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​As you read this article, our youth are completing a two week mission trip to Mexico! Our ministry moves forward on your prayers and my desire is that you’ll continue praying for youth leaders, students and myself as we strive to fulfill our call. Our mission team is was so large that we had to split it up into two teams! Each team worked in the same area but different neighborhoods for back-to-back weeks. This provided many challenges and opportunities. Church, will you join me in praying for the local church that we’ve served the last two weeks?

Pray for our missionary, Luis Martinez, in Mexico and the work that he does to support us. Pray for the local pastors and churches we will be working with. Pray for the youth and adults who have served on this mission trip and that it will have abiding fruit in their lives. Pray for me as I’ve been away from my family for 14 days. Pray for those who heard the gospel and responded that they will follow our Savior in the days to come. We’ve seen God do amazing things! As our work here ends, we know that it is just beginning for the local church as they follow-up. So, we are asking you to pray! Psalm 34:17 says “The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; He delivers them from all their troubles.” I love my church!

​Mark

Church Family, 

We have an opportunity in the upcoming weeks to bless and reach some of the most important families in our community. This year, we have changed the way we are doing our school supply drive. Instead of just reaching out to the families at Lucille Moore Elementary, we are extending a hand to all of the elementary school age families in Bay County. On August 11th, we will be holding our school Supply Drive not at a school, but right here in our Kid Zone building. This gives us the opportunity to walk families through our building and talk to them about all the great things we have going on for children at St. Andrew. Our prayer is that God would use this drive not just for the sake of pencils and notebooks, but as a starting point for families who need Jesus, and a church home to help them walk with Him.

You may have guessed this already, but because we have extended this offer all over Bay County, we need God to come through in a big way. That’s where you come in!!! It may not seem like pencil sharpeners and erasers matter much, but if they give us a chance to reach these families, they have eternal importance. Through your Lifechange Group, we’ll be taking up school supplies the next 2 Sundays (7/29 & 8/5), and we are trusting the Lord to give us enough supplies to serve all of the families who show up on August 11th. As you shop for your supplies, please pray that God would use every last piece for His Glory, and that these families would come to know the love and peace of Jesus Christ.

Grace and Peace,
Thomas

   ST. ANDREW BAPTIST KIDS HAVE RETURNED FROM​​

​There is nothing like a camp to give kids the opportunity to just enjoy being a kid. Kids today live in a fast paced world with fewer and fewer opportunities to just chill! 

CAMP allows kids to get wet and messy, stay up late, and hang out with friends! At CentriKid the amazing staffers are high energy college students ready to lead the kids in wild and crazy fun activities!

CAMP provides many memorable experiences that kids will be talking about for years to come! A favorite camp memory this year was our group having the Wet Willie water slide reserved from 9:30 -10:30 at night! And near the top of the list would be the famous OMC (organized mass chaos)! But the best memory is leaving camp knowing God spoke specifically to them during their quiet time or Bible Study!

CAMP gives kids a time to focus on who is most important in their life…Jesus! They are still kids, and they may not be quick to speak up and say “This is how God spoke to me at camp,” but He spoke many truths to them through the word that was taught, sung, and modeled for them. Camp has made a mark that can’t be erased.

CAMP warms my heart when I see God working in, around and through our kids. And when one of our kids decided to become a follower of Jesus on the way home…well, it doesn’t get any better than that! 

Thank you church family for making it possible for our kids to go to camp!

Building 4 Generations to Come is more than a name of a building project. Building 4 Generations to Come is also a mindset to helps us move forward. We have been blessed in this season with great leaders who began leading and serving in the 1950’s and 60’s. Those leaders have been instrumental in our growth by building a sure foundation on the Lord Jesus Christ that has prepared us for this time. Our leaders have provided the consistency that allowed us to weather tough and turbulent times and we are grateful for that legacy we benefit from today. These heroes of the faith have been leaders spiritually, as well as, financially. Some of these leaders have graduated to heaven while many remain leading and serving to this day! With that in mind, how is Building 4 Generations to Come a mindset that enables us to move forward?

All across the ages God has used men and women as His chosen instruments to join with Him in His work. He has elected to use men and women with warts, blemishes and imperfections so that His power might be recognized in His weak but obedient servants that have chosen to follow Him. Building 4 Generations to Come reminds us that God is looking for willing and obedient servants today that desire to show forth His power in their weakness. God is looking for men and women in all generations to be faithful, obedient servants that will join Him in His work. God is looking for men and women with this mindset that He might use them as His special instruments of grace to a world that needs to hear of His great love. 

Building 4 Generations to Come is the name of our building project, however, it is so much more than that. I’m asking that you seek the Lord to see how you can become more faithful and obedient to Christ. I am. I’m hopeful that God will choose to use me in the same manner in which He has used others to build His kingdom at 3010 W. 15th Street in Panama City, Florida! I’m hopeful that He will call out men and women in their 20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and older to join Him in His work here, across the street, and around the World. I’m hopeful that God will raise up a New Generation of faithful followers of all ages as we work through Building 4 Generations to Come.