SAD NEWS!

Yes, I have sad news to report to the church family tonight! Pastor Donny, our children and youth minister since June 1 will be leaving our staff as of December 11. We did enjoy having Donny on our church staff, and thank him for the excellent job which he did. I was especially happy to have my oldest son here in the same church with Carolyn and myself, and we were very proud of how Donny handled himself in that special position. Working with teen agers is a most difficult task, and one that takes a lot of help from the parents and the church members in order to have an effective ministry. But the expectations of members of the church, and several of the parents, and some of the youth, made it almost impossible to establish a strong youth program. Perhaps the Lord will send someone who will satisfy and please all the members of the church, I pray that He will.

Along the same line, Carolyn and I have decided to spend some time ministering with our other son, David, who is pastor of Double Branch Baptist Church in Pinehill community. We are blessed to have two sons in the ministry, and for some months I was at Fellowship Baptist Church helping Donny when he was pastor there, so now I feel that I can help David in his great work at Double Branch church.As many of you know, I have been having a lot of medical problems, and had to slow down some.But as long as my health and stength hold out, I will try to serve the Lord as He leads me.
A few weeks ago I resigned from North FBC as minister of education/administration and am giving up the discipleship training class each Sunday night. Susan Gleaton is an outstanding teacher and I am proud to return the class back into her faithful hands.

Now, one of the final things. I have been writing this blog since April of 2004, and tried to make it sort of a journal of activities of the church. But now since I will be away quite a bit, I will not know of all the activities. So, is there someone out there who reads this blog that would be willing to pick it up and keep it going? It would be a matter of writing some of the weekly events in the life of the church. If not, then it will just stop here. The past blogs will remain on line for sometime, but they will not be current. This would be a good ministry for someone who can do this. Let me know, I will give you the password and show you how to do it all.

So, God bless you...Please pray for us as we seek the Lord's leading and serving in the Double Branch Baptist church with our son and grandson..
Bye, God loves you, and so do I.

CATCHING UP!

Since I have retired from the staff of the church I have not had much to say in the blog department. Our church is going well, and we enjoyed a great time of Homecoming and fellowship on November 6. Rev. James Watterson, pastor of this church in the mid-70's, was our guest speaker.

This week our pastor is attending the annual SC Baptist Convention in Columbia, and a good crowd of pastors and church members of all our SC churches will be in attendance. I have not been in years, because there is a lot of standing and walking and with my knee problems, and now a back problem, I do not enjoy going any longer. Carolyn and I used to go every year, and we would meet and talk with our preacher friends and visit with each other for a time. But, now, all the pastors seem so young! I do not known very many of them, and all of us older pastors are sort of fading away. Guess that is the price of getting older.

Pastor Donny and wife Sondra are to be away this week attending the National Youth Ministers meeting in Nashville, TN. We wish them a safe trip and a good meeting there in Nashville. Donny will come back all fired up with youth and children ideas I am sure!

It is hard to believe that Thanksgiving is next week. And that the football season is almost over. I used to hear older folks say that time really did go fast when you got into the golden years, but this is unbelieveable! Days pile upon days, and months upon months, and how fast they do go. Sunday to Wednesday to Sunday seems to just dart by anymore. So after next week, we can look forward to Christmas, the choir is working on the cantata, everyone is busy getting food baskets and health baskets and shoebox gifts ready to go to West Virginia, and of course, trying to get in that Christmas shopping. And, praise the Lord, we are having some cooler weather and sweaters and long sleeves are the mode these days. Can we even get a glimmer of hope for any snow this year?

By the way, for those of our church family who read this blog from time to time, If you would like to post a blog, or make an announcement, or just write a column once in a while, let me know, and I will show you how to post the blog. I didn't intend this blog to be mine when I started, but it is the news of the church and church members. Let me know. Help me out and I will appreciate it very much.

Also, as a matter of information, I now have a new email address, drr@tds.net, since we were able to go to DSL. The old address, royster@aikenelectric.net is no longer any good.

See you Sunday if not before, bye for now.