PRAYER FOR OUR COUNTRY

July 4th is just around the corner. As a part of our 40 Days of Prayer, could we “extend” our united prayer efforts to pray for our country? It is our plan to distribute a “Prayer for Freedom” brochure on Sunday, June 30. This is a guide we put together to help equip our church family and friends to pray for our beloved country. There can be little to no doubt about how much we need prayer. So, let’s pray.

We are asking that our church family and friends would just reserve some time on July 4th to pray. The brochure we prepared will help guide you in your prayer time if you need any help or if you just want to add this to your own prayer time.

This brochure includes a copy of President George Washington’s prayer and a prayer for our country prayed by President Woodrow Wilson. At the center of the brochure you will find 6 Bible verses that will help you in your prayer time. We can all join together in praying these verses for our own hearts, those of our loved ones and our country.

The late Dr. Billy Graham once said: “We have so many battles going on in America today that we should be a people of prayer. Our government needs prayer; our leaders need prayer; our youth need prayer; and our families need prayer.” We could add more and more to Dr. Graham’s list of who all needs prayer.

So, will you join us in praying for our country on July 4th? You can pray any where, any time, with any one and any way you choose. We tried to equip our church family to pray during the 40 Days of Prayer. This is just one of this year’s prayer emphases. Everyone attending worship on Sunday, June 30 will receive, in the worship bulletin, one of the JIBC prayer guides. If you will not be here on June 30, you may stop by the church office any time to pick one up.

We will lead in another prayer time closer to the National Election for the President of the United States.

Thanks for joining your church family and friends in praying for America. There is a lot to pray for.

Blessings in His Name,

Pastor Tom

Beautiful Families Dedicated to Our Heavenly Father!

This coming Sunday, June 23, we will celebrate one of our Parent/Child Celebration services. We get to thank God for these wonderful families and the new life given to them. What a blessing they are to our church family and to the Kingdom. Many of us are familiar with the story of Jesus laying hands on the children and blessing them. It is our sincere prayer that the same Spirit will be present as we dedicate these parents, these beautiful children and our church family to the awesome task of helping these children become fully devoted followers of Christ.

Several years ago, we started a practice of giving each family a jar full of legacy marbles. Each marble represents 1 week until that child reaches 18 years of age. There are 6 milestone marbles in addition to represent the major events of a child’s life. It is so wonderful when we, as a church family, can watch those very same children achieve these milestones!

AND THAT IS JUST THE BEGINNING!

Really, the Sunday Parent/Child Dedication Celebration is the “Kick-off” for this year Vacation Bible School “Breaker Rock Beach”. Please pray for children to come…led by His spirit, brought by parents, grandparents, neighbors and friends. The Gospel will be taught on many levels. Pray that hearts are receptive. Pray also for the strength and energy of our volunteers. After a full day, they have signed up for a full night! You have heard it takes a village to raise a child…it takes that same village to pull off a successful Vacation Bible School.

Thank you for being a church that gives so generously to make these two events happen. Your giving enables us to go all out and to do our very best. Many times, the baptisms that you see are directly related to the sacrificial gifts you make to Kingdom work. Thank you.

See you this Sunday, good Lord willing!

Pastor Tom

NO ONE GOES HUNGRY ON JAMES ISLAND

Some will remember Hurricane Hugo that hit our area in September of 1989. It was the largest Hurricane I ever tried to run from! After we all returned home and cleaned up our own homes, we started reaching out to the community. The newly activated James Island Ministerial group met to form James Island Outreach. The initial goal was to help those who experienced damage from Hugo but were not receiving funds and/or insurance. So, teams from James Island, Charleston and really all around the country were formed to help the underserved. It was soon very evident that much of the damage we were surveying was here long before Hugo hit. So the temporary nature of James Island Outreach grew into an ongoing mission and ministry. After years of rebuild, the corner was turned and we were able to shift our attention from rebuilding homes to helping feed the underserved. So, James Island Outreach became the clearing house for churches, organizations and individuals to help their neighbors. We adopted a slogan that said “Nobody on James Island goes hungry unless we don’t know about them”.

This ministry started small but also started to grow. It outgrew the generous service of Bethany United Methodist Church on Maybank Highway. They housed James Island Outreach for years. Then the ministry grew significantly with the donation of two “mobile home/classroom” buildings by James Island Christian Church. That allowed JIO to really multiply their ministry and the number of families they served.

Now, each month, JIO serves more than 170 households. In 2023 neighbors and friends donated over 219,125 pounds of food; gave out $34,589 to assist 145 households. These funds were used for medicine, housing and utilities.

I want to thank you for being a part of this mission outreach to those in need. You generously give jelly (for those who do not know, we are the official jelly church of James Island). You did such a great job, they asked if we could add pancake syrup to our list! It is amazing to see the amount of love you give. We have volunteers from JIBC who go on a regular basis. They usually let us know if they are low on jelly or syrup! I love the way you reach out to offer support to those in need. Let keep the tradition going: No one on James Island goes to bed hungry unless we don’t know about it.

See you Sunday, good Lord willing!

Pastor Tom

COMING UP JUST AROUND THE CORNER

PARENT/CHILD DEDICATION

Sunday, June 23 will be our Parent Child Dedication service. If you would like to participate in this one, please call Neale at the church office (843-762-0244) or email neale@jamesislandbaptist.com. You will need to send in 5 pictures by June12th. Make sure you invite family and friends to celebrate with us. What an honor to thank God and praise Him for new life!

VACATION BIBLE SCHOOL JUNE 24-28

The Parent Child Dedication will help us launch this year’s Vacation Bible School. VBS is a wonderful Bible tradition for JIBC. Only eternity will tell the number of children that were led to the Lord during VBS. All across the Southern Baptist Convention there will be: 2.5 million children involved in VBS. In one year there were 75,000 professions of faith; and over 155,000 prospects discovered. And why not, we put almost 7 months of Bible Study into one week; 15 hours of intensive discipleship with the Gospel presented every day! Did we mention free suppers? Yes indeed, our VBS leaders want to go all out to make it as easy as possible to get the children here. All we ask is that you sign up online ahead of time for the free meals. Another little nugget…no pun intended: nationwide VBS gave $5.5 million to mission causes! No wonder we love VBS. By the way, this year’s VBS offering will go to help buy “under-roos”(underwear) for orphans and to help buy school supplies.

BEACH BAPTISM 2024

We will plan to have another Beach Baptism on Wednesday, August 7 at the Folly Beach County Park. You will find us under the pop ups, sitting in our beach chairs. Last year’s beach baptism was a phenomenal highlight of the year. Please let us know if you are interested in joining us for this year’s beach baptism. Everyone is welcome to attend! Family, friends, baptisms, beach…can’t wait!

See you Sunday, good Lord willing

Pastor Tom