Dear Bethel,

Well, three Mondays ago I told you we would reevaluate our current situation, and I’m sure based on what you’ve seen in the news you already know what I’m about to say. We are still under a ban of meeting in groups larger than 10, and I dare say will be for the entirety of the month of April. Therefore, we are continuing our closure of the Bethel campus for the month of April. Obviously this means we will not be having services of any kind, or any group gatherings larger than ten.

We will continue our online messages available thru our website www.BethelLonedell.com and Bethel’s Youtube channel . Bro. Brad Banderman is doing a tremendous job of keeping the youth ministry relevant through his online lessons on Sunday & Wednesday on his Facebook page. Our deacons are contacting their people and I thank them for that. If you need us, please get in touch with myself, Stacie, or Brad. Any of the staff are available to help.

Now, on to a proposal for Easter! I don’t want this to be a difficult thing, so if most of you want to do what I am going to suggest via text, I think it would be great. Basically, I’m asking everyone within our fellowship that desires to do this – and hopefully that’s most of us – to give your testimony. All these testimonies will be put on our public Facebook page on Easter, Resurrection Sunday, to share the life-changing experiences that we have had with Christ.

In short, I’m asking you to sit down for just a few moments and write a 90 second to 3 minute account of your testimony. Many of you are all sorts of ‘tech savvy,’ so you would simply write your testimony down, practice a little bit, and then do a short video (90 seconds to 3 minutes) of how you came to know Christ. This is strictly your salvation experience. It can certainly include a little bit of backstory, however, if you go into too much detail, it will be way too long, so my thought is to begin your written or video testimony with:

“Our church is celebrating Resurrection day today in Covid-19 isolation, so we are going to celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection with our testimony. This is how I came to know Christ…”

Share your story, and then at the end of it if you would close with:

“If you are a friend, neighbor or relative of mine, and you’ve got more questions about how to know Jesus Christ I would treat it as a personal privilege to share how to have a personal relationship with Christ.”

You can word it however you want to word it, but if you would begin and end with what I said, it will hopefully come across on Easter Sunday as a well put-together, organized approach of Bethel Baptist Church proclaiming to the world that Jesus loves us and we love Jesus.

Let’s try to keep it simple. If you have any anxiety about making a video, just write your testimony down, submit it to Stacie and we will go from there. If you feel comfortable making a video with your smart phone, please do so (remember, 90 seconds to three minutes) and send to Stacie (636) 358-1308. We may not necessarily post all of these at the same time on Easter, so much is throughout the day. In the days and weeks to come these will be made available to the church as a whole when that is appropriate and it is available.

 I love you, Bethel, and I miss you terribly. I am enjoying doing these online messages each Sunday, but words cannot express how much I miss you. If there is something that you need please reach out to us. Let’s pray for God to use this as a revival in our land and in our world. And certainly let’s ask God to turn the scourge of Covid-19 today, tomorrow, this week, this month, soon.

Pastor Ben