The 2008 Church Pictorial Directory was delivered on March 30 and has been very well received. Members who are photographed in the directory may pick up their free copy from the church office (or the church reception desk during office hours); other copies will be available after photographed members have received their copy. Members may purchase an additional copy for $2.00 each.

What now? Read it--study it--get to know your church family! We will add new members in several months and provide updates with additional information. Thank you members for participating! You did great!!!

Thank you to Sam Sanders and his wonderful team of helpers. It was a great effort and a great success. It will be a very important tool to assist our members and new members in getting acquainted and in building family. Thanks, one and all!

The Joe C. Davis YMCA Campground will again be the site of our church picnic. If you've never been to our picnic, you will see one of the finest facilities of its type anywhere--an ideal place for our church to get together and have a good time. It is located on Percy Priest Lake, east of the airport. All the events will begin at 3 p.m., food will be served all afternoon, and the conclusion will be a worship service on the lodge grounds. Plan now to come and bring friends.

Birthdays
May 4 - Ruben Herrera

Anniversary
May 1 - Kim Hester (since 1987)

A reception for this year's High School Graduating Class is scheduled for Saturday, May 17, from 3:00 - 5:00 p.m. in the church foyer. If you have served as a Sunday School teacher, a camp counselor, a leader in our missions or music program, or been a friend in the hallway of any or all of this year's graduating class, you are cordially invited to drop in and congratulate these students and wish them well. The gift of your presence is all they ask!

Wednesday, April 30, 6:30 p.m. in Room 150

If you have a child that is involved in Mission Friends on Wednesday nights, this is a great opportunity to meet your child's teachers and see what exciting things are happening!

Twos and Threes Room 356
Fours Room 355
Fives Room 354

It's 5:30 a.m. and Josh's alarm goes off. It's a Wednesday, and Wednesdays are long days in our house. Josh goes to breakfast with 3 high school guys. An hour or so later, Jackson and I head out the door for school and work. Jackson keeps asking, "Daddy? Daddy?"

Jump ahead to bedtime. While reading books and saying our prayers, we pray for Daddy who is at the Edge, probably speaking to the youth right now. "Daddy? Daddy home?" Jackson asks. ARGH!!! I didn't mean to mention Daddy. Once again, I explain Daddy will be home later and put him to bed. I sigh and just wish I could help him understand where Daddy is.

This doesn't happen every Wednesday, but there are many days we just don't see much of each other as a family. Sometimes a whole day goes by where Josh and Jackson don't see each other.

Being on the church staff has many wonderful perks. And one of the biggest joys we have is knowing that Josh is doing what God has called him to do. Josh and the rest of our church staff have been called to lead our church to impact Nashville for Christ in incredible ways. We feel so loved by the body of believers at First Baptist Nashville and you all have become our family here. We love you!

But there are challenges, like nights and weekends Josh will be away from home at youth or church functions or at retreats. There are also some holidays without seeing family, breakfast meetings with youth or other area youth pastors, night meetings at Starbucks to plan camp, deacons meetings, and lunches out getting to know college interns. It's hard not to be able to go to a Sunday School class together. There's the challenge of letting go of what other people think because we are not the perfect family, we make mistakes, and we can't live up to the unrealistic expectation that we've got it all together or we never mess up.

Ultimately though, I feel blessed to be married to a church staff member. With the Lord's help, I can love and support and encourage my husband in his vocation, just like anybody else. And with the Lord's help, I am able to let go of bitterness about some sacrifices that need to be made for our family. You see, God has been preparing me all my life, not only to be Josh's wife, but to be his partner in ministry as well.

Did you know that we have a huge ministry that is churchwide, a mission that our church has embraced to show God's love, care, mercy, and provision to some of the neediest individuals in downtown Nashville?

That mission is Room in the Inn (RITI), whose name takes its inspiration from Luke 2:7.
RITI takes place during the cold winter season, when many shelters are at or above capacity. We provide a hearty meal, a warm place to sleep, a clean shower, a Bible study, laundry service, clothing, a bedtime snack, breakfast the next morning, and a sack lunch for each guest.

This past year we helped an average of 28 individuals per night for 22 nights. That's 618 beds, 1,848 meals, and about 240 loads of laundry!

It means so much to our guests that we take the time to engage them in conversation and serve them. Reaching out to another human being and letting them reach back are moments of kairos: appointments on God's kingdom calendar.

RITI would not happen without our volunteers who supervise the work, recruit other volunteers, organize tasks, and do the "grunt work" of cooking, cleaning, and setup. Thank you to those who have contributed funds and other resources to make RITI possible. Thank you, thank you, thank you to those who have lent a hand (or back or oven or driving ability or grocery shopping savvy!).

Thanks especially to those who volunteered on a weekly or monthly basis. Those people include the weekly directors: Teresa Phillips, Wilburn Honeycutt, Mike Harris and Billy Smith; as well as the weekly registrars: James Kennon, Jeff Mobley, Melinda Matthews, and John and Sarah Galloway. These folks were at the Rec Center one week out of each month. Kathy Wilcox led our Bible Study. Tim Lehning took laundry to a laundramat for us many times this year. Countless other volunteers cooked, cleaned, visited, spent the night and helped with details that make RITI a churchwide ministry.

Also, lots of thanks for Charlene Carter for running our sister ministry, the clothes closet!

"As far north as you can go, before the ocean freezes..."

First Baptist Nashville has been invited to serve in Murmansk, Russia.

A summer mission trip is being developed for late July. Dates will likely be July 24-August 3, Thursday through Sunday. The mission will travel to Murmansk, a city of some 300,000 people north of the Arctic Circle. The team will partner with Tim Wishon of Charlotte, NC, who is the Virtual Strategy Coordinator for church planting in Murmansk.

Murmansk has very few evangelical churches and is beginning to see more interest in the Gospel than in years previous. The team will work on prayer walking and English. Since the church mission trip in 2007, a Bible Study has begun in the Murmansk region which has the potential of becoming a church and ministering to many.

Interested persons should contact Tom Crow, tom.crow@firstbaptistnashville.org, or attend the interest meeting on Sunday, April 27 at noon in Room 140 following morning worship.

Please be praying about this mission opportunity and the support of First Baptist Nashville to reach those who have not heard the Gospel.