From the Shepherd's Heart....Wednesday, October 21, 2015

The Deacons, Personnel Team and Stewardship Team join me in sharing in light of Bro. Wally leaving us as Administrator, we will:

*  not replace the position at this time;
*  I will take on what duties I need to in the area of finances and oversight;
*  Building and Grounds (Jimmy Traylor, Chairman) will take over the building maintenance;
*  Church Office will schedule calendar dates for the building and vans plus issuing keys.


*  The church office will begin opening on Fridays, November 6 from 8-Noon with us adding four hours of ministry weekly for Alisa Wooten.  Also, I will begin taking Thursdays off and working on Fridays. Keith Beatty will be available for hospitals and general ministry in my place on Thursdays.

Thanks to Drew Hogsed and all our Upward Football and Cheerleader coaches for a great Awards Celebration this past Sunday night.  We are having an Outreach to all our Upward Football families Thursday night beginning at 5:15 in the LFH.  Everyone is welcomed to come and reach out.

Excited to announce Upward Basketball evaluations will be Monday, November 16 (5:30-7:30), Thursday, November 19 (5:30-7:30) and Saturday, November 21 (8 to Noon).  Contact Whitney Wigley if you have any questions.  Thanks to all who participated this past Sunday in the interest meeting.  We had ten coaches from our church affirm their desire to coach plus assistants, cheerleader coaches, and many others.

Next Wednesday night is our annual Fall Festival beginning at 6:00 in the Auditorium followed by games and "Trunk or Treat."

Roxanne and I have had the privilege of hosting approximately 250 of our church family in our "Get Acquainted Fellowships" since August.  We are coming to a close of our focus on the Sunday School classes and are ready to make this time available to anyone in the church.  We will be hosting two more fellowships on Sunday, November 8 and 15.  Signups begin this Sunday in the Vestibule and meals are $7.00 each which includes fried chicken fingers, baked potato, slaw, hush puppies and drink from Katy's Katfish.

The church year ended September 30 and you might be interested to know:

793 total members;  642 resident members
18 baptisms this year with 36 other additions
Total receipts were $745,843.  Tithe offering was $480,266.90 (a record for the church) and the Debt Retirement offering was $166,664.90 (second highest).

I was able to attend the DeKalb Baptist Annual Meeting this past Monday and enjoyed meeting some new pastors and friends.  It was announced the Association is increasing its budget over $30,000 mainly to support a new pastor at the Kilpatrick Hispanic Church.  Pray for Pastor Abrahan Gomex Reyes and his wife Yadelis as they are seeking a Visa from Venezuela to come and pastor the church.