North Grand River Baptist Association

The Encourager 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

Volume 41, Number 4

April 2017

“Churches working together to fulfill Jesus’ Great Commission.”“Churches working together to fulfill Jesus’ Great Commission.”“Churches working together to fulfill Jesus’ Great Commission.”“Churches working together to fulfill Jesus’ Great Commission.” Matthew 28:18Matthew 28:18Matthew 28:18Matthew 28:18----20202020

North Grand River Baptist Association’s Purpose- “To mutually and prayerfully support, encourage and challenge one another as churches to exalt Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, to edify and equip His disciples to serve him and one another, and to evangelize those who have yet to come to know Him personally.” Matthew 28:19-20

Alpha

Edinburg

Gallatin

Galt

Jamesport

Laredo

Lineville

Medicine Valley

Mercer

Modena

Princeton

Ravanna

Rural Dale

Salem

Shelburne

Spickard*

Tenth Street

Trenton First

Union

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North Grand River Baptist Association

1108 N Main

Trenton, MO 64683 Ministry Assistant

Fax: 660.359.0200 Debbie Dickinson

E-Mail: ngrmission@sbcglobal.net

Telephone – 660.359.3897 BSU Interim Director

Web Page– northgrandriverbaptist.com Christina Boatright

E-Mail: ngrmission@sbcglobal.net

Easter Boxed Cards Children’s Easter Books & DVD’s

Cross Bookmarks

Band Angel Band-aids

Gift of Hope Series Books- $8.50 each

“30 Days to Hope For Joy Through A Child’s Severe Illness”

By Gale Alexander

“30 Days of Hope For Strength in Chronic Illness”

By Elizabeth Evans

175th NGR Anniversary Clear Cups

$1.00 Available at the

NGR Mission Center

Colossians 1:15-16: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.

North Grand River Special Friends VBS April 30th– 3:30-8:00 pm

Coon Creek (Union) Baptist Church

FOR ALL AGES

There will be a light supper, music, Bible Study and activities

RA Congress

April 14-15, 2017

Sedalia Fairgrounds A missions camping experi-

ence with competitive activi-

ties for boys grades 1st-6th.

More Info:

http://mobaptist.org/wmu/ or contact

Teri Broeker

217-779-3396

tbroeker@marktwain.net

Executive Board Meeting April 17, 2017- 7:00 pm

Agenda items due April 3rd Reports Due April 10th

NGR Director:

Dianna Crawford

NGR VBS Fair Clinic

Monday, April 3, 2017

6:30 pm

Trenton First Baptist Church

COMING EVENTS Missouri Baptist Children’s Home

“Afternoon with the Stars” April 8th– 2:00-5:00 pm Tickets $35 each

Clay Cooper Theatre- Branson For more info– Cindy Roberts– 800-264-6224

TAMA 5K/10K

Saturday– April 22nd Sign in at 8:00am Trenton First Baptist

Contact Shawn Allee at 660-359-3898

MB 125 Pastor’s Conference June 28—July 1, 2017

Skyline Baptist Church, Branson For more info: mobaptist.org/mb125

Biblical Manhood Conference

August 19th, 2017 8:00 am to 3:00 pm St.Joe- Frederick Blvd Baptist Church

CAMP FORMS NOW AVAILABLECAMP FORMS NOW AVAILABLECAMP FORMS NOW AVAILABLECAMP FORMS NOW AVAILABLE

At your church or the NGR office.

Youth Camp- June 12-16 Forms must be turned into NGR by

May 12th at 4:00 pm to avoid late fee.

Children’s Camp- July 24-28 Forms must be turned into NGR by

June 23 to avoid late fee.

Church Giving Church Service Times

February 2017 Reports

Monthly Inc.

BSU Inc. SS AM PM Weds.

Alpha $ 169.90 $ 25.00 9:30 10:30 6:30 7:00

Edinburg 10:00 11:00 6:00 7:00

Gallatin $ 571.25 $ 50.00 9:30 10:40 6:00 7:00

Galt 10:00 11:00 6:00 7:00

Jamesport $ 25.00 $ 25.00 9:45 10:45 7:00 7:00

Laredo $ 419.00 $ 50.00 9:30 10:30 6:30 6:00

Lineville $ 234.24 $ 25.00 9:45 10:45 6:00 6:00

M. Valley 9:30 10:30 6:00

Mercer $ 264.23 $ 25.00 9:30 10:30 6:30 6:30

Modena $ 173.24 $ 150.00 10:00 10:40 6:00 6:00

Princeton $ 204.62 $ 80.00 9:40 10:40 7:00 6:00

Ravanna $ 144.55 $ 61.95 9:30 10:45

Rural Dale $ 891.00 $ 75.00 9:45 10:45 5:00 6:00

Salem $ 124.01 $ 25.00 10:00 11:00 6:00

Shelburne $ 608.88 $ 75.00 10:00 10:55 6:00 6:30

Spickard $ 25.00 9:30 10:30

Tenth St. 9:30 10:30 6:00 7:00

Trenton FB $ 842.92 $ 140.49 9:30 10:40 6:00 6:00

Union 10:00 11:00 6:00 6:00

Total $4,697.84 $ 807.44 Join any of these churches in worship

Chilli, FBC $ 45.00

Gilman BC $ 200.00

Milan FBC $ 166.07

Zion

February 2017 NGR Account Beginning Balance $38,653.78 Income $ 8.532.01 Total $47,185.79 Expenses $11,231.86 Ending Balance $35,953.93

Line Items in NGR Checking NGR Designated Funds $9,782.86 NGR General Fund $18,475.26 BSU Line Item Balance $7,695.81

NGR October 2016– February 2017 (Includes BSU & Designated Funds)

Income $65,417.88 Expenses $58,052.16 Difference $7,365.72

Seminary Checking $144.21 Seminary Savings $2,307.12

Benevolent Savings $794.52

NGR Savings $1,256.40

BSU– February– Income to Expense Beginning Balance $8,291.77 Income $1,465.41 Total $9,757.18 Expenses $2,061.37 Ending Balance $7,695.81 General BSU Fund $7,332.03 Designated BSU Fund $363.78

NOTE: BSU included in NGR Account below.

We celebrate the greatest event in the history of the world this month. That

would be the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. No doubt, every aspect of

Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are important.

Jesus’ perfect life is critical, or he would not be able to die in our place. His per-

fect righteousness would not be credited to us if he was sinful. That is why the

writer of Hebrews tells us that Jesus was tempted as we are, yet he was without sin. Peter says

he committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth. The perfect life of Jesus is critical for

our salvation because we need the perfect substitute for our sins.

But, Jesus’ perfect life, by itself, does not save us. He had to die, not because of his own sin, but

for our sins, as our substitute. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5 that it was for our sake God the Father

made Jesus to be sin, even though he knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness

of God in him. Peter says that Jesus bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to

sin and live to righteousness. John says that God the Father did this out of love, he sent his Son

to be the propitiation for our sins. Jesus was the sacrifice for our sins on the cross. He substi-

tuted himself in our place. But, if Jesus was still in the grave, our faith would be futile, and we

are still dead in our sins.

Jesus perfect life is vital, his death on the cross is vital, but they all mean nothing if Jesus is not

resurrected from the dead. Jesus is alive, and is now reigning at the right hand of his Father,

waiting to come again to make his enemies his footstool. His Spirit is now dwelling within all

who have repented of their sins and believe that he not only died for their sins, but that he has

been raised from the dead. We have been born again to a living hope through the resurrection

of Jesus Christ from the dead. He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justifica-

tion.

We must now go with this good news to all people. Through his life, death, and resurrection, sin,

Satan, and death itself have been defeated. We go in the power of the Spirit to proclaim Jesus is

alive, and through him we may have forgiveness of sins, be made right in his sight, and be

adopted into the family of God. May we go with this good news not only this Easter season, but

every day of our lives.

Bro. Josh GottmanBro. Josh GottmanBro. Josh GottmanBro. Josh Gottman Pastor Trenton First Baptist Church

Pastors Prayer & Fellowship Time

at Pizza Hut 2nd Monday

of each month

Gallatin FBC- The Naomi Banquet will be held on Satur-day, April 22 at 5 pm, and the event will be hosted by our dea-con body for the widows of our church. Cycles will be serving the meal, and there will be en-tertainment and a guest

speaker. We are so proud of our Naomi ladies, and this is our way of showing appreciation for all they have done and everything they still do for the Lord.

KEENAGERS will be meeting for our monthly noon luncheon on Thursday, April 6th. Shelly Sims will be sharing about her missionary trip that she made this past January to Haiti. Make plans now to come for our special day - you won’t want to miss this! Meatloaf and hash brown cas-serole is on the menu. See you there!

The Celebration Choir will present the cantata, “East to West” on Palm Sunday, April 9, during the morning worship service at 10:40. “East to West” is a worship musical featuring the title song by Casting Crowns as a duet with choir backup. Other great songs include Jesus Messiah (Chris Tomlin), Great is Your Glory (Darlene Zschech), At the Cross (Hillsongs), By His Wounds (originally recorded by Steven Curtis Chapman, Mac Powell of Third Day and Mark Hall of Casting Crowns) as a trio backed by choir; Happy Day (Tim Hughes); and a stirring finale of Hallelujah, We Will Sing (Tommy Walker) that looks forward to Jesus coming back again. We performed the musical in 2010 and are looking forward to repeating it this year.

Several of our choir members also participate in the Gallatin Community Choir, which Linda Arnold directs, and which leads worship and presents two special songs in our community Good Friday service. This year the service is at the Gallatin First Christian Church at 7:00 p.m. on Good Fri-day. We welcome anyone who wishes to sing in this choir, whether you sing in church choir or not.

The rehearsals will be at our church, beginning Monday, March 20 at 6:30 p.m., and Monday, March 27, at 6:30 p.m.

Medicine Valley Ministry- We are now working weekly with a group of up to 8 individuals utilizing the Celebrate Recovery twelve step program with five or six present each Saturday night.

In addition to the Celebrate Recovery materials we are finding it beneficial to preview, discuss and critique material for a book I am putting to-gether in response to a question posed by a news commentator “What can be done to slow down the rapid increase in the use of illicit and illegal drugs by our children?”

I have shared with my people the concept that Christian growth only comes as we begin to think outside ourselves.

The use of these materials is beneficial as these are encouraged to think of the needs of their chil-dren and grandchildren. To think in terms of what bearing the example of their lives has on their children’s choices and opportunities.

It benefits us all to look beyond our own needs and consider how we might best benefit others around us.

A few years ago I was privileged to show a video on drug usage at the Christian Church in New-town and speak to the need of parental guidance. The meeting was well advertised and community leaders, School Board members and faculty members were invited to attend. One school offi-cial had informed me their school had no drug problem. Some parents had assured me their children were not at risk.

A good number of children and teenagers were present, along with a good number of older adults – grandparents. However, very few of the chil-dren’s parents and fewer yet of community and school leaders were present.

So long as parents and community leaders fail to see the problem as one where their children are at risk the problem with drugs will continue to es-calate and our children and grandchildren will continue to be at risk.

Volunteers Needed!

Medicine Valley Community Ministry needs vol-unteers to help with the preparation and distri-bution of the Food Pantry Ministry

April dates to help with food

distribution at Medicine Valley Community

Ministry April 18th– Prepare Boxes at

Newtown Baptist Chapel– 9 am to noon

April 20th– Food Distribution

Union Coon Creek Baptist Church has enjoyed the mild winter like everyone else. Cold and flu has hurt attendance but the spirit is alive and well as Pastor Doug has been leading us on a sermon series on The Significance of Wor-ship.

On March 18th we hosted the Associational Prayer Breakfast. Thanks to the 8 Churches attending Alpha, Edinburg, Laredo, Shelburne, Tenth Street, Trenton First, and Union, with guest from Milan First. There was a total of 40 men, women, and children who sacrificed their Saturday morning to pray for our Association and the work of Jesus Christ.

On March 25th we will be holding our Wild Game Supper starting out at 6:00 pm. Our spe-cial speaker is David Lin of 9th Hour and out-door enthusiast.

We go to Eastview Nursing Home every 3rd Sunday of the month and serve the Celebrate Recovery meal once a month.

We also will be doing the Thrift Store every Fri-day and Saturday in April and serve BSU Luncheon on April 5th.

On April 30th we will be hosting the NGR Spe-cial Friends VBS for all ages, from 3:30—8:00 pm. We will have a special guest speaker.

Princeton First Baptist Church has started a Young Adult Bible Study about 2 months ago, there has been around 16 adult and 13 kids, it's going quite well and everyone is coming away with something each study.

We have began another series of Bible Study for the ladies on Thursday afternoons beginning at 1 pm they have been studying from the Book of Samuel.

On Sunday Evenings we are studying in the book of Acts of the Apostles for the all Church Bible Study.

Team Kids will be ending for the school year in April our average attendance this school year has been 25 kids and 15 adults.

Youth is ending in April with an average atten-dance this school year 17 youth and 4 adults.

Trenton FBC- During the month of March we promoted the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering.

We will be having an early service at 8:00 on Easter, followed by breakfast, Sunday School and our morning worship service. The Adult Choir will be presenting the cantata “Here at the Cross“ during the morning worship service. We would love to have you come and join us in wor-ship.

Our hearts are saddened but yet rejoicing at the same time for Shawn and Elise Allee as they have resigned their positions at the church as Youth Director and Worship Leader. Shawn will be the new BSU Director for MU in Columbia. Our prayers are with them. They will leave a great void in our church and will be greatly missed.

Our AWANA’s will have their last meeting on April 26th.

The TAMA 5K/10K will be at FBC with a Pre-race spaghetti dinner on April 21st. All the pro-ceeds from the race go to help “Good Samari-tan Fund” which helps with utility bills, rent, gro-ceries and etc.

March 2017 WMU Association Meeting

Nine women from 6 churches met March 21st for our monthly meeting and luncheon at the association office. We were glad to welcome back Doris Pilcher after her extended illness. Prayer requests were taken and all are important but the association, our Grand Oaks Camp, our government and unity of our nation was at the top of the list.

The group discussed the Council Meeting from the night before, and decided to sponsor an association picnic this summer. The tentative date is Saturday evening June 24th at Crowder Park. More information is to follow.

Shelly Sims and Virginia Crumpacker will be attending the Annual WMU Mission Celebra-tion April 7-8 in Lebanon, Missouri.

The rest of the meeting was spent preparing baskets for the Alberta Gilpin silent auction at the Mission Celebration. We were able to create 4 baskets with all the generous donations.

Virginia led the mission study and prayer for missionaries.

The next meeting is Tuesday April 18th at 10:30 at the mission center.

A delicious lunch was shared by all.

Verse for today: Psalms 119:37- Turn me away from wanting any other plan than yours. Revive my heart toward you. (The Living Bible)

Shelly SimsShelly SimsShelly SimsShelly Sims

Hello Friends, This past month was filled with laughter, great worship and lots of relationships built. We went to the Great Commission Conference, and had a wonderful time of worship and growth over that week-

end.

Spring Break we had four students and myself. The trip was to Springfield, MO, working with a ministry that ends human trafficking. The Canada trip is approaching if you plan to go I need $350 by April 15 to get the $50 discount. We also need block party prizes, kids coloring books, and food supplies (call for a full list of food needs). We will have another Canada planning meeting April 14 at 6pm.

I plan to have three Summer missionaries. If you would like to have summer mis-sionaries for VBS or another event please contact me by May 1st.

Thank you all for the support in finances, goods, and prayers! Please continue to pray for a movement of God on NCMC campus.

Christina BoatrightChristina BoatrightChristina BoatrightChristina Boatright Interim BSU Director

MISSION OPPORTUNITY– David and Belinda Hogan have reserved 12 spots at Love Packages in Butler, Illinois for June 12th & 13th. The church van will depart FBC at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 11th. Lodging will be at the Baymont Inn at Litchfield, which is about 8 miles from the work site. Work hours are 8:00ish to 4:30 p.m. in a warehouse type setting. As soon as our shift is over on Tuesday afternoon, we will head home, hopefully not through a hailstorm this time.

If you have literature to donate, please leave it at Trenton First Baptist Church. For more information contact David or Belinda at 660-339-7748.

2017 Missions Celebration and Annual Meeting

First Baptist Church, Lebanon,

April 7-8, 2017

NGR Nominating Committee The committee will begin to meet in April. If God is calling you to serve or if you know someone in your church that would like to serve, please con-tact the Mission Center and submit your/their name for the committee.

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