RGVBaptist.com - Independent Baptist Missionaries to the Hispanic people of the Rio Grande Valley, Texas

2007 11-24
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!

2007 11-20
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.

2007 11-16
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!

2007 11-12
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.

2007 11-5
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!