THE SIGNAL

The Signal is published monthly by the Swansea First Baptist Church of Swansea, SC. Volume 27 Issue 1 January 2016

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SWANSEA FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH Post Office Box 550

Swansea, SC 29160-0550

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LEXINGTON, SC PERMIT NO. 107

From Your Pastor’s Heart Sweet 16 is here! It is so hard to believe that a New Year is now upon! It makes me wonder, what great things will happen this year? How will the Lord use us? Who comes to know the Lord? I know his blessings will be tre-mendous! Then I wonder, what will we do? To whom will we share our faith this year? What ministries will we be involved with this next year? The possibilities could be endless!

This is the year we make a trip here in the States for Home Missions. We are looking for a trip to West Virginia now. We have some options and hopeful-ly go back to the Webster Springs area. We had such a great time there the first year. So, Pray about your participation in Home Missions. 2016 can be a wonderful year! I am expecting good things to happen! I want to just watch what the Lord will do with us and through us! Lord bless 2016!

Baptist Men’s Day

Sunday, January 31st

Matthew 8:14-17

Join us for this special service as our Baptist Men’s Group

leads us in worship

The Signal is published monthly by the Swansea First Baptist Church in Swansea, South Carolina. The Swansea First Baptist Church is in friendly cooperation with the Lexington Baptist Association, the South Carolina Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention.

The Church Staff The Senior Pastor Reverend Terry C. Wilder Minister of Music Mr. Chad Meredith Student Minister Reverend John N. Harmon Parish Nurse Mrs. Angie Redmond The Organist Mrs. Jane Ann Meredith The Pianists Mrs. Brenda Hoffman

Mrs. Jackie Cagle The Secretary Mrs. Joyce Saylor Preschool Director Mrs. Diane Goodwin Custodian Mrs. Kim Taylor

In the event of a change of address please

contact the church office: Swansea First Baptist Church

145 South Church Street Post Office Box 550

Swansea, South Carolina 29160 (803) 568-3368

The Church Website

www.swanseafbc.com

The Signal is published monthly by the Swansea First Baptist Church in Swansea, South Carolina. The Swansea First Baptist Church is in friendly cooperation with the Lexington Baptist Association, the South Carolina Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention.

The Church Staff The Senior Pastor Reverend Terry C. Wilder Minister of Music Mr. Chad Meredith Student Minister Reverend John Harmon The Organist Mrs. Jane Ann Meredith The Pianists Mrs. Brenda Hoffman

Mrs. Jackie Cagle The Secretary Mrs. Joyce Saylor Preschool Director Mrs. Cindy Grimsley Custodian Mrs. Kim Taylor

In the event of a change of address please

contact the church office: Swansea First Baptist Church

145 South Church Street Post Office Box 550

Swansea, South Carolina 29160 (803) 568-3368

The Church Website

www.swanseafbc.com

January Birthdays 2nd……………………….…..Barbara Nystrom Michael Harmon 3rd………………………….….Tommie Bryant Naomi Rucker G. T. Booth 4th………………………………...Mary Corley Crystal Murphy 6th…………………………...Jeanneane Sharpe Michael Sharpe Stewart Burns 8th……………………………...Kary Hoffman 9th…………………………….....Avery Martin Carla Lucas 11th…………………………………..Pat Wise Darren Smith 12th……………………….…..Nancy Redmond 14th……………………….…Justin Williamson 15th……………………………...Bonnie Burns 19th…………………………..….Donald Berry 22nd……………………………..R. L. Cassidy Thomas Lackey 23rd…………………………......Mary Pittman 24th……………………………....Josh Jeffcoat 26th………………………………...Joe Sharpe Pam Saylor Thomas Jumper 27th……………………………....John Sturkie 29th…………………………..Colton Williams 30th…………………………....Kurt Wyndham David Derrick 31st…………………………….Crystal Pernell

Next Senior Trip: Shealy’s BBQ

On Thursday, January 28th, the adults and senior adults will travel to Batesburg to have a delicious lunch at Shealy’s BBQ. The group will leave the church at 11:00am. You will enjoy the food and good conversations. See you on the 28th!

Welcome New Members

Anna Claire Liester By

Baptism

A Birthday and Games At Metallic Club

Join the senior adults on Mon-day, January 18th for devotions, business meeting, lunch and bingo. The group will also be celebrating Naomi Rucker’s 89th birthday. Nao-mi has been a member of SFBC for many years and is a faithful member of Metallic Club and senior trips. Naomi also has a new puppy named Peppy. He is so cute! The meeting will begin at 11:00am in the fellowship hall. Lunch will be served at 12:00pm. Come join the fellowship. You will have fun. Also, if you received a gift that you can’t use, donate it to Metal-lic Club to use as a bingo prize. One person’s trash may be another per-son’s treasure! We send a big THANK YOU to all have contribut-ed to bingo treasurers in the past.

St. Terry & Kathy Orphanage

The St. Terry & Kathy Orphanage in Kenya needs some work! The great-est need is a new girls dormitory. We can build this building if we raise $7,500. Please give as the Lord leads your heart.

The Student Ministry at Swansea First Baptist Church will strive to put God first in every aspect of our lives, build relationships as brothers and sisters in Christ, learn and mature as believers in Christ, show the love of Christ by serving others, and we will share the truth of God in word and deed.

Mark Your Calendars

January 6th – Revelation Study Begins January 10th – Chillipepper Fundraiser January 13th – Youth Committee Meeting January 21-24 – Skiing and Chillipper We will leave the church at 2:00pm on January 22 Other details will be mailed March 18-19 – Disciple Now Weekend ***Be on the lookout for other events and fundraisers.***

The 2016 Flower Calendar is Now Up

We would like to thank everyone who put flowers in our Sanctuary in 2015. The Sanctuary was beautiful every Sunday, don’t you think?

Well, it is now time for the 2016 Calendar and we need your help again. We have already put the 2016 Calendar up and ready for your help. Please sign up and help keep our Church Sanctuary beautiful on Sunday Morn-ings.

Thank you, The Flower Committee

Preschool News & Tidbits

Don’t Forget

SFBC Preschool resumes on Monday, January 4th!

The Staff at SFBC Preschool

Text Messaging Updates

We have created a way to send out group texts for the church. If you would like to be a part of this group all you need to do is text swanseafbc to 84483. Once you are signed up you will get the messages that we will send out with updates, prayer re-quests, reminders, Family Night Dinner Menus, weather closings, and other things. This is a great way for us to communicate with you quickly and I encourage you to sign up for it. If you need help getting it set up please let us know.

Baptist Men’s Dinner Tuesday

January 19th—7:00pm Bill Grangers Cook Crew

Jim Kinard O’Neal Wise Roy Adkin Bill Adkins

GA News Coming up in February the GA’s will be selling roses again for Valentine’s Day. Guys, go ahead and mark your calendars for this fundraiser. All of the roses sold help send our GA’s to camp in the summer.

Student Ministry News It is hard to believe that another year is starting. We al-ready have a lot planned for this year and we look forward to what God is going to do through our Student Ministry. We will start a new study on Wednesday nights beginning on January 6th. Our students have requested that we take a look at the book of Revelation. We will look at the letters to the churches and some of the vivid imagery that John wrote about in this book. This study will take us all the way to Spring Break to

complete. I am looking forward to this study and I hope that you are too. Coming up on Jan. 21-24 is our trip to Chillipepper. Registration for this trip is still open with limited spots available. We have a great group going and I am looking forward to this trip. We plan to leave on Thursday, Jan. 21 at 2:00pm sharp. Further details will be mailed to those signed up to go. If you did not receive this information in the mail please let me know and I will get it to you. I am looking forward to a great trip. I encourage you to begin now to pray over what God might do in your life on this trip. Our final fundraiser for Chillipepper is coming up on Sunday, Jan. 10th. We will be doing a bake sale as a fundraiser following the church service that day. As always the students that are here to help with the fundraiser will benefit from it. We appreciate your generosity in supporting our fundraisers that make our big trips more affordable for our students. In Christ, John Harmon Phil. 4:6-7 *****Don’t forget to check out the calendar for upcoming events*****

.Upward Basketball and

Cheerleading Upward games resume on January 9th. There will be no Upward games on Saturday, January 23 due to the Chillipepper trip. The game schedule is as follows:

9:00am—K5-1st Grade (Rhinos and Cobras) Girls (Lady Shockers) 10:15am—2nd-3rd Grade Boys (Bulldogs and Mustangs) 4th-5th Grade Boys (Cardinals and Gators) 12:00am—6th-8th Grade Boys (Hawks and Suns)

We invite you to come out on Saturday morning and see what Upward is all about!

January Power Point Presentations

3 Ways To Find Our Services Online

When you are away and can’t join us in person you can find our services streaming live online via ustream.tv. 1. Find a link on our church website, www.swanseafbc.com. To find the link go to the “Worship Times” page. 2. Go to our church Facebook page and find the link in a post pinned at the top of the group page. 3. Go to ustream.tv, click “watch”, and search for our channel, Swansea FBC.

This is a great way to be a part of our worship times when you are unable to be with us physically. Thank you to Chad and the Technology committee for mak-ing this possible!

Meredith Moments Hey folks! First, I would like to congratulate the adult choir on a job well done in regards to the cantata. It was truly a blessing, and I appreciate the time, effort, and dedication the choir gave over a very busy Christmas season. Also, I want to thank the children’s choir for a job well done.

A special thanks to all the children, parents, and grandparents for your contin-ued support! I could spend a lot of time looking at the past year, but “Happy New Year”. I am so excited about the new things Swansea First Baptist will do in the New Year! On the tech side, Brian Sandifer is continuing to lead our church in the right di-rection. Please let the office know about any announcements so we can include them on the power point on Sunday mornings. As a general rule, we need them by Wednesday night for Sunday services. The tech committee will be continu-ing to develop new modes of communication with church members. If you are not able to be in service with us on Sunday mornings, you can tune into our USTREAM channel Swansea FBC. You can access it by going to the Ustream website and searching “Swansea FBC.” We have had several folks give us posi-tive feedback. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to let the tech com-mittee know. On the choir side, we will continue to learn new music in the coming year for the Adult choir. We will immediately begin working on the Easter Cantata, “Eyes of Faith” with Easter coming early this year. We will continue to work on anthems for worship services as well. Therefore, we need all choir members present to make practices productive. I am excited about the opportunities to minister in the New Year! Jane Ann and I would like to thank everyone in our church family for Christmas gifts! The gifts came at a much needed time for Christmas! Your thoughtful-ness and generosity during the Christmas season have definitely touched our hearts. I would also like to thank everyone that took the time to think of our family and bake me (oops...I mean us) something special! From Chocolate Tur-tles to Pound Cakes to Cookies, a mighty big THANKS! I have been truly blessed by so many. My jeans are definitely tighter since the Christmas season began, but it’s well worth it. Thanks again for blessing our family so much this Christmas!

Until next time—Chad

January Bible Reading Plan

1st Gen. 1-2 Psalms 1-2 Matt. 1-2 16th Gen. 28-29 Psalm 33 Matt. 18

2nd Gen. 3-4 Psalms 3-5 Matt. 3-4 17th Gen. 30 Psalm 34 Matt. 19

3rd Gen. 5-6 Psalms 6-8 Matt. 5 18th Gen. 31 Psalm 35 Matt. 20

4th Gen. 7-8 Psalms 9-10 Matt. 6 19th Gen. 32-33 Psalm 36 Matt. 21

5th Gen. 9-10 Psalms 11-13 Matt. 7 20th Gen. 34-35 Psalm 37 Matt. 22

6th Gen. 11-12 Psalms 14-16 Matt. 8 21st Gen. 36 Psalm 38 Matt. 23

7th Gen. 13-14 Psalm 17 Matt. 9 22nd Gen. 37 Psalms 39-40 Matt. 24

8th Gen. 15-16 Psalm 18 Matt. 10 23rd Gen. 38 Psalms 41-43 Matt. 25

9th Gen. 17-18 Psalms 19-21 Matt. 11 24th Gen. 39-40 Psalm 44 Matt. 26

10th Gen. 19 Psalm 22 Matt. 12 25th Gen. 41 Psalm 45 Matt. 27

11th Gen. 20-21 Psalms 23-25 Matt. 13 26th Gen. 42-43

Psalms 46-48 Matt. 28

12th Gen. 22-23 Psalms 26-28 Matt. 14 27th Gen. 44-45 Psalm 49 Romans 1-2

13th Gen. 24 Psalms 29-30 Matt. 15 28th Gen. 46-47 Psalm 50 Rom. 3-4

14th Gen. 25-26 Psalm 31 Matt. 16 29th Gen. 48-50 Psalms 51-52 Rom. 5-6

15th Gen. 27 Psalm 32 Matt. 17 30th Exodus 1-2 Psalms 53-55 Rom. 7-8

31st Ex. 3-4 Psalms 56-57 Rom. 9

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