B E T H E L B A P T I S T C H U R C H Dec. 2018

Bethel Banner

Schedule of Events

His banner over me is love. Song of Solomon 2:4

December Events

12/2 1st Sunday Advent

12/2 Chrismon Tree Presentation

12/2-9 Lottie Moon Week of Prayer

12/3 WOM Christmas Party

12/8 Wedding Shower-Private-

Fellowship Hall

12/9 2nd Sunday Advent

12/9 Elaine Carter Angel Tree Gifts due

12/9 Lottie Moon Love Offering

12/14 Christmas Caroling

12/15 Deacon, Staff, Trustee Christmas

Dinner

12/16 3rd Sunday Advent

12/16 Choir Cantata

12/19 Last Wednesday Night Fellowship

Meal for the year

12/23 4th Sunday Advent

12/23 Children’s “Happy Birthday Jesus”

Party

12/24 Christmas Eve Candlelight Service-

7pm

12/24-1/2 Church Office Closed

12/27 Children, Youth and Young Adult

Ski/Tubing Trip-Massanutten-

Leave Church 7:00am SHARP-Sign

Up with Pastor Gary by Dec. 16th!

From the Pastor’s Desk

Volume 12

1193 White Oak Road (Route 218) Fredericksburg, VA 22405 Phone: 540-371-3650 www.bethelbaptistva.org

Our Blessings

We pray for blessings, we pray for peace

Comfort for family, protection while we sleep

We pray for healing, for prosperity

We pray for Your mighty hand

to ease our suffering

All the while You hear each spoken need

Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

'Cause what if Your blessings

come through raindrops

What if Your healing comes through tears?

What if a thousand sleepless nights

Are what it takes to know You're near?

What if trials of this life

Are Your mercies in disguise?

We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear

We cry in anger

when we cannot feel You near

We doubt Your goodness,

we doubt Your love

As if every promise from

Your Word is not enough

And all the while You hear

each desperate plea

And long that we'd have faith to believe

'Cause what if Your blessings

come through raindrops

What if Your healing comes through tears?

And what if a thousand sleepless nights

Are what it takes to know You're near?

And what if trials of this life

Are Your mercies in disguise?

When friends betray us,

when darkness seems to win

We know that pain reminds this heart

That this is not, this is not our home

It's not our home

'Cause what if Your blessings

come through raindrops

What if Your healing

comes through tears?

And what if a thousand sleepless nights

Are what it takes to know You're near?

What if my greatest disappointments

Or the aching of this life

Is the revealing of a greater thirst

This world can't satisfy?

And what if trials of this life

The rain, the storms, the hardest nights

Are Your mercies in disguise?

In the past month we as a church

family, as members of this commu-

nity, have experienced great loss

and tragic news. I am sure there

have been times that we all have

asked “why?”, “how could this be?”

The words to the “Blessings” song

might give us some insight, what if

our blessings do come through rain-

drops? What if our healing does

come through tears? What if we

lived like we believed, that God is

sovereign and is in control, not man.

And while we will never fully under-

stand we can have the reassurance

that He is a God of grace and

mercy. Have we forgotten the bless-

ings that we have received, how

about all the prayers that have been

answered? Tumors completely

gone, ventilators removed, cancer

destroyed before chemo and radia-

tion treatments. And each of us

could go on and on…...

As we enter this time of Advent, a

season of hope and the promise of

Our Savior, my prayer for all of us is

that we take a moment to sit and

reflect on the blessings bestowed

and on the prayers answered. Let’s

take time to count our blessings and

share the wonderment and exciting

news of Our Lord and Savior Jesus

Christ!

On a personal note, how grateful I

am for the love and support that

Cathy and I have received since

coming to Bethel. Your prayers are

felt and God continues to be gra-

cious.

Blessings on all of You!

Pastor Gary and Cathy

Page 2

Bethel Banner

Nursery Bethel Baptist Upcoming Events…..September 2018

Dec 2, 2018 Jennifer Hamm

Dec 9, 2018 Crystal and Hannah Loving

Dec 16, 2018 Becky and Johnny Wright

Dec 23, 2018

Missy and Bruce Sullivan

Dec 30, 2018

Shannon and Mike Carter

Children's Church

Counting Committee

Dec 2, 2018

Sandy Jett, Nancy Galyen & Tina Lynn

Dec 9, 2018 Crystal Loving, Carol Jarrett

& Harry Bradshaw

Dec 16, 2018 Carla Cooper, Pennie

Walker & Bobby Samuels

Dec 23, 2018

Joanie DeShazo, Tammy DeJean & Mike Short

Dec 30, 2018 Sandy Jett, Nancy Galyen

& Tina Lynn

Dec 2, 2018 TBD

Dec 9, 2018 Gina Bullock & Kim Noel

Dec 16, 2018 Crystal and Hannah Loving

Dec 23, 2018 Becky & Johnny Wright

Dec 30, 2018

TBA

Elaine Carter

Angel TreeGift tags will be available

starting November 18th.

Gifts need to be returned to

church with the tag

attached to the gift by

December 9th.

Be an

Angel

Give a Gift

NEW Bible Study

“Living the Word Today”

Starts 11/28Every Wednesday Night

7:00 pm

Upstairs Women’s Classroom

Chrismon Tree LightingSunday, December 2nd at 11:00 am

The word “chrismon” is a

combination of the words

“Christ” and “monogram”

and literally means “Christ’s

monogram.”

The tree is decorated with

ornaments that represent

Christ.

Trustees,

Deacons and

Staff Christmas

Dinner

Saturday,

December 8th at

5:00 pm

Lottie Moon Christmas

Offering Ingathering

Sunday,

December 9th

at 11:00 am

Church Goal: $1100

Christmas CarolingFriday, December 14th at 5:30 pm

FROM THE CHOIR LOFT

Hello Bethel Baptist Church!

First, I’d like to thank you all so very much for welcoming me into your Church family. In

just a few short weeks, I already feel as though I’ve been apart of Bethel for a long time.

December is always a very busy time, especially for music ministry! The Bethel Choir will

be presenting their Christmas Cantata, How Great Our Joy, on December 16th, and you

won’t want to miss that!

Also, I’ve got a question for you. Do you sing in the shower? The car? There is still plenty

of room in the choir loft! NO prior experience necessary! The Bethel Adult Choir welcomes

singers of all skill levels. If you’re interested in joining the choir or if you’d like to join the

music team in another capacity, (do you play piano? Guitar? Drums?) please contact me!

Our goal is to always “make a joyful noise”, and with your help, we’ll really get those raf-

ters ringing! Let’s use the talents that God has given us to praise His name together!

Your sister in Christ,

Allyson Dodson

Director of Music

Volume 12

What’s Happening

Page 3

Dec 2, 2018

Bruce Sullivan Buzz Green

Brian Pellegrino Taylor Wood

John Lightner

Dec 9, 2018

Dec 16, 2018

Dec 23, 2018

Rudy Griffith “CJ” Jones

Keegan McIntyre Al Alvarado

Jerry Reed

Dec 2, 2018

“CJ” Jones 912-409-7199

Dec 9, 2018

Gusty McIntyre 540-273-9449

Dec 16, 2018 Steve Smith 540-429-6289

\ Dec 23, 2018

Bruce Sullivan 540-907-8696

Dec 30, 2018 Alex Barlas 540-760-7712

Chuck Ross William Hicks

Wardlow Trainor Steve Smith

Bethel Banner

DECEMBER 2018

Brandon Short Mike Short

Alex Barlas Chris Lynn

Dec 30, 2018

Bruce Sullivan Buzz Green

Brian Pellegrino Taylor Wood

John Lightner

Hello Bethel Families!!

I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving! We had a

wonderful turnout at our “Black Friday” Children’s

Event. I’m pretty sure we were ALL worn out after-

wards!

Looking forward in December:

December 9 – Children performing special music during

worship service. Please wear green or red!

December 12 – AWANA store night

December 14 – Christmas Caroling…come join us for

dinner, games and caroling on the trolley!

December 23 – Jesus’ Birthday Party (during worship

service)

December 27 – Snow tubing trip. Please see me or Pas-

tor Gary for details.

Whew!! What better way to celebrate our Savior’s birth

month than to be busy at church!! Looking forward to

learning all about the events leading up to His birth in

children’s church!

Wishing you all a very blessed CHRISTmas season,

Shannon Carter

Director of Children

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 Communion 1st Sun Advent Chrismon Tree

3 WOM Christmas Party

4 5 6 7 8Private Function Lovings

9 2nd Sunday Advent Lottie Moon Offering

10 11 12 13 14Christmas Caroling

15Trustees, Deacons and Staff Dinner

16 3rd Sunday Advent CANTATA

17 18 19 20 21 22

23 4th Sunday Advent Happy Birthday Jesus Party

24 Candle-light Service

25Christmas Day- Office Closed

26NO CHURCH ACTIVITIES

27Ski/Tubing Trip-Children, Youth and Young Adults

28 29

30 31

Children’s Happy Birthday Jesus PartySunday, December 23rd at 11:00 am

Children, Youth, Young AdultsSki/Tubing Trip

December 27th-Leave church 7am

Sign up w/Pastor Gary by DEC 16th!

Week of Prayer for Lottie Moon Love Offering

Office Closed

Office Closed

12/5 Taco Bar

12/12 Chicken Pot-pie

12/19 Fried Chicken

12/26 NO MEAL

NO ACTIVITIES AT CHURCH

Adults $4.00/ Children $3.00/Children under 3-*FREE*

($20 Family Limit)

1193 White Oak Road (Route 218)

Fredericksburg, VA 22405

Phone: 540-371-3650

www.bethelbaptistva.org

Return Service Requested

NON-PROFIT ORG

U.S. POSTAGE PAID

PERMIT NO. 223

Fredericksburg, VA

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Sunday

9:15 AM Deacon Prayer Ministry

9:30 AM Coffee Fellowship

10:00 AM Sunday School

11:00 AM Worship Service

Wednesday

5:45 PM Dinner-Outreach Center

6:30 PM Children Activities

6:45 PM Youth Group-

7:00 PM Prayer Meeting

7:00 PM Bible Study

7:45 PM Choir Rehearsal-Sanctuary

WEEKLY SCHEDULE