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Immanuel Baptist "On the Journey" Articles |
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| Welcoming Special Guests in February As members of Immanuel Baptist Church, we are beneficiaries of a rich history and heritage forged by the believers who have gone before us. For more than 110 years, this congregation has been about doing God’s bidding in the world. It is obvious from even a casual reading of our history that members of Immanuel have been following Jesus wherever He might lead them for a very long time. We find a commitment to doing missions at the very center of our heritage. Immanuel has been willing to invest in mission endeavors and enterprises here at home and around the world. Honoring this heritage of commitment to missions, we determined in 2005 that we would spend February of each year focusing on the mission opportunities of our church and envisioning new initiatives. Last year, we hosted Paul Montacute of the Baptist World Alliance and Lynn Bergfalk of City Gate in Washington, DC. Paul’s visit, coming right after his trip to review the devastation of the tsunami, opened our eyes to the mission work of Baptists around the world. Lynn sharpened our focus, as we seek to make a difference in the lives of children through the Johenning Center. This year our February Mission Emphasis will focus on our Klintsy Partnership. For the first time in the ten-year history of our friendship, we will be hosting a team from the Klintsy Church. The team will fly from Moscow on 9 February 2006 and return on 23 February 2006. The team is composed of Pastor Yevgenny Voronin, Lidia Voronis, Yevgenny’s wife, Andrey Kereenko, Church Choir Conductor, Tatiana Kireenko, Sunday School Director, Vladimir Nevinchanyy, a deacon, Nikolay Romanenko, interpreter, and Luidmila Poluyanova, interpreter. When Yevgenny and I discussed this trip last July, he expressed to me the difficulty he faced in choosing a team. He did not know how he would choose one member of the church over another. Since more than 65 members of Immanuel have been to Klintsy, many believers feel a special connection to our community of faith. I suggested to him that I would choose the guests from among the leaders of the church. Lidia, Yevgenny’s wife, assists with our summer program, directs the social ministry of the church, and interfaces with the city orphanages. Andrey is the church choir conductor. He is 23 years old, and we have watched his development as a leader since his baptism in 1998. Tatiana or Tanya assists with the education ministry of the church. She recently retired as a newspaper writer. Vladimir or Vova, is a deacon, and he has been our bus driver for every mission trip getting us safely around. He also assists with youth ministry and the maintenance of the buildings on the church grounds. Nikolay has assisted our teams as an interpreter since 1998. He is the administrator for a large church in Bryansk. He also has a beautiful solo voice. Luidmila or Lucy has been our primary interpreter since 1997. She lives and works in Moscow, but she has an arrangement with her employer to be free to assist us every summer. We are looking forward to hosting this team of friends from the Klintsy Church. With two interpreters assisting them, the team will be able to divide into two groups to visit and to share their story. They will be leading in worship on February 12 and 19. On the 12th, we will have a luncheon immediately following morning worship, so we may all become better acquainted with each team member. As our women have led a Women’s Conference for the Klintsy women, there will also be a special conference for women on Saturday the 18th. This visit will allow us to hear first-hand how our partnership has assisted the work of Baptists in Klintsy and Russia. This visit may also encourage some of us to follow Jesus to Klintsy in the summer of 2006. We are also attempting to work out the details for a visit by Sandor Scenczy on February 26th. Sandor is a Hungarian Baptist who envisions accomplishing the impossible for the sake of the kingdom of God. The Hungarian Baptists he leads were the first responders to the devastation of the tsunami in Asia last December and the recent earthquake in Pakistan. He was also able to get 1 million dollars worth of food to the starving citizens of North Korea. We will know if his schedule will allow a visit in a few days. We hope you will share in this celebration of missions during February. It is important for us to be vigilant serving Christ in Paducah while keeping our eye on the world. This emphasis also helps us pass our passion for missions to others in our community and down to younger generations. Please pray for the success of our February mission emphasis.jamie |
Website last updated: Monday, December 20, 2004 Website Related Questions/Comments: Chris Cash-ccash@vci.net |
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Immanuel Baptist Church - 3465 Buckner Lane - Paducah, KY, 42001 - 270.443.5306 - www.immanuel-paducah.org |