Acts of Faith
AUG
MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF FAITH BAPTIST CHURCH We are a family of faith, sharing God’s love in a spirit of hope.
Gather with us in the Hadaways’ backyard for our final backyard worship of the Summer. We'll be worshipping around a table with dinner provided. You don't need to bring anything but yourself (and maybe sunscreen). Worship will begin at 7 PM. As we eat we will worship God through singing, scripture reading, and by engaging in communal Examen Prayer practices.
For our last Summer Fun Day of the year, Jessica Swafford is hosting a Haiku poetry workshop at the Yuko-En Japanese Gardens at 7 p.m. on Saturday, August 6.
Come celebrate the beginning of our fall activities at the Fall Kickoff Party on Wednesday, August 24, starting at 5:30 p.m. outside by the playground. The goals of this gathering are three-fold: 1) learn about opportunities to learn and share life together this fall; 2) eat; 3) have no-pressure fun with each other. Our feast will be a cookout potluck; hamburgers, hot dogs, and chips will be provided and we’d love for you to bring a side or dessert to share if you can. We’ll have yard games, gaga ball, and our fourth annual Faith Baptist Trivia Tournament. That's right, there's food, fun, AND a trophy! Let's party!
School is back which means Wednesday Nights are back! Join us every Wednesday this fall for a communal dinner at 5:30 and classes at 6:15. Our format this year is returning to pre-COVID style with multiple class offerings for adults, youth, and children. We’ll kick off our fall schedule with a party by the playground on August 24. Then, on August 31, we’ll stay together in the RA to hear all about Pastor Amanda’s sabbatical adventures. Then, in September, in addition to youth and children’s activities, two adult classes will be offered. Pastor William will lead a class on caring for aging parents where we will hear from aging and legal specialists as we consider how to care for those who cared for us as Continued on page 4
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Hello Faith family! I just want to take a minute to reflect on my experience as the interim children’s minister. First of all I want to thank every single one of you for being so supportive of me, and helping me with anything that was needed! I especially want to thank everyone who helped with VBS; it went so smoothly and that was because of you all! I have learned so much through this experience and have been so blessed by each and everyone of these children. We learned so much about our Lord and grew closer to him. I’m very sad it has come to an end, but I will take all of this with me, as it will no doubt help in my future career as a teacher. As our children and teachers prepare to go back to school, we will pray for them on Sunday, August 21, during the worship service. We will pray for a smooth entry back into school and for their health and safety. We want to let them all know that their church family loves them and will be praying for them. All children are welcome to bring their backpack to lay at the altar for a blessing that morning.
It’s hard to believe it’s August and school is just around the corner! This summer our youth have grown in remarkable ways as they’ve led children in games and reading, prepared to teach Bible stories, worked VBS and participated in missions work and camp. They have stepped out of their comfort zones and led in worship. They have experienced new cultures and shown a maturity and appreciation for new places and new people. They have been salt and light in the world and shown the love of Christ all along the way! I am so proud of our youth and so very thankful for their hearts! I am also extremely grateful for our church and for the parents and adults who make youth ministry possible at Faith! I am incredibly fortunate to be able to serve alongside each one of you. If you haven’t gotten a chance to help with the youth program and you’d like to be around such incredible teenagers, find me and let’s talk!
It has been wonderful having Carter as Faith’s intern this summer! He has been such a huge help and made some great connections with our youth. I am so thankful to CBF and to our church for supporting and encouraging young adults to explore vocation and calling! This month we have a couple fun events planned to begin the fall semester! August 13 will be a Day of Fun for our high school students! The cost is $25 and you’ll need to sign up with Sharon ASAP! The Middle School Back to School Retreat will be on August 27! The cost is $40. Let Sharon know if you’re going.
3 Last month we finally got to go on our boat ride down the Kentucky River on the Mary M. Miller steamboat! It was a beautiful day and we had a great time!
I’d like to thank Faith Baptist Church for allowing me to be the summer intern this year! I’ve had a great time serving with you. It has been very busy, but very rewarding. I’ve been able to travel as a chaperone with the youth group to their New Mexico mission trip and also to Passport. It’s been awesome getting to know the kids in the youth group a little better and seeing them grow in different ways. I watched Faith’s youth group devote their time and energy to helping others by leading a Reading Camp in Albuquerque. I watched them love on people and be God’s presence in other kids’ lives. I watched them grow closer to each other and closer to God as they attended Passport. They led worship, sang silly songs, and completed mission work that went towards helping a Hospice center. I’ve also been able to go on visits and get to know Faith’s ministers and staff really well. I enjoyed working some with our senior adults by reading Darrell Cruse’s poetry at the JOY lunch. I’ve been able to get a glimpse into the inner workings of the church. This has truly been a spiritual experience for me as I’ve grown in my faith and in my journey of discernment. I’m thankful for the theological conversations I shared with Pastor William. I’m thankful for the opportunity to preach and all the encouragement I’ve received from the congregation. I’m thankful for the opportunity to attend CBF orientation and their General Assembly. It’s been very encouraging to see more of how Faith Baptist does worship. To see all of you committed to doing the Lord’s work, and being a more vibrant and accepting community has really inspired me on a personal level.
Fall is approaching and that means lots of church activities, so we’re taking it easy in August. We won’t have a JOY lunch this month, but we still have a couple opportunities for fun and fellowship together. On Friday, August 5, at 6:30 p.m. we’re having a movie night in the RA. We’ll watch Blue Hawaii, a musical romantic comedy starring Elvis Presley. Popcorn and drinks will be provided. Then on Friday, August 19, we’re taking a trip on the bus to Rabbit Hash, Kentucky. This little town is located on the Ohio River between Louisville and Cincinnati. It only has a population of about 300, but it has a unique atmosphere and the General Store is a fun tourist attraction featuring antiques, Bybee pottery, hand-woven towels from Boston Weavers, brooms made in Berea, and much more! We’ll leave church at 10 a.m. and stop in Florence for lunch at Cheddar’s before we make our way over the river to Rabbit Hash. Please bring $5 to help cover the cost of gas for the bus.
Mariann and Ken Harlan are collecting plastic lids for the Bell House in Lexington to recycle. Please put lids in the designated bucket in the RA kitchen and make sure the lids have been rinsed off beforehand. Don’t forget we have a large blue recycling bin in the RA kitchen for curbside recycling items. The list of accepted items is on the wall next to the bin. We also have recycling baskets in the sanctuary for your bulletins each week.
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Words from William How is it already August? It’s currently 95 degrees and we’re planning a Fall Festival? That’s right, even though it feels like only yesterday we were celebrating graduation, fall is already upon us. I really like fall. How could you not in Kentucky? There are the beautiful landscapes and fun festivals, plus it’s the start of another Cowboys Superbowl run. Even though I’m not in school or have kids in school, August feels more like a new year than January to me. Our church calendar resets as we restart Wednesday nights (y’all be sure to come to my class on taking care of aging parents), look forward to Advent and Lent, and begin planning the upcoming summer. Many of our schedules and lives adjust as kids and grandkids have new extracurriculars and interests to explore. As the leaves begin to die, even without knowing it we establish what our year will be like. With that in mind, I ask you to consider a New Year’s Resolution of sorts as we head into August. What if this year, as our year begins this fall, we are intentional about what it will be like? Before our lives become consumed with September activities, what if we took some time this month to set goals for the coming school year (even if we aren’t in school)? What if we were intentional about our schedules and activities so that they reflected our values and desires instead of just what the world around us demanded? Take some time with your family or by yourself and talk about the year to come. Dream about what you want it to look like, knowing it won’t be perfect. Make sure your priorities are just that: prioritized. I love the fall because it’s a fresh start. Every year I am excited about the crisp air that represents a new year of possibility and Cowboy championships. It is a chance for me to brush off the dust from last year and begin anew with fresh dreams and strategies. Join me in making this year intentional, knowing there will be another August next year for us to refresh again!
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they age. This class will meet in the library and last for four weeks. The other class is still being finalized. Wednesday nights are an important part of our church as they allow us to engage in Christian Education and Shared Life, two of our core practices. It is important for us to continue learning and growing together as we share our burdens and joys with each other. We hope you’ll be a part of this beautiful night each week as we grow closer to each other and to God. Pastor Amanda and her family returned from their overseas travels in July. We are so excited for her return to the office this month and to hear all about her time away!
We need your help to make Reading Camp a reality this fall! Reading camp is a twice-a-week after-school reading program Faith hosts for Southern Elementary students. This fall, the program starts September 6, meets from 2:45 to 4:30 p.m. in the Faith Baptist gym on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and runs for 8 weeks, with a week off in the middle for fall break. You can sign up to volunteer for just Tuesdays, just Thursdays, or both! No experience needed. Please contact Elizabeth Sands Wise for more information.
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Both ends of our state have been hit hard by disasters in the last year. We take our calling as Christ followers to help our neighbors seriously so we are involved in relief efforts in both eastern and western Kentucky. On August 8 and 9, a group from Faith will go to Bremin, Kentucky, to help with tornado recovery efforts led by CBF Kentucky. We’ll be doing some construction and organization work.
Our Backyard Worship in the Collins’ beautiful backyard was intentionally kid-friendly so we sang some fun songs, had a puppet show, and enjoyed some s’mores around the fire afterwards.
We are all very happy with the work of the Branding Committee and the excellent work that has occurred as a result of their work. Almost all of the projects on the list have been completed and we have received many compliments about the work. One final piece to this puzzle is the replacement of the exterior lighting at all of the exterior doors to provide a new light fixture that is uniform, fits with our new logo design, will have an LED light bulb and dusk-to-dawn illumination. To show everybody an example of the light, we have installed one of the new lights at the gym door entrance. New lighting is expensive so we are asking church members to consider purchasing one for this project. Cost for the fixture, bulb, and installation is approximately $350 and we are purchasing eight. If you are interested in purchasing one or more, please mark your donation as Building Our Future. We appreciate your consideration and help to complete this project.
We have a quarterly business meeting this month on Sunday, August 21, immediately following the worship service. We hope you will make plans to attend this important meeting, as we will be presenting the slate of church leaders and committee members prepared by the Nominating Committee.
In eastern Kentucky, Faith is joining together with other CBF Kentucky churches to provide Bucket Cleanup Kits to those affected by the devastating floods. These disaster relief buckets are filled with items used for cleaning out and mucking up. Each bucket costs around $100 to create. This is a time-sensitive issue and CBFKY hopes to have all items collected no later than August 19. Here is how you can participate in this effort. • Create a Bucket Cleanup Kit Get instructions in the Faith file, on our social media, or in the sanctuary foyer. Bring the kit to the church or take it to Calvary Baptist in Lexington (T-Th, 8:30-4:30 | F, 8:30-12) by August 19. • Donate money for Bucket Cleanup Kits Give to Faith via cash, check, or online gift by August 19. Be sure to put "flood" in the memo line. We will use donations to purchase supplies for bucket cleanup kits. • Assemble Bucket Cleanup Kits on the evening of Sunday, August 21 We will have a packing party to assemble kits for CBFKY with supplies given to them, as well as supplies bought with donations to CBFKY and Faith. More information on this event will be coming soon. Contact the church office with questions and please continue to pray for western and eastern Kentucky.
We collected 55 backpacks for Southern Elementary students! Each one contains a new pair of shoes and socks. Thank you for your generosity!
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Charlotte McFarland Lee Ann Napier
Tate McConnaughhay Aidan Stone
Colby Abner Jeff Stone
Eric Shaffer Kathy Wood
Pallie Gullett Philip Hatch
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Patsy Davila Paul Redditt
Charlie Perkins Lisa Pollock
Alyssa KarsnerMcFarland
Wallace Williams
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Darla Botkin Robert Cruse
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Ruth Bryant Megan McEuen
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Suada Derakovic
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Ann Leigh Mark Long
Rick Leigh Jawanna Herd
Simon Hatch J.W. Humphrey
Jarred Hutchison
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Will Rose
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Shirley Snodgrass
Mary Craycraft Jodi Hadaway Taylor Thompson
Jimmy Wilson
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FAITH BAPTIST CHURCH STAFF William Reilly william@familyoffaith.net
Sharon Felton sharon@familyoffaith.net
Amanda Langlands amanda@familyoffaith.net Rick Hawthorne rick@familyoffaith.net Natalie Tilford-Kopp natalie@familyoffaith.net For our Summer Fun Days in July we had a 4th of July picnic at the Fraleys’, went fishing, and worked at the AMEN house! A group from CornerStone UMC in Ashland stayed in the gym while they were in town for mission work and they joined us at the AMEN House!
Angela Earwood angela@familyoffaith.net Linda Johnston
Prayers & Squares will not meet in August, but will resume on the second Tuesday in September. Contact Kathy Fraley with questions.
Charlotte McFarland Judith Williams
— Betsy Sams, Pat Blackburn — Lee Ann & Randy Napier — Darla Botkin, Linda Humphrey — Linda Arehart, Becky Collins
Suada Derakovic Melisa Custard Church Office: (502) 863-1537 M-F, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
116 Pocahontas Trail Georgetown, KY 40324 502.863.1537 www.familyoffaith.net
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