|
| Now that I've had a minute I had the time to get some
photos ready for the website. Most of the photos below are from
our two meeting this past Sunday. The rest are of the church
here in La Grange where we are currently staying.
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| View
of the outside of Fallsburg Baptist Church in Fallsburg, Ohio (near
Frazeysburg). That basement under the church is new -- they raised the
building and put that in as their addition for Sunday School classroom
space! |
Sign
for Fallsburg Baptist Church. |
Addie
Grace in the basement of the church in the children's area. |
Posters
for a few of the missionaries supported by FBC. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| The
main sanctuary inside, from the back of the room. |
Flags
from around the world are used as part of their missionary decorations. |
A
custom printed banner used to encourage the congregation. |
Braden
waiting for service to begin. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Brother
D.J., Braden's Sunday School teacher, preparing for his part in the
morning service. |
Mrs.
Dahlkey, the pastor's wife, speaks with a couple of members before
service. |
Some
of the ladies are checking on our display. |
View
of the outside of Victory Baptist Temple near Kent, Ohio. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Street
sign for Victory Baptist Temple. |
Our
visit marked the end of their missions month and their 2007 mission
"conference". The banner above was used as their theme for
this years conference. |
The
main sanctuary at VBT, shown from the back of the room. |
A
few of the men of the church look over our display and speak with me prior
to the service. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| View
from the main road showing the front of Oakside Baptist Church in La
Grange, Georgia. |
View
from the left side of the buildings, showing the front two buildings and
part of the back building. |
View
from the left side showing the rest of the back building. The
"A" shaped roof in the back is the top of the gymnasium located
behind these buildings. |
Street
sign for OBC. |
 |
|
|
|
| Their
two church buses. They also have a van on the other side of the
property. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| We left Zanesville, Ohio yesterday morning at 4:45am and
arrived in La Grange, Georgia just after 5:00pm. I had just
enough time to finish getting the RV setup and change clothes for
dinner at 6:00pm and then service at 7:00pm. Melissa and the
kids did not attend, as there was certainly not enough time for all 5
of us to get ready (we weren't scheduled to be part of the conference
until today). After a good night's rest we're back at work and
ready for the conference tonight. The service last night that I
was able to attend was very good and the church seemed very
friendly. I recognized a few faces of the missionaries that are
supported by this church already, and that is always a joy.
Today will be spent just catching up on odds-and-ends until it's time
to get ready for the services this evening. No other real news
at this moment.....
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Today we find ourselves in Zanesville, Ohio, having driven
here from Springfield yesterday evening. Thursday we had a day of
"relaxation", and an opportunity to visit with some family
in the area. We drove down to Sardinia, Ohio to visit my
grandmother, aunt/uncle and a couple of cousins. We had a good
time and enjoyed being able to see some of the family that we haven't
seen for a number of years now. Tomorrow promises to be a very
busy day. We have a 10:00am meeting, but it is about 45 minutes
away and we need to be there at least 30 minutes before service.
Then, we have over a 2-hour drive from there to the evening meeting
and then another 2-hour drive home after the evening service. We
will have meals after both the morning and evening services,
tightening the schedule somewhat. On Monday we have a 12+ hour
drive from here in Zanesville down to La Grange, Georgia for our next
meeting on Tuesday, so we will be busy through the end of the month!
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| My
grandma's house in Sardinia, Ohio. This is the first time I've been
here in 18 years! |
We
enjoyed a good meal and time to chat afterwards. |
Me
and my grandma. |
Braden
with my father |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Addie
and August finishing up dinner. |
Braden
prepares to beat August at some chess. |
August
is studying for upcoming exams. |
Addie
got a new stuffed animal and she also enjoys playing with this farm set. |
|
|
|
|
|
| Last night's meeting went very well. We arrived
early for dinner with Pastor Miller and his wife, and then enjoyed
some time of fellowship before the service. The service was
enjoyable and the people seemed truly interested in our family. The pictures below are of the church and of the children "truck
schooling" yesterday.
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Addie
& August finishing up their "truck schooling" for the day. |
The
outside of Oak Knoll Baptist Chapel. It is *much* larger inside than
this picture shows, as their is another wing behind this front building,
and a basement under both! |
The
main sanctuary, from the back. |
The
same sanctuary, but from the front this time. |
|
|
|
|
|
| Another short update. We are now in Springfield,
Ohio, arriving here yesterday after a long 11-hour drive from Lugoff,
South Carolina. The entire East Coast has been dry for months,
and many areas are experiencing extreme droughts. So, rain is
good. But it still is no fun to drive in it! It started
raining about 1/2 way through our trip and rained steadily for the
last 5 hour or so, including our rush-hour drive through Cincinnati
(45+ minutes to go 10-15 miles). That was not much fun!
Tonight we have a meeting in Marion, Ohio, which is about 1:45
northeast of where we are staying. We are looking forward to
that meeting. Tomorrow we will be dropping in at a church in
Cincinnati. We also received an email yesterday from a church in
Columbiana, Ohio inviting us in for a meeting on November 6th, which
works out well since we have a meeting about 1.5 hours away the next
day. We actually dropped-by to visit the church in Columbiana
this summer, but the Pastor was not there that evening. The
church was friendly though, and after reviewing our material they have
invited us back, so that is a great blessing.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Short update. No pictures, but we did have two good
meetings today. This morning we were with Orangeburg Baptist
Tabernacle in Orangeburg, South Carolina. It was not a
"scheduled" meeting, but was an opportunity for us to meet a
pastor that I have been speaking with for a while now. Lord
willing he will be able to have us back in August when we are next in
this part of the country. The evening meeting was with Harvest
Baptist Church in Lugoff, South Carolina. This was another great
meeting and we had a wonderful time. We were doubly blessed when
the church voted to begin immediately supporting our ministry.
This is a rare occurrence, and has actually only happened 3 times
since we began deputation. With their support we are now at
30.7% support. Little by little, inch by
inch........... We will be leaving first thing tomorrow
morning for an 11-hour drive to Springfield, Ohio where we have
another meeting on Tuesday, a walk-in on Wednesday and two more
meetings on Sunday.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Greetings from Lugoff, South Carolina. We arrived
here on Friday and enjoyed a day of relaxation today while we
celebrated Addie's birthday! Her actual birthday was on the
16th, but this is the best time that we had available to actually do a
birthday "celebration". We are staying on
the grounds at Harvest Baptist Church where we will be presenting our
ministry tomorrow evening. They have been wonderful hosts, and
the hookups have worked perfectly. Tomorrow morning we will drop
by and visit Orangeburg Baptist Tabernacle in Orangeburg, South
Carolina. We will be heading north on Monday, driving from here
to Springfield, Ohio to be ready for another presentation on
Tuesday. In other news, the RV repairs were complete on Thursday
and everything seems to be working properly. We also had the
opportunity to visit with our sending church in Powhatan on Wednesday,
which was the first time we have attended services there in the past 6
months, so that was a special blessing. All of the photos below
are from here at Harvest Baptist Church.
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Our
house parked between their activity center/gymnasium and a covered car
port. |
You
can't see it well, but behind these first couple of trees is a very nice
baseball field. |
They
also have a nice sand volleyball lot. |
This
small building is to the right of the carport from the first
picture. I'm not sure what's in this one. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Another
shot showing the gym and our house, as well as the smaller building. |
This
is the street sign by the main road. Everything about their property
is very beautiful and perfectly maintained. |
This
is the view of the main church building from the road. |
This
is the view from the other side of the church. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| This
shows the smaller building attached to the back of the main sanctuary. |
This
shot does not do the scene justice, but the moon next to the steeple was a
wonderful site. |
This
is the not-so-small playground next to the church. |
This
is one of their two church vans. |
|
|
|
|
|
| We are back in Amelia, Virginia today. We left
Minster, Ohio at 7:00am yesterday morning and pulled in here at 8:00pm
yesterday evening! We will have the opportunity to visit our
sending church in Powhatan tomorrow evening. This will be the
first time we have been able to see them in 6 months - since April 8th
of this year (Easter weekend), so we are definitely looking forward to
that. I have not heard more about Esther Travis yet, but please
continue praying. This is certainly not going to be a quick
recovery. This coming Thursday we are scheduled to take the RV
in for the final repair of the galley holding tank, so after that
everything should be working properly. The conference in Minster
came to a conclusion this past Sunday and everything went very
well. We enjoyed the entire conference and the wonderful
reception we were given by the people there at Calvary Chapel Baptist
Church. The photos below are from Sunday afternoon. We
were invited to the home of the Howell family for lunch and
relaxation. Most of the afternoon was spent on the
4-wheelers, which my children absolutely loved!
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| August
sitting on one of the 4-wheelers, waiting for his driver. |
Braden
takes off on a ride. |
Addie
rode around on the "mule" with Bro. Howell. |
Another
shot of Braden. He enjoyed many "wheelies" and riding on
2-wheels (side wheels). |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Bro.
Howell's daughter and her husband enjoyed the riding too! |
The
Howell family home...a renovated farmhouse that is about 100 years
old. It was very beautiful. |
Mr.
Howell runs an autobody repair facility, used car lot and towing service. |
Duke,
the family dog, enjoyed chasing us all afternoon! |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Braden
and I eat some popcorn while relaxing in the family room and chatting with
the Howell family. |
Addie's
sitting on the floor eating her popcorn. |
August
and Braden on the couch. |
Addie
poses for a quick shot. She's 7 as of today (the 16th)!! |
 |
|
|
|
| August
lost one front tooth and the other one is very loose. He may
be singing about teeth at Christmas! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| A number of updates today. First, the photos below
are a combination from our last meeting (some photos I forgot to put
up) and the rest are from Calvary Chapel Baptist Church where we
currently are. The meeting is going very well and the people are
being very receptive of both our family and our ministry. We are
also enjoying the time of fellowship with the other missionary
families. That leads me to my second update. I spoke with
Jennifer Travis today, the mother of the little girl who became ill at
the last conference. To clarify, the little girls' name is
Esther Travis and she is 4 years old. They have discovered that
she has Stage IV Neuroblastoma, which is a children's cancer.
She has a larger tumor entwined with her entire spine, as well as
tumors on other major vital organs, including her heart. Doctors
are still working on what treatments to do first, but it should
include some combination of chemotherapy and surgery. The
prognosis is not good and I'm sure this family would greatly covet
your prayers. I would also ask you to pray for us as we make a
small transition on deputation. We had been planning to visit
several churches on the West Coast, through California, Arizona and
New Mexico, next summer. The number of meetings I have been able
to schedule (7 as of today) does not justify the 7,000+ miles of
driving that would be needed in order to present at each of these
churches. I also have not had peace about the idea of having a
few supporting churches on the West Coast and the rest on the East
Coast, which would result in increased travel for furlough as
well. Therefore, I have been calling these 7 churches today to
cancel the meetings. The pastors have been very understanding
and have stated that they agree that it would not have been wise for
us to come all that way just for a handful of meetings. I will
now be filling those months (May, June, July and August) with
additional meetings here on the East Coast in the states that we have
been focusing on, as well as expanding our calling into Indiana,
Illinois and possibly Missouri. This will help us to continue to
be wise stewards of our time and money and leave us in a far better
position when it comes time for furlough. However, again, I ask
that you pray during this transition as I now must begin the process
once more of scheduling and trying to fill these 4 months.
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Display
for the Taylor's, Hispanic church-planting missionaries in the U.S. |
august
playing Foosball while Braden watches a game of Table Tennis.. |
Addie
and August taking on one of the missionaries. |
I
get a chance to fellowship with one of the missionaries before service. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| The
outside of the main building for Calvary Chapel Baptist Church in Minster,
Ohio. |
The
sanctuary at Calvary Chapel Baptist Church. |
One
of the missionary displays for the Johnson family going to Brazil. |
Another
missionary display for Bro. Hall, missionary to Peru. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Display
for the Gardner family, missionaries to Peru. |
Addie
and August playing with another child while I speak with the other
missionaries. |
A
shot of the foyer, with the people fellowshipping after the evening
service. |
Mrs.
Gardner speaks with one of the church ladies. |
 |
 |
 |
|
| August
has found a new friend. |
Mrs.
Johnson with her daughter. |
Addie
found the same new friend August did! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| I've had a number of people comment over the past few
years that they thought Melissa was my daughter. We've always
attributed that to the fact that she looks young and I have a growing
amount of gray hair. I can handle that okay. However,
tonight we had something different happen. We started a
conference tonight at Calvary Chapel Baptist Church in Minster,
Ohio. There were three other missionaries present tonight with
us (the Travis family was also supposed to be here but is not for
obvious reasons, and one other missionary couldn't come because he is
sick). I was the first missionary to speak tonight and the
pastor was trying to highlight the fact that it was a
"young" crowd of missionaries presenting this year. To
do so he mentioned that I was the oldest missionary
present. That takes some steam out of your sails!! I'm
ready to go buy a cane now! It's hard to believe that in a crowd
of missionaries I could be the oldest, but I guess I have been
getting a year older each year for a number of years now (go
figure!) Makes you consider how much time we waste in this life,
and makes me personally consider that I need to get busy serving the
Lord now. Anyways, I thought some of you would get a kick
out of that. Hopefully we'll get some photos tomorrow, but we
forgot the camera tonight (guess my mind is beginning to slip because
of my old age!) We're going to try to get warm now -- it's in
the 40's and raining.....lovely Ohio weather.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Just a couple of things today. First, the weather up
here is changing dramatically. Yesterday it was in the 90's,
today it's in the 70's and tomorrow is supposed to be in the
50's. YUCK! But, that comes with being in Ohio in
October. Second, I wanted to give an update on Esther Travis
(the young girl I mentioned yesterday). They did find tumors on
her spine and in her lymph nodes. They were doing a biopsy today
when I spoke with Bro. Travis. They are convinced it is cancer
but need the biopsy to determine what type of cancer in order to
schedule the correct type of chemotherapy. Please be in prayer
with them about this, and also about deputation, as Bro. Travis
desires to continue raising the support they will need to continue to
the field once they have made it through this trial.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| We left Sandusky this afternoon and arrived safely in
Minster, Ohio just a short while ago. We will be here through
Monday of next week, as we participate in a conference at Calvary
Chapel Baptist Church. We are staying at Lake Loramie State Park
just a short distance from the church. This past week was very
busy, but also rather fruitful. We had services every day with
Lighthouse Baptist Church and it seems that the conference results
were very positive. They collected their faith promise promise
cards yesterday during the morning service and then announced the
totals during the evening service. From a church of 130ish
(including children) they have promised around $64,000 for missions
during the next year. I find that figure amazing and am
continued to be challenged as we see individuals sacrifice to
accomplish the work of our Lord. With this commitment the church
is expecting to be able to add several new mission works to their
program and we pray that we will be one of those which is added.
We are busy with school today and have plenty to fill tomorrow before
the next conference begins on Wednesday, so our plate remains
full. Please also pray for the Travis family. They were
with us at the conference in Sandusky and one of their children got
sick the last couple of days we were there. They took her to the
hospital due to a large lump on her thigh earlier in the conference,
and took her back again yesterday afternoon for the same
problem. It had swollen quite large and was very painful for
her. Last night they transferred her to a hospital in Cleveland
and are continuing to run tests. A biopsy is scheduled for today
to determine if it is something with her lymph nodes or possibly a
tumor of some sort. As can be expected, this is a difficult time
for them and they would appreciate all the prayer support they can
get.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Greetings! We are now up in Sandusky, Ohio. We
made the 11-hour trip safely on Tuesday, arriving here around
5:00p. We are participating in a mission conference at
Lighthouse Baptist Church here in Sandusky, beginning yesterday and
running through this coming Sunday. We are staying on the
property of Bro. and Sis. Wax, about 25 minutes from the church.
Below are some photos of their property, as well as the church
facilities. We are looking forward to a wonderful week, both
with the 11 other missionaries as well as with the church family.
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Our
house parked in front of the Wax's barn. |
Another
shot of our house, showing Bro. Wax's leatherworking workshop of to one
side. |
The
street sign for LBC. |
A
view of the front of their church building. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| The
LBC van and bus. |
View
from the back of the sanctuary, looking forward. |
View
from the front of the sanctuary, looking backward. |
A
few of the many flags being used to decorate the building for this
conference. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| A
nice lighthouse photo that adorns the front of the sanctuary. |
The
main hallway where many of the missionary displays are located. |
August
and Addie check out the display for Stan and Molly Prussia, missionaries
to the Philippines. |
One
of many missionary displays. |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| One
of many missionary displays. |
One
of many missionary displays. |
One
of many missionary displays. |
One
of many missionary displays. |
 |
 |
|
|
| One
of many missionary displays. |
A
family of second generation missionaries! She and her husband are
both missionary children and are now being sent to work in Russia, along
the Chinese border. She is due in about 6 weeks with their first
child. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Two updates in one day! I received our end-of-month financial reports from our
mission agency today and was pleased to find out that two of our
existing supporting churches voted to increased our monthly support
level. First Baptist Church of Lorton in Lorton, Virginia and
Jetersville Baptist Church in Jetersville, Virginia both made this
decision, bringing our monthly support level up to 29.58%. I had
been praying to be allowed to reach 30% for the month, and am
certainly not disappointed with what was achieved. I'll just
round it up to 30%! The Lord has been blessing us richly
throughout the month of September and we anticipate many more
blessings through the remainder of 2008. We are striving to
raise the remaining 70% of our necessary support over the next 10
months, which humanly speaking is almost impossible. However, we
serve the God of the impossible with whom ALL things are possible, and
we are eagerly anticipating watching what He will do in allowing us to
accomplish this goal and to make it to language school by August of
2008!
|
|
|
|
|
|
| We had the privilege of spending the day yesterday with
Grace Baptist Temple in Blackstone, Virginia. This is a very
friendly, very vibrant fundamental church in the heart of
Virginia. We participated in all of the services, with me
preaching during Sunday School and then presenting our ministry and
preaching during the evening service. We also had the
opportunity to enjoy a wonderful meal with Pastor Rhew's family and
some of the church folk after the morning service and again after the
evening service! It was a wonderful time, as we were warmly
welcome by the entire congregation. We look forward to the
possibility of working with this church in accomplishing the work to
which the Lord has called our family.
|
|
|
|
|
