904 Washington St SE, Olympia, WA 98501
Sarah Matos
Sarah Matos serves through the new extension of House of Hope Bolivia (Fundación Proyecto de Esperanza) in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. As an educator and dental assistant, Sarah works with churches to help develop tutoring and discipleship ministries for at-risk girls in Santa Cruz.
Fundación Proyecto de Esperanza of Cochabamba empowers the local churches through health and development ministries focusing on urban ministries to families. House of Hope (FPE) provides mobile medical and dental clinics to at-risk women and children. The hope is to expand these ministries as well to Santa Cruz.
Updates from Oaxaca
Yays: For our home and car; Luis enjoys his walks to school; dinner with IM colleagues, Keith and Deb Myers; Nora adapting well to her new surroundings; Nora loves playing at the park; Sarah finishing a hard semester at Palmer and being finally at her project phase (she will graduate in May); for our ministry partners who have been so helpful in getting us settled.
Prayer requests: For us to build good friendships and trust; to give ourselves grace during our language and culture learning; for our safety and health; for our ministry partners; for the girls and mentors of Talita Cumi; opportunities for Sarah to get to know the mentors better to offer spiritual and emotional support.
Music Ministries
As most of you know, our Director of Music Ministries, Jonathan Spatola-Knoll, has taken a yearlong leave of absence after being appointed as the Visiting Assistant Professor of Orchestra and Musicology at Whitman College for the 2024-25 school year. Besides his teaching responsibilities, this time at Whitman will also allow Jonathan to work on and complete several major research projects on Elfrida Andree, the Swedish Composer/Conductor and the subject of Jonathan’s PH.D. dissertation. This opportunity for Jonathan is just for this coming school year. There is no opportunity for this to become a permanent position and Jonathan will return to us approximately June 1st, of 2025.
In the meantime, the Music Committee has extended an invitation to Stephen C. Price, to become our Interim Director of Music Ministries. We are ecstatic to have someone of Stephen’s skill level and background come on board and be a part of our Ministry Staff here at Olympia First Baptist.
Stephen has his Doctor of Music from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in Bloomington, where his major was in Organ Performance, with a minor in Music Theory. Stephan is currently the Paul B. Fritts Faculty Fellow and Artist in Residence in Organ at the University of Washington (Go Dawgs!). Stephan also brings experience as a church organist, having served part-time at four different churches the last five years as he worked on his degree program, and as the full-time Associate Director of Music/Organist at the First United Methodist Church, San Diego, California from 2015-2017.
The Music Committee is very excited that Jonathan’s Leave of Absence and Stephen’s availability while at UW, coincide, some would say, perfectly. We are still working out schedules, but we hope that Sunday, August 25th will be Stephan’s first Sunday with us as organist/church musician. Stephan is also looking forward to working with the Choir, beginning in September as their Director.
We anticipate you will make Stephen feel welcomed and receive the fullness of your hospitality and warmth. Additionally, if you would like to see his Letter of Inquiry and/or his Resume, we will make those available.
In Christ!
Karen Wilson, Jean Heidal, Robin Paget, and Meggin Turk
New Hymnals - Coming Soon!
The Music Committee is ready to order the new hymnals so we can start using them in September.
If you not yet donated toward the purchase of the new hymnals, and/or pledged funds toward it, but have not yet sent your pledge in, the deadline is this Sunday, August 4th.
We will, of course, take donations after that date, but for ordering purposes, we need to have a set idea of how much funds
we have available to us.
Also, if you are also dedicating your hymnal purchase in the Memory of someone, please include their name with your donation so we can place a label of dedication on the inside of the hymnal.
MINISTRIES
Church Choir
Women's Ministries
Women's Ministries
Weekly Choir Rehearsal - Thursdays at 7:00 pm
Music Room, 2nd Floor
Under the direction of Steph Price, if you have a song in your heart, come and be a part of this community of singers joined together by the ministry of music.
Women's Ministries
Women's Ministries
Women's Ministries
American Baptist Women's Ministries (ABWM) meets on the 2nd Wednesday of the month from Sept through June.
For more info, visit the ABWM page.
Missionary Support
Mylinda Baits
Mylinda Baits is a community trainer, pastoral artist, activist and Christ-follower. She currently travels throughout the globe with International Ministries ABC-USA as a Global Consultant for Training using the Restorative Arts.
Mylinda is passionate about capacity building and training through arts-based experiential education for the healing and wholeness of trauma survivors; the creative transformation of conflict and the resilient witness of the people of God.
She uses her gifts of hospitality and pastoral care to create sustainable and safe spaces where servant leaders and those who do the hard work of rescue, relief and restoration can be nurtured and renewed. As sinner and saint, she sees beauty in broken places, wonder in wounded people, and life in loving God and others.
The Williams Family
Kyle and Katrina along with their 4 children have been living and serving in SE Asia for International Ministries as Global Servants since 2019. As part of a team of Christ-followers representing 7 countries Kyle and Katrina are creating strategies for peace making that are cutting edge and culturally relevant.
They are using and teaching others to use technology to research, report, and fight against the destructive practices of human trafficking and violence against minority tribal people. They love the work they do and the many amazing people they get to work with as Global Servants with Baptist International Ministries and as part of the larger American Baptist family.
COMMUNITY OUTREACH
Table Grace
Thurston Co Jail Ministry
God's Little Blessings
Table Grace, formerly known the Feeding Ministry, meets every Sunday at 4pm. Faith Communities and Local Groups provide a free dinner for the needy in our area.
This is a community enhanced ministry, supported by a wide range of churches, service clubs and individuals. Table Grace has served the "least-of-these" in our community for over 20 years.
If you are interested in helping as a volunteer, please contact Pastor Mark or Freda Spaulding, Table Grace's Volunteer Coordinator.
God's Little Blessings
Thurston Co Jail Ministry
God's Little Blessings
This knitting group creates caps for premature babies born at Tacoma General Hospital and at St. Peter Hospital in Olympia.
Over the last 4 years, they have made 6000 caps for new born babies.
For more information, contact Sarah Waterhouse or Patti Lehman.
Thurston Co Jail Ministry
Thurston Co Jail Ministry
Thurston Co Jail Ministry
First Baptist is one of 10 Faith Communities that take part in this ministry.
Each team visits the jail once a quarter, meeting 4 times within a 2 week period. Meetings include Bible Study, prayer, music, devotions and testimonies.
A volunteer jail chaplain supports the team when they visit. Volunteers receive training and orientation prior to participation.
For more information, contact John Nunneh.