Glorifying God by … Reaching, Building, Serving

December 2016

From Randy... There it sits under the Christmas tree. It is your present. Your own per-

sonal gift. The bow, the paper is so pretty that you take your time unwrapping the gift slowly. You carefully pull the bow until it is untied. You slowly take the paper off careful not to tear it because of its beauty. Piece by piece you take away the tape until the gift has been unwrapped. There it is, the gift you have taken your time unwrapping and now you can enjoy the true value of the gift and the spirit in which it was given.

Unwrap Christmas is a sermon series that will enable us to personally discover the gift of Christmas and the spirit in which it was given. It will take us beyond the usual characters found in the typical manger scene. In-stead Unwrap Christmas will allow us to slowly and carefully examine the “other” aspects of Christmas. Join me in looking at Christmas this year through:

The Presents (Presence) of Christmas (Nov. 27) The Music of Christmas (Dec. 4) The Lights of Christmas (Dec. 18) The First Christmas Service (Dec. 24) Christmas Day falls on Sunday this year. We will not be having Sunday School and will be observing the

birth of Jesus at 10 AM in the Sanctuary. Our Christmas Day service will involve our children in telling and role playing the Christmas story. It will be worship for the entire family. Following our worship service we will be going to the Family Life Center to sing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus and enjoying birthday cake.

Our Sanctuary renovation is scheduled to be complete by the time you read this. “Thank You” is in order to so many who have donated time and skills to assist in the renovation. You have helped us to be good stew-ards by saving economic resources through the giving of your abilities. The renovation will enable us to in-crease our ability to communicate and be more visual. Our sound will be enhanced. The newness of the paint and carpet will be soft and easy to look at. And the extra space on the platform will enhance our ability to in-crease our choir numbers as well as provide for such activities such as children sermons, revivals, and specials in music.

I hope you will be pleased with the renovation. I hope God will be blessed in our worship of Him. And I

hope you will invite others to worship with you on Sundays!

Rebecca Goff, our new Children’s Minister by Cindy Miller

I  grew up in Inola, Oklahoma, a small town that had a population of 1,400 people and one flash-

ing stoplight in the middle of town. Inola touts itself as the “hay capital of the world.” While our neighbors grew hay and had horses, cattle, sheep, and goats, my family had an apple orchard. All of the trees and ponds in our area, plus having older brothers, led to my being a tomboy.

I preferred to spend time with my friends and learn about the livestock so it’s not surprising that I would later work in the field of animal health—mostly companion animals, such as horses, dogs, and cats. I became a regional territory manager for an animal health company and have traveled the continental United States doing product train-ing, sales, and merchandising.

My father retired from the police force after 34 years only to continue working security for a bank. My parents were God fearing; but we never regularly attended church, and they never impressed upon me the importance of having a personal rela-tionship with God. That influence came from my paternal grandparents, and I was first baptized at the age of 14. I remem-ber staying with my grandma when my grandpa was in the hos-pital; she was in her late 80s and still got on her knees to pray at night. That image is still one of my most cherished memories. I am certain that her prayers helped me through many difficult times.

My maternal grandparents were Native American and were born in the late 1890s. My mother was the second youngest of 11 children, and her first language was Cherokee. When my mom would get together with her sisters, sometimes they would sing in Cherokee; and I have to say I think “Amazing Grace” is beautiful in any language. She had six children: three boys and three girls; and I am the youngest. There was an 18-year differ-ence between my oldest brother and me. Three of us are still living. My oldest brother died at age 32, and I had a brother and sister pass away in 2011 exactly 10 weeks apart. Thankfully, since we had recently moved from Maryland and had not found a church home, God had led us to enroll our oldest daughter, Jeneva Anne, in Fredericksburg Christian School for her kinder-garten year where I had established friendships; and those friends in Christ helped me during this sorrowful time.

I met my husband, Jayson, in 2001 and we were married in 2003. In 2004, I was baptized into the Baptist denomination and Jayson rededicated his life. Being a newly married couple, we knew that we needed God to lead us in our lives if we were go-ing to have a successful marriage.

Little did we know the plans that God had for us and how much we would have to draw from His strength!

In 2004, we moved from Oklahoma to Durango, Colorado, where we were blessed with Jeneva Anne in 2005. Jayson had joined the Navy Reserves due to the events of September 11th before we were married and, after moving back to Oklahoma in 2005, Jayson mobilized to Iraq for the first of his currently nine deployments. God blessed us again in a bittersweet way when Jayson was able to come home from Iraq in 2007 on emergency leave when our second daughter, Raychel, was born and his Grandfather passed away within days of each other.

In 2008, Jayson and I made the decision for me to stay home with the girls and I left the professional workforce. We moved from Oklahoma to Maryland in 2009 and in 2010 we moved from Maryland to King George. We attended several churches in the Fredericksburg area but did not find what God had in mind for us. One day while driving past Shiloh church, Jayson said, “That’s the one!” We began attending Shiloh and felt God’s presence and the love for Him that the people in this church have. We joined in 2012. I prayed for opportunities to help serve in the church and boy did the opportunities present themselves!

I had been assisting Ray since 2012 and, as he began to feel the call to become the pastor at Smithland, he asked me to help fill the gap during his transition out and if I had thought about applying for the children’s minister position. The thought of working as a children’s minister frightened me because I wor-ried about being worthy of the responsibility of leading our pre-cious children. However, after many prayers and seeing two children accept Christ during Vacation Bible School, I realized what being a children’s minister was all about and that God would not allow me to do the job if I was not worthy. For every time I said “I can’t,” God said “Yes, you can” and opened the door for me to serve as the Minister of Children.

Rebecca Goff was selected as our Children’s Minister on October 2, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. AWANA had just begun its fall session; the Harvest Party was in full planning mode; Operation Christmas Child was well under way; and Children’s Minister, Ray Tubbs, Jr., was leaving. At the time, Rebecca was on the Children’s Council and assisted Ray with the Children’s Ministry.

Rebecca’s involvement in these October events was successful. Our Harvest Party had 277 participants, which included 36 adult volun-teers. We also met our goal of collecting 100 shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. Rebecca has helped organize outreach programs to families with children in order to better serve the community. She has also assisted as Sunday School teacher for first and second grad-ers and worked with AWANA preschool through sixth grades, along with Wednesday night activities. In this story, Rebecca talks about her journey to Shiloh.

Rebecca at 2 years old on her mom’s lap, a little older, and today.

Upcoming Events December 3 12 pm Women’s Gathering @ Sinay Ou’s Home December 10 2 pm Cookie Exchange @ Band’s Home December 11 11 am Christmas Cantata December 14 Last Wednesday Activities Until January 4 December 17 9 am Wreath Making: Youth Girls & Women of Shiloh December 21 5:30 pm Christmas Caroling 7:15 pm Supper for Carolers December 24 5:30 pm Christmas Eve Service December 25 10 am Worship Service

Youth Group

It’s hard to believe that we are working on the December newsletter! This month, the youth will be enjoying a bonfire at the Busic’s home on De-cember 2nd from 6:30 – 10:30pm. We’ll have a de-votion time, some games, and of course s’mores!

On December 18th, we will be helping out at “Love Thy Neighbor” in King George. We will be serving, assisting in the food pantry, and providing some spiritual encouragement through song and dra-ma before the meal time. The teens will stay after service this day, eat lunch together, and then head to the Citizen’s Center for the event. We will not have youth on the evening of the 18th and will resume our Sunday evening youth meetings on January 8th. Save the date:

Middle & High School - Planet Wisdom – March 3-4

Middle School Camp – Camp Piankatank – July 23-28

High School Missions Trip – Impact! Virginia – July 23-29

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!!

Area 51

Birthdays 3 Jacob Schouweiler 4 Betsy Altman Lynne Mitchell 5 Kenneth Lee 6 Robert Burge 8 Richard Mason Glenda Mason 10 Savannah Hage-

wood Agnes Oakey Seth Parker 11 Sam Jensen 12 Garrett Mills 13 Bryant Payne 14 Rick Wilks 15 Stephen Davis, Jr. 16 Allison Mahaney Corinna Pardee 18 Jason Norris Cadence Shriver 19 Billy Holman John Owens

20 Lorrie Gump 21 Wyatt McMahan Cyle Rollins 24 Paul McDonald Natasha Smoot 25 James Hubble 26 Elizabeth Lee 28 Jim Jensen Faye Lumpkin 30 Brenda Hastings JD McKay Joshua Parker 31 Madalyn Heath Caleb Parker Anniversaries

10 Frank & Linda Moore 16 Charles & Agnes Oakey 28 Eric & Morgan Rose

When King George County schools are closed due to severe weather,

all church activities scheduled for that evening will be canceled.

Awana

Thank you for all the Christmas store donations and support you have given us this year.

Merry Christmas!!

Children’s Ministry Christmas is almost here! December is a wonder-

ful time in our church. Please take time to enjoy the special events Shiloh has this time of year. We are especially looking forward to the children participat-ing in the Christmas Service on Christmas morning!

As for the Operation Christmas Child shoebox update, we set a church goal to collect 100 shoeboxes and through your donations we have collected all 100! Thank you for supporting this ministry so the children receiving these box-es can hear of the love of Jesus! Merry Christ-mas!

Forwarding Order Requested

Rev. Randy Allensworth, Pastor

Barbara Perry, Music Minister

Rebecca Goff, Children’s Minister

Cathy Lyon, MS Youth Minister

Stephen Hagewood, HS Youth Minister

(540) 775-4646

www.kgshiloh.org

The Shiloh Visitor is published monthly as an official communications medium for Shiloh Baptist Church. The deadline

for submission is the 15th of each

month. Address all comments and submissions to:

Sherri Hall, Editor, The Shiloh Visitor

Shiloh Baptist Church 13457 Kings Highway

King George, VA 22485-3015 telephone (540) 775-4646

or email office@kgshiloh.org

Shiloh Baptist Church 13457 Kings Hwy King George, VA 22485

December 7 Baked Potato & Chili December 14 Chicken Night

Wednesday Fellowship Dinner Wednesdays, 5:30 pm

Saturday, December 10

2:00-4:00 pm Cookie Exchange

Sunday, December 11

11:00 am Sounds of Praise Christmas Musical “An Evening in December”

Wednesday, December 21

5:30 pm Christmas Caroling 7:15 pm Supper for Carolers

Saturday, December 24

5:30 pm Christmas Eve Service

Sunday, December 25

10:00 am Worship Service (No Sunday School)

Music News

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I am so thankful for my Shiloh Family! The combined choirs singing "He's got the Whole World in His Hands" was a great highlight in my month and No-vember also came with a new digital keyboard for Na-tasha!

December promises some lovely music as well. The Sounds of Praise will be sharing "An Even-ing in December," on De-cember 11 for the 11:00 a.m. service. This will be our first musical in our newly renovated sanctu-ary. Look for some special instrumentalists for this presentation. The chil-dren's choirs will sing on December 18.

Sunday School

This is the third suggestion is a series of four of-fered in the LifeWay.com article “How to Share the Gospel with Your Kids” by Kelly Mikhailiuk. It is intended to inspire discussion with your children and help you help them identify with Christ. 3. Say this: "God forgives us and makes us new." If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all un-righteousness. —1 John 1:9 Therefore, God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentle-ness, and patience, accepting one another and for-giving one another if anyone has a complaint against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. —Colossians 3:12-13 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new crea-tion; old things have passed away, and look, new things have come. —2 Corinthians 5:17

When Jesus died on the cross, He took all our

sin, guilt, and condemnation on Himself—and when we put our faith in Him, He gives us His perfect, clean righteousness instead. Because of what Jesus did—this great exchange—the Bible says God is faithful and just to forgive us when we confess our sins to Him. When God looks at you, He sees not a dirty, guilty sinner but the likeness of His own per-fect Son. You have been made new—your heart is changed, and God is continually working to make you more like Jesus. When you trust in Jesus, you can confess your sins to God and to others without fear because you are forgiven.

Ask These Questions: How does the truth of what Jesus did for us keep us humble? How does the truth keep us from wallowing in guilt? The Bible tells us to forgive others as we have been forgiven. Knowing how much God has forgiven us, how should we treat other people?

Women of Shiloh

Ladies Annual Cookie Exchange Saturday, December 10 2:00—4:00 pm at the Home of Bob & Sharon Band 12456 Ascot Close Drive, King George 540-775-2456

Bring 1+ dozen homemade cookies (or store bought)

Bring a $5-10 white elephant gift exchange gift (if you wish to participate) The cookies will go to shut-ins with the remainder divided up amongst the attendees.

Lottie Moon Christmas Offering Starting in 1888, the Lottie Moon Christmas Offer-ing® was established to empower the international missions efforts for Southern Baptists. After more than a century, the annual offering continues its steady growth. Your giving enables missionaries to be sent to make disciples and multiply churches among unreached peoples and places for the glory of God. If you wish to give to this offering, enve-lopes can be found in your envelope box or in the pew racks.

We Won!! So Get Ready to Tie!! Get ready for blankets!! We will again make fleece

blankets for the homeless on Saturday, January 14, 2017 – 9:30am. We would really like to make 75 blankets!! And guess what?!! Shiloh has received a

$250 mini-grant from the Virginia Baptist General Board to put toward the purchase of fleece!! How-ever, we still need donations of fleece. Let’s make

this the biggest blanket-making day yet! It gets cold in the winter here in Virginia, so let’s pass on some warmth!

Church Resource Center The library has recently acquired several “new

release” Christian videos for all ages. These will be on display in the library and on the shelves by the choir room during December. A perfect family activ-ity for a winter afternoon—curl up with a bowl of popcorn and watch an inspiring movie or one you can all laugh at together.

Week of Prayer for International Missions December 4-11

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