Pray for Camp Lebanon

Baptist Camp Lebanon in New Jesey added a new building this year. Above is a video of the building process.

Please pray for the campers and the staff of this wonderful ministry. They all work hard to provide spiritual refreshment in a dry time. Here is their website if you want to learn more;
http://www.camplebanon.com/

Stelton's interim pastor to be ordained at Shiloh

The ordination of Stelton Baptist Church's interim pastor, Tamara Davis, will take place at 4 p.m.New Jersey on Sept. 12th at the Shiloh Baptist Church, Trenton, NJ 08618.

The worship leader for the ordination will be the Rev. David Spiegel, senior pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church , in Hamilton.

The invocation and Lord's Prayer will be sung by Minister-In-Training Dr. Nikol Alexander-Floyd.

The opening hymn will be "If I Can Help Somebody" led by Liturgy, Praise and Worship.

The welcome will be given by Min. Jane Wyche. Greetings from Stelton Baptist Church will then be given by Deacon Jim Purcell.

Special music will be performed by Toni Benecchi, a violin instrumental of "You Raise Me Up."

Introduction of the candidate will be given by the Rev. Lillian Gail Moore, pastor of Macedonia Baptist Church, in Newton, Pa.

Scripture readings for the day include: Isaiah 6:6-8; and Luke 10:2-3, and read by Min. Cathy Malloy.

The homily will be delivered by the Rev. Darrell Armstrong, pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church.

The church offering and special music will be conducted by the Macedonia Baptist Church, while the statement and recommendation from ABCNJ Capital Association will be conducted by the Rev. Dr. Ed DeSilva, vice-moderator of the Capital Association of ABCNJ, who is also the senior pastor of Chesterfield Baptist Church.

Ordinations are a special time in the lives of not only candidates, but also for the denomination and the churches who nurtured the candidates and those who have called the candidate.

God Understands Our Troubles

The Rev. William "Bill" Whitehead is the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Rahway, in Rahway, New Jersey. He is also a graduate of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary.

Why Am I Still Alive?

By Pastor Bill Whitehead

I have heard many times that caring for people is rewarding. I know this is true because I have seen first hand the rewards that people receive when they stand by an ill loved-one and care for her. I may not be able to document those rewards, but I know they are very real.

A friend of mine was seriously ill and has been given a bad prognosis by the doctor. She was dying and she knew it. My friend has had difficulty getting out of bed for a while and when I visited with her she couldn’t get up any longer. So she asked me a question, why am I still here? She said to me, “I’m stuck in this bed and I can’t do anything.” She wanted to know why she was still alive. This is the toughest question anyone can be asked. At first I fumbled for an answer and I lamely said, “God must have a reason for you to still be here.” That answer didn’t satisfy her and it didn’t excite me either. She wanted something a little more down to earth in order to explain her suffering.

Then I thought about the struggles that my wife and I had with my mother-in-law. We helped her through some tough years. She was in and out of the hospital many times. Once we thought she was going to end up in a nursing home. But God provided and her health improved. Every day either Betsy or I went to see her in the hospital. I used to visit her after work and before class at seminary. Talk about schedule juggling. When I thought about this I realized that Betsy and I received something in return for our service to her mom. We grew as individuals and as a couple. We became more caring and giving as a result. Those were some tough times but we were rewarded for our efforts.

So it turned out that I did have an answer to my dying friend’s question. I told her about my experience with Betsy’s mom. I said that the people helping her were being blessed. She was helping them by needing their help. She seemed to be satisfied with this answer. I don’t know where that answer came from, but I was pretty satisfied too. I knew that I was being blessed just by being with her.

Why respond to need? We gain by it. We gain by doing something that goes beyond ourselves. We gain by feeling good about ourselves. The rewards are not measurable. We cannot observe them through scientific observation. But there truly are many rewards for selfless living.



The Rev. William Whitehead is the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Rahway, in Rahway, NJ. He is an ordained minister within American Baptist Churches and a graduate of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary.

Something that will Live with Him Forever

By PASTOR BILL WHITEHEAD

My wife works with autistic children. She is part of a wraparound program, in which an autistic child receives help from an adult at school and at home. Betsy helps Tommy keep focused on his work in the classroom. There are eight children and five adults in this particular class. One of the adults is the teacher and there is a teacher’s aid. The others are like Betsy, adults who help a specific child. Little Tommy is nine years old and weighs in at 60 pounds. His size makes him difficult to handle when he wants to cause trouble. He is very smart and is progressing in reading and math. But he communicates only in nonverbal ways. He grunts or points when he wants something. And he screams like all kids when he doesn’t get what he wants. He is easily provoked to anger by the other kids in the class. Breaking up fights is a daily activity for the adults in this classroom. These kids challenge Betsy and the other adults, and yet Betsy loves it.

I can’t help but wonder why she can’t wait to get back into the classroom with Tommy. When he wants to cause trouble he can be very difficult. Betsy has been head butted in the chest, bitten on the hands and arms and had her hair pulled. She came home one night with five bruises on her arms and legs from bites. He has tried several times to grab her breasts, but luckily she has avoided any painful problems in this area. Sometimes Betsy comes home from a rough day and says she feels beaten up. When I see the bruises I can understand why she says that.

I still can’t believe that she stuck with this program after the rough start that she had. Her first child had severe emotional problems. The school district placed him in a regular classroom with Betsy to help keep him under control. He was a sizeable kid at 70 pounds. And he was violent. One day he lost control at the end of the school day and he was under his desk and wouldn’t move. Betsy, the teacher and his guardian tried to pull him out but he attacked them. It took the three of them to wrestle him to the floor and restrain him until he calmed down. After she told me about that episode I was convinced that she would give up. How can anyone handle such a violent kid? And then when she started working with Tommy and I heard some of the stories, I couldn’t believe she was hanging in. And yet she has kept up with the program and now is helping Tommy get through school. Why do Betsy and the other teachers work with these troubled kids?

This is a difficult question to answer. They are getting paid for the work that they do, but there are certainly easier ways to make a living. Many people all around the world work jobs that are equally challenging. And there are even more people who volunteer to do work like this. Some people do this kind of work for nothing! Can you believe it? A Red Cross volunteer has told me that she feels it is a privilege to help people. A privilege! What an incredible thing to say. There is something really important happening here. Something that is motivating individuals to do things which do not have an obvious return on their investment. When someone says that they are engaged in an enterprise that is a privilege and receive no apparent reward, then there is a question that needs to be answered.

I believe that the answer lies inside of us. We possess a desire from within that prompts us to reach out when we see someone in need. My experience has been that we respond out of deep-seated emotions that fill us with good feelings even when it is struggle to help. Can it be explained? Feelings of personal satisfaction are difficult to verbalize. Maybe these feelings come from complicated psychological developmental processes. Maybe they come from God. Does it matter if we can explain our feelings? What counts is that they are very real. People receive something powerful when they respond to the needs of others

What kind of power is that? The power of love. The power of friendship. The power of never being alone. When we help someone we become more than we are. We become partners in life with another. Tommy has received something from my wife. Something that will live with him forever.

The Rev. William "Bill" Whitehead is pastor of the First Baptist Church of Rahway, in Rahway, NJ and a graduate of the New Brunswick Theological Seminary. He is ordained within American Baptist Churches. For more about Rev. Whitehead, see his channel on YouTube by search "Pastor Bill Whitehead."

ABCNJ puts out position paper on immigration

American Baptist Churches-New Jersey has come up with a position regarding immigration. For more information, got to the denomination's website.

ABCNJ seeks to fund ESL programs

ABCNJ's Public Mission Committee has received a Palmer Grant to enhance the language instruction opportunities for people living in the Garden State. The primary focus of the new grant is to prepare adults for the workplace. ABCNJ is seeking to launch two to three "English for the Workplace" classes during 2010.

For more information, go to ABCNJ's homepage.