First Baptist Church of Eagle Butte
P.O. Box 170, Eagle Butte, SD
57625
(605) 964-3617 (Office) / (605)
891-1704 (Pastor’s Cell)
April
4, 2013
Dear
Friends,
Spring has
arrived in Eagle Butte, but someone forgot to inform the weather of that
fact. Two days ago, we had a freak
blizzard that dropped a foot of snow on the city and the surrounding
countryside. Schools were closed while
everyone dug their way out. An icicle, roughly
the size of a broadsword, formed on my roof.
Sometimes, people from the southern United States ask me how we cope
with the cold temperatures and flash blizzards here in South Dakota. And my answer is always the same:
“We don’t go
outside when it’s too cold.”
Revival!
Last year, our
church hosted a guest speaker from Texas, who came in and preached a series of
revival meetings at our church. It went
so well that we decided to schedule another revival this year! A guest preacher was sent to us from
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
His name was Roger Elkins, and together we ran a veritable marathon of
ministry! Every day, for four days, he
and I would go throughout the community, promoting the revival. During the evenings, he would preach. It was an exhausting thing for the two of us,
but more than worth it! By our
estimates, at least one in every ten people in the entire city was given a
flier by one of us during the course of the week. But that was only part of the week’s activities.
On Monday, we
hosted a clothing giveaway at the church.
Hundreds of items were given away to needy families from all over town. Each person who came in to get something also
left with a flier, advertising the revival.
In this way, we supplied clothing to the needy while promoting the
revival at the same time. All of this
was made possible by fellow Christians like you, who donated clothing over the
past few months. Thank you!
In the evenings, when the revival itself was going on, we would
always open with a time of fellowship and snacks. Then we would move to the sanctuary, where we
would sing the Lord’s praises, and listen to the message our speaker had for us
that evening. Some of the best revivals
involve cooperation among denominations, so we were happy to have some ladies
from the Lutheran church volunteer to sing as part of this special
occasion.
But I think the highlight of each evening was the time devoted
to testimonies. For every night of the
revival, I arranged for someone to give their Christian testimony, telling what
Christ had done for their lives. Our
congregation wept along with the presenters, as Jesus was glorified over and
over again through the testimony of one, two, three, and four witnesses. When it was all over, we felt…revived.
A Weekly
Women’s Bible Study
The women of the church are just
finishing up a Bible study on the subject of Gideon. Each Sunday, they meet after church, watch a
video that goes with the lesson, and discuss the subject of the Bible study and
its relevance to their lives. It has
become a more popular ministry than I would have guessed, with attendance
similar to our Wednesday night meetings.
Women from the local Lutheran church, women from the Baptist church in
the neighboring town of Dupree, and even some women who do not come to church
at all have been coming to this Bible study.
I am very proud of my wife, who is leading the study. Unfortunately, I can’t see her in action,
since I’m not allowed in a women’s Bible study!
Windswept
Academy Gets a New Facility
After months of construction,
Windswept Academy’s new building has been completed. This facility houses a kitchen, a new
classroom, and a diverse space that can serve as both a cafeteria and
gymnasium. Additional classrooms are
expected to be added as soon as the school can afford it, to accommodate their
growing student body. The students and
faculty celebrated with an open house, where all of the children’s parents were
welcome. I had the honor of offering the
opening prayer to bless this new facility.
A
Funny Thing Happened One Friday Night…
Do you mind if I tell you a funny story? A few weeks ago, during our Off-the-Wall
ministry, two young girls came to me with a sense of urgency that only
12-year-olds can pull off without seeming insincere. “Pastor Ben!”
They said. “You have to come out
and see what’s on your shed!” When I
followed the girls out to our shed, I saw a place where a vandal had scrawled
profanity on the wall. We have a policy
about vandalism at this church: Vandals are to be shown that our capacity to
restore and rebuild is greater than their capacity to destroy. We repair any damage immediately, and give no
vandal any satisfaction in his handiwork.
“I guess I’ll have to paint over this”, I said. “Ooh! Could we do it????”, the girls
asked. I was so surprised to see this
much enthusiasm for work coming from pre-teens that I gave them
permission. When they got done, they
expressed dissatisfaction with one side of the shed having a splotch that was
whiter than the rest. I was so pleased
to see their enthusiasm for helping that I let them put white polka dots all
over the shed, to balance it out. The
end result was a little silly, but it does my heart good to see young people
maturing into responsible adults.
Merryville
Christian School Pays Us A Visit
Usually, First Baptist Church enjoys the great honor of playing
host to a number of church groups in the summertime, who assist us in
everything from Vacation Bible School to various construction projects. But rarely do we get this pleasure during the
colder part of the year, since the threat of spontaneous blizzards can make
travel arrangements unpredictable. But
this March, the students of Maryville Christian School in Tennessee decided to
brave all in order to do this very thing for us. A group of students willingly sacrificed
their spring break, and made the long trek up to Eagle Butte. They arrived on Saturday evening, worshipped
with us on Sunday morning, and soon engaged themselves with the students of
Windswept Academy. They provided
tutoring for some of the children, and even put on a biblically-inspired play
for them. But their assistance to the
school was only beginning.
With the help of a few skilled professionals from Maryville
Christian School, the youth of that group set about a variety of small-to-medium-sized
construction projects in Windswept Academy’s facilities. Surpassing all of these, by far, was a
complete remodeling of the school’s library, making it brighter, airier, and
more usable than it has ever been before.
Our thanks goes out to you, Maryville Christian School, for your help
with these projects!
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.
This
month, a financial gift was made to the church in honor of Catherine Farrar.
This
month, a financial gift was made to the church in honor of Ellen Mustoe.
This
month, a financial gift was made to the church in honor of Lillian Whetzel.
This
month, a financial gift was made to the church in memory of Edwin and Lillian Powell.
This
month, a financial gift was made to the church in memory of Jane Williams.
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
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