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The missions committee has ten representatives, plus a staff liaison. Rodney Hayes and Vicky Dixon are focused on local missions. Rodney is

actively involved with Doors of Hope. Vicky is heading up FBC’s Homeless Ministry Team.

Sara Bell and Judy Campbell are focused on regional missions. Sara’s pas-sion is for the Lakota people of the Pine Ridge Reservation. Judy is strongly tied to the impoverished Neverfail Community near Sparta, Tennessee.

Dale Krisle and Ben Parris are focused on international missions. Both have attended mission trips to the Dominican Republic in recent years

and are heading up the Dominican Team. Barbara Poe and Joan Howell are members at large. They are

both active in a wide array of activities at FBC and have passion-ate hearts for serving God through missions.

Betty Dixon serves in the capacity of WMU Director. Cindy Sullivan is the chair of the committee, and David Cates represents the staff.

Woman’s Missionary Union is a 125 year old Baptist organization

in churches that promotes missions by praying for missions, giving to mis-sions, doing missions, promoting a mis-sions life-style, and providing missions education programs.

FBC’s missions education programs:• Mission Friends for 3-5 year olds. • Girls In Action (GAs) and Royal

Ambassadors (RAs) for children in first through fifth grades.

• Adults On Mission (men and women) meets every first Tuesday to pray for mission work and missionaries on their birthdays and learn about mis-sion work here and around the world.

• WMU has monthly Mission Action projects in which the entire church family can participate.

• WMU also promotes all the special offerings for missions, the TN Chil-dren's Home offering, the TN Baptist Adult Homes and the World Hunger offering.

Upcoming in September are the state TCBF and TBC mission emphasis . In October, the Op-eration Christmas Child Shoebox collection will begin. Last year our FBC family gave 208 shoeboxes! Can we give 230 this year? If you would like to help contact Dale Krisle at mtsu054@gmail.com or Betty Dixon at 893-2003.

Meet your missions committee ...

Looking Ahead

3DMissions NewsletterNeverfail Community

On Saturday July 26, 2014, volun-teers from FBC went to Neverfail

Community Church near Sparta, TN. The team included 20 youth and 12 adults. This year the mission emphasis was four tiered. 1.The youth, lead by David Cates, provided VBS to the local children. Over thirty children participated.

Continue to pray for the congrega-tion, and the community around Neverfail Community Church. In February, FBC will again collect school supplies to share with the children living in this community.

Looking Ahead

2.The Mission team organized the distribution of free school supplies for el-ementary children in the community. FBC members donated supplies for 150 bags. 3.The team helped to weed, mow and complete yard work around the church building. 4.The team participated in a cook out. FBC donated desserts, VBS snacks, water and tea to feed nearly 100 children, parents, and volunteers.

Church

Dominican Republic

The Pine Ridge Reservation

South Dakota

The Dominican Republic support group is a group

of individuals who went on the DR mission trip, who want to continue to support the work of our friends living in the Dominican.

We are partnered with an organization called Marana-tha Missions. This ministry helps people living in bateys and barrios to read and write.

These students are mostly made up of field laborers who do not have citizenship in the Dominican Repub-lic. They are not citizens because most of them are of

The Oglala Lakota Pine Ridge Reservation is the

second-largest Native Amer-ican Reservation within the United States and home to about 40,000 people.

FBC has been involved in this mission effort for the past 7 years and leading it for 5. This effort includes the communities of Mander-son and Porcupine.

The team held VBS for babies through adult men and women and did home repairs.

This year the men’s study group saw a tremendous increase in attendance which shows that barriers of mis-trust are being overcome.

The thing that the people most lack is hope. They have told many of us that our coming to the reservation gives them hope. We share the hope of Christ with them.

“...In as much as ye have done it unto oneof the least of these my brethren,

ye have done it unto me.” Matthew 25:40

Homeless Ministry

n In April, FBC began part-nering with Room in the Inn to provide the homeless with the evening meal on the first Wednesday of each month. The calendar is now filled through Janu-ary 2015. Always needed at Room in the Inn are paper towels and bottled water.

n On June 14, four members of our Homeless Ministry Team assisted with a medi-cal mission sponsored by St. Thomas - Rutherford Hospital.

n A meeting was held recently to inform church members of opportunities to serve the homeless at Journey Home. David Cates and many youth did volunteer work there this summer.

n A $100 donation from the Homeless Ministry fund was made to the Murfreesboro Rescue Mission for their Cold Water for the Homeless Project.

• Unemployment rate vacillates from 85% to 95%.

• There is no industry, or commercial infrastructure to provide employment.

• Teenage suicide rate is 150% higher than the U.S. national average.

• Recent reports indicate that almost 50% of the adults over the age of 40 have diabetes.

• 97% of the population on the Reservation live below the federal poverty line.

• Infant mortality rate is the highest on this continent.

• At least 60% of homes are severely substandard and have black mold and asbestos.

• The average life expectancy is 48 years for men and 52 years for women.

• School drop-out rate is 70%.

Conditions on the Reservation

Please keep these people in the Dominican, and this team in your prayers as we find more ways to help serve Jesus in an international way!

Haitian descent. Haitians mi-grated over to the Dominican side of the island to find work years ago.

Learning to read and write is crucial for their education and ability to ever get a better job, or even gain citizenship in the Dominican. We help

fund these classes by pay-ing for the teachers to teach a class. Each class is about 3 months long.

We also have helped by shipping school supplies for the kids in the bateys in La Romana.

Dominican Support Team