The Word Is
Vol. 1, Issue 4, 2023
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From Becky's Pen
To Be … Or Not to Be
How seriously do you consider questions? When asked “Will you… “, do you immediately answer “yes, I will”? About 25 years ago there was a children’s show called “You Can Choose”. It was an amazing show that taught children to consider the options and choose. What a concept!
God created us uniquely different, with different talents and skills. How we use them and live – is up to us individually to choose. Jesus invites us, yet he never forces anyone.
What are some important decisions in life? Marriage, children, job. I had never heard of it until my son went through it, He and his fiancé went through marriage counseling before getting married to make sure that they were making the right decision. Talk about considering options and making a choice rather than just following their emotions or what people expected of them.
Most people assume that young married couples will have children. Should we ever assume? It’s a major decision to bring a child into the world, to alter your home dynamics and to forever be someone’s parent. People should conscientiously decide whether to have children, not just leave it to fate.
What about a career or job? Most agree this takes planning. Somewhere along the way, a choice is made. There are responsibilities that go along with such decisions. When you marry someone, you have vowed to stay committed to only that person. It’s a lifelong commitment. When you have children, you provide their necessities and train them in such a manner as deemed appropriate. You love them and worry about them always. They are a lifelong commitment. When you accept a job, you are committing to your employer to do what is expected of you in accordance with the job description that was given. It’s generally thought that you will work eight hours a day, for a number of years until you retire.
Does the same apply to jobs accepted in the church? Do they come with job descriptions? Most people think that they know what the job descriptions of such positions are, but is that true? How much time is expected for such positions as a deaconess, a deacon, or an elder? Are these jobs limited to only three to four hours during sabbath? Be sure to consider the options and to choose when being asked to consider such jobs. Most are more time-consuming than people realize. Ask for a job description. Search your Bible for the duties that Jesus described for some of these positions.
Remember, you can choose. Who do you choose to be?
— Submitted by Becky Hayes
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What's Happening at the Food Pantry?
We have previously discussed the location, times, etc., of the food pantry and where the food pantry gets the food it serves, and the Senior Day Program. Today I will discuss what happens on Mondays.
Well, as stated previously, the Feed More truck delivers food on Mondays. After the driver unloads the pallets of food (sometimes it can be as many as ten) the work really begins. Each pallet usually contains many boxes of food. Emmett and the volunteers who have arrived to help that day have to check each box of food. Generally, the men do this because it is a lot of heavy lifting. The boxes with canned goods have to be moved into another part of the gym or into another room to be placed on shelves. Frozen food has to be placed into the freezers. Produce has to be checked for freshness and placed into the refrigerators, if needed. Some boxes of produce are placed into another room so the ladies can sort and discard bad items. Quite often there is a huge box of miscellaneous items that have been thrown together and they have to be sorted and put in appropriate places. Wow, that gets everything off of the pallets.
In another room, volunteers (usually ladies) are busy bagging it
ems. There are about four to five bagging stations. At each station about five items are placed into each plastic bag and the bags are stacked high in boxes to be ready for distribution to customers on Tuesday mornings (they try to prepare about 75 bags at each station each week). There is usually a bagging station for miscellaneous items, two stations for canned goods, one for items like bagged rice, beans, pasta, etc. and then bread/desserts.
In addition, there is a table that will be filled with fruits and vegetables. Of course, this varies each week depending on what we receive that day or have left over from the previous week.
Wait, they are not finished yet, there is cleanup. All of the boxes that have been emptied have to be broken down and placed into the dumpster.
If you have a few hours to spare on a Monday or Tuesday morning, your help would be greatly appreciated. A lot can be accomplished, even if just a few hours.
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Vegetarian Delight
Chicken Spectacular
2 cans Worthington FriChik (chopped into small pieces), with juice (or 3-4 cups cooked chicken)
1 box Uncle Ben’s Long Grain Wild Rice Original Recipe
2 cans French style green beans (drained)
1 medium onion chopped
1 small can water chestnuts (drained & chopped fine)
1 can Cream of Celery Soup
1 cup mayonnaise
salt & pepper to taste
little McKays Chicken Seasoning
Cook rice according to directions.
Combine all ingredients in large bowl, mix well and pour into 9 x 13 baking dish.
Bake at 350° for 30 minutes.
Serves 10 – 12 (that’s my best guess)
—Submitted by Mary Conner
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Meet Our Member
Vivian Williams moved to the great state of Virginia from North Carolina five years ago. When she arrived, she discovered
there were two Adventist churches in the area so thought she would check both of them out to see which one she liked. The Petersburg Seventh-day Adventist Church was the first one she visited. She states this was the first one she came to and she felt at home and liked it so that is where she worships now. She is one of the greeters so she now welcomes others to the church she loves.
Vivian was born in Sanford, Florida. Her parents, Florence and Jack Weathers, now deceased, were Adventists. She had three brothers, also deceased and has one sister who lives in New York. She is a widow. One of her two girls lives in Petersburg and the other one lives in New York. One of her daughters served her country in the military. Her son passed in 2005 when he was 30 years old. She has five grandchildren.
Vivian kept herself busy working as a nursing aid at Hamilton Adventist Hospital in upstate New York and a CNA in a nursing home in North Carolina for about 20 years from which she retired. She loves to travel and has been to South Carolina, Georgia, Texas, and Germany. She loves experimenting and trying different foods and learning about the different cultures.
Vivian enjoys reading, watching tv, going shopping. She played volley ball and soccer when she was younger. Her favorite hymn is “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms” and “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”, Philippians 4:13, is her favorite Bible verse.
She states that some of the biggest changes she has seen in her lifetime are the way people have changed and electronics.
Even though Vivian was raised an Adventist when she was on her own, she drifted away from the church. When she returned, she was very happy and loves this church and the church family.
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Based On A True Story
1 Peter 5:7 says casting all your anxiety upon Him, because He cares for you.
Have you ever had a time when you knew that the Lord was watching over you? I’d like to tell you a time when I knew the Lord protected me and my children. On a Sabbath morning in April 1966, my children and I were on our way to church when we came upon an unmarked intersection and were T-boned by a school bus. The impact caused the bus to do a 180 and landed on the door. My car went to the left into the woods. Scott, my 2-yr old, was thrown against the front seat and had a cut on his lip. Dale the 1-yr old, was standing on the back seat and came sailing over the front seat, landed face down on the seat and had scratches on his forehead. I was thrown across the seat and I hit my back on the arm rest, I was four months pregnant at the time.
At the hospital, the doctor looked at Scott’s lip and said he wasn’t going to do anything at that time because it had scabbed over. They had to undress me, because they knew I was bleeding internally. When they closed the curtain between me and the boys, Dale started to cry and glass washed out of both eyes. The doctors thought I had a ruptured spleen and did a laparotomy to be sure; but, it turned out that I had a bruised kidney. I was hospitalized for two weeks.
When I got home, Scott came to me and said “hurt Mama” and pointed to his lip. I could see glass working its way out. It took about two hours for it to come out far enough for me to be able to get it out and it healed normally. Dale has small scars on his forehead, but had no problems with his eyesight, The baby I was carrying will be 57 in September. You will never be able to make me doubt that God took care of us on that day.
GOD IS SO GOOD.
—Submitted by Sandra Jacobs
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I NEED articles on the below topics.
Based on a True Story
Vegetarian Delights
Article from an Elder
Please place them in a sealed envelope and put them in the Deacon’s Room in the mail tray labelled “NEWSLETTER ARTICLES” or give them to me. This is your newsletter, let’s keep it going.
Thanks in advance for your help
Mary Conner