Evangéliumi Hírnök, 1995 (87. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1995-01-01 / 1. szám
1995. január 7. oldal bethesda Baptist Retirement Home GOD IS GOOD! Over the Past few months, my work at Bethesda has been filled with demanding tasks. Prayerfully, I have been granted Patience, wisdom and a sense of humor so that I might accomplish my work. As a result, the residents are doing well. They are healthy and happy. I’m always so pleased when I hear the sounds of their laughter: see them walk arm in arm, sharing their thoughts and feelings, playing games together or visiting while they sit in the living room. In addition, Thanksgiving was a resounding success. We decorated the living room tables with vases of burnt orange chrysanthemums and wheat stalks: colorful place mates where placed on white and gold tablecloths. All the working staff members joined the residents and guests as the meal was opened with a sharing of our THANKSGIVINGS. Pastor Brown gave the blessing and we all enjoyed the delicious traditional meal of turkey and all the trimmings. The residents helped themselves to sweets from the dessert table, which was decorated with a cornucopia of fresh fruit and heavily laden with pies, cakes and cookies. A special treat on the table was palacsinta made by Janka Biro. As a result of losing Kay Cooper, the Administrative Assistant for nine years, to retirement Sonia Carter has joined the staff as my assistant. Kay is living in Sebastian, Florida. I spoke with her on Thanksgiving Day. She was looking forward to sharing the day with 27 guests which included 5 of her 6 children and their families and friends. Furthermore, Mr. Louis Drescher has been visiting with us for some time. We are working many long hours to convert the manual bookkeeping system to a computerize accounting system. His dedication to Bethesda is a blessing. Another blessing came from Mr. Paul Dudics who brought us many pounds of delicious potatoes. The vegetable was being distributed by our local Sharing Center. We were grateful that he took his time to collect and bring them to our door. Equally important, in October, Margaret Kautz and Helen Kautz visited Bethesda. While walking over the grounds and through the buildings, it was exciting to talk with them because both Margaret and Helen shared their many memories and historical facts with me of this beloved home for our senior citizens. We look forward to host the missions committee and home board meetings in January. Melodee A, Dew Administrator CONTRIBUTIONS - SEPTEMBER Bethesda Baptist Church........................ $225.00 Silliman Memorial Baptist Church.......... 47.00 CONTRIBUTIONS - OCTOBER - NOVEMBER Bethesda Baptist Church......................... $225.00 Margaret Kautz......................................... 50.00 Paul and Diane Richards......................... 150.00 In loving memory of Julia and Charles Banyai: Mr. and Mrs Alex Banyai.................... 500.00 In loving memory of Alex Banyai: Margaret Kautz...................................... 50.00 Bethesda Baptist Church.......................... 225.00 Total $1472.00 Persecution "There is a pattern ofopen hostility to Christians and open persecution of anyone who violates the Muslim code of not permitting conversion," says Don Kammerdiener, executive vice president of the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. "The worst situation is Sudan. The new edition of The Atlantic has a feature story about genocide by Muslims in the north against the black (Christian) south. They are being killed or starved to death or pressured to give up their Christian faith. "A million Christians died. "Pakistan has a new blasphemy law that if one is insulting to the Prophet (Mohammed), it is a capital offense. They are trying to put that same law into Bangladesh. In Iran there is an attempt to annihilate the church by cutting off its legitimate leadership. In northern Nigeria at least 800 Christian churches have burned within the last three years." (SBC LIFE) Let’s keep missions first When the Southern Baptist Convention meets, the media watches, ready to broadcast any disagreement or write a commentary on any controversy. Sometimes, the really good news gets buried in the process. One of the highlights of this year’s convention was Experiencing God Through Missions, the Wednesday evening presentation by the Home and Foreign Mission Boards, attended by approximately 12,000 messengers. They heard missionaries from Ethiopia and Boston, Portland and the Dominican Republic. They heard MissionsUSA-Live, our creative arts team of US-2 missionaries. They heard Henry Blackaby, Jerry Rankin and me speak from our hearts about the needs of our lost world. And they saw more than 1,000 come forward at the decision service, committing themselves to missions service or support. I hope the media and the messengers heard the message: Southern Baptists are a missions people. While our missions commitment should never change, our missions strategy should always reflect the times. I’m often asked about changes in home missions and how they will affect our missions strategy. Here are nine trends I detect. 1. More work among ethnic groups. We’ve extended missions work into every state, all our territories and Canada. Now we’re increasing work among our ethnically diverse population. We have Southern Baptist work in more than 100 language groups. In several of our newer state conventions, the largest SBC church, and often the fastest growing, is ethnic or African-American. The largest SBC church in New York is Haitian. The largest in the Northwest convention is Korean. The largest church in Illinois is African-American. (...) 9.And last, I see more emphasis on the Great Commission and less on the great controversy. I hope and pray that Southern Baptists are moving beyond the controversy the media likes to report and on to spreading the gospel, which the world desperately needs to hear. Larry Lewis (Mission USA)
