Dear First Baptist Church Family,
As 2021 comes to a close, we’d like to share with you some of our activities and memories from the year.
We moved to Boardman on November 1, 2019. We have lived here for two years now. In that time we have come to love our church family and the community around us. Our children enjoy church events, school, their friendships, and extracurricular activities.
Samantha is currently taking two classes at the high school and for the remainder of her subjects, she homeschools. She is currently a part of the Drama team at school and takes karate classes once per week. Jack loves school and has been engaged with football, basketball, track, baseball, and more. Sophia also loves school and has some wonderful friends, too. She was involved with gymnastics for about 6 months.
The kids are enjoying church, AWANA, and volunteer service at various locations. We were involved with 4H for two seasons and the kids had fun raising a pig and two goats.
As a church, we hosted our first chili cookoff at the marina. We joined with the soccer club for this fun event. Our church was represented among 63 local churches sponsoring the Palau CitiFest in August. 4800 people attended the event including a number of our own people. Hundreds of volunteers joined together to serve Christ and our community. We continue to hear about ways God has been working through that event.
Pastor Rick and Shara keep busy with church, Bible study, AWANA, two youth groups, praise team, Men’s Breakfast, serving at the pantry, and running kids around. They both serve on the church board and the food pantry board. Rick also serves on the senior center board.
Adventure Club has rendered some terrific blessings from God. This year, the club has been sponsored by Garrett Electric, Farmer’s Cup, WindWave, Solid Rock Concrete Company, and private donors. Kids and families from around town have come to various events: a trampoline park day, a disc golf day, a kayak water day, a fun scavenger hunt in Irrigon, and much more. We have been building relationships with people who attend and we are grateful to God for leading us to start this ministry. God is so creative and He loves to show His creativity through His people.
We have joined with Andy Hermanns (born and raised in Irrigon) to start the North Morrow Youth Group. This was in the makings for about 8 months prior to launching. We all joined in prayer, consistently asking God what He wanted us to do and asking for clear direction. Consequently, Andy’s family moved from Irrigon to Boardman and we joined forces to start the North Morrow Youth Group. We have numerous volunteers coming to help and mentor the kids. We continue to attend the Ecclesia Youth Group in Irrigon on Monday nights, also. God has been pulling both groups together and building relationships between us. This has been exciting. You never know what God has planned until you take that first step of faith, out into the water!
Pastor Rick was on a search committee to choose a “pastor to the pastors” for our region. The team selected Joe Bellanti, who recently preached while we were away on family holiday. Rick has also been asked to serve as the Vice Moderator of the Columbia Basin Baptist Association of which First Baptist is a member. He continues to work on his web development jobs, as well, from home.
We know that our church only functions well because of the many board members, leaders, and volunteers who show up, serve, and keep things running. This is a group effort and most importantly – God is at the helm. As we seek to serve Him together, through the local church, and through His calling to be the hands and feet in our community, we will continue to see blessings and spiritual growth in our family, your family, and in our church body.
Thank you for all you do to obey, serve, and commit to our Lord. May the grace of God be with you throughout the upcoming season and into the New Year.
We love and appreciate our church family.
Pastor Rick, Shara, and Kids
“But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.” — Jeremiah 29:7