P A S T O R

Dear Holy Tree Chapel, Most of us have seen Alice in Wonderland. Most of us remember the Cheshire Cat, who is perched up in a tree. Alice becomes a little bit confused about the direction she needs to go, and she asks the cat, ‘Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a great deal on where you want to go,” replies the Cheshire Cat. “I don’t much care where,” says Alice. To which the fluffy cat replies, “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go!” We at Holly Tree Chapel care a great deal about where we are going, and are intentional about how we get there. As I mentioned in my August Newsletter, Burt Nanus (Visionary Leadership, p. 3) writes, “There is no more powerful engine driving an organization toward excellence and long-range success than an attractive, worthwhile, and achievable vision of the future, widely shared.” We have a vision for our future, and it is exciting. Let me explain some of the things we are doing, and things we have planned for the coming months. Youth Group: We have had a successful beginning to our youth group, with 6-9 young people attending each Sunday evening from 6-7:30. We are studying basic discipleship subjects of praying, using Scripture in our prayers, reading our Bibles and how to simply share our faith in Jesus Christ by using the 4 Spiritual Laws booklet. I want to thank the Countryman and Dampf families for taking the lead with providing food and activities for these delightful young people, and for Joseph Dampf who is organizing and leading games each evening. And thank you to the congregation for your prayers and support of this program. H.E.L.P.: We will begin our ministry to home school students on September 5, 2017. We will have students and teachers in the building each day, with special emphasis

on classes meeting all day on Friday. The group is called the Home Education

Contact Us

1620 South FM 2869 Holly Lake Ranch, TX

75765 903-769-3501

Website:

hollytreechapel.com

Email: hollytreechapel@gmail.com

Pastor: Dr. Tim Mink

† We seek to glorify

God as the Gospel of Jesus Christ

transforms our lives, our church, our

community, and our world.

…

Pastor

Holly Tree Chapel Newsletter September 2017

Leadership Project (H.E.L.P.), and is coordinated by Carmen Dampf. As pastor, I will be teaching two courses on Friday afternoons on the subjects of Speech, with emphasis on interpersonal communication and public speaking, and Apologetics, with emphasis on the Christian Worldview. Church members who are involved also include Dave Evans, teaching Algebra/Math, and Dave Hyatt, providing lectures in Chemistry. For a complete list of courses and instructors, contact the church office, or Carmen Dampf. Hope Christian Academy: Stephen Covey writes, “Vision is applied imagination. All things are created twice: first, a mental creation; second, a physical creation. The first creation is vision.” We have a vision for establishing a Christian school at Holly Tree Chapel, beginning in the Fall of 2018. We have chosen the name of Hope Christian Academy in honor of my late wife Hope. We will be establishing a scholarship fund to help needy families, which will be called the Hope Scholarship Fund. We covet your prayers for this project, and for financial donations to establish secure footing as we begin. It will require cooperation from all of us, as our building will be used each day, instead of just on the weekends.

“Vision is not an attempt to foretell the future; it is an attempt to shape the future, and this takes initiative, foresight, and courage” (Don McMinn, Lead Well, p. 2). As McMinn writes, “We are simply planning present action that will produce a different future than if we did nothing!” “Nothing happens until something moves,” said Einstein. We are making plans, trusting in God to direct our steps (Proverbs 3:5-6). Building & Grounds: A screen has been installed in the sanctuary, and we have received a positive response from the congregation; we are working to remodel the old kitchen area, and make it a place for our youth group to hold their meetings and activities (and share with the Library staff); we have had a very successful work day cleaning up the grounds around the church. A leaky water heater flooded our garage, and has been replaced. Ministries: Women’s Fellowship begins on September 12; our Fellowship Dinners resume on September 24; our regular Wednesday evening Bible study continues with a study of Exodus; and Friday morning men’s Bible study is discussing the Old Testament Prophet of Isaiah. Please join us in these faith-building studies. God bless each of you, as we look forward to a wonderful Fall season. Pastor Tim

GET YOUR TASTE BUD'S READY!

Well it's that time of the year again. Beginning Sunday, 9/24/17 @ 5:30 pm the last Sunday of the month, we will begin the Fellowship Dinners which include home cooked items - it can't get

any better than that. So many delicious items, you just couldn’t get enough of. Years of experience (some secret recipes) go into the best Sunday dinners ever. I cannot begin to thank

each one of you for your efforts in making this event so successful. Let's make 2017 even better. I want to thank my wife Diane for all her help, I could not do this without her. I ask you to

make this year even better than last year, which will be hard to top. Let's all bring a friend or family to this event. If you have suggestions for our Fellowship Dinners, please let me know.

In God's Love, Dennis

What a great day we had on Saturday, August 26th! Thank yous to the fifteen volunteers including members of the Deacon Board who, armed with rakes, pitch forks, hedge trimmers, clippers, weed eaters, etc., gave the Chapel grounds a much needed “face lift.”

The workday began at 7:30 a.m. under cloudy skies with temperatures in the mid-70s and ended

around 11:00 a.m. Some of the tasks accomplished included:

The front flower beds were cleaned out and given a new layer of mulch;

Overgrown plants in the front and around the sign were trimmed back into shape;

All the front hedges and shrubs were neatly trimmed;

The grounds in Serenity Garden and around the benches in the outdoor chapel were raked clear of pine cones and straw;

Large fallen limbs and dead wood were picked up and removed from all areas of the grounds; and

Much of the overgrown brush was cut in and around the outdoor chapel.

A special thank you also goes to each of the members who donated cases of water and Gatorade, cookies, chips and other snacks for those who worked. These treats were greatly appreciated! And there was plenty of water leftover for use in the future.

Of course, there’s still more work to be done, so a couple more workdays will be scheduled in the

coming weeks as the weather permits. Watch for emails announcing the date and times and be sure to mark your calendars to join us. We need you!

WOMEN’S BIBLE STUDY AND FELLOWSHIP

September Newsletter By Jeannette Pyle, President

Summer break is over, September is finally here, and we are excited to

announce that Women’s Fellowship has a fantastic year planned for 2017-2018.

The “new year” of studies and programs begins on Tuesday, September 12, at 10:00 a.m. in Fellowship Hall at the Chapel. On the 12th, Jeannette Pyle (President) will be reviewing the group’s “theme” (“Living in the Word”) and Bible verse (Psalm 119:105) and discussing ways the group will accomplish their goals for the year.

Francine Evans (Vice President of Bible Study) will give a brief overview of the three Bible studies that have been chosen for the group this year – “Share Jesus Without Fear” by William Fay (September 19-October 17); “Faithful, Abundant, True” by Kay, Arthur, Priscilla Shirer, and Beth Moore (October 31-January 30); and “To Live Is Christ” by Beth Moore (February 6-May 15). Also, workbooks for the Fay study will be available for $14.00 at the September 12th meeting as the study begins the following Tuesday, September 19th.

We will also briefly discuss plans including possible programs for our Fellowship Tuesdays which are the 4th Tuesday of every month throughout the new study year. For certain, there will be plenty of Christian fellowship, love, laughter and lunch on each Fellowship Tuesday.

As you can see, meaningful studies and interesting programs are in store for Women’s Fellowship during this coming year. All the ladies of the Chapel and the surrounding community are invited to join us, and there are no membership dues. Just come and bring your Bible (plus a friend if you like) every Tuesday morning at 10:00 a.m. in Fellowship Hall at the Chapel. We would love to see you there!

W O M E N S F E L L O W S H I P

We are looking for a youth teacher for pre-teens during senior Youth Group time on Sunday from 6- 7:30 pm. A

couple or a single female would be welcome to volunteer for this opportunity. BYOC - bring your own curriculum for

Pastor approval or we will provide one.

Please speak with Pastor Tim if you are interested in connecting with a small group of pre-teens who want to

participate.

M E M B E R

N E W S

Needed: Member Testimonies – If you would like to share your testimony, or an encouraging word of how God is working in your life, please give to

Jeannette in the office for inclusion in the Newsletter.

Gentlemen of Holly Tree Chapel Our usher teams are in need of assistance.

We are looking for men to usher on Sundays. If the Holy Spirit moves you, and

you could pre-dedicate one Sunday or more a month to help us it would be a

blessing. For information on joining the usher team, please contact one of us:

Usher Captain Leon Ward 903-769-4006

Usher Captain Jim Armstrong 903-769-4493

MEN’S FRIDAY BIBLE STUDY

Men’s Bible Study begins each Friday at 7:50 a.m. The men are currently studying in the book of

Isaiah.

ADULT SUNDAY SCHOOL

We invite you to join us each Sunday morning at 8:45 a.m. in the Fellowship Hall for spiritual

growth and fellowship.

Psalm 67

The earth has yielded its

produce;

God, our God, blesses us.

God blesses us, That all the

ends of the earth may fear

Him.

Holly Tree Chapel 2017 Board of Deacons

Jeannette Pyle – Secretary Francine Evans - Treasurer

Suzan Armstrong Dennis Bowman Nancy Weaver

Dr. Tim Mink, Pastor

Leon & Barbara Ward - Anniversary 9-3 Louis & Jeannette Pyle - Anniversary 9-20

Rachel Dampf - Birthday 9-14

Lilli Countryman - Birthday 9-15

TOP TEN ACTUAL STORIES OF PREACHING DISTRACTIONS

10. “A bat started flying low while I was preaching. Many people were screaming. Finally some of the men captured the critter. They actually had prayer over him and released him toward the Methodist church.” 9. “If the bat story was in Texas about 4 years ago, know that it made it to the Methodist church and flew around madly for a while.” 8. “Our new custodian decided to impress everyone by putting Pledge on all the wooden pews. While the preacher was preaching, there were repeated sounds of crashing and thuds as people were unable to hold their posterior on the piney Pledged pews.” 7. “I was not the only one who smelled the chemical odor while I preached. Indeed I started getting worried, as I got more and more lightheaded. I would learn after the service that a woman was taking off her nail polish with nail polish remover while I preached.” 6. “During my sermon everyone was distracted as one man after another disappeared from the sanctuary. Finally I learned that we had a leak in one of the restrooms. Eight men were trying to fix it and ten men were observing them.” 5. “During a point of real emphasis in the sermon, a choir member let go of a huge sneeze. That was distracting enough, but she failed to cover her face, and a huge pile of mucus landed on the shoulder of the preacher’s coat. He didn’t realize it at the time. Many in the choir had to leave as they couldn’t stop laughing.” 4. “The pastor was ten minutes into his sermon when two police officers came in the service, pointed to a deacon to come out of the pew, handcuffed him and took him away. I thought the amazing thing was that the pastor kept preaching, but I was even more amazed that the deacon’s wife stayed for the entire service.” 3. “The seven-year-old preacher’s kid was a bit of a troublemaker, but he was in rare form on this particular Sunday. Right in the middle of the sermon, he stood up, then bent over and yelled ‘Thar she blows!’ It was one of the loudest moments of flatulence I’ve ever heard. The service ended at that moment with the preacher exiting with his precocious son.” 2. “Yesterday a couple on the third row pulled out bagels, a knife and cream cheese and had breafast while I was preaching. I don’t know that I was distracted as much as I was completely astonished because I’m pretty sure they do this every week.” 1.A man in church was called forward to pray. As he stood up he saw a man in the front row of the upper tier bow his head and his wig fell off. It fell on a woman’s lap on the ground floor seating. But being that she had closed her eyes to pray she suddenly opened them to find a wig on her lap. Noticing the man in front had a bald head, she stuck the wig on his head. The wife of the man who just had the wig placed on his head opened her eyes to see her husband with a wig and let out a shocked cry. The man called to pray had to sit down from laughing and someone else had to pray.

This article was originally published ThomRainer.com on April 22, 2013. Thom S. Rainer serves as president and CEO of Lifeway Christian Resources. Among his greatest joys are his family: his wife Nellie Jo; three sons, Sam, Art

and Jess; and ten grandchildren. Dr. Rainer can be found on Twitter @ThomRainer and at facebook.com/Thom.S.Rainer.

In the midst of moving forward and waiting expectantly to see God move, we can be encouraged by remembering all that God has done before. Here are a few photos of the Chapel that show just how far the Chapel has come, and how faithful God is to

those who trust Him.

C H A P E L

H I S T O R

Y

There was a time, some 25 years ago, that there was no Holly Tree Chapel as we know it today. The

services were held out in the open, under the largest holly tree on the Ranch. The congregation sat on wooden benches. Some

came in shorts or jeans, but, all came with an honest desire for

Christian fellowship. (1998 Directory ref 1972)

Then came the first building where services could be held

inside. The building was placed on a site that, at that time, was near the Ranch.

(1998 Directory)

An area was cleared and fenced for the Holly Tree

Cemetery Outdoor Chapel Services

1972

…is each and every one of us as well

as others that will join us in the years

to come.

1998 Directory

2017 45 years later, Holly Tree Chapel’s future may look different than it did in 1972 or

1998, so we continue to serve the people in the community and hold to the

testimony of Jesus Christ.