June 2023 Acts of Faith Newsletter

Acts of Faith

2023

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF FAITH BAPTIST CHURCH

We are a family of faith, sharing God’s love in a spirit of hope.

We are excited to begin our Wednesday Nights at Scroggins this month! Each week in June and July we will meet at 6 p.m. in the field behind 139 Scroggins Park Drive for a meal and then split up by age for Bible study and activities at 6:30. We hope to see you there!

An updated contact list of Faith members and friends is ready for distribution. We will have hard copies available on Sundays in June beginning June 4 and by request at any time in the church office. A digital version will be emailed out in early June. We try to provide updated directories every six months to include any new members or changes in contact information. Be sure to let the church office know if we need to update your record.

Join CBFKY and other churches in building a house for a family in McCreary County! Faith will be working on Monday, June 12, but you are welcome to volunteer any day that week. You must register at www.cbfky.org/extreme-build to volunteer. In addition to the registration form, please let the church office know if you're coming with us on Monday, June 12.

The Nominating Committee is beginning their work to fill our committees and teams for the next year. They

Business Meeting & Potluck Meal June 4 12 PM in the RA Bring a dish to share! Jim and Becky Nelson and Nancy Brinker joined our family of faith last month!

All children are invited to bring a lunch and stay after church for a day of water and messy play. We’ll eat lunch together and spend some time playing out in God’s beautiful world. We will do some tie-dyeing and water play so come prepared to get messy and wet! We’ll wrap up our time together with some ice cream sundaes! We’ll be done by 2 p.m. I hope you will come and join in the fun.

We have a group of older children who will travel to Berea, KY, at the end of the month for three days of Passport Kids fun. Please be in prayer for the kids and the adults traveling with them that they will experience God in a meaningful way.

Pastor Amanda offered Arts Academy this spring where children could learn about and practice visual art and drama on four Sunday afternoons. The visual art group used various methods to create their art. The drama group prepared a play, “The Tale of the Three Trees,” and performed it as the program one Wednesday night.

Amanda and Sharon would like to introduce you to their summer interns, Wilson Insko and Cameron Schneider! Wilson, as many of you know, grew up at Faith and is headed into his senior year at UK. Cameron is also heading into her senior year at UK. Cameron is from Georgia and just happens to be Wilson’s cousin! They will be leading Bible studies and helping with Sundays, Wednesdays, and other activities throughout the summer. We are excited to have these students exploring ministry alongside our youth and children at Faith. Please reach out to Wilson and Cameron and make them feel welcome!

We had several fun events last month including a movie outing and a trip to Midway for lunch and sweet treats! Our JOY luncheon for May was a tea. We enjoyed many different types of finger foods and desserts, and Jeff Antle came to discuss how to turn our investments into charitable donations.

At this month’ s JOY Luncheon on June 19 we will enjoy grilled hamburgers and hot dogs, along with chips and baked beans. Please bring a dish to share if you are able. Our speaker this month is Elaine Ward who will talk about safety at home.

Our outing on June 23 will be to Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill (Shakertown) for lunch. We will leave the church at 10:30 a.m. and eat at noon. This is a treat you will not want to miss. Feel free to bring grandchildren.

Hope to see you at these events!

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Welcome, new sixth-graders! We can’t wait for you to join our group! On Sunday, June 4, we will meet after the business meeting and get some ice cream so that you can lean all about being a part of the Faith Youth Group!

Parea- a Greek word meaning a group of friends who meet together regularly to share experiences about life and their philosophies, values, and ideas

During the summer youth are invited to Parea! Come to church at 1 p.m. (or whenever they can get there) to play together, decorate and paint the youth rooms, help the Amen House make sandwiches, and then head to Scroggins Park for Wednesday nights!

Fourteen of us will depart on Monday, June 12, and head out on a weeklong journey to visit several civil rights sites throughout Alabama. This trip is the culmination of our semester-long study of civil rights and racial justice. Our first stop will be Birmingham where we will visit the 16th Street Baptist Church, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, and Kelly Ingram Park. Next we will head to Selma to learn about the marches and the Voting Rights Act. We’ll eat lots of soul food along the way and then spend some time in Montgomery. There we will walk the downtown, see the Capitol, learn about the birth of the confederacy, see Dr. King’s parsonage and hear how his faith influenced the civil rights movement, and tour the home of a civil rights leader. We will also visit the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. We will end our trip with a few days at the beach reflecting and debriefing on all that we have seen and heard. Hopefully, when we return, we will be better equipped to be advocates and allies for racial justice in our community and in our in our world. We’ re working to take loving our neighbor to real actions and not just beliefs.

Please pray for our group for safety, health, and open hearts and minds.

We celebrated high school graduate Mary Daniel Abner last month. Her best friend Bella Spencer (pictured with the Abners below) surprised Mary Daniel by singing during worship that morning. It was a great service and celebration!

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Some soul food has its origins in Ethiopia so a group of youth and their parents took a trip to Louisville one night to eat Ethiopian food at Queen of Sheba Restaurant.

Words from William

A few nights ago, the sleepy coastal Maine town Cecelia and I were staying in had slowed to a crawl, and we found ourselves sitting on a porch by the water lounging in a cool breeze. Sitting there I realized I was bored. Comfortably bored. I left my laptop in Kentucky, so I didn’t have work to do. There were no chores that we could tend to. No meetings or obligations. No errands to run. We had absolutely nothing to do. I ended up reading a great fiction book to pass the time.

One of the most refreshing things about vacations is that we allow ourselves to be bored. Sure, there are excursions, and new sights and experiences, and delicious food, but there are also times when we just let ourselves exist. We become the driftwood slowly letting the current of life pull us onward with no concern where we end up.

The next day as we leisurely strolled through town on our way to worship at the local CBF church, Cecelia and I discussed how nice it was to let ourselves get bored. How necessary it was. As we talked, we realized it didn’t just have to be a vacation thing. We realized we were talking about a sabbath (like from the Bible). Not a puritan sabbath where trying to follow the rules is more stressful than just doing work, and not a new age sabbath where a day is crammed full of things that “fill the soul” but don’t rest the body or mind, but an actual sabbath.

A sabbath is a weekly time where we shed the pressure of responsibilities, setting aside work, chores, and obligations. We also set aside mental drains like social media or scrolling the news. Essentially, we allow ourselves to be bored. Maybe in that boredom we end up doing something like reading a book, or taking a walk, or doing a hobby. But first, we let our day be completely empty. As Winnie the Pooh says,

So, this summer, I’m making it a goal to do nothing every now and again and I invite you to join me. Don’t wait for vacation; build a habit of weekly sabbath. In today’s world it will be hard, but let’s make it a priority to be bored from time to time. If not because of me or because the Bible tells you to, at least do it for Pooh!

Elizabeth Sands Wise planned and preached for our Pentecost worship service. Thank you, Elizabeth!

William Rashleigh provided equipment so some folks could play indoor field hockey one Sunday! We’ll do it again soon so be on the lookout for more info.

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Our committee was delighted to have Carter Felton visit with us at our May meeting. He gave a wonderful report of his upcoming job he will have with CBF field personnel Alicia and Jeff Lee in Macedonia this summer. We will help him fund his air fare and are asking Faith members to contribute too.

Several on the committee enjoyed getting to know Karen Zimmerman, CBF field personnel in Morocco, on May 10 while having lunch at Wilshire’s. Karen pastors congregants, many who are students from the subSaharan Desert. Interesting information on the way the Protestant Church is organized in Morocco was shared by Karen.

With the kitchen in our gym being used by AMEN House one afternoon a week, we learned we can donate our time from 1 to 3 p.m. each Wednesday to help make sandwiches. We can also donate peanut

Teachers and staff at Southern were treated to breakfast by our committee on May 30. It’s fun to treat the staff, and visit and encourage them on the last work day of the school year.

Giving popsicles to Southern Elementary students during their field day activities was fun! We were treated to loud music, energetic children, and a shaded picnic area. We offer a big thank you to Betty Parrish for buying 300 popsicles and four bags of ice, and getting both to the school.

Laundry Day continues to be a success, providing much-needed laundry services for Southern families. Our ministers do a great job of greeting everyone with a smile, playing with the kids, and shining the light of Christ just by being there. Our connection with Southern is really something special.

Prayers & Squares meets on the second Tuesday of every month from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. in the church basement. All are welcome to join to work on prayer quilts while having fun visiting with one another! No quilting or sewing experience is necessary; there are plenty of jobs! Contact Kathy Fraley with questions.

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Rick Hawthorne

Ron Hastings Maya Felton

Aalyah Custard

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18 Father’s Day 19 Juneteenth 20 21

Melisa Custard Dawne McConnaughhay

Betty Covington Marilee Pollock

Amara Dean Jim Nelson Parks Gullett Artie Chase-Wise

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Rick Kopp Jared Cain

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Sharon Felton

Betty

Cruse Emiline Langlands Margaret Guenther

Our Summer Kickoff Party was so fun! We ate some yummy food and delicious ice cream sundaes. We played fun outdoor games and trivia. And we loved being together while enjoying God’s beautiful creation. We are thankful for the deacons who provided the sundaes, and the grill masters and kitchen helpers who prepared the dinner. Of course we want to offer congratulations to our trivia winners: Jimmy and Eric Shaffer, Pat and John Blackburn, Roger Patterson, and Chris Cutter!