Rev. Dewayne Tanton.....................Associational Missionary
Rev. Billy George West..........................................Moderator
Rev. Thomas Lanthrip...................................Vice-Moderator
Rev. Dick Couch..................................................Treasurer
Mrs. Linda Tollison..............................Office Manager/Clerk
Mrs. Debra Burchfield.............................Hope CPC Director
Rev. Miguel Flores...........................Hispanic Church Planter

Harmony Association Executive Board will meet on Tuesday, August 12th, at 10:30 a.m. at the association office.

Macedonia Mission Trip, July 17-25.

Team members are Andi Lunsford, Welda Harper, Mary Weger, Alan, Trent, and Tyler Schmidt. Their project will be prayer walking. Pray for: Safety; Health; Unity of the team; Boldness to share the gospel; Holy Spirit to use each team member to lead someone to Christ; Openness of the people; Interpreters to be believers; and Interpreters to interpret the gospel clearly.

Mexico Mission Trip, July 25-August 1. This trip was canceled.

This is a construction and evangelism trip, with continuing efforts to rebuild the Mexican Convention’s church camp to use as a base for massive door to door evangelism in 2009 and a VBS at night at a local church. The cost will be $300 per person and a current passport is required.

HOPE Women of Integrity

Our Women of Integrity program is flourishing. We now have three classes in progress.

Day Time Title/Description

Tuesday 5 pm A Jewel in His Crown (Priscilla Shrier)

Wednesday 11 am Single Parenting (Kevin Leman)

Wednesday 1 pm Reproductive Health

In addition, we serve lunch during the noon hour on Wednesdays and feature a guest speaker. Speakers for the month of June are: Pat Hart (Ridgway 1st Assembly), Pastor McKissic (New Fellowship Baptist Church), Rev. Don Hawkins (Barnett Chapel). If you would like to be a featured speaker, supply lunch, help with childcare or help with the store please call. These women are trying to change their lives from the inside out and your support is vital to their success. Won't you come be a part of what God is doing in here at the Hope Center? Regardless of your talents, God can & will use you if you are willing!!

HOPE Baby Bottle Offering

Time to return the Baby Bottles! Please contact the office if you need assistance with this. Prior to Father’s Day, we have already received $1,220 in cash & pledges. Remember, our goal this year is $30,000.

VACATION BIBLE SCHOOLS:

South Side Baptist Church; July 14-18

Greenlee Baptist Church; July 20-24

Friends of Jesus Hispanic Church; July 21-26

Shepherd Hill Baptist Church; July 28-Aug 1

Pine Bluff First Baptist Church; August 8-10

Gould First Baptist Church; August 11-15

South Pinewood Bapt. Church; August 11-14

May 23, 2008
Dear Dewayne,
Having come to the close of the hard and sacrificial ministry your chainsaw group has given the people of Stuttgart, I want to thank you on behalf of the people of Stuttgart and the churches that your team helped. The outstanding testimony in action and in word had a lasting effect on many people that you served. All the men and women who came to meet the great need that so many people had was outstanding. I have personally heard many wonderful reports from people in the area stating their appreciation for the services given by your people and the other teams as well. One lady stated that the comfort and encouragement she received from those beautiful yellow shirts and caps was so meaningful to her and her family. Another reported occasion from one team about a woman who stopped her car on the street and went to a team (perhaps yours) and said, "I need a hug." She got several hugs and returned to her car and drove off. Considering a report of eleven people receiving eternal life due to the witness of these men and women, tells me that all the workers want to do more than cut trees.
Please express my appreciation to your team and accept my appreciation for your faithful leadership.
For His Glory,
Ron Raines, Associational Missionary, Centennial Association

The Baby Bottle Offering is scheduled to kick-off on Mother’s Day. Bottles & supplies will be delivered the week before. Last year we collected $27,443. This year our goal is $30,000. It is imperative that as our client base and program grow & expand, that we continue to grow our financial base. If your church or organization has not participated in the past but would like to, please call the office. We will be sure to get you set up with everything you need!
Debra Burchfield
HOPE CPC

HBA Scholarships
Please note scholarships are offered through Harmony Baptist Association to Ouachita Baptist University ($250 per year for four years) and Williams Baptist College ($500). One scholarship is granted for each school to a graduating senior who will be enrolled in the Fall 2008 semester. This student must be a member of a Harmony Baptist Association Church. The application process must be completed and returned to the Harmony Baptist Office on or before April 1st. Interested students may receive information about these scholarships by contacting the association office at 870-534-1021 or ltollison@sbcglobal.net.

My Friends:
Now is the time to renew or get your passport. According to the U.S. Customs officials that I have talked to, no one can get into the United States without a valid U.S. Passport or Visa after January 1st, 2008. This will cause all mission trips outside the U.S. borders to require a passport, even to Mexico and Canada. I would encourage you to acquire your passport soon. The time frame for receiving a passport is about 6 to 8 weeks if there are no problems. The total cost as of September 1st, 2007, for a new ten year passport is $110 and can be applied for at the main post office at 8th and Main Street. The postal service now takes the passport pictures and sends off your application with your original birth certificate with the raised seal on it. You can pick up an application at the post office or Harmony Baptist Association office. Get yours now!
Dave Henderson

Sean Culpepper, who is with the Arkansas Baptist Children’s Home and Family Ministries, is coming to Harmony Baptist Association every Monday for Pastoral Counseling. To schedule an appointment call 501-455-8554.

Harmony is still collecting reading material of good moral content for the AR Department of Corrections and wheelchairs, walkers, and crutches for the "Wheels for the World" organization. These items can be dropped off at the Association Office Monday-Thursday from 8:00-4:00 and Friday from 8:00-12:00.

If your church has received a love offering for the UAM-BCM, please send it in to Harmony Baptist Association or the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. Thank you for your participation!!!

NEW HBA OFFICERS
Moderator: Billy George West, Sulphur Springs
Vice-Moderator: Thomas Lanthrip, Anderson Chapel
Treasurer: Dick Couch, South Side
Clerk: Linda Tollison, HBA Office Manager
Associational Missionary: Dewayne Tanton

The HOPE Center Has Ministry Opportunities for your Church
     The HOPE Crisis Pregnancy Center provides "Women of Integrity" classes on Tuesday evenings for women who are seeking to learn more about God’s will for their lives. The number of women attending these classes has grown. We are grateful to serve more and more women with the knowledge of Christ. As our numbers grow, so do ministry opportunities for the Center and your church.
     Transporting the participants to the Center on Tuesday evenings has become difficult. To answer our transportation need, the Center is organizing a "Van Ministry". If your church has a van and a driver available to pick up and return participants, the Center would be grateful for your participation in this ministry.
     Each Tuesday evening the HOPE Center also provides a meal for the WOI participants. The Center would appreciate any help with feeding about a dozen people each Tuesday. Sandwiches, hot dogs, and pizza are all favorites.
     The Center also provides child care for participants’ children. Some women could not attend Women of Integrity classes without someone to care for their children. Volunteers are needed to help with child care. Even one Tuesday evening a month is helpful. Supplies are also needed for the childcare area. Diapers, all sizes, wipes, baby toys, books, and toys for older elementary children would be greatly appreciated.
     Please pray for these women and their children. Pray for the Center as it provides an alternative and the good news of God’s grace and forgiveness.
     For more information about how your church can participate in these ministry opportunities please contact Debra Burchfield at 535-0811.

HOPE CPC Volunteer Opportunities
Banquet Volunteer
Client Advocate--a.m.
Childcare Worker--a.m. and p.m.
Store Worker--a.m. and p.m.
Parenting Instructor--a.m. and p.m.
The Center is now providing a nursery for clients as they attend the Women of Integrity Training. Nursery hours will be: Tuesday 4:30-6:00
Wednesday 10:00-11:30 and 1:30-3:00
Nursery Volunteers are needed to work 1 1/2 hour shifts.
For more information, contact
HOPE, a Woman’s Resource Center at 870-535-0811.

UAM BCM Offering
The Baptist Collegiate Ministry at the University of Arkansas at Monticello is in desperate need of a building to house the Baptist Student work on the campus. The goal of $100,000 has been set for this offering. Your help is needed to make this possible.
Would your church consider receiving a love offering one Sunday in August? Donations can be sent to Harmony Baptist Association, 2001 South Cherry, Pine Bluff, AR 71601. Please note that the contribution is for the UAM-BCM building construction.

Thanks to everyone who helped with our three mission teams that worked in our association this June. We had 48 people that came from different states to work with our local churches in reaching our community for Christ. They worked Back Yard Bible clubs, VBS, Hope Crises Center, and with our Inmate Family Ministry Center. It was a great work and over ten people came to know the Lord through their dedication.

Mexico Missions Report
     We have just returned from Harmony Baptist Association’s second working mission trip to Nuevo Laredo. All I can say is that it was just a great trip, and that God was honored and glorified by our efforts.
We worked at the camp during the day putting a new tin roof on the dining hall and in late afternoon and night we had a VBS with Bethesda Baptist Church. This church was such a blessing to us. Pastor Cudberto Ramirey spoke no English, but we talked a lot. We sang a lot. He sang in Spanish and we sang in English worshipping the same God.
     Bethesda Baptist is a very evangelistic church. It has 2 missions and 3 home bible studies. It was at these homes that we helped put on the VBS. I say helped because the members of Bethesda did most of the work and we just kinda watched. Monday at the first home we had almost 100 children. On the second night at another home we had around 25 children. The third night at the last of the bible study homes we had 60-70 children.
     On Thursday we were privileged to be able to enter the juvenile prison and speak to 14 inmates. We talked to them about Jesus and the Holy Spirit led 5 of the youth to the saving knowledge of Jesus.
We saw 9 or 10 people accept Jesus during the week and we all give God the glory and thank Him for using our team in such a mighty way.
     Because He Lives,
     Dave Henderson, Team Leader

Does your church have an elected Harmony Executive Board Representative and has that person’s name been reported to the Assn. Office? Join us as we unite to serve the Lord.

NOTE to Treasurers, Deacons, Finance and Personnel Committees:
Through Cooperative Program gifts to the ABSC, the Church Retirement Plan has included Survivor & Disablity Benefits and a $210 yearly cash contribution to a minister’s retirement account at no cost to the local church. The cost of the benefits are increasing by 40%. But this "supplement", which in the past was provided by the Annuity Board, is being discontinued. Your minister will no longer receive the $210 per year supplement beginning January 2007. Would you please consider helping with additional retirement contributions? For more information contact Denny Wright at ABSC.

Celebrate Recovery
     The Bible clearly states "All have sinned." It is human nature to sin. None of us is untainted. Because of sin, we’ve all hurt ourselves, we’ve all hurt others and we’ve all had others hurt us. This means each of us have been left with some form of "hurt, habit, & hang-up."
     Celebrate Recovery can help. It shows us God’s way of conquering those emotional giants we’ve been battling; whether you’re struggling with depression, bitterness, anger, slothfulness, addiction to food, smoking, gambling, alcohol, drugs, etc.
Celebrate Recovery
Based on God’s Word the Bible
Forward-looking rather than wallowing in past failures
Emphasizes personal responsibility
Emphasizes spiritual commitment to Jesus Christ
Utilizes the Biblical truth that we need each other in order to grow spiritually and emotionally
Addresses all types of habits, hurts, and hang-ups
Produces lay ministers
     Won’t you come join us Thursday nights @ 7pm in the Singles House at Watson Chapel Baptist Church and discover your path to freedom.

NUEVO LAREDO, MEXICO
My Brothers and Sisters in Christ;
     I am so excited about how God has used Christians from our association in His Nuevo Laredo, Mexico work in 2006. I had a mental schedule about how the work would progress on this mission field. And the work pretty much stayed with my mental schedule in 2006. But since the last trip in September God has opened many doors and Nuevo Laredo mission’s has shifted gears.
     God has blessed Harmony Association with the privilege to partner with a sister church, First Baptist Church of Henrietta, MO., for our first construction/evangelism trip in 2007 to Nuevo Laredo scheduled for March 2nd through March 9th. This trip will have several unique features about it. First we will have an international soccer evangelism team with us that will be putting on soccer clinics with the youth of Nuevo Laredo. One of those clinics will be held at the youth prison in Nuevo Laredo. The second unique thing is that two churches and the soccer team will for the first time be staying at the camp together. We will be staying in some of the buildings that Harmony Association team’s remodeled last year. Between the soccer team and two churches we could possibly have over 40 people spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ in Nuevo Laredo on this upcoming trip. Praise the LORD!!!
     Wouldn’t you like to be a part of this unique first trip.
I invite you to follow your Master’s call and go with us on one of several planned trips to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico in 2007. The cost is still $275 which covers most food and travel expenses. Please contact the Associational Office or Dave Henderson for further information and for an application. Application deadline for this first trip is February 4th.
     We are in need of money for the purchase of construction materials. If you would like to support these mission projects in this way please contact the Associational office.
God’s Servant, Dave Henderson

Peru Partnership Update
     The Harmony Baptist Association mission partnership to Peru has been an awesome blessing. Since beginning the IMB partnership in November, 2005, we have seen the hand of God in this wonderfully beautiful South American country, Peru, a nation most of us knew little about just a year ago has become very dear and precious and a part of our daily prayers.
     Twenty different people from Harmony Association have been a part of four trips to Peru and in that time we have seen over two hundred people come to faith in Christ. To God be the glory! Only God could have brought this to pass.
     Perhaps the most wonderful fruit we have seen thus far has been the planting of a new church in the Andes mountains, in the little village of Huasahuasi. A remote town of just over 6,000 people, that previously has had no evangelical witness, now has a Baptist mission.
     On Sunday, August 6, 2006 the first services of the Baptist Mission of Huasahuasi were held, with scores of children and adults in attendance. Christians from a Baptist Church in the area travel the winding mountain roads each Sunday to lead the new church. You can view pictures of the mission at http://mbhuasahuasi.spaces.msn.com.
     The next trip to Peru will be late March or early April of 2007. Contact the HBA office for more information.

Is your Bible Study or Women’s group looking for a mission project? Please consider providing some of the following items for the HOPE, a Woman’s Resource Center.
Baby Soap; Baby Shampoo; Baby Powder; Baby Lotion; Baby Wipes; Sleepers, sizes 0-12 months; Blankets; Crib Sheets; Bibs; Boy & Girl Clothes, sizes 0-12 months; Socks & Shoes, sizes 0-12 months; Maternity Clothes, all sizes; Tee Shirts, sizes 0-12 months; New Born Caps; Diaper Bags; and Diapers, sizes newborn to size four. Donations can be delivered to the center Tuesday or Thursday or to the Association office.

Harmony to become drop-off point for Wheels for the World
Do you have a used wheelchair you do not need? Please bring it to the association office and it will be picked up and restored. Some of the restoration is done at Tucker Prison by trained inmates. The wheelchairs are then shipped overseas to be used by short-term mission teams. Wheels for the World is a disability outreach ministry of "Joni & Friends", which was founded by Joni Eareckson Tada. For more information call the association office.

Disaster Relief Team
       "There seems to be no area of mission action that requires more rapid response than a time of disaster. The disaster comes unexpectedly and with it the opportunity for immediate ministry."
       "The North American Mission Board, along with state Baptist Conventions contribute manpower, ministry, and financial help during floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, and earthquakes."
       Harmony Baptist Association has been putting together a Disaster Relief Team to help aid in this effort. We have a fully stocked Disaster Relief unit that is set up for recovery (chain saw and light carpentry) efforts, but volunteers are needed.
       If you would like to know how you can be a Disaster Relief Volunteer or need more information about Harmony’s Team contact Bryan McPherson, Harmony’s Disaster Relief Team Leader, or Dewayne Tanton, Associational Missionary, at (870)534-1021.

ABN Newsmagazine - Most of the news items that you see on this web page can be found on the front page of the "ABN Newsmagazine - Harmony Association Special Edition", which is published every two weeks. You can order the newsmagazine by calling 800-838-2272 or 501-376-4791 ext. 5153, or visit their website at http://www.arkansasbaptist.org. When you order, be sure to specify the "Harmony Association Special Edition" of the ABN Newsmagazine so that the front page will have news items specific to the Harmony Association. If you have upcoming events or news items, such as staff needs, and would like them published on the front page of the newsmagazine, please turn this information into Linda at the Harmony Association office at least 3 to 4 weeks prior to the event.

Church News

What is happening at your church (VBS, Revivals, Special Projects, Staff concerns, etc.)? We will be glad to share your church news on this page. Announcements should be turned in to the Association Office at least two to three weeks prior to the event. We look forward to hearing from you. Please call (870)534-1021 or FAX us at (870)534-4625.

Rison Baptist Church, in Rison, AR, is seeking a full time Associate Pastor for Youth. Please send resumes to Personnel Committee, P.O. Box 404, Rison, AR 71665.

Matthews Memorial Baptist Church is accepting resumes for the position of church secretary. Interested parties may send resumes to Matthews Memorial Baptist Church, PO Box 1124, Pine Bluff, AR 71613, Attn: Personnel Committee.

Matthews Memorial Baptist Church is accepting resumes for a Youth Director. Resumes can be sent to Matthews Memorial Baptist Church, PO Box 1124, Pine Bluff, AR 71613.

River Road Baptist Church is seeking a pianist. For more information contact the Association office.

River Road Baptist Church is seeking to fill the following positions; Music Director and Youth Minister. Resumes can be sent to Rev. Gene Murdock. To contact him, call the Harmony Association office.

River Road Baptist Church has 20, twelve foot pews, a pulpit, communion table, and two arm chairs for sale. All pieces are made of oak. For more information contact the Association office.

Rankin Chapel Baptist Church has twelve wooden pews with gold cushions that they want to pass on to another church. The pews are around ten feet long. If interested, contact pastor Monty Meek by calling the Harmony Association office at 870-534-1021.

Dollarway Baptist Church is in need of a Pianist. If interested contact Eddie Harrison at the Harmony Assn. office 870-534-1021.

Pray for the following Pastorless Churches: Bethel; Forrest Park; Hickory Grove (Interim: Bill Hilburn); Linwood; Matthews Memorial (Interim: M. L. Faler); Pine Bluff Second; and Victory.

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Association News

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