Tuesday, April 5, 2011

A New Year, A New Drive

Hello everyone,

Wow! I can't believe it has been a year since I have blogged. I suddenly realized how difficult it was to have something to blog about every week. Honestly, my life is not all that exciting. :-) I am reminded of Paul, when he refers to life as a race -- it is a marathon, not a sprint.

Our church has a new Motto for this year: "It's not about me, it's about us!" We've taken this from 1 Cor. 12:14 "For the body is not one member, but many." We are all working together this year ... memorizing Scripture together ... cleaning the church together ... praying for each other ... each person takes an active part in each ministry. It has been great, and we are growing closer together as the year goes by. We are clearly understanding that the church does not stand or fall based on one person -- the body is truly not only one member.

With that said, we're starting a new support group called the "Stretcher Bearer" Ministry. It's taken from the story in the New Testament of the four friends who carried their lame friend to Jesus. Their friend had no chance for help if he did not have a couple good, close friends who picked him up and carried him to Jesus. That's what we want in our church -- there are hurting and struggling people in our churches, with no one willing to help them. We need to learn to help those within our own churches before we can expect to help someone outside our church.

One of our new ministries this year is called "Serving those who Serve us" -- every quarter we are serving dinner to the Tualatin Police Department and to the Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue. We served dinner to the Fire Department tonight - I wish I had taken my camera - we had such a good time. The guys were gracious; they took our kids on a tour of their trucks, they asked us questions and answered ours -- it was so nice to sit down and get to know the men and women who serve our community in such a sacrificial way.

God has allowed us to open up and do so much this year. We have grown to a faithful 17 people so far - Praise God. We are planning a Mother/Daughter Banquet -- Memorial Day Picnic -- Annual Bible Conference (Pastor Mike Hoover - Speaker) -- Annual Camp Out -- Appreciation Dinner -- and so much more. We are thankful for the church family God has given us.

Can I please ask for your prayers for one of our Missionaries: Duane and Shellie Wilhite, in Japan. Earlier today we heard that Shellie was in the hospital, ready to give birth to baby number 9. Also, she went in with the flu. Please remember her in your prayers.

BIG NEWS: soon, you will be able to listen to recorded messages from Old Paths Bible. I will give details as we get it all ready. OR - you can keep checking our website for the update.

May God bless your ministry.

We just want to be a blessing,
Pastor Dan Zike
Old Paths Bible Church
An Historic Baptist Church