Message from the President

Last evening we enjoyed a great time of fellowship with our camp members, special guests, and pastors and their wives at our annual PAB at Ozark Baptist Church.  The food was wonderful and as usual, there was plenty of it.  Our program of special music by Dr. Frank Jacobs and Cheryl Brown, auxiliary report by Mrs Faile, a touching testimony by fellow Gideon Edsel Bonds, and a banquet message by John Faile led up to the Faith Fund donation as the evening closed.  Our camp had set a Faith Fund goal of $3000.00, and our current Faith Fund total stands at $2880.00...just $120.00 from our goal.  I encourage you to make your Faith Fund contribution today to our treasurer at PO Box 291 Ozark 36361.  I hope to send out another email soon with the news that we reached our goal.  We need to also give a special thanks to our camp VP Art Warren, auxiliary president Lynn Price, and all the camp members that were involved over the past few months in getting and keeping the PAB on track. 

Tomorrow, Wednesday 10 October, we have a distribution opportunity serving with the Pike County Gideon Camp and their distribution at Troy University.  Several of us are meeting at the Quality Inn parking lot at 5:45 AM.  We will go from there to Troy University for a breakfast and a meeting before beginning the distribution.  This has always been a special opportunity to share God’s word with the young people at the university.  I hope to see you at the Quality Inn at 5:45 or the Baptist Center at Troy University at 6:30. 

Our next meeting will be November 8 at the Quality Inn...see you there.

Thank you for being a Gideon.   Gene

September Camp Meeting

Last evening at the Quality Inn we enjoyed another evening of warm fellowship and spiritual renewal.  We had several members there who have been unable to attend for the past few months...it was great to see them...we hope to see you at the PAB if you weren’t there last night.  Please remember that our October meeting will be the PAB and will be held at Ozark Baptist Church at 6:30 PM on October 8.  Our Vice President has been working steadily to make this a special event for both our guests and our camp members.   At last evening’s meeting we enjoyed a very informative program on the Metro Blitz.  The program discussed the history of the Metro Blitz (starting in 1984) and testimonies from blitz participants encouraged each of us to seek out a blitz in our area of the country and to step up to a distribution.  As blitz participants spoke of the friends they made while getting ready for and actually doing the blitz, I was reminded of the new and special relationships that always await me at our monthly meetings, faith fund rallies, speaking opportunities, PAB and membership dinners, conventions, and every other activity where Gideons, Auxiliary, and fellow Christians meet and share. 

 

The big event in our camp’s near future is the PAB next month.  Please give Art Warren, our camp VP, a call at 706-201-1512 or email him atestnarthur@aol.com to let him know you will be there so he can get a close count on the meals.  If you could let him know by 1 October, I know he would appreciate it.  Additionally, we have set a Faith Fund Goal of $3000.00 for the banquet.  John 9:4 says “I must work the work of him that sent me, while it is day:  the night cometh, when no man can work”.  If you can’t be there, please make your Faith Fund and Camp contributions directly to our treasurer at P. O. Box 291 Ozark AL 36361.  The cost of the meal for the PAB will be around $17.00 per person.  The amount paid by our members over that amount will go to offset the cost of the meals for our pastors and other program guests.  The PAB is one of our biggest events for the year and often serves to cement those special relationships we have come to enjoy with our local churches.  Please set this date aside for your special attention. 

 

Some other events to look forward to this year include a local speaker qualification for our local area hosted by our camp at the Quality Inn tomorrow morning following our regular prayer time. 

 

October 21 will be our Camp Rally Day with a Consecration Breakfast at the Quality Inn at 8 AM.  If you are not a church speaker, we desperately need prayer partners for each of our services.  We hope to see you there on the 21st.

 

This year we host the Tri Camp Christmas Meeting (this will also be our regular monthly Camp Meeting).  It will be at 6:30 PM on the 13th of December.  The actual location has yet to be determined, however it will be in Ozark, and I will let you know as soon as a decision is made.

 

Please guide potential Gideon members to our camp.  Our ministry is constantly expanding (International Regions just went from seven to eleven, and we are now in 195 countries).  Our membership goal for this year is one “net” new member.  We all need to pay our dues, even if we can’t be as active as we’d like, and actively seek out new members.

 

Please be in prayer for all Gideon activities, and on behalf of the millions of people each your who would have never known of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, thank you for being a Gideon/Auxiliary.

A Message from the President

Sorry for the delay this month.  Our regular camp meeting at the Quality Inn was held last Thursday at 6:30 PM, and we had a great meeting.  It was one of two meetings this year when the Auxiliary meets separate from the Gideons and talks about issues specific to them.  We had a room full of members, we had our usual wonderful fellowship before the meal, two inspiring testimonies, and a timely program about church relations.  If you were there, I know you were blessed (several said it was the best program we have had in a while), if you were unable to attend, you were missed, and we look forward to seeing you next month (Sept 13...mark your calendar).  The program brought out several aspects of the Gideon/church relationship...from the pastor’s point of view.  The bottom line of the program was that we should continue to be diligent in our efforts to establish good, deep, and permanent relationships with all our churches.  Such activities as attending evening and mid-week services, being in prayer for the pastors, speaking at church activities other that the traditional service, and being an inspirational voice in church outreach were just a few of the points brought out in the program.  We were each challenged to go out over the next month and actually apply what we learned as we interact with our pastors.

 

There are several new distribution approaches that came out of the recent International Convention in Dallas.  One involves the Auxiliary and is available at “The Connection”.  The other one is an innovative approach to the introduction and distribution of scriptures to children in schools.  Unfortunately, the Word of God is seen as something controversial in many schools, and we are blocked in our distribution efforts.  However, a new program that allows for the passing out of part of the New Testament by students themselves has met with great success and will be introduced in our area.  Please be in prayer about both of these programs as we use them to further our mission of spreading God’s Word through scripture distribution. 

 

One last item...and something that we can all be proud of.  Following the International Convention, I was contacted by our International office about what we are doing to be so consistently successful in our church relations.  Our camp was identified as one of the camps with a consistent strength in this area, and I was questioned about how we do such a good job.  I stressed how we are in prayer for our pastors and our churches and how we let the pastors know about our prayers for them.  I also related how we as a camp are all active and positive about the relationship we enjoy with our churches.  We regularly go that extra length to let the church know that we partner with them in their outreach missions, and that we are not just a group that shows up once a year to get a donation.  I thought you would like to know about that and to encourage each of us to keep strong in our church ministry. 

 

Our PAB is on track and scheduled for Oct 8 at Ozark Baptist.  Thank you for all that you do...and thank you for being a Gideon and Auxiliary.  Gene

Message from your new President

For those of you who may not know, I am Gene Nelson, and have recently been elected as the Dale County Gideon Camp president.  I am proud and humbled to represent each of you and our camp as we go about our special business of distributing scriptures and leading lost souls to Christ through those distributions.  I hope to stay in contact with each of you regularly, share current camp news, and encourage you to stay as active as you can in our Gideon Ministry. 

 

I have recently updated our camp calendar (on the Connection) through June of next year.  Some special events placed on the calendar include the upcoming Faith Fund Rally (I’ll mention that a little more later), the annual Pastors Appreciation Dinner on 8 Oct, the Tri Camp Christmas Gathering on 13 Dec, Our Annual Membership Dinner on 14 Feb 2013, and of course our regular monthly meetings at the Quality Inn Ozark the second Thursday of each month.  Additionally, we continue to have our weekly prayer time at the Quality Inn Ozark at 7 AM every Saturday morning.  If you haven’t been to a regular monthly meeting in a while, be assured that you are missed.  We continue to have great fellowship with the Gideons and Auxiliary, a wonderful meal, and special training that not only helps us in the ministry, but enriches each of us in our daily lives.  Our next monthly meeting is on Thursday 12 July.  Please come and bring along a friend who might be interested in joining our camp.

 

Our next big event is scheduled for 14 July...just around the corner.  This event is our Faith Fund Rally and will be held at 8 AM at the Family Life Center of First United Methodist Church right here in Ozark.  An international Gideon speaker will share a message with us, and we will have the opportunity to give to our Faith Fund.  Please remember that just $5 buys a hotel bible that will touch approximately 2600 lives in its expected six year time of service, and $1.35 will buy a New Testament Scripture that will touch the life of someone at just the right moment.  Please set that date and time aside to be with us that morning (the cost is $10 at the door and includes a full, catered breakfast).  If you just can’t be there, please contribute to the Faith Fund Goal by sending your contributions to our camp at:  (Please make donations payable to Gideons International)

    Dale County Gideons

    P. O. Box 291

    Ozark, AL 36361

One last item before I close this email.  By our membership in the Gideon Ministry, each of us has done something more than just intend to follow our savior, Jesus Christ, we are actively doing that.  Sometimes life’s events can overwhelm even our best intentions, and we lose sight of what is eternally important.  My prayer is that every member of our camp will stay active in the work of the Gideons, and continue to further the accomplishment of our special mission...the distribution of scriptures throughout the world.  For those who are able to come to the meetings on Saturday morning and the second Thursday of each month, I look forward to seeing you.  For those who are not able to attend, please continue your valuable support through your prayers, continued membership, and your donations to our Faith Fund and other camp events.

 

Please contact me by email, text, or phone (334-379-5250) if I can assist you about our camp and activities.

 

In His service,

 

Gene Nelson

Dale County Gideons

   

Click here to see photos from the 2012 State Convention in Dothan, Alabama

May meeting

Please attend our most important meeting in May on the 10th. New officers will take the helm and a new year will begin. What a great time to renew this part of your life and dedicate it to God. See you all there !!

Gideon State Convention

Click on the link below to open the registration form for the Gideon State Convention in Dothan, Alabama. You can then print it and send it in to Gene Nelson.


State Convention Registration


Map


2010 State Convention Schedule 

In Memory

Carl Hefner, Gideon member of the 

Dale County Camp went to be

with our Lord Saturday, 24 March 2012.

 Funeral services for Brother

Hefner will be 2:00 PM, Tuesday, 27 March 2012 at Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church 

(Dale Co Rd 15) with 

Holman Funeral Home directing. 

Visitation

will be at the church from 12:30 PM 

until service time.

Good Press

Click Here to read an article published in MSNBC.com, written by Chris Rodell.

Membership Dinner

Thursday, February 9th the Dale County Camp of the Gideons International held its annual membership dinner. Many guests were invited and many came to learn more about what is involved in becoming a Gideon or Auxiliary member.
All were blessed by the program given by Cheryl and Bob Bonderson of Panama City, Florida on the delights and gifts one receives by becoming a Gideon or an Auxiliary member.

OUR NEXT CAMP MEETING WILL BE 

MARCH 8, 2012. 

PLEASE PLAN TO ATTEND