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| Last night we had an opportunity to present our ministry
at Boomer Baptist Church in Boomer, West Virginia. We've been
looking forward to this meeting for some time! The church was
very friendly and we enjoyed this occasion that was provided.
Shown below are a number of pictures of the church facilities,
including the Christian school that they also operate.
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| Sign
on the front of the building. |
View
from the main road in town. The railroad tracks are just a few feet
in front of the building. The New River runs directly behind the
building. |
Their
two vans sitting behind the building. |
A
small goldfish pond in the main entry. |
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| Attendance
record board. |
The
main sanctuary. |
Their
mission board with all recent prayer letters for each missionary. |
One
of their "libraries" within a classroom. |
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| The
main dining area in the school section of the church. |
The
prophets chamber. |
Addie
and August do some reading before service. |
Workstations
in a classroom. |
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| Boomer
Christian Academy wall sign. |
Lockers
in the hallway. |
Some
of the many trophies they have acquired through the years. |
Gameroom
with ping-pong and foosball tables. |
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| Addie
playing ping-pong....which is funny to watch with her having a broken
foot. |
Braden
and I take on August and Pastor Brendel in a game of foosball. We
won, of course! |
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| This is probably the longest we have ever gone between
updates on this website. It's been a busy couple of weeks!
We are now in Beckley, West Virginia. Melissa's brother will be
graduating from Independence High School this coming Saturday, so we
made sure to get meetings scheduled in this area so that we could
attend. This past Sunday evening we had a meeting with Eccles
First Baptist Church. This is actually our second time visiting
this church. We first attended last year as a walk-in
(unscheduled) meeting while we were in the area, and they kindly
invited us back to present our ministry. We also visited Hilltop
Baptist Church in Crab Orchard as a walk-in, and enjoyed the time we
spent with them. Tomorrow we will be presenting at Boomer
Baptist Church in Boomer, West Virginia, and I have been personally
looking forward to that meeting for some time. This coming
Sunday we will be at Johnston Baptist in Princeton, West Virginia for
an early-morning Sunday meeting and in Kegley Baptist Church in Kegley,
West Virginia for a regular Sunday morning meeting. We are still
considering options for the Sunday evening service. Each of
these three meetings is unscheduled. In other news, Addie's foot
continues to heal. She still has to use crutches, but she is
getting along well. We just need her to stop being such a
daredevil. The other day she was going along on her crutches and
used them to pole-vault off of a porch! I'm not sure what she
had in mind, but it didn't work. Also, Friday morning our truck
is scheduled to go in for service. As we were driving in
Saturday something started making a very odd noise and a burning smell
started coming into the cab. We think it has to do with the
blower motor, since if we turn the fan off the problem stops.
Since this means we have to drive without AC, we are thankful it
happened in West Virginia and not down in the deep south where it is
10-15 degrees hotter! The pictures below are of Addie with her
crutches, as well as of our meeting in Eccles from Sunday night.
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| Addie
on her crutches. |
Front
of Eccles First Baptist Church, with the gym in the background. |
View
from the opposite side of the church, showing the extra wing built off the
back. |
Inside
of the church. |
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| Melissa
liked this flower arrangement they had in front of the pulpit. |
Setting
up before service. |
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| We are still in Salem. Yesterday
evening we participated in the mission conference at Victory
Independent Baptist Church in Roanoke, Virginia. We're going to
have a couple of "walk-in" meetings this coming Sunday and
then will be heading towards Williamsburg on Monday. While
traveling Monday we will be stopping by our home church in Powhatan
and picking up our mail, which includes a copy of the Rosetta Stone
software that was mentioned in our last prayer letter. We were
able to find a used copy of levels 1, 2 AND 3, which cost less than
levels 1 and 2 new! A special blessing is that an individual
from one of our supporting churches also contacted us and wanted to
purchase this for us, and we are very thankful for that
provision. Shown below are some photos from our meeting last
night, as well as a couple of photos from Decatur that I hadn't put
out here for you yet.
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| A
very small turtle we saw in Decatur, Alabama. He is about the size
of your thumb. |
Braden
and I sitting at the picnic table outside our house. |
Addie's
foot in her soft cast. |
A
shot from behind Victory Independent Baptist Church in Roanoke, Virginia. |
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| Road
sign. |
View
from the front of the church. |
August
takes a short nap before service. |
Addie
Grace in her stroller. The hospital didn't have any crutches small
enough for her, and she's not supposed to walk, so Pastor Kirchoff from
Beacon Baptist Church donated this stroller. He also acquired
some crutches which we should get tomorrow. |
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| Banner
inside Victory. |
Sanctuary
of Victory. |
Pianist
playing before services begin. |
Pastor
Covington and I speaking before service. |
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| Some
of the members before service. |
Entrance
door to the sanctuary. |
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| Sorry for the long delay between updates
this time. We are now in Salem, Virginia, having traveled up
from Decatur on Monday. I had the opportunity to participate in
the BBFI fellowship meeting at Beacon Baptist Church yesterday and we
will be presenting our ministry at Victory Independent Baptist Church
in Roanoke tomorrow. Tonight we will be visiting with Beacon
Baptist, which is simply a chance to say hello again, as we have
already had the opportunity to present our ministry at this
church. In other news, everyone is well with the exception of
Addie Grace. On Saturday she was playing at the playground in
Decatur when she decided to jump off a ladder rather than climb down
it. She hurt her foot and has been hobbling around ever
since. Yesterday we decided to take her in for x-rays and found
out that she had fractured her foot. So, she now has a soft cast
on and is supposed to stay off of it for several weeks. That's
difficult since they didn't have any crutches in her size, so she has
trouble getting around. I am also scheduled to go in for testing
on my hearing tomorrow, as a recent test revealed some abnormalities
that I need to get checked out.
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| We're still in Decatur, Alabama.
Yesterday we had the privilege of spending the day with Faith Baptist
Church here in Decatur. We presented our ministry during Sunday
School and then I was able to preach for both the morning and evening
services. We also had lunch with the pastor's family and dinner
with the pastor's family as well as a couple of church families.
It was a great day and we are very thankful for the opportunity that
we had to meet with these fellow believers.
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| Sanctuary
of Faith Baptist Church |
Missions
Board |
Road
Sign |
Fellowship
Hall |
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| Outside
of sanctuary |
Addie
smelling roses along fence at church |
Augusts
watches one of the members arrive |
Mrs.
Nason, pastor's wife and church pianist |
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| Sarah
Nason - pastor's daughter |
The
pastor and I setup the projector before service |
Megan
practices a solo for special music Sunday morning |
Addie
and Hannah before service |
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| Another quick update. Last night
we enjoyed a visit with New Life Baptist Church in Harvest,
Alabama. We arrived early and had dinner with the church and
then were able to speak about our ministry during the evening
service. Below, we have just a couple of photos that we
"borrowed" from their church website (since we forgot our
camera).
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| The
main church sanctuary. This church was formed 10 years ago and is
growing by leaps and bounds. They've even started a second church
that is already running around 50 people! |
Pastor
Andy Wisner. |
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| Just a quick update to let you know that
many of our prayer letters will be delayed about a week this
month. Our supporting churches will receive theirs on time, and
anyone who has subscribed to receive them via email should already
have them. However, one of us (okay, it was me) forgot to load
extra letterhead into the RV before we left Powhatan. Therefore,
we have to wait for a small shipment from our sending church before we
can print the letters! Oops. It should have gone out
today, and therefore we should have them printed and in the mail by
the end of the week. If you'd like, you can always click on the
Monthly Reports link on the left side of the screen, and you can view
a PDF copy of our prayer letter online.
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| We are now in Decatur, Alabama, after a
12-hour drive down from Akron, Ohio yesterday. We have 3
meetings scheduled here in the local area and then will be heading to
Salem, Virginia for a pastor's fellowship, and possibly a couple of
meetings there as well. This is scheduled to be a very slow
month for us, but we know that God can use the opportunities that we
have to accomplish the work to which He has called us. Here in
Decatur we are staying at Point Mallard State Park, and it is very
nice. It borders the Tennessee River and is a very beautiful
place. More than that, it is probably one of the cheapest RV
parks that we have ever stayed at, which makes it just that much
nicer!! Below are an assortment of photos that I hadn't had the
opportunity to get on the website. Some are from the Saturday
morning breakfast at the conference in Akron, one is from one of the walk-in meetings in the Akron area on Sunday and then
there are a
couple of pictures of our home here in Decatur.
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| Addie
and August wait for breakfast to start. |
Braden
and I are packing up the display. |
Final
preparations for breakfast. |
Others
waiting for breakfast. |
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| Final
preparations for breakfast. |
Others
waiting for breakfast. |
Others
waiting for breakfast. |
Everyone
seated and enjoying a delicious breakfast of biscuits and gravy! |
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| We've
been in Akron too long - a bird has built a nest on one of the RV tires. |
First
Baptist Church in Spencer, Ohio. |
Our
RV site in Decatur, Alabama. After 8 months of driving this thing
I'm finally able to park it just about anywhere! |
Directly
across the campground street is the playground - it's a great setup for
the kids! |
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