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| Updates for 2007 - November
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| Greetings from South Carolina. We are on the campus
of Tabernacle Baptist Church here in Greenville, South Carolina.
It's a very large facility and we are glad they have made it available
to us for our stay here. We have two walk-in meetings planned
tomorrow. The morning meeting will be at Calvary Baptist Church
in Greenwood, South Carolina (about an hour south of here) and the
evening will be at Gospel Baptist Church here in Greenville (about 17
minutes south of this church). We look forward to both of these
opportunities. We will be presenting here at Tabernacle next
Wednesday. We did have a brief power outage last night due to
our "shore line" power cord coming apart. We have a
very large 4-wire electrical cord that attaches our trailers power
system to whatever hookup we have. The end that attaches to the
RV came apart around 11:00 last night, with 2 of the 4 wiles coming
complete undone. I went to Wal-Mart to buy a new one and they
didn't carry them. So, I just let the Lord use me to fix our
current cord, despite the fact that I am definitely NOT an
electrician! It only took about 20 minutes, but I was able to
put it all back together and it is working great. It's a joy to
watch the Lord give you an ability you don't have to do the work that
He needs you to do!
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| The meetings at Rosedale Baptist Church wound up (for us)
on Sunday morning, and we had a great week with them. The people
were extremely friendly and truly had a burden for us and our
ministry. We were notified today that the church did vote Sunday
evening to begin supporting our ministry and we praise God for that
increase! Our evening meeting went equally well. After a
short 2-hour drive up to Maryland we arrived and had services with
Harvester Baptist Church. We again had a good reception and are
thankful for the opportunity they provided to allow us to come and
present our ministry. Today we are in Powhatan, Virginia.
We drove in yesterday and were intending to stop at our sending church
to pick up our mail before heading out to Amelia for a few days.
However, upon arriving we decided that we had to be back in Powhatan
today for dentist appointments, so we thought we would just
stay. Good decision. Pastor Blackwell (our sending pastor)
was talking to me outside our trailer and noticed threads showing on
one of the tires. Upon closer inspection we found that the tire
was beginning to separate and pieces were missing. So, today I
bought 4 new tires and they will be installed this afternoon.
That is actually a PRAISE for two reasons: 1.) We found the
problem without having to be stranded on the side of the road or
involved in an accident; 2.) My brother-in-law who lives in Powhatan
had a contact which helped me save 50% on the price of the tires
(saved around $300). We will be enjoying Thanksgiving here in
Powhatan and then head down to South Carolina on Friday for a couple
of walk-in meetings this Sunday and then a planned meeting next
Wednesday.
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| This week at Rosedale Baptist Church is going very
well. We have had two good nights of services and are looking
forward to another this evening. Yesterday morning I had the
chance to speak to the Elementary School Chapel and afterwards a group
of us participated in the Shenandoah Preachers Fellowship
meeting. Today I spoke to the Middle/High School Chapel and
afterwards our group took a short sight-seeing trip here in the local
Winchester area. Tomorrow we will be having an International
Dinner and then the conference will finish up on Sunday. I will
be presenting our ministry during a combined adult/teen Sunday School
class in the morning and then the Faith Promise Commitments will be
collected during the regular morning service. Our evening
service is actually in Ellicott City, Maryland, and we are looking
forward to that, despite the 2-hour drive. One note of prayer
for you to keep in mind. I dropped the truck off Tuesday for
some simple service. It had what I thought was a rear-axle leak
and also needed a state inspection (it expired while we were out of
the area). I've been driving a rental ever since, because they
found quite a few problems that either needed or required
attention. They are estimating the final bill to be just over
$3,000 for all of the repair work. While this was certainly
unexpected we are ever mindful of our Lord's provision and are
thankful that He has already provided the funds necessary to cover the
cost of these repairs. We serve a mighty God! Just pray
that the repairs would take care of all of the problems, and that the
truck would continue to serve us well. It has not left us
stranded once, and we pray that this grace will continue through the
remainder of our deputation!
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| It's been a full week, and we've managed to stay very
busy. The meeting in Columbiana, Ohio went very well. The
people were very receptive (again) of our ministry and we enjoyed
having an opportunity to meet the Pastors. We actually stopped
in at this church over the summer (un-announced), but neither of the
Pastors were able to be there that night, so they invited us back for
this conference. He mentioned that they might also invite us
back again next year sometime, so I guess we didn't make too bad of an
impression! The weather has been fairly cooperative during our
visit so far. It's been COLD and raining off-and-on, but not
really any snow. There were flurries for a few minutes the first
couple of days, but it didn't stick to anything at all, so we're
thankful for that. We finished our conference here in Brunswick
yesterday and will be leaving tomorrow heading to Winchester, Virginia
for a conference at Rosedale Baptist Church beginning this
Wednesday. The conference here in Brunswick was amazing.
We knew the church was a larger church (700-800 people), and we had
been told we would enjoy the conference (by someone outside of the
church), but we didn't know exactly how much this church loves
missionaries and shows that love through their actions! Everyone
in the church was extremely friendly to every missionary that
was present. The entire staff, starting with the Sr. Pastor
(Pastor Powers), went out of their way to do whatever they could to
make our stays more comfortable and to provide for our every
need. We also enjoyed several times of fellowship during the
week. The nightly services were truly a blessing. On
Friday we participated in their traditional mission conference trip to
the Lodi Outlet Stores to buy shoes for every member of every
missionary family present. We were instructed to buy WHATEVER
shoes we wanted/needed (1 pair each). This was truly a
blessing! On Saturday we enjoyed a private lunch at Mapleside
Restaurant here in Brunswick, which was outstanding. The food
was abundant and delicious. Afterwards we gathered around their
large stone fireplace for a time of fellowship and conversation with
Pastor Powers. Yesterday was the conclusion of the conference
and was very special. Every missionary was assigned to a
particular class for Sunday School and then had lunch in the afternoon
with a specific family in the church. We were served an
abounding meal of ribs, baked potatoes, bread and two different
specialty salads. The food was amazing and the hosts were very
gracious. For the conclusion of the conference during the
evening service there was a special "candle light" service,
but not like one we've ever seen. This part of the service began
in total darkness. One at a time Pastor Powers described each
field, and as he concluded that field he'd send the missionaries for
that field into the congregation to "light" their section of
the world. After he finished each section the room was awash in
light, and one could easily see the effect of the "light of the
Gospel" being sent out into the world. But, that was not
the end. Pastor Powers then spoke about missionaries being
forced to come off the field for financial and other reasons.
One at a time he called each missionary "home" and had those
who were lit by the missionary extinguish their candles. At the
conclusion the room was once again completely dark. It was a
very touching visual representation of the speed with which the Gospel
can light the world, but also the speed at which the world can return
to darkness if we forsake our responsibility to send the Gospel.
Afterwards their was a pizza fellowship in their Family Life
Center. Each missionary had a special station setup for their
family. We stayed at our station and were served by the members
of the church. While we ate, the members of the church came
around to visit, expressing their appreciation for our willingness to
serve in our specific field and also to present us with special gifts
and tokens of that appreciation. The financial impact of this
conference was overwhelming, but the love that was demonstrated was
even greater. The final note I have to report is that at the end
of the candlelight service the church had a very quick business
meeting and voted to begin supporting each of the missionaries that
were present. Through this church our support was increased
almost 2.5%, moving us up to 33.4% total support at this time.
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| Just a quick update. We are now in Brunswick, Ohio,
having traveled in from Florence, Kentucky today. We enjoyed two
good meetings this past Sunday, one in Covington, Kentucky on Sunday
morning and one in Florence, Kentucky in the evening. If you
received our prayer letter you know we had a problem with a tire on
the RV. I was able to take that off and get it fixed in LaGrange
before we traveled to Florence. It was just a leaky valve stem,
and they fixed it in just a few minutes at a cost of only $5. I
certainly didn't mind that! We are looking forward to a meeting
in Columbiana, Ohio tomorrow (part of a mission conference) and then
being with Grace Baptist Church here in Brunswick, Ohio for their
conference from Wednesday through Sunday. The only negative is
that the current temperature is 60 and that is by far the high for
this week. It will drop overnight and the high for the rest of
the week is 44. It just started raining a few minutes ago, and
that is okay, but it's supposed to switch over to snow
overnight. It's supposed to continue snowing tomorrow (mixed
with rain) and snow again Wednesday morning. It's supposed to
rain both Thursday and Friday. So, a wet, soggy week is in
store, but we know they need the rain, so we will praise God for His
provision!
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