December 7, 2017

Greetings My Friend,

We woke up too late from our Sunday afternoon nap to go back to evening Bible study, we needed milk, dish soap and banana's so we headed to Food City to pick up these items then we stopped by the church. We knew Skip would be there waiting for Paula, the choir was practicing for the cantata and she is in the choir. Hanging of the greens was to be the focus of the night and we wondered if we were able to help with this project with our gimped up bodies, Skip informed us the hanging of the greens was not what we thought. Apparently, the Pastor presented a story about the meaning of hanging of the greens for the children in the church, I sure wish we would have made that one. We visited by the front door near where Team Kid was going on in the Family Life Center or gym when tables aren't set up for church gatherings. There are basketball hoops hanging around the room, the children were busy throwing balls, running around the room and once in awhile an adult would come out to rest before going back in again. While the guys were talking I remembered the lament from parents back when I was a youth adviser for teens, "kids today don't have time to be kids." The more I watched the young children running, talking with outside voices it came back to me that given the right opportunity, kids always go back to being a child again. As I drifted back into the conversation we soon were talking about how we love Clintwood Baptist Church because the church has a well rounded representation of all ages. The seniors love hearing the children doing what children do, we as a church marvel at their voices when they are up front singing, how well they sit during the service until it is time for the children are dismissed for children's church. The young parents are patient with us seniors, are respectful of us and well, this church has found a way to bring in younger people, keep the older people and all of us love each other fairly well. We have our problems although over all we seem to work them out. Going without a permanent pastor for 3 years has made us look hard and long at ourselves, we have people step up to keep programs up and running, had new members join the church and even have seen a few people come to salvation, many of them young people. I am learning much in this smaller church that I have belonged to. The one woman's circle has spent a huge amount of effort collecting and buying hats and mittens. I remembered what my home church did for years, they put up a mitten tree asking for donations of mittens, gloves, hats and scarves. Each week people came in with these items placing them on the tree. It was a neat idea and worked for that church. I mentioned this idea and afterwards, I thought why was this the answer to collecting needed items? These women spent loving time buying these items out of the funds from their circle. When they were finishing up they looked at all the items they bought with a sense of accomplishment. These items were then passed out at the Christmas parade that wound up in the park right in town. These women saw the happy little faces light up with the gifts they had loving labored for. It was this that made me realize sometimes it is much nicer to do things the harder way. Our county is rather small so it is not hard to know most of the children that show up to these events. Growing up I attended a church with 1,500 members, when Junior and I moved from our church we belonged to in Michigan it was a 3 - 5 thousand member church. These larger churches don't know all of the people within the community like the people here in Virginia and that is special to me now. The need to be hyper organized is not called for so I learn about being more flexible. Each community needs the churches to be sensitive to the needs within the community. There are years we collect back packs to give to children in the area, most of the families struggle to make ends meet so these backpacks go a long way in helping parents provide for the needs of the children. Right now there are children that don't get much food when they are not at school so we are collecting easy to open foods to give to children to take home. Since the drug problem is epidemic many children have to fend for themselves so churches also take up collections of winter coats, boots along with hats and scarves. When a church knows of a need these items are given to those in need. I believe some items are taken to the schools for the staff to distribute. Our smaller churches in this area are providing for the needs of the communities just as the larger churches help the larger communities where they are planted. God's people come together to help those in need at home and around the world. That is mind boggling to me. May God bless you and keep you make his face shine on you. Love Janet