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| What day is it? Where are we? The past 36
hours have been a blur of activity. We left Dalton, Georgia
around 1:00p on Wednesday heading towards LaGrange, Georgia for a
Wednesday evening meeting at Faith Baptist Church. We enjoy a
great service with them and then met with their mission committee
after the service for a brief interview process. We left the
church around 9:00pm and headed north to Greenville, South Carolina,
arriving around 1:00a this morning. We spent about 5 hours
resting in the parking lot of Tabernacle Baptist Church and then at
6:00a we were back up and on the road, traveling the rest of the way
here to Williamsburg, Virginia. We arrived at 3:00p this
afternoon, giving us time to go grocery shopping and have
dinner. Right now it is 7:00p and Melissa is up at the laundry
facilities getting caught up on quite a backlog of laundry. We
are looking forward to a few days of rest tomorrow, Saturday and
Monday and also a meeting on Sunday with Faith Baptist Church in
Colonial Heights, Virginia. On Tuesday we will drive to Powhatan
and drop Braden off so that he can attend camp at The Wilds the
following week, and we will then head north to Springfield, Ohio to
begin our 2-month stay there as we enjoy a dozen or so meetings in
that area. The photos below are of the two churches I mentioned
above. Faith Baptist Church has some beautiful facilities and
are truly blessed with many resources from the Lord. Tabernacle
Baptist Church is one that we are scheduled to present at in
November. I did not know much about their facilities but was
amazed when I finally saw them. They are HUGE. I was also
startled when I learned that this one church supports over 700 mission
works around the world. God has given us the opportunity to see
many wonderful things as we travel on deputation, and this is just one
more of them.
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| In
the foyer of Faith Baptist Church, preparing to setup our display. |
Part
of the auditorium. The curtain is drawn to hide preparations for a
special service commemorating the 4th of July. |
Melissa
loved this beautiful floral display made of fresh cut flowers. |
A
view from the front of the auditorium back up towards the middle of the
auditorium. |
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| From
one front corner towards the opposite rear corner. |
From
one front corner towards the opposite rear corner. |
A
shot of their piano on one side of the platform. |
The
children's church auditorium, which is the former church auditorium. |
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| Sign
for their children's ministry. |
Cafe
in the youth building. |
Sign
for the "Groundz Cafe" |
Street
sign for Faith Baptist Church. |
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| Front
of the former sanctuary, now the youth sanctuary. |
Front
of the new sanctury. |
Their
gymnasium and cafeteria, as well as a number of classrooms. |
Their
4 church vans. |
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| The
new auditorium is the front-left building and behind it is the old
auditorium. To the right is an administrative building, all of which
are attached by elevated glass skywalks. |
A
shot showing both the new and old auditoriums. |
Melissa
enjoyed this shot of the moon with the flag, especially since it is so
close to the 4th of July. |
August
finished up on a craft. They were also having VBS the night we
visited. |
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| Gift
and Souvenir shop sign for VBS. |
Children
playing during game time in the gym during VBS. |
Addie
is in class during VBS. |
View
from the rear parking area at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Greenville,
South Carolina, looking toward their children's home. |
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| Pavilion
behind the church. |
Their
two church buses. |
Three
of their smaller church buses as well as an operations vehicle. |
Tabernacle
Baptist College. |
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| Front
of the children's home buildings. |
One
view of the front of the church. This photo does not do the building
justice, as it is very, very long. |
Their
street sign (sorry it's blurred, we were driving by...) |
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| We are still at New Life in Dalton, Georgia.
Yesterday we enjoyed morning services with Ridge Road Baptist Church
in Dalton and evening services with Harvest Baptist Church in Dawsonville. Both
churches were extremely friendly and we are thankful for the
opportunities that we have been given to meet these wonderful
people. Today I get the pleasant task of cleaning out the septic
tank on the RV. We've been living in this thing for over a year
and have not cleaned it yet (we empty it regularly, just don't clean
it). So, with the heat we're experiencing it is definitely
time. I'm really looking forward to doing this! The kids
get to participate in the VBS services at New Life here tonight and
tomorrow. On Wednesday we will be leaving and heading a couple
hours further south to Faith Baptist Church in LaGrange,
Georgia. The kids will get to be in their VBS that night and we
will be presenting our ministry as well. From there the month is
over for meetings and we head north to Williamsburg, Virginia.
We hope you enjoy the photos below from yesterday.
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| Addie
and Mrs. Watts, the pastor's wife at our morning meeting. |
View
from the rear of the sanctuary. |
View
from the front of the sanctuary. |
Street
sign for Ridge Road Baptist Church. |
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| One
shot of the outside of the church. |
Another
shot, closer in. |
The
bus at Harvest Baptist Church in Dawsonville. |
Church
van in Dawsonville. |
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| View
of the front of the church. |
Street
sign for Harvest Baptist Church. |
Braden
is working on setting up our display. |
Their
mission board. They currently support 56 mission works. |
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| View
from the rear of the sanctuary. |
Church
nursery. There is a glass window to the left that allows them to
watch the church services. |
Braden
makes final touches on the display. |
Their
mission update board, highlighting several of the recently received prayer
letters. |
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| Kitchen/Fellowship
Hall. |
I'm
working on setting up the projector and computer for our video
presentation. |
Addie
watches as tables are rolled out. |
More
tables are rolled out for the dinner that we will be enjoying following
the service. |
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| Pastor
Biddy speaks with one of the church members. |
Addie's
never far from a friend! |
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| We are currently at New Life Baptist Church in Dalton,
Georgia. For those that keep close tabs on our travels you may
recognize either that name or the photos below. We were here not
too long ago for a mission conference, and they also recently became
one of our supporting churches. We had a couple of other
meetings in the area and asked to be able to stay here again, since
they have wonderful RV hookups directly behind the church.
Pastor Spence did not hesitate to allow this and we are thankful for
this hospitality. We did have the privilege of joining them for
a men's breakfast this morning, and then Braden and I helped out with
their printing ministry for a little over an hour. Tomorrow we
look forward to meetings with Ridge Road Baptist Church here in Dalton
in the morning and with Harvest Baptist Church in Dawsonville in the
evening. We will be staying here at New Life until next
Wednesday morning, and will be able to participate in their VBS on
Monday and Tuesday.
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| Our
house once again setup behind the church. |
Closer
view of the house. |
Front
of church. |
Church
sign announcing their VBS for next week. We'll be here for 2 days of
it. |
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| It cleared up here yesterday evening so we went out for a
little walk and got some pictures of the facilities here at Victory
Baptist Church. I'm still not 100% sure what-is-what around
here, but it is clear that they have been blessed with some extensive
property. We're looking forward to meeting with this church
tonight and will try and post an update about the meeting
tomorrow. As another brief update, Addie seems to be doing
better. We started having her try to walk without crutches again
about a week ago, but she was limping a lot and saying it hurt.
Yesterday she was walking with almost no limp and no pain, so that is
a blessing. Lord willing here in the next few days she will be
completely back to normal.
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| Our
house parked between (there's another set just to the right side of the
picture) what appear to be some apartments owned by the church. |
Here
is the apartment set to the right of our trailer. |
Church
playground up under the trees. |
We
*think* this is the main church building. You'll see in another
picture that there is an equally large building just across the road,
which we think houses their school. |
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| Teens
that K.A.R.E. - Kind Acts Reaching Everyone - an outreach of their church
youth. |
Street
sign for Victory Baptist Church. |
Their
church van, parked along the road for advertising. |
Their
two church buses, parked across the road by what we believe is the school
building. |
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| The
school building, across the road from the main church building. |
Another
shot of the church building, showing the small creek flowing beside
it. We were surprised to actually find fish in this creek!!
(Though they were only about 3-4 inches long) |
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| We are now in Millbrook, Alabama. It's a very rainy
day so we didn't bother with pictures (yet). We are staying on
the grounds at Victory Baptist Church and are thankful for their
hospitality. As we were setting up the house we received a phone
call from Greenbrier Baptist Church in Madison, Alabama. We
visited this church on May 9th of this year, and had a wonderful
time. Pastor Lowery called us today to let us know that they
were praying about taking us on for support, but also to let us know
that one of their members had given a $100 offering to help with the
cost of the truck repairs from last month. We appreciate and are
encouraged by this generosity. God has never failed to meet our
needs and proves Himself faithful day after day while we
travel.
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| Today we leave Troy, Alabama and head north to Millbrook,
Alabama. We've been blessed during our stay in Alabama so far,
and look forward to that continuing through this next church
visit. A couple of things to note. First, last night we
had some special protection when a storm finally hit Alabama.
They're experiencing a drought down here and have been praying for
rain. They got it last night. A storm rolled in during the
early evening and Melissa saw it coming, so we went outside to clean
up some stuff on the picnic table. While out there the wind
picked up and tried to blow the roll-out awning on the side of the RV
backwards, over top of the RV. We struggled with it for several
minutes, fighting the wind, and managed to eventually get it packed
up. We got back inside just as the rain hit. The unit
beside us wasn't so lucky. The owners weren't home at the time
of the storm and their awning was destroyed. It ripped half way
off the RV and two different support bars broke in half. It then
fell on their picnic table, throwing potted plants, camp stoves and
other equipment across their site. They came home, found it, and
had to cut it the rest of the way off, as it was literally
destroyed. These awnings cost several hundred dollars, so we are
very thankful that we were here and able to get it packed up in
time. The second thing I want to note is a prayer request,
for me. A week ago while driving down to Dothan, Alabama we
stopped at a rest area. While there I tried to throw a bag of
trash into a dumpster. Somehow I pulled a muscle (or something)
in my shoulder/neck. It's been extremely sore ever since, and is
causing problems with moving and turning my head. So far it has
not really gotten any better, so if you could pray for that to heal
quickly it would be very much appreciated.
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| We are still in Troy, Alabama and are having a great
time. Yesterday we did a "walk-in" meeting at God's
Way Baptist Church here in Troy. It is a church that I've been
sending prayer letters to for about a year, but as of yet had not been
able to get a meeting scheduled. Our goal was to worship with
them in the morning service and just introduce ourselves to the
pastor. We were v very surprised when the pastor met us in the
parking lot and knew us by name (from our prayer letters). The
entire church greeted us very warmly and the pastor invited us back to
the evening service to setup our display and present our
ministry. He also invited me to preach for the evening
service. These types of unique opportunities are a great
blessing to us and further encourage us as we seek to raise the
support for this ministry. Shown below are some photos from our
visit with this church. Tomorrow we will be leaving Troy and
heading north to Millbrook, Alabama for a meeting there and then on to
Dalton, Georgia on Friday.
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| Street
sign for God's Way Baptist Church. |
The
church from the front. The Lord has blessed them with beautiful
facilities. |
The
sanctuary. I'm still setting up the projector/computer for our
presentation. |
Addie
is waiting for the evening Masters Club to begin. |
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| Prayer
letters from their supported missionaries. |
The
pianist, also the pastor's wife. |
Pastor
Teal speaking with one of the members before service. |
Addie
poses for a quick shot.....not such a great expression though! |
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| We are currently in Troy, Alabama. We had a
enjoyable visit with Open Door Baptist Church on Wednesday and then
drove up to Troy on Thursday. The RV park we are at is nice, but
we can't get a cell signal, so no phone calls in or out!! That
makes things interesting. Fortunately they do have free WiFi, so
I am able to get on the internet still. We took advantage of the
fishing here yesterday, but were unable to catch anything. I'm
not much of a fisherman though, so that is not surprising! Lord
willing we will try again sometime before we head out next
Tuesday. Below are some photos from our meeting on Wednesday as
well as our fishing yesterday.
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| Pastor
Curtis Grant at Open Door Baptist Church in Dothan, Alabama |
Speaking
with members before the potluck dinner. |
Pastor
Grant shows us an antique -- a manual record player he used while a
missionary in Africa. |
Final
preparations for the dinner. |
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| Our
site at Deer Run RV Park in Troy, Alabama. This is probably the
biggest RV space we have had yet, and at an affordable price. |
The
first of the two ponds available. |
Braden,
August, Addie and I all trying our luck at fishing. |
Another
shot of us fishing. |
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| Enjoying
a few minutes of relaxation while trying to catch those annoying fish that
won't bite my worm! |
Braden
as he fishes. |
August.
He'd catch fish if he watched that bobber a little more often. |
Braden
again. |
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| August
again. |
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| Today we traveled down to Dothan, Alabama. It was an
uneventful drive, other than my pulling a muscle in my shoulder/neck
while trying to throw a bag of trash into a dumpster at a rest
area. I definitely need to get out more! Everyone and
everything else is doing fine. We will be here at Open Door
Baptist Church in Dothan, Alabama for a potluck dinner and services
tomorrow night and will then head up to Troy, Alabama on Thursday
morning, where we will be into Tuesday of next week when we head
further north to Millbrook, Alabama.
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| Street
sign for Open Door Baptist Church in Dothan, Alabama |
View
of the church from the road. |
Picnic
pavilion beside/behind the church. |
Guest
house for missionaries and other guests. Former parsonage. |
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| Inside
of the auditorium. We snuck a peak around the facilities today. |
Foyer.
The far door leads into the classrooms and fellowship hall. |
Missionary
information around the back of the sanctuary. |
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| Hmmm....Just noticed it's been 10 full days since our last
update. We've been in the mountains of West Virginia and our
internet connectivity has been spotty at best. We are now in
Greer, South Carolina and have a good strong signal to make
updates. Since my last writing we have had two walk-in meetings
in West Virginia, a scheduled meeting in Wilkesboro, North Carolina
(had to drive to that meeting from Beckley and then back, due to truck
problems) and today we had two more meetings, the morning in Shelby,
North Carolina and the evening in Greer, South Carolina. We are
parked at the church for the evening meeting, Good News Baptist
Church. This is a wonderful group of believers and we had a
great time of fellowship with them this evening. We will be here
until Tuesday morning when we will be heading down to Dothan,
Alabama. As to the truck, mentioned above, we had problems with
the AC fan/compressor, which also affected the regular fan and the
heat. They had to replace several parts and then recharge the
AC, but it is back up and running now, which is good since it was 99
degrees the day we arrived in South Carolina! Below are pictures
from the two meetings today.
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| Morning
meeting at Faith Baptist Church in Shelby, North Carolina |
Good
News Baptist Church in Greer, South Carolina - our evening meeting and
where we are parked |
Sign
from Greer, South Carolina -- it's a little warm here! |
Our
house parked behind the church - they have full hookups, which is quite a
blessing! |
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| Braden
finishes setting up the display |
I'm
finishing setting up the projector for our presentation |
We
are making final preparations just prior to the start of the service. |
These
are the prayer letters/cards for just a few of their supported
missionaries. |
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| Display
from their study of missionaries. |
After
service Pastor Waters and I are speaking with Bro. Jesus and his wife. |
Pastor's
wife speaking with one of the church members following the service. |
The
teens are fellowshipping together after the service as well. |
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| Missy
and Melanie (family was missionaries in Columbia until she was 14) |
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