UPDATED APRIL 2, 2020

Alta Woods leadership, Pastor and deacons, have called off services at AWBC at least until the end of April, as a precaution to the spread of the Corona Virus through our congregation.  Please pass this along to members whom you know will not see this on this website.

Because of the precautionary request of the Centers for Disease Control, or CDC, concerning the Corona Virus, most all churches have called off services. The CDC has asked that gatherings of 10 or more not meet. 

THE GOVERNOR HAS ISSUED A DECLARATION THAT ALL NON ESSENTIAL BUSINESSES BE CLOSED.  Although I consider the church the most essential institution on the earth, I realize the church is not a building or a business.  It is God's people.  We will honor the Governor's request and close the church office until later notice.  So even though I will not be in the church office in the mornings, I remain on call for you. Someone will check the mail Mondays through Thursdays should you mail in your offerings.

Mary Ann Myers, our Financial Secretary, will continue to come weekly to the church to post your contributions, make deposits and process necessary checks. Send them to AWBC, 168 Colonial Drive, Jackson, 39204.

Annie Armstrong Easter Offerings for Home Missions may be sent as well.

If you need to reach a staff member, you may call us on our home or cell phones.  Telephone numbers are listed in your Alta Woods Baptist Church Resource book.

Toward the end of April, church leaders will meet again and decide when is the best time to restart services.  In the meantime, we encourage you to continue to privately meet with the Lord daily for inspiration and personal worship.  Just because the building is closed does not mean that worship ceases.  Many Christians all over the world do not have a building to meet in and yet they continue to worship and grow in the Lord. We should do the same.

AWBC ministries to retirement homes and apartments, nursing homes, hospitals and rehabs have been halted during this time as well.

Please take all precautions to be safe and heed the advice about personal hygiene and meeting in large groups.  

Tuesday, March 3, Jenny Taylor was to speak to our lunch group.  She is Associate Director of Collegiate Ministry for Mississippi Baptists, working with Student Summer Missionaries. She was unable to attend because of sickness and sent Stevie Thomas, student summer missionary to Toronto 2019 and to Salt Lake City, Utah 2020 this summer.  It is exciting to see what God is doing all over North America.

March is our North American Mission month emphasis (formerly Home Missions) and it is the month to begin to receive our Annie Armstrong Easter Offering. This offering supports missionaries all over the United States and Canada.  Begin praying now about what the Lord would have you give.  We will receive the offering until Easter Sunday, April 12.

So what does the money you give do?

$1,400 Monthly worship facility rent

$1,200 Bibles, gospel tracts, discipleship materials   

$1,000 Emergency travel assistance for a missionary family

$500 Food and supplies for a neighborhood outreach event

$300 Training and conferences for a church planter’s wife

$175 Laundromat fees for a family of four

$100 Anniversary gift for a missionary couple

$85 Subscriptions for training resources

$ 25 Meal with an unreached person

$ 5 Bus fare for travel in the local community

WHO IS ANNIE ARMSTRONG?  She started Bay View Mission for Baltimore’s poor and addicted; Served as the first executive of Woman’s Missionary Union, the largest protestant women’s organization in the world; Led the formation of missions’ organizations for children; Raised support for missionaries to Italian and Jewish immigrants; Handwrote over 18,000 letters in one year advocating for missions; Refused a salary because she would never give to the Lord “that which costs me nothing.” (2 Samuel 24:24); Initiated fund-raising “brick cards” to build churches in Cuba; Gained support for the first black, female missionaries; Secured funds to relieve China missionary, Lottie Moon, who had served for 11 years without a furlough; Advocated for Native Americans and impoverished mountain people; Honored in 1934 when The Home Missions Offering was re-named for her to encourage more to follow her sacrificial example.  Whew!