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Spare Change August 2018

3 Outreach Opportunities

Good News Bible Club at Scott Elementary

We are sponsoring a Bible club at Scott Elementary this school year.  April Sharp and I will be leading this mission opportunity in conjunction with Child Evangelism Fellowship.  We are looking for volunteers that love kids to help us out.  The commitment is once a week in the fall and spring.  We are starting our club near the end of August and will be finished before Thanksgiving break.  We are hoping to offer this club on Thursdays after school.  This is a great opportunity to teach kids the Bible and share Jesus with them.  We need about six volunteers that could help us in this ministry.  Please let me or April know if you are interested.

 Oakhill Baptist Church Food Pantry

We are in need of some volunteers for our food pantry.  Specifically, we need people that put   together food boxes and take boxes out of the cars.  There are lots of other ways to serve in the food pantry, as well.  The best way to get involved is to come out one Saturday and see our operation.  We are open twice a month on the 2nd and 3rd Saturdays of each month.   Volunteers need to arrive by 8:45 a.m. for prayer and announcements.  We have a short worship service and usually start serving food by 10 a.m. and end at 12 p.m.  We ask our volunteers to make a once-a-month commitment.  We also need people that are musically talented to lead our worship services.  Our food pantry is unique because we sit down with every client to try and minister to spiritual needs, as well as their physical needs.  If you like talking to people, then care giving would be a great way for you to serve; whatever your gifts are we can use you at the food pantry.  Let me know if you are interested in serving in this ministry.

 State Hospital Ministry

Our state hospital ministry is one of our oldest outreach ministries at Oakhill.  Once a month our faithful volunteers minister to those in the hospital.  They meet once a month on the 2nd Saturday at 9:45 a.m. at the hospital.  Our volunteers visit with patients and build relationships to show the love of Christ.  The hospital is also needing more volunteers for its Friend to Friend program.  This program is to befriend a patient at the hospital and visit them monthly.  They also appreciate correspondence with the patient.  The commitment to that program is 1 year.  Social parties for program participants are held the 2nd Thursday of each month from 2-3 p.m.  Male sponsors are especially needed.   If you are interested in the Friend to Friend program contact Theresa Arvin at 812-469-6800 ext 4208.  If you are interested in the State Hospital ministry through Oakhill let me and know I can get you the information to get involved.

Spare Change July 2018

                                                          Texas Mission Trip Report

 Our mission trip to Texas took us to what is known as the Golden Triangle, which encompasses several cities in the Beaumont and Port Arthur area.  This region was hit hard by Hurricane Harvey last year. It was amazing to see all the work that still needs to be done, so many people are still not back in their homes almost 9 months later.  Many people didn’t have flood insurance, since they were in areas that were previously not in flood plains.

We partnered with First Baptist Fannett and their Pastor, Scooter Wenner.  They have just recently completed their flood renovation on their sanctuary and began worshipping in it in early May.  They are still working on completing other areas, like a fellowship hall and   Sunday school classrooms. Pastor Scooter was able to get our teams plenty of work  projects.  We have five teams that went out for the week. Team 1 helped a small church in  Stowell, TX with their VBS. Their church was full of sweet people that loved on our volunteers.  That team was overjoyed to be able to connect with local kids and help this church. Team 2 helped a lady named Creedean whose house had been flooded last year. She needed help installing doors and trim.  Our team knocked it out in three days. Team 3 went to a lady named Vicki’s house where they hung drywall all week. Team 4 went over to Trinity Baptist Church in Vidor and helped them with painting, hanging shelves, and caulking.  They were a huge blessing to this mostly elderly congregation. The church showed their appreciation with lots and lots of good food. Team 5 was led by me and helped Pastor Scooter’s church by hanging trim, cleaning, organizing, and painting.

Our teams stayed busy all week and worked very hard.  I was so proud of all the students, they didn’t complain; they just jumped in and did whatever they needed to do.  They were willing to listen and learn from the adults, so they could learn some new skills to complete the projects.  I was also struck by how faithful and joyous all the Texans were. The joy of the Lord was present in all the people we interacted with.  Even though they had been through such a devastating tragedy they were encouraged by the Lord and by people like us helping them out. Personally, I was encouraged to see faithful churches that were reaching out to others for the sake of the gospel.  Pastor Scooter has been at his church for 18 years, faithfully preaching the word. He saw this tragedy as an opportunity for the Lord to do a great work. Not only did their entire church get updated and renovated, he has been able to send groups like us to represent them into the community.
 
I was also encouraged by the sweet spirit our group shared during the week.  Any time you get a group of people together in close quarters for a week you will have people getting tired and grumpy; however, for the most part everyone was so nice and kind to each other.  Everyone had a great attitude and was focused on helping others; I was so proud of all the students and adults that went. We were well taken care of by Rick and Cheryl Rollow, who supported our teams with lots of good food.  We also had a very gracious host at the Shepherd’s Inn. This former nursing home is a ministry that temporarily houses people that come from all over the nation to visit loved ones in one of the seven prisons in the Golden Triangle area.  They allow mission teams to stay there during the week in the summer. They were a huge blessing to us.

We loved getting to see that part of Texas and serve the local churches and people there.  As usual, they were a blessing to us as much as we were to them. Please pray for continue helped for the people in this area, there is still much to be done.  Also, pray for the churches as they reach out with the hope of the gospel.