull-riding to calf-roping.  These events are serious business in this part of the country, and some nearby high schools actually have “rodeo” as an elective sport!

The entire weekend was accented by the coming of our annual county fair, which set up in between the Pow-Wow and rodeo.  I’m proud to say that my wife’s cookies took 4^th place in the baked goods competition!  There was even an enormous parade down Main Street, complete with floats, as well as every government vehicle for 50 miles!  All of this made for some pretty fantastic celebration, which was good-because school started back the next day. 

Working to Feed the Hungry

On September 20, fourteen people of all ages from our church met in Pierre to join in a very satisfying endeavor.  It had to do with an event sponsored by the humanitarian organization, “Feed My Starving Children”, which packs and ships nutritious food packages to needy countries all over the world.  The organization saves money by finding volunteers to pack the food into boxes, and it was at one such packing event that the group from First Baptist Church set to work.

Over the course of a few short hours, the group filled scores of bags full of rice, protein and dried vegetables, and packed the bags into crates.  Their efforts were combined with those of other volunteers from all over the state, who had gathered in Pierre for the same purpose.  When the job was done, they had packed a total of 34, 128 meals, according to a Feed My Starving Children representative.  They told us that the food we packed would be enough to feed ninety-four children for an entire year!  It is rare that you can have so much fun making a positive impact on the world.”

Feed My Starving Children hosts annual packing events at Capitol Heights Baptist Church in Pierre.  So next year, we intend to send more volunteers, and see if we can break this year’s record!

Our Children’s Ministry

As many of you are aware, First Baptist Church sends buses all over town each Sunday morning, picking up children from throughout the city.  After the children have been brought to church, we feed them breakfast (the first meal, for some of them, that they have eaten since Friday).  Then we teach them a Sunday School lesson, and give them a ride home.

What you might not be aware of is the more-recently-started youth ministry on Wednesday nights. Clint and Amy Holley, who operate Windswept Academy, founded this ministry several months ago so that the children and youth could have a Bible study appropriate to their age group.  The result was a dramatic improvement on the effectiveness of our Wednesday night meetings.  But an even more exciting development has occurred recently:  Amy Holley has rallied this group of young people to form a Youth Choir!  Just last Sunday, the choir sang for the first time in our Sunday morning service.  And they sounded fantastic!  I am actively looking forward to the next time I can hear them perform.  If you would like to here how they sounded, I have included a link to their performance here: 

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152793540154581&set=vb.841644580&type=2&theater

Our Missionary, Preparing for Her Long Journey

Our own Amanda Benson has been hard at work these past few months, raising support for her upcoming career as a missionary to the Philippine Islands.  She is slated to leave next Summer, and has already begun the long and painful process of saying many goodbyes.  But her devotion to the Lord is strong, and her calling is sure.  We as a church are honored to be one of those who are helping to send Amanda on this incredible journey-through prayers, encouragement, and financial support.  She is pictured here, telling our gathered congregation of her love for the Philippines and her conviction that God has called her to teach there.

On a related note, if any of you are interested in finding out more about Miss Benson and her ministry, you can visit her website at oboejo.wix.com/foundfaithful. 

The Construction of Windswept Academy is Completed!

After nearly a year of construction, Windswept Academy’s new addition is finally finished!  Whereas the previous school building was a house that had been modified to accommodate classroom space, Windswept now has a building which was specifically designed to accommodate the needs of education.  It includes a cafeteria/chapel, an office, a large kitchen, several classrooms, and spacious bathroom facilities.  Even more impressive, the moving of the school to this facility frees the old building to be used as a house by the Holley family.  So instead of driving the 45-minute commute from Faith every day, they get to live right next to the place where they work!  And since I live right next door, I have the pleasure of getting some new neighbors.

The new building was ready for use as of the start of this school year.  Due to its increased size, it was able to accommodate an expanded student body-nearly five times the size of what it was three years ago.  All grades, from Kindergarten through the 8^th grade, are represented there.  And just as it has always been, I have the honor of conducting chapel services there every week, and counseling the children whenever they have problems.  The only difference between chapel services today and chapel services three years ago is that I now have two chapel services-one for younger students and one for older ones.  In the pictures above, you see me preaching in chapel.  I frequently have the students come up front to act the stories out!

Learning from the Book of James

Recently, my wife has been leading a Bible study of the Book of James.  She is doing this with the help of Beth Moore study tools graciously donated by Burkemont Baptist Church of North Carolina.  Women from multiple different churches throughout the city come together at First Baptist Church to study through the Book of James and share their personal struggles with one another.  I wish I could give you a picture from the Bible study, but I’m afraid it’s strictly “no men allowed”!

Please pray for the women of our church, that their studies together will result in their spiritual growth and development.

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 

This month, a financial gift was made to the church in memory of Blanche Sprinkle.

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