BETHEL BAPTIST CHURCH

“Bethel in the hills” ____ Dr. Charlie Martin, Pastor

123 Mountain Dale Road ~ Vilas, North Carolina 28692 ~Telephone: (828) 297-2694

www.bethelbaptistchurch.us

January 6, 2021

January 2021 Update for Bethel Church Family and Friends,

Happy New Year to all! These are days quite unlike anything I have ever seen in my lifetime! My heart is heavy for America and for the storm clouds I see gathering all across the world. I am confident in the Lord and His plans for the cause of Christ, but I believe that we have moved into a new era of time! This will be a time of many challenges to the Church of Jesus Christ all over the world. I am praying for the wisdom of God and for the Spirit of Discernment as we move into this new year!

God has been good and faithful to us! I am praising Him constantly for His abiding presence and for providing all of our needs at Bethel. We hope to move into our brand new church home in just weeks. We are all excited and yet realize we will have so much to catch up with as things have been almost on hold for eleven months! I am calling all of us to prayer and want each of you to read a portion of scripture that I will revisit once we are back together! The scripture is 2 Chronicles 19:1-20, 32. Let’s ask God to help us because as we read in 2 Chronicles 20:15, “The battle we face is God’s battle.” Each of you are in my prayers daily! I am really looking forward to our being back together again and excited about what I sense God is up to!

We Love You!Pastor Charlie Martin

Pastor Charlie Martin

Other Updates:We are looking forward to celebrating The Lord’s Supper together again as soon as we are able to meet as a church family. Another note of interest – The Church Nominating Committee recommended the following people to serve at Bethel Church since we had needs in October with slots that needed to be filled. Doyle Ward – Personnel Committee; Wendle Capps – Personnel Committee; and Hailey Aldridge – Missions Committee. We can affirm these once the Church family is able to meet again. Thanks to those who are willing to serve!

From the Finance Committee & Church Treasurer:

Family and Friends,

THANK YOU for being so Faithful in your tithes and offerings. Over the past 4 Sundays our offerings have been so good. Week 39 of the Pandemic, - our offerings were $5,639.00; Week 40 – our offerings were $5,148.00; Week 41 – our offerings were $2,607.00; and Week 42 – our offerings were $11,113.00. Our “ON LINE” Giving has continued to increase over the weeks and we are so grateful for your efforts to continue giving here at Bethel Baptist Church.Over the past 4 weeks, we have received $11,455.40 for our Building Program.

The 2021 boxes of tithe and offering envelopes are now available for pick up in the church office.

BBC BUILDING COMMITTEE UPDATE:

Dear Bethel Baptist Church Family,

We hope each of you had a Merry Christmas and wish you a blessed 2021!!

We are excited to bring you an update on the ongoing progress of our expansion at the church as we enter the final stages of construction. The sanctuary of the church is nearing completion with only a few items left to be completed. Flooring is currently being installed in the lobby and carpet installation should begin in the sanctuary within the next couple weeks. The majority of electrical and hvac work has been completed in sanctuary as well. Drywall contractors are currently finishing up their work in the basement of the church and should be completed very soon with painting and trim work to follow. The hvac, plumbing and electrical sub-contractors should be back to complete their final work in the basement within the next few weeks. Flooring contractors will install flooring once sub-contractors are finished in the basement except for plumbing fixtures which will be installed after flooring.

We do have some exterior work that needs to be completed which includes the covered front porch, back covered entry over the kitchen and emergency exit walkway. In addition, concrete pads need to be poured for the lower-level entry areas. Final site/grading work will be completed as weather permits. As mentioned previously, this time of the year brings unpredictable weather, and any exterior work will be weather dependent.

We are excited to transition back into the church soon but feel we may not be able to hold services in the church until some point in February. We have experienced several delays over the past couple months and are hopeful things will move forward in a timely manner. We may have volunteer opportunities for any church member who would like to help with painting, finish carpentry and cleaning as we near completion. Please reach out to any building committee member if you are interested in volunteering. We will apply for the final grant installment once the project is complete. We do know the project will be over budget and we continue to monitor the overall costs. We appreciate your faithful giving and prayers for this project! God has truly blessed us with generous giving during this process and to him we give all the glory!

Sincerely,

Your Building Committe

Children’s Ministry Updates:

Happy New Year to everyone! We have had a blessed Christmas season and are now looking forward expectantly to 2021. The Children’s Ministry team will be busy getting furnishings and classroom

supplies ready for our transition back to the church during the next couple of months. In addition, we will be planning upcoming events for the spring and summer in anticipation of less restrictions and a return to more normal times. Believe it or not, we are already thinking about VBS! It is an exciting time and we covet prayers as we make decisions about the transitions ahead. Weekly virtual lessons for our kids continue each week with a focus this quarter on “The Mission Begins”. We’ll learn about the early church and their mission (which also happens to be our mission) to spread the gospel. Tune in on Facebook or our YouTube channel each week!

Angela HicksChildren's Ministry CoordinatorBethel Baptist Church828-964-6355

Youth Update:

Happy New Year! 2020 has come to an end and we look forward to a new beginning in 2021. Even with all of the difficulties in this past year the youth have been able to consistently meet through our online platform and gather together at some of the youth’s homes. We were able to have a very successful blanket drive for The Hospitality House and enjoyed being able to serve at Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child. I am thankful for a faithful youth group. I look forward to meeting together and continuing to grow and serve in 2021. All youth, 6th - 12th grades, are invited and welcome to join us. Please contact the church office for our contact info.

God Bless you,Scott and Mona McClure

THANKSGIVING AND CHRISTMAS BASKETS UPDATE

WOW! What a year this has been! We have been so blessed this year even through the struggles of trying to coordinate and get items delivered for the Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets and the gifts for the kids.

When we first met with Pastor Charlie this year we decided to help three families and we were not sure how we would be able to do the food baskets without having our church, but Stephanie had the great suggestion of using Walmart pickup for the food, which is what we did. Since we would not be collecting food for the families we decided to have people donate to the church for the food and we have to say you all are amazing. The amount of money that was collected was enough to cover the food for the families and so we were blessed to be able to use the full budgeted amount toward the gifts for the eight children.

Then on December 10th we received a phone call from Pastor Chuck about a generous donation toward our ministry. We were amazed by this individual’s generosity, but now what can we do with the additional funds? After a few phone calls Bethel Elementary School gave us a list for 16 bikes and DSS had just received four kids into their care that would need presents for Christmas.

DSS had done wish lists on Amazon this year so that the gifts could be delivered right to them, instead of people dropping it off. We asked them to let us know when they had the lists ready for these four kids and we would take care of them and if some of the gifts would not be able to be delivered in time we would go to Walmart and get the gifts. We were able to get all the gifts for DSS and only had to purchase two items at Walmart. Thank you Amazon Prime!!

Between the Boone and the West Jefferson Walmart we were able to purchase all 16 bikes and we also purchased helmets for all the kids and elbow and knee pads for the younger kids. We were amazed by the generosity of the Boone Walmart not only were they willing to store 14 of the bikes until we picked them up on December 18th, but when we went to purchase the helmets, elbow and knee pads, and the last bike, they gave us $100.00 towards the bike and gave us 10% off of everything. We were almost in tears to see how this one person’s gift had caused a chain reaction of generosity. The picture below shows the bikes and the wrapped presents for the three families we were already supporting.

We were also able to help a single Mom, who is going to college and trying to raise her four year old son. We ended up having an extra bike, which we gave to the little boy and we gave them food for Christmas.

Through this process we have seen the love and grace of God through others. We have also learned that if we listen to other people you will be able to find other ways to share God’s love when you are not sure where else to turn. We were truly blessed through this experience this year! We want to thank everyone again for your generosity to these families and we especially want to thank the church families that helped us shop and get the bikes for the kids this year. Your willingness to give up your time to do this was not only recognized by us but by the families you helped. They were all amazed and thankful for the gifts they received.

Missions Committee Update:

The missions committee is planning to meet soon to vote on the missionaries and organizations we will be supporting this year. We are grateful to the church for being faithful supporters of missions. Currently this year’s Lottie Moon offering is $3395.00. With the pandemic, it may have been difficult for you to turn in your Faith Promise pledges for this year. It is not too late to turn in your commitment cards. This information helps us plan how we can support missions this year. The Lord used our church to help bible translators, Denis and Marcela Vargas in Papua, New Guinea to complete a translation project in the Diodio language. We were able to help them finish fully funding the project! Praise God!

 

The Vargas Family Diodio Co-Translators

Congratulations to Josh and Beth Taylor! Their new baby boy, Luke Wyatt, arrived on December 19th. He weighed in at 8 lbs. 7 oz.

Happy New Year!But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will

run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Isaiah 40:31