HE KNEW HE WAS LOST…

Janie and I often go for evening walks in our neighborhood. They are usually totally uneventful. Just two old people getting in their steps. Then it happened. “Look Janie, that is not right”. A two year old toddler with no adult in sight. It happened to be a beautiful African American baby boy. I suggested following him at a close distance to not scare him and to see if he knew where his home was. The next two left turns assured me he was lost and he knew he was lost. A bouncy ball in one hand a truck in the other and a pacifier in his mouth. He would look at us, grin and run. Thankyou Jesus he was two and not four. I can still outrun a 2 year old. We talked, laughed, played ball, all to get him to trust us. Not so much. Two old white people trying to take my bouncy ball. He wasn’t having it. So, we made the call to 911 and reported who we were, where we were and that we had a very lost 2-year-old infant. We were able to guide him to the field at Epworth Methodist Church. More running. It took a while for the cops to show up. Runaway infant being chased by old white people is not a high on the emergency list…except to the old people doing the chasing! The officer that arrived was like an angel from heaven, a beautiful black female officer angel. That little infant opened his little arms and went straight to the officer. The officer said “You two have just made one grandmother very happy.” Apparently, he had gotten away from grandma, made one wrong turn and was lost. With every wrong turn the little guy got more and more lost.

Kind of a picture of life isn’t it. We could be safe at home with our Heavenly Father. Then we take a wrong turn or two and find ourselves lost. Each wrong turn, each wrong decision takes us away from His shelter, His provision. Not away from His love but away from a relationship He wants us to have with Him. We have our version of a bouncy ball, our toy car and our pacifier. What more do we need? His presence. His watch care. His Shepherding. If you made a wrong turn stop, ask Him, He will lead you home and be so glad to see you back. If you won’t stop, don’t be surprised if He sends two old white people to help you or better yet, one beautiful angel officer!

"Dear Father, help us to enjoy what you give us but to never think those things are what we need to be happy. Please place in our lives people who will help us find our way back home. Forgive us our wrong turns. When we have lost our ways, grant us the ability to know we are lost and to quit running. Protect us from dangers we may never see coming. Amen"

Pastor Tom

IT’S GETTING REAL UP IN HERE!

Remember what it was like to be a kid waiting on Christmas…it would never get here fast enough. Compare that to remembering the joy of having the summer off with no school but knowing that September would be here before you knew it!

The Kitchen Renovation is about to be complete and baptized with its first function. It is not “complete complete” but it is functional and ready to go. Just a few more things to do. This week will be given to moving things back into the kitchen into their brand spanking new home! There will be one “soft-opening” to make sure everything is up to snuff and ready to go. The big celebration will be Wednesday, May 27 from 5:00 to 6:15. By God’s good grace, we will be serving the #1 meal featuring fried chicken, mac and cheese and all the fixin’s. I believe there will be banana pudding for dessert. My eating plan takes a holiday that night!

By the way, what better timing than to celebrate the renovation with the Awana Awards night! Our JIBC kids and friends will get their well-deserved recognition for all the hard work they did. Awana leaders will get to celebrate the fruit of their loving labor. Teaching children the Word of God…well done.

Then, the welcoming of our new staff member, Josh Sorrow along with his wife, Laura and their three children. We are so happy to have them on the team. Saturday, May 30 we will have a drop in at JIBC for leaders to come by and say hello. Sunday will be the formal introduction and a commissioning. All adult Bible Study Connection Groups are invited to a Meet and Greet Sunday from 10:00 to 10:40. We will have Josh share some and maybe do a question-and-answer time.

As I said, “IT’S GETTING REAL UP IN HERE.” Kind of like aging…it was slow at first and then it picked up a lot of speed! Love you all.

Pastor Tom

The Invitation Has Been Extended!

All things being equal, James Island Baptist Church has extended a call to Josh Sorrow and his family. We are inviting them to join the JIBC family and staff where Josh will serve as Pastor of Administration and Small Groups/Discipleship. Josh is coming to us from Somerset, Kentucky. He grew up in Summerville where his father served for years as the Associate Pastor of Administration and Small Groups at Old Fort Baptist Church. Josh is a graduate of Charleston Southern University and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. In the past Josh has served as Minister to Students as well as Pastor of Administration and Discipleship. Fun fact: some of you may remember Scott Miller who served at Clearview Baptist/New Beginnings Church here on James Island. Scott went to southern Indiana as Pastor of Graceland Baptist Church (yes, named after that Graceland). Josh served as a Student Intern under Scott Miller. He could not have had a better pastor/leader/mentor than Scott.

From our first contact with Josh, which was with his resume, we felt like he was a perfect match for what we are looking for. His experience, his spiritual gifts, his passions are lined up great with the mission and ministry of JIBC. This is the first “public” announcement we are making. We will start planning the details of his move in the days ahead. Oh, by the way, Josh is married; he and Laura have three children, a daughter and two sons! If you are on Facebook, look him up and send him a friend request! I look forward to having Josh and his family as a staff member and as a part of the JIBC family!

PS: Josh is coming to join us in what we sometimes refer to as “Second Chair”. He is coming as the Associate Pastor. He is not coming as the replacement of the old guy that currently sits in the Pastor’s Office. Sorry to mention that but curious minds will want to know.

Matters Closer to Home

As I am typing, the Kitchen cabinets and shelves are being put in! They look awesome! Somebody say “Mac-n-Cheese, please!” It looks like our first meal served in the renovated kitchen will be Wednesday, May 20…even though it may technically be “finished” by May 13.

Love you all,

Pastor Tom

IT IS TOO SOON TO GIVE UP

When do you throw in the towel and give up? There may be a time that is right. Too often I think some people throw in the towel and walk away too soon. This past Saturday, May 2 was the 152nd Run for the Roses, the famed Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. What a great lesson to learn. The horse, Golden Tempo, was a long shot with odds 23-1. The race starts and the impressive field runs like the wind, packed together jockeying for that sweet position of getting out early to be number one. It was an impressive field indeed. At the half mile mark not many people had their eye on the horse that was in last place, 19th out of 19! That horse was Golden Tempo. Last…dead last…with 18 proven winners out in front of him. Not last for a second but last for the first half mile of the race. Then the alpha male horse said enough is enough and he turned on the afterburners and closed the distance. From dead last to winning by a neck, winning by less that one second! Golden Tempo, his jockey, Jose Ortiz and his trainer, Cherie DeVaux did not throw in the towel because they were last. They did not quit or give up on their horse. Golden Tempo climbed from last to first. Cherie DeVaux became the first female trainer in Kentucky Derby History to win the most prestigious of all horse races. The reason? They did not quit or give up.

Don’t give up too soon. God may still be working a miracle, He may still be waiting for the moment to bring you from last to first, from the prison cell to freedom, from the whale’s belly to your assignment, from the cross, the grave to the resurrection. Don’t give up too soon. Your Owner sees you, He knows where you are in the race of life. He knows the odds.

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize!” (1 Corinthians 9:24) No matter how far back in this race of life you have fallen, you can, by God’s grace and mercy, make it back to the front! It is too soon to give up.

Love you all,

Pastor Tom

WANT TO SAY THANK YOU?

To paraphrase a tribute to the legendary James Brown, how would you like to say thank you to some of the hardest working people in Hollywood! Except it is not James Brown and it is not Hollywood. It is the school teachers at Johns Island Elementary School. On Wednesday, May 6, we will be serving a delicious Kickin’ Chicken lunch to the staff at Johns Island Elementary. We did this last year and had a great time meeting the teachers and staff. It is an opportunity to meet and greet and to show appreciation. The cost has been taken care of by our “Kickin’ Chicken Benefactor”. All we need are smiling faces to serve and to do some very minor set up. If you would like to go, please let me know ASAP. Some of you may have been praying for this school and now is an opportunity to put some feet…even if they are tiny little chicken feet, to your prayers. We will only have room for about 6 or 7…maybe 8 volunteers. Think Connection Group, families or for you extroverts, a chance to meet people you do not yet know!

HOW IS IT GOING?

How is your Pray Charleston 2026 going? I did send one post card to the mayor to let him know he is being prayed for. I hope there are many, many people praying for him and all of our elected officials. We will try to produce new prayer brochures for every quarter of the year. That way we can be praying for different people, ministries, services, etc. “Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Jeremiah 29:7

ROAD TRIP

The plan is that I will leave on Wednesday, April 29 to travel to Somerset, Kentucky to do an onsite visit with a prospective staff member. We are looking for a Pastor of Administration and Small Groups/Connection Groups. We have already had multiple times with this prospect and, at this point, feel like we would like to continue pursing this work relationship. Please keep us in your prayers. I will plan to be back Friday evening, May 1 and will be in church Sunday. By the way, I will say this a bunch of times: this is someone who will be an Associate Pastor. He is not someone to be the next pastor. His gift mix is perfect for a “second chair” leader.

See you Sunday, good Lord willing!

Pastor Tom

WITHOUT LEAVING HOME

Many of us like to travel to foreign places. Others, not so much. Most of us would agree that “be it ever so humble there is no place like home.” Well, JIBC found a way for you to do international missions right here at home!

First, how about some “Slavic Outreach”. You may remember that JIBC gives a small gathering of Ukrainians a place to worship every Sunday here at JIBC. The Leadership Team of this Slavic church, Zion Church, is primarily Ukrainian. But they are reaching out to all the Slavic groups in the greater Charleston area. This past Sunday, they hosted a Slavic worship service featuring String Ensembles, a 25-voice choir, multiple concert pianists and multiple readers of the Gospel. I stayed for an hour and ten minutes. I only recognized “Crown Him” and “The Via Dolorosa”. I should say I recognized the tune, not the words. This was a worship service that was designed to touch the heart of those who are connected by linguistic, ethnic and cultural roots. I would guess there were around 70 people present. Well done!

OK, let’s go to the island for some mission work…specifically St Helena Island, South Carolina. The Hispanic Church, Luz Y Verdad, will be going to the migrant camps at St Helena Island to share the gospel. The Migrant Hygiene kits are a practical gift. They usually cookout for them, play music and then preach the Gospel. By the way, you would be welcome to join them for one of these trips. Interested? Let us know. What a great opportunity…international missions right here at home.

Now, how about a little home mission? This will be prefect for some of you. David Miller has offered to sponsor a Teacher Appreciation Lunch for Johns Island Elementary School in May. We are thinking it will be the third week of May. All we need are some volunteers to go and greet the teachers as they come for some deliciousness! Just come and be your regular JIBC friendly. Who knows what mission opportunity a chance encounter might produce. Interested…come with us to thank a teacher!

How about that? Two islands and Eastern Europe and you never left home! Well done.

See you Sunday, good Lord willing,

Pastor Tom

Whoohoo! It has begun!

Whoohoo is not as good as “Hallelujah, but it translates pretty close. Whether we use Hallelujah or Whoohoo, let’s get excited. The renovation of the kitchen started Monday, April 13! I find myself going back there every 30 minutes or so just to see the progress. I never knew deconstruction could be so exciting and look so good.

From now until the project is finished, we will probably have the kitchen doors locked off to most of us. There is really not much in there now you can use…it has been emptied out. No ice, no sinks, no pans, no spoons…no nothin’! It is one big beautiful empty box. I get more and more excited with every new thing the construction workers do.

Now for the challenging work. We are trying to continue on with Wednesday Night Dinners. The menu will be basic, but delicious. The Wednesday Night dinners will rotate between hamburgers cooked on the grill, pizza from our two favorite pizza joints, and hotdogs cooked on the grill. Thanks to our Grill Master Todd and our every faithful Kitchen Krew! Again, it will be a basic menu until completion. We are hoping the project will be over on Wednesday, May 13. You know what our welcome back meal will be…oh yeah! Fried Chicken, mac-n-cheese, a great salad and a few other items filled with deliciousness.

This no Kitchen Zone will also affect our Celebrate Recovery Meal on Sunday evenings. They will likewise just work from a very basic menu for a few weeks. It will be worth it all when we get back to our full schedule!

Until then, see you Sunday, good Lord willing!

Pastor Tom