How often I have looked into the mirror to view
my reflection! Sometimes I am sorely distressed
at what I see and at other times I am pleasantly
surprised. Has that been your experience
with the mirror? Whether we like the image
or not, it is always good to periodically take
an account of the reflected image so that problems
can be detected and adjustments made to improve
one’s physical appearance. Likewise, looking
into the mirror is a good thing for today’s church.
If we admit to the reflection, we can assess our
accomplishments in the light of God’s Will and
even more importantly discover places wherein
we as the body of Christ can improve.
What is the face of Pollard
Baptist Church as reflected in the mirror of 2001?
Are you satisfied with what you see? Or
do you see areas that need improvement?
Let’s review some of the year’s happenings and
examine our face as it was in 2001.
Pollard people are a happy and fun-loving bunch
and know how to have a good time. Speaking
of fun and good times reminds me of our youth
group, the Pals. They know how to have fun
and accomplish things at the same time!
Under the direction of Joey Bevins, his wife Brandy,
and Cindy McKnight, the Pals are always involved
in several regular monthly activities such as
helping to provide music for the Sunday services
at Woodland Oaks Nursing Home and participating
in BYC activities. In addition to these
standard monthly functions, they have special
projects and performances. In January
of this year they came together at the church
to clean the youth department located on the third
floor. That included cleaning floors and
painting wall murals. They had a “Super
Bowl” Saturday, which was a bowling extravaganza
at Sparetime in Ironton.
In February, the Puppet Pals performed at Hyland
Heights Baptist Church for a Valentine’s dinner,
and the entire Pal group attended a Michael W.
Smith concert in Kenova. Here in our own
church they hosted a sweetheart spaghetti dinner
for all the membership who wanted to attend.
The month of March brought more work opportunities
for these young hands. They painted the
junior high girls’ Sunday School room; and had
their quarterly Birthday Bash for all the January,
February and March babies.
On Palm Sunday in April, the youth presented all
members of the morning congregation with palms
in their own special ceremony. On Easter
Sunday night they performed their musical drama
called “For God So Loved” in conjunction with
the adult choir. Also included in this month’s
activities were a retreat to Natural Bridge State
Park and their annual April Antics, a tournament
of various games.
In May, on Mother’s Day all mothers in our morning
service were presented potted flowers, compliments
of the youth group.
June was a very busy month for this group.
Early in the month, seven seniors were recognized
by our church in our graduate recognition service.
Later, the Pals themselves had a graduate party
at Gattiland. The Pals couldn’t be partial
to mothers so on Father’s Day they honored and
recognized the fathers by presenting them pepper
and tomato plants. Later in the month, the
Pals gathered to decorate for VBS and during the
week of Bible School the Puppet Pals gave nightly
performances.
Did they do more? Sure—just read on!
In July the Puppet Pals once again performed,
this time in our evening worship service.
Other activities included a visit to the “Judgement
House” at Unity Baptist and a Cincinnati retreat,
consisting in part of a Reds’ game and a King’s
Island concert.
August brought the annual “Softball Sunday” in
which both young and old participated. Who
won? Ask Pastor Tom or Larry Stovall!!
In October the Pals held a Fun-a-thon fundraiser
for Operation Christmas Child. They raised
$500.00, which was used to fill forty shoeboxes
for Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse, an organization
devoted in part to providing Christmas gifts for
needy children throughout the world. (I
might add the church as a whole filled 122 boxes)
On November 3rd the second “Fall into
Jesus” fall festival was sponsored by the Pals.
This fun time was for children of the church,
the neighborhood and their guests. It was
a free festival where elementary age children
played games, won prizes, did cake walks, etc.
Approximately 50 children and workers attended.
The Pals did an awesome job decorating, and setting
up their booths — just shows what talent they
have and how it can be put to use to spread God’s
love to others! Ending November on a thankful
note, the youth had a candlelight service and
a turkey dinner here at the church.
December was a special month for the Pals, mainly
because of the presentation of their Christmas
program at the night service on December 23rd.
The program entitled “The Birthday of a King”
was a series of skits interspersed with scripture,
readings, vocal and instrumental solos and group
ensembles. As usual they did a splendid
job, the result of many practices and a lot of
extra time.
Do you like the reflection you see thus far?
Hang in there; we have more images to view.
The WMU under the leadership of Linda Cornwell
has been quite active all year. In addition
to regular activities such as promoting a week
of prayer, promoting Annie Armstrong and Lottie
Moon offerings, promoting North American missions
and collecting pennies for the hunger fund, there
have been special projects sponsored by these
ladies.
Every other month they have taken treats to the
ICU unit at King’s Daughters’ Medical Center.
These were free goodies and were distributed to
the visitors and family members of ICU patients
who spent long periods of time in the waiting
room.
Following a fire that destroyed a seminary in
Nigeria, these ladies collected and donated $100.00
to be used to replace books for the seminary students.
At Easter, they filled baskets to give to Hope’s
Place, a shelter for battered women and children.
In May, the WMU sponsored a Mother/Daughter dinner
for all ladies of the church. In late October,
they had a winter coat/attire drive and give-away.
The response was great and lots of good winter
clothing was donated by our church members and
then given away to the needy of the community.
Any leftovers were donated to the Federated Charities.
At Christmas time these ladies filled five shoe
boxes with toys and toiletries for distribution
by Samaritan’s Purse and they also bought gifts
for the girls’ home at Morehead, KY.
Other groups, maybe not quite as visible as the
Pals and WMU, have contributed their share to
the functioning and progress of our church body.
In mid October a group of ladies from the Fidelis
Class met at the church early one morning, carrying
dust cloths, dust mops and buckets. It was
time for a periodic cleaning of the vestibule
and sanctuary. This is something this group
of ladies has felt a calling to do for the past
several years. These cleanings go above
and beyond the regular weekly cleaning by our
janitor. Banisters were washed and dusted,
artificial flowers cleaned, louvered doors polished,
window sills cleaned, seats and floors vacuumed,
etc. Once or twice a year these girls become
“Merry Maids” for a day. Hats off to these
ladies with a vision and willingness to carry
it out!
On November 7th, the Health Ministry
Team of our church hosted a seminar on anthrax
and bioterrorism for the community. A lecture
on smallpox and anthrax, a new concern for all
of us Americans, was presented by Dr. Cecelia
Gaynor of Our lady of Bellefonte Hospital.
Following the lecture, a panel consisting of Dr.
Gaynor and Nancy Pruitt, R.N. of OLBH and Captain
Jonathan Pennington of the Ashland Fire Department,
along with Sergeant David Slone of the Ashland
Police Department fielded questions from the audience.
There were many thought-provoking questions pertaining
to the diseases themselves as well as questions
about Ashland’s readiness to meet any bio threats.
About 85 people attended the informative meeting,
moderated by our pastor, Bro. Tom.
In September, the church held its annual picnic
in the Francis Nolte Shelter House. Food
and more food! Delicious food—heaven for
most Baptists! Approximately 100 people
attended and many participated in badminton, horseshoes
and basketball games. Special singing
was provided by members of the youth group, by
Ashley, Lindsay and Elizabeth Swartzwelder and
by Chris Bishop. Later, Bro. Tom brought
a short challenging sermon, concluding a fun-filled
day and a time of fellowship.
Our Church has always been mission-minded and
supported efforts to spread God’s Word.
As proof, our church-wide mission offering was
a grand total of $17,032.22 for the year 2001.
This includes Greenup Baptist Association offering
of $1,800.00, Cooperative Program-$10,909.86,
Kentucky Baptist Homes for Children-$1,026.39,
Annie Armstrong- $849.00, Eliza Broadus-$486.00,
Lottie Moon-$1,755.00, Ross Hanna/Caring Ministries-$148.97,
and to the World Hunger Fund-$57.00.
Pollard members are accustomed to challenges and
in March the entire church once again was faced
with a major challenge—that of finding a new pastor
because Bro. Bill Vallance who had been with us
for six years resigned. Why was that such
a challenge? There were virtually no qualified
ministers available in our area. But we
were patient, prayerful, and dedicated to the
task. We attempted to follow God’s leading
and in June our pulpit committee came up with
a very promising prospect—the Rev. Tom Swartzwelder.
After several meetings, trial sermons, periods
of questions and answers and much prayer, it appeared
that Bro. Tom and the Church had “taken a liking
to each other.” As a result, Bro. Tom (and
his wonderful family) agreed to come be our pastor
and leader—and we haven’t been the same since!
We feel confident this was all God’s Will worked
out in His perfect timing. Bro. Tom’s lovely
wife Ruth and his wonderful teen-age daughters
are multi-talented and add a new spark of life
to our worship services. Through the challenge
of finding a new shepherd when the field seemed
barren, Pollard has had Psalm 37:34 reinforced.
Bro. Tom is not short on ideas and plans and he
hit the ground running—the only problem the rest
of us have is keeping up with him! He has
already created a new church brochure that declares
our purpose as a church and the five areas in
which we are to grow in experiencing God.
In addition, he has put into place a First Impression
Team, consisting of five husband/wife couples,
to distribute this brochure along with Bible ribbons
and information forms to our guests. He
has instituted our first “Family Day”. The
idea was that members were to invite anyone and
everyone related to them by blood or marriage
to our Church service. The one having the
most responses was to receive a beautiful walnut
mantle clock made and donated by one of our own,
Wink Cornwell. This special service was
slated for November 25th and, believe
it or not, we counted 169 in attendance.
Two families tied for the clock, each having 14
present. Wink was willing to fork over another
clock instead of breaking the tie.
For the December 2nd service, Bro Tom scheduled
the Heaven’s Hands hand bell trio from Highlawn
Baptist in Huntington to perform in our evening
service. This group of young ladies thrilled
us with their performance of the bells.
This was a special treat for our congregation.
For the Christmas season Bro. Tom instituted our
first candlelight service for the children.
During two Sunday evening services, he gathered
the children around him on the stage and by candlelight
shared with them the story of the birth of Christ.
They sang songs and shared thoughts of Christmas
with each other. We hope this is the beginning
of a long-lasting tradition.
As the year draws to a close we pleasantly recall
all the birthdays, weddings and anniversaries
that were celebrated. We rejoice with the
12 people who gave their lives to the Lord and
were baptized during 2001, and with the 18 people
who by Letter became part of our membership.
We celebrated three weddings, one 50th
Anniversary and ten anniversaries that were for
more than 50 years.
Our countenance, however, saddens as we remember
the ten members of our congregation who went to
be with the Lord. They are sorely missed;
yet amidst this grief there is joy because these
individuals are spending eternity with the Lord.
Certainly that’s the greatest comfort and joy
those left behind can have.
Our year ended on a very pleasant note – with
Larry Stovall’s “I Don’t Know What to Call It
Night” and we still don’t know what to call it.
However, whatever it was, it was enjoyable, inspiring,
and uplifting because numerous individuals, families
and groups lifted their voices in praise of our
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father,
Prince of Peace.
Are you pleased with the reflection of Pollard
Baptist Church? Do you like the face presented
in the mirror of 2001? If so, forward ho!
Let’s continue in the work of the Lord!
If you’re still somewhat dissatisfied with your
image, now is the time for change or modification
of plans. Decide now what the reflection
of Pollard Baptist is to be at the end of 2002!
|
