06/16/2026
"Never let a day pass without encouraging someone and showing appreciation, for 'therefore encourage one another and build each other up' (1 Thessalonians 5:11)." 📖💕 With that being said, St. John MB Church AND The Mount Pilgrim Baptist Association, Inc. would like to show their appreciation for Congress #2 President... Pastor Ron Shipp Thank you for your dedication, time and effort that you give to us!
Pastor Shipp's gift basket tells who he is as a person, so let's reflect...
Item #1: A firetruck... Significant for his sacrificial service... For John 15:13 says, Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends... He shares so many stories about the burning buildings he had to rescue strangers from... So, thank you for your service and thank you for sharing your experiences as a firefighter with us and using those stories as a tool to understand the Word just a little bit more!
Item #2: A firefighter Coaster Set... A coaster is put in place to protect your furniture surfaces from being damaged from a cup scratching it, or water damage... For Psalm 121:7-8 says,
"The Lord shall preserve you from all evil; He shall preserve your soul. The Lord shall preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth, and even forevermore." You have provided us with the ways in which to ask God to fight our battles, to protect us from all hurt, harm and danger! And for that we thank you!
Item # 3: A Daily Scripture Plan... You provide us with the Word weekly in order to spark a fire in us that we start to meditate on it daily ourselves... Matthew 6:11 says, "Give us this day our daily bread..." Well you literally have a plan that has a daily scripture, as you have already proven, text messaging works great! Smile!! I promise you that, that was not placed in here to Pastor the Pastor!
Item #4: A tumbler which says "the Joy of the Lord is my strength" Jeremiah 8:10.. Coming from Psalms 23:5, it says that "My cup overflows"... Now we know that this is talking about such an abundance of blessings that there isn't room enough to receive it, but I see it as a measuring tool... You have such an anointing that you know when you give us just enough before cutting across the field--Sir, not everybody has that gift! You know exactly how much sugar to put in the baking soda and how much flour and eggs it takes to make the cake just right... To make the lesson stick enough so that we can go back and tell somebody else who didn't make it to church the Word that was missed--the right measurements of ingredients for that cake!
Item # 5: The Scripture Block... This is a block if you will... For 1 Peter 2:5 says, "You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house." Now this one stone or block is one of many blocks are needed to build any type of structure... Only thing that is missing, is a Pastor Shipp to break down the meanings of these stones, while feeding us more stones with scriptures to build the structure! Ha, did y'all catch what I did there?! So thank you for teaching us how to move around stumbling blocks to seek the right scriptural blocks to build us, I mean our structure!!
Item # 6: The Men's One-Min. Prayer Book... Okay, so if you first look at the time referenced here... There are 60 mins in an hour, 1440 mins in a day! There are 29 Sundays left in 2026... Thessalonians 9,1795:17, that we ought to "Pray without ceasing" and I bet you that we are going to hear at least 29 times in the rest of 2026... You have taught us time and time again, that everything we do, we need to do it in prayer!! Pastor, we hear you!
Item #7: Hand towels... The scripture that best signifies the towel comes from John 13:5 which says, "He poured water into a basin and he began to wash the disciples feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around Him." This goes back to servant leadership, but did you also know that towels are meant to dry tears, to comfort, to clean wounds, care for others and to simply meet the needs of others... That's what you do!
Item #8: Bible Trivia Cards... This item represents how you are constantly challenging us weekly, to ensure that we (2 Timothy 2:15), which says that we should "Study to show yourself approved unto God." Knowing that a little friendly competition makes us go the extra mile, and also helps to make the lesson stick!!
All of these things are not all, but just some of things that make us appreciate your leadership! Thank you for all that you do to and teaching us to follow you as you follow Christ and if anything were to ever happen to you, to continue following Christ!!
