Congratulations. Today is your day. You're off to great places. You're off and away. You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And you are the guy who will decide where to go. You'll look up and down streets. Look them over with care. About some, you will say, I don't choose to go there. With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, you're too smart to go down any not-so-good street. And you may not find any you will want to go down. In that case, of course, you'll head straight out of town. Out there, things can happen, and frequently do, to people as brainy and footsy as you. And when things start to happen, don't worry. Don't stew, just go right along. You'll start happening too. Oh, the places you'll go. Wherever you fly, you'll be best of the best. Wherever you go, you will top all the rest. Except when you don't, because sometimes you won't. I'm sorry to say so, but sadly it's true that bang-ups and hang-ups can happen to you. You can get all hung up in a prickly perch, and your gang will fly on. You'll be left in a lurch. You will come to a place where the streets are not marked. Some windows are lighted, but mostly they're darked. A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin. Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in? How much can you lose? How much can you win? And if you go in, should you turn left or right, or right and three-quarters, or maybe not quite, or go around back and sneak in from behind? Simple, if not, I'm afraid you will find, for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind. All alone. Whether you like it or not, alone will be something you'll be quite a lot. And when you're alone, there's a very good chance you'll meet things that scare you right out of your pants. There are some down the road between hither and yon that can scare you so much, you won't want to go on. But on you will go, though the weather be foul. On you will go, though your enemies prowl. On you will go, though the hack and cracks howl. Onward, up many frightening creek, though your arms may get sore. On and on you will hike, and I know you'll hike far, and face up to your problems, whatever they are. And will you succeed? Yes, you will indeed! you ♪ Of peace and not of evil ♪ ♪ To give you an expected end ♪ ♪ Jeremiah 29 11 ♪ ♪ I have a promise ♪ ♪ I have a possibility ♪ ♪ I have a promise ♪ ♪ With a capital B ♪ ♪ I'm very big but I'm small ♪ ♪ But there's a world out there to see ♪ ♪ And I am learning to hear God's voice ♪ ♪ And I am trying to make the right choice ♪ ♪ I am the promise of faith ♪ ♪ In anything I want to believe ♪ ♪ I am the promise, I am the prosperity ♪ ♪ I am the promise, where can it all be? ♪ Can you hear God's voice and I am trying? In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen. Tonight we'll begin with the youngest you see. We think they're really special. We call them K-3. Welcome to Minesot's special program. We want to do our best. We're so happy you have come. You are our honor guests. I am special I am special I am special I am special I am special I am special I am special ♪ It's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it's my show, it We hope you thought that was great. We don't want to be a bore. Now let me introduce you to Miss Misseldine's K-4. The siblings of Mommy and Daddy, they love me from the start. I was just a little sunshine from heaven to your heart. And I just wish that maybe the world could be the way it is. There'd be something very special for me and him. ♪ 139.14 ♪ ♪ I am family and I'm going to say hey ♪ ♪ Song 139.14 ♪ ♪ Call my name baby, call my name baby ♪ God made my nose, only God made my nose God made my head, only God made my head God made it so that I am here God made me, God made me I'm so glad that God made me Yeah. Now the time has come that you've been waiting for. Our kindergarten class has something special in store. They've worked really hard and learned so much this year. Now all that we ask is that you lend us your ear. I have seven things. I play with blocks. What I can't do today, I write on blocks and songs. Nothing, I did nothing today. Maybe I painted a picture of red and blue, or heard a story about a mouse that flipped. Nothing, I did nothing today. Maybe I wrote my first song. Nothing, I did nothing today. ♪ Nothing I did, nothing today ♪ Maybe a last song for game to end or play with special brand new friends. ♪ Nothing I did, nothing today ♪ Nothing I did, nothing today Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye that stand. Serve the Lord with gladness, calling for his righteousness. Knowing that the Lord is God, it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves. We are his people in the sheep of his hand. For the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth is the first in all generations. Psalm 100. from Dr. Seuss. It's graduation, today is our day. We're off to great places, we're off and away. We've got friends in our class, we've got friends in our shoes. We get to share our smiles, we're as happy as we choose. We're happy for a cause, we wish the best for the best. When I grow up, I want to be an engineer. When I grow up, I want to be a vet. When I grow up, I want to be a doctor. When I grow up, I want to be a chef. When I grow up, I want to be a police officer. When I grow up, I want to be an engineer. When I grow up, I want to be a lifesaver. When I grow up, I want to be a police officer. When I grow up, I want to be a police officer. When I grow up, I want to be a chef. When I grow up, I want to be a teacher. When I grow up, I want to be a police officer. When I grow up, I want to be a nurse. When I grow up, I want to be an engineer. When I grow up, I want to be a singer. When I grow up, I want to be an engineer. Proverbs 3, 5 through 6. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, not into thine own understanding, and all thy ways acknowledge. ♪ Trust, trust in the Lord ♪ ♪ May not end your own understanding ♪ ♪ And all of your ways and all of you ♪ ♪ You'll make the best of it ♪ ♪ Trust, trust in the Lord ♪ ♪ May not end your own understanding ♪ You'll be my guide for life. I'll walk by your side. With your hand in mine, I'll go where you lead me. Trust, trust in the Lord. My eyes can only see the ground beneath my feet. Our dreams are gone. You'll make your magic come. Once in a while, things aren't as you understand. Oh, no longer waiting, all is real. You'll make your magic come. K-3, K-4, K-5. Yes, that's where it all begins. But their journey of learning isn't over. This is where first and second come in. I can read in my eyes shut by Dr. Seuss. I can read in red. I can read in blue. I can read in pick a color too. I can read in red and in circle and around. I can read in circle and upside down. I can read in my left eye. I can read in my right. I can read Mississippi with my eyes shut tight. Mississippi, Indianapolis, hallelujah too. I can read with my eyes shut, that is very hard to do. And it says 1.26-27. And God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the cow of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, and the image of God created in him. Male and female, Brady Denham. Please go work an army, to make me what I want to be. You took your custom made to make the moon and stars, the sun and the earth, and you can have it all. There's only one place you can be free, Imagine that, that's a loving man He's still working on me Let him be what I want to be Won't you be just a little late to make the move? And soon, soon in the end, then you will never know How lucky and precious he must be He's still working on me We are nearing the end of this night's entertainment. The children have all done their part. All the work, all the worry, all the losing of our hair, yet each one is so dear to our heart. Another year gone and it hasn't been easy, but God has been good just the same. So sit back and enjoy some sweet reminders of a year that nearly drove us all insane. Bye! Bye! do do you Yeah. do do Yeah. you All right, at this time, we want to introduce our 2021 graduating kindergarten class. you you Pastor and Mrs. Decker, I present to you the kindergarten graduating class of 2021. Spencer James Briggs. Ava Jane Bernthal Thomas Ali Crow Oliver Daniel Fagerman Kennedy Bridget Hulse. Wesley Christian Littleton. Adeline Ruth Merritt. Emma Esther McAfee Brooks Bennett Perrin Bryce Cole Pittman James Michael Rose. Jackson David Tunison. Nevaeh Cheyenne Schofield. Caroline Elizabeth Weeks Lucy Ruth Witton Sadie Lane Willis If y'all don't mind, let's give them all a hand one more time. All right, y'all would bear with us just for a moment longer, and we want to present some awards, and it has been an interesting year, has it not? and I also with the rewards we're also going to show some appreciation just a moment to our teachers as well for all their hard work but but at this time we have a Christian character award that we give to one in each one of the age groups that we have. And so we have a K-3, K-4, K-5, and then first and second are combined together. And so we've got four winners here of a Christian Character Award. And of course, that's just an individual, naturally, who throughout the entire year, nobody's perfect, right? But they all have their days, some more than others. But they all have their days, but yet this award goes to the ones that the teachers say was an example of what we try to teach in the area of Christian character on a regular basis. And so for K-3, here's what we're gonna do, kids. If I call your name, if you're the one I call up, I need you to just come up here. Ms. Decker is going to hand you your award for Christian character. So in K-3, I need Easton to come up please. Sir Easton. Alright he is our K3 Christian character award winner. Very good. Alright K4 I need Jane Randall to please come up. We'll get there. Good job, Ms. Jane Randall. Then K-5, Caroline Weeks. Caroline will come up. Good job, Caroline. And then for our first and second grade, Liam Underhill. Okay, we also have one award that is given, and I just thank the Lord that I don't have to choose it. That's the job, that's called delegation. You let somebody else do it, but it's what's called the Principal's Award, and, and, and, I'm not going to go through all the aspects of it but just give you the name for the individual who has this year received our principal's award for overall excellence and work and that is Tripp Hulse. Good job sir Tripp. Then we want to say thank you to our teachers, as well as some other workers that we have that make it all happen on a regular basis. And I'll try to go through this. It doesn't look like it's gonna be very successful. Without problem, all right. Yeah, that'll work. Okay, so with our teachers, I'd like to first have, let's see here, I'm moving up, moving up, moving up, that's the one I want. All right, we'll start from the bottom, grade-wise, okay, grade-wise. But I'd like to, Miss, Ms. Brooklyn, I forgot her name, her first name for a minute there. We call them by last name mostly, and so, and then I just, of course, I forget names, period. But Ms. Brooklyn Brown has come and helped us this year, and we're excited. She's been working mostly with our K-3, been doing an excellent job, and we want to say thank you to Ms. Brooklyn Brown for the work that she has done. She has been a tremendous help this year. Someone who is pretty much well known by everyone matter of fact anybody who ever calls One of the first things you get if they've ever you know if they've ever been to Bethel or had children at Bethel You know from eons ago It doesn't matter. They all ask that the same person is still teaching there and And that's miss miss Donna missile dine. And yes, she is still teaching and we appreciate miss Donna and Miss Donna absolutely hates this part, but she has worked with our K4 class faithfully and is pretty much the description of Bethel Baptist Church when you get right down to it. So thank you, Miss Donna. And then there's the one that I have to fire about every other month. And then I just rehire her because we have to have her. No, I'm picking with her. That's a standing joke with us, just for the fun of it. She's a pastor's wife. And being in ministry, you just got to have fun or you'll lose your mind. But Ms. Chesser has been an excellent K5 teacher this year. And y'all did witness the K5 class, right? We already liked Miss Chesser. This year she became one of my heroes. because I don't know if I could have survived the 15 students that she had. This is the biggest jump we've had in K-5 in a long time. We went from about five, I believe, or six the first year that we were here, and then we got up to around nine or so the next year, and then this year we jumped to 15. And then we looked at Ms. Chesser and we said, it's all yours, have fun. We gave you an extra large room, enjoy it. But she has done an excellent job and thank you so much Ms. Chesser for your hard work. And then we have Ms. Jen Tunison, she has stepped up and helped us tremendously. in the remainder of this year and has done a great job with our first and second grade. Looking forward to her teaching again first and second this coming fall. And so thank you Miss Tunison for your hard work as well and helping us finish out this year strong. Okay so we also have several other workers. And so let me see, how you want me to do these? Okay, all right. We got several workers, of course, we have before care, we have after care, we've got all day care regardless, and then we got those who just don't care. But no, I'm picking. But we've got some that have been a big, big help to us. And one of those, of course all of them, but especially this one, she's been a real blessing to us, Miss Robinson. Miss Wanda Robinson, and she has been a tremendous help. And I know she wouldn't be offended with me saying this, there's nothing like a mama that just, you know, that finger snaps and attention, all right? She does an excellent job, and she does really, really good with those children. We appreciate her hard work. Then also, someone who has come in recently and helped us and been a blessing that's miss Vicki Paige and we want to appreciate miss Vicki as well for helping us in our aftercare. The kids definitely know the different ones all right. All right and then we also have Miss Victoria Decker. It's one of my one of my daughters. She has helped us tremendously all the time. She's actually she's our cameras there tonight. And so Miss Victoria has helped out tremendously as well. Just leave me some of those that way I know who's coming next. All right. You can tell who the boss is, right? Okay, she's the mastermind behind it all. That, by the way, was the joke in our ministry growing up with everything that we've done. Several different people have just said, you know, they just call and say, hey, where's the boss? not to be bossy, but she knows what's going on, she keeps it running, and I appreciate my wife. But we have Miss Taylor, is our school secretary, takes the phone and works constantly, helping out, keeping things going in the office area, so we wanna thank Miss Taylor as well. And then I've got two, I'm gonna have them both come up. It's husband and wife, Miss Patsy Jones, as well as Brother Harry. And I know, Brother Harry, are you here by yourself? All right, you get to take both and make sure your wife gets her part. Don't take it, all right? But Miss Patsy helps us in the aftercare. And filling in, Brother Harry is our custodian, takes care of the cleaning around here constantly behind all the kids, all right? Okay, and she's not in here right now. She's actually in the kitchen at this moment. But Miss Andy Brown has worked our kitchen constantly in the last couple of years, has done an excellent job. We have something for her as well. But right now she's actually at work trying to prepare for what's coming next. And so we definitely appreciate Miss Andy. And as awkward as this might seem, yes, I have one for my wife as well. Any of you parents that have dealt with anything, you probably have met and talked with her more than you've ever talked to me. She is kind of a constant, whether it's in one class or another, or filling in, or up and down the halls taking care of stuff, whatever it is, my wife, has worked honestly tires tirelessly and many of y'all would know that and help to keep things going on a regular basis. And and she does not at this point does not take any regular pay for it either. She just does it because she loves your children and she loves this church and this ministry. And so we want to show appreciation to Miss Decker as well for all of her hard work and helping keeping everything going. All right, well, that's pretty much the end of all that. And I don't want to delay any more, but we do want to release our kids out first, right? We didn't discuss this part. It has been rather interesting. So I think we did this last time. We took our kids out to the tables out there. And so they are going to take their groups. Kids, y'all follow your teachers. We'll let them follow, again, this was not practiced, so we're in trouble, all right? They're gonna follow their teachers, and in just a moment, we will dismiss and ask the blessing on the refreshments, and we'll go out and join them in the gymnasium here in just a minute. All right, and while they're doing that, if the video presentation that was done, if anybody would like to have a copy of that, would like to buy a copy, it'd just be $5 for the copy. We'll make it for you, put it together and get it to you. If you would like one, you can get with, she told me and I forgot. She left, all right. Yeah, you can get with my wife or Miss Beth Taylor. You see, I told you, she's the one. Let them know in the office and they'll be sure to get you a copy of that. Why don't you stand with me and we're gonna pray and be dismissed. Thank you for being here, that's a really good crowd. A really good crowd for our closing. It didn't quite happen this way last year, did it? And I'm glad we can kinda get back to some normal. areas of operation, and I hope that you will, if you can, stay with us. We got plenty of refreshments. There's even a little board in the gymnasium there, a little thing on the wall set up where you can take pictures with the kids, and if you wanna take pictures with the teachers. But what I do ask is parents, as you go out, first, I'd ask that you would file out and go and get your child. we said before let your teacher have a break and and the teacher has been with them a lot lately and so if you'll go get your child and then you can get pictures together we have refreshments and we can just go right at it and have a time of fellowship there's plenty of room over there in the gym if you can stay with us I know you will enjoy the time of fellowship with us again thank you for being here It has been an honor to have your kids in the school this year, looking forward to a good fall. I would ask that you please continue to pray for the school, pray for the staffing of the school as we grow, as well as just a good start to our new fall semester this next year and getting things back in swing. We look forward to seeing each and every one of you again here before too much longer. Let's go ahead and pray and ask the blessing on the food that we're about to eat. And then we'll let you head on out. When you do, just go back to that back of the auditorium in the far corner, go out that single door right there. That's the best way to file through. And that'll keep everybody in the same area heading into the gym. All right, let's go ahead and pray and we'll be dismissed. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much. For this night, we thank you for the opportunity to see the work the kids have put into this program. We thank you, Lord, for allowing it to go well. Lord, for us to enjoy ourselves in hearing scripture quoted, Lord, as well as the