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Wednesday Night Lenten Program
This year during Lent a group of people met in the Fireside Room each week before Wednesday evening prayer meeting to spend some time together thinking about a different way of fasting. Instead of fasting from food, we talked about fasting from the things that keep us from God and feasting on the things that bring us closer to God.
Week 1: Fasting from complaining and feasting on gratitude.
We talked about how the Israelites complained in the wilderness instead of trusting God and being grateful for all that God did for them – and how gratitude can remind us of just how much God has done for us.
Week 2: Fasting from distraction and feasting on paying attention.
We looked at the story of Mary and Martha and how even though Martha was doing good things, her distraction kept her from the most important thing – paying attention to Jesus. We talked about how paying attention is a way of showing love.
Week 3: Fasting from judgement and feasting on kindness.
We looked at the story of Jesus and the woman caught in adultery and how all the people who were judging the woman realized that they weren’t perfect either. We talked about how everyone is going through something, so it’s important to be kind. At the end of the evening everyone was given a stone to keep for the week to remind them not to judge.
Week 4: Fasting from worry and feasting on prayer.
We talked about Jesus’ teachings on worry and Paul’s words to the Philippians, “don’t worry about anything but pray about everything, always giving thanks.” At the end of the night everyone was given a string to use
when they prayed – they would tie a knot in the string for every worry, then as they prayed they would untie the knot – as they let go of their worry and gave it to God in prayer.
Week 5: Fasting from noise and feasting on listening.
We talked about how Jesus would often go to a quiet place to pray and how Elijah heard God on the mountain, not in all the loud and dramatic things but in the still, small voice. We talked about how we need to find a time for quiet so that we can hear God in our lives.
Week 6: Feasting on Love.
On the last night we did a review of all the teachings from the previous weeks. We read about Moses’ telling the Israelites leaving the wilderness to choose life – and how choosing life is choosing to follow God’s commands to love God and to love your neighbor – and how all of the things we had done over the last five weeks were about choosing life and choosing love.
We had a wonderful time together and I hope that we will all continue to choose these things that bring us closer to God.
“To choose life is to love the Lord your God, obey him, and stay close to him.”Deuteronomy 30:20a
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Holy Week at First Baptist Church
Palm Sunday
This season of Holy Week was a very busy one. Starting off with Palm Sunday, the children opened up the worship service by walking down the church aisles, waving palm branches and singing “Hosanna, Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest!” We invited the Karen choir and First Burma Christ Church to sing special music. Pastor Bill’s sermon followed Jesus and his disciples when they first entered Jerusalem until the betrayal of Judas Iscariot. (If you would like to listen to that sermon, you can visit our church website: firstbaptiststpaul.org. Follow the tabs for Worship which will lead you to our YouTube channel. The Sermon for Palm Sunday will be called: Judas, April 2, 2023.)
Maundy Thursday
On Thursday evening of Holy Week a small group of people, from elders to children, gathered together for our Maundy Thursday service. This is the service we have every year to remember the night when Jesus washed his disciples’ feet. It is a quiet service with scripture readings and hymns. And halfway through the service people are invited to come and wash each other’s feet, just like Jesus washed the feet of the disciples. It is always a very moving and heartwarming time as people come to wash the feet of people they care about and then to have their own feet washed as well. Member of the congregation from the elders to young children had their feet washed. Pastor Sheila’s sermon was about being humbled – how Jesus taught us that it is important to humble ourselves to serve others, but also to be humbled as we allow ourselves to be served – all in the name of loving each other. The service ended by taking communion and singing a hymn. People left feeling blessed as they followed the example set for us by Jesus.
Youth Fundraiser
The Saturday before Easter Sunday, there were two different events at the church. There was a youth fundraiser and an Easter Egg Hunt for the children. The youth had their fundraiser starting at 10am. They sold many different kinds of food such as mohinga, chicken and rice, Thai tea and matcha drinks, savory crepes, and papaya salad. There was a volleyball tournament with 9 teams that started at 10:30am and lasted until 9:00pm. The winners for that were everyone participating in Ta Plaw’s team. There was also a Bible verse reciting competition and a duet singing competition. The winner for the Bible verse competition was Hsar Lwemoo Kwee. The winners for the singing competition were Way Ler and Zipora Noiwong.
Easter Egg Hunt
This year’s Easter Egg Hunt was awesome! The kids always look forward to this time of year for the games, food and especially candy. We had just enough candy for children to have bags full of them. Thank you to everyone who donated! Many of the kids brought their own easter baskets, which were significantly bigger than the plastic bags I had for them. What we did differently this year was instead of watching a movie while the candy was being placed, we did crafts instead! Some kids made paper plate chicks and others made easter eggs with tissue paper! This year I took the lead with the help of the high school youth and my sisters and compared to last year, I felt more confident with how everything went. Thank you everyone for helping and making this Easter Egg Hunt possible.
Easter Sunday
For Easter Sunday we invited the Karen Choir, First Burma Christ Church, and the Karen Sunday School children to sing special music for us. The young girls in the Sunday School classes also performed a tambourine ribbon dance for us and the Karen youth did an interpretive dancing to “How He Loves” (Crowder) that portrayed the life of Jesus from birth till death and the resurrection.
We remembered the lives of those who passed away from Easter 2022 to Easter 2023: Patrick Junior, Eric Denning, Gladys Ruth Englund, Daphne Tun Baw, Dianna Johnson.
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Waterlily Montessori
Nearing the end of the school year it is evident that children are anxious about what lies ahead, especially for our soon to be first graders. This week this group of children will be going on their first walk-about/out-and-about. Together we created a plan of purchasing items from Lunds for our classroom materials as well as fresh fruits which will be used for juicing. The children have been curious all year about Ms. Amanda’s homemade juice she shares with Ms. Nan and Mr. Eddie so much so that we decided to have them participate and prepare fresh juice. Several of our students are working on more advanced materials as others are continuing to build their resilience, independence, and concentration with familiar materials. We have had several community events throughout the school year with two more in the coming weeks. Our events are always a potluck and our families contribute an abundance of cultural dishes that fill us with joy and goodness. Water Lily continues to meet weekly to discuss enrollment and outreach with previously interested families, potential opportunities to increase enrollment for next year, as well as what is working in and out of the classroom to support ourselves as teachers/guides in our community.
This year we hosted many Montessori Training Center of Minnesota students in training – learning to become – Montessorians! We even had a student teacher named Claudia who will join us as a substitute this summer! It is hard to believe that we will begin our 5th year of school operation in the fall of 2024! Many thanks to the community of First Baptist Church and our pioneer students of Water Lily Montessori. Please help us by continuing to spread the word about our amazing program!
Hope Community Church
Hope Community Church has worshiped in our building since 2017. They meet at 8:45 am on Sunday mornings before the 10:30 English language service. Member of our two congregations often greet each other as one worship service is finishing up and the other is preparing to begin.
HCC has three locations. Hope Downtown is located in downtown Minneapolis near the Minnesota Vikings Stadium. Hope Heights meet in Columbia Heights (a northern suburb). The group that meets here is called Hope Lowertown. HCC began in 1996 as 14 people met in the living room of founding pastor Steve Treichler. Their vision was and continues to be honoring God by helping as many people as possible become fully devoted followers of Christ. Hope intentionally reaches out to people by planting churches. Eight congregations have been established since 2005.
Hope Lowertown is in the process of sponsoring improvements to our building which include repairing windows in the Fireside Room and updating the main floor restrooms. We are grateful for our partnership with Hope and look forward to continuing to work together.
First Burma Christ Church
Welcome! We are delighted to have you read our newsletter. We hope that the things we are doing will motivate, stimulate and touch you to further your commitment and dedication to our Lord Jesus Christ!
Our main worship service is at 3:00 pm every Sunday in the sanctuary. The average count of attendees for Sunday is 80. Our Pastor is Rev. Mehm Mya Thi. We also have Women’s group, Youth group, Seniors group, Evangelism group, Christian Education Department and Transportation Department which are doing their own activities in the different days of the week. We also have our Praise Team, inspiring us in worship service every Sunday.
Furthermore, FBCC was able to donate funds to displaced citizens from Burma who are in the remote areas of Thailand/Burma border and we are making efforts to do more. And by the Grace of God FBCC has the opportunity to buy a commercial freezer for the First Baptist Church.
An exciting news to announce is we are planning to conduct a fundraiser this Summer of 2023. We will be making and selling our traditional foods and delicacies in the FBC compound and all are cordially invited to come and enjoy. More details to come in the near future for date and time.
Lastly, we feel that we are so bless to have this FBC building and facilities for our worship, activities and missions around St. Paul and beyond. May the Lord continue to bless Pastor Bill and the FBC team, all our brothers and sisters in Christ who are spreading the Good News of our Lord until HE comes!
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Dianna Johnson Funeral (March 17, 2023)
By Reverend Bill Englund
My wife and I visited Dianna and Wally at their home not long before she died. She was weak and was having a hard time even holding up her head. I was sitting near her when she asked me, “Why hasn’t God answered my prayers to get well?”
I know that Dianna was a woman of faith. I also had been around her long enough to know that she was the kind of person who wanted an answer. The God that she had trusted and served all her life was silent about responding to her prayers for healing. Dianna want to know why!
I realized that this was not the time for a long theological discussion about how God heals us. Sometimes physical healing is God’s plan and intention for us – sometimes it just isn’t. And I didn’t think it would be helpful to review that Adam and Eve had chosen knowledge of good and evil over immortality: we are all destined to die.
I have forgotten exactly what I said, but it felt pretty unsatisfactory at the time. Since then I have been thinking about her question, “Why didn’t God answer her prayers for healing?”
After all, Dianna was a faithful person, a hard worker at church who cared deeply about people. She deserved some kind of answer.
At the beginning of the pandemic no one knew what was happening or what to do. Not meeting together in person, was isolating. I called congregation members to ask how they were doing. Almost all of them had already received a call from Dianna. They told me how much they had appreciated her kindness and how much it had meant to them. Thank you, Dianna. Why hadn’t God responded to the prayers of this loving disciple.
I will offer a belated answer to you now.
I believe that God did demonstrate His love for Dianna in a number of ways. Through Wally, God showed amazing care and compassion. They were good partners for a lot of years. The pictures we have seen illustrate that loving relationship in good times (on vacations and family gatherings) and in the recent tough days. What Dianna needed most when facing this greatest challenge of her life, was someone to stand by her: someone who she could count on. Someone that she knew loved her. Wally became Christ’s answer to her in these moments. Thank you, Wally.
Dianna’s prayers for God’s presence were answered by her caring children who surrounded her on this final uncertain journey. When they were young, Dianna cared for them with love that had its source in Christ. Now she was a recipient of that love. Thank you, Lisa, Brian and Sheila and the rest of the family. Dianna was never alone when she really needed you.
Dianna’s prayers for God’s intervention were answered as good decisions were made about her care: what therapies and medicines she said “yes” to and what she said “no” to. These decisions were often not easy, but I believed the wisdom of them was inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Dianna was always a fighter. But in her last days, when she was no longer able to keep up the battle with her disease, God provided her a healing, well-deserved rest. To be comfortable at the end of such a long struggle was a blessing. Thank you, Lord for that compassionate answer=
She had a peaceful ending of this earthly life and peaceful welcome to her heavenly one. I believe that she has all the answers to the questions she had for God, if she is still interested in them at all. I have a hunch that they are divinely resolved but I also imagine that now she is looking for what to do next. She can’t help it, that is the way God made her. God will figure out
what to do with all that loving energy that we experienced with Dianna. And the wonderful thing is, that love continues on, and goes on, forever. “7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” Amen.
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Beautifying the Church
Flowers
Flowers are blooming at First Baptist Church. Take a moment to admire their beauty. We give extra thanks to Becky Price, Carl Allen, Kevin Reed, and Jenny May from First Burma Christ Church for taking care of the garden for us.
Stained Glass Windows
There are currently two stained glass windows on the north side of the church sanctuary that needs to be renovated for safety purposes. We are also fixing another one of the stained-glass windows in the Fireside Room. Hope Community Church will be contributing to that renovation.
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Right of Way Case
We finally received the Right of Way Assessment owed to us from the City of St. Paul. It came in the form of four checks from four separate cases. The total was more than $16,000.00. Because of this decade long case we will be paying much less each year to the city for general benefit services they provide.
Judson Sunday
Traditionally on Judson Sunday, we have worship outside. This year we will all be joining together at Phalen Park. There will be baptisms before the service starts and communion for those getting baptized. All are invited to join. There will be food at the end of service. For those who will need a ride, please let one of the pastors know.
Location: Phalen Park – Pavilion Entire. 1600 Phalen Drive,
St. Paul, MN 55106
Camp Noah
This year Camp Noah will be held at First Baptist church on July 24-28 from 8am-2pm for children K-6th grades. Children in 7th-12th can volunteer to help.
The theme is Knights of the Kingdom. Each day the children will learn about a different piece of the full armor of God.
To sign up your children, please contact:
Eh Ya Htoo (651) 350-5638 or Diana Kwee (651) 497 -6402.
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First Baptist Church of St. Paul 
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