Volume 2, Issue 11 | November 2019
After “turkey day” came and went last year, a pastor challenged church members to ask one another not “How was your Thanksgiving?” but “How is your Thanksgiving?”
After all, giving thanks should be an ongoing act.
That doesn’t always need to be profoundly deep, either. A.J. Jacobs, author of Thanks a Thousand, once asked a philosophy-professor friend what he was grateful for. The shockingly simple reply? “Sometimes I’m just grateful I have arms.” That odd but spot-on answer shows the importance, Jacobs says, of being “thankful for things so omnipresent that they can escape our notice.”

So … how is your Thanksgiving?
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I was leaving the post office the other day and noticed a lady coming behind me, so I kept the door open for her (I’ve done the same for others). As she passed by, she said a simple “thank you.” Somehow that sounded nice to hear. A simple good deed had been done and a word of gratitude was given. Any kind of good deed can be done, not just opening doors. As simple as that is, I am amazed at times how seldom a “thank you” is said after a deed has been done. Have you noticed that?

November is when we celebrate Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims began this tradition many years ago, giving thanks to the Lord for His goodness to them. I am so glad and “thankful” that in our country we still observe this tradition (even though football seems to dominate that time). Most other countries do not observe Thanksgiving. I like the days off that come with that week, I like the food that is served, and I like the time families can get together (if possible). I like the thought of remembering and thanking God for His continual goodness to us. The Thanksgiving break really is a great time of year.

There is something about giving thanks and being thankful that does the heart good. It can lift you up when you are down. It can encourage you. It can help you see things from a better perspective. It can remind you of God’s goodness. It can take your mind off (for a time) of something that is weighing heavy upon you. It can make your day better. Maybe you have other ways that giving thanks and being thankful has helped you.

The Apostle Paul said it clearly when he said “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (I Thessalonians 5:18) . Some circumstances you have undoubtedly gone through were hard to give thanks in, but somehow God works in and through it. He knows…He is God! And don’t forget what Paul also wrote in Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”  Just be sure you really love Him and are doing what He called you to do.

Let’s all remember to thank those who do a kind deed for us. Not just during November, but throughout the year. It just might make their day better and you’ll feel better for having said it. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you, from Dora and Ethan and me.

Your Fellow Servant,
Bro. Loren
Upcoming Events
November 2019
3rd - TIME CHANGE - Don't forget to "Fall Back"!!
5th - OCL Meeting - 6:30pm
6th - South Zone Pastor's Prayer Meeting
17th-19th- BGCT Annual Meeting
(Waco Convention Center - Waco, TX)
27th-29th - Thanksgiving Holidays
(FRBA OFFICE CLOSED)
December 2019

1st - FRBA Compa ñ erismo Quarterly Meeting at Iglesia Bautista Primera Mexicana (Cotulla, TX)
3rd-7th - OCL Christmas Ministry (no regular meeting)
4th - South Zone Pastor’s Prayer Meeting
7th - 11:00am - FRBA Church Administrators' Fellowship Christmas Potluck (details below)
10th - FRBA Executive Board Pastor/Spouse & Staff Christmas Fellowship - starting at 6:30pm
12th - East Zone Pastor's Prayer Meeting
19th - North Zone Pastor's Prayer Meeting
24th-31st - Christmas Holidays
(FRBA OFFICE CLOSED)
31st - New Year's Eve
November 11th
SAVE THESE DATES!!

2020
Jan. 6th-7th - Pastors & Spouses Prayer Retreat (at Alto Frio)
Jan. 21st - FRBA Tax Seminar
Feb. 11th - FRBA CPR/1st Aid/AED Training
May 1st-4th - FRBA Annual Ladies Retreat at H. E. Butt Foundation Camp
COMING SOON!!
All our ministers (and their wives) are invited to join us for
our annual prayer retreat at Alto Frio.
Darin Griffiths and his lovely wife Caren will lead the group this year.
Registration cost for attendees will be $40.00 per person or $75.00 per couple .
(Please make checks payable to "Frio River Baptist Association",
and send them to Laurie Beth at the FRBA office.)
We’ll meet for lunch at Bill & Rosa's KK Steakhouse in D'Hanis at 12:00pm on
Monday, January 6th. From there the group will travel to Alto Frio.
The retreat will last through 11:30am on Tuesday, January 7th.
Registration fees are due in the FRBA office by Thursday, January 2nd.
Around the Association
58th Annual Gathering of the Frio River Baptist Association

On Sunday, October 20th, over 120 FRBA church members and guests gathered at FBC Natalia for our 58th Annual Gathering! Our host church did a marvelous job of making everyone feel welcome, and providing us with a delicious fellowship meal. We enjoyed a brief business meeting followed by a wonderful worship celebration, with Lenard Dossey (FBC Natalia) leading our music and Ruben Harrison (Primera Iglesia Bautista Laredo - and our outgoing FRBA Moderator) offering our annual sermon. We also had several testimonies on local missions offered by members of Tilden Baptist Church , FBC Christine and FBC Cotulla .

We were able to provide over $600 and lots of hygiene kits to the River Ministry Mexico Missions through our offering as well. During our business meeting, our new officers and committees were elected/approved, including our new Moderator: Keith Cogburn and Vice Moderator: Brian Blackburn .

If you were unable to attend, and would like a copy of our Book of Reports (including our updated church directory), please contact Laurie Beth at the FRBA office.

To see more pictures of the event, CLICK HERE .
First Baptist Church of Yancey is proud to announce that we have a new Pastor as of September.  Robert Wilson and his wife Carolyn answered our call to become our full time minister after having served in an Interim Position for the past couple of years.
 
Brother Robert has pastored in several churches over his lifetime; Oklahoma, Michigan and Texas. He is a graduate of Wayland Baptist University and the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
 
Robert and Carolyn live in San Antonio and are very devoted in answering the call from GOD to serve the Yancey area as our Pastor.
 
Jeremiah 3:15 “And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding”.  May GOD bless you Brother Robert.
--Garry Stephens, Deacon
Primera Iglesia Bautista Betania (Devine) recently celebrated Pastor Jordan Sloan's birthday!
Deacon ordination at FBC Lytle
FRBA South Texas Church Worker Clinic in
Two Locations Yielded Good Numbers!

Teaching is a skill and skills need sharpening! Preschool teachers who are not trained are merely babysitters! If we build seminaries for preachers, shouldn’t we have at least one clinic a year for Bible teachers? Yes!

This year, we hosted the conference in a southern location, Belen Baptist Church in Dilley , and a northern location, FBC Devine . We hoped that we could increase participation and we did. The combined total was 53 people from 14 different churches! Adding to that number were the 25 people who attended the youth worker training event at FBC Pleasanton in September. So this year’s total was 78, a real improvement.

A special thanks to Texas Baptists’ David Adams for gathering the team, Brian Avery for hosting the youth ministry event, and to Sonny Osio in Dilley and the hostess committee of FBC Devine for their work on Saturday October 5.
--Jonathan Hewett, Sunday School Director

January 1st thru October 31st

2018
Income: $134,509.18
Expenses: $116,365.93
2019
Income: $124,620.59
Expenses: $121,127.51
Updates from our Church Plants
Baptisms — Mother and Son!
Arianna and James were both baptized on July 15th! Arianna shared her testimony before baptism and captivated our church with the clarity of her profession of faith in Jesus as her Lord and Savior. The Lord has brought healing and restoration to her life in great ways. She also had the privilege of sharing this day with her son (15) who professed his faith in Jesus. James is a quiet young man who knows the love of Jesus through the love and faith of his mother. Praise the Lord for two new followers of Jesus, and we pray for them to blossom in their new lives. Lift them up in your prayers as they continue their journey. 
 
Thanks again!
Daniel McGhee
Encinal Community Church

It is with great expectation and hope that we enter another year in this ministry. It has been an eventful year, full of God`s blessings. We have had some struggles and discouragements, but in everything God is faithful.

Our children`s and teen`s ministry continue to grow. It is a challenge keeping them focused in the Word of God due to the many distractions they have in their lives.

We have come this far in large part because of the love and support of the Frio River Baptist Association and its member churches. We thank you so much for being a blessing to us and encouraging us on in our ministry .

In Christ,
Pastor Thomas Stagg
Greetings from Harvest Community Church . God is moving in Olathe, CO. This year has been amazing as we have seen God move in so many different ways.

This summer we were able to pull off our own VBS as well as help one of our church plants with their VBS. Together we saw 15 kids pray to accept Jesus as Lord of their life.

We were also able to host a Cowboy Revival, baptize new believers at our annual Night Vision Concert and take our youth on a special camping trip. We had a mission team from Tennessee that was able to refloor our fellowship hall as well redo the lighting in our sanctuary.
As many churches in Western Colorado we have our struggles. We have many new believers
that still struggle with the commitment aspect of church life. We have some that want to enjoy
the great outdoors during the summer and be gone camping every weekend. Because of this
we have been averaging around 45 people. We did have 3 new families that visited for a couple
weeks that together totaled 16 people with all their kids. We are still ministering to them and
seeing if Harvest may be their new home.

Please pray for us as we set our budget for 2020. Our finances are not where they need to be
and if it was not for outside giving it would be difficult to continue. I have been having income,
from sources  other than the church, that has helped to provide for our family, due to our
budget constraints. I believe that God is a God of provision, but sometimes we as the church
hold on to the things He has provided. Please pray that God would raise up families in our
church that have a desire to pray about how God would be guiding them to grow, go and give
during 2020.

Over the last couple months, I have had a vision of what it looks like to have a Church that
prays. We have been praying every Sunday morning as a church before our service and are
starting some new prayer ministry opportunities in January. Please send us any prayer requests that FRBA churches and missionaries have so that we can add these to our prayer ministry.

Lastly, our Hispanic Church plant Iglesia Verdad Y Vida (which meets on Sunday nights out of our
building) is going great. They were able to host an Evangelistic outreach to 120 migrant
workers. There was dinner in the park, worship with the gospel being shared, and a great time
of fellowship. They are planning a Parenting Class and handing out 30-50 Thanksgiving Baskets
to those in need. God is moving through Iglesia Verdad Y Vida Olathe as well as in Harvest
Community Church.

Thank you again for your prayers and continued support!
Jeff Bachman, Pastor

The picture below is of Tammy & Jeff Bachman (Harvest Community Church) with Mauro &
Joanna Zuniga (Verdad Y Vida Olathe), and Joel & Ronnie Arrington (Church without Walls Delta,
CO). These are our two current church plants.
To our faithful friends in the FRBA,
 
Where to begin? First and foremost I want to thank you all so much for your long-time support, prayer, and encouragement of The Pathway church and the Higginbotham family! When we first met with a group of FRBA pastor’s for breakfast over 10 years ago to share our hopes a dreams regarding a church plant in Tacoma, we were a family of two and The Pathway was just an idea. Now, 10 years later, we are a family of five and The Pathway not only exists, but by God’s grace has weathered numerous storms and set-backs over the years as disciples have been made and lives have been changed. God gets glory for all of this, but we are grateful for the role you’ve played, the prayers you’ve prayed, and the faithfulness you’ve displayed.
 
The past 10 months have been a particularly dizzying whirlwind for us. Some of you know that The Pathway entered into a time of “re:SET” several years ago. It was basically a God-sized vision to “re-plant” The Pathway after a season of struggle, discouragement and decline. It was both horrible and beautiful, painful and powerful. About 2 years ago now, I followed God into the world of bi-vocational ministry— a world many of you know well— and it was such a good time for me personally and for the church as a whole. After about a year, the church brought me back full-time and we committed to go all-in… again… to reach Tacoma for Christ. I can honestly tell you that the last 10 months have been full of faith, challenge, and the Spirit’s movement. We’ve been refined in these 10 months and seen several families move on to different churches for a variety of reasons. These are families that we got to see come to faith in Christ, be baptized and grow. It was so emotional to see them go.
 
We’ve also seen God flip other families lives upside down and inside out by the gospel! Xavier (X) and Erika are a couple that stepped into The Pathway with their lives in shambles. X was separated from his wife and kids and facing jail time. During their time with The Pathway we’ve seen God move in grace-filled and miraculous ways. The charges against X were dropped, he experienced a radical conversion to Christ and was baptized. His wife began getting to know our church and hearing the gospel and over time they were able to live under the same roof again. Just a couple weeks ago she was baptized and was able to testify to God’s life changing power while one of their daughters was in attendance. That daughter expressed a desire to learn more about following Jesus! Who knows what’s in store but it’s exciting to see a redeeming God redeem his precious children. 
 
We also got to move into a new Sunday location this year— Jason Lee Middle School. God has affirmed this move in so many ways, but it has not come without its challenges. We’ve had to learn to be portable again and trust God to not only provide the tangible needs for portable gatherings, but also energize the church to serve with joy as we work hard to gather each Sunday. God laid it on the heart of one church in Houston to help us purchase a trailer— praise Jesus! We are currently renting a U-haul 3-4 times a month to pull the trailer— people don’t own trucks in urban Tacoma the way they do in south Texas! We’re hoping at some point God brings more trucks to The Pathway. But in the meantime, he is certainly providing.
 
One last expression of gratitude to your association and one pastor in particular. Pastor Duane Mayberry came to Tacoma on the FRBA’s first visit and he has intentionally invested in me personally ever since. I always tell people one of he hardest parts about being a small church pastor, is that those pastor’s don’t often have a pastor! Duane has been my pastor in so many ways over the last 10 years. He and First Baptist Charlotte have loved us, prayed for us, visited us, and pursued us so well… me in particular. Just recently I had a very low moment and was deeply discouraged. Pastor Duane followed the Spirit’s prompting to text me at just the right time. He encouraged me, spoke truth to me, and reminded me of the gospel.
 
I’m so grateful for your Association and your heart for church planting. Keep going!
 
With love and gratitude, 
Bobby & Kelli Higginbotham
Jagen, Rylan & Hazel

The first picture is of us unloading at our new Sunday location. X (mentioned above) is the one in the red t-shirt. The kiddo in the red t-shirt is my son Jagen! The second picture is of X’s wife Erika getting baptized!
Praise God with us for life change! 
 
Over the last week both Tammy and Mark have given their lives to Christ. Tammy came during our time of response following last Sunday's service and gave her life to Christ with Summer. She said, "I came today to dedicate my grandson, MJ, to the Lord during the child dedication service but it's time that I dedicate my life to Jesus as well!" She will be baptized on Nov. 10.
 
You can read about Mark's conversion in the attached Update Letter and see pictures from our new meeting space. There are also prayer requests and some opportunities to give to Queens Church. If you're wanting to partner with us financially, you can do so online: www.qns.church/give or by mailing a check to: 
 
Queens Church
31-03 51st Street
Woodside, NY 11377
 
There are a lot of resources if you're interested in sharing our story with your church or friends online at: www.qns.church/partner  
 
We are so thankful that you are with us on this journey. If you have any questions or desire to partner with us, please give me a call!
--Larry Mayberry
Love in Action
Operation Christian Love
Contact Beth Ann at 210-854-9360 for more information.
FRBA RESOURCE LIBRARY
This Bible study and many more are available
through our resource library!

Esther: It's Tough Being a Woman
by Beth Moore
(10-session DVD study)

Click here to download one of our checkout forms. Then just complete it and
bring it by the office to borrow a Bible study to meet your needs.

We’re also accepting donations of used DVD Bible study kits.
If you or your church have some that you are no longer using, we’d love
to have them here to share with other churches in our Association.
Frio River Baptist Association | Phone: 830-334-2061 | Fax: 830-334-3025 | Email | Website