MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF GRACE BAPTIST CHURCH MAY 2015

Pastor’s Notes Pastor Mark Elkins When Spring has finally sprung, there is one thing you can count on in Stuart, and that is, it is the beginning of our Festival Season! Every year hundreds of people come to the various Festivals in and around our beautiful town for sun and fun, bluegrass and beach music, and not to mention the occasional strawberry, peach, and apple dumpling. These Festivals are excellent opportunities for us as a church to share the message of God’s Free Grace and also to introduce our wonderful church family to the community. This is where you come in, because you are the face and heart of this wonderful church and if you aren’t at the Festival, people will not be able to see the real Grace Baptist Church. Now, none of us can be at every Festival, and we also can’t serve the entire day, but that isn’t what is needed. There are so many different ways that you can help to reach out to our community with God’s Grace and Love this summer: Obviously we need you to greet

people at our booth and hand out free waters (but only for 1 hour, so you can still walk around and enjoy the rest of the Festival)

Or we could use your help setting-up in the morning and/or taking down in the afternoon

Also, even if you don’t serve at the booth, you could simply walk around the Festival, proudly wearing a Grace Baptist T-shirt

And if you can’t make it to the Festivals, we could use your help getting ready by peeling off the original labels and putting on our new personalized GBC labels

Thanks to the hard work of our Local Missions Team, we will be doing an outreach at each of the major Festivals this year, so there is no shortage of opportunities to serve your Lord this summer!!! In fact, our first, the Strawberry Festival, is Saturday, May 16th from 10:00am to 4:00pm. And there is going to be a preparation party Saturday, May 9th at noon, where we will peel and stick new labels on the water bottles, talk about how best to share God’s Grace and Love in a Festival setting, and of course eat some pizza! Thank you for being a part of this wonderful church family and I hope you will come out this summer and share it with our community!!!

Mark Your

Calendars! May 9

th

Local Mission Team Prep

May 10th

Mother’s Day

May 17th

Gideons Sunday

May 20th

GBC/American Red Cross

Blood Drive

May 24th

Graduate Recognition Sunday

May 31st

AWANA Celebration Sunday

June 4th

GBC’s 9th Anniversary

Grace Notes

=

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new

creation; old things have passed away; behold,

all things have become new.

2 Corinthians 5:17

(Left): A few snapshots from Easter Sunday including the Children’s Choir singing “Christ Arose,” and a scene from the morning’s Sunrise Service in front of the new cross. (Above Right): A picture from Greg Carlson and Global Health Outreach’s Mission to Ukraine. (Right Middle): Having fun at AWANA clubs as the year is about to come to a close. (Below Right): AWANA Cubbies are taking a break from all the “hard work” learning about Christ and how he came to save us.

Announcements Festival Outreach Preparation & Training this Saturday at Noon!!! It’s Festival Season again and that means that this Saturday, at noon, we will be putting our special Grace Baptist labels on the water bottles and receiving some training on how to best share Christ’s love at our upcoming fun & exciting Festivals. Also, lunch will be provided!!! We will be having a Baby/Child Dedication on Mother’s Day, May 10th during the Worship Service. If anyone is interested in having their child dedicated to the Lord that day, please contact Pastor Mark by Friday, May 8th. The annual Strawberry Festival of Stuart is on Saturday, May 16th in Uptown Stuart from 10am-4pm. We would love to have smiling volunteers to help represent Grace Baptist by standing at our booth and passing out free waters! There is a sign-up sheet in the hallway for anyone who is interested in joining us for this fun opportunity for outreach! Directly following church on May 17th, we will be having a Special Business Meeting to discuss the Deacons’ Proposal on fixing the Fellowship Hall water damage (floor & walls). This should not be a very long meeting, so please make every effort to attend and share your prayerful thoughts on this important matter. Our church will be hosting a Blood Drive with the American Red Cross on May 20th. It will be in the Fellowship Hall from 3pm-7pm, and we will still have all our regular Wednesday Night Activities. The whole community is welcome, so be sure to mark your calendar! Your donation could be life-saving! The end of the school year is almost here! If you or your graduating senior is about to graduate from High School or College, please submit 5 or 6 pictures to Mark Elkins for our GBC Senior Slideshow for Graduate Recognition Sunday on May 24th. Here’s to another great year of AWANA clubs! We will be having a special AWANA Sunday on May 31st. We will be recognizing the kids who have worked so hard throughout the year to memorize scripture and learn about the gospel! There will be a picnic after church for all of the AWANA families as well as the whole Grace family to celebrate with food, fellowship, and fun games. So please come join us!

Children’s Church 03 – Paula Reynolds & Seth Reynolds

10 – Wendy Buchanan & Peyton Elkins 17 – Casey Elkins & Matt Holt

24 – Leisa LeFew & _________ 31 – Dale & Shelley Hollandsworth

Nursery Schedule 03 – Nancy Howell & Sarah Clark

10 – Ashley Marshall & Kaleb Marshall 17 – Nadine Smith & Cheyenne Hughes

24 – Brenda Vaughn & _______ 31 – Linda Daumen & Sarah Clark

If you need more help, send someone to recruit a person in the church. If you

need to switch dates, please call someone on the list.

If you have a question about Nursery, contact Brenda Vaughn. If you have a

question about Children’s Church, contact Susan Holt.

Check out our website

www.hisgraceforyou.org

to see pictures, listen to sermon audios, and stay

up-to-date with all the latest GBC news!

Fellowship Meals

Prepared – Jun 06 Potluck – Jun 13

Prepared – Jun 20 Subs – Jun 27

.

Prayer Deacons

Jun 07 – Bill Salser Jun 14 – Leon Vaughn Jun 21 – Lee Bryant Jun 28 – Chuck Buchanan

SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

1

2

3 5:45pm Youth Group

4

5 9:30am Women’s Bible Study Elijah Spangler Sierra Matthews

6 Fellowship Meal

AWANA

Isaiah’s Bells

Choir Practice

7 6:30pm Women’s Bible Study

8

9 12pm Festival Outreach Prep & Training

10 Mother’s Day Food Pantry for Local Food Bank

11

Karen Walker

12

13 Fellowship Meal

AWANA

Isaiah’s Bells

Choir Practice

Marshall Corbett Justin Tahtinen

14 6:30pm Women’s Bible Study

Sue Brigham

15

16 10am-4pm Strawberry Festival

17 Gideon Sunday

12:30pm Special Business Meeting

5:45pm Youth Group

Eula Burcher

18

19

6:30pm Deacons

Meeting

7pm Women on Mission

Ron and Maynee Meadows

20 Blood Drive in the Fellowship Hall 3pm-7pm

Fellowship Meal

AWANA

Isaiah’s Bells

Choir Practice

21 6:30pm Women’s Bible Study 10am Women of Grace

Art Anthony

22

23

24 Graduate Recognition Sunday

31 AWANA Sunday Picnic

25 Memorial Day Jessica Spangler

26

Diane and Willl Ross

27 Fellowship Meal

Last AWANA for 2014-2015

Isaiah’s Bells

Choir Practice

28

29 Sarah Clark Austin Menear

30 Maigan Hodges

May 2015 AA 2015