was with those teams that were able to go to Wiggins, Mississippi.

When I heard of the Baptist Blitz Build in Baton Rouge at the Great Rivers Region Missions Conference in January, my interest peaked. Baton Rouge was where many displaced by Katrina fled. Habitat for Humanity of Greater Baton Rouge is trying to build homes for many of those displaced families. The goal of the blitz was to build twelve homes in two weeks.

But, I had just taken my only paid vacation to go on a mission trip to Costa Rica. How could I afford to ask for another week off so soon and at the end of April, the beginning of the busy season for a building supply retailer. I struggled with the issue for several weeks until I heard a couple of local pastors express interest in going also.

The deadline for registration was rapidly approaching and I plucked up my courage and asked for the week off, which was granted. I completed and turned in my registration form and fee, to learn the pastors I thought were going could not. Too late to back out, not that I wanted to, but I would have loved working side by side with them.

I teamed up with Pastor Jon Lobos from FBC Paris, Illinois and two ladies from his congregation for the trip. We convoyed with John Stewart, his mother, and five others from his congregation in Arthur for the trip down to Baton Rouge on Monday, April 23rd, arriving in Baton Rouge between 9:30 and 10:00 that night.

We stayed in dormitories on the grounds of the Church of God in Christ near the Baton Rouge Airport. There were two dormitory buildings and a large gymnasium, where breakfast was served at 7:00 a.m. by the Texas Baptist Men. Lunch was prepared at their mobile kitchen set up in the parking lot at the dormitories but served at the job sites.

For some reason, I was assigned to the same houses as the Arthur group. The Paris trio were at a house one street west. Three houses were being built on our street and four on the other. There were at least two other locations where houses were being built.

The work I did was not as important as being there and working with other Baptists, from Arthur, Champaign, Danville, St. Louis, the east coast, and Ontario, Canada toward a common goal of reaching out to others in need. That is what Paul told the Corinthians “At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need.” 2 Cor. 8:14 (NIV). That is what the One Great Hour of Sharing Offering is all about.

Plans are under way by ABC National Ministries and by individual churches to continue mission work on the Gulf Coast. It will, as Dwight Stinnett has observed, take more years of ministry to help those so tragically hurt by the hurricanes.

150th Anniversary Celebration and Dedication for the Future

First Baptist Church of Macomb celebrated its 150th anniversary, June

23-24, 2007. On Saturday, the church

celebration was part of the town’s Heritage Day parade and celebration. On Sunday, June 24th a special service was held. Special music was provided by the group “Crooked Creek”. An anniversary certificate was presented by the Great Rivers Region.

In additon to celebrating the past, the church is also looking to the future. The church recently voted to buy fifteen acres of land on which to build a new church. At the conclusion of the service each family was invited to come forward and light a candle to signify their gift to God for the purchase of land. ”Growing Our Faith” giving cards were

also presented at this time.

Send your stories of mission and ministry. Please also send the names of new members (the fruit of this mission and ministry) to:

Our Great Rivers Region Baptist Family Is Growing!

As the internet matures, certain “ways of doing things” have been adopted. Most of these were started by web page designers and adopted by users of the internet. The formal word for these “ways of doing things” is “conventions” as in “conventional”.

One of these web “conventions” has to do with a standard way of getting to - or back to - a site’s home page. Look for the organization/businesses’ logo in the upper lefthand corner. On most pages, including the pages of http://www.abc-grr.org, this will get you to the main page.

A tip for quicker filling out of forms: When you tab to a “drop-down” menu supplied as a help to fill in such information as state, try using the keyboard and typing the first letter of the state. A state name beginning with that letter will come up. If that is not the state you want, type that letter again until the state that begins with that letter appears.