FBC's Arkansas Mission Team Update

A note from the Wootens:

Stephanie has ‘left our ranks’ to go to the WILDS — not sure if she’ll have the chance to blog.  We appreciate her work on the blog, keeping everyone informed and updating you.  Our last day of VBS was Friday.  God has really blessed this week. We had 5 new visitors on Friday alone, 30 kids throughout the week, 2 of which were ours   about 7 from the church here, the rest visitors!  The lady whose son brought several of the visitors Friday night said that they’re unchurched, that one family in particular she’d love to see come to Lifespring, would be a “good fit.”  Great contacts for the Dillons!   

Friday several of the ladies went to a Dayspring outlet store while Ryan took the teens and kids to an ice-skating, swimming sportscenter type of place.  We had one wounded one — Josh required a few stitches, but the Lord worked it all out, and Josh is doing fine now.  We had a pizza dinner Friday night with the church folks to get to know them some. 

The last night ended with a program to which the parents were invited, and a reception following.  This gave the chance to chat with parents.  Please pray for the Dillons as they follow up on these families.

Saturday we all (including the Dillons) had the opportunity to see Sight and Sound’s production of Noah.  (One ‘neat’ thing for me [Claudene] — the one playing Noah was one of my former speech students from PCC.  We all took a backstage tour, then after the production ”Noah” came out for a few moments and we had the chance to chat with him.  A good reunion time and especially good to see how God is using him and the talents he’s been given).  One moment during the production that was especially poignant to several of us was when God closed the door and people outside the ark were begging to get in.  The finality of their decision to reject God and the need for US to spread the gospel and reach souls for Him was so evident. May God find us faithful.

Today, services went well.  The morning service begins at 9, then Lifespring has to be done by 10:30 and gone “as if they were never there” so that the Lutheran church, from whom they rent the facility, can hold their services.  We formed a choir and sang under Liz Dillon’s direction.  Stephanie played the flute for offertory.  It was good to be able to worship with the church here — what a great work God is doing! 

The Dillons are leaving as well, Monday morning to go to Iowa for a missions conference.  So we tried to help them some today after the morning service.  We brought them lunch, then ‘donned work clothes’ and tried to be of help.  The men trimmed hedges, mowed the lawn, did yard work, Christina and Catherine helped them wash the Dillons’ cars. The ladies worked inside — vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, dusting, fixing goodies for tonight, folding laundry. 

For the evening service, Pastor Wooten spoke from Hebrews.  We had a fellowship afterward with the church family, grilled hotdogs, and had the chance to visit with and get to know the folks a bit.  Then we packed the van with our VBS things to have it all ready to go tomorrow.  One last stop at Braums ice cream which has quickly become a favorite completed our evening.

One prayer request — there is a lady who works here at the hoted, DJ, who has really taken to Christina and Catherine. She fixes the breakfasts here and looks for “the girls” every morning, gave them coloring sheets etc.  WE’ve had the chance to talk to her about the Lord and to invite her to Lifespring.  I don’t believe she’s saved.  She does not have a home church. Please pray that God works on her heart, that she comes to know the Lord, that she visits the church and the Dillons can follow up.  We have one last breakfast with her in the morning.

One last thought to close with — Liz Dillon told us today about one of the boys who attended VBS.  He told his mom that he was “so sad” that it was over.  It was the “best thing he’s done since Christmas”  — the really ‘neat thing’ about that is just a few months ago, he visited DisneyWorld for the first time.   May God who has begun a good work continue to perform it, at Lifespring Baptist Church. 

The workers from the church who have been helpers this week are already talking about next year and what they can do, for a VBS next summer. Praise the Lord!  It will be great to see how the Lord works here and grows His church.

Thank you so much for your prayers throughout the week. It was evident that you were praying.  God bless you and we’ll see you at home!

Today we went to Eureka Springs in the morning.  The trip was a battle of the different GPS. One says left the other right, turn around, no go straight!  You have three minutes to go, no you have thirty!  Recalculating, recalculating re-oh never mind.

After the forty minute car ride we arrived at the Thorncrown Chapel.  It is a beautiful glass structure nestled in the woods on the side of the Ozark mountains.  After spending a few minutes at the chapel we headed to subway for lunch, then moved on to the Christ of the Ozarks.

Christ of the Ozarks is a huge white sculpture about 67 feet tall. It’s the largest sculpture of Christ in North America. We all piled back into the cars and headed into Eureka springs for shopping.

Eureka springs is a beautiful town with a picturesque historic district, full of quaint little buildings.  The business district is full of small touristy shops. But the hardest part is the stairs which are quite steep, we spent about an hour perusing the shops. Outside the shops and everywhere are flowers, flowers and more flowers.

We came back from Eureka springs to the hotel and ate dinner and headed over to VBS.  Tonight’s highlight was definitely Dr. SKUBA in full gear, wet suit, flippers, goggles, air tank, bogey board, snorkel and red and green knee high socks.  The children and workers enjoyed seeing Dr. SKUBA flip-flop down the church isle.  Dr. SKUBA’s air tank was courtesy of the local fire department, who were very gracious when they dropped it by on Monday.  Please pray that this contact will afford Pastor Dillon an opportunity to share the gospel and build a relationship with the firemen. 

There were two new children who came tonight, and tonight’s attendance was 18.  Considering the young age of the church plant, and the hesitancy some parents might have with entrusting their children to a work that is not well established, we are thankful that we have had new children each night.   

A specific answer to prayer this week has been the weather.  We have had rain before or after VBS on various days, but none during the VBS time.  Given the layout of the church facility it would be very difficult to have an inside game time.  This has truly been the grace of God.  For Friday, please pray that the good weather continues, and pray that all of the children from the week will return for the final night, and that their parents will come for the closing program and reception to follow.  This will be an excellent opportunity for the church family to get know the children’s parents.

Good night

Hi, today was a Wal-Mart Wednesday. Yes that’s right, how can you visit Bentonville Arkansas without seeing the original 5 and 10 cent store. For those of you that don’t know, that was Sam Walton’s (founder of Wal-Mart)first store. We toured the museum, saw the old hats and buttons and general Wal-Mart memorabilia. After taking several pictures we headed out to the Promenade.

The Promenade is a massive shopping center. It’s quite frankly a shopping ladies dream spot. You name it they have it. It was with many sighs of longing we drove away after only a brief time there. We returned to the hotel changed into VBS gear and headed for Lifespring. Tonight had several highlights for the kids. The craft tonight was sand-art, but not your father’s sand art, it seemed closer to mud pies that they got to decorate. They were awesome, the kids in my group had a lot of fun decorating the doughy circle;I joined in and made one, it will be my one and only paper weight when I return home. I must admit that I feel bad for the crafteers that had to clean up the glitter add-ons to the paper weight sand art, it made a lovely myriad of colors all over the table,  chairs and floor.

The games brought into play the always beloved big ball. From what I am told the 1st-3rd graders were very aggressive shoving the ball over the line, several were flatten but all seemed in good humors and there were thankfully no injuries.  After big ball all the kids got to chuck water balloons at Dr.SCUBA. A hint to adults and helpers, stay inside or out of view when giving children water balloons. Soon anyone or thing becomes an inviting target.

Now to the best news of the evening. After praying for the children everyday this week, a young boy named Stewart, who we have been especially praying for, accepted Christ as his Lord tonight. It was a tremendous blessing and we thank the Lord for His goodness.

Well that pretty much closes up everything and what a good way to end a post.

Hello, I know this is late but it’s been fun and crazy up here.

I decided to start this blog with a briefing for those of you who are reading this and have no idea what is going on First the team is ministering at Lifespring Baptist Church in Bethel Heights Arkansas, near Bentonville AK, and we are assisting in hosting a VBS during the week. The theme for the VBS is Seaquest, it’s the same theme Faith Baptist is doing later this summer. Our team leader is Pastor James Wooten, the other members of the team are: (in family alphabetical order) Claire Borg, Ryan Borg, Stephanie Borg, Larry Clarke, Carol Clarke, Becky Hicks,  Teri Pate, Joshua Pate, Claudene Wooten, Christina Wooten, and Catherine Wooten.

Pastor Wooten is our fearless leader and van driver.  Mrs. Borg, Mrs. Pate, and Mrs. Wooten are the teachers of the 4th-6th grade, 1st-3rd grade and 4-5 year old classes respectively. Becky Hicks is our crafts leader, Mr. Clarke is Dr.SCUBA.  Mrs. Clarke is heading up registration.  Joshua Pate is the game director. Ryan Borg is our handy man. Stephanie Borg is the Store manager and Catherine and Cristina are our resident singing duo. We float around and help where ever we are needed from games to registration, the main idea is being willing to help.

Alright now on to day 2. We started out spending some free time at the hotel, prepping materials, organizing papers, printing help sheets. We headed to the Dillons’ house for lunch and then went to the church to prepare the craft and then, out to canvas some more neighborhoods and parks. We returned to the hotel ate dinner and came back to the church for VBS.

Day 2 saw several new faces and different crafts and games. With games such as sharks & minnows and octopus tag everything seemed to keep with our deep sea theme. The kids seemed even more excited and looking forward to the rest of the week. After VBS was finished we held a prayer time for the children and the whole VBS in general.

We headed to an ice cream store-Braums-and had a kind of after glow with the Dillons. Just in case anyone was wondering Braums has Amazing ice cream! Their peanut butter cup was killer and they have tons of different flavors. The fellowship was as sweet as the dessert and we soon found ourselves running out of time. The night wrapped up and we all headed to our separate abodes and called it a night.

As will I, Good-night and God bless.

Hello, this is Stephanie Borg blogging from Northwest Arkansas about the 2010 mission trip from Faith Baptist Church. This is a daily journal on the events of the mission trip. I hope you enjoy reading this.

Today was the first official day of the Arkansas Mission Trip from Faith Baptist Church Pensacola! The  team came up in increments, team alpha-the Clark’s- left Pensacola on Thursday. Team beta-the Borgs-left on Saturday, and the remainder of the team-team charlie- left on Sunday. We all convened for the  first time monday, at the Dillon’s house for lunch.

The travels varied from group to group. From my experience the trip was your typical 13 hour trip, long. It ranged from dull tree lined highways to picturesque Cyprus lined rivers to transylvania to crop dusters flying low over fields of cotton and soybeans. 

The first day how ever was rather smooth as mission trips go, after lunch we ventured over to Lifespring Baptist Church and began the final preparations to the decorations. Most of the preparations were already in place, we just added the rest of the tid-bits that we brought up with us.

So with the ceiling adorned with hanging clown fish and octopi, we returned to the hotel situated all of our personal equipment had dinner and drove back to the church for the first night of VBS.

The threat of rain on our activities we started registering the first children. The first announcements were made the initial songs sung and then came Dr. SCUBA, with his priceless discovery of mold! Well after setting Dr.SCUBA straight about the true worth of mold the events of the night commenced.

There were crafts and snacks, lesson time, and then games on the rotations for the three age groups. All the kid seemed to enjoy throwing water balloons at each other, and the craft of the bookmark wordless book was very fun. In lesson time they learned about how much God loves everyone of us.

The theme of deep sea adventure was a great hit. The 30 or so kids all enjoyed the night from the humorous antics of Dr.SCUBA to the thrill of seeing a water balloon splatter on someone else, to the lesson from Gods’ word. I think the most amazing thing of the evening was even under the thunder storm warnings and the high chance of rain, the Lord held off the rain until after the entire evening was finished. Then in poured. It was another example of Gods’ grace and provision for His work.

Well that was day 1 and this is the Arkansas Traveler signing off.

 P.s. Pictures will be added later.

Faith Baptist Church will be sending a Missions Team to assist the Dillons in Northwest Arkansas from July 11-20.  To hear the lastest and greatest news during the trip, visit this blog often!

Most of all, remember to pray diligently. Without the power of God’s Holy Spirit, nothing can be accomplished.