For approximately $30 anyone can purchase the materials and assemble a “Bucket of Hope.” The food contained in a single bucket will feed a Haitian family for a week. You are also requested to include a $10 contribution,  to offset the cost of transporting the relief buckets to Haiti.

Buckets must be packed with a specific list of food items inside. Please follow the detailed instructions  carefully. The instructions can be found at www.hoksba.org or www.namb.net. This will ensure that every bucket quickly passes through customs and into the hands of the Haitian people.

Also, mark your calendar for the Family Picnic at RiverFest on May 15, 2010.

Now is the time to begin planning your church’s 2010 Vacation Bible School. To assist you in this effort, the Kansas-Nebraska Convention and the Heart of Kansas Southern Baptist Association makes available training opportunities for V.B.S. workers.

The Kansas-Nebraska training event will be on Saturday, March 6^th at First Southern Baptist Church in Salina, Kansas. If you need additional information, contact the Convention Office at 800-984-9092.

Closer to home, the HOKSBA will offer V.B.S. worker training on Thursday, April 8^th from 7 to 9 p.m. at Sharon Baptist Church in Wichita. Breakout sessions will be provided for: V.B.S. Directors; preschool; children (grades 1-2); children (grades 3-4) children (grades 5-6); crafts; music; missions; recreation; and for churches interested in utilizing the V.B.S. materials for Spanish speakers. All HOKSBA training sessions will focus on Lifeway’s “Saddle Ridge Ranch” curriculum with the exception of the V.B.S. Director’s training which will be non-curriculum specific. For more information on the HOKSBA training, contact Terry Beasley at 684-5156.

The drama, “Love Please, Nothing Else,” told the story of Sara, a girl whose rosy outlook on the world grew dark as she faced rejection and betrayal at school. In the end she realizes that even though the world isn’t as great as she hoped, she doesn’t have to give in to its ways, and instead decides to believe in love and hope.

After the drama, I shared about how the world isn’t the world we all want, but God has promised to someday give us that world. I told about how Jesus gave us a glimpse of that world by bringing joy where there was sadness, life where there was death and health where there had been sickness. I challenged the audience to consider Jesus’ claim to be the one through which God would bring the world we all want, and to give him a fair look by reading about him in the Bible. Some students took home a New Testament.

The following day, at our regular Sunday service, I challenged our students to engage their friends in conversations about the event. I reminded them that this would be one of the easiest, and most natural times to ask them questions about what they think about Jesus, and then share what they themselves believe. We continue to pray for the harvest that will come.

If you would like to see pictures and video from the event, you can see them at www.themission.cc.

I would like to give a special thanks to Olivet Baptist Church, for the use of their building and Pastor Ron Pracht, for the time he helped us while we were using their building, I’d also like to thank Sharon Baptist Church, and Midway Baptist Church for allowing us to use their vans to transport students from Wichita State to Olivet Baptist Church. I would also like to credit the evangelistic Bible study book “The World We All Want” by Tim Chester & Steve Timmis, for the inspiration for the message.

The Imaginative Learner performs best in a setting which allows interpersonal relationships to develop. They learn best by listening and sharing ideas. The question you must answer for the Imaginative Learner is “WHY do I need to know this?”

The Analytic Learner expects the teacher to be the primary information giver. Accordingly, they learn best by watching and listening. These learners want all the data before they make a decision. The question you must answer for the Analytic Learner is “WHAT do I need to know?”

The Common Sense Learner likes to play with ideas to see if they are rational and workable. They are hands-on people who like to get the job done. They learn best when learning is combined with doing. The question you must answer for the Common Sense Learner is “HOW does this work?”

The Dynamic Learner excels in following hunches and sensing new directions and possibilities. They are risk takers who like putting their personal stamp of originality on an idea. The question you must answer for the Dynamic Learner is “WHAT can this become?”

“The four different learning styles actually fit together into a learning cycle. If the teacher follows the four steps in the cycle, every student will have an opportunity to learn and share his or her contributions…” (from Learning Styles – Reaching Everyone God Gave You by Marlene LeFever)

You may be wondering, why is this important? (the same question the Imaginative Learner asks.) If we are going to teach, we want to reach all learners. While 30% of learners are Analytic (we really like these students because they appear focused on learning), 70% of learners fall into the other three learning styles. As a teacher, you will most likely focus your teaching to the style in which you prefer learning. Accordingly, a Common Sense teacher will most easily accommodate the Common Sense Learner. Perhaps you need to begin by using a simple assessment to determine your Learning Style (also available in LeFever’s book). Once you make this discovery, you can better plan your lesson to strengthen your teaching to all four styles. A teacher who is unaware of style may be missing students God has assigned them to reach.

Also, our men’s ministry leaders are working with members of our churches to get a volunteer work/construction team to do projects like those at the Set Free house.

We still need work groups from our churches to finish up the drywall and painting. Over 95% of the drywall is hung and the second floor has been painted. Once we finish hanging the drywall and painting, we can start the flooring, cabinets and finish carpentry. Please contact Loren Phippen at HOKSBA.

As I mentioned last month, we would like to have more participation this year from our churches and would like to see all of our church members get involved with the block party and/or street witnessing. We will be sending out signup sheets soon for the block party, music groups and street witnessing.

For River Fest 2009, we had the best participation from our churches that we have ever had and our prayer is to have even more participate this year. Please contact me if you have any questions or if you have any ideas that would help make this event a great success.

By utilizing these short term opportunities along with a longer trip, all of your folks could have an opportunity to be on mission for the Lord.

One Day or Less

• Prayer Walks/Drives (RiverFest, Good Neighbor Centers, churches, church plants)
• Pass out fliers for outreach events
• Minor repairs at Good Neighbor Centers, churches, or in your neighborhood
• Aluminum can drive
• Clean up, paint, repairs needed in local schools or neighborhoods
• RiverFest outreach, workers
• Work at Set Free house
• Food drives/funds, clothing, school supplies for the Good Neighbor Centers
• Block parties
• Juvenile Detention Center ministries
• Collect funds to support repair projects at churches

Multiple Days

• VBS/backyard Bible clubs
• Creative arts camp (voice, instrument, acting, dance, etc.)
• Sports camps
• Construction projects
• Surveys
• Door-to-door evangelism
• Revivals/outreach/block parties
• House a mission team
• Work at Set Free or Ranch
• Be a part of the FamilyFest July 10-16, 2010 (see accompanying article)

Please continue to pray for this ministry and your involvement in it by donating your time or providing funds for Bibles and other needs. In particular, we need youth pastors and workers who could give a night every few months or so to help in JDF. This would give a connection for them to continue being discipled after they are released. Some of these kids have never really had someone who loved and cared for them and they desperately need that.

This is a “FELLOWSHIP” golf tournament with the primary purpose of developing fellowship among the churches in our association.  We highly encourage individual sign-up.  However, last year we started allowing two people sign up to play together.  We had positive results and will continue to allow two-somes to sign up again this year.  Whether you sign up as an individual or as a two-some, you will be paired with people from other churches to make up your foursome.  We attempt to make the teams as even as possible based on your average declared score.  Husbands and wives will play together unless the wife desires to play on an “all ladies” team; a family can play together.  This can be used as an outreach event.  If you have questions, please contact the Tournament Director, Charley Powell. Download registration form here Golf Registration

And with spring comes our celebration of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus.  If the Lord speaks through Christmas and says, “I’m in this with you.”  Then the Lord speaks through Easter to say, “I am in this with you, no matter the cost.”

The message of Easter is a message of hope.  All who are dead in their transgressions and sin, can be made alive in Christ.  This message is both our hope and our purpose.  This message is our hope because we have been made alive.  This message is our purpose because we have been called to share it with others.  Those around us are searching.  We can say to them, FinditHere.

The North American Mission Board is helping us reach the people of Wichita and Hutchinson with that message of hope.  NAMB and KNCSB have purchased over 300 FinditHere.com television spots to be shown in the 3 weeks leading up to Easter.  You can view a sample of these spots at the FinditHere.com website.

In conjunction with the TV spots, there are door hanger brochures available at the Heart of Kansas office.  If you would like to use these brochures to distribute in specific areas of the city, please contact Loren Phippen at the HOK office.  There will also be FinditHere.com yard banners for your church to display to connect what people are going to see on TV with your local church.

Easter is probably your best attendance day of the year.  Why not use this day, when the un-churched are considering attending church, to invite them to your church?

And when you do, make sure your church is ready to receive them.  Give them a warm welcome.  Allow them to have a place where they can find a friend.  And let your church be the place where they hear the message of Jesus Christ.  Let your church be the place where their darkness is changed to light, and their death is changed to life through the message of our Risen Savior.

An Opportunity for a Family Mission Trip

July 10-16, 2010

Heart of Kansas

FamilyFest is a partnership with the national Woman’s Missionary Union, the Kansas/Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists, and the Heart of Kansas Southern Baptist Association.  It is designed to give families (age six and up) a prepackaged missions experience.

How You Can Participate

Think about the needs in the community around your church.  How could FamilyFest volunteers assist you and your church members in meeting some of these needs?  These volunteers could work on anything you have a vision for:  Vacation Bible School, backyard Bible clubs, light construction, sport camps, survey work, etc.  Perhaps some families in your church would like to travel across town to help another church.

Work Projects Needed

We are looking for work projects for these mission teams to work on.  This could include almost anything:  building repairs, VBS, Backyard Bible Clubs, block parties, health fairs, canvassing, prayer walks, etc.  Please contact the Heart of Kansas for a request form.

For more information contact Mark Jackson 316-943-3446, mark@hoksba.org or Ellen Noeller 316-215-0135, jenoell@prodigy.net.

We just got back from a safe and successful mission trip to New Orleans. We shared the Gospel for two fourteen hour days at Mardis Gras. This is a very dark and sinful place that needs to hear the Gospel. There were a total of seven of us from Wichita that worked with another 30 men from around the country to hand out about 50,000 tracts. During the day we saw several people give their life to Christ. At night, on Bourbon Street, we handed out tracts and were able to defend our faith. We would like to have enough men next year to take several van loads from our area to witness in that very hard place. Men, please check your calendars and pray to see how God would use you in this very needy and rewarding ministry.

Recently a man walked into our CR meeting whom I met in 1985. Addiction had stripped him of all self-worth, self-decency and self-respect. He had been through one recovery program after another, but nothing seemed to work for him. He claimed to be saved, so I asked him to look at his life and review the evidence of his salvation. I can not judge a man’s salvation, but if he is not bearing fruits of salvation and the evidence of a changed life, there is something wrong.

I told him that he had two problems: a love problem (Matthew 6:24) and an endurance problem (Hebrews 12:1-4). He wanted salvation without repentance and commitment. He wanted victory without perseverance. This person could recite the 12 steps of AA and even give you the page numbers out of the Big Book. He had been in and out of church and had knowledge of scriptures, but he had failed to connect all his head knowledge to his heart. We must allow God to work in us the Word of God.

• Drop off Times: 9:30-11:30 and 2:00-4:00 on Monday thru Friday starting March 1st.
• Call Glen at Metropolitan to give him a heads up as to when they will be delivered. His number is 316-264-2354 or 316-390-2413. Saturday deliveries can be scheduled.
• The buckets need to be at this location by Friday, March 12th because the buckets will be shipped out of Kansas on Sunday the 15th. If you can not get them to Metropolitan by the 12th, please call Bill Riley at 316-788-3466 or Loren at HOK 316-943-3446.

A check for the cost of shipping the buckets ($10/bucket) should be dropped off along with the buckets. The check should be made payable to KNCSB. Cash is acceptable, but one check is preferred. Leave the envelope containing payment on top of the buckets.  Do not put the $10.00 inside the bucket.

Helpful Tips for Contents

When filling the buckets, and when two-pound bags of beans cannot be located for purchase, they can be substituted with 2 “one-pound” bags. The space consumed in the plastic bucket should be basically the same.

The video provided by the Florida Baptist Convention and available through our KNCSB and NAMB website shows that the cooking oil is wrapped in a white trash bag. The written instructions also available on the websites lists a 2-gallon ziplock bag. The Ziploc bag allows for easy observation of the cooking oil, for example, if a bucket were examined by inspectors in Haiti.

White buckets are preferred but other colors as long as the size is same as 5-gallons are acceptable.

Southern Baptists will place evangelistic tracts in appropriate languages in each bucket before they are delivered to Haiti. DO NOT put tracts or such in the bucket.

• Operation Recon: Schedule & Flyer
• Operation Recon: Consent Form

by Larry Thomas
KNCSB Director of Disaster Relief
KNCSB is joining the “Buckets of Hope” campaign for Haiti.

Florida Baptists have initiated “Buckets of Hope” to provide food for a Haitian family for one week.

• The “Buckets of Hope” section of the North American Mission Board Web site lists required items for bucket. Photos also show how to pack the buckets.
• Download PDF flyer on “Buckets of Hope”
• HOKSBA Buckets of Hope Drop-off instructions

“Please follow the detailed instructions carefully. This will ensure that every bucket quickly passes through customs and into the hands of the Haitian people,” the NAMB Web site says.

Please also consider becoming a trained KNCSB disaster-relief volunteer. To deploy with Kansas-Nebraska disaster relief response/relief teams, you must be trained and credentialed. Please go to the KNCSB Disaster Relief Web page to see a list of training opportunities to prepare you for volunteering to help those in need, including Haitians.

Thank you for continuing to pray for the Haitian people, the relief leaders and workers doing as much as they can with what they have, and for those relief efforts yet to arrive. When you think of donating money, remember that 100 percent of your donation through KNCSB goes to disaster-relief efforts. There is no administrative overhead deducted from any donation to KNCSB disaster relief.

Donations should be sent to: Kansas-Nebraska Convention of Southern Baptists, 5410 SW 7th St, Topeka, KS 66606-2398. Make all checks payable to KNCSB Disaster Relief. If you desire, you can annotate the bottom of the check “For Haitian Earthquake Relief.”

Updates will be posted to the KNCSB Web site as new Southern Baptist disaster-relief information is made available. I am available to speak to your churches and groups regarding Southern Baptist Disaster Relief efforts on behalf of the Haitian people. Please call me at (316) 204-7889 if I can be of assistance.

• Teaching children about missions
• Parenting and Grand parenting
• Dealing with Grief and Depression
• Women in Disaster Relief
• Let’s have a Tea Party

For our Mission Project we will be collecting women’s gifts to be handed out at the Native American Women’s Retreat in May in Fremont, Nebraska. Suggested articles include: lotion, spa kit, gloves, apron, craft kits or anything else that women like. If you have any questions, call Ellen Noeller at 316-215-0135.

We still need work groups from our churches to finish up the drywall and painting. Over 95% of the drywall is hung and the second floor has been painted. Once we finish hanging the drywall and painting, we can start the flooring, cabinets and finish carpentry. Please contact Loren Phippen at HOKSBA.

As we begin 2010, perhaps we can be challenged by the suggestions of LifeWay specialist Bill Craig as we consider ten ideas for building great groups in the next year.

1. Equip and empower your leaders. If there is one key to great groups, it is having leaders who have been properly enlisted, equipped, and empowered to do their work.
2. Set goals to start new groups. Research shows that for every new ongoing group you start, on average, you’ll increase your attendance by ten people. Research also tells us that people who get involved in a small group tend to stick around (assimilate) better than those who only attend the “big group – worship”.
3. Utilize January Bible Study. This Bible study resource goes deeper than most Sunday School literature. Be creative in when and how you use this curriculum.
4. Challenge people about their most important group. The most important group for any believer is a group of 2: the believer and God, meeting together daily for prayer and Bible reading. Encourage believers to develop this discipline in their Christian life.
5. Guide small groups on a journey of intentional discipleship. Have you been concerned about the lack of results and focus of your small groups ministry? Check out Small Group Life for a brand new way to think about and resource small group Bible study.
6. Start E-Groups. Evangelism groups are designed to reach seekers. Try Discover More to Life as a resource to reach people around your church and in the neighborhoods of your members who don’t currently attend church.
7. Experience God. Has it been a while since you and others in your church have studied Experiencing God? Maybe you have a whole new generation of believers in your church who have never studied this core discipleship study about finding and doing the will of God.
8. Strengthen marriages. Consider a study such as the Love Dare Bible Study to strengthen marriages in your congregation and community.
9. Help parents. You can find a variety of stand-alone studies that are designed to help parents develop in their parenting skills. You may also use LifeTruths as an on-going small group study for young moms and dads.
10. Mobilize baby boomers. The largest population of adults that has ever existed is about to transition into new stages of life – empty nest to retirement to re-careering – the baby boomers in your church and community around you are about to change life of us all again.

If the Sunday School team of the association can assist you in training your Sunday School leaders, please do not hesitate to contact us through the HOKSBA office.

I was asked by one of our newer churches as to why we don’t get together as an association to work together and fellowship together. My answer to them was that I would like to see all of us get together for the block party and outreach on the last Saturday of River Fest. The River Fest itself is getting less and less family friendly. This would give us a great opportunity to come together as a family to fellowship and show that love to the rest of Wichita and all River Fest visitors. This would also be a great time to bring your friends and neighbors to fellowship with us and to hear the Gospel presented by the power team.

For River Fest 2009, we had the best participation from our churches that we have ever had and our prayer is to have even more participate this year. Please contact me if you have any questions or if you have any ideas that would help make this event a great success.

Boundaries – This one-day seminar with Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend will show you how to set healthy boundaries with your parents, spouse, children, friends, co-workers, and even yourself. They will cover topics such as:

• What are legitimate boundaries?
• What if someone is upset or hurt by my boundaries?
• How do I answer someone who wants my time, love, energy, or money?
• Why do I feel guilty or afraid when I consider setting boundaries?

January 30, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. Cost is $20.

Beth Moore – So Long, Insecurity – In her new message So Long, Insecurity, Beth is sure to make yet another remarkable impact on women today and for generations to come as she exposes the lies that have debilitated women for ages. This one-day simulcast event will be held on April 24 from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. Early Bird Tickets are $30. For those groups who purchase 10 or more tickets, cost is $25 per ticket. Price will increase after March 24 and will be $40 the day of the event. Join us for a FREE 60-minute broadcast with Beth on Tuesday, February 2 when she will share her vision of the upcoming April 24 event.
To purchase tickets, call Midway Baptist Church at 316-524-4237.

Our annual Men’s Retreat for 2010 is scheduled for October 15 and 16 at Webster Conference Center. Last October we were represented by six men from two of our Churches from the Wichita area. Let’s improve on that number in 2010.

By utilizing these short term opportunities along with a longer trip, all of your folks could have an opportunity to be on mission for the Lord.

One Day or Less

• Prayer Walks/Drives (RiverFest, Good Neighbor Centers, churches, church plants)
• Pass out fliers for outreach events
• Minor repairs at Good Neighbor Centers, churches, or in your neighborhood
• Aluminum can drive
• Clean up, paint, repairs needed in local schools or neighborhoods
• RiverFest outreach, workers
• Work at Set Free house
• Food drives/funds, clothing, school supplies for the Good Neighbor Centers
• Block parties
• Juvenile Detention Center ministries
• Collect funds to support repair projects at churches

Multiple Days

• VBS/backyard Bible clubs
• Creative arts camp (voice, instrument, acting, dance, etc.)
• Sports camps
• Construction projects
• Surveys
• Door-to-door evangelism
• Revivals/outreach/block parties
• House a mission team
• Work at Set Free or Ranch
• Be a part of the FamilyFest July 10-16, 2010

If you’re looking for southern baptist mission trips we have many opportunities that might work for you.

We continue to see lives changed in this ministry. Please continue to pray for this ministry and your involvement in it by donating your time or providing funds for Bibles and other needs. In particular we need youth pastors and workers who could give a night every few months to help in JDF. This would give a connection for them to your church.