I found myself struggling to begin this article. I didn’t know what to share with my church family about this past month and about where we are headed. I know that God is good and that we have hope in Jesus Christ and the power of His resurrection, and that is a good place to start anything.

January began slowly, but throughout the month we have faced new challenges and opportunities. New ministries have been launched, the Cornerstone Project was both funded and completed, new plans are being formed, we’re reviewing our various ministries, our Haiti team is raising funds for their mission trip in June, volunteers are stepping up across the church, and we continue to pursue God’s will for us at Thaxton Baptists Church. I cannot wait to see what God does in each of us and the work He has for all of us in 2020.

We have seen a steady stream of visitors over the past weeks and I want to encourage all of us to continue to be a welcoming family. We may not realize it, but when we welcome others into our church home, we help put them at ease and make them feel accepted. This is a visible way we put the gospel in action and prepare people to hear the gospel. I encourage us all to think like a visitor and to love and welcome those who comes to join us, just as Jesus loved and welcomed you.

Children

The Kid’s Club is planning a Winter Camp the first Saturday of this month. Please remember to pray for the workers and children as our volunteers continue to pour into the children God has brought to our church. I am so thankful for all that they are doing to teach our children about the good news of Jesus Christ. Please continue to support our children’s ministries through giving and volunteering your time.

Our Children’s Sunday School, Nursery, and Children’s Church Ministries continue to show the love of Christ to our children, and many faithful volunteers are giving much of themselves. I’m so thankful for the faithful women serving in our children’s ministries. We need more faithful men and women to step up to the high calling of working with children on Sundays. We need volunteers during both the Sunday School and Worship hours. Children must be a priority for our church.

Our Nursery continues to be understaffed during Sundays and Wednesdays and we are asking much from a few of our members. Mothers of our youngest children need the time on Sunday to serve in other areas of the church and to fellowship and grow alongside other adults.

Younger families who visit with us will not feel loved and welcomed if we do not provide a safe, well-staffed nursery. If you can help love some of our young families one Sunday a month the nursery needs you.

Youth

Our youth are planning a Valentine’s Dinner on Saturday, February 15th at 5:00pm. The youth will be serving the meal and are selling tickets for $10, please see one of them to get your tickets. All proceeds will go into a youth fund that will help them earn individual scholarships to fund future trips and events.

The youth scholarship system will be an individual merit based system. Each youth will have an account and will receive scholarship money based on their participation through our curriculum, participation in our ministries, in our youth events and in our youth ministry opportunities. I have multiple days of service planned for our Winter and Spring calendar and want to encourage the youth to find ways to serve others in our communities as well. If you have service ideas that you would like to plan and head up, or if you would like to give towards this scholarship fund, please contact me through the church office or at ethanstrickler@thaxtonbaptist.org.

Outreach Team

I announced recently the need to form an outreach team to help plan and execute the outreach events of our church. If you are interested in more information about the team or would like to join, please contact me through the church office or at ethanstrickler@thaxtonbaptist.org. We will be scheduling our first meeting in the coming weeks.

Blessings,

Pastor Ethan

If you were at church a few weeks ago, you heard us speak about the latest church shooting in Texas. Christians and Christianity is being attacked more and more. Even by our own government in many cases.

We have to be prepared if something like this shooting were to happen at TBC. The safety team trains and discusses these situations, but as a congregation we need y’all to be aware and prepared. We have folks who are licensed and have agreed to carry and help protect our church family. We also have quite a few who are licensed but are not plugged in with the safety team, which we

welcome but respectfully ask that if the need ever arises, that group would listen to instructions and respond as part of the congregation. It WILL be mass confusion and controlling it is a big part of eliminating the threat. We hope and pray that we’ll never face this scenario, but we take seriously the fact that we COULD.

The Safety Team is a volunteer ministry with many ways to plug in and be helpful. If you’re interested in helping, have questions about what, why or how we’re doing things, ask Alan Hullette, E.L. McGuire or Ron McCormick.

Safety is like a lock but YOU are the key!! Help us keep our family safe! If you hear or see something, let someone know.

Your Safety Team

I received an email from a good friend, Sherrie Fausey a few days ago. Many of you have worked with her in Haiti and many of you are continuing to work in Haiti although the current work is not at Christian Light School. The last time I was in Haiti was 2009, one year before the earthquake which Sherrie recounts in her email. So, for the next couple of my monthly articles we will be reprinting her email of what happened January 12, 2010.

Article by Sherrie Fausey (copied with her permission):

Ten years later in Haiti !!!!!!! This Sunday is the 10 year anniversary of the great Haiti

earthquake. In a minute's time, 200 000 people were dead,

half a million injured, and millions of people were

homeless. The house we rented for Christian Light School

was destroyed.

Yen years ago, I had no time to grieve. There was too much to

do. People were dependent on us. I had to be strong. Now, it is

hitting me. I weep when I think back to January, 2010. But

when I look at what has been accomplished since the disaster, I

praise God. Praise the LORD!!!!!!!!!!!

My Story On the afternoon of January 12th, 2010, I was finishing at my

desk, pushing back, and ready to go fix supper. As I stood up,

the house began to shake. I knew what it was and tried to run. I

fell in the hallway outside my room and could not stand

up. Things were falling on me. I tried to crawl into a doorway

and put a little, plastic table from the bathroom over my

head. The back of the building, including my room which was

about 3 feet away, fell off the building. A cloud of white dust

came up in my face, a total white out.

When the shaking stopped, I ran out the front of the

building. It was badly damaged, but still standing. Where were

the orphanage children who lived on the first floor? I looked in

the girl’s bedroom. The beds were smashed but no one was

there. My bedroom had fallen on the Pre-K classroom. I looked

in the boy’s room The boy’s room was OK but empty. Where

were the children?

The children came running in from the street. About 300

Haitians came in with them. Everyone seemed to think I knew

what to do. I just wanted to know if we had all the children. We

had to line the children up to count them because of the

crowd. We were missing one. About that time, I heard Madame

Jacqueline scream. Her room was buried under the rubble. Her

son, 7 year old Peterson, was missing. He had died instantly.

The house we had lived in was badly damaged and leaning. We

needed to get away in case it fell. Mr. Edmond came over from

our construction site ½ block away. He said it was a mess, but

no damage. We moved to the construction site. The wall had

fallen down into the street, but the gate stood. No one wanted

to try to go inside the few rooms we had started construction

on. We slept "under the stars."

We only had about 15 minutes before total darkness. I

told the nannies to get blankets or mattresses or

whatever they could find and put the children to bed on

the sand piles & gravel piles. The 300 Haitians had

followed us and they also went for bedding supplies and

set up camp around us.

About half an hour later, a Haitian pastor came in

trembling and shaking. He had been on the roof of the

Church on the Roof waiting for the congregation to arrive

when the earthquake occurred. Houses full of people

tumbled down the mountainside on both sides of him

with the people inside screaming. The pastor was very

upset. I asked him if he was a pastor? He indignantly said,

“Yes!” I pointed to all the people in the yard and said ,

“Here are sheep.” Pastor Cenor gathered up the

people. They sang. They thanked God they were

alive. They prayed for missing family members. 9 people

accepted Jesus.

They started bringing the burned and wounded to

me. My neighbor, Karen, came over. She said her truck

was usable and about a block away and the Sisters of

Charity were using their clinic which was 7 blocks

away. The men would carry the wounded to the pickup

truck and carry the bandaged back in. The Sisters could

not do broken bones. The small boy with an obvious

break between his knee and ankle was given Ibuprophen

and told to go to sleep. That was tough.

My phone was smashed on my desk by the concrete

roof. About 11:00 at night, Karen told me she talked with

Dorothy by phone. Dorothy and I were under the same

organization so I assumed everyone would know I was

OK. But they didn’t.

It was hard to sleep. There were tremors about every 20

minutes. Everyone would wake up and pray. About the

time they settled down, the next tremor occurred.

by Don Slusher

In the morning, I went over to the house looking for

food. The children had not had any supper the night

before. The teenagers followed me. We found boxes of

Manna Packs, a stove that wasn’t broken, and a gas tank

that worked. By mid-morning, the nannies had fed the

children and the 300 Haitians who had camped with

us. We were thankful for food.

Pastor Cenor and Mr. Jonas, a teacher, helped me get

stuff out of the house - food, furniture, and medicine. The

children were not allowed in the house but carried things

from the yard to the construction site.

I did not see them arrive, but Poptarts showed up from

Operation Blessing – a truckload of Poptarts. Papa

provided. We all ate Poptarts for a couple days. Thank

You, Lord.

A translator and doctor from the Restavek Freedom

Foundation came asking for medicine. We gave them a

laundry basket and let them fill it with medicine and

bandaging. We found out 6 months later that the

Restavek Freedom Foundation had no doctor or

translator. Who were they? Angels? I don’t know but we

have a great partnership with the Restavek Freedom

Foundation as a result of these ladies.

Pastor Karl Olsson came to see if I was alive. He said

stories were going around that I was dead. I assured him I

was not dead and asked him to contact people.

As days went by, I became very weak. I tried to get help at

a medical clinic but got worse. I could not breathe. I had

inhaled concrete dust in the earthquake. On Monday

after the earthquake, a friend took me to the airport and

asked them to get me out. They put me on the next

plane. That was hard. I did not want to go but knew I

would die if I stayed. By the time I arrived in the USA, I

had a high fever and was too weak to walk by myself.

When I arrived in Jacksonville, my son showed me the

newspaper. The headline was “Jacksonville Missionary

Missing and Presumed Dead.” He said, “Mom, that’s

you.” After about 4 days, when I could talk, I did

interviews on TV and newspapers. I told them I had 27

children in an orphanage before the earthquake and 55

children when I was evacuated. I had 42 homeless

employees and over 200 homeless students. In 8 days, I

was back in Haiti.

I had flown to the USA in ripped clothing because it was

all I had. When I arrived, there were 5 new skirts from the

sweet ladies at Parkwood Baptist Church and 5 new shirts

from my daughter-in law on my bed. Praise the

LORD!!!!!

Medical teams began arriving. Of course, Dr. Karen's

group was first. They stayed in the "Starlight Hotel" in our

construction site. It was named Starlight Hotel because it

had no roof. They set up clinics at Karen's house. Our 2

oldest classes at the time, 5th and 6th grades, translated

every days for many weeks. Many people were helped

and lives were saved. Praise the LORD!!!!! Article by Sherrie Fausey

(copied with her permission):

MEN’S

All men are invited to a prayer breakfast on the first

Sunday of every month in the TBC Café. It’s a free,

hot breakfast with fellowship and prayer leading up to

Sunday School.

Sunday, February 2 @ 8 am

Tuesday, February 4 @ Noon

Saturday, February 8 @ 9-11 am

Saturday, February 8 @ 10-3

Monday, February 10 @ 6:30 pm

Saturday, February 15 @ 5 pm

February 2: E.L. & Karen McGuire February 9: Cliff Overstreet & Jay Faucher February 16: Bill Shepherd & Virginia Shepherd February 23: Dennis & Shelby Overstreet

March 1: Alan & Krystal Hullette March 8: Traci Jefferson March 15: Barry & Sue Saunders March 22: Becki Robertson & Joyce Zdenek March 29: E.L. & Karen McGuire

April 5: Cliff Overstreet & Jay Faucher April 12: Bill Shepherd & Virginia Shepherd April 19: Dennis & Shelby Overstreet April 26: Alan & Krystal Hullette

$25,613.98 offerings

1: Cindy Lawhorn

4: David Wilcher

5: Pastor Ethan &

Debra Ellis

9: Kathy Saunders

12: Frances King

13: Suzy Gore

20: Becki

Robertson

24: Beth Lawrence

& Jessica Brunk

(none)

1

2

3

4

6:30-8:30 pm GriefShare

5 5:30 Dinner 6:15 Adult Bible Study 6:30 Kid’s Club 6:30 Youth Bible Study 7:30 Choir Practice

6

7

8

9

10

6:30pm Deacons Meeting

11

6:30-8:30 pm GriefShare

12 5:30 Dinner 6:15 Adult Bible Study 6:30 Kid’s Club 6:30 Youth Bible Study 7:30 Choir Practice

13

14

15 5 pm Valentine’s Dinner

16

17

18 6:30-8:30 pm GriefShare

19 5:30 Dinner 6:15 Adult Bible Study 6:30 Kid’s Club 6:30 Youth Bible Study 7:30 Choir Practice

20 21 22

23

24

25 6:30-8:30 pm GriefShare

26 5:30 Dinner 6:15 Adult Bible Study 6:30 Kid’s Club 6:30 Youth Bible Study 7:30 Choir Practice

27 28

29

Every Sunday: 9:00 AM Prayer Meeting in Pastor Mark’s Office 9:30 AM Sunday School February

Linda Frost Bill Shepherd Melody Dooley Virginia Shepherd

Linda Frost, Mike Martin, Chuck Wheeler,

Betty Jones, June Cundiff,

Jimmy Robertson, Jay Faucher & John Brunk

John Dooley, Melody Dooley,

Wesley Overstreet, Scott Smith,

Bill Shepherd, Jimmy Overstreet,

David Turner & George Lawhorn

June Cundiff, Jimmy Robertson,

Jay Faucher, John Brunk, Linda Frost, Mike Martin,

Chuck Wheeler & Betty Jones

Bill Shepherd, Jimmy Overstreet,

David Turner, George Lawhorn,

John Dooley, Melody Dooley, Wesley Overstreet &

Scott Smith

Bill Shepherd Bill Shepherd John Dooley John Dooley

Wayne Lawhorn Barbara Catron Joyce Zdenek Wayne Lawhorn

Martha Overstreet John Dooley Dennis Overstreet John Brunk

George Lawhorn Cindy Lawhorn Jimmy Overstreet Norris Fulton

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Hello Church Family! Wow, February is already here. Kids Club is back in full swing. We have some awesome activities planned for this month. We are going to visit our friends at the local nursing home. We are going to have our FIRST Kids Club Winter camp day as well! So, get out your calendars and start making plans. Church family, we need your support! We need prayer-1. For the leaders. Please pray we will share truth and love from Scripture. Please pray that we will stay strong in our faith. Please pray we will be connected and unified as a group. 2. For the kids- pray for their hearts to be open to God’s truth. Pray for their lives to depend on Him when times are difficult. Pray for their witness. 3. For the Ministry-We have outreaches, discipleship, and future planning opportunities. If you are interested in sponsoring a child ($5) to attend Winter Camp, or providing some needed supplies, please see Megan Bean or Ethan Strickler.

A Look Ahead: February 5: Bring a Friend Night February 8: Kids Club Winter Camp 10-3 REGISTRATION REQUIRED!

February 12: THEME NIGHT: Valentines Night (Wear Read/Pink) Nursing Home Visit! February 19: THEME NIGHT: Crazy Hair Night! February 26: THEME NIGHT: Treasure Night! (Bring your favorite “treasure” -special item to share ).

Memory Verse for February: “The Lord is good to all, and His mercy is over all

that He has made.” Psalm 145:9 ESV

Thank you for your prayers and support, Your Kids Club Crew

• Jane Atkins

Lives with her sister in Rustburg

• Jean Holland

1395 Union Church Road Thaxton

586-1460

• Dack & Judy McKinney

1548 Newton Circle Bedford

Judy 540-875-5084

• Betty Jo Turpin c/o Gwen Melton

132 Churchill Drive Lynchburg 24502