Greetings First Baptist Church Family:
November 2022
We have not written a family/church update letter in quite some time, so an annual Christmas letter seems fitting, with recaps from 2022.
We completed our 2021-2022 Awana season. We meet on Wednesday evenings from October through April. We started up again this last October and the group is growing quickly. We have several new kids this year from out in our community.
We ran VBS this last summer. We had a good turnout and God did some amazing things during VBS this year. We saw a dramatic life change in one child and we were all celebrating together. We ran a food drive for the Boardman Food Panty and the kids did a great job of bringing food and toiletries to bless the community. Pastor Rick took on the role of teaching and played “Professor Spark” each night.
We (Pastor Rick, Shara, and Shawn) felt led by God to start Celebrate Recovery meetings at our church. This decision was soaked in prayer and the Holy Spirit has blessed us! We have a leadership team of 11 people. We met weekly for 5 months to study and train as we went through the 12-step program as a group. We were then qualified to start public meetings and we held the first meeting on Friday, November 4th. Our meetings will run weekly on Friday evenings and are open to anyone struggling with life issues (that’s everyone).
Pastor Rick accepted the position of Vice President for the Food Panty Board, President for the Senior Center Board, and Moderator for the CBBA (Columbia Basin Baptist Association). He continues to attend bi-monthly pastor meetings with local pastors and monthly meetings in Kennewick. Additional meetings are scheduled throughout the year with pastors and mentors.
We are currently planning a short-term overnight mission trip to the Yakima Reservation where we will chop wood to help seniors in need. At this time we have 13 people signed up to join us. We are very excited about this. Our family spent one night at the church on the Reservation last summer and we were amazed at all God is doing there. It was truly a blessing to see the Holy Spirit at work. We slept in a tee-pee and the kids were exposed to the wonders of another culture. God is doing miracles there and that was so much fun to see.
The North Morrow Youth Group is holding strong. This endeavor was bathed in prayer and God has done amazing things. We meet every Sunday night at The Community Church. We have two groups running: grades 4-6 and 7-12. This youth group is a joint effort between The Community Church and First Baptist Church. All surrounding area kids are welcome to attend.
Our Thursday night Bible Study and Saturday morning Men’s Breakfast continue to run and both are going well.
Pastor Rick began elder training meetings with four men, every Tuesday morning, in August. God is working in so many ways and that’s been exciting to witness.
Here is a quick update on the Weiss Family:
Samantha spent the summer at Trout Creek Bible Camp working as a crew member. The teens volunteered for about 16 hours per day doing dishes, laundry, cleaning, and more. Those 3 months were a wonderful training ground for her – not only in work ethic but also in spiritual growth and friendship development.
Jack spent the summer digging a ditch for a local farmer and working various jobs, playing basketball, and enjoying time with his friends.
Sophia is our social butterfly and asked for playdates 7 days per week. While we could not accommodate that, we did our best (smile). She enjoys gymnastics, dolls, crafts, science kits, swimming, and staying very active.
Shara went to work part time for West Extension Irrigation District around the month of May. She is loving this Ditch Rider job and enjoys being outside. The job has been a blessing in many ways to both Shara and the family. Shara is very excited that one day … God will remove all weeds! (Revelation)
Thank you to our church family for all you do to keep us moving, going and carrying on. God has placed us here and we take that seriously. We value every one of you and look forward to what God has in store for 2023.
The Weiss Family
Rick, Shara, Samantha, Jack and Sophia
To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. — Ephesians 3:8-10