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| Sorry for the long delay in
posting. We've been experiencing computer problems (more on that
in a moment). We enjoyed a good Thanksgiving with family up in
Ohio. We are now located in Staunton, Virginia and will be
leaving here by Saturday to head for North Carolina and then
Texas. Now, back to the computer. Thanksgiving day our
computer crashed. I was able to get most of our important files
off of it. Most. Not all. We lost all of our
bookkeeping records and our email files. That's what I know
we've lost. It may be more though. The computer itself is
not running at all anymore. Fortunately, we were able to get
another laptop and get it up and running (what I am using right
now). A friend at our sending church is going to work on our old
laptop and see if he can get it running again. Besides the crash
and loss of data it is also turning itself completely off at random
(and increasingly frequent) times. The new computer was not compatible
with the hardware we use to access the internet (wireless internet
card), so we had to get a new one of those as well. We also are
still trying to locate all of the CD's and product registration
numbers to reinstall the software on our new laptop.
Unfortunately, some of it seems to have been packed in our storage
trailer, so we may have to make an impromptu trip to Powhatan to sift
through boxes (some of the missing software is very important).
Not a fun time, to be sure, but we know the damage is not permanent
and everything that has been lost can more or less be replaced
eventually. |
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| We had two meetings this past
Sunday. The morning service was at Grace Baptist Church in Oak
Harbor, Ohio. It was a good service and the church seemed to
respond well to our ministry. The evening service was at
Columbia Road Baptist Church in North Olmsted, Ohio. This is the
church that our missions agency is through. The service went
well, but it was a bit chaotic because of technical difficulties on my
part in presenting our ministry. I'm not sure how much the
people there actually noticed about that, but it certainly frazzled my
nerves quite a bit. We pray it did not interfere with the
message we were conveying. We managed to travel safely from
there to just east of Springfield, Ohio, where we are now. We
will stay here for the rest of this week while we enjoy Thanksgiving
with my father who lives in Springfield. |
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| The
sign for Grace Baptist Church in Oak Harbor. |
The
church is simple in design and appearance, but is very well maintained and
completely debt free. The people were very kind and we enjoyed our
visit with them. |
The
sign for Columbia Road Baptist Church in North Olmsted. |
It's
a little hard to see the church in this shot, but it is back there.
They have some very nice facilities, but they are a relatively small
church for the amount of work that they do! |
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| This
is the current headquarters building for Harvest Baptist Missions. A
new building (much, much larger) is in the planning stages to help the
Harvest Baptist Missions ministry continue to grow and serve existing and
future missionaries. |
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| The closing on our house was completed yesterday,
without any further problems. All of the paperwork is signed and
the money has been transferred to the lawyer's escrow account.
As soon as they can record the deed they will deposit the money into
our account. While we are certainly thankful for the money, we
are also glad to have this step of our move completed. Now,
whenever the Lord provides the finances for us to go to the field, we
have nothing here to delay us. We can simply go. We are
going to be visiting with Mt. Moriah Baptist Church in Powhatan,
Virginia again tonight. We were here recently for a missions
conference and are glad to be able to go back. We are staying in
the front yard of the Ellinghausen family (the same family that hosted
us during the conference). It's our privilege to know them, and
we are enjoying the time we have to fellowship once again. |
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| The two meetings today went very well. My
photographer is in West Virginia, so alas there are no pictures.
The morning service was very spirit-filled, and saw one person
saved. I had an opportunity to speak with one of the young men
in their Bible college and generally enjoyed the visit. We hope
to get back to see them sometime in the future during one of their
Thursday evening services. The evening service was very nice as
well, with me finally getting to meet the people at the church we had
been staying at for almost a week. Everything seemed to go very
well and I pray that we were a blessing. Pastor McQueen worked
previously in Mission, Texas, about an hour east of where we will be
working, so he was very interested in the work. We invited him
to come and visit once we get on the field, and I really think he
will. That would be a blessing for both of us, I'm sure! |
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| The funeral is scheduled for tomorrow
(11/12). Melissa and I decided that I can do more good by
traveling back down to South Carolina and continuing with the meetings
that we already have scheduled. I will be leaving about noon and
should arrive in Pickens sometime that evening. Fairview
Independent Baptist Church has agreed to allow me to use their
prophet's chamber, so that will make this all much easier. I
will travel back to West Virginia Sunday after the evening service so
that we can leave Monday morning to travel back to Virginia for the
final closing on our house. Please be in prayer for safety
during all this traveling. |
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| We received word late this evening that Melissa's
grandmother passed away. We will still be traveling to West
Virginia tomorrow to be there whenever they schedule the funeral. |
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| We received a blessing today. Front Royal
Baptist Temple in Front Royal, Virginia called to let us know that
this past Sunday they voted us in as their newest supported
missionary! This was the first church that we attended on
deputation and we really enjoyed the time that we spent with
them. This brings our total support to 10.8%.....we're in the
double digits now. |
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| We are now in the Pickens, South Carolina area,
but you probably won't get this update for a few days. We are
sitting at the top of a mountain in a fairly isolated place, and the
cell phone coverage is rather spotty, meaning our wireless internet
for the computer is not working well. Although we are scheduled
to be here Sunday for two meetings, we are going to be leaving on
Thursday to travel to West Virginia to let Melissa see her
grandmother, probably for the last time. Besides the heart
attack they also discovered that she has some form of cancer,
Congestive Heart Failure and Osteoporosis, which has left her spine
and ribs all broken up inside. They are giving her drugs for
pain and only believe she will live a few days. |
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| A
view from the entrance to the church property. There's not a lot of
higher elevation around us, and our cell signal wasn't very good, but it
is certainly a beautiful location. |
Looking
out the front window one morning we saw a line of turkeys walking up the
road. I'd say there were about a dozen total. They didn't seem
to mind us a bit. |
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| Two good meetings today. One was scheduled,
one was not, but both seemed to be receptive to our ministry. We
continue to be thankful for all of the opportunities we have to
present our ministry, and for the financial and prayer support that
has already been raised. |
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| The
sign for Meadow Baptist Church. |
It's
size is deceiving from the outside....it's huge inside. Very
friendly people though, and a wonderful message during Sunday School. |
The
sign for Trinity Hill Baptist Church. |
Attendance
was down because many were sick (I'm personally glad they stayed home!),
but we still enjoyed a good service with these fellow believers. |
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| I have met two local pastors, and those meetings
have gone well. One has already scheduled to have us in for a
meeting next year, and for that we are thankful. It is cold
today so we cancelled our planned hike to the top of Stone
Mountain. Please be in prayer for Melissa's grandmother.
She had another heart attack and is in the hospital. She is not
doing well, cannot eat, and is refusing all treatment. Worst of
all, we do not believe that she is saved. |
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| We're in Stone Mountain, Georgia now and are looking forward to meeting some new pastors this week. We have a meeting Sunday night, but were asked to meet with some other pastors while we were here. |
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| Stone
Mountain is an impressive mountain, for the area, especially considering
there is nothing around it. Flat terrain and then all of the suddent
this big rock! The park is very attractive. |
A
closer view of the engraving on the side of the mountain. |
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