ABCCONN

ABCCONN News

Celebrations

• Congratulations to the Federated Church of Christ (ABC/UCC) in Brooklyn who will be celebrating their 70th anniversary in September.
• The Union Baptist Church of Hartford will honor their pastor, the Rev. Dr. Kenric Prescott as he celebrates his 15th anniversary with them on September 25 and 26.
• The Rev. Robert M. James, Jr. will be installed as Associate Minister of Education and Outreach at the Union Baptist Church of Mystic on Sunday, September 26 at 3:00 P.M. Clergy are invited to vest and process.
• During the July 1, 2010 meeting of the World Relief Committee of the General Board of the American Baptist Churches, USA, Primera Iglesia Bautista Hispana, New London, was awarded a multi-year One Great Hour of Sharing (OGHS) Domestic Development Grant for $75,000 to aid in the establishing of Encuentros de Esperanza, their new multi-service center.
• The First Baptist Church of Norwich recently celebrated the Rev. Dr. Cal Lord’s 25th Anniversary of Ordination. Also Cal threw out the first pitch at the Connecticut Tigers Inaugural home weekend game at Dodd Stadium on Sunday, June 27th. The Tigers are Connecticut’s newest minor league baseball team.
• The First Baptist Church, West Hartford, led by their Women’s Fellowship, is first among all churches in Connecticut and Rhode Island in the Church World Service kit project! They created, packed and delivered more “Gift of the Heart” kits than any church of any denomination or size. In fact #2, 3, 4 and 5 were large Congregational churches! These simple kits are vital to safety and recovery around the world and here at home, whether it’s a natural disaster, war or extreme poverty. Katrina, tsunami or earthquake, CWS is there, and quickly! For information on how your church can participate in this mission effort, contact the Regional Church World Service office at 413-583-8355 or go to www.churchworldservice.org.

To Keep in Your Prayers

• Our prayers are with the family of Lynne Turdin, long time member of the ABCCONN Historical Committee, died on August 22 while a patient at Gaylord Hospital in Wallingford. Her funeral was on Friday August 27.
• Our prayers are with the Rev. Dr. Orlando Tibbetts, whose wife Phyllis died on July 24. Dr. Tibbetts is a former ABCCONN Executive Minister.
• Our prayers of sympathy are extended to the Rev. Lisa Gustafson whose mother died recently. Lisa is the transitional pastor for the Bristol Baptist Church.
• Please keep Tim Blacker in your prayers. Tim is the maintenance person at Camp Wightman who is recovering from heart bypass surgery.
• Please be in prayer for our brothers and sisters at Messiah Baptist Church in Bridgeport who lost part of their concrete steeple in the tornado that hit Bridgeport on June 24.
• Please pray for the Rev. Dick Strong, of Winthrop Baptist Church, who is recovering from shingles
• Please pray for the Rev. Dr. Kenric Prescott, pastor of Union Baptist, Hartford, who is recovering from surgery.
• Please remember the family of the Rev. Paul M. Humpreys, Minister Emeritus of First Baptist Church, Waterbury (now Plymouth) who died on June 23 in Northampton, MA. He would have been 104 years young on June 28th. He served as pastor of First Baptist from 1951 to 1974.
• Please remember the family of the Rev. Dr. Paul Neff, retired pastor of First Baptist Church, West Haven, who died in Middleburg, Florida, on June 1, 2010.
• Our prayers remain with Mercy and Rick Gonzalez Barnes and their mission area in Mexicali following the 6.9 earthquake in March. Aftershocks continue to shake the area — over 1,500 a week! Many of you have written wanting to help. Rick suggests sending money, as clothing, food and basic necessities can be purchased on the ground there much more cheaply. As you feel led to give, send donations to International Ministries, PO Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851 c/o Lisa Schnovel. Designate it for Baja Earthquake Relief. If you prefer, please contact her at , or call 1-800-222-3872.  Also, work teams will be needed to come and help rebuild this area. For info on Short Term Mission teams contact Angela Sudermann ().
• We continue prayers for our three Haitian Churches in Connecticut: The First Haitian Church in Norwich, the Haitian Baptist Church of Norwalk and the Evangelical Church of the New Jerusalem in Bridgeport. As of April, One Great Hour of Sharing had received just over $2,000,000 for Haiti relief! The OGHS offering is being taken this spring. The theme is “Jesus said, Do you love me? Feed my sheep.”

Transitions

• We welcome the Rev. Daniel Hickman, Interim Pastor of Community Baptist Church in New Canaan. Rev. Hickman began his ministry there July 6.
• The Rev. Joan Cooper Burnett has resigned from the First Baptist Church in Middletown.
• The Rev. Dr. Robert Prescott-Ezickson has left the First Baptist Church of Meriden.
• Welcome to the Rev. Charles Redfern, who began as interim pastor at the First Baptist Church in Meriden on June 20.
• Welcome to the Rev. Willis McCaw who has been called as pastor of the First Baptist Church in Middletown effective May 16. Rev. McCaw also serves as chaplain for Hospice Southeastern Connecticut.
• ABCCONN recently received word that Silvio Goris is no longer serving the Iglesia Bautista Hispana in Hartford.

ABCCONN Events

American Baptists were the "hands and feet of Jesus" in Waterbury

Participants at the Annual Gathering went out into the community to do mission

The ABCCONN Annual Gathering took place at the Grace Baptist Church in Waterbury on Saturday, April 25, 2009. As they say: "The best laid plans . . ." The Keynote speaker was supposed to be Dr. Reid Trulson, Executive Director of the Board of International Ministries for the American Baptist Churches. Unfortunately he became ill on his way to the meeting and was unable to attend. However, God provides! Mercy Gonzalez-Barnes, a former ABCCONN staff member who is now an ABC missionary to Mexico, was present and provided an inspiring keynote address.

A highlight of the day was the opportunity for participants to be involved in mission. Some participants left the meeting site to go out into the Waterbury community to be involved in mission while others stayed at the church doing mission-related activities. Among the missions that people participated in:

• stocking shelves at a local food pantry
• preparing lunch at a soup kitchen
• helping sort clothes in a thrift store
• visiting residents at a convalescent home
• doing chores at a senior residence
• building sawhorses and a picnic table for Habitat for Humanity
• making Afghans for the Warm Up America program
• making decorations for Pierce and CT Baptist Homes
• assembling gift packages for HIV/AIDS ministry and Church World Service health kits

View pictures of the event

The World Mission Conference a Great Success!

September 19-21, 2008
Second Baptist Church
Suffield, CT

More Information and Photos of the Event

Hundreds of people from Connecticut and beyond came to Suffield this weekend to hear stories of how God surprises us when we engage in mission to a hurting world. Missionaries shared their stories of God's surprises: stories of how God is working to bring light and love to many places around our world through the work that we support. Worship was inspiring with great music and testimonies of God at work. There were also opportunities to learn more in-depth about the mission work being done around the world and about opportunities to support or to serve. Some participants even ate foods from around the world, getting an introduction, not only to the foods, but also to the cultural significance of sharing meals with others.

Behind the scenes there was a lot of planning and work, from the local arrangements committee which arranged for meals, parking, workshop rooms and presentation equipment; to the tech crew who ran lighting, sound, and video and helped make the experience accessible and energetic.

Worship on Sunday morning, culminating the conference.