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| It's amazing how quickly mission conferences come and
go. We've finished up our conference in Bridgeport, West
Virginia as of Sunday morning. We enjoyed several wonderful days
with them and are thankful for the opportunity. The pictures
below are from just a small portion of the conference. One thing
that is not shown is the men's golf outing from Friday. They
took us men out for a full 18 holes. I told pastor that I had
never played golf, but he wanted me to come anyways. I think I
hit about a 75.....on the first 9 holes. I'm certainly no
golfer!! I did manage to get a nice sunburn complete with
blisters and everything (ouch!) But, it was fun. Yesterday
we made the 9-hour drive up to Crawfordsville, Indiana (northwest of
Indianapolis). We will be here for 2 weeks as we have 2
scheduled meetings and take advantage of the opportunity for a few
walk-in meetings. Tonight I have a meeting in Loxley,
Alabama. I'm actually flying out of Indianapolis in a couple of
hours (I need to leave here in 15 minutes). I'll fly to
Pensacola, FL where the church that I'll be with will pick me
up. I'm in the conference tonight and tomorrow and then will fly
back to Indiana on Thursday. Everything else is going well and
all are fine.
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| Our
display, as it looked for the first couple of days. |
Our
display the last day of the conference. We decided to change the
table covering because the "busyness" of the other one tended to
hide the items sitting on it! |
Bro.
Kisslings display |
The
main missionary display for the church, highlighting many of the
missionaries that they support. |
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| Some
flags at the front of the auditorium. |
A
missions conference poster highlighting those that will be present. |
One
of many items "sitting around" throughout the church to
highlight "things" from different parts of the world. |
The
main fellowship hall where we enjoyed some delicious meals throughout the
week. |
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| A
closer look at the table. |
These
ladies were faithful each night to ensure that we had a wonderful meal. |
A
sampling of just a small portion of the food that we enjoyed. |
Bro.
& Mrs. Kissling - missionaries to the military in Germany |
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| People
are arriving and beginning to get settled for the services. |
August
and Addie speaking with Nathaniel Wilcox. |
A
few of us mingle in the downstairs foyer waiting for dinner on Saturday. |
Bro.
Austin Gardner |
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| The
"Men for Missions" group is cooking up a wonderful meal for
Saturday. |
Addie
checks out the beginnings of preparations for Saturday's dinner. |
More
food arrives. |
Pastor
Jeff Vaughan speaking with Mrs. Harris |
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| Addie's
ready for dinner. |
More
people arrive and mingle. |
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| Today we greet you from Bridgeport, West Virginia.
We had our meeting last night with Believers Baptist Church in
Leesburg, Virginia, and enjoyed our time together with them.
They are an actively growing church in an area where the population is
exploding. They have a vibrant Christian school, and I expect to
see them continue their rapid growth in the coming years. This
morning we made the trip from Leesburg here to Bridgeport (about 5
hours) with no issues to report. We are staying on the grounds
at Grace Baptist Church and will be participating in their 2008
mission conference beginning this evening and running through Sunday
morning. We are looking forward to the time that we have to
spend with them, and in getting to know them better. Please be
in prayer with us for a couple of other matters. First, my
back. I've been having on/off issues with it for years, but
hadn't had any problems for several months. However, it's
returned. I've had several times in the past few weeks where
it's literally stopped me in my tracks. Each episode only lasts
a few minutes (generally), but they are rather painful. I'm
hoping most of it is simply aggravated by these few pounds I've picked
up while on deputation as well as all of the time spent driving.
If that is the case then our arrival in Texas in a few weeks should
bring a rapid end to this problem! Also, please be in prayer
regarding our arrival in Texas as well. There are still a few
things to complete before we're ready to make the trip, and a lot of
things that need to be purchased once we arrive. We know the
Lord is in control and we look forward to seeing how He will work each
of these matters out.
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| Believer's
Baptist Church in Leesburg, Virginia - street sign. |
View
from the road of the front of the main sanctuary. |
This
front-side view also shows some of the modular space added beside the main
building. |
The
playground utilized by their Christian school for the younger children. |
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| The
back of the church. As a comparison for size, our RV is the small
white spot in the lower right-hand corner! |
This
is a view looking back towards the front doors (which would be below what
you can see here). They have a nice window and banners which Melissa
really enjoyed. |
This
display for the school is in the main foyer. |
This
is part of the main sanctuary, where we await the people to arrive for
service (we were about 40 minutes early). |
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| Grace
Baptist Church in Bridgeport, West Virginia - street sign. |
View
from the road of the front and side of the main sanctuary. |
Another
shot from the same location, but looking more to the right to see the
additional building space they have. |
Our
new home (for the next few days). We are behind the church. A
few hundred feet behind us is a small river that we may have to
explore..... |
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| We finished the conference in Charlottesville, Virginia
last night and are enjoying a day of rest (okay, not really) before we
travel again tomorrow. Everything went wonderfully with the
conference (more info in the photos below), and we were informed that
we can expect the church to begin financially partnering with us in
this ministry next month. That is quite a blessing!
Yesterday morning I also had the opportunity to visit with Cornerstone
Baptist Church in Jefferson, Maryland. Unfortunately due to the
3.5 hour drive I had to make the trip by myself (I left
Charlottesville at 5:30 in the morning), but I did enjoy the
opportunity to present our ministry and preach during the morning
service, and have a meal with many of the church folk.
Afterwards I made the 3.5 hour drive back to Charlottesville to finish
up the conference here. Today Melissa got caught up on laundry
(and resumed school which we cancelled the last 2 days of last week)
and I made the trip to Powhatan to get some work done on the bus we
recently purchased. Unfortunately, the cost of these repairs is
significantly more than I had anticipated, so please be in prayer with
us in that regard. Tomorrow we will travel up to Leesburg,
Virginia (about 1.5 hours) for a meeting there Wednesday
evening. On Thursday we will travel to Bridgeport, West Virginia
(about 4.5 hours) for a conference which begins that evening and runs
through Sunday morning. On Monday we will then travel up to
Indianapolis, Indiana for meetings the following weekend. God
continues to bless, and we thank Him for everything He has already
allowed us to accomplish!
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| Mrs.
Sawyer and her husband hosted a tremendous lunch for our family, along
with Pastor Leake, Bro. Sumpter (the main speaker for the conference) and
Bro. Johnson (another of the missionaries present). It was a great
time by all! |
We
enjoyed a wonderful lunch with many special breads, meats and cheeses for
our sandwiches, as well as an array of side dishes. It was
delicious! |
The
kids enjoy their food. |
Bro.
Sumpter, Bro. Johnson and Pastor Leake have some fellowship following
lunch. |
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| This
is the view from the back of their home. |
Their
boat (also visible in the previous photo). |
The
men are getting the boat ready for us to go out. |
We
cruise along peacefully, enjoying the fresh air and company. |
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| Bro.
Sawyer cruises the boat along while chatting with the other guests. |
Addie
found a new friend in Pastor Leake. |
Now
we're really cruising! |
Braden
takes a turn driving.....look out. |
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| Now
it's August's turn.....uh-oh! |
Here
comes Addie.....yay, we get to drive in circles. |
A
couple of turtles, bathing in the sun. |
Another
turtle. We also saw about 3-4 deer along the edge of the lake as
well. |
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| Braden
ties the boat up as we return to the dock. |
Braden
and August sport the new suits that were purchased for them by someone
(anonymous) at Colonial Baptist Church. Don't they look
handsome! Addie rounds out the trio. |
Another
shot of just Braden and August. |
August
also got a second suit from someone (again anonymous) in the church. |
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| The bus is in Powhatan and we are settled in
Charlottesville. We began the conference last night here at
Colonial Baptist Church, and have enjoyed ourselves immensely.
We've been with Bro. Jim Sumpter (the main speaker this week) before
and were looking forward to seeing him again. The church has
been very receptive and friendly, and we look forward to a great
remainder of the week with them. Today we took the opportunity
to have a field trip to Monticello and have included a number of
photos below. The weather started out cold (about 35 this
morning) but quickly rose into the 70's, making for an absolutely
beautiful visit. After lunch Pastor Leake met us and took us to
a suit shop in Charlottesville to have both of our boys outfitted with
new suits (the first "real" suit for both of them!) We
are extremeley grateful for the generosity of this church in meeting
this need of our family! Tomorrow we look forward to having
lunch with Pastor & Mrs. Leake at the home of one of the families
in the church. We will be travelling to the member's home which
is on a 500 acre lake, and will also enjoy some time out on a Pontoon
boat. The children are certainly looking forward to that
adventure.
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| Street
sign for Colonial Baptist Church in Charlottesville, Virginia |
Outside
of the main buildings. To the right is the sanctuary and to the left
is the print shop. |
We
had a brief tour of the print shop before services. They produce a
large volume of very quality material for distribution around the world. |
The
main sanctuary, which is empty right now because we still have over an
hour until service begins! |
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| Dinner
is being provided each night....in abundance! |
The
kids enjoying some grilled chicken, mashed potatos, green beans and
salad....yummy! |
A
piranha on the display for the Lockhearts, missionaries to Brazil. |
Braden,
August and Addie sit on the east steps of Monticello. |
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| A
shot of the west side of the house, which looks much like the east
side. Looks just like a nickel! |
Another
shot of the west side of the house. |
Braden,
August and Addie as we begin our day at Monticello. |
The
kids pose for a shot with Monticello in the background. |
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| August
stands in front of some beautiful varigated tulips. |
The
kids check out the "fish pond". They used to catch fish
and store them in this little pond to keep them fresh until they were
ready to eat them. Interesting idea. |
We
also walked down the nearly 1 mile long vegetable garden. Anyone
hungry? |
This
berry patch, vinery and orchard is directly down the hill beneath the
vegetable garden. |
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| This
small observation building is on the side of the hill between the
vegetable garden and the orchard. |
The
kids in the observation building. |
Another
shot of the kids. |
This
plaque is at the entrance to the graveyard and explains how it came into
existence. |
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| A
full shot of Jefferson's oblisk. |
A
closer shot, detailing what it is that he wanted to be remembered for. |
One
of many wreaths at Jefferson's tomb (it's very close to his birthday right
now). |
A
closer shot of the previous wreath, showing it is from the President,
George Bush. |
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| August
is checking his options for a suit. |
Braden
in the middle of fitting. |
Addie
found a hat, but I don't think it's going to work out! |
Addie
checks herself out in the triple mirrors. |
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| Braden
continues to get measured. |
This
is the outside of the shop in Charlottesville where the Pastor took us to
purchase the suits. |
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| Somebody left the AC on here in northern Virginia!
It's about 50 degrees today, and the low tonight is supposed to be
close to 30. That just seems wrong, considering just two days
ago it was a lovely 80 degrees! But, it could be worse.
Thing have gone well since the last update. The meeting at Clay
went well, and we were able to see a fellow missionary (bro. Wayne
Holder with First Bible International) that we met several months back
at another conference. We left West Virginia on Saturday and
arrived safely here in Woodstock, Virginia. We've spent the last
two days with Pastor Dunham and his family and it has been a rather
enjoyable time. He seems to have my same
"personality", so we've had a time of picking on one
another! The meetings Sunday were great, and the people were
extremely receptive of our ministry and our family. It has been
our pleasure to spend these two days here. Today we made the
drive up to Ephrata, Pennsylvania (and then back) to retrieve the bus
we purchased last month. It is now here with us in
Woodstock. Braden has already given it a name -- it is the
"U-Boat". The "U" stands for
"ugly". I'm not sure I like that name......Tomorrow morning we will drive it to Powhatan and
leave it at our sending church, before returning that afternoon here
to Woodstock so that we can hookup the trailer and move it to
Charlottesville in preparation for a mission conference that begins
there tomorrow. Still very busy, but that is a blessing!
God is working absolutely everything out to ensure our arrival in Rio
Grande City in July.
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| Robin
Anderson (Melissa's step-mother) went with us to our meeting in
Clay. |
Braden
and August smile for a picture in the truck before service. |
Street
sign for Grace Baptist Church in Woodstock, Virginia. |
Back
of the building where we have our RV parked. |
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| Front
of the building on Sunday morning. The clouds look ominous, but the
weather wasn't that bad. |
The
main "foyer" of the church. To the left is the Sanctuary
and to the right is the Fellowship Hall. |
The
fellowship hall, which use to be the auditorium. |
The
main auditorium. |
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| Some
of the missionaries supported by GBC. |
Addie
arrives for Sunday School. |
Addie
and Elizabeth (the pastor's daughter). |
Braden
and I speak with some of the members before service. |
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| Addie
and Elizabeth play with the organ in the fellowship hall after the morning
service (while waiting for lunch). |
Braden
and I talk with Pastor Dunham and his son while waiting for lunch....you
can smell it cooking though! |
Braden
enjoys the futon in the teen Sunday School room. |
Addie
Grace plays a little after lunch as well! |
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| The
kids went down to the teen Sunday School room after lunch to goof off. |
Addie
and Elizabeth play on a modified foosball table. |
The
kids standing in the door of the "U-Boat". |
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| The past few days have been very busy, but very
good. We had a quick trip on the 7th to Oxford, Alabama and
stayed for 3 days on the grounds of Trinity Baptist Church. On
Tuesday I had the opportunity of speaking to their church academy high
school students during their morning chapel. It was a good time
and hopefully a challenging one for the teens. Following that
service I was interviewed by Pastor Grinstead for their radio station,
which aired that interview the same day. I had never done a
radio interview before, so that was rather exciting for me! On
Wednesday I had the opportunity to go with the pastor on visitation
and then that evening we presented our ministry to the church and I
had the opportunity to preach. Everyone in the church (every
day) was very friendly and went out of their way to accomodate
us. We thoroughly enjoyed our time together with them.
But, it had to come to an end. Yesterday we left Oxford, Alabama
and made the 10 hour drive up to Beckley, West Virginia. It was
not a good day. It started well when we hit the road at 5:30
instead of 6:00 (like we had planned). But, later that morning
we stopped for fuel and I managed to run into a Pepsi-Cola delivery
truck in the parking lot. Fortunately I didn't damage his
vehicle at all. I wish I could have said the same about
mine. I caught him with the back corner of the bike rack on the
very back of the RV.....another 2 inches clearance and I would have
missed him. It bent the corner of that rack up pretty well, but
obviously it could have been much, much worse! Just adds more
character to this ole thing, I guess! We arrived in Beckley at
the RV park we planned at staying at only to find out that they had no
water or electricity. The water main in the park broke last
fall, and someone ran into the electrical box and took out the power
recently as well. Needless to say we don't do well for 3 days
without water or electricity so we had to scramble to make other
arrangements. We were led to a campground we didn't know existed
only 5 miles away, and were able to get settled in nicely there.
Today has been a work day (kid's still in school, plugging right
along) and I took the opportunity to work on the truck. I
finally figured out why we ran low on oil a few weeks back -- the oil
filter was leaking. Since it was due anyways I did a complete
oil change and hopefully now that won't be a problem. Tonight we
travel up to Clay, West Virginia for a visit with Clay First Baptist
Church during their annual mission conference, and we look forward to
that. Tomorrow we travel to Woodstock, Virginia to get ready for
a meeting with them all-day Sunday. Monday we will make a quick
(or at least as quick as possible) trip up to Ephrata, Pennsylvania
and back to retrieve the bus we bought about a month ago.
Tuesday we will take the bus and RV to Charlottesville, Virginia to
get ready for a mission conference there from Wednesday thru
Saturday. Sometime during that time we will also travel to
Powhatan and back to drop off the bus at our home church, but we
haven't figured out what day that will be accomplished....yet.
On the house front, the security system has been arranged (finally)
and should be installed in the next few days. Still working on
the water issue, but I fully expect that to be worked out in the near
future as well. Things continue to move
along......
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| Street
sign for Trinity Baptist Church in Oxford, Alabama. |
Playground
at TBC. |
Front
of the main building. |
Left
side of the main building. The last block-like building is the
academy. |
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| Church
daycare (I think) across the road from the main church building. |
The
christian academy at TBC. I believe he said they are running around
250 students. |
Church
bus for TBC. |
Braden
before service on Wednesday. |
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| I'm
finishing getting the video ready to show. |
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| This morning we had a walk-in meeting at Park Avenue
Baptist Church in Moody, Alabama. That went very well, and we
enjoyed the opportunity to finally meet this pastor. He and I
have been conversing for some time. Although they are not able
to financially support our ministry at this time, they are certainly
praying for us and we appreciate that. This afternoon I received
a call from Pastor Terry Simpson at Maple Grove Baptist Church in
Monroe, North Carolina. They voted today to begin supporting our
ministry, raising us to 48.48%. We now have 29 churches
(including our sending church) who are financially contributing to our
ministry on a monthly basis! This evening we are looking forward
to a meeting with Victory Baptist Temple in Montevallo, Alabama.
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| Last night we had an interesting meeting at Beth Haven
Baptist Church. Now, whenever someone states that an event
was "interesting" that usually means something. It
certainly did last night (but in a good way!) We arrived expecting a
"normal" Wednesday night service. However, the members
of Beth Haven are actively trying to reach the growing Hispanic
community in their area. We were surprised to find that there
were over 70 children in attendance, most of which were
Hispanic. I had the opportunity to share our ministry with both
them and the general church members, and also bring a brief challenge
on salvation to those in attendance. Though it was an unexpected
event, it was great to have the opportunity to reach so many young
people at a single time. Countless individuals came forward
during the invitation. I was not informed of what each came
forward for, but I trust that the Lord will continue to work in the
lives of each person that was present.
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| Street
sign for Beth Haven Baptist Church in Crossville, Alabama. |
Main
entrance to the church. The large gymnasium can be seen rising
behind this building. |
The
kids and I check out the pond behind the church before service. |
Melissa
checks out the pond across the road...as well as the paint that is grazing
there. |
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| Children
milling about before service. |
More
photos of the children. |
One
of the workers talking with the children before the service. |
More
photos of the children. |
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| Pastor
Tim Smith and I speaking following the service. |
Addie
playing with one of the children after service. |
The
children get back on the bus to head home. |
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| Little by little, inch by inch! I was able to make a
little progress on getting everything ready with our house in Texas
today. Bro. Shue will be meeting with the security company to do
a "site evaluation" this Friday to determine exactly what
must be done so that they can give us a quote. This is certainly
a step in the right direction! I was also able to reach someone
in Roma concerning the water connection. The good news is that
they are the ones that oversee our water supply and can get the permit
issued. The bad news is that they want verification that a
septic tank/system has been installed (just like Rio Grande City
wanted). However, she did mention that they will eventually
require all homes to connect to the city sewer lines, so I could opt
to connect to the sewer while connecting to the water, which would
bypass that requirement. We will certainly do that, since it
would be forced on us eventually. She also said it was our
responsibility to attach, so I'll have to find a plumber in that
area. I was told about Pastor Noe Lopez in Donna, Texas who does
plumbing work on the side to supplement his pastoral income. I
spoke with him this afternoon and he is going to check into completing
all of this work for us, as well as completing the necessary paperwork
with the county. Little by little.....
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| After a long, boring, 10-hour drive we have arrived safely
in Cropwell, Alabama. Where is Cropwell? I dunno.
Somewhere off of I-85 east of Birmingham. The weather here is
okay, I guess, if you like warm and sunny. The high today is
only 74, and it's not supposed to get below 51 tonight. So, I
guess we'll have to suffer through the warmth. We are staying at
Lakeside Landing RV Park for the next 6 days. We have meetings
in this general area tomorrow as well as this coming Sunday. We
will leave on Monday and head to Oxford, Alabama for our next
meeting. The only real news to report is that we received our
end-of-month reports and were pleased to find what appears to be a new
supporting church. I will try to contact them tomorrow to verify
that this is correct, and will then update this website to reflect our
new total! Below are a few photos from our most recent home here
in Alabama.
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| A
shot of our house, with the truck (front porch) parked nearby. |
The
view from our front door. |
A
better shot of the view, from just across the driveway. |
This
little lady decided to come see what was going on. |
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| I
don't think this guy liked me talking to his woman. |
As
I went inside they got even more adventurous, and drew a little closer! |
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