Darrin Smith reports 153 present for morning worship, 7 first time visitors, 2 professions of faith, 63 for midweek service and offerings of $2,253.

“God is really doing something in our midst. We cannot explain it except our people coveted together to pray for our ministry and we are seeing the results.”

Darrin Smith reports 48 present for Discipleship classes, 115 for morning worship, 15 first time visitors and offerings of $1,427.

“We had 72 present for our Wednesday night Bible Study.

“Our discipleship classes are going well. Our members are growing and more people are participating.We look forward to officially kicking these classes off on August 23.

“Our bus ministry begins this Sunday. We want to thank our sponsoring church, Temple in Fordyce, for donating a 15 passenger van for this ministry.

“Pray for us as we continue to do the work that God has called us to do.”

This week we are featuring Celebration Baptist Mission in Haskell. This mission began in August 2004. Darrin Smith is your state missionary in this area. He is married to Angela and they have 2 children, Brady (14) and Madison (10). The Lord has truly blessed him in the work at Haskell.

The mission has met in three different places for worship and now has a permanent building located on the main road in Haskell. It is a great location. The church is surrounded by new subdivisions that are being built in this community. Because of your support for missions and the Revolving Loan Fund, they were able to purchase property and build a 6,850 sq. ft. building that will seat about 130.

They have been blessed with both numerical and spiritual growth. They recently had 124 for morning worship with many first time visitors. They are currently going through a transition in their ministry and are looking for ways to become more effective in reaching this community for Jesus Christ.

Here are some comments from Bro. Darrin.

It’s Time to Remodel

“Yes, changes are going on at Celebration Baptist. We are trying to spread our wings and attempt to become more effective in the ministries we have and to add new ministries into this mission so we will be able to minister more effectively to those in our community. From the very beginning we have said, ‘We are a new mission with a big vision for the families in Haskell and surrounding areas! We want to do our part in helping people to have a close and personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.”

“The Lord has blessed us with many different people who are willing to step out and attempt great things for the Lord. Our mission has put together a team of 10 who are working and praying together about the direction the Lord wants us to go. It is exciting to work with this group through this process.”

“We have a lot of great things going for our church. I would like to share with you a little about some of the ministries and changes we are going through.”

High Voltage Kid’s Ministry

“This is a seamless ministry from newborns to sixth grade that allows kids to grow in the Lord as they grow. On Sunday morning it is a blessing to see all the children come to class. We currently average about 30 children on Sunday morning age third grade and below, and about 25 on Sunday evening age sixth grade and below.”

Real Life Student Ministry

“Our youth from seventh through twelfth grade are learning more about what it means to have a personal relationship with the Lord, how to study the Scriptures, pray and support friends of their same age. These students meet together and enjoy worship with singing, praying and studying the Word of God. Our student ministry has grown from 3 to over 20 each week. We have a great group, who for the most part, want to learn what it truly means to have ‘real life’ in Jesus Christ.”

“We are not trying to build a great program. We are building on Jesus and we are giving our students The Word!”

Faith-In-Action

“Our Outreach ministry focuses on getting our members to work together in our community. We do monthly outreach that puts us in the streets of the community where we serve. ‘The Church’ is more than a place, a weekly event or an institution. The church is us–the people of God in whom the risen Lord lives. And being the church means living out Jesus’ teaching and example in our world today. We do not want to just go to church; we want to be the church. We want to be the touch of Jesus, so we are putting our Faith-in-Action.”

Faith Bible Institute

“These are classes to help people grow in their knowledge of the Bible. FBI is a through-the-Bible course designed to take students chronologically through the entire Bible and systematically through every major doctrine in only three years. Classes meet one evening a week. About 20 members have taken on this challenge to learn more about the Bible. It is so exciting to see each of them grow in the Lord.”

Getting out the Word of Who we Are

“We have different things we are doing to get the word out about Celebration Baptist. We have three different billboard signs on Highway 229, the main road into Haskell, inviting people to attend our services. People see our name and our service times every day as they pass by. We pray that the Lord will allow those who are searching for a church to give us a try. Our web-site address, www.celebrationbaptistchurch.com, is on every sign. People can log onto this site and find all the information they want to know about us.”

“Every other month we have an 11×17 inch mailing that goes into all the homes in and around our community. That is around 4,200 mailings. It costs us about 14 cents per mailing, including all printing and postage. We consider this a minimal cost for our ministry.”

“In July we will be adding a mid-week service, new classes for our children, and a personal evangelism class. In August we will be starting a soul-wining outreach. By fall we plan to have LIFE Builders discipleship classes for all ages that will meet on Sunday morning at 9:30. We will have to be creative in making our space work, but we know it can be done.”

“I cannot thank you enough for the opportunity to serve as your state missionary. It is a blessing to work with the churches in Arkansas in starting new missions that will be a lighthouse or years to come. I never would have thought of starting a mission in Haskell, but I am glad that God did. This is a community that has had an average growth of 22% for the last four years and homes ae still being bult. We are seeing souls saved and lives changed.”

“Together we are able to reach Haskell and other communities because of your financial support of your state mission program. I have told the planning team at Celebration that I want to look back in 20 years and be able to say I was a part of the planning and planting of Celebration and now look how the Lord is using her. I hope you will be proud of how you invested your support and are able to look back and say the same.”

“Thank you for what you are doing for us. It is a blessing to be able to serve full time as a state missionary. We could not do it without you. ‘From Start to Finish’ is the theme of our special emphasis. Mission work will never be finished until the Lord comes back. Yes, we do need to continue starting more missions in our state because people do need the Lord.”

Darrin Smith reports 126 present for morning worship and 76 for evening worship.

“It was a blessing for Michael Hight to preach for us Sunday. He brought a wonderful message that really encouraged us. Sunday evening we watched a video, ‘How Great is Our God.’ I have seen this video 5 times and each time it brings me back into the reality of who God is. Everyone enjoyed watching it.

“Continue to pray for us as we make changes in our service times. We will have our first mid-week service this week. I look forward to using this time to again cast the vision of our mission and to help our members discover what part they play. By the end of August our plans are to begin discipleship classes on Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m. Our outreach coordinator has put together a plan for the rest of the year to get us out into the streets of Haskell on a regular basis. What an opportunity we have in this community! I continually thank the Lord for sending the BMA of Arkansas to Haskell and for Him giving the churches of our state the resources to continue starting churches. Thank you for all that you do.”

“Sunday morning we rejoiced as two were baptized. Sunday evening our worship center was turned into a fellowship hall for the first time. It was a great opportunity for our people to get to know each other better.

“I want to thank Michael Hight for being available to preach last week. It is wonderful to have someone like Bro. Michael to preach The Word and willing to help out when needed.”

Darrin Smith reports 117 present for morning worship, 74 for evening worship, 6 first time visitors and offerings of $1,305.46.

“What a day! We had two people join by letter and two more by baptism. Our church is excited about the continued growth, not only in number but also people being saved and coming for baptism. We have used our ‘horse trough’ for 3 of the 6 Sundays we have been in our new building and will use it again next week. We are also excited about the large number returning on Sunday night. Please continue to pray for us.”

“We are excited about what the Lord is doing. We had 3 join by letter and 1 profession of faith. The Lord continues to send able people to do the work of the ministry.

“We would like to thank the Greenbrier Association for their continued support of our mission. It is such a blessing to be part of the BMA of Arkansas.”

Darrin Smith reports 43 present for morning worship, 34 for evening worship, 2 first time visitors and offerings of $668.

“We are rejoicing over 5 joining by letter this week. We also had 2 professions of faith.

“This week I had the opportunity to follow up with some families who have visited with us in the past. Many said they would visit again. It is encouraging to see interest about our ministry from people in the community. We also talked to a family of 5 who are considering joining. This family has 3 children under the age of five. What an opportunity! We hope to be able to see those children come to know Jesus as they grow older and begin to understand more about what it means to be saved. The Lord knows just what we need and who we need at the right time. We rejoice in what the Lord has done!”

Darrin Smith reports 38 present for morning worship, 34 for evening worship, 2 first time visitors and offerings of $985.

“We are getting ready to make the transition that we have been anticipating for nearly a year. The construction of a building hasn’t been easy. A lot of time has gone into this project. All of the painting should be finished in the next couple of days and the flooring should begin to go in this week. With the exception of the plumbing fixtures being set and sidewalks being poured, we are nearly ready to move in.

“Last week I had the opportunity to visit with 4 families about becoming part of our ministry. Together these families make up 17 people. It is great to be able to get back in the field and visit with families interested in what God is doing. Pray for us. We are anticipating many more families to come and join this ministry.”

Darrin Smith reports 42 present for morning worship, 21 for evening worship, 1 first time visitor and offerings of $920.

“I would like to thank Michael Hight and Keith Lewis for bringing some groups from their missions to help us on the building project and a variety of odd and end jobs.  It was a blessing to see what we accomplished as we worked together.  Thanks to volunteers like these and others we will finish our building project much quicker.  There is still plenty to do.  If you would like to volunteer just give us a call.”