Happy New Year!

Church News

Pastoral Search Committee

The Search Committee has completed the church profile for Memorial Baptist and sent it to ABC/VNH, where it will be used to match us with potential pastors.  We will continue updates as they become available. If you have any questions, thoughts, or concerns, you may speak with any of the committee members. They are: Henry Freeman, Greg Vigne, John Curler, Jake Nop, Joelle Logan and Courtney Allenson.

Office Hours:

Greg Vigne will continue to hold office hours during the week. Please check the bulletin each week for a current list of days/times. If you need to reach someone when Greg is unavailable, please feel free to contact Henry Freeman, Chair of the Deacons, at 388-7319.

Community Lunches, Winter/Spring 2012

Memorial Baptist will continue to serve community lunches every three weeks at the Charter House on the following Thursdays during this winter and comjing spring: 

        Jan. 12, Feb. 2, Feb. 23, Mar. 15, Apr. 5, Apr. 26

Look for additional e-mails and announcements before church services for opportunities to help -- either on-site preparing and serving casseroles, soups, sandwiches, salads, etc., or helping to provide fruit, bread, soups/stews, cookies/brownies. Financial assistance is welcome, too, to help with purchases of bread, salad materials, and other lunch items. Pleaser let Jeff Rehbach know if you can help -- extra hands are always welcome! Thank you to everyone who has provided contributions or served during the past year, and to all in our fellowship for your continued support as we serve the community in this way.

Between June and December 2011, Memorial Baptist helped with community lunches ten times: we provided almost 180 meals on-site, 75 take-out meals, as well as 120 lunch bags for H.O.P.E.  Thanks to everyone for your support of this service to our community!

Celebrations Committee – Wanna Join Us?

Have you been thinking that you’d like to get more involved in the church but aren’t exactly sure where to plug in? The Celebrations Committee would be very happy to have you join us! Some folks are leaving the committee, so a few new people would be a great help in sharing the workload. It’s not difficult or complicated, but it does take a goodly number of people to make sure no one ends up doing too much. Talk to Rachel Hawkins (877-2802) or Meredith Rehbach (989-7355) if you think you might be interested.

What exactly does the Celebrations Committee do? Our ongoing responsibility throughout the year is the monthly Church Family Lunch. We set up for the meal, organize the food and drinks, and then clean up afterwards. We love the effect of the lunches: casual conversation over good food, lots of intergenerational connections, and relationships deepened in natural ways as people set up tables and enjoy eating and chatting together.

It isn’t always a sit-down lunch, of course; sometimes it’s the Easter breakfast, sometimes the summer picnics, and sometimes the fancier celebration for Christmas. Not to mention the somewhat less frequent (thankfully!) pastor retirement parties.

We meet twice a year, and our next meeting is coming up at the end of February (look for the bulletin announcement). At those meetings, we sign up for the monthly social events. If you’ve ever thought about stepping up to help out with the Church Family Lunches, this would be a perfect time to come forward and join the Celebrations Committee.

A SINGING and BAND FESTIVAL THIS MARCH !

We know a lot of people in our congregation love to sing (in fact, when we do have a choir, we often have nearly 20 singers up front!) Here's a chance to be a part of a day of singing with others (whether or not you've ever sung with our choir) from American Baptist churches in northern Vermont!  If interested, please let Jeff Rehbach know this week so he can get an application form – First Baptist Burlington needs to hear from us by January 15 so music can be ordered. Let's see if we can have at least a dozen or two of us from Memorial join in this event that promises to be wonderful! The conductor, Dawn Willis, is wonderful to sing with :-)
-Jeff

Northwest Association Music Festival

November 16, 2011

In the spirit of joining Baptists together in music, the First Baptist Church of Burlington would like to host an “old fashioned” music festival for participants grade 9 though senior citizens.  To relive the day when members took part in music festivals a chorus and wind ensemble will be organized for a one day event on March 3, 2012 (snow date 3/10/12).  Dr. Dawn Willis will conduct the festival choir while Stephen Perkins, retired educator and conductor, will lead the instrumental ensemble. Lynnette Combs, organist at First Baptist Church, has been playing in churches and accompanying choruses and choirs for over 30 years. She will be the accompanist for the festival.

A $20 per person fee will be needed to cover the sheet music costs and the lunch being provided by First Baptist.  Applications are enclosed.  Duplicate as necessary and return to the First Baptist Church, 81 St. Paul ST, Burlington, VT  05401.  The due date is Jan. 15, 2012 so that music can be ordered in time for the festival.

The intent is to gather in the morning and practice the music, break for lunch and put the finishing touches on the music in the early afternoon.  A late afternoon concert will take place allowing folks the opportunity to dine in local restaurants before returning home if they wish.

This concert will allow us to focus on music of our faith and heritage.  It is our hope to have a spiritual gathering for both the musicians and the audience. 

Please plan to join us either as a participant or as a part of the audience.  Forward this information to all the folks that you know. 

Hope to see you in March!

Lynnette Combs, Dawn Willis, Stephen Perkins
First Baptist Music Staff

9:00 AM Arrival
9:30 AM Rehearsal
10:30 AM Break
12:00 – 1:00Lunch and Fellowship
1:00 PM Rehearsal
3:30 PM Time to change
4:00 PM Concert
5:30 PM Clean up

Discovering Adoption Event:

Bethany Christian Services, an adoption agency for both Domestic and International adoption, will be having an informational meeting for those interested in Christian adoption. The meeting will take place at the Vergennes Bethany office on Thursday, January 19 from 6 pm to 8 pm.

Please call 1-800-941-4865 to register for this meeting or for more information.

The Senior Rock'rs will meet Wednesday, February 1st, at 12 noon at the home of Harley Grice, 1126 Halpin Rd, Middlebury. Persis Rowe will be the hostess. If you are retired or of retirement age, come and enjoy the fun, informal time we spend together sharing a meal, visiting and reading articles/stories -- some that make us laugh, others that are uplifting. The Rowes will be living with Harley during the winter months, so for information call Harley or Persis at 388-2286.

Bone Builders

There will be no Bonebuilders class on Thursday, January 20. Deb will be in San Antonio, TX.

Missions Moments

Partnership with WomenSafe Bears Fruit (and turkey, potatoes, gravy, pie…)!    

The final figures aren’t in but Memorial Baptist Church provided Christmas meals for at least 10 families in Addison County.  The families were identified by WomenSafe, the local organization whose mission is to eliminate domestic and sexual violence.  Willow and Anne from WomenSafe arrived at church in a large pickup truck on Thursday afternoon, December 22, and were visibly impressed with the amount of food our church had contributed.  Jim Logan, Jenny Wright, Glenn Wry and Frank Mazza transported the baskets and boxes from the church basement and their cars to the truck that was soon under way to make deliveries to the appreciative families.

When the Call Comes                                               

Before Pastor Steve departed several members of our church has begun participating in an American Baptist Church endeavor called the Missional Church Learning Experience (MCLE).  The experience not only encourages but expects participating church teams to meet with leaders and workers in the community where the church is located to learn about the needs of that community.  With that information the team is asked to develop a project with a “community partner.”  Jim and Hallie Logan and Frank Mazza represented MBC and selected WomenSafe as our partner.  We’ve held several meetings with their staff and have created a project with 3 phases.                                            

Phase 1 was the Christmas food baskets.                             

Phase 2 is to provide assistance when a family WomenSafe identifies needs help with a move.  In recent years the Saturday morning men’s breakfast group has moved several individuals and families.  This portion of the project builds upon the resources and interest already present in our church.  That said, assistance doesn’t need to be limited only to the men.  If there are women and children that would like to help when the need arises they would be welcomed.  We received our first call from WomenSafe the week after Christmas for a move that was to take place in 2 days.  Despite the quick notice it was easy to assemble a team.  The move was accomplished in a morning with nothing broken or injured.  WomenSafe estimates our assistance would be needed for up to 6 moves a year.

A Little Bit of Knowledge                                           

Phase 3 of the collaboration involves WomenSafe staff providing a brief overview of domestic violence to church members who are interested on Thursday, January 26 from 6:30 – 8:30 at a place yet to be determined.  The title of the presentation is:  “Domestic Violence:  What a Woman Experiences and Supports that Make a Difference.”  The church team and WomenSafe staff have talked about how Memorial Baptist Church could be seen in the community as a sanctuary, a safe place, for anyone that’s experienced violence.  Becoming aware the issues surrounding violence as well as the myths is a good place for us to start.       

If you have questions or definitely know that you plan to attend please contact Jim or Hallie Logan, Jenny Wright, Glenn Wry or Frank Mazza.   

Seed Money and It’s Not Even Spring                                  

MBC received $1000 from American Baptist Home Mission Society for participating in the Missional Church Learning Experience and submitting a project outline describing our plans to collaborate with WomenSafe.  The money will help to cover costs with this project as well as encourage other projects that foster community outreach and service.

Where’s Waldo and the Mission Committee?                               

The Mission Committee will meet after the service on Sunday, January 15, in the church basement to discuss missions past, present and future.  If you’re interested in how missions fit into the fabric of Memorial Baptist Church please plan to attend.  If you can’t attend but have some ideas you’d like to share just let Frank Mazza know.

Club Happenings

One night 42 teenagers squished into a 15 passenger van just to see how many would fit. Another Club night featured Turkey Bowling with frozen turkeys. The games and skits change from week to week but the things that never change are good food, singing, crazy fun, a welcoming environment for all, adults who love teenagers and a chance to share with kids what a relationship with God looks like. Some teens are motivated enough to explore a relationship with God, that they are meeting at 7:15 a.m. before school for Bible study.

Wyldlife has monthly events most recently, an afternoon at "Whirlie's World" in Middlebury where 14 middle school boys (and a handful of leaders) played indoor mini golf, arcade games, video games and expended a whole lot of energy in the "best Bouncy House" around! Our next event will be held at the River building on January 13, 2012 from 7:30-9:30PM. We will play ping pong, foosball, and board games, eat way too much food and sing at the top of our lungs! Wyldlife is for Addison County 7th and 8th graders.

Leader Training is happening every Friday at the River. A dozen young adults have been gathering to share dinner and better equip themselves to work with teenagers. Todd Goodyear has been conducting the training. Leaders in training are Beatriz Atkins, Matt Brown, Meyer Bilson, Kathleen Clark, Mark Dickerson, Carolyn Griggs, Joe Haskins, Jessie Hines, Frances and Dale Tucker, and Matthew Wood. Greg and Nancy Orvis assist with room and meal set up.

What's Next? The hope of the local Young Life committee is to see Young Life established in a new community. Tim Franklin has lead several meetings with Middlebury area adults to explore the feasibility of launching Wyldlife at Middlebury Union Middle School in January 2012. Stay tuned.

Young Life Dessert Banquet and Informational

Monday, April 2 at the Vergennes Opera House, 7 p.m. We hope that you can join us in celebrating the past year, as well as, share with our neighbors what Young Life has to offer our teens.

Year End Giving.

We hope that you are inclined to make a tax deductible year end contribution to Young Life of Addison County. Checks should be made to Young Life with VT 25 in the memo line. If you receive this letter by electronic mail, a year end donation can be mailed to:
Young Life
PO Box 302
Bristol, Vermont 05443