The Pastor’s Corner

Wow, what a summer.  We have followed a truly tough winter with a hot summer to remember.  We are fortunate to have air conditioning to be sure.

Thanks for the good response to loss of almost $1000.00 taken from the Youth Choir who visited from Georgia.  I appreciate the leadership of our members who on the spot decided the right thing to do was to make up the money taken from our young guests.  We decided not to file an insurance claim for the $500.00 deductable on our policy.  You as a congregation have been supportive and understanding.

Our summer business meeting is July 28 at 6:30.  We have a few important issues to decide on related to the budget and a good turn out will be helpful.  A few members have structured their financial support of the church to regular electronic contributions.  There are some good reasons for doing so.  If you pay other bills this way, Belinda Hendrick or Floyd Myers could give you advise on the details.

We look forward to hearing from our Youth Team and their Mission-Fuge experience in Birmingham soon.  They had a hot but successful trip.

On Sunday the 25^th of July we will have another Great Hymns service.  This Sunday we will concentrate on the hymns of faith honoring God and Creation.  Perhaps with the disaster on our nations’s gulf coast our hearts can be turned a fresh to the need for good stewardship of the earth.  Paul Brooks wrote several years ago, “In America today you can murder land for private profit.  You can leave the corpse for all to see, and nobody calls the cops.”  The earth, including the oceans, is a divine gift to use but not unfairly exploit.  When we fail to properly care for the earth we will soon neglect to care for our souls.

Cecil

From Our Minister of Children, Youth and Young Adults

I want to say a special thanks to the church for all of your support this year getting ready for the Mission Trip.  You have gone above and beyond, and it means so much to me how much love and support you have given these youth.  Also thank you so much to Beth and Ritchie Andrews for giving their time to go on the trip; you are a true blessing.  Mission Fuge 2010 in Alabama was a fantastic and life-changing week for all who attended.  God definitely is at work in the lives of the youth and the people that we met on site all week.  We met people from all walks of life with amazing testimonies of courage and radiating in God’s awesome grace.  I look back on the week and I am blown away at the consistent and overflowing love of our Savior.  From the beautiful words of one of the worship songs we sang this past week comes the overwhelming reality of how much our God loves us -  “He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane; I am a tree, bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.  When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory, and I realize just how beautiful You are, and how great Your affections are for me”  (“How He loves” by:  David Crowder Band).  There are so many stories to be told, and we will be sharing them very soon.             April

The  Financial Corner   $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

Deposits for May:         $28,200.00

Expenses for May:        $20,050.00

As you can see the numbers appear to look better.  Unfortunately, we had to take money from one of our CD’s.  We also had a generous gift given to us, so things are not really getting better and we will need to be looking at our budget to see where we can cut down on costs.

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July Birthdays

July   1          Buddy Spencer                         July     15        Freda McCormick

            1          Marbury Oplinger                                             20        Joshua Oaster

            1          Kelly Bush                                                        22        Virginia Tucker

            2          Hank Frostick                                                  23        Barbara Bliley

            4          Phil Shepherd                                                   23        Clint Oaster

            6          Pat Myers                                                        25        Beth Braun                  

            9          Mell Ergens                                                      26        Frances Proffitt

            9          Maria Henrichs                                     27        Beth Andrews

            13        Glen Henrichs                                                   29        Nancy Harver

                                                                                                29        Ann Long

Kid’s Camp at Skipwith

All kids (kindergarten- grade 5) are invited to come to Kid’s Camp at Skipwith Monday, July 19 – Wednesday, July 21, 5:30 pm – 8:00 pm.  There will be a light dinner, Bible stories, games, music and crafts.  Invite the kids in your neighborhood for this fun event. 

Quarterly Church Business Meeting

The Business Meeting of Skipwith Baptist Church will be held on Wednesday, July 28 at 6:30 pm.  We urge all members to be present to help take care of the business of the church.  This is a special meeting in that we will vote on teachers and leaders for the New Year 2011.  New deacons will also be selected.  Your input, as to what goes on at Skipwith,  is important to us and participation in the business sessions is the best place to do this.

Designated Accounts

I have recently been asked questions about our designated accounts.  The questions suggest that some of you think we have a special bank account for designated funds.  WE DO NOT.

We have 2 accounts at Peoples Bank of VA on Parham Rd.  One is a checking account.  The other is a CD.  All funds collected on Sunday morning, general and designated, are deposited to the checking account.  All checks, general and designated are paid out of the checking account.  The CD is managed by the Finance Committee, earns interest, and is used to fund the checking account as needed.

Designated funds are accounted for in special bookkeeping accounts.  Designated funds bookkeeping account begin with the number 8 and are 6 digits.  For example, 850830 is the designated bookkeeping account for the library.

General fund bookkeeping accounts begin with digit 5 and are 6 digits.  For example, 531100 is a general fund account for the library.

We have a budget for general fund accounts.  We do not have a budget for designated accounts.

We must have funds in the checking account before a check can be written.  This is true for designated funds as well as general (budget) funds.  The amount of money in a bookkeeping account is meaningless if there is no money in the checking account.

On July 1 Louise Scates will replace me as Treasurer.  I shall work with her and support her as she takes over 0this job.  It has been my privilege to be your Treasurer.  I ask you to support Louise as well as you have supported me.

Thank you   Floyd Myers

Life Line Screening

We stated in last month’s Communicator that Life Line Screening would be using our facilities June 25 to perform some of their screening tests for the community.  There was a steady stream of traffic in our parking lot; some of you were able to come and take advantage of this.   The team has expressed thanks in the following note:  Thank you for hosting our preventive health screening event today!  We hope that we saved lives in your community as a result of your hospitality. See you next time! 

                                                                                                            Your Friends at Life Line Screening

Library News

Praying  Pleading  Patience  Suspense  Confusion  Trepidation  Waiting  Cleaning  Painting  Counting  Reorganizing  Moving  Excitement  Purchasing  and again I mention Praying.

These are all words to describe current happenings with the church library.  Although it appears nothing much has been done to the library, rest assured that a lot of “behind the scenes” work and planning has been going on.  By the time you read this, there should be new paint on the walls – thanks to Billy Hill and Harvey Wilson.  Please continue to be patient and pray along with us.

                                                                                    Continued Thanks,

                                                                                    The Library Committee