This isn’t about me. Well…it involves me…but it’s not really about me. Keep reading…hopefully it will become clear.

Being a father was definitely not the first thing on my mind when Kelly and I entered into the covenant of marriage over 28 years ago. Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t opposed to having kids, but it wasn’t a priority and I certainly wasn’t doing anything to prepare myself to one day be a father. My all-wise, all-knowing, and all-powerful Heavenly Father was well aware of this reality.

About five years into our marriage, we decided it was time to have children. What seemed like perfect timing to us, however, did not align to the perfect timing that only God in his infinite wisdom knows. So we waited patiently (true confession…we weren’t really patient and it wasn’t easy to wait). But, God, in ways only he can do, used the next four years to mold and shape and refine us so we would be ready to care for the life he would bring into this world in our daughter Kathleen.

Like most fathers I know, I was somewhat concerned that this child that had just arrived was delivered without step-by-step instructions for all the care, feeding, training, and wise counsel that would be required to ensure a successful arrival at adulthood. Much of what I have learned over the years about being a father has come through trials and mistakes and is only now clear in hindsight. But, God has been faithful and gracious in providing what I needed, when I needed it, and in ways that assured me that he was ever present.

Whether you are preparing to honor your earthly father this Father’s Day or to be honored by your children, can I encourage you to remember your Heavenly Father, too? When I look back over my journey through fatherhood I can’t miss seeing God’s fingerprints all over me and my family…making provision, providing perfect counsel, exercising mercy, and giving grace in abundance. I hope you will join me in rejoicing and giving thanks for our Heavenly Father, not just on Father’s Day, but each and every day…for he is worthy of all our honor and praise!

Keith Ober

Sunday School Survey

Please help the Christian Education Committee evaluate our present Sunday School ministry with a view of making it better. It is important that we hear from everyone including those not currently active in Sunday School. We want to determine if we are meeting our stated objectives and meeting the needs of those who are attending or may attend in the future. Please follow the link below and complete the survey in its entirety. It can be done anonymously or, if you are willing to be contacted by a member of the committee, there is a place to include your name. Thank you for your help. Please pray with us that we can make a good thing even better.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScLd6urMKDI4CyTc3d9WBurV3SBYYdeLVDLuC1Vb9mYDLqI0Q/viewform

New Church Office Hours: Beginning Monday, July 2, the church office hours will be Monday through Friday 8 AM to 4 PM.

On every side, we are inundated with information and many platforms for reading. What is it about books that still attract people? Maybe, it is because physical books can become our friends on the Christian journey where the thoughts from different authors we read give us new takes on old problems such as sin, God’s character, the trials in Christian living to name a few. When we read a well-written book that edifies, or comforts or teaches us something we did not know before, don’t we want to call somebody up or post or recommend that resource to someone else who might need encouragement or building up? In that way, the library does disciple us.

Children are our most important resource, and we take our responsibility to them very seriously as we seek to provide just the right books to build their faith and teach them Biblical truths. When they ask, “why”, they deserve the best answer we can give them. To that end, we have Bibles on their level to help them learn Biblical truths, board books for little ones, missionary tales of adventure and faithfulness, and books for just plain enjoyment. We want to be partners in your child’s training.

Our Immanuel library at long last has a new online catalog accessible from ANYWHERE using any smart device. Put this address: library.ibcrichmond.org where the IP address should go at the top of your screen. Searching for a subject matter, authors, or titles has never been easier, and you can do it in a store, at home or at church. At last count, there are 7,598 items in our catalog which is updated weekly. With your patron barcode and a 4 digit pin which we enter, you may also see what you have checked out.

In short, the library is a ministry that builds up our members, help our teachers of children and adults, edifies new believers, encourage those mature in the faith, and keeps us on the pilgrim way and the straight road. We look forward to seeing you in the library (Thompson street double doors nearest the large parking lot). Mash our new white doorbell, and we’ll come running to welcome you to our treasure trove of good books. One need to pray about is more willing hands to staff the desk and check out our patrons. Please see the librarian for more information.

Martha Hancock, Head Librarian

P. S. We’ve been stocking up in preparation for our upcoming Summer Reading Club: Don’t Monkey Around: Go Bananas for Reading which will run from Sunday, July 8th to Sunday, August 19th (6 weeks). Do save the dates!  Anyone from 2 to Adult is welcome to sign up outside the library.

There are new summer hours for the clothes closet & food pantry. From May through August, the clothes closet & food pantry will only be open on the second and fourth Fridays from 10 AM – 12 Noon. The food pantry is in need of the following: spinach, peas, carrots, beets, beefaroni, spam, soup and pudding. Pop-tops are preferred. They can be left inside the glass doors to the large parking lot.

The year was 1925. Little 2-year old Ruthie was running down the sidewalk with a glass peanut butter jar in her hand — when suddenly she fell. On impact, the jar broke and cut deeply into that tiny wrist, nearly severing her right hand — which hung limply by only the top layer of skin. Ruthie’s parents, who were new Christians, as well as many others, prayed fervently for her healing.

Miraculously, the hand was saved, and much glory was ascribed to our God! The doctors sadly told Ruthie’s parents that she would have only a claw for a hand the rest of her life. Well, those believing prayers availed more than anyone imagined, for Ruthie regained full use of her hand – except for her right index finger, which could not bend completely down. Till the end of her life, there remained a deep, wide scar visible on the underside of her right wrist. It was quite beloved to me– for Ruthie (Ruth Esther Hancock) was my mother.

As we approach Mother’s Day, I was thinking of my dear mother and the age-old debate over whether heredity or environment has a greater influence on the behavior and development of a child. As a child, penmanship teachers constantly corrected me as to the way I held my pen. I could form the letters correctly, but my hand position was not according to classic form. It was not until I was a young mother in the early 1980’s that it came up again—when my own children were studying penmanship in school. All of a sudden, it dawned on me that I held my pen exactly the same way my mother did!

At the next family gathering, I learned that all three of my sisters held their pen—you guessed it—exactly like Mom! My mother was amazed—she never officially “taught” us to write, yet we all instinctively imitated her!

So when I began to home-school our youngest Timothy, I asked my husband if HE would show him how to hold his pencil. Timmy did just fine for a while – but one day I caught him gripping his pencil with his middle finger and thumb rather than his index finger and thumb! I had to keep watching him until the correct way was finally ingrained in him as a habit.

To me, this is a humorous example of the profound impact OUR example – in even the simplest things—has on the children around us. Much more than the things that we say, children learn from the things that we do—especially the things we don’t realize we are doing! So whether we are teaching/ caring for our own children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, or other people’s children— let us all continually strive to BE all that God wants us to be—that our words may be backed up by the powerful impact of our everyday lives.

Jan Sierk

Church-Wide Fellowship Dinner & Concert

Prime Rib Picnic

Sunday, May 20th

5:30 PM in the Fellowship Hall

prime rib, twice-baked potato casserole, multi-grain loaves, Caribbean vegetable medley, and red, white, and blue shortcake.

Tickets are $5 per person with a max of $20 per family

Concert by Niah & Allisha Merrill to follow meal

Purchase your tickets online today!

There are new summer hours for the clothes closet & food pantry. From May through August, the clothes closet & food pantry will only be open on the second and fourth Fridays from 10 AM – 12 Noon. The food pantry is in need of the following: spinach, peas, carrots, beets, beefaroni, spam, soup and pudding. Pop-tops are preferred. They can be left inside the glass doors to the large parking lot.

Mother’s Day photo ops are available on Thompson Street before SundaySchool and after the morning worship service to take a Mother’s Day picture.

There is a need for Sunday PM security. If you can help one Sunday a month, please contact Travis Cox at 804.562-8837 or tcox7092@verizon.net

Recently, at meetings in Orlando, Fla., organized by the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College, it was announced that the world could be only 10 or 15 years away from seeing the Great Commission fulfilled. In other words, it is possible that every people group on earth will have had the gospel preached to them and some portion of scripture translated into their language. To hear this announcement was astounding.

Following that announcement, Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, made a remarkable observation. He told the gathered assembly that he once believed that when we arrive in heaven there will be long lines of people eager to ask the 12 disciples, Paul, Barnabas, Priscilla, Aquila and a host of other first-century Christians: “What was it like to have been there at the very moment the gospel started to go out to every tribe, people, and nation?”

Anderson mused, “I can’t help but wonder if, perhaps, when we get to heaven, there will be lines waiting for us to arrive so those who preceded us can ask: ‘What was it like to live in that moment of history when the work begun in the first century was finally completed, and all on earth had the opportunity to hear the gospel?’ It is an astounding and moving thought.”

Jesus taught, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matthew 24:14). It is exciting to imagine that the coming of Christ may come on the very heels of the last person on earth hearing the gospel.

Jerry Root

There are new summer hours for the clothes closet & food pantry. From May through August, the clothes closet & food pantry will only be open on the second and fourth Fridays from 10 AM – 12 Noon. The food pantry is in need of the following: spinach, peas, carrots, beets, beefaroni, spam, and pudding. Pop-tops are preferred. They can be left inside the glass doors to the large parking lot.

There is a need for Sunday PM security. If you can help one Sunday a month, please contact Travis Cox at 804.562-8837 or tcox7092@verizon.net

This week the Immanuel pastors have been in Louisville at T4G, Together for the Gospel Conference. One of the speakers, John MacArthur, has talked about the moral slide that our country is on.  “In less than fifty years’ time, our nation’s political leaders, legislative bodies, and courts have adopted a distinctly anti-Christian attitude and agenda. The country has swept away the Christian worldview and its principles in the name of equal rights, political correctness, tolerance, and strict separation of church and state. Gross immorality–including homosexuality, abortion, pornography, and other evils–has been sanctioned not only by society in general but in effect by the government as well.”

Someone once said that when we point a finger at someone else, three of our fingers are pointing back at us.  Certainly, during these 50 years, Christendom has not been on the sidelines, out of the game nor innocent.  For each individual who claims to be a Christian, our faith in Christ should permeate every aspect of our lives.  It should affect the way we relate to God, others and the world around us. The Apostle Paul put it this way, “To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Eph. 4:22-24)  We have to put off the old and put on the new.

So what is our responsibility as a church as we look around and see our world disintegrating?  In last week’s Mission RVA, we talked about some tangible ideas about ways our church can be about redemptive ministries that are bridges for the gospel.  Let’s take advantage of this momentum and look for opportunities to let the church be the church.  America’s moral decline is a spiritual problem and we need to apply the gospel as the solution.  The church is Christ’s bride, the tangible body of followers of Christ on this side of eternity. We were put here for a purpose – to rescue the perishing. Christ is the answer.

Paul Dreiling