Pastor Charles’ Reflection:

As I sit here in the cool of my office, I feel a little guilty that I am not out on the pad working with our great volunteers and wonderful members of our church family. This is not an excuse, for I have been out on the pad all week, and it is 3:30. They knock off at 4:00. A better part of my judgment, said for me to stop, cool down and rest a little longer than usual, so I am listening for a change. These eight days have been exhilarating. When the volunteers arrived last Thursday (July 8), we had a large slab of concrete curing. Today, (July 22), we have the steel walls of our regulation size high school basketball court almost completed, the first floor for our kitchen, Sunday school class rooms, conference room, the conduit for the electrical works almost finished, the trusses up for our second floor looking good and WOW does it look great and “O Man” does it feel successful. Coley Creech and his corp of volunteers are some of the greatest Christians and team players that I have ever been around, and I have been around some of God’s greatest. The volunteers and our church family workers will not complete the building, but we will through other volunteers groups. (Mike O’Dell said he would help locate additional volunteers), Coley and about fifty others will return on August 6-7 and we will sub-out other areas of construction, but we are on the move, and we Praise God. Our Evangelism team has been out visiting and letting folks know we care and would like for those without a church home to visit with us or some Bible believing church that loves the Lord Jesus Christ. Our sports camp leaders report that four were led to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ this morning. We thank Sherry Tucker for being the liaison person between our church volunteers and the First Baptist Church of Barnwell, as well as those from Ruffin, Louisiana, Georgia, Charlotte, Pineville, and perhaps other locations. We are grateful for Lee Ann Seay who led our Sports Camp, Linda Tanner who led our Food Committee, Roxie Trotter who led our Evangelism team, and Renee King who coordinated our Sunday meal. Of course they had the best volunteers to assist them in their area of responsibility. Someone asked me if I was surprised to see the progress made in such a short period of time and I replied, “pleased, excited and elated, but not surprised, for Coley and Frank told us what they would do and I believed them”. Our food committee did an outstanding job of feeding the folks everyday at lunch, according to the comments from our workers. Our church family showed out with all of the food we had for dinner Sunday, feeding 250 people. We challenged our folks to bring enough food for their family and enough to feed 15-20 more. (We could have fed Pharaoh’s Army before they were drowned.) We would be amiss if we didn’t mention Ebenezer ARP Church and their gracious hospitality toward their sister denomination, we Southern Baptists. U.S. Food Service was our food supplier and they graciously, through Steve White of that fine company, worked out a plan to provide cooler trailers for NewKirk and Ebenezer. In addition to our church family and families of our church members who donated tomatoes, cucumbers and many other items, the folks who donated food to NewKirk were Flowers Bakery in Winston-Salem, N.C., through John Cooper, a member of Pastor Charles’ former church at Arcadia; Chick-Fil-A, Frito Lay, Olive Garden Italian Restaurant, Tender Hearts, Chris Dove, Pepsi Cola, P. W’s. Ice Cream, Jackson’s Cafeteria, Walgreen Drug Store on Celanese Road, A.W. Waste through Keith Trotter who donated a dumpster for the construction material waste, Brian Teigue who cooked the bar-b-que on Friday, and David Gentry of York who loaned us his huge gas grill. We thank our Men of Missions for cooking a great breakfast on Saturday. It was a great week and we praise God from whom all blessings flow. If I missed someone, please let me know and I will correct my oversight. See you Sunday, if Jesus tarries.
In His Grip, Pastor Charles.

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We congratulate Jason Adams who was chosen Sunday to be our Director of Music. He has been great for our choir and congregation and we welcome him aboard. We encourage those of you who have been promising to join the choir, to do so and lets build our choir to be an even greater choir for the glory of our Lord. The choir meets on Wednesday night after Prayer Meeting at 7:30.

We rejoice over Allie Gregory making a profession of faith here at NewKirk last Sunday. May God bless you Miss Allie, in your walk with Him. Allie is the daughter of Janice and Lee Dulaney and the granddaughter of Eleanor Self.

PEWS FOR OUR SANCTUARY— We thank you and praise God for this phase in our plans for the sanctuary. We have two different sized pews. A six foot pew will cost $500.00. We now need 20. A nine foot pew will cost $750.00. We now need 28. The cost includes a brass plate with the donor’s name and the name of the person to be honored or memorialized. Please put a check in an envelope and mark clearly that it is for a pew, giving size and amount included. Thank you for your help.

We are not complaining, but our church building looked like the devil had a fit in it after over 2,500 people ate, slept, took breaks, and whatever for the past ten days. On Saturday, the volunteers and our folks cleaned up the building at Ebenezer ARP Church, and then joined many who had been cleaning up the NewKirk church building. We had 20-25 plus people here for four hours putting God’s house back in order. We swept, mopped, vacuumed and removed the chairs and set up our worship center for Sunday. We put the metal folding chairs (150 plus) back in the attic, moved the tables and chairs from under the tent, vacuumed the rug in the halls and vestibule and we left Roxie cleaning the carpet in the vestibule of the beautiful red mud tracked in during the violent thunderstorm on Tuesday. When we departed from the building, it was clean and we felt that all had done a great job. Thanks to all who helped.

How You're Like a Pencil
By Steve Goodier


Did you know that you are like a pencil? Here's how:
1. Like a pencil, you can correct your mistakes. You can't change the past, but you can rectify it. And though you can't erase history, you can erase guilt and anger with forgiveness.
2. Like a pencil, painful sharpening can serve to make you better. Your difficult times can actually sharpen your skills or shape you into the person you were meant to be.
3. Like a pencil, you can do great things when you allow yourself to be held in Someone's (God’s) hand.
4. Like a pencil, you can leave your mark whenever possible. That is what you're here for -- to leave your mark (to glorify Him). It may be in small ways, it may be in the lives of people you have touched or nurtured, but you must leave something good behind whenever you can.
5. Like a pencil, it is what is on the inside that matters. Whether it is understanding or intolerance, love or bitterness, peace or unrest, kindness or self-centeredness, hope or despair, courage or fear, what is on the inside matters most.
Next time you use a pencil, pause and think about that little writing tool. It teaches some great lessons about living.

“Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn’t people feel as free to delight in whatever remains to them” - Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy

Youth Trip to Maggie Valley
Middle and HS Youth and their parents are asked to attend a meeting on Sunday, July 25th at 4 pm regarding the upcoming youth trip to Maggie Valley, NC on July 30-August 1. Details will be provided as to our lodging, activities, departure time, items to pack, house rules, and expected return time. We also need to complete permission slips and obtain copies of the youth’s insurance card (front and back). The only commitments I have to date are Hayley, Ashley, Jonathan, and Brady. If you plan to attend, please pay the $20 registration ASAP so we will know what size rental van we need for transport. Chaperones are Keith and Roxie Trotter, and Mark and Sherry Tucker.

In light of the busy schedule everyone has had lately, the Church Conference has been rescheduled for next week, Wednesday, the 28th at 6:45.

OTHER MINISTERS FOR SUNDAY, July 25, 2010
Children's Church: Roxie & Russ Trotter
Infants’ Nursery— Tara & Hayley Potter
Usher/Greeter Teams– Ray Goodson, Josh Goodson, Trent Cromer, Bucky King

TELLER: Monday, July 26—Gladys Nichols

CHURCH CALENDAR
July 25—9:45 S.S., 10:45 Worship, 5:00 Youth, 5:00 Witness Video for Everyone
July 27—6:15– Nominating Committee—7:00—GROW “W”
July 28—6”45—Church Conf., 7:30-Choir Practice
July 30 thru August 1—Youth Week-End Retreat