FROM THE PASTOR’S DESK…
For thou shalt be his witness unto all men, of what thou hast seen and heard. ACTS 22:15
The dramatic transformation of Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus Road demonstrates how Christ cleanses the vilest of sinners and calls them to a higher purpose. Still, when the new apostle rose from the desert sand, he was blind and dependent on his companions. Did he wonder if his men would abandon him? Did he fear those he was to persecute? Could he fulfill the new orders he received? Witness what you’ve seen and heard. He could and did!
We are to witness what we’ve seen and heard. We’ve seen much: wars, famines, disease, the breakdown of government, civil discourse, and the family. We’ve heard more: false prophets of prosperity and doom, self-proclaimed saviors and saints, political promises, and pulpit pandering. These are not the things born-again believers are to witness. Paul witnessed the revelation of Jesus Christ. He heard the words of the Lord in his ears, and he professed them at every opportunity. His bold yet simple approach enabled him to win souls and spread the gospel like no one else.
What have you seen? I’ve seen the gospel pluck fear and defeat out of a young man’s heart, giving him peace and understanding. I’ve heard the testimony of saints rescued from the fires of hell by the Word of God. Witness! Proclaim the gospel and witness what great things God has done! I’ve seen proud men and women refuse to believe because they’re “too smart for superstition.” I’ve heard children confess, “Everybody should believe in Jesus, duh!” Witness! Tell the world! Heaven is real, and hell is hot! Heaven’s for the saved, and hell is not! Christ is the answer; His blood the cure! All need Christ, for none is pure. The song pleads, “Go, tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born!” Tell it today! ~~ Pastor Greg
OCTOBER SUNDAY SCHOOL ATTENDANCE
October 1 130
October 8 115
October 15 121
October 23 147
October 29 110
5) 623. (125 average)
If you cannot attend, all services are streamed live on our Facebook page: Beulah Ann Missionary Baptist (church building is the profile pic). Immediately after services, you can watch on YouTube channel “Beulah Ann Missionary Baptist Church.”
Prayer requests may be sent directly to the prayer line which is maintained by Sharon Chapman at babcprayer@aol.com, or called into the church at 304-743-5854.
Offerings may be mailed to the church at P. O. Box 247, Ona, WV 25545. Please mail Sunday School Class (and other groups) offerings directly to your class treasurer.
Your attendance is very much welcome at any time. Love to see everybody back!
BIBLE READING PROGRAMS
WVBC ABWM 5-year Bible Reading Plan:
November: II Corinthians
December: Isaiah
Evangelistic Outreach Bible Reading Calendars give an Old and New Testament selection to read each day of the year. A chronological Bible Reading schedule is also available. All these plans are on the front foyer table.
OVER 50 ANNIVERSARIES
Tommy & Juanita Nance, Nov. 19, 62 yrs.
Ray & Peggy Scarberry, Nov. 27, 66 yrs.
CONTRIBUTIONS TO NEWSLETTER FUND
Thru church treasury $90.00
Willing Workers $40.00
Sally O. Cyrus $20.00
Thank you for your generous support.
If at first you do succeed, try to hide your astonishment!
MISSION PROJECTS
In September and October, we gave on shipping costs for Operation Christmas Child Love in a Shoebox. A total of $2,679 was given.
In November, it is time to prepare for our Christmas Basket project. Funds are needed to buy fruit and other supplies to complete the baskets. We help those in need and honor those aged 80 and over, widows and widowers, those with serious health concerns, and those in nursing home care. We make about 80 baskets each year. To give, just put “Christmas Baskets” on the memo line of your check.
The ABWM Community Outreach Project for October was for liquid hand soap, Johnson’s baby wash, baby bottle brushes, and diaper rash cream for Lily’s Place. Our basket was full! Thanks to all who gave. In November, we are asking for individually wrapped snacks for the Veteran’s home in Barboursville. Cookies, cakes, granola bars, peanuts, etc. Thanks for your help.
CONGRATULATIONS:
To John Hagley and Leigh Blankenship, who were married on Oct. 28. John is the son of Gladys Burns.
To Lexi Dillon and Levi Mitchell, who were married on Oct. 28. Lexi is the daughter of JD & Jessica Dillon, and granddaughter of Eddie and Debbie Dillon.
To Sgt. 1st Class Stephen Morrison, who graduated from the University of Charleston with a BS in Organizational Leadership. Steve is the son of Patty and the late Jim Morrison, and husband of Emileigh Morrison.
To Easton Petitt, who was admitted to Marshall University School of Medicine, hoping to become a doctor! Easton is the son of Ted & Missy Pettitt and grandson of Eddie and Debbie Dillon.
THANK YOU
The Trustees want to give a big shout of thanks to Brent Chapman. He completed all the necessary electrical work in our garage. He hung all the overhead lighting and placed all the electrical receptacles. He spent a lot of hours completing this. We appreciate it.
~~Mike Meadows for the Trustees
CHRISTIAN SYMPATHY TO THE FAMILY AND FRIENDS OF:
KEITH O’NEAL COOPER, 82, of Milton, whose funeral was Nov. 5. He was a long-standing member of our church. Among his survivors are his son George (Tammy) and granddaughters Casey and Mary.
JUDY KAY JOBE, 79, of Barboursville, whose funeral was Nov. 3. She was a close friend of Clara and Jerry Zerkle.
CLEO “PUNKIN” JOHNSON, 92, of Ona, who passed away Nov. 6. A memorial service will be held later. She was a sister-in-law of Naomi Dailey, and aunt of Linda Hayes.
JOSHUA MICHAEL MCGREW, 39, of Ona, whose funeral was Oct. 21. He was a son of Doug and Beverly Mohr, of Mohr’s Tire Farm.
WILLIAM DARRELL RAYBURN, 70, of Barboursville, whose funeral was Nov. 8. He was the father of Amy Holland Hill.
KEITH LEO SAVAGE, 90, of Barboursville, whose funeral was Nov. 7. He was the grandfather of Amy Holland Hill.
BARRY LEE SMITH, 84, of Ona, whose funeral was Oct. 18. He served for many years on the Ona Volunteer Fire Dept., and was a friend to many in the church.
ROBERT “BOB” WELLMAN, 78, of Kenova, whose funeral was Oct. 30. He was the lead singer of the Happy Valley Boys, and a dear friend of Butch Vititoe.
NEW RADIO MINISTRY
At our October Quarterly Business meeting, the church voted to begin a new radio ministry on WEMM-FM, 107.9. It will air every Monday at 7:45 am, and is a 15-minute program entitled, “Child-like Faith.” Listen in to hear Pastor Greg bring a condensed version of sermons he has brought to the church.
SALUTE TO VETERANS
Under the direction of Duane Adkins, the Sanctuary Choir presented a program on Sunday morning, Nov. 12, entitled, “I Love This Land.” We recognized Veterans and active service personnel from all branches of service. Soloist Bethany Beckett was wonderful, and a PowerPoint presentation of beautiful and thrilling photos of America and the American military and firefighters was very moving. It was prepared by Susan McComas. There were quite a few tears shed.
CHILDREN’S MINISTRY NEWS
The Circle of Treats held on Oct. 25th in our gym was amazing. We started out at 7:00 pm with a “Light the Night with Jesus” or Glow with Jesus theme. Kara Litteral told the story of this. We also had different activities for the kids. Then after church adults sat in a circle of chairs in the gym loaded with candy for the kids. Of course, the kids dressed up and went around filling their bags. Even parents dressed up too!! Great Family Fun! Thank you, adult church for treating our kids. Special Thanks to Ben Ross who donated bright colored pumpkin buckets for our kids.
Sharon Hayes always leads our Christmas Shoebox event. The children bring in money for this and the items are bought and the boxes are filled. Then the children went upstairs with their boxes for the Shoebox dedication on November 12th.
On November 13th the Jesus Kids, twelve to be exact, performed their play “Lost but now I’m Found.” They did it at the Paramount Senior Living home at 3:30 that day. The residents loved it. Then at 7 pm they did it for our church family. We want to mention their names because they worked so hard on this and did such an amazing job. Taz & Cannon Queen, Kara Holley, Joanna & Arianna Cook, Keeley Carter, Julianna Lawson, Avery Black, Navy Crouch, Finn Shafer, Abilene Chapman, and Harper Christian. Tom McComas was the King on the island and the kids loved him. The directors of the play were Brenda Boo Meadows & Christy Holley. Loretta Chunky Floyd was the wardrobe designer and Deby Chapman was the set designer. This play had a lot of the old hymns and it was great to hear the kids singing them.
Sunday, December 10th at 7 pm will be the whole Children’s Ministry Christmas program for ages 2 thru the 5th grade.
Always pray for our kids.
~~Children’s Ministry Team
Sushi is fish for men who don’t know how to build a fire.
If a plant is sad, do the other plants photo-sympathize with it?
BAMBY FALL RETREAT
“I Can’t, But Our God Can” was the theme to this year’s youth retreat at the Baptist Camp. The day was full of fun activities and Bible lessons. Our lesson focus was how God can get us through anything that we alone cannot.
There was such a sweet spirit throughout the camp. The teens carved pumpkins, played kickball, launched pumpkins, and had an awesome color war. After dinner and our 3rd lesson, we showed the movie Jesus Revolution. It tied into our theme so well! If you’ve not seen it, we highly recommend it to all of you.
Part of our lessons focused on the “things” that get in the way of the teens allowing Christ to use them. They wrote them on giant post it notes and they were put on the wall in the form of a cross. They were completely anonymous.
The leaders spent ALOT of that time looking at the wall, their challenges and praying for them. Our teens and teens everywhere need our prayers. They face so much more than teens of the past. Pray for them and for us as we lead and mentor them.
We want to extend a thank you to the parents who provided soup, chips, chili, drinks, and desserts!! A special Thank-you to Connie Chapman for loaning us the movie, Becky Childers for the delicious homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast, Leigh Bellomy for the cookies and hot wing dip for our evening snacks and Mike and Boo Meadows for the eggs for breakfast.
The highlight of the weekend was when Brooklyn Childers accepted the Lord as her Savior!! We knew the Spirit was present but He made it known Sunday morning with her decision of Faith!!! ~~Mitzi Beckett
SOCKTOBER
A very special thank you to our church family for contributing socks and underwear to Youth Ministry’s annual Socktober event. Because of your generosity, 303 pairs of socks and 35 pairs of underwear were collected. A special thank you to Becky Childers for delivering them to the mission for us. ~~Mitzi Beckett
CALENDAR
**Wed., Nov. 22 – Horn–of-Plenty Service.
**Fri., Dec. 1, 9 am – Complete and distribute Christmas Baskets, Beaver Building. Volunteers are needed to deliver.
**Sat., Dec. 2, 6 pm – Church Christmas Dinner, Family Center. Turkey and ham will be provided by Sunday School Classes. Please bring side dishes and desserts.
**Sun., Dec. 3, 6 pm – ABWM (Family Center), ABMM (Caldwell Classroom).
**Mon., Dec. 4, 7 pm – Board of Deacons Meeting, Family Center.
**Tues., Dec. 5, 12, 19, 10 am – Sew Blest, Family Center.
**Thurs., Dec. 7, 14, 21 ,28, 6 pm – In Stitches, Family Center.
**Sat., Dec. 9, 8 am – Noon – Youth Ministries to Facing Hunger Food Bank.
**Sun., Dec. 10 – Newsletter Deadline.
**Sun., Dec. 10, 7 pm – Children’s Ministry Christmas Program.
**Mon., Dec. 11, 7 pm – Christian Board of Education Meeting, Family Center.
**Wed., Dec. 13, 7 pm – Youth Ministries Christmas Party.
**Fri., Dec. 15, 9 am – Newsletter Work Party, Family Center.
**Sat., Dec. 16, 6 pm – Willing Workers Christmas Dinner, at Fratelli’s in Barboursville.
**Sat., Dec. 16 – Faithful Servants Christmas Party, Family Center.
**Sat., Sat., Dec. 16 – Caldwell Class Christmas Dinner, Camp Ona.
**Sun., Dec. 17, 11 am – Youth Ministries Stick Drama.
**Sun., Dec. 17, 6 pm – Jesus Kids Practice.
**Sun., Dec. 17, 11 am & 7 pm – Children’s Ministry Christmas Party.
**Tues., Dec. 26 – Happy “149th” Birthday Beulah Ann!
**Sun., Dec. 31 – 5th Sunday Night Sing.
Planning Ahead: Sat., Jan. 27, 2024, 6 pm, Critter Dinner, in the Family Center.
In Star Wars, anyone can hop in any spaceship and instantly know how to fly it. I just spent twenty minutes trying to find the headlights on a rental car.
A smart husband buys his wife very fine China, so she won’t trust him to wash it.
WEST VIRGINIA BAPTIST CONVENTION ANNUAL MEETING
Pastor Greg, Jim and Jo Ross, and Patty Morrison attended the annual meeting at South Parkersburg Baptist Church Oct. 19-20. Patty and I attended Women’s Day Thursday morning. The sanctuary was beautifully decorated with white flowers and white pumpkins. Missionaries to South Africa, Rick and Anita Guiterriez, who are both doctors, gave a wonderful presentation on how they build “domes” out of PVC pipes with covers, in which the people, mostly Zulus and Indians who have migrated there, learned to grow fruit trees, raise chickens, and many other uses for these structures. We learned what our ABWM projects will be for 2024, and elected officers, and heard an inspiring message from Clare Cottrill. We were asked to bring lots of coins for a “noisy” Love Gift offering. The offering was taken up in metal containers then dumped into a bigger metal container, and it was really noisy! A bank counted it during our lunch, and the total was $1,573.40! A big change was announced concerning Love Gift, and our officers recommended a new name for it, “WV Blessings.” The whole offering will stay in WV. Thirty percent will be for WV ABWM, and 70 percent for WVBC. We gladly approved this motion.
At the first business session, Dr. Mike Sisson informed us that this year, one new International Missionary was commissioned from WV (Sarah McCloy), eight college campuses had active BCM’s, five had graduated from Palmer Seminary, thirteen leaders participated in the Mentoring Program, five new Pastors had been ordained, thirty young leaders had participated in the Ministry Internship Program, seventy had been saved at Camp Cowen, and eighty-seven had been saved at Parchment Valley! And 1.66 million dollars was given to missions!
At the BCM dinner Thursday night, we heard from many students and graduates who told how BCM impacted their lives. It was inspiring.
At the WV Baptist Historical Society luncheon on Friday, Mary McCloy spoke about how Jesus used stories to teach, and how important our stories are now, and how we need to preserve our Baptist Heritage.
At almost every meal served in the gymnasium of the church, which also served as the Exhibit Hall, we got to dine with Jeff and Ileene Fetty. Jeff is Pastor of the Main Street Baptist Church in Point Pleasant. It was great to catch up with them.
In the exhibit hall, you could see displays and get information on all the ministries of the WVBC, plus more! It is encouraging to see so much ministry going on.
Pastor Greg attended the keynote address by Verlon Foster, a pastor of a church in Seattle, WA, where they have an effective ministry called Dinner Church. Pastor Greg may adapt some of this ministry as an outreach in our area. Stay tuned.
We were not able to attend all sessions, but we can tell you that it is a wonderful experience to attend an event like this and see that the message of Jesus is being spread all over the state of WV in churches just like ours. The people are wonderful. Next year, I encourage you to go! ~~Jo Ross
FALL REVIVAL
Pastor Greg had the church well prepared for revival this fall. The Holy Spirit could be felt in services leading up to Oct. 8, when Evangelist Tommy Reed preached in a mighty way, Sunday through Friday. He is from Prestonsburg, KY, and is the Pastor of the Fitzpatrick Baptist Church.
Special singing was a great blessing also. On Oct. 8, our own Blessings sang, and it was so good. The rest of the week we were joined by choirs from Antioch, Lighthouse, Sunrise, and Susannah. Of course, our own choir sang too!
On Friday night, when Susannah choir was here, Beulah Ann choir members joined them for a great big combined choir. Together, we can really make a loud joyful noise for the Lord!
All the sermons were good. On the last night, Tommy preached about the 7 Rs of the Church:
Rescue, Refuge, Reconciliation, Redemption, Repentance, Restoration, and Rejoicing.
For a better morning, talk with God first.
For a better night, talk with God last.
For a better life, talk with God all day.
SHOEBOX DEDICATION
It was a beautiful sight to see a long line of our children standing along the front of the sanctuary on Nov. 12, each holding a full shoebox, representing a child somewhere in the world who will receive the box. This year, we filled 313 boxes. We prayed that these boxes will bless children and lead them to Christ.
GOOD NEWS NUGGETS
J The ABWM would like to thank everyone who participated in our Love Gift program on Oct. 22. The offering was $617.00. Love Gift is being changed to WV Blessings, and the whole offering will stay in WV, for which we are thankful. You can still use the little Love Gift boxes to collect your coins and dollars.
J We observed Pastor Appreciation on Oct. 22. Pastor Greg and Jeannie were presented with gifts from the Church and Adult, Youth, and Children’s Ministries. We love them so much. Then after evening service, we all enjoyed desserts!
J Our Fifth Sunday Night Sing guests were Third Harmony, consisting of Lily, Abby, and Mattie Browning. They truly had great harmony!
J The Waymarks brought our special music on Oct. 15.
J Our choir traveled to Lighthouse Baptist to sing in their revival, and were delighted to get to hear a sermon from Evangelistic Outreach’s Brian Baer.
J The Caldwell Sunday School Class and the Middle Adult Sunday School Class combined for an early Thanksgiving dinner at the home of Patty Morrison. Good food and fellowship!
J The six-week Ladies Bible Study on the book, In the Footsteps of the Savior, by Max Lucado, has concluded. It was well attended, and everyone agrees Connie Chapman is a really good teacher.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!
Beulah Ann Missionary Baptist Church 