By the grace of God, the Philippi Baptist Church

shall Embrace, Model, and Share the love of God

through Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Philippi Baptist Church ♦ 107 Church St. ♦Philippi, WV 26416 ♦ (304) 457-3206

Catch us on the radio live every Sunday morning at 10:30a.m. WQAB 91.3 FM

E-mail: office@pbcwv.net Website: www.pbcwv.net

107 Church Street Philippi, WV 26416(304)457-3206 Jon Villers, Pastor

Lisa Dadisman, Secretary

The Baptist BridgeThe Baptist Bridge

Inside this Issue

Pastor’s Message...2

Birthdays…3

Anniversaries...3

Prayer requests...3

Family News...4

Invitation...5

Tid bits...6

Announcements...7

Union Assoc...8

Getting to know...9

July 2012

2

Greetings PBC Family,

We bring you greetings from Deep Creek Lake, Maryland! It has been a wonderful week with our family! What a great privilege

to spend some time away with those that God has entrusted to us!! We have also experienced two weddings in two weekends!

The first weekend involved a renewal of marriage vows after 50 years together.My Mom and Dad, Rev. Lewis and Louise Vil-

lers, involved their entire family to walk down the aisle yet again. Then the next weekend involved us going to a wedding for my

oldest nephew, Bryson Morlan and Leandra McMillion. Both services were beautiful occasions to gather with family and see

commitments renewed at the beginning and after half a century!

It was an interesting turn of events to come back to Philippi to find no power or water at our house! I wanted to say a big thank

you for all those that came on out to our "unplugged" service Sunday morning! I used the following quote and thought it was

worth sharing for us all.

ATTITUDE by Charles Swindoll

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more im-

portant than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think,

say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The

remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we

cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play

the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.

And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes”

It is a good reminder for us all. Paul puts it this way in his letter to the Philippians:

Philippians 2:5-11 (New International Version)

5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very na-

ture God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made him-

self nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And

being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death--

even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him

the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus

Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

May we be found having the servant attitude of Christ as we go forward in ministry to-

gether! A blessed Summer to you all!

Shalom,

Pastor Jon

3

C

July 2-Thomas Villers

2-Bobby Villers

3-Terry Wilfong

6-Pastor Don Walls

9-Carol Ervin

16-Bruce Blankenship

20-Randy Moore

21-Alice Tenney

22-Richard Hepler

23-Kathy Prusa

23-Jared Kirchberg

26-Eliza Hodge

27-Jeannie Mozley

29-Taylor Smith

30-Erin Davis

30-Martie Gribble

31-Caleb Villers

2-John and Kathy Prusa

3-George and Maria Sommer

8-Terry Jr. and Melissa Wilfong

11-Gary and Brenda Price

16-Jud and Kelly Bracey

29-Pete and Sarah Ferguson

30-Bruce and Cheryl Blankenship

Please Pray for:

AB College faculty,

staff and students,

Denny Poling Bowers,

Heather Browning,

Lee Beuckman,

Phyllis Crites,

Ralph Crites,

Casey Cleavenger,

Billy Coontz,

Audrey Cross,

Bernitia Dadisman,

Becky & Mike

Elmore,

Maria Eye,

Jim Friend,

Carl Gant,

Jane Gibbons,

Joe & Beverly Gouer,

The Hinkle Family,

Jim Lockhart,

Ralph Mace,

Christina Maddy,

Donal Matthews

Amanda Means,

Gloria Miller,

Donna Moore,

Michele Moore,

Dr. Jennifer Parks,

Brenda & Gary Price,

Margaret Salimi,

John Scott,

Kaley Sinsel,

Josh Spriggs,

Jean Westfall,

Please remember in

prayer members of our

church family who have

faithfully attended down

through the years, but are

unable to do so at the pre-

sent time:

Otilia Franke:

(Mansfield Place)

Blair & Pearl Marks,

Dr. Shearer,

Mary Tamulitis,

Vangie Shaffer:

(Mansfield Place)

Germaine & Austin

Whitman,

Albert Carman:

(Good Samaritan)

Unspoken requests for

family members,

unsaved people,

community concerns, job

and home loss, financial

difficulties.

Also, in need of prayer:

Our national, state, and

country leaders and

officials. Please pray for

Victims of crime, war and

violence throughout our

country. Pray to protect

military personnel and

their families throughout

the world and those

serving our country:

Tim Jenkins,

Chris Mossburg,

Major Kris Wood.

Captain Aaron Cross who

was deployed to

Afghanistan.

4

Calendar Dates from Board of Christian Education

July 14th - Vacation Bible School

Philippi Baptist Church will be hosting a one day Vacation Bible School

on Saturday, July 14th from 9:30-3:30 and we need your help.

As part of our team, you can help make the Rocky Point Lighthouse

VBS a great time for all of the kids.

The students will be in four different age groups (from pre-school

through middle school). Each group will have bible lessons, music, arts

and crafts, science, and games.

We need teachers, helpers, kitchen workers, crafters, people to set-up and clean-up, and people to

help with advertising. If anyone would like to donate, here are some food items that would be

appreciated: shells and cheese boxes, blue kool aid, goldfish crackers, watermelon, yogurt covered

raisins, cream cheese frosting.

Please mark food donations as VBS and leave donations in the kitchen.

Any monetary donations will be appreciated also.

Monetary donations can be given to Sara Poling, Sarah Ferguson or Cheryl Wolfe.

Thank You!

We can't wait to see you shine at Rocky Point Lighthouse!

If you are interested please call:

Sarah Ferguson: 304-457-5606

Cheryl Wolfe: 304-457-2910

July 28th, Family Movie Night

August 17th- Move–In at AB and Battler Fair

August 18th Battler Fair

August 25th Family Game Night

September 29th Family Game Night

The Family of Reverend Donald E. Walls invites you

for a celebration of his life in ministry

upon the occasion of his 80th birthday.

Please join us for a come and go reception to be held

Sunday afternoon July 29th, 3:00-6:00 p.m. at

Mt. Moriah Baptist Church

30 Church St. Smithfield, Pennsylvania

If you cannot attend, please send

memories or stories you might have of Don

for his scrapbook to the following address or email:

Mrs. Joanne Walls

296 Raymond Franks Rd.

Lake Lynn, PA 15451-1046

Email: jowils@atlanticbb.net

Pictures would also be appreciated.

This is not a surprise event and the only gift is you!

An RSVP to Joanne by July 15th would be helpful.

Phone: 724-725-5755

Cell: 724-557-2771

6

Letter to the Elders of the Church of Wherever

Beloved: Let us think of ourselves as members of the crew

Cutting Boone’s Trace through the mountains.

The path will never be considered a highway

For we do not have the fancy equipment

To remove all the stones or smooth out the rapids.

Our job is just to clear the way, make it passable

For those who will come after.

It won’t be easy, more like back-breaking,

Chopping down trees, moving stubborn rocks,

Fording streams and cutting through canebrakes

But we do have both orders and directions,

All of which are relatively simple:

“Go into all the world…,

Make straight the path…,

Do unto others as you want to be done unto…

Love your neighbor as yourself.”

The key to our success is also plain:

Keeping our eyes fixed on the goal

And our ears tuned to the Master.

He’ll be with us all the way. --Anonymous

A Holy Calling

Shorty Collins, who served for many years as American Baptist campus minister at the University of Wisconsin, defined

a calling as “realizing a need and having the ability to meet it.”

On the basis of that definition, who can deny the calling of “Reduce, Recycle, Reuse”?

Perhaps we should all adopt the mantra of a woman who is occasionally tempted to go shopping. She considers every

purchase on the basis of whether or not she can live without it. That may be a little extreme, but that extra pair of shoes”

those costly avocadoes? That new TV set?—maybe we can live—and live well without them.

As for recycling—the two centers on Wabash Avenue and Midway Road will take plastic, cardboard, aluminum cans,

mixed metal, office paper, magazines, newspapers—even paint cans and old batteries. (At the present time they cannot

take glass.)

Surely we could all respond to this holy calling to conserve and preserve the earth that God has created and continues to

create.

Let’s get with the program—the reducing, recycling, and reusing program.

-- Anonymous

7

Letter to the Elders of the Church of Wherever

Beloved: Let us think of ourselves as members of the crew

Cutting Boone’s Trace through the mountains.

The path will never be considered a highway

For we do not have the fancy equipment

To remove all the stones or smooth out the rapids.

Our job is just to clear the way, make it passable

For those who will come after.

It won’t be easy, more like back-breaking,

Chopping down trees, moving stubborn rocks,

Fording streams and cutting through canebrakes

But we do have both orders and directions,

All of which are relatively simple:

“Go into all the world…,

Make straight the path…,

Do unto others as you want to be done unto…

Love your neighbor as yourself.”

The key to our success is also plain:

Keeping our eyes fixed on the goal

And our ears tuned to the Master.

He’ll be with us all the way. --Anonymous

A Holy Calling

Shorty Collins, who served for many years as American Baptist campus minister at the University of Wisconsin, defined

a calling as “realizing a need and having the ability to meet it.”

On the basis of that definition, who can deny the calling of “Reduce, Recycle, Reuse”?

Perhaps we should all adopt the mantra of a woman who is occasionally tempted to go shopping. She considers every

purchase on the basis of whether or not she can live without it. That may be a little extreme, but that extra pair of shoes”

those costly avocadoes? That new TV set?—maybe we can live—and live well without them.

As for recycling—the two centers on Wabash Avenue and Midway Road will take plastic, cardboard, aluminum cans,

mixed metal, office paper, magazines, newspapers—even paint cans and old batteries. (At the present time they cannot

take glass.)

Surely we could all respond to this holy calling to conserve and preserve the earth that God has created and continues to

create.

Let’s get with the program—the reducing, recycling, and reusing program.

-- Anonymous

Children’s volunteer watch and teach calendar for July

One Great Hour of

sharing

for the month of June

brought in $833.23

Our goal was $1,200.

Thank you for your contribution to this wonderful cause!

Reminder you can help out here in your community by volunteering on the first Mon-

day of every month from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at the Heart & Hand thrift store.

ABWM

Book of the month:

Psalms: 1-72

July 1st

July 8

July 15th

July 22nd

Nursery Wanda and Jim

Steele

Christie Allen

Volunteer

needed

Need

Volunteer

Cheryl Wolfe

and

Allison Villers

Wee Church Tom Dadisman

Pete Ferguson

Koreen

and

Thomas Villers

Cheryl and

Abby

Blankenship

Heather

and

Hayden

Cottrill

Junior Church Sarah and Pete

Ferguson

Kelly and

Lindsay

Bracey

Chuck

and

Carol Ervin

Sarah

and

Pete Ferguson

8

Union Association Summer/Fall Cluster Services 2012

All services begin at 7:00p.m.

NO JULY MEETING August 5 - Summit Park Baptist Church - Pastor Larry Fleming, Speaker

October 7 - Point Pleasant Baptist Church - Pastor Bruce Hoffman, Speaker

November 4 - Union Baptist Church

Pastor Chris Mullett, Speaker

December 2 Flemington Baptist Church

Pastor Alan Rosenberger, Speaker

All offerings will go to the General Treasurer of the Association.

If you have any questions regarding these meetings, please call Roger Delaney,

Chairman of Discipleship, Union Association, at 304-842-5149.

Long—and Blessed--Journey

Zvezdana Vlasic grew up with a father who knelt to pray every night. He read the Bible every chance

he got. He lived his faith. Is it any wonder, then, that his daughter is a devoted Christian whose faith

shines in her face, her voice, her daily deeds?

Born in Zagreb, Croatia, as were her parents, Zvezdana had just one brother, who still lives in Europe.

When she was twenty-two and working as a secretary at a local college, she attended a youth conven-

tion on the seashore in Croatia, and there she met her future husband, Jovan Vlasic. They were mar-

ried in 1979 and lived for fifteen years in Belgrade, Jovan’s home town, where he held a responsible

position in the American Embassy. Their three children were born during those years.

Hostilities between Croatia and Serbia increased. Because of that and wanting their children to expe-

rience life in a more positive environment, and because of urgings from Jovan’s sister and brother-in-

law, Marija and George Sommer, the young Vlasic couple decided to emigrate to the United States.

“God blessed us then and he always has,” Zvezdana says. “Because Jovan was working in the embas-

sy, we got our visas in three months instead of having to wait, like others do, up to twenty years.”

Jovan and Zvezdana arrived in Philippi in 1994 and lived with Marija and George for several months.

Then, with the help of then-pastor Dick Hepler and attorney Gerald Fogg, they were offered rent-free

use of a house on Walnut Street. The building belonged to Stan Dickinson, who was living in Alexan-

dria. “You wouldn’t believe how generous he was,” Zvezdana smiles. “For a year we did not pay rent

or utilities, just telephone, and for another year we paid just telephone and utilities. And he even

wrote us a thank-you letter for taking good care of his house. And then he sold it to us for practically

nothing.” Interestingly, Stan is the son of Mary Dickinson, long-time pillar of Philippi Baptist Church.

She and her husband, Key, had willed the house to their son.

Since the fall of 2011, and in addition to her work as caregiver and housekeeper for local residents,

Zvezdana has served as the custodian of the church, and her devotion to the task is evident throughout

the building. She is also a member of the chancel choir, and she has served on the Diaconate and is

currently a member of the Board of Missions and Outreach. She is also a member and a discussion

leader of the Kononia Sunday School class.

“This church has been a true blessing,” Zvezdana suggests. “Throughout all of our tough times when

we first came and when our parents died back in Croatia and Serbia and we couldn’t be there—

through everything that has happened to us, God has blessed us through this church. We are thankful

for this congregation and everyone in it.”

In her wallet Zvezdana carries a slip of paper on which are written—in Slavic—two Bible verses: “As

for me and my house, I will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15) and “The joy of the Lord is my

strength” (Ps. 21/1).