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Pastor · Sunday Schedule · FBC
News
2004
From the Pastor
THIS ‘N THAT
I believe our Lenten Dinner series was the best in years, particularly hearing from Susan Lowrey and three of our own members share the significance of their faith in different areas of their life. There is a river of faith that flows through our congregation that is both wide and deep. My many thanks to Vince Mezinko, Carol Clarke, and Nancy Martenies for their inspiring testimonies of faith and for all the different groups who provided the dinners this year...
On a recent Sunday following worship I stepped into our kitchen and found three groups working on different meal functions - the choir was preparing a luncheon to be followed by an extra rehearsal to practice Easter music, the Genesis Class was preparing a meal to take to a homeless shelter, and Laurie Sistrunk was dropping off food for a dinner she would be preparing Monday evening for the American Baptist Women’s Mission Night...My thought was, Wow, never try this at home. Can you imagine three different family groupings, all in the same kitchen, preparing three different meals. My second thought was that I believe this represents a microcosm of the dedication and vitality of our congregation. So much happening...
On a recent Saturday morning I came into the church and found the entrance loaded with sleeping bags. It was the end of a sleep over for our junior youth group. Nineteen children had participated. The event was sponsored by two of our college students who have taken our children under their wings. I laud these college students who with all their studies, homework and the social life of college, have made working with our children such a priority in their lives...
Have you noticed how our Praise Band is expanding? We now have a drummer! We welcome Jason Valdez to our church and thank him for sharing his talent in the praise band...
It has been a season of mission emphasis...Our youth participated in a 30 hour famine raising $1,400, half going to World Vision and the other half to help purchase medical supplies for the people of Guatemala. Rony Reyes, our interim associate, spent a week in Guatemala with a medical mission team, and took with him soccer balls, stuffed animals and hundreds of pairs of gloves for the workers of the garbage dumb in Guatemala donated by the people of First Baptist. Our church was host for the American Baptist Women’s Mission night. Members of our congregation contributed $627.75 for the American for Christ offering. The members of the Genesis Class contributed $20 each, then purchased, cooked and served 125 dinners for the homeless at the St. Paul’s Community Center in downtown Toledo...
As we prepare for the celebration of Easter it is these images which are in my mind for they portray a people in which the Spirit of Christ is alive. We gather for Easter to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, but it is not simply an event in which we look back 2,000 years. When Christ was resurrected He breathed His Spirit on the disciples so they could do the work He did. In all of the events I have mentioned above I see the living presence of Christ’s Spirit amongst us. I see it in Christ’s people. Christ lives and He lives within us and we share His living presence in all the ways we work together and express through deeds of caring His love for the world.
A Blessed and Joyous Easter!
Dr. David W. Andersen
          
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