Cleary Baptist Church Plans a "Trunk a Treat"

Cleary Baptist Church invites local families to have a fun night "Trunk a Treating" on Wednesday, October 31, 2007 from 6:00p.m. to 7:30p.m.

"Parents bring decorated cars or trucks to the church grounds and kids go from vehicle to vehicle getting treats", explained Kevin Wade, Associate Pastor for Students and Activities of Cleary Baptist Church. "Families don't have to go walking through neighborhoods going door to door. They can come to one place and have fun in a safe, wholesome atmosphere," said Wade.

Besides the treats, the church will have games and activity stations, hay rides, a Velcro wall, and space jumps for kids. Parents will have their own area where they can relax and enjoy a snack while the children are busy "Trunk a Treating". Parents will also be able to sign up to win door prizes.

Wade encourages families to bring a decorated pumpkin to enter a special pumpkin decorating contest. Wade also asks for attendees to bring at least one canned good as a donation to an upcoming mission project.

Cleary Baptist Church, located at 1580 Florence Byram Road in Florence, has a congregation with an active attendance of 350. The church was established in 1963. Directions to the church may be found online at http://clearybaptist.org.

Pictures are available for media use at: http://clearybaptist.org/media.php

Grand Opened

The Grand Opening was great. We had so many children come. It was a real eye-opener. We saw many new faces. Sunday evening we had an activities night. I did see one of our local skate boarders playing ball. I know Bro Kev has been working on and with this young man. It was good to see him there.

We gave away many hotdogs and drinks. Bonnie B. was our grand prize winner. She received a couple of Ladies Ministries tee shirts as well as two passes to the upcoming Ladies Conference at Cleary.

The inflatable was a huge hit. There were kids who got in as soon as they arrived and stayed inside playing for hours!

I know the volleyball court and basketball net were certainly worked overtime. At one point I thought I saw Bro Chris hanging from the rim after an under both legs, twisting, behind the back, two-handed slam. Maybe I was just imagining that.

Many, many thanks to all who helped us put on the event. We wanted to glorify God in our endeavor. I pray He was blessed by the work of so many hands and that he will bless Cleary and His family here.

Grand Opening

Dedication Sunday has come and gone. What a great day for the Lord! It was so good to see Bro. Gene again and to hear how the vision developed. Bro Chris delivered a strong message. Even though the construction of the building is finished, the work is just beginning. What next? is indeed the question!

Immediately Cleary will host the Grand Opening for the ARC this Saturday, August 18 from 10:00a to 2:00p. Many different things will go on Saturday. To list a few:

• Star 93 FM live doing a radio remote


• Inflatable obstacle course for the kiddies


• Hot dogs and refreshments for all


• Tours of the facility


• Door prizes

If you have a chance, please do come by and see us!

Finalizing the ARC

Kevin has taken several dozen new pics. I have replaced the slide show with the Flick-a-Pic widget. This will give you a chance to check out lots of photos. You can check out the newest photos as a slideshow if you prefer.

As you can see in the photos the Youth room is now carpeted. That upper room is going to really rock! I can't wait to see how that place fills up.

The folks are scheduled to be here tomorrow to lay the gym floor down. Once the floor has been laid the ARC will be locked up for a week or ten days in order to let the adhesive dry. During that time we will just press forward!

Welcome, Banner, and Clean up

Well, we have our banner up. As such I hope you're a new reader to this blog about the Cleary Activities and Recreation Center (ARC). We will be making updates regularly regarding the progress of construction as well as planned activities, events, goings on, and anything else we can think of here at the ARC. If you have any questions about it please feel free to contact me. I encourage you to visit Cleary's website and if you're Youth oriented, Kevin Wade, the Associate Pastor for Youth and Activities, has a website, S.O.S. and a blog.

Several folks showed up today for a general clean up day. There was a bunch of cleaning going on. I worked for a bit in the Upper Room Cafe. That is going to be a really hot spot for The Youth! The carpet is not yet installed in that room. I believe it will be done next week.

The A/V Team is putting forth a proposal tomorrow to purchase and install a dual projector system for the Upper Room Cafe. In that room there will be a dual projector system, several intelligent lights, a smoking sound system, a large equipment room, and "the cafe". I have not seen the plans for the layout of the cafe; however, it looks like there will be plenty of seating as you'd expect in a cafe as well as a bar, non-alcoholic, of course!

There are several things left to do in order to open the doors: carpet in The Youth room, finish a few doors, touch up painting, finish the restrooms, and a few electrical loose ends.

All in all, God is so good! It is amazing so much has been done by so few in such a short time! Once again, thanks to God for using Eckels Evans, Newt Roberts, Roscoe Singletary, the contractors, all the volunteers, and whomever else has had a hand in building this ARC!

6 Days, Carpet, Lights

I had lunch with Bro. Kevin today. Things are rapidly coming together. He had just come from meeting with the electrician to choose the track lighting for the Upper Room Cafe. That should be installed shortly.

Eck called Kevin today and asked if he could get some of the Youth to come and help prepare the floor for laying carpet tomorrow.

We are really getting down to the final parts of this building. God is so good! Thank you Eck and Kevin for letting God use you guys so much!

9 Days, Upper Room Cafe, Gym Floor

Only 9 more days until we are scheduled to open the doors. Things have appeard to go smoothly. I pray God bless Eckels Evans, Newt Robertson, all the crew and and all the others that have worked tirelessly to get us this far. God is good!

Kevin told me today the ceiling tiles are installed in the Upper Room Cafe. Those tiles will be painted. That should complete the ceiling of the Cafe.

It appears as though the gym floor will not be in place for the opening of the ARC. There are some issues that must be resolved with the roof of the building that have precluded us from beginning to install the floor. Those issues are being addressed. As soon as they are resolved I am certain the floor will be installed.

A Tour

Wow! I toured the ARC today and the word that comes to mind is WOW! God is awesome! I will try to drop the exclamation points but no guarantees.

The ARC looks like a big building from the outside. From the inside it is enormous. In every view you could see so much potential. Huge classrooms. An enormous gym. A fantastic dining hall attached to a giant kitchen. Some fellows were installing the showers.

And the youth worship room.

"Room"

That's a misnomer. Room is too small a word. It will be so much more than a room. I cannot wait to see how God uses and blesses Cleary through Kevin and The Youth in that "room"!

Welcome Kevin Wade

Kevin Wade, Associate Pastor for Students and Activities, has come aboard as a contributor to The Cleary ARC blog. Kevin has been with Cleary for about a year now leading the youth like a true man of God.

Kevin has been instrumental in feeding information about the progress of the construction. Now he can file reports directly.

Thanks Kevin!

The Upper Room

I'm about to jump out of my skin! We have a stage as of today in our youth worship center "The Upper Room." There's going to be so many teenagers come to Christ right in this room, I just can't wait! I'm actually the first person to have a walk on the "Upper Room" Stage! Now that's AWESOME!!!!