Willow Meadows Baptist Church

Due to inclement weather predicted for early next week WMBC will be closed on Monday (2/15) and Tuesday (2/16). Stay safe, friends!

If you would like to participate in the imposition of ashes for our Ash Wednesday service, come by the church tomorrow (2/14) between 11:45am and 2:00pm. Individual containers of ashes will be available for pick-up.

WMBC Freedom Stories & Quilt Exhibit Sign Up

In honor of Black history and culture WMBC invites you to
Freedom Quilt Stories: Tales & Artifacts featuring Secrets of the Underground Railroad

February 16-28, 2021

View handmade quilts crafted by a cherished family friend from "old patterns stuck in her head" until she was 103 years old!

Learn about fascinating stories of friendship and quilting traditions featuring secret codes used to guide enslaved people along the Underground Railroad!

Share and discover more Freedom Stories!

Call WMBC at (713) 723-2870 OR use the link to schedule a 20-minute single-family tour
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050D49A4AB2EA3F49-wmbc

signupgenius.com Please review the available slots below and click on the button to sign up. Thank you!

UPDATE: due to the predicted inclement weather, ashes will be available outside of the church to be picked up tomorrow (2/14) from 11:45am-2:00pm.

We hope you will join us for the Ash Wednesday Service on the evening of February 17th at 6:30pm on our YouTube channel.

Today is the last day to donate! Go to our website (wmbc.org) and help provide food for our neighbors.

Just a friendly reminder for Souper Bowl of Caring! Monetary donations will take place through Sunday, February 7th. 2021 prevents our youth from collecting donations at the sanctuary doors, but we can still give to the Souper Bowl of Caring online or by check. Please put Souper Bowl of Caring on the check memo or enter it on your on-line giving. Your donations help support Braes Interfaith Ministries.

2021 prevents our youth from collecting donations at the sanctuary doors, we can still give to the Souper Bowl of Caring online or by check. Please put Souper Bowl of Caring on the check memo or enter it on your on-line giving. Your donations help support Braes Interfaith Ministries.

BIM has been open during the pandemic and is providing food for more clients than before. The number of families and individuals served each week is similar to the number served during the holidays which is when BIM serves the highest number of families. Because of the need for food in our community, the Houston Food Bank is often not able to meet the needs of our clients and some food must be purchased elsewhere. Your donations will help BIM meet the food needs in our community.

Willow Meadows Baptist Church's cover photo

Willow Meadows Baptist Church's cover photo

“Enough!” That one word expression captures what most of us are feeling right now as we leave 2020 and move into 2021. We have had enough – of all of it! What do you do when you’ve had enough? How can we/do we live and love and follow Christ in light of those feelings? And what about God – what is it like when God has had enough? It seems only fitting that our vision for 2021 is “Enough.” Join us this Sunday (the 17th) and next (the 24th) for a two-part vision sermon for the new year. Come learn what “enough” living is and how it can help us and shape us in 2021.

[01/07/21]   "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called Children of God." Matthew 5:9

Our Christmas Eve service will be online this year and begin at 5:30pm on December 24th. Those who receive our church emails will receive a "View the Service" email around 5:15pm, just before the service (just like you do on Sundays). You will be able to click on the button to watch the service. Those who don't receive our emails can go to the WMBC You Tube page and watch there. The service will debut at 5:30pm but you may watch it anytime after that. If possible, please have some candles ready to light as we sing "Silent Night" at the end of the service. Christmas Eve is always such a wonderful time to share together, and we hope you will join us. Please invite family and friends to watch as well.

Fine Arts Friday | "Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, 'The Lord has done great things for them.' The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy." (Ps. 126: 1-3)

Today we view the vibrant 1911 painting, "Laughter" by Umberto Boccioni. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55426

EATNEMEN VUELIE, Frode Fjellheim - CANTUS

Fine Arts Friday | EATNEMEN VUELIE, written by Frode Fjellheim, features the familiar hymn "Fairest Lord Jesus" and can be heard in the Disney film "Frozen." Today we will hear the choral performance of CANTUS from Trondheim, Norway at the European Grand Prix Association For Choral Singing - 47th Tolosa Choral Contest 2015 in Basque Country, Spain.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C1dZoI01qE

youtube.com European Grand Prix Association For Choral Singing 47th Tolosa Choral Contest 2015, Basque Country, Spain CANTUS from Trondheim, Norway Conductor: Tove Ramlo...

Christmas Ornament and Cookie Drive-By!!!
Sunday, December 20th, will be our WMBC socially distanced Christmas celebration. Since we can’t all get together in one big room, we will do the next best thing. On the 20th we will have a drive-by Christmas event. Drive by the church sometime between Noon-1pm and we will give you some Christmas cookies made by church members (so you know they will be good!) and a WMBC Christmas ornament. Drive to the side parking lot by the sanctuary on the Greenwillow side and we’ll be there to give you your Christmas goodies. And if you know of church members near you who cannot make it by, please pick up for them and drop off their cookies and ornament on their porch. We look forward to being able to share Christmas together in this unusual but memorable way! See you on the 20th between Noon-1pm.

Fine Arts Friday | This week we will take a look at "Eucharist Door with the Lord's Prayer." It is a stone carving of
the Lord's Prayer written in several languages on the Central door of the Glory facade in Barcelona, Spain by J.M. Subirachs. Photo Attribution: Subirachs, Josep Maria, 1927-2014. Eucharist Door with Lord's Prayer, detail, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56218 [retrieved October 8, 2020]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portal_Detail_at_the_Sagrada_Familia.JPG.

Filtered- Look, See, Pray

Fine Arts Friday | This week features a blog reflection from photographer, "richardthebaptist" as he captured the colors of a gladiola emphasizing the differences various filters make on the overall image. He poses the question, "Which filters affect our sight" when we apply "filters" to our every day experiences. See his photography and read his blog here: https://reflectionary.org/2020/10/01/filtered-look-see-pray/

reflectionary.org I thought this one was the exception that proved the rule. Pale pinks, lemony cream, hints of darker colour. I hesitate to say “insipid” because it was pleasant enough, in a pastel sort…

[11/22/20]   In-person Worship Suspended Indefinitely

We knew this was coming as we watched the numbers start to go back up. For the time being we will go back to online worship only, starting this Sunday, November 29th. This will likely continue into the new year. For those of you who have continued to worship with us from home, nothing will change. For the few who were able to join us in-person, it means you will go back to watching online like you did before. You can access the service through the email we send each Sunday morning, through our website, or through our YouTube channel (just search for Willow Meadows Baptist Church).

Please know we are not making this decision out of fear but rather out of love and concern for our church family. This past Friday the numbers spiked past the level they were at in June, when we delayed resuming in-person worship because the numbers were so high. And they will only keep going up during the holiday season. Protecting our health now allows us to be together as family for years to come. Sunday School will continue online. Your teacher might change your start time since there is no in-person worship for now. They will let you know if there will be any changes.

The good news is we know we can do this! We know God can use online Bible Study and Worship to bless us and feed us and connect us to one another. We know it because we have been doing it most of the year! It might not be our preference, but one thing we have learned in 2020: not even a pandemic can keep God from working in our lives or separate us from the love of God!

Below is the prayer Elias prayed at the beginning of the pandemic. May it continue to be our guiding prayer of perspective during these anxious days.

PRAYER FOR A PANDEMIC
by Cameron Bellm

May we who are merely inconvenienced
Remember those whose lives are at stake.
May we who have no risk factors
Remember those most vulnerable.
May we who have the luxury of working from home
Remember those who must choose between preserving their health or making their rent.
May we who have the flexibility to care for our children when their schools close
Remember those who have no options.
May we who have to cancel our trips
Remember those that have no place to go.
May we who are losing our margin money in the tumult of the economic market
Remember those who have no margin at all.
May we who settle in for a quarantine at home
Remember those who have no home.
As fear grips our country,
Let us choose love.
During this time when we cannot physically wrap our arms around each other,
Let us yet find ways to be the loving embrace of God to our neighbors.
Amen.

Simply Taizé - O Lord Hear My Prayer

Fine Arts Friday | Today many of you will recognize this song written by Jacques Berthier and the Taizé Community. Take a few minutes to listen and reflect as we seek the Lord.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTuFglyOQvI

youtube.com Our friends over at Worth Shouting About have put together a playlist of the Best New Worship Songs, listen now on Spotify: http://bit.ly/WSANewWorship iTune...

[11/16/20]   Our WMBC Thanksgiving Service will be this Sunday at 10:45am. Whether you join us online or in-person, we want you to join us with a spirit of thankfulness. Obviously this year’s service will be different than it usually is . . . it’s on a Sunday . . . no turkey dinner . . . no chatter around the table . . . no intimate time of worship in Fellowship Hall. Yes, there is a lot to miss, but there is also a lot to be thankful for! Join us for this special time of worship. And those of you who watch from home, feel free to enjoy some turkey while we worship!

Veteran paints new life outside prison

Fine Arts Friday | This week, we remember the veterans of our country - those who served and returned home peacefully, those who served and did not return home, and those who served but returned home to a very difficult life. Take a few minutes to listen to Army Veteran Willie Weaver-Bey as he describes the healing power of art. https://youtu.be/jH5drs7P_lk

Learn more about Willie Weaver-Bey and Americans for the Arts by visiting their website: americansforthearts.org

youtube.com Army Veteran Willie Weaver-Bey showcases the healing power of art at the 2016 National Veterans Creative Arts Festival. The ex-con turned to VA's at-risk and...

Fine Arts Friday | Today we look at Vincent van Gogh's watercolor interpretation of Matthew 23: 1-12 entitled, "Bearers of the Burden." It was painted in 1881 and resides in the Kröller-Müller Museum located in the city of Otterlo in the Netherlands. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57753

Fine Arts Friday | Today we look at a painting from about 1450-1500 entitled, "Folds from Ethiopian Processional Icon." The painting contains painted icons on five sheets of parchment that have been stitched together and folded, thirty-eight identically sized figures span its surface.
The icon powerfully evokes the celestial community of the church. More info. here: http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57758

Riker Alan Hemberger is here! Riker was born at 7:16pm. He is 6lbs, 11 ounces. Sarah, Johnny and Riker are all doing great! They are so grateful for all your prayers and support.

[10/28/20]   MOVIE NIGHT IS CANCELLED! Due to today's weather, which is totally drive-in unfriendly, we will NOT be having our "Great Pumpkin" movie night tonight. Stay home, stay dry, stay warm.

This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it! Join us at 10:45am in person at WMBC or online at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkMY_EMzPAkOQb__QVJs3rg!

Send Me Away

Fine Arts Friday | Today you are invited to use your imagination as you read this drama written by Joanne Miller entitled, "Send Me Away." Read the drama here: http://www.dramatix.org/archive/Mission/send_me_away.html

dramatix.org Kim: They joined an organization called His Hands.  Chuck has always wanted to be a missionary.  When he was a little boy I remember he used to play “missionary”.  He would pretend that he was in a thick jungle trying to witness to the people who, of course, responded enthusiastically.  He was...

Join us at 6:30 PM this Wednesday as we play some good old-fashioned (socially-distanced) Bingo. The prizes are gift cards to the WMBC Unofficial favorite fast food chain, Whataburger!

Join us at 10:45am in person at WMBC or online at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkMY_EMzPAkOQb__QVJs3rg! This week we will celebrate the Lord's Supper, so those of you at home, be sure to gather your elements ahead of time.

Just a friendly reminder about the Braes Interfaith Ministries Annual Drive. Financial donations are welcome via check (list BIM in the memo line) or at the Online Giving page at wmbc.org for the next 2 weeks!

Fine Arts Friday | Today we explore the print entitled Psalm 23 created by John August Swanson. He lives in Los Angeles, California, where he was born in 1938 and paints in oil, watercolor, acrylic and mixed media, and is an independent printmaker of limited edition serigraphs, lithographs and etchings. His art reflects the strong heritage of storytelling he inherited from his Mexican mother and Swedish father. John Swanson’s narrative is direct and easily understood.
He addresses himself to human values, cultural roots, and his quest for self-discovery through visual images.

Read more about the author here: http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56560

Praise in the parking lot!

Tonight! we will be holding an outdoor sing along event in the parking lot at 6:30pm. Bring your own lawn chairs, wear your masks, and distance yourselves at least 10 ft apart (more distance is required when singing).

We look forward to seeing you!

Every year each congregation supporting BIM hosts an annual drive for Braes Interfaith Ministries. Due to Covid-19, WMBC’s will be virtual this year.

If you give online, there is a selection for your donation to BIM on the Online Giving page at wmbc.org. For checks, continue the practice of noting BIM on the memo section of your check and mail it in or put it in the offering plate. Due to Covid-19, BIM is not asking for food or hygiene donations this year.

Eloy Montez and his staff continue to serve the community by distributing food to about 170 families a week, who have around 500 persons in their families. At the Braes Resale Shop, Ryan Kreipe and his staff are redeeming about 40 vouchers a week and providing over $3,000 worth of clothing, much of that for growing children.

Thank you, for your financial support and your volunteerism at Braes Interfaith Ministries.

- Your BIM Board member representatives: Marilyn Frank, Jo Parker, and Judy Terry.

This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it! Join us at 10:45am in person at WMBC or online at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkMY_EMzPAkOQb__QVJs3rg!

All Things Bright and Beautiful, by John Rutter (2019) - The Tabernacle Choir

Fine Arts Friday | Today we enjoy the sounds of the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square performing "All Things Bright and Beautiful" by John Rutter.

The original text was written by Cecil F. Alexander as part of her collection of hymn texts on articles of the Apostle’s Creed. This specific hymn is Alexander’s explanation of the phrase, “Maker of heaven and earth.” The text is also based on Genesis 1:31: “And God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” Her text was first published in 1848 in seven stanzas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qY9G00WWUVI

youtube.com The Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square perform John Rutter's "All Things Bright and Beautiful." Episode 4700. Aired October 13, 2019.