Living the Mission: The Chesapeake Place

Since March of this year, we have spent one Saturday a month from 1-2:30 with the elderly folks at The Chesapeake Place. First, we visit the Alzheimer’s unit, where six to ten residents typically join us. We open with prayer and then one of our church members plays the keyboard. It is heart-warming to see these folks light up, sway, sing, and clap as they hear familiar tunes. They enjoy it so much that we often repeat the same verse a few times. At 1:45, we pray with them and say our good-byes before packing up the keyboard and walking over to the Assisted Living unit. We usually have about twenty-five to forty of these residents join us. We pass out hymnals to them and then the singing begins! Before long, it’s time to leave; and we close our time with them in prayer. We go there to bless the residents of The Chesapeake Place, but we end up being blessed too!

We would love to have more volunteers join us in this ministry. If you’d like additional information, please contact the missions office at 466.5181.

Living the Mission--English as a Second Language classes

Vietnamese
Our church has provided classrooms for five Vietnamese language classes for the past six months and recently added an ESL class taught by church members who have volunteered to serve in this ministry. These classes continue to provide opportunities to build relationships and to connect folks to Jesus and to First Baptist Church of Norfolk.

We’ve discovered that there is a wide range of needs in the community from just functioning in a new environment to general conversation and finally to refining grammar and vocabulary.

Spanish
A month and a half ago, the Hispanic Fellowship started offering ESL classes. This ministry provides an opportunity to serve the Hispanic community in the Hampton Roads area by assisting them in becoming proactive members of their new society.

Classes are held on Friday nights in the Crossroads building and are taught by church members who teach in the Norfolk Public Schools system. Each lesson gives students the opportunity to learn the language in a meaningful way as they relate it to their lives and communicate with other learners who have the same desire to speak, read and write English.

If you know of anyone who might be interested in these classes, please contact the missions office of the church at 466.5181 for more information.

Living the Mission: Gosnold--UPDATE

Members of First Baptist Norfolk “Live the Mission” at Gosnold Apartments by demonstrating God’s love and sharing the living hope we have through Jesus Christ. The apartments, located in downtown Norfolk, were constructed by Virginia Supportive Housing in partnership with the city. They are home to persons who have been homeless for at least twelve months.
Every Thursday night we have a one hour social, with twenty to twenty-five residents attending. On Monday mornings we lead a Bible study for the women residents of Gosnold Apartments. Every Sunday morning transportation is provided to First Norfolk for Gosnold residents who want to attend worship and Bible study. On Easter, we hosted an evening meal for all of the residents. Twenty volunteers from First Norfolk assisted with the preparation and serving. Wilma Gerald led a devotion explaining the celebration of Easter and our rebirth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus.
Most importantly, these ministry activities are about building bridges and relationships with individuals and ministering to their specific needs. More First Baptist volunteers are needed for each of these ministry activities.

Opportunity to Host International Students

We have about 12 students from France and Spain coming to the Hampton Roads area to improve their English speaking skills. Most of them are from very strong families and identify themselves as Catholics or Christians. They will need to reside with a family for 2-6 weeks. They will be under contract to respect the rules of the household while they stay. We can provide a profile of the students with pictures, hobbies, family information and e-mail addresses. These are very bright students and very well behaved. So we need volunteer families to meet them at the airport for pick up and host them for 2-6 weeks. The families should make them a part of their family during their length of stay, ie: take them to church, take them on outings and let them be involved in the lives of the family members. Ideally, families with teenagers work best. The exchange students are between the ages of 14-17 and can be either male or female. It is a wonderful outreach opportunity as we have seen salvation for Chinese students.

This is the benefit of the the host family. Any youth member of the host family will be able to compete to win an all-expense paid trip to Europe next summer to stay with a European host family. They can do this by writing an essay about their experience.

Feel free to look at our website: www.compass-usa.net.

Lord Bless You!

Rodney Walker (951) 824-9272

Living the Mission: Neighborhood Bible Studies

A Ladies' Bible Study began in my neighborhood about eight years ago with a simple invitation to all of the fifty or so homes in our neighborhood. The first evening, around twenty ladies came and we began a very basic study of God's Word. We now have a morning and evening group with 20-30 ladies that includes neighbors but also friends. The group of ladies through the years has come from different backgrounds and denominations, but we have gathered around the God's unchanging Word, prayed with and for each other, and praised God together. There are several facilitators who lead the studies, which meet in different homes each week. The gospel has been clearly presented and we have seen God's blessings in so many ways. Many lives and homes are being transformed as we remain faithful to studying God's powerful Word in this way. I believe many ladies in our church could begin "neighborhood" studies such as these and will be surprised at what God will do - I know we have been!

Living the Mission: StudentServe 2011

Transformed Student Ministry of First Baptist Church Norfolk made a great impact on the schools and families of Hampton Roads on April 16th when they participated in Student Serve 2011. With a wide variety of projects ranging from Easter bags for the homeless to an Eggstravaganza in Suffolk, our students and leaders were able to engage the residents of our community through acts of love and compassion. They not only helped through direct face-to-face encounters, but they also conducted many projects for area schools that needed landscaping, cleaning of band uniforms, and other beautification projects. Pray that these projects and many others will be used to plant spiritual seeds of faith in the lives of the recipients as our church continues to live the mission! If you missed this event and would like another chance to serve, please visit www.bigserve247.org for opportunities.

Transforming Inner City Evangelism Class

Please join us for this class, which begins THIS TUESDAY (May 10th) at 6:00 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall.

Here's more:

What’s the difference between mere benevolence and biblical mercy? Transforming Inner City Evangelism attempts to answer this and many other questions which are vital for all believers to grapple with when seeking to make an eternal impact among inner city families. This course is as much about transforming the body of Christ as it is about transforming inner city communities. It is rooted in three decades of lessons learned by Mike Fariss, veteran inner city missionary and CEO of Urban Discovery Ministries. It is designed for believers (particularly ministry leaders) who are open to expanding their mission and vision to include God’s purposes for inner city families. The course will be taught by Greg Johnston, UDM’s Director of Leadership Development. It includes eight weeks of participation-driven classroom lessons which focus on strategic planning, overcoming historic strongholds, and re-orienting traditional perspectives. Leaders from UDM’s first church plant, the Urban Community Church of Norfolk, will join us in these classroom sessions and then host us for four weeks of outreach in a local inner city neighborhood.

We look forward to seeing you there! :)

May/June GroupServe Newsletter

Gsm Ay June 2011