BOC

Dear Friends, Family, and Partners,

 

It’s hard to believe that we are now heading into November - WOW!!  We hope this letter finds everybody well.  Leslie and I are so grateful for each one of you and your continued prayers, friendship, encouragement, and financial support!!  God truly does use each of you to bless us and we are grateful for His provision and your partnership!!

 

October was a good mix of outreach to our community, as well as ministry to our own BOC family.

 

OUTREACH to our community:

 

We hosted a “Pierce the Darkness” ministry to all of our trick-or-treaters this year, which included a block party, games, food, candy, trunk-or-treat, door prizes, etc.  The tweak this year was that we did it right BEFORE the regular trick-or-treating so we could spend more time with our community as well as do it while still daylight.  It was really well-received (as one barometer, over 700 hot dogs were served - WOW!!) and was wonderfully led by two of our dear ladies - Ms. Grace and Ms. Shanita!!




We continue to work on our Cycle-Breaking Apartments ministry.  We are SO close to having one apartment completed.  Thank you to our friends from Fearless Church in Dayton, OH who continue to help us with this project.  We are also grateful for our Pastor David and Deacon David for their labor of love in assisting brother Glenn and his buddies!!  Please pray for the necessary resources to complete the other two apartments.  We still need about $20,000 to fully complete all three apartments.  As God provides, we will complete the project.  Please pray for us as we develop written requirements, policies, etc. to launch this ministry.

 

We also continue to provide backpacks of food for the weekends for our “at risk” children at the Westernport Elementary School.  What a ministry opportunity!!  We are so blessed by Ms. Stephanie and Ms. Shanita who provide this ministry on a weekly basis.  The sad thing is that we have a record FIFTY children who require this ministry.  Please pray for them and their families and that this ministry will have an eternal impact upon them!!

 

MINISTRY to our church family:

 

We had a great time together as a church family with our annual picnic at Brookdale Farms this month.  The cool thing about this ministry was that we had encouraged our families to invite other unchurched families to join us just to hang out and enjoy the day with church folks!!  It was a HIT as we had well over 20 folks who have no church home join us for the fellowship together!!  This picture is of our own Deacon John and his family.  Please pray for John and his family as he continues to pursue training to become ordained as a pastor in the months ahead!!



We also had a sweet time of fellowship at our third annual church costume party!!  The night included crafts for the kids, costume party for children and adults, games, food, and lots of fun and laughter.  As we did with the church picnic, we encouraged our families to invite unchurched families and wow, what a turnout.  We had between 40 and 50 children at this party.  Ain’t that cool??  We were grateful for Ms. Katie and Ms. Ashley for organizing and leading in this party!!



In addition to these special activities, we were also blessed with the regular monthly ladies’ fellowship who came together for a craft night in October, our weekly FIGHT NIGHT for men, the youth group ministry for our youth, and a weekly Bible study for our ladies (through November).  Our fellowship is growing together as well as reaching outward and we are blessed to watch what God is doing in and through His church here at BOC!! (Picture is of our youth outing to the local Escape Room in Frostburg this month - we had a good time together!!)

 

Would you please keep these prayer requests in mind as you seek the Lord on our behalf??

1 - Please pray for fruit to come from the travels I had this month.  What an honor to preach at Mountain City Church in Frostburg, MD (Thank you, Pastor Joe Saweikis!!) and Thelma Baptist Church in Wetumpka, AL (Thank you, Pastor Doug Chappelle), as well as meet with so many pastors, directors of missions, and leaders throughout the state of Alabama.  We are so blessed to have so many friends and partners in the ministry here in our mountains.



2 - Please pray for the Lord’s will to be done in regards to a grant proposal I submitted to the US Wind Power Foundation to help with the costs of the materials we need to put on our new roof in the Spring.  We have made it through the first step in the process and are now waiting to hear about our status.  Please pray for the resources needed for the roof to be completed (right now, we are looking at a need of approximately $100,000)!!

 

3 - Please pray for the necessary resources for the completion of our cycle-breaking apartments.  As of now, we have everything we need to complete the first apartment.  Another $8,000 would give us what is needed to complete the second apartment, and another $12,000 would complete the third apartment.

 

4 - Please pray for our upcoming rec. League basketball for our community children (our “poor man’s version” of Upward Basketball)!!  Registration occurs in November and we will start in December.  Please keep JoJo in prayer as she leads this ministry and please pray for much fruit to come from this outreach!!  Thank you to donations from Faith Baptist Church in Glen Burnie, MD, and First Baptist Church of Wetumpka, AL to help us make this ministry even more impactful and effective!!

 

5 - Please pray for our Christmas ministries to our community.  One ministry will be a Christmas backpack distribution as we will hand out OVER 300 backpacks this year.  Thank you to our friends from Elmore Baptist Association for their generosity and assistance in this ministry.  One other ministry is the distribution of gifts in a “Christmas Shop” for families in exceptional need during this time of year.  Thank you to our community for their donations throughout the year as well as to our friends from Central Park Baptist Church in Decatur, AL for their donation of $2,000 worth of toys to this ministry.   

 

6 - Lastly, please pray for our new “strategy” of outreach as we are asking our church families to invite families they know and are trying to reach to join us for our fellowship / internal church ministries - it’s our attempt to expose unsaved people to the Gospel through fellowship with church folk!!!  Please pray that our friends in the community will be drawn to Christ through these efforts.

 

As always, Leslie and I want you to know that we desire to encourage you as much as you encourage us in our ministry here in the Mountains.  If  there is anyway we can pray for you or come alongside you in a practical way to encourage you, please do not hesitate to let us know.  You can e-mail me at pastorsteffan@gmail.com, call me at 301-697-4828, or message me on FB.

 

Speaking of ways to contact us, please feel free to follow along in our ministry in one or more of the following:

BOC Website - www.bruceoutreachcenter.com

BOC Facebook - www.facebook.com/bruceoutreachcenter

BOC Private FB (Hope in the Mountains - please send a request to join and I will add ya’)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1536105830013432

You can also download our APP by searching “Bruce Outreach Center” in the APP store on your smartphone.

 

Thank you again for your friendship and partnership!!  We look forward to how God blesses as we continue to partner together for the sake of His Kingdom!!  We appreciate and love each one of you!!