AMBASSADORS
Adult Bible Fellowship

Class Time: Dennis continued our study of Christ and the woman at the well as told in John 4. We discussed several areas of interest including the attitude of the disciples toward the woman, Christ’s statement about “the food that you know nothing about”, and the fields “white for harvest.” The village came to understand because of the woman who told them about Christ (verses 39-42). We had a good number of people in class including several who would normally have other duties in Sunday School. It is always good to have these servants in our ABF from time to time. Our total attendance was 51. We also had good offerings the last couple of weeks. This brings our balance to about $790. We still have one obligation to meet but this is plenty to meet that need. Sunday Morning Service: Mikal Kildal brought the message about the marks of a servant from Genesis 24. He listed the following marks/characteristics: Unselfish Humility Unconditional Commitment Obedient to His Boss Anticipates Prob...

I thought it would be a good idea to get this posted quickly so you would have something to look at as you sit snowed in! Hopefully, this is another false alarm. Oops, maybe this is the wrong one! Can you imagine - parents sitting a small child like this out in the storm! It kind of reminds us of those cold blizzard mornings walking to school, doesn't it? All kidding aside, if you can guess who this young lady is, let us know! Maybe her mommy and daddy are frantically searching the snow drifts for her! Couldn't resist! :)

I thought it would be a good idea to add a few more fun photos from our Christmas party last weekend. Lookout Betsy! I think someone is awfully interested in your popcorn. This item seemed to pass hands on a very regular basis. Mark was truly the host with the most! We can see that he certainly is prepared to dress for the occasion! Thank you Mark for arranging for this venue for our party. This photo is living proof that I had the Palm (Bob insisted we call it this) in my possession. Unfortunately, nothing good can be held for long. I think everyone had a great time. Who will get the goose next year?

This past weekend was a great one. We all had a good time of fun and fellowship together Saturday evening as we gathered for our annual Christmas celebration. The food was way to plentiful and good! I know I am not the only one to over-eat! I think it was John who is the new owner of the golden goose! But this wasn’t the only weird gift to be won. Ask Rosalinda about her jeans! These photos were provided by Bob Lawson. Thank you Bob! Can you believe, I didn’t even bring a camera? Many thanks to Mark Averitt also; for arranging for the Community Center for our use. It was perfect for our needs. Sunday was also another good time together as a class. John and Sandy gave us a “ Long and Short of it ” showing of their trip to Israel. I thought their presentation was fascinating and well worthwhile. I will never forget Sandy’s description of the Hasidic men leaving the Wailing Wall and immediately taking out their cell phones. I don’t mean this was wrong in any way but it seemed to be a real...

I’ve changed the format a bit and will include the prayer items and other personal information only in the email. If you are not on our email list and would like to be included, please contact me. This new format will avoid repeating the information in both the email and this Blog and also provide a little better privacy here. As always, we had a great time fellowshipping and in God’s word this Sunday. John’s Israel Report John Entner reported briefly on their trip during the Thanksgiving period to Israel. It sounds like the trip of a lifetime. I will go someday but not sure if it will be before the “New Jerusalem”. I’m anxious to see a slide show of this trip. What do the rest of you think of this idea? Here are a couple of photos to whet your appetite. ABF Bible Study Dennis continued our study, under short time constraints. This week we discussed John chapter 4 and the “Woman at the Well”. Dennis mentioned that she was skeptical about what Jesus said but wanted to hear more. He made...

Cool color combo! I'll bet this one got dressed without help from mom! :) Perhaps I should have blurred the house number so you would not figure this one out. See if you can tell me who it is. The last Guess Who will remain un-named for now. Continue to make your guesses. So far no one has guessed it correctly without multiple tries or hints.

Last Sunday was a chilly and rainy day outside but we had wonderful warm fellowship, inside. It was great to see everyone, again. Of course, Saturday was also a great day. We had good fellowship at breakfast and doing the Samaritan Purse Shoe Boxes. I think we did almost 30 boxes with fun things for the kids around the world. Our breakfast was prepared by the best cooks in the world (me excluded). Prayer Items: Pray for the contacts of the prison ministry. Rudy did not have any of the numbers or results. Those are not important for us to know, anyway. But he said there were professions of faith and many good contacts made for the Lord. Pray for these people. Chris R is changing command in the Navy. Sally will have time to be with the family and wants an opportunity to be a witness to them and the grandchildren. Paul had some good interaction with his grandson at the game Saturday. Pray for Caleb. Ann B is improving and Paul thinks she may even be home next week. Mila is the d...

I hope this young lady isn't superstitious about the number 13! What is this with the farming theme? Anyway, I'm not sure if she was doing her chores or playing with that Old Goat! Do you know this young lady?

Prayer Items: Carol N’s father passed away on Saturday (funeral was today). I was blessed hearing Carol praise the Lord for this, knowing that her father is in heaven right now. Pray for the family at this time. Continue to pray for Chuck C. He was in the hospital longer than anticipated but is home now. Continue to pray for Betty O. Ann B is back in Bethany for her therapy. Pray for continued healing and strength. Dan G’s cancer is growing again. He is home now but may be having a bone marrow transplant. Pray for wisdom on what to do next. Don J fell from a ladder last week and hurt his back. Pray for Don and Ruth. Sheila S is doing better. Pray for continued improvement and that this will not reoccur. Pray for our men in the military particularly those in harm’s way. Carol P is in Mongolia again as part of a ministry program. Pray for the team as they minister to the people over there. Class Discussion: We continued our discussion about Dennis’ make-believe client to the women’s cent...

The last one was no surprise. No one guessed it other than Nancy and she made multiple guesses before getting it correct. For those of you not in class today, it was Bob L. Now, we have a new one to test your cognitive abilities. As this photo illustrates, the farmer was probably in violation of child labor laws by sending this young person out into the fields so young. Go get 'em Jerry! Let me know if you have an idea who this one is.

It was great to see so many in our class again on Sunday. There were over 50 of us in attendance. If you missed this opportunity to meet with us, you missed a real blessing. Prayer Items: Some of this is changing daily so be sure to check your email and the Ambassadors Blog for updates. Chuck is in Miami Valley Hospital after surgery to remove his gall bladder. Pray for both Chuck and Charlene. Ann is also in Miami Valley Hospital with an infection. They think this is in her colon. Pray for Ann and Paul. Grace had surgery on Wednesday. She is home now. Pray for her and also Mark. Continue to pray for Betty as she continues chemo therapy. Tony will have a heart cath. on Friday so pray for both of them. We are also reminded to pray urgently for our country and our leadership. Pray for two of our ladies with job related requests. Our church will begin construction soon for the next phase of our new facilities. Pray for wisdom of the staff and board during this process as well as u...

I want to thank Sandy for taking good notes and sending out our email earlier this week. Most of what you see here is simply a compilation of her emails plus something from Barb B. I did make some additions just to keep you on your toes. If you don't read all the way to the bottom, you will regret it! Prayer Items: Join Rudy and Hallie S in prayer for their daughter Shelah this week. Pray especially that the doctor will find what is causing Shelah's pain and fatigue. Her insurance company doesn't want to pay for a CT scan. Shelah has continued in her teaching and administrative duties at Liberty but it is very difficult for her. Dan G and Betty O need our continued prayers as they undergo chemotherapy this week. Debbie Hume is from our church but not from our class, however she needs prayer as she is going through serious cancer treatments. David D returned to Iraq this week to a dangerous area. Thanks for praying for David and his parents and grandparents (Dave and Barb in...

Prayer Items: Bob and Betsy’s granddaughter is doing much better. Thanks to everyone for praying. Ann B. was admitted to MVH but and was expected to be released to a Bethany’s Linden House on Wednesday for therapy. She is still very ill and needs our prayers. Roger B. is having eye problems. Pray for the Lord’s leading on the next actions. He did visit the doctor on Wednesday and has some problems that need correction. Barb asked us to pray for the family of a DCS student who was killed on Friday. This girl was a soccer player on a team that Jessica coaches. Pray for the Winslow family and friends. Pray for Mark P. as he has a meeting this week. Betty did very well during their trip but she will be entering the hospital this Thursday to begin another round of treatments. Pray for her during this time. Ben (Booher’s grandnephew) still needs our prayers. The doctors decided that he had some brain injury because of his illness. This can be cured or greatly improved over time (up ...

Sorry about not posting anything for a while. We've been moving about a bit too fast. I will add a Class Notes update later in the week and will take this opportunity to add a new Guess Who. After the last one, I am not going to mention gender again. So take your best shot and guess who this young person is!

Ok, say "Uncle"! No one figured out number 8. It was Clara Seevers! Now, you are being rewarded with another tough one! Can you recognize this young lady of the past?

Here are a few more photos from the Celebration in the Park event last week. Enjoy them! It is always fun to see familys together at the Celebration but it is fun to catch them with a mouth full of food, too! Once again, we did not have any formal class-time this week. However, I noted that a good number of our members participated in the Global Focus seminars that started Friday evening with our barbeque dinner. The seminar sessions are available at the church website . If you missed some of the sessions and want to hear them, this is a good way to do it. Remember to look below and see if you can figure out who our Guess Who is for the past week. As promised, this is a tough one for you. So far, no one has guessed who it is. One person came to me with a guess Friday evening. Her answer was wrong. I then told her, she wouldn’t even figure it out if the person was standing there in front of her. She was, and she didn’t! Eventually, the light did go on, because I was POINTING! J I wil...

This is a much shorter message than normal. We did not have our normal ABF meeting last Sunday but gathered together for the services and picnic in Leonard E Stubbs Memorial Park. I took a lot of photos during services and the picnic and will take this opportunity to show some of them. I know I was blessed by the services and the ministry of Tom Mahairis and his daughter (Anastasia Pothoven). The messages in Anastasia’s songs were touching. Of course, the testimonies of all of the Mahairis family were very powerful in demonstrating the love of our Lord and his willingness that all should be saved. They all came from the depths to salvation. We had a very good turnout for our picnic in the park. There were about 60 of us in the shelter area and several of our members were there elsewhere with family members. I want to thank everyone who provided food and those who assisted in getting the shelter ready. David Darkow provided several of the tables and assisted with setting up and ...

Remember, we will not have our class for the next two Sundays. Next week is the Celebration in the Park. For any that are not familiar with this, it is at Stubbs Park, named after a deceased former member. The park is located off of Spring Valley Pike, less than ½ mile west of Hwy 48 (South Main Street, Centerville). Look for the Monkey House! In the event of rain, the service will be moved to the sanctuary. Check the WHBC.org website, if it looks like a rain possibility. We will have a picnic lunch together (hopefully in a shelter) after the service. Bring something to share with the class and some of the Cedarville students. Drinks and tableware will be provided. I will try to get there early to get the shelter for our class, but cannot promise that will happen. If not, we will try to round up a sufficient number of tables in one area near the shelter. I will need help doing this. The following Sunday (Sept. 9) is part of the Global Focus Seminar. Since we won’t have our class for a ...

Well, it certainly appears that we gave you an easy one last week. It was Jim W. I had a very heavy response to that one and most people had him pegged correctly. So, now you deserve a tough one again! I think this young lady will be tougher than the last one. See if you can tell me who she is!

Quess Who #6 was more difficult than I had expected. Only one person guessed it correctly and that was after a lot of hints. In case you missed our ABF this morning, it was Ozella. I think this new one will also be easy but I've proven to be bad at guessing what is difficult; so we will wait and see how it goes. But, this time, no hints. Let me know who you think this one is.

This week I have added some photos taken last Sunday at several of the activities. I also added another item in red that is new since the weekly email newsletter. We had a very large attendance last Sunday. Don't stay away! We still have plenty of room and we will have more chairs for next week. We welcomed back the Smiths from Nicaragua and Rosalinda to Cedarville University. Larry Smith gave a short report of their trip back to Nicaragua. It is great to have these back with us. We also had Tony O give us a short commercial about the Global Focus Conference. Be sure to sign up for this program and join with us September 7, 8 and 9. We will not have our regular ABF on September 9th. This week we also voted to give $500 to Dan W for his mission trip to Togo. He got all of his support today (to the penny) and will be leaving before the end of this month. We also got a short report from Jane W about the program to provide encouragement and packages to our soldiers. These will include...

The last Guess Who was apparently too easy. I didn't get any wrong guesses. For those of you who did not guess, it was Roger Brandt. Sorry, two Rogers in a row! :-) I think this Guess Who will be a little tougher. If you think you know, send me an email. I will admit to a little editing with this photo. I made it look older than it really is. I wanted to clear that up before I get in trouble with this individual. BTW: this was submitted by a spouse, unknown to the individual in the photo.

It was great to have Dennis and Barb back with us Sunday. They have been away from our ABF for several weeks but we had good fill-in speakers. We are blessed to have men with the skills and strengths that we have. Anyway, Dennis and Barb have been in one of my favorite countries, Scotland. I am looking forward to seeing all 900 photos! Prayer Items Note: Items that are new since the email are in RED ! Please pray for Chris R. His best friend Todd was killed Sunday responding to a fire call. His fire truck went over an embankment and he was killed instantly. Chris is taking this really hard. Pray the Lord would use this to bring Chris back to Himself. Joe R is having angioplasty and stents put in his femoral arteries Monday to help relieve pain Joe has in walking. Please pray that this procedure will be successful and also that the Lord will soften Joe's heart as he isn't saved. Keith and Maxine are grand parents. 12:47A.M. Friday morning, 9lb 1oz, 20 1/2 ins long. Pray for Arei...