Wesley's Baptism

Sack Race

Wheel Barrel Race

First Lessons

http://tammiediggs.blogspot.com/2008/09/jochebed-mother-of-moses.html

New Sunday School Class

We have started a new Sunday School class at Mt. Moriah for ladies. The first class will meet on September 7, 2008, and I am very excited about it. I've been studying and preparing and can't wait to begin. I'm praying for just the right ladies and that God will move in their hearts and inspire them to attend. I think Bible Study is very important and I also like to discuss and ask questions. Sometimes women don't feel very comfortable asking questions when there are men or preachers in the room. I'm hoping and praying for big results from this class.

Message from Scotland

Gudday,

We had a fantastic worship meeting this morning followed by Gemma's Baptism! Meghan (pronounced May-gun) who works at Nicki's Pharmacy on Saturday's (and sometimes babysits the kids) came to the whole worship service. John Menneer (who comes to our Monday night study) came for the Baptism. We had tentatively planned to go down to the Burn (Scottish for 'creek' or 'stream'), but it rained during the morning, so the Baptism took place in the bathtub. We all had lunch together afterwards. Alvin preached a fantastic message about God's abundant life. Obviously we're incredibly proud of Gemma's decision to use her life to serve God. She's pretty happy too :-D

Dan.

P.S. Woohoo!

Back To Work

I've been on a four month hiatus, but I guess I will quit resting. I may not be as regular as you would like, but I will try to post something every once in a while or post special events. I will create a slide show in the coming week of the two different church camps we attended this summer.

Taking A Hiatus

This little church mouse just can't continue to post on a regular basis. If I can't post weekly, the site is really not worth having. If any member of Mt. Moriah wishes to take over the blog, please contact me and I will let you know how to sign in and post. Thanks for your devotion. I will continue to post on my personal blog.

The Baptism

Curt's Baptism

Curt Smead was baptized yesterday. He had all of his grandparents in to watch this momentous occasion. I know Bro. Donis and Sis. Missy were overwhelmed as he baptized and she watched the baptism of the last of the Smeadlings.

They're Home

The Smeads have made it home. They arrived at the Little Rock airport about 1:30 a.m. on Tuesday. They were supposed to arrive at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, but due to some delays, they arrived much later. I understand that Missy is ready to go back--but not tomorrow. I hope to get more pictures which I will share with you next week.

Scotland

Pray for Bro. Donis and Sis. Missy as they travel to Scotland to visit our missionary family, the Pettersens (who are pictured above). They will be leaving sometime on Friday and will return in about ten days.

I hope to post pictures from Easter Sunday. I also hope to have lots of pictures from Scotland to share.

No Lock-in Again

For the second time, we have cancelled the lock-in because of bad weather. It's amazing that we had this much snow in March. The newscasters say that this is the most snow we have received in March since they have started keeping weather records. I am not sure when the lock-in will be rescheduled at this time. I think we may be a little gun-shy at the moment.

Just One Drop

Sis. Shelley gave a wonderful children's sermon yesterday about how we only need one drop of Jesus to make us better. We had a great group of kids there for church. Actually we had a group of adults too. I thought the service was wonderful. I am feeling better, and able to sing just a little bit.

Message from Scotland

Mt. Moriah has a very special family in our membership--the Pettersens. They are from New Zealand, but are missionaries to Scotland. Recently, Eli Pettersen was baptized. I have heard of baptisims in the creek, pond, swimming pool, and church baptistry. I guess this is the first time I've heard of one in a bathtub. Although, we use what we have in order to obey God. Here is a letter from the Pettersen family.

Hi church family!
We trust and pray that things are going well with y'all. The Dickersons left for the U.S. at the beginning of February, so it's just the Pettersens on the field here for the next 5 months. Our Monday night study out at the church office continues. We have one gentleman who faithfully attends that every week (even throughout the cold dark winter), and he is occasionally joined by others, too. We've finished our study of Daniel and have begun studying through the book of Judges. Several people have expressed interest in both Sunday Services and Monday night study, so please be in prayer that something may come of their interest. Our daylight hours have almost returned to normal now (the sun is setting about 5:30pm now, compared with the 3:30pm that it sets in December). It has been a cold and very wet winter (January was the wettest on record!), so we're looking forward to being able to get outside after being stuck indoors for several months. We're intending to try to start something up with High-School aged youth, and are still in the planning stages for that, so could really do with your prayers there, too. It was such a fantastic thing for us to see Eli baptised a few weeks ago, and he continues to look at ways to serve God with his life (even including his choice of school subjects!). All the children are doing well, and their teachers are all very happy with the way they've integrated. The photography courses that I'm teaching have been helpful in building relationships, albeit slowly. The current courses finish up at Easter, but the institution where I teach on Tuesdays is keen for me to begin another round of classes after the Easter break. Nicki continues to enjoy her job at the pharmacy and has recently begun doing diabetes and cholesterol testing for people which has lead to new opportunities to meet others. We're very much looking forward to Pastor Donis and Missy's visit next month. We can't thank y'all enough for all your help, support and prayers as attempt to share the love and truth of Christ here.
Enjoy your Spring!
In His service,

The Pettersen family

Raising Our Children

Today, Bro. Doyce taught us from Ephesians 6 and we learned how children should act towards their parents and how parents should act towards their children. He also mentioned an article that I had read myself this weekend which said that 40% of all mothers are choosing to have their babies out of wedlock. They are more worried about going through a divorce than being a single parent. This brings up the thought of how is having a baby with someone not like marrying them. Once you have a baby with someone, you are connected to them in a very definite way for the rest of that child's life.

Regardless, as I was listening to Bro. Doyce and had many thoughts rumbling around in my head, I decided the only way to raise our children for Christ is to live for Him to the best of our abilities and with all our strength and might in front of our children. We need to make God our number one priority and our children will notice. When we go to church and then immediately put God back in His box on the way home, they notice. When we feel that sports, dance, or any other extracurricular activities are more important than church, they notice. When we never speak of God outside of church, they notice. The only way to have God-centered children is to be God-centered adults. By raising better children, we create better adults, who then raise better children. Let's break the cycle of teens and young adults who wander away from God by making God the most important person in our life. He deserves our very best!

Uth Celebration

Yesterday, we (Dale & Angie Hamilton, Tammie Diggs, Cathrine Smead, Ryan Hamilton, and Amy Wright) attended Uth Celebration in Conway, Arkansas on the campus of UCA. Uth Celebration is a purity conference for kids 12 years and older. This year the theme was OneEighty. They were trying to encourage us to make a 180° turn from the direction the media and our culture is going. When you think about the shows we watch on television, they have life situations, ways of dressing, and language that we don’t want out children to imitate, but yet we allow the shows into our homes and allow our children to watch them. We have failed to realize that our teenagers are falling away and doing the things of the world because they have learned it from television. Sesame Street teaches our children their ABC’s and then as teenagers they learn how to sin by watching television; they have been desensitized to sin.

One of the speakers, Robert Harris, who is pastor of Victory Baptist in Sherwood, Arkansas, spoke about how the Israelites kept rubbing shoulders with the Canaanites until they intermarried with them and their cultures started to intertwine. There are so many similarities with us today. We keep rubbing shoulders with Canaan so much that they have rubbed off on us. We are starting to smell like Canaan, look like Canaan, and God is calling us out to be separate and to be devoted only to him.

The second speaker, Jonathon Johnson who is youth pastor at Sharon MBC said that, "purity flows from an intimate relationship with Christ." When we are close to Christ, reading His word, and staying close to Him in prayer, we will have purity flowing from our hearts and lives.
One thing I learned was that purity is not just for young people. Older people need to seek purity in their lives as well. I pray that we will all make a 180° turn and head to Jesus, seek his face, and turn from our wicked ways.

Baptism

I've tried for several days to upload the video of Hannah's baptism, and have been unable to. It is a large file, even though it is only a minute and a half.

Sunday was a good day for the Diggs family. Hannah was baptized and became a member of Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist Church. At one point, she got really excited and said,"now I get to eat that bread you have sometimes at church." Bro. Donis mentioned her name several times during the sermon. She hated having all that attention. When she told me she wanted to be baptized, her only concern was that everyone would think she was too young. She was afraid that the church would not allow her to be baptized. I know I never mentioned baptism. She told me back in November, when she was saved, that she didn't want to be baptized right now. I never mentioned it again. So I know that this was something that was trully between her and God.

Noah's Ark; Picture of the End of Time

This Sunday morning, Miss Hannah Diggs came forward and asked to be baptized. She was saved on November 4, 2007, and has decided to follow God's direction and be baptized. This little church mouse is very happy and delighted, as you might expect.

Bro. Donis preached "Pictures in the Ark", Part II. One thing I was intrigued by was that the Ark was not this pretty boat that we normally see in pictures; it was just a box. I also got to thinking, everyone must have thought Noah was the strangest man in 1o counties. He built this huge box, then he and his family got in the box with a whole slew of animals. But, I just wonder how they felt when they saw the door close on its own. Then when the rain started to fall, I'm sure Noah didn't seem quite so crazy or strange anymore. It will be much the same way at the end time. Many people will wish they had listened or even bothered to ask a question, when suddenly all those "Christians" dissappear.

Where will you be on that day?

My Motivation and My thoughts on T.V.

It's been a long time since I blogged. I just haven't been motivated lately. Having a wreck at Christmas sort of knocked the wind out of my sails, and I've not really recovered. Thanks to Sis. Shelley for keeping up the teaching on Wednesday nights and the children's sermons and skits on Sundays. She really has an impressive drive to teach our children.

Speaking of our young people, all those that are 12 years and over are planning to attend Uth Celebration on February 2, which is a purity conference. It is at UCA in Conway, Arkansas. It's the goal this year to point out how the media is influencing our kids in a negative way, and hopefully point them in a more God-centered direction.

I was raised without a television, and when I got married and had a television, I became a T.V. Hog. I have to say that the television really does have a lot of influence in our homes. Everyone wants to have one of their own so they can watch what they want, we prioritize our lives around our television schedules. I also know that there are toys Hannah would never have the desire for if she didn't see the commercials on T.V. It can also influence you to eat, by flashing pictures of food which triggers you to go search for food. I have broke myself from my intense addiction to the television. I used to have "my" shows and if I couldn't be there to watch them, I taped them. Sometimes there were two shows on at the same time, and I had to tape one and watch it after I watched the other. I had at least one or two shows every night.

When I started Bible Study Fellowship and began an in-depth study of the Bible, I started seeing the evil of the box. That doesn't mean I never watch television anymore or that I have removed them from my home, but I am no longer addicted to it. There are some shows that I like, but if I can't watch it--then I just skip it. I also try to keep myself from watching something that Hannah can't watch also. The problem with the black box is that it pumps opinions and views into my head that I really don't agree with. Over time I become desensitized to these views and opinions and think that maybe they aren't so bad after all.

I started this blog, and didn't intend to bash television, but you might stop and think next time you go to watch T.V. Do I really need to watch this? Is there something else I could do that would be more productive? Do I want my children watching this? Would I watch this show with Jesus?

Unfortunately, I don't always follow this advice myself, but I am trying to do better.