E-Link Online -- News of the American Baptist Churches of Michigan

Christmas Open House at Region Office on December 1

All are welcome to attend a Christmas Open House at the American Baptist Churches of Michigan Region Office on December 1, 2007. Come for a time of fellowship, light refreshments and the opportunity to become better acquainted with the ABC-MI Staff and Specialized Ministries of the ABC-MI. Some of the specialized ministries of ABC-MI hosting exhibits include:

†  Jeff Rector, American Baptist Student Foundation
†  Rev. Robert Lacker, ABC-MI Historial Committee
†  Wendy Koerner, Meritain Health (formerly WEYCO)
†  Camp Lake Louise
†  Camp Lael
†  Kay Hoyt and Phyllis Christopherson, American Baptist Women's Ministries
†  Karen Horsman & Larry Wilson, American Baptist Foundation
†  Bruce Carr, Michigan Baptist Scholarship Society
†  Malcolm Brown and Timothy Goodrich, U of M Flint
†  Dr. Linnea Berg, Friendship House
†  Scott Cherry, Anchor Ministries (ministry to Muslims)
†  Dan Buttry, International Ministries Global Service Missionary for Peace and Justice
†  Tony Mills, Casner Insurance Agency, Brotherhood Mutual Insurance & Guide One Insurance

Voices

It is a scene that we have observed in the D. R. Congo and again in Zambia -- women or children seated alongside the road breaking stones into smaller building stone or paving gravel. Hammers or pieces of iron are pounding tools for some. Others may have no tool and must simply break one stone upon the other. This was the case for six orphaned children that I met today. The oldest of the children cooks for the younger, and an impoverished aunt does what she can to help. But the pile of gravel and the yet unbroken stones in front of the children's mud wall house testifies that this is the work that provides the small income for the children.

Yet in the midst of this deep poverty, one can see a sign of the kingdom. The Kabanana Baptist Church makes regular visits to these children bringing assistance out of their own meager resources. The congregation located in a township on the outskirts of Lusaka, is a member church of our partner, the Baptist Convention of Zambia. Pastor Joseph Sabala and the members of the Kabanana Baptist Church believe that God has called them to care for the wellbeing of their whole community. They seek out those who are vulnerable, attempt to keep family ties intact, and bring what resources they can to promote wellness in the name of Jesus. They conduct community classes for these children, all of whom are too poor to pay school fees, buy books and uniforms that are required in order to access "free" public education. The church wants the children to have basic "three R" skills to equip them for survival.

Who is to say how many of these children may grow to become followers of Jesus? Caregivers to others? Leaders within the community? Bearers of the good news to other towns, languages, or nations? Upon the rock of confession that Jesus is the Anointed One of God, Lord and Savoiur, God is building the church. Among the women and children breaking stones into piles of gravel, one can see the power of the Rock of Ages and signs of God's kingdom. -- Reid Trulson's blog on ABC-MI leaders' trip through Africa (see http://tinyurl.com/2m4j3n).

Arrivals, Departures, Celebrations, Concerns

§ Barbara "Darbi" Stuber, 79, a former president of the American Baptist Churches of Michigan, passed away October 29, 2007. A resident of Brighton, formerly of Howell, she was born June 11, 1928 in Chicago, IL, the daughter of Hedley G. and Carrie M.(Burgan) Drew. Darbi received a degree in psychology from Denison University, Granville, OH in 1950. She was an active member of the First Baptist Church, Howell, including Sunday school teacher and choir. She was a former Girl Scout leader and trainer, volunteer for American Cancer Society as a State officer and life board member. Darbi was also a charter member of the Court House Square Questers and past Citizen of the Year along with her husband in 1981. She is survived by her husband Dr. Roscoe Stuber of Brighton, her children Margaret (Larry Gail) Stuber of California, Libby (Ed Pomponi) Stuber and Paul (Cheryl Brummel) Stuber, of Colorado and Edie (Richard) Klecka of North Carolina. She is also survived by four grandchildren, Emma, Benjamin, Elizabeth and Evan. Memorial services will be held Saturday, November 10, 2007 at 11:00 a.m. at First Baptist Church of Howell with Pastors Herb Wilson, Jr. and Donald Williams officiating. Memorial contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society for "Darbi Stuber". Please visit the family's guestbook at www.macdonaldsfuneralhome.com.

§ The sympathy and prayers of the ABC-MI family are extended to the family and friends of the late Rev. Thomas Black who passed away on October 10, 2007 in Ohio. He served the First Baptist Church of Charlevoix from September, 1984 to June, 1990.

Annual Training Event and Annual Meeting Highlights

Complete accounts of the ABC-MI Annual Training Event and Annual Meeting, held last month at the First Baptist Church of Cadillac, may be found in the following articles on the Region website.

Worship Is Highlight Of Gathering at FBC, Cadillac (http://abc-mi.org/?q=node/278)

Ministers Council Recognizes Outstanding Church Leaders During Annual Meeting (http://abc-mi.org/?q=node/276)

2007 Annual Business Meeting Held At FBC, Cadillac (http://abc-mi.org/?q=node/275)

Annual Equipping Event For Professional and Lay Leaders Held Saturday, Oct. 20 (http://abc-mi.org/?q=node/273)

Annual Equipping Event For Professional Church Leaders Held Friday, October 19 (http://abc-mi.org/?q=node/272)

Free Advent Calendars Offered

The Region's Family Ministry Team and Commission on Christian Education are once again offering Advent calendars free of charge to local churches. These 8 1/2 X 11" calendars are brightly designed for families with children and are filled with daily Scripture verses, activities and "thought starters", helping families focus on the true meanings of the up-coming Christmas season. A limited number of advent calendars for teens will also be available. Calendars can be viewed on the Creative Communications for the Parish website (http://tinyurl.com/22ox2j and http://tinyurl.com/22wluq).

Each local church may request up to 30 or each kind of calendar. Simply send a request to Sue Ellen Glover (sueellen@fbca2.org; phone 734-663-9376; fax 734-821-0361) stating the church name and address, person to whom the envelope should be addressed, and the number of calendars requested. Please specifiy how many teen or children calendars you wish. Order early! Advent begins on December 2 so requests need to be received by November 20.

It is our hope that through these calendars our churches can support families by helping them to set aside a brief time each day during Advent to participate together in activities that focus on the Good News that Jesus brings and on serving others.

Feedback Requested

Your feedback is essential to providing our churches with meaningful and useful training and gathering events. To help us in planning future Annual Equipping Events/Annual Meetings we provided all who attended this year's event with an evaluation form to complete. If you attended and were unable to turn in your evaluation, you have a second chance! If you did not attend but have some constructive suggestions to offer, we'd love to hear from you, too. You can download and fill out the evaluation form (http://abc-mi.org/elink/2007 Annual Gathering Evaluation) and then send it in to the Region office. We appreciate your input.

In addition, all who attended this past weekend had the opportunity to fill out a survey regarding potential upcoming Risk Management training events. In order to get as much input on this important area of education for churches, we'd like to hear from as many folks as possible. This survey (http://abc-mi.org/elink/Risk Management Survey) is also available for you to download, fill out and mail in to the Region office. If you have questions on either of these forms, please contact Trina Knox (tknox@abc-mi.org, 800.632.2953, ext. 222) or Sheila Kaminski (skaminski@abc-mi.org, 800.632.2953, ext. 231). Thank you!

Annual World Mission Offering

"Like living stones, let yourself be built into a spiritual house..." I Peter 2:5

The World Mission Offering gives your church an opportunity to partner with International Ministries to deeply touch the lives of thousands of people all over the world. Every gift given by your church to WMO goes 100% to help people come to Christ, grow in Christ and change their world with Christ. Those blessed by your generosity include Rosa: a 36-year-old widow and mother of six who lives in Pueblo Nuevo Sitala in Chiapas, Mexico. Sacrificially share your resources to be a blessing. Support the vital work of over 1800 missionaries and international partners of International Ministries around the world.

Live Generously!

"From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view..." -- 2 Corinthians 5:16

Short Notices

The First Baptist Church of Ann Arbor invites you to our next Second Sunday speaker presentation on November 11 which will feature the Rev. Dr. Larry Greenfield, Executive Minister, American Baptist Churches of Metro Chicago. Dr. Greenfield's adress, "Mission Impossible? Being a Baptist with Integrity Today", will begin at 7:00 pm and will follow a pot-luck dinner at 5:30pm. An RSVP for the dinner portion (sueellen@fbca2.org) would be appreciated.)

The Covenant Community for Spiritual Formation is beginning its sixth community in January 2008. A community of 50-60 people commits for three years to meet four times per year to learn about and participate in the spiritual disciplines. Covenant Community for Spiritual Formation is patterned after the Upper Room Academy in Wisconsin. Though historically it has been a United Methodist undertaking, we are intentionally seeking participants from other denominations to become more ecumenical. Speakers are chosen from several mainline denominations. See this flyer for complete information: http://abc-mi.org/elink/community2008.pdf.

The Fifth Annual Metro Detroit Fall Dinner for ABC Men and Women of Southeastern Michigan will be held Saturday, November 3, 2007. Details are in this flyer: http://abc-mi.org/elink/http://abc-mi.org/elink/mdafalldinner.pdf. For the latest Metro Update check here: http://abc-mi.org/elink/mdaseptupdate.pdf

The Rev. John Booko is offering his book The Assyrian Revelation as a special Christmas sale. It is a hardcover, 375 pages and sells for $21.95. If you buy one, you may have another one free, plus $3.00 postage. Send check to Rev.John Booko, 200 S. Hooker Ave., Three Rivers,MI 49093

The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship and Center for Excellence in Preaching will hold their annual international conference on worship, January 24-26, 2008. Over 100 presenters and 1,500 registrants from all over the world are expected to attend this event which will be held at Calvin College and Calvin Seminary in Grand Rapids. For more information, visit the website: www.calvin.edu/worship/sympos.

Have you discovered GoodSearch.com yet? It's a search engine that contributes about one penny to your favorite charity every time you use it. Not only that, it's powered by Yahoo and it automatically filters out objectionable adult material. Just click on the link below, select Friendship House (Hamtramck, MI) as your charity and save it as one of your favorites. You'll be helping those in need and it will cost you nothing. Such a deal! http://www.goodsearch.com/

Read the latest issue of International Ministries Prayer Call: http://abc-mi.org/elink/prayer-call.pdf.

The Friendship House Newsletter is now provided in both PDF and DOC formats. The DOC format is a much smaller file and will take much less time to acquire on slow dialup connections. Read it in PDF at http://abc-mi.org/elink/fh.pdf or in DOC format at http:abc-mi.org/fh.doc.

The latest Friendship House Virtual Family Shop newsletter is here: http://abc-mi.org/elink/vfs.pdf.

The next issue of E-Link Online will be published on November 19. Please send news items and notices to the Editor (editor@abc-mi.org) by November 15.

Editor's Trips

Disclaimer: listing of these references does not imply endorsement of positions or policies advocated in them by either the American Baptist Churches of Michigan or the editor of E-Link Online. They are provided here for further thought, discussion, and inquiry. Caveat lector.

The Editor

§  Why Robert Rules -- http://tinyurl.com/2jdby3
§  How Post-Baby Boomers Are Reshaping Religion -- http://tinyurl.com/32mng7
§  God's Will? Or Just a Lousy Umpire? -- http://tinyurl.com/2vp7nh
§  The Absurdity of Taking Things Literally -- http://tinyurl.com/35faw8
§  "Excited About New Baptist Covenant" -- http://tinyurl.com/2zn5m3
§  We Ignore Roger Wiliams to Our Peril -- http://tinyurl.com/2e7f3x
§  The Church Nobody Wants -- http://tinyurl.com/2ftkta

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