A Saturday Well Spent: Discovery Day, October 6!

By Kyle Barsch

Kelly and I had the privilege of participating in Discovery Day back in April 2012. To be honest, I wasn’t sure exactly why I should attend. Did I have a spiritual gift, or how would I actually use one if I did? I could not have been more wrong.

The entire experience was eye opening, and I got far more out of the day than I could have imagined. I would urge everyone to attend if you haven’t previously had the opportunity. It’s an excellent time to learn more about yourself, your gifts, and how you can make an impact at South Main while growing the Kingdom.

For us, it was a great opportunity for discussion and fellowship with our church family.

A Saturday well spent!

 

Kyle and Kelly Barsch are South Main Members who teach Financial Peace University and Preschool Sunday School. They are proud parents of Eileen (3) and newborn baby Evan.

Meet Nely

Nely has a son, Ribaldo, in the Operacion San Andres’ secondary program. For work, Nely owns a little store inside of her house in Collique, where she sells all sorts of goodies including food, drinks, necessities, and office supplies. She has owned the store for about five years, but has just recently taken out a loan from her brother in order to grow her store. Just in the past couple of months she has been able to fill up her store with all that is shown in the picture. Nely got involved with OSA through a friend and is grateful for all that OSA has done for her son.

What does she need?
Since the growth of her business, Nely has lost control with the administration and organization of her inventory. She wants to learn how to administer her business so that she can see the profit she is making in order to care for her expenses, including paying back her loan to her brother and providing necessities for her family. Nely is a very hard worker and believes if she can do the basic organizing needed for her business, growth will occur. OSA is working to help her organize her store by showing her how to write down her inventory, find her profit, and invest back into her store so that it may grow.

How can we help?
Although Nely does not currently need any loans, encouragement for the hard work she is putting into her store is essential. Pray that she has the integrity and perseverance to continue to write down her inventory, find her revenues and expenses, and with discipline, find her profit. Nely is the only employee of her store, but to know that people around the world care for her and are working with her through prayer to grow her business could be one of the best ways to help grow her store. If you would like to send a letter through email to encourage Nely and remind her that she is not alone in working in her business, please send it to kabbring@operacionsanandres.org. OSA believes that this is the best way to maximize Nely’s talents and skills as a store owner. By encouraging her with prayer, you will be investing in the economic improvement of her family’s life.

My Break from the ‘Book

Guest blogger is South Main Member, Kaci Coble.  

I did what many thought I would never do - I took a break from Facebook. I’ve long been dubbed the ultimate Facebook junkie, literally initiating, rekindling, and maintaining countless friendships simply because of my activity on and love for the site. I’ve been a long time defender, champion of those who care to share, and have taken my fair share of beatings (figuratively, of course) in both personal and professional settings because of it.

All that being said, I recently recommitted my life to Christ. I grew up with a strong faith, following a mother that was devout and passionate. Like most of us, my late high school and college years took me further and further away from the discipline. I was blessed enough to find an incredible church home here in Houston as a young adult, and had yet again strayed away from my faith for various reasons over the last year or two.Through an interesting and seemingly painful situation at the time, a dear friend inspired me to get back to the church family I’d been missing so much. Changing my weekends from living for Saturday night to living for Sunday morning wasn’t an easy adjustment, especially for someone who loves to dance and loathes the alarm clock as much as I do – but it’s been nothing shy of amazing from that moment on.Reason I say all of that is, it’s what inspired me to take a break from Facebooking. I am in no way condemning the social media site or insinuating that it is evil or bad - I just think that like anything, there can be a very healthy and positive side, as well as a negative and consuming side. I wasn’t using Facebook for the negative, nor was I being impacted negatively directly – rather, it was the consuming aspect that motivated my break.At work, I sit behind two monitors. I also have an iPad and iPhone that are within arms reach. When I go outside during the day for a breath of fresh air and to give my eyes a break from the computer…I’m on Facebook on my phone. Stuck behind a train? Facebook. Waiting for a friend? Facebook. Unwinding in bed at night? Facebook. Laying out by myself? Facebook. Break at work? Facebook. The moment anything remotely comical or interesting happens? Facebook. I could go on, and on, and on.I decided to take a break because I realized I needed to declutter my life a little. We are all so overstimulated and overworked, and we constantly, both intentionally and unintentionally, fill our minds with thoughts and needs and desires and questions and wishes every second we’re awake. As I continue to grow in my relationship with God, I ask him for guidance and I ask a lot of questions.When is he supposed to answer my questions if I’m never quiet or still enough to listen?

Does that mean I need to set aside daily alone time to meditate and wait for him to speak? No. Does that mean I can’t have any distractions to hear the word of God? No. It simply means, for me, that I could very well reallocate even a small percentage of my time spent Facebooking to praying, reading scripture, and just being still in my mind with God.

I was almost certain I’d miss it like crazy and would give in a get on, though I trusted my will power not to. I have to say, with the exception of an impromptu work trip where my newsfeed would’ve kept me a little extra company, I haven’t really missed it at all, and quite frankly, it’s allowed me to acknowledge my dislike for the site.

That being said, it truly is a great way to keep in touch with both friends and family that no longer live nearby, and I love being connected to the extended circle of people I have things in common with and care about, and for that reason, I’m still pro-Facebook :)

I am not a fan of Facebook when it’s used maliciously. Using it as a medium to communicate to someone you’re not communicating with is destructive. Using your status updates and photos to try to get back at someone or make someone jealous is awful. Using it to judge other people and to talk about them is wrong. Using it to brag or boast is bad as well. These are all things I see all over my newsfeed daily, and here about at every turn, and those things will be blocked from my newsfeed and cleaned off my friend list.

I want to use my Facebook for a couple of things -

• To keep in touch with distant friends that either live too far to see regularly or travel a lot.
• To share with my family, my sisters, aunts, cousins, etc. what it is I’m up to so that we can continue to pick right up where we left off at holidays, birthdays, etc.
• To share in the joy of marriage and the beginning of families of friends that have become distant in proximity but not in heart.
• To connect with friends about sports, because quite frankly, aside from God, love, and good food – sports might very well be the best thing on earth.
• To minister to anyone and everyone in need, willing to listen, or interested in what He is doing in my life and what he can and wants to do in yours if you’ll let him.

The only time I’ve truly felt compelled to get on Facebook over the last week and a half was to share things from a Christian book I was reading or to post about the playoffs – that’s it. I moved my Facebook app to a folder and replaced it with a daily scripture app. Every time I felt the desire to look at my newsfeed, which habitually was very, very often, especially in the first few days – I would either pray or read scripture. I have continued to fill my eyes, mind, heart and soul with positive words of strength and guidance as I continue on my journey. I want to be a rock and a resource to those of you who need a friend in Christ. I want to be a light and inspiration to everyone I meet, and if you don’t have a church home, I encourage you to come to South Main Baptist Church. But ultimately, no matter where you live or what your religious preference, I hope to be an occasional reminder of love and positivity in your life. I too have been down my own bumpy path and am no better than anyone and the good Lord knows (literally) that I’ve sinned time and time again and need as much forgiveness as the next guy - but knowing that the grace and mercy that has been extended to me provides me with a new beginning each morning is the most heartwarming and joyous feeling. It is never too late, you are never too far gone, and you’ve done nothing too wrong for Him.This website has taken on so many different forms and purposes over the years, and right now, the craving that is fit for my stage of life is my faith. Grace and peace. Love and acceptance.I encourage you to consider how you prioritize and distribute your time. Make a little time for yourself. Make a little time for Him. He has created a future for you beyond your expectations, you just have to ask Him for it. Turn over your worries, cares, frustrations, anxieties and sins, and he will renew your spirit.Grace & Peace,

Kaci l. coble

Original post can be found here at Kaci’s Blog, the fit craving.

Why I love Manna…

By Avery Cate

Manna is church. It is community. The Trinity Pines Chapel is a safe place to come and rest after a long week. I come because it’s such an accepting place, where I don’t have to fit into any sort of mold or feel like I have my life under control.Most weeks I stumble up still groggy from just waking up and desperately reaching for coffee.  Everyone out there is reaching for something: food, conversation, a warm smile, a feeling of hope, a way out, a cup of cold water under the hot Houston sun. And when we seek these things, we usually find them. When we make the journey out to Trinity Pines, we receive a free gift and we are changed. We walk away with refreshment, or an invitation to play chess, or hope that maybe this week will bring work, or sometimes pure unbounded joy after a conversation with a friend who received good news.

We share our time and that sacred space outside the parking lot. We share each other’s pain and joy as we open up in honest conversations about our lives. We share our ideas about God and we sing about amazing grace. That’s why I love Manna… and that’s why I love Sundays. I get to go to church twice.

Avery Cate is a Rice University graduate and Patent Agent at a Law Firm in Houston. She is a member of the choir, watershed, and the weekly community of folks at Manna who share food and friendship at the Trinity Pines Chapel every Sunday morning at eight o’clock on the north end of the South Main campus. She drew this picture of Trinity Pines Chapel and the Downtown skyline as a gift for Joseph Kelsay, who sent it back to Tom Williams for safe keeping. Mr. Williams made a copy to send back to Joseph and had the original framed by South Mainers, J Hill and Hillevi Baar to be hung at South Main as a reminder of the Church’s call to, “seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.”

– Jeremiah 29:7

Love Without Chocolate

By Rachel McCarty, South Main Member

It’s amazing that even though I’m living halfway across the world, South Main still feels like it’s a drive away. SMBC has been and always be my home away from home. I’m a fourth-generation church member and like my entire family, I bleed green and gold. I graduated from Baylor last May with a degree in Social Work. Immediately after graduation I was blessed with the opportunity to teach English in northern Thailand which is where I currently reside. I have spent this year becoming immersed in a wonderful culture, teaching and learning from precious Thai teenagers, and trying to grasp a better understanding of what I want my future to look like.

During this time I have discovered a deep passion in the area of International work and human trafficking which I plan to pursue as a career after graduate school. One living example of human trafficking that has recently received news coverage is that of child slaves working on cocoa plantations in West Africa. This part of Africa, specifically the Ivory Coast produces 70% of the world’s cocoa. UNICEF has estimated that 500,000 children are working in harsh conditions with little to no pay. Most receive no education and have been forcibly taken from their homes and families. Despite harvesting cocoa for up to fifteen hours a day, many have never even tasted chocolate. This is not a new issue. The Harkin-Engel Protocol or “Cocoa Protocol” called for an end to child slavery ten years ago. It is still unclear whether or not the protocol reduced child labor. Major chocolate companies like M&M/Mars, Nestle, Hershey, and Ferrero Rocher have given no proof of the changes they agreed to a decade ago.

As soon as I heard about the issue I knew I had to get involved. Some friends and I created a social movement called “Love Without Chocolate” that is beginning with a focus on the Valentine’s Day holiday. We are asking that people like you join our boycott of non-fair trade chocolate during the days when chocolate companies make a fortune. Americans alone purchase nearly sixty million pounds of chocolate during the days leading up to Valentine’s Day. Our hope is to raise awareness and get the attention of the chocolate industry that is allowing child slavery to continue.

Awareness is just the beginning step of social justice for these children, but change has to start somewhere. Please help us spread the word. Let’s demand change and speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. To learn more about our movement and ways to get involved, please visit our Facebook page “Love Without Chocolate”.

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.” – Proverbs 31:8-9

Facebook page
Twitter
E-mail address:  lovewithoutchocolate@gmail.com

A few fair trade chocolate companies include Divine Chocolate and Equal Exchange.  Grocery stores like Whole Foods should also carry fair trade chocolate.

Thank you for your consideration to join this cause!

To God Alone be the Glory

Dear Church Family,

In the spring of 1987, while serving Columbia Baptist Church in Falls Church, Virginia, the Cokers were approached by a dedicated and enthusiastic search committee regarding the position of Minister of Music at South Main Baptist Church. Following some agonizing days of pondering and praying about what God would have us to do; we ultimately felt the call to lead this music ministry. We believed in and committed ourselves to building and maintaining a music ministry at South Main that could help the church inspire people, lead them in worship,develop fellowship, and help people find their ministry.

By early fall of 2012, I will have served actively as a Minister of Music for 50 years. I will also have served South Main for half of those 50 years. I am extremely blessed to have been able to spend a large part of my life doing what I felt God has called me to do.  Now it is time for me to pass on the baton to the next generation. Therefore, I will be retiring from the position of Minister of Music at South Main Baptist Church on June 3, 2012.

In these past 25 years with you, we have tried to honor the traditions of the past while strengthening church music for the future. We inherited a music ministry program that had been carefully and lovingly developed by those who had gone before us. That ministry had been built on the concepts of teaching children, youth, and adults how to sing, play, and lead music–using the musical varieties of “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” in worship and ministry. We believed in this ministry and focused our efforts on building and maintaining a music ministry that could help the church continue to inspire people, lead them in worship, develop fellowship, and help people find their ministry.

In more recent days here at South Main we have rightly called these: Worship, Discover, and Share. I am firmly convinced that these three ingredients must be the foundation of the music ministry as well as a part of each individual involved in the ministry.

In order to celebrate our musical past, present and future together, the ministerial staff, Music Council and I are working on a plan for the music ministry for this year. We anticipate the music year as follows:

October 30, 2011, 6:00 p.m.

The Sanctuary Choir will combine with the Houston Children’s Chorus to present John Rutter’s Mass of the Children.

December 11, 2011

Unwrapping Christmas is our theme for Advent. Unwrapping Christmas/Unwrapping Glorias: A Christmas Concert, will feature the Gloria of John Rutter (with brass, percussion and organ) and the Jazz Gloria of Houston composer Rob Landes as well as other glorious Christmas music.

Ash Wednesday Evening - February 22, 2012

A possible presentation of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Mass in G Minor (an a cappella double choir work of great beauty and historic text; it will beautifully set up the Lenten Season).

Glorious Easter –  April 8, 2012

 

June 2-3, 2012

A Joyous Musical Festival celebrating the vibrant music which is one of the hallmarks of South Main’s ongoing ministry.

Youth and children’s choirs will have significant plans for this year, with a terrific mini-tour and a full musical scheduled for youth and Bach to Broadway Jr. for children.  Let me invite you all to join with us in the music ministry to celebrate Christ through the gift of music at South Main. I hope to see many of you active in choirs, handbells, orchestra and congregational singing.

I firmly believe the years ahead are to be years of growth and vibrancy. It is my prayer that South Main continues to teach and reflect the work of Christ through the psalms, hymns and spiritual songs learned by children and adults at South Main and that the beauty and majesty of our Creator will shine through these our gifts in the indigenous worship style of South Main.

I am grateful to have had the opportunity to serve our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, here with you at South Main Baptist Church in Houston, and I look forward to this special year as your Minister of Music.

Soli Deo Gloria (to God alone be glory),

Thomas Coker, South Main Minister of Music

 

Accepting the Call

The Conaway Family: (left to right) Sam, Carmen, Erin and Alex

To My Dear South Main Family,

Guided as we believe by the Holy Spirit through a process of listening and discernment, Carmen and Alex and Sam and I have accepted the call for me to be the next Pastor of Seventh and James Baptist Church in Waco, TX. There are so many things churning within us about this decision: humble enthusiasm about this next step, plenty of trepidation about the new role and responsibilities, deep pain about being three hours away from you and about leaving this church family and my privileged position of walking with you through so many sacred spaces; but beneath the roller coaster of emotions there is an overwhelming sense of peace that this is exactly what God is calling us to do. We have been completely embraced by the people at Seventh and have felt and continue to feel their joy and excitement about our days to come.

The timing seems to be way off, I’m telling you this on the first Sunday after our pastor is gone on a much deserved and now I think very timely sabbatical. Steve has been a part of this journey the entire way through. He and I have talked this to death, prayed about it a lot, and he has been a wonderful encourager and given me his blessing at every step along the way. We have worked so closely together these past eight years and have provided real balance to one another-it’s hard for me to imagine doing ministry without him and I know I will stagger around some while I get my bearings as we both learn to do this in different places. All along we have talked with you about our Sabbatical plan, and that will not change-we still have a strong pastoral team in place to serve with you through Steve’s time away, and that will include me for most of that journey. Our last Sunday here will be July 17th, so we have plenty of time to walk this season of transition in our journey in ministry together.

And I want you to hear me say, in no way could I go there if I had not been here.

This is the place where I learned so much of what I know about being a minister;

This is the place where nine years ago, you took a chance and called a dirt salesman to help out in the college ministry and our love affair began;

This is the place where we learned what it means to serve a church family with all that we are and to be loved in return in ways we could not have imagined;

This is the place where we began the wonderful and terrifying journey of parenthood and you walked this path with us every step of the way;

This is the place where I learned what it is to be a part of a team in ministry and to see the wonder of God using our different gifts and talents to do far more with us together than we could ever do apart;

This is the place where my missional heart has exploded trying to keep up with how fast and how far God’s love is flowing out to our neighbors here and around the world;

This is the place where my heart has heard your stories and held them close-in agony and celebration you have allowed me to sit with you and pray with you and hear you and I will forever be blessed because of that great privilege;

This is the place I will always cherish and you will be a part of us wherever we go. Thank you, thank you, thank you from our hearts that are overflowing with your blessing and your love.

Grace & Truth,

Erin, Carmen, Alex & Sam Conaway