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Barry England Marriage/ Family

m E m o r i a l sIn Memory – Helen Louise Baker

Helen Louise Baker, 95, of Columbia, passed away on Tuesday, September 14, 2016 at NHC-Columbia. Funeral services were con-ducted Friday, September 16, at 10:00 a.m. in the chapel of Williams Funeral Home in Columbia with

Mike Kesler and Randy Owens officiating. Burial was in Polk Memorial Gardens.

Helen was born February 16, 1921 in Clifton, TN, the daughter of the late Jack S. Baker and Julia King Baker. Helen worked as a dietician at Maury Regional Medi-cal Center for over 40 years. She was a well-respected Christian and was a member of the West Seventh Street Church of Christ. It is said that she lived life on her own terms.

Helen is survived by close friends, Dr. Victor and Linda Davis.

In Memory – George Washington Umstead

George Washington Um-stead, 84, retired employee of Ford Glass Plant, died Friday, September 16, 2016 at his residence on Arthur Court.

Funeral services were con-ducted Monday, September 19, at 11:00 a.m. at Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home with Ted Burleson, Mike Hayes, and Jeremy Butt of-

ficiating. Burial followed in Polk Memorial Gardens with military honors provided by the Herbert Griffin American Legion Post #19.

Born February 22, 1932 in Carroll County, Tennes-see, George was the son of the late Freemon Umstead and Lucille Flowers Umstead. He served in the United States Army during the Korean War. For 34 years he lived in Santa Fe and worked on his cattle farm. He was a member of West Seventh Street Church of Christ. He was a loving husband, father and grandfather and en-joyed sending time with his family and friends.

Survivors include his wife, whom he married October 1, 1953, Lottie Pendergrass Umstead of Columbia; daughters, Donna (Ricky) Bradford of Fayetteville, Elizabeth “Beth” Foster of Williamsport, and Jennifer “Jenny” (Mike) Hayes of Franklin; grandchildren, Jer-emy Curtis, Abby Curtis, Allen Foster, Ethan Foster, Molly (Ryan) Brinkmann, Meggy Hayes, Mary Nell Hayes; brother, Loyd Wayne Umstead of Kingston Springs; sister, Betty Kelly of Huntingdon; and several nieces and nephews.

What is your next step? Are you interested in knowing more about the

Bible or have questions about your salvation? Or take a Spiritual Gifts assessment

that will help you connect your passion and gifts in a way to serve the Lord better.

Encourage a guest who may want to know more about West Seventh or to take

a tour of the building. And, while there, they can pick up a free gift.

As a member, you may want to find out how you can be more involved.

Need help connecting or have questions? Meet with Bill Alsup & Rob Cofer for a

few minutes on the first and third Sundays after worship.

m i s s i o n r E p o r TBonjour!

Literature Work

Although I do not often devote much newsletter space to it, the work of producing gospel literature for the French-speaking world is, as you know, the major focus of our work. Over the summer we continued to work on new publications and to ship out materials (over 72,000 pieces from May-August) to congregations and individuals in many places. We also finished preparing a crate load of literature (over 130,000 pieces) to be shipped to our literature distribution center in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. If all goes as planned, this will save us about $17,000 in postage costs. Once the materials clear customs in the port of Abidjan and are delivered to our literature center, they can be sent very economically to churches in Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Togo and Benin. Among our new publications are a study on the work of elders and a commentary on the Epistles of John by yours truly, a ladies’ class book by Rachel, a booklet entitled “Who Is Jesus” and another on overcoming grief, by our Ivorian brother, Francis Anaki, a new issue of our periodical, Chemin de Vérité, on Biblical cooperation among congregations and another on the blessings of being a Christian, and a tract on salvation written by a young man who was a teenager in the Bouaké congregation when we lived in Côte d’Ivoire. We have also prepared the text for reprinting our own revision of the French New Testament; a commercial printer in Wisconsin has given us a good price for an order of 5,000 copies. My co-worker, Garrett McGilvray, did a fantastic job creating a new website for us in French. It is a big improvement over our old site, providing descriptions of almost all our hundreds of different publications, and allowing the visitor to read many of them online in their entirety or download them to their own devices. It is, of course, compatible with computers, tablets or smartphones. Materials can be ordered and paid for online, though most of what we send out is provided at no charge. Garrett also designed the site in such a way that it allows him to keep track of our inventory, refer back to

past orders, and link with the stamps.com website where he purchases postage and completes customs forms. The web address is www.editionsceb.com, which is the same as our previous site. (We are currently working on sites we have planned for reaching out to Muslims, sites that we hope to provide in French and English.)

Speaking Here and There

I have been busier than usual with speaking appointments since our last newsletter. On May 29, I preached for the church in Monteagle, Tennessee, where my family and I attended when I was in college. On June 3, I spoke to a group of preaching interns here at Crieve Hall on “Why Be a Missionary,” and the following week I gave a devotional message to a large group of Crieve Hall members gathered for a picnic at a nearby park. On June 26 and July 17, I had the unusual privilege of preaching at both Sunday morning services at Crieve Hall, and on August 27 and 28, I presented four missions-related lessons at the Polishing the Pulpit lectureship in Sevierville, Tennessee. Rachel was able to go with me for that event, and we enjoyed a short visit to Great Smokey Mountains National Park before heading back to Nashville.

Taking Care of our African Friends

Sometimes when I look back at my calendar, I realize how much time I spend working with the Congolese people that come to our French worship service at Crieve Hall. Some of them are now Christians, and others continue as regular visitors. Over the summer I translated for one of them at a medical appointment (a fairly regular occurrence for one or another of them), I helped a couple of them work out issues regarding their car insurance, I translated documents for a couple of them for visas and studies, helped one of them deal with an uncooperative mechanic, gave a young man a lesson in driving a car with a manual transmission, and (with Rachel) provided counseling to a married couple. Apart from those, there has also been our long-term Ivorian guest, Charlemagne, whom I took to job interviews, medical appointments, English classes and the driver’s license facility. I taught him to drive, and last but not least, Rachel and I helped him find an apartment. Lord willing, he and one of our converts from the Congo will move into their own apartment in a couple of weeks, and Charlemagne will be pretty much on his own.

Travels

As she has done several times in the last year or so, Rachel traveled to Dallas for a few weeks to take care of her mother, who had hernia surgery in June. From July 21-27 I made a weeklong trip to the Dominican Republic. This was after Screenshot of New Website Homepage

repeated invitations to visit the work among French and Creole-speaking Haitians in Santiago de los Caballeros, the second largest city of this Spanish-speaking country. Those invitations had come from Berlot Charlitte, who heard me speak in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, about a dozen years ago. He first sent me an email requesting literature and inviting me to come to Santiago in 2013. Berlot moved to the Dominican Republic around 2007,

learned Spanish and began evangelizing among the Haitian population there. After supporting himself at various jobs, he has now begun a primary school serving Haitian families. Both the school and the local congregation he has begun use the facilities of an African Methodist Episcopal Church. Berlot and the brethren rent the lower level for about $280 a month, and the Methodists use the main floor upstairs. The Haitian congregation in Santiago currently has an attendance of about 70 - I am guessing about 50 adults and 20 children. After arriving, I was taken to the church building for the first evening of what we would call a gospel meeting. I preached all six nights of my stay − attendance varied from about 25 adults (the one time it rained) to probably about 50. Subjects included the authority of the Bible, salvation, the church, worship and marriage. I also taught morning and afternoon sessions for youth, women, couples and those wanting to know how to evangelize, as well as sessions for anyone with any Bible questions. And there were a lot of questions, including during the question and answer periods after each session. I was even asked to teach a class on family planning (birth control), which was a first for me. I taught four times on Sunday and also met with preachers from two other Haitian congregations. One of these congregations had been a denominational church, most or all of whose members had been converted several years ago when Berlot and Jeantyrard Elmera, a preacher from Port-au-Prince, made a trip to the city of La Romana, on the southeast coast, four or five hours from Santiago. It seems that not enough follow-up teaching has been done, but contact is maintained. The church there numbers about 125. The Haitian community in La Romana is large and has been there a long time. In fact, worship is conducted in French, Creole and also Spanish, as most of the young people have grown up there and do not speak Creole (though they do understand it). A brother also came from a Haitian congregation in Mao, in the area of La Caida, about an hour and a half to the northwest of Santiago. His name was Edouis Dubeus. There is also a very large Haitian community in his area, though many of the people have come more recently than those in La Romana. Attendance in Mao varies between 25 and 50. I minored in Spanish about 35 years ago, but this was my first time to

spend time in a Spanish-speaking country. I was curious to see if I would remember enough to function at all in Spanish. The answer was both “no” and “yes.” Most of the time, I understood very little of the conversations I heard. People spoke way too fast for me, used slang and had an accent that involved dropping the letter “s” from a lot of words. On the other hand, I could understand almost everything I read, and I was able to have decent conversations with the three Dominican preachers I visited (after I asked them to speak slowly for me). Apart from those conversations, Berlot usually stepped in to interpret for me - checking in at the hotel, taking taxis, ordering in restaurants, etc. Overall, I was favorably impressed with both the French and Spanish works. One weakness with both seems to be giving. By way

of illustration, Berlot’s very little 2-bedroom apartment in a noisy neighborhood costs him over $150/month when you include water and electricity. He has been there a few years, so the same place would probably rent for at least $30 more if someone new were to rent it now. Simple meals where Berlot and I ate ran about $2 or $3. I don’t know what average salaries are, but that gives you some idea of the cost of living. Contribution Sunday morning at the Haitian congregation averaged out to no more than 45¢ per person, clearly not a sacrificial level. Brother Bienvenido, who preaches for a 50- member Dominican congregation, did not tell me how that church gives, but he said most of what comes in goes back out to help members, and that even though the church has its own meeting place, nothing is given to support an evangelist. As for my trip, Berlot and the other brothers and sisters said that it had been a boost to them, that sound doctrine had been reaffirmed and defended, and that there will be fruit in the form of baptisms in the weeks to come. Time will tell, but I do believe it was worthwhile.

Barry and Rachel Baggott Crieve Hall Church of Christ4806 Trousdale Drive, Nashville, TN 37220 fwo.ceb@gmail.com (615) 781-2137

m i s s i o n r E p o r T

Berlot Charlitte

By Marynelle Criswell

The book of Acts could rightly be called Acts of the Holy Spirit or Interactions between Be-lievers and the Holy Spirit. This book is a his-torical record, giving us little glimpses of how the fledgling church began to gain a foothold in the Roman Empire. No formulas are given, no 1-2-3 commandments concerning church growth. Indeed, it seems to have been a day-by-day process responding to challenges and opportunities as they arose, but always under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Even when the leaders and members made mistakes and acted very humanly, they were open to cor-rection and instruction by the Spirit. Yet they never lost their focus on their mission.

After all, they had no New Testament for guidance, but Je-sus had promised “the Comforter.” Even their familiarity with the Old Testament could not prepare them for this new gospel. They had the apostles’ and disciples’ witnesses, and possibly their own recollections of Jesus’ words. Jesus had told them that the Spirit would lead them into all truth, even after He was gone. While they had a big-picture mission to preach the good news of Jesus to the world, the when, where, and how were seemingly discovered daily. Their whole lives became dependent on their ability and willingness to hear the apostles’ teaching and follow where the Spirit led.

Passionate about Jesus, they endured persecution in order to speak publicly about Him. Peter and John nailed the Jew-ish leaders by speaking boldly without apology to the San-hedrin. (Acts 4) The leaders had thought that once Jesus was dead, the story would end. But they found that the story was taking a more dangerous turn. Jesus’ followers now numbered 5,000 men in Jerusalem. People had witnessed a crippled beggar totally healed. Uneducated, unsophisticated fishermen were accusing them, the religious leaders! Their whole way of life was threatened by this little noisy sect of commoners.

Because these things had happened in the public arena, the leaders feared the Jews would turn against them if they mis-handled the situation. So they warned (indeed threatened) Peter and John to stop speaking about Jesus.

Now what would we have done? If West Seventh Christians should ever be warned not to preach the whole truth of the Bible, what would we do? Back down because we fear los-ing our tax exemption? Water down the teachings of God? Avoid controversial topics altogether? Soft-pedal what it means to be a Christian? Start worshipping and preaching secretly? Or just walk away altogether?

The band of Christians did nothing of the sort! Instead, in one accord they prayed. What they prayed is quite astound-

ing. Did they ask God to rescue them? To keep them safe? To change some laws? To make their lives more comfortable? Not hardly! Listen to their plea: [God] Take care of their threats and give your servants fearless confidence in preaching your Message, as you stretch out your hand to us in healings and miracles and wonders done in the name of your holy servant Jesus.(Acts 4:29-30, The Message)

So what was God’s response/answer to this prayer?

While they were praying, the place where they were meeting trembled and shook. They

were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak God’s Word with fearless confidence. (Acts 4:31, The Mes-sage)

God approved this prayer, as evidenced by His immediate response. He knew that even in the Roman Empire, many were open to the gospel. He was waiting for some true be-lievers to join Him in the mission. Throughout history it seems that when evil reaches its apex, people get sick and tired of violence and perversion. Our own day is not the time to give up publicizing the gospel message. We don’t know but that the hardest or most misguided hearts may be ready to make a 180 degree turn. (Think about the apostle Paul. Who of those who witnessed the stoning of Stephen would ever have dreamed Paul would become the force for Christ that he became?)

As a church we will be focusing on governmental concerns during October. As you move throughout Maury County, remember to pray for our leaders. Agree that God’s will be done in the November elections, and pray for the United States to repent and return to God.

Are we unselfish enough to ask the Holy Spirit to fill us with holy boldness to speak truth to this hopeless, confused generation? The gospel mandate is not just for preachers in the pulpit! Think outside the walls of the church build-ing: the grocery store, Wal-Mart, the tire store, the office, school and college, the plant. “Ordinary” Christians all over Maury County need to share their own gospel story in the marketplace, to tell what Jesus means to them, to offer to do Bible study one-on-one, to pray for a special need. Jesus wants the nations—and He wants Maury County! We can-not be a silent minority! We have the same mission as the first century Christians: to be bold in prayer and in action as the Spirit leads.

Do we dare? Join us for bold prayer with other believers on Saturday, October 8, 2016, at 9:00 on the Courthouse steps. We believe God is listening and acting!

T H E b E l i E V E r s ’ p r a Y E r

WEsT sEVEnTH praYEr focUs for maUrY coUnTY

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.OCTOBER 2016—GOVERNMENT

ØTruth, integrity and honesty in all levels of government

ØExposure of corrupt practicesØLeaders who serve selflessly, rely on GodØMore participation by Christians (voting,

serving)ØDefeat of leaders who oppose God and His

waysØWisdom for leaders and citizens ØProtection of all leadersØAll of Satan’s strategies against government

to be blocked

WEST SEVENTH MINISTRIES

To learn more about: Contact:Announcements Porter KingAttendance Jacob LoveAudio System Eric BryantBaby Showers Helen JonesBaptism Preparation Jim CriswellBenevolence Tom Anderson Members Joe Westmoreland Hispanic Alex Quintero Non-members Bill Stevens, Chris ShraderBridal Showers Wanda SmithCollege Ministry Phillip & Brandy Young Joel & Paula OswaltCommunion Preparation John & Barbara McDavidCommunion Cleaning TBACounseling Barry EnglandDisaster Relief Tommy HemphillEducation Kent Pardon Children’s Education Haley Schmidt, James Thomas, Zach Whitworth Lads to Leaders John & Beverly Simmons Jacob & Jennifer Eastep Vacation Bible School Haley Schmidt & Lisa Couch Adult Education Kent PardonFacility Jason Skidmore, David KirkFamily Ministry Barry EnglandFellowship Meals Jerry & Shirley OakleyFinance/Contribution Count Duane Leach, Zach WhitworthFood Pantry Darrell Trimble, Bob & Sandra JohnsonGreeters Darrel MarlinHispanic Ministry Alex QuinteroHome Bible Studies Jim RobinsonLandmark John SimmonsMen’s Ministry David EsslingerMissions Josh HardinNursing Home Communion John SimmonsNursing Home/Assisted Living John SimmonsOpen/Close Bldg HVAC Billy Brooks, Steve McEwenPowerPoint Brad BeasleyPrimeTimers (Senior Adults) Barry England Service George & Shirley Freeland Fellowship Bob & Judy Cofer, Faye KinzerService Station Mike ForsthoffTV/Radio Calvin Jackson, Paul Gibson, Chuck SimpsonTraffic/Parking Billy BrooksVehicle Maintenance Billy BrooksVan Drivers/Scheduling Steve CoferVisitation Program Mike Greene, John LawWomen’s Ministry Jeanine Denney, Sharon Greene, Beverly SimmonsWorship Assignments Sunday Jeff White, Pat Coleman Wednesday Tommy McEwen Nursery Brenda ColemanTween Ministry Grades 5-6 Ryan & Haley SchmidtUshers Zach KittrellYouth Ministry Grades 7-12 Marty DeJarnette, Jon Bennett, Ivan Jones, Greg Yokely

BIBLE CLASSES

Sunday 10:15 a.m.

Children’s Classes - See the Information Center for a complete list of children’s classes, teachers, topics and a map of our facilities.

Adult ClassesCollege Age & Believe Room 212Young Professionals Joel OswaltPhillip Young

Young Marrieds 1 Corinthians Fireside RoomJosh HardinJim Robinson James Thomas Homebuilders 1&2 Thessalonians ChapelWade Denney Barry England

Adult Class Parables Family CenterRandy Owens

Adult Class Bible Studies AuditoriumPorter King

Adult Class Gospel of John TV Studio Mike Kesler

Hispanic Class Room 307Alex Quintero

Wednesday 7:00 p.m.

Adult Cloud of Witnesses AuditoriumJohn Simmons Hebrews 11

Ladies’ Class 1 Timothy Fireside RoomEmily LansdellLisa Bennett

Adult Believe TV Studio Joel Oswalt (full)Phillip Young

Hispanic Class Room 307Alex Quintero

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The Lord is my strength and m

y shield; my heart trusts in him

and I am

helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to

him in song.

Psalm 28:7