BROADCASTER Vol. 3
July 2, 2023
April 3, 2023
This month continue to stay updated on our most recent events while connecting with your church family through our ongoing outreach of ministry.
April
1 - Missionary Prayer Group
2 - Deacon Family Lunch
6 - Ladies Craft Group
7 - Good Friday Service
8 - Veteran's Breakfast
9 – Easter Service
11-18 – Dominican Republic Mission Trip
15 - Missionary Prayer Group
16 - Deacon Family Lunch
28-29 – Oklahoma Baptist Men’s retreat
29 – Indoor Volleyball tournament
May
5-6 – Lifeway Women Simulcast
25-29 – Mexico Mission Trip
27-June 3 – Student's Pueblo Mission Trip
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Weekly:
Core Costs: $29,056
Giving: $34,607
Ministry Budget: 36,981
Vision Budget: $41,509
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Sunday, March 26th, our church family was able to get together for a time of food, fun and fellowship. This picnic was a part of our monthly fourth Sunday fellowship and was a great time to connect together while playing games and eating.
While we spent time together many people were able to volunteer and serve along with helping with set up and take down later on.
Keep up to date so you can join us soon for our next upcoming fourth Sunday Fellowship.
On March 11th, FSBC had their first ever pickleball tournament, headed up by Elise Cartledge. In all twelve teams entered and contestant had to be 18 and up. Pickleball has become a very popular sport so to help reach into the community, the tournament was created to cater more towards people’s interests in this area. The tournament turned out great and several of the competitors have already either emailed or reached out in person to ask about when the next tournament will be.
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This summer the student ministry is working with multiple churches to extend the kingdom of God.
The group will start with our mission trip to Pueblo, CO where they will be partnering with the student ministry of Eastpoint in Choctaw for this trip. Steel City Fellowship in Colorado is a church plant we have partnered with for the past 4 years and where Cole Harrison is currently interning. Recently this church has started seeing a need for a student ministry focus as they are regularly having 12-15 students attending church along with their partnership in local schools through FCA club they believe they can effectively reach more youth when they launch a student ministry.
Our groups plans are to head and help launch the student ministry and train their church and volunteers in how to support and build the next generation of Kingdom Leaders. They will then take the next several weeks to work in evangelism and discipleship with the intent that they will then join us for our week of Falls Creek for their first summer camp experience. Be in prayer for Steel City Students, as the elders of their church are praying to see a Student Movement in their area and around the globe.
At Falls Creek the student group will be joined by 3 churches with the possibility of a 4th. Our desire for this is to leverage our cabin to the max in beds as well as Kingdom impact. As a church we know that God wishes to do a new thing in us and among other like minded churches this year and we are are excited to see how all of this can lead into walking in the Unity Christ calls us into. We are looking forward to this as it will be the second year that LYV Church and Ground Zero student ministry will be joining us and the first year for Steel City to join. We pray that Victory Fellowship will be able to join as well.
This summer we are leaning into getting small in discipleship groups Sunday evenings, we have a great team coming out of the woodworks eager to mentor students. We have a few changes still to come but are anxious with anticipation to see how the Lord stirs our church in intergenerational fellowship.
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First Southern invites you to our monthly Veterans Appreciation Breakfast. This community outreach ministry is hosted by Pelican’s Restaurant on Air Depot in Midwest City, every 2nd Saturday at 9:00 am. It is free of charge and it’s our honor to honor those who have served the people of this great nation. If you are a Veteran, know a Veteran, or would simply like to support our Veterans by showing your appreciation, you are invited!
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*Throughout the content of this article name changes may have been included due to ongoing missions work as a precaution taken for safety purposes.
On March 11th one of First Southern’s young adults, Isaac James, was able to travel to Fort Worth Texas to work with Afghan refugees through a day of outreach. Meeting with Kika, a church planter who works with Afghan refugees, James joined a group of believers for a day of outreach at a zoo in Fort Worth, Texas, that had been organized by Kika.
“I met up with Kika at the Fort Worth Zoo,” James said. “Of the other Christians, there were groups from Texas and Louisiana. We were able to work together to lead about a dozen Afghan families around the zoo.”
This zoo trip is a part of an annual event that Kika organizes every year for Christians to go and spend the day with refugees.
“I was paired with two fathers and their respective children,” said James. “While the fathers were primarily focused on watching their children, I enjoyed seeing the fathers spend time with their children and seeing the love they have for one another.”
Generally during meetings like this, it is appropriate for the families to separate the younger children from the visitors. However, in the zoo environment, the families and guests were able to interact as one.
“Being able to see these families from this perspective helped remind me of how little and inconsequential the cultural differences that separate us from our Afghan neighbors are,” James said.
While the purpose of the zoo day was to spend time with the families and show God’s love to them, the group hopes to grow these relationships outside of the zoo day and even bring something similar to the OKC area.
Afghan Ministry
- In January a new Afghan family moved to South OKC; We were put in contact with them to assist in the difficult transition of starting over. Fortunately the father and a few of the children speak English very well which has been extremely helpful. However, One of the most difficult objectives in this process is getting a good job. Without a vehicle, this task is made nearly impossible. So, we are making the need known, if anyone would like to donate toward a car in anyway, please contact Paul Colley or call the office. Thank you!
- The "Kennedy" family (name changed for security) just had a baby girl mid-March, some of the young adults and our family were able to get them a nice cradle for their new baby. The father has had a job for a while now, but they will need to move this summer to a more affordable place when the special funds for housing cease. Their kids are doing well in school and are excelling in their English. The adults struggle more so with learning English because they are not immersed like the children in school.
- The "Smith" family (name changed for security) is doing well, they had a little boy back in November and we've given them baby clothing other helpful items to celebrate with them. Their kids are also doing very well in school and with English. We are still using the church van and our team of faithful volunteers to take them to and from school each day. As we look toward the Fall Semester of 2023, we are wanting to find another solution to get them to school. This will likely be the parent driving a load with their car and a volunteer taking a load with their car. They have 8 children going to school so the van has been ideal. As we look for another option, please consider helping us continue to love them in this significant way. Contact Paul Colley or call the church office. Thank you!
- The "Rogers" family (name changed for security) had some issues with their electricity in their apartment during some of those negative degree cold days - and had no heat! Some of young adults who know and visit with the family assisted the process of phone calls and getting the management to address this ASAP and helped to get the heat back on. Due to this they weren't able to cook, so we provided them with a huge dinner for the whole family.
Please, continue to pray our people who are investing in these relationship and for these families as they work hard to re-establish their lives after losing all they had back home. Many of them still have family back in Afghanistan; this is emotionally difficult and trying to say the least. As we become better friends with our new neighbors, we've been so blessed by their amazing hospitality and friendship toward us. As Jesus said, it truly is more blessed to give than to receive. May we lean into his ways more and more and watch Him do what only he can do.
Reaching "Internationals" in OKC Training
- The last Saturday of February we hosted a very well developed training on how to reach internationals living in the OKC metro. There were about 35 in attendance, including some of our pastors. This was not publicly announced for security reasons.
Dominican Republic Mission Trip
- As you already know, our team of 12 will be headed out April 11-18. They've been training for weeks to prepare. Please, be praying for them. The objectives of this mission trip are to encourage and build up the missionaries and to train them with a simple reproducible discipling model. If you haven't gotten a prayer bookmark, please grab one, there are some at the Worship Center entrances and some on the altar areas.
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Our church body is constantly trying to reach out and reach others. As we do this we want to continue to look for ways to serve one another within the church. Below is a list of areas that are in need of people. If none of these seem to fit you, please contact the office for more ways to get involved.
Blast Leaders
Expectations: volunteer during Blast Weekend (June 7-9) from 9am to Noon. Specifically needed are “Tour Guides” who take kids to each location each day, check-in and check-out desk helpers, greeters, and preschool volunteers. Must have completed 7th grade to serve. Younger volunteers will be placed with younger elementary kids or preschool.
Resource Room Attendant
Expectations: Volunteer 1-2 hours a week cleaning and organizing the Preschool Resource Room.
Kids Center Greeter
Expectations: Volunteer twice a month at the door greeting kids and families.
Specific Times of Need (select one or more):
- Sundays 9:15-10:15
- Sundays 10:15- Close of service
- Sundays 4:45pm-5:45pm
- Wednesdays 5:45pm-7:30pm
Kids Center Check-In
Expectations: Volunteer at the check-in desk entering guests into the computer and giving them instructions to enter.
Specific Times (select one or more):
- Sundays 9:15-10:15
- Sundays 10:15- Close of service
- Sundays 4:45pm-5:45pm
- Wednesdays 5:45pm-7:30pm
Summer Wednesday Night Co-Teachers
Expectations: Serve alongside another teacher each Wednesday night during the summer (Mid-May to Mid-August) from 6:00pm-7:30pm. There are needs in every class. Classes are Babies, Toddlers, 2s-3s, Prek-Kindergarten, 1st-4th, and 5th- 6th.
Sunday Night Co-Teachers
Expectations: Serve alongside another teacher on Sunday nights from 5pm-6:15pm. We have needs in Preschool and Elementary classes right now and would like to emphasis an immediate need along with people to fill in during the summer months.
Preschool Worship Care Co-Teacher
Expectations: Volunteer at least once per month to teach and love on preschoolers during the worship service. All classes have 2 volunteers and classes will include babies through 3 year olds. Volunteer must be flexible to serve where needed.
Kids Center Cleaning
Expectations: Volunteer once a week for 1-2 hours to thoroughly vacuum the floors and clean the windows in each classroom in the Kids Center.
*Please note that all those who serve with minors must complete a screening process including background checks & sexual abuse awareness training.
Contact Sara in the Kids Ministry office to sign up to serve at sara@firstsouthern.tv or stop by the Kids Center.
is made up of two groups: the Teaching Team and the Event Team. Our teaching team is made up of women who lead our Women’s Bible Studies on Sunday evenings, Tuesday mornings and Wednesday evenings. Our Event team meets monthly to plan various women’s events and works together as a team to bring them to fruition. We are currently in need of a Wednesday evening Bible Study leader, whether it be teaching the class or facilitating a DVD-led study. If you feel the Lord’s calling to participate on our Women’s Ministry Team, please send an email to women@firstsouthern.tv.
On Monday evenings a group of young adults gathers to pray and go out into the homes of numerous Afghan families to develop friendships, love on them, and share the good news. There are several scheduled weekly rhythms of prayer and visiting taking place all the time so if there is a way you would like to get involved please contact the office.
We need more people to get involved with these Afghan families as we grow these friendships. The need is beyond our current ability to address it and we especially need more ladies involved. Please, contact Paul Colley or call the church office for more information. Thank you!
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Future and Possible Mission Endeavors for 2023
-- India (August, dates TBD): this is already in the planning process; the objective - encourage the leadership and students (ministry, prayer, worship), expose our team to their disciple-making and church-planting practices and strategies, serve in whatever areas we can assist needs (discovering those in this planning process), learn more about prayer, spiritual warfare, evangelism, house-church models as persecution has increased there. This will be a small team. Time away will be 7-9 days as best as we can assess at this time.
-- Albania (Possibly October): serve a multiplying church movement with English ministry, music, evangelism, special needs ministry; learn from them, expose of people to a church and it's practices that is reproducing churches into the 4th generation across Albania.
-- Japan (TBA): we have some connections with a church. Conversations are in process as to what this could look like for a team to come and serve. Japan has historically been a very mysteriously difficult place for the church to multiply. The missionary contact there is always in need of encouragement and help. They are seeing fruit; this would be a great opportunity to partner with another church in Arkansas who is already working with them.
— Togo or Ghana (possibly this fall): we have two connections of fruitful works we may partner with that would love for us to serve. More to come!
-- IMB Missionary Care Mission Trips: we are considering doing one or two mission trips for the sole purpose of missionary care with some of the IMB missionaries we are connected with relationally already. As we determine this, we will be making the dates and locations known.
