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| The evening service yesterday went very well with
Lighthouse Baptist Church up in Ashtabula, Ohio. The church was
very open and receptive of our family and ministry and we were
encouraged through the opportunity to spend time with them. This
morning we left Richfield, Ohio, and drove 9 hours down to
Sevierville, Tennessee, (near Pigeon Forge). I will be leaving
tomorrow, heading over to Lexington, North Carolina, for a meeting
with Currytown Baptist Church tomorrow evening. I will drive
back to Sevierville on Wednesday for a meeting that evening with
Blessed Hope Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee. Please
continue to be in prayer about the RV. I have had two
individuals already contact me who are interested in purchasing it, so
please pray that a sale would come quickly and would follow the path
that the Lord would have it to.
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| Street
sign for Bible Baptist Church in Richfield, Ohio. |
This
restaurant is next door to BBC and is where we had lunch after services. |
This
is the front of the BBC in Richfield. |
Street
sign for Lighthouse Baptist Church in Ashtabula, Ohio. |
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| Front
of the main building. You see a second roof in the background which
is the top of their new addition. |
Some
of the buses used by LBC. |
The
choir was practicing when we arrived. |
LBC
has outgrown their current sanctuary and are currently meeting in the
gymnasium. They expect even more growth now that they have
additional space for visitors. |
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| A
view of the new "sanctuary" space from the balcony. |
Behind
the sanctuary space is an enclosed fellowship hall and kitchen. |
It's
hard to tell, but one of the church members and I are standing up on the
balcony overlooking the new sanctuary. |
Missions
display for LBC. |
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| Everything happened as expected since our last
update. On 6/18 we did indeed enjoy services with Nelson County
Baptist Church in Bardstown. They were a very friendly church
and we enjoyed our time together with them. The next day we
drove into Springfield, Ohio, and spent a couple of days with my
father. We also had the opportunity to see my step-sister (Missy
Rohrer), her husband Ryan, and their two children, Landon and
Laken. Our children definitely enjoyed spending time with her
kids!! Yesterday we left Springfield and drove about 4 hours up
to Richfield, Ohio. We will be having services here this morning
with Bible Baptist Church and then will drive up to Ashtabula, Ohio,
this evening for services at Lighthouse Baptist Church. We will
drive back after services and then tomorrow will make the 9 hour drive
down to Seviersville, Tennessee, (near Pigeon Forge) for a meeting in
that area on Wednesday. One prayer request: we have decided that
we will not be keeping our RV as we arrive in Texas. However, it
would work out just as well (perhaps better) to sell it now while we
are still on the East Coast. We've placed it up for sale, so
please pray that the Lord's will would be done in this situation, and
our preference is that it would sell quickly.
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| My
dad and I pose for a quick photo. |
Our
house parked in front of my dad's house. |
Braden
and Landon playing with the computer. |
Addie
Grace, August and Laken were all inseperable. |
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| Well, we made it back to civilization today. For the
past couple of days we have been down in a "holler" at Fort Boonesborough
State Park in Kentucky. It was a nice campground and a wonderful
place to stay....they just didn't get any cell signals, which meant no
cell phones and no wireless internet. But, it was nice to have
some peace and quiet! We enjoyed the opportunity to spend both
Sunday morning and evening services with Berean Baptist Church in
Winchester, Kentucky this past weekend. The church was very
friendly and we thoroughly enjoyed our time with them. We also
enjoyed getting to know Pastor Taylor and his family better while were
in the area. We had lunch with them Sunday afternoon between
services and then toured the Boonesborough Fort together with them on
Monday. Today we made the short (2 hour) drive over to
Bardstown, Kentucky. We are staying on the grounds here at
Nelson County Baptist Church. We are looking forward to getting
to know this church family better as well. We will be spending
some time with the pastor and his family today and tomorrow and will
then have services with the church tomorrow evening. We leave
here Thursday morning and head over to Springfield, Ohio, to spend a
couple of days with my father before heading further north for our
scheduled meeting on Sunday.
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| Our
house at Fort Boonesborough State Park. |
Berean
Baptist Church has a large fish tank in the foyer that Addie enjoyed. |
Missions
board at BBC. |
Street
sign at BBC. |
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| Front
of the building at BBC. |
I
am speaking with some church members before service on Sunday morning. |
August
helps Nathan (the pastor's son) to figure out the Mexican top. |
During
children's church the kids were given balloon swords. |
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| Cicadas
are very heavy in this area right now. |
Josiah
and Nathan Taylor play with the Mexican toys on our display. |
Addie
Grace helps the Taylor boys. |
Addie
Grace lost her top front tooth. |
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| The
front of the fort. |
Our
group gets ready to tour the fort. |
There
were actors in period costumes in most of the buildings. |
This
cabin was full of sewing machines of the day. |
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| This
actress explains how they would make the yarn and color it. |
Several
actors are gathered outside of this cabin. |
Braden,
August and Addie Grace make corn meal. |
This
is a closer shot of Nathan Taylor making corn meal. |
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| Here
is an example of some food at the fort. |
Addie
Grace and Braden check out the bear skin hanging on one wall. |
The
carpenter shows us a piece of locust wood that he is using to make a
handle for a tool. |
He
is demonstrating how to shape the wood. |
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| This
tool makes round spindles. |
Jennifer
and Andrew Taylor. |
August
and Addie Grace check out the blacksmith shop. |
A
closer look at the blacksmith shop. |
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| We
found these drying flower petals in a cabin where they make soap. |
These
are bars of soap lined up to dry. Some included dried flower petals. |
Braden
poses for a shot with Daniel Boone. |
This
is the candle making cabin. |
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| This
display shows how many dips it takes to make candles of various sizes. |
They
were able to make several colors. |
Addie
Grace, Andrew, August and Jennifer do some shopping in the gift shop. |
Braden
shows Addie Grace how the old-fashioned wheelbarrow works. |
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| This
small garden is in the center of the fort. |
Here
are some examples of muskets that were made at the fort. |
This
gunsmith explained how much each gun sold for and how it was primarily
used. |
He
was in the middle of making a replica French trade musket. |
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| Hanging
in the center of this photo is a scalp, presumably from a Shawnee indian. |
Pastor
Taylor and his son, Josiah. |
The
kids enjoyed some time running in the grass in the center of the fort. |
The
gunsmith makes ready to shoot this musket. |
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| The
musket was very loud and left a terrible smell like rotten eggs. The
kiddos (in the background) froze at the BANG. |
Here's
a closer shot of the kids playing. |
Although
the day began stormy, the sun was out by the end of our tour. This
little mariposa was too pretty not to photograph. |
One
last shot of a family cabin. |
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| Street
sign at Nelson County Baptist Church in Bardstown, Kentucky. |
Our
house beside the main building at NCBC. |
The
front bus is used by the church here in their ministry. |
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| We've had a good week, which was supposed to be
relaxing. It was certainly fun, and the kids enjoyed it, but I
am tired and sore from all our relaxing! Finding ourselves here
in Virginia we've availed ourselves of the pool at Melissa's mother's
home. The children haven't been swimming since they were at her
house last summer, so they've enjoyed the opportunity. They also
enjoyed the opportunity to try scuba diving, which they took to very
quickly! This past Wednesday we took the opportunity to visit
with our friends at Mt. Moriah Baptist Church in Powhatan. It
was good to see them once again. We're getting ready to
"resume" travelling tomorrow as we head out from Virginia to
Kentucky and a meeting there this weekend with Berean Baptist Church
in Winchester. In other news, please keep both August and Addie
in your prayers, as they are both suffering with minor colds.
Addie still has the cough in addition to a runny nose and low-grade
fever. August is also picking up those symptoms now.
Finally, I wanted to share some good news with you. In our last
prayer letter we announced 3 new supporting churches. We now
have 2 more! Lighthouse Baptist Church in Loxley, Alabama and
Immanuel Baptist Church in Monticello, Kentucky became our 34th and
35th supporters, bringing our overall financial support up to
57.03%. We had mentioned last year that we needed to reach 58%
to leave for language school in July/August, and it certainly appears
that this goal will be quickly passed!
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| Addie
"Buddy Dives" with her Nana Edelen |
August
buddy dives. |
Braden
buddy dives. |
Melissa gets the tank to herself! |
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| Now
Braden goes by himself. |
And
finally, me. No, my legs are not deformed....it's just the water. |
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| It's been a week since our last update so it's definitely
time to inform you about what is going on! Since our last update
we have been rather busy. On 6/3 we moved from Swannanoa, North
Carolina up to Stuarts Draft, Virginia. That evening they had
some powerful storms roll through and we had to evacuate our trailer
and stay inside the church for a couple of hours. We found that
we also had a new problem with the trailer, that being a sizeable leak
in the master bedroom. I found the source of that leak the next
day and repaired it. Also on 6/4 I picked up about $1,000 worth
of supplies which were donated to us by Victory Baptist Church in
Staunton, Virginia. That evening we enjoyed a wonderful service
with Valley Baptist Church in Stuarts Draft (where we were
parked). On 6/5 we travelled to Amelia Court House, Virginia and
parked the RV at my mother's house there. Along the way we also
managed to stop in Powhatan for our regular dentist
appointments. On 6/6 several members of our sending church came
out to help us "re-pack" our enclosed trailer to prepare it
for it's trip to Texas in just a few weeks. On 6/7 we made it
out to Powhatan County High School to see Melissa's sister graduate
(along with several other teens we knew from our church).
Yesterday we had our final services with our sending church, Holly
Hills Baptist Church in Powhatan, Virginia. They had a normal
morning service followed by a pot-luck dinner and then an afternoon
service. We enjoyed the opportunity to once again fellowship
with our "family" and will miss them all dearly as we depart
for the field. We will continue to stay here in Amelia for the
remainder of this week and then will leave on Saturday for Kentucky
and meetings there on Sunday. Everything and everyone are well
(except that Addie has a persistent cough right now).
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| Our
trailer is hooked up at my mother's house in Amelia and will be moved to
Powhatan tomorrow for "re-packing". |
It's
tomorrow (time flies). We are definitely fully packed! |
Pastor
Blackwell, Steve and Alex Cominsky and Ed Reynolds all came out to help
with the work. |
Another
shot of us working, as we off-load the front of the trailer through the
side door (our goal was to lighten the load on the front of the trailer). |
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| Melissa's
step-father, Richard Edelen, his brother James, Melissa and I are all
waiting for graduation to begin for Melissa's sister, Kirsten. |
The
2008 Powhatan County High School graduating class. |
Our
final service with our church was also "Graduation Sunday", when
the church recognizes each person graduating from High School and College. |
David
Shultz leads the congregational singing. |
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| Paul
Hartman sings a special while Sharon Shultz accompanies him on the piano. |
August
and Braden with my brother, James Freeman. |
We
enjoyed a delicious pot-luck meal after the morning service in the
fellowship hall/gymnasium. |
Adrian
and Jennifer Navarro. Jennifer grew up in our church and was someone
I had the opportunity of working with in our youth program. She
married Adrian who is a native from Brownsville, Texas, about 3 hours from
where we are moving to! (Hello Jennifer) |
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| Sharon
Shultz with her granddaughter, Leah. To the back-right is Lora
Holland, Leah's momma. |
From
left to right: Addie Grace, Katie Freeman (our niece), August and Lindsay
Freeman (another niece). |
Melissa
and Sharon Shultz. |
Steve
and Connie Cominsky pose for a shot while Lisa Blackwell leans in behind
them to make sure she's caught us well! |
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| The
kids and I sang a special in the afternoon service. |
Another
shot of us singing. |
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| We're still here in Swannanoa, North Carolina. We
had a very good weekend. On Sunday morning we had a walk-in
meeting with Swannanoa Heights Baptist Church. The pastor
welcomed us warmly, as did the rest of the church. He asked us
to setup our display and gave me some time during the Sunday School
hour to share information regarding our ministry. He also asked
that I keep in contact with him in the future. Yesterday evening
we drove over to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee and presented our ministry at
Liberty Baptist Church. This church also welcomed us warmly and
we had a wonderful evening with them. There are some photos from
these meetings below. Today has been spent making some travel
arrangements and preparing our prayer letters. We already have
an interesting story to share in that regard. About 10 minutes
ago I sent out the e-mail version of our monthly prayer letter.
About 5 minutes ago I received a phone call from Pastor Mike McDaniel
with Currytown Baptist Church in Lexington, North Carolina. He
had just received our prayer letter by email and "for some reason
or another" decided to look at our schedule on our website.
He noticed that we were going to be in Knoxville, Tennessee on June
25th. His church is having their mission conference from June
23rd through the 25th. Since we're going to be
"relatively" close he was wondering if we'd be interested in
coming sometime during that conference to present our ministry!
That's enough of a blessing in itself, but wait, there's more.
I've never spoken to Pastor McDaniel before!! I had attempted to
reach him a few times without success. "For some reason
though" I've had him on our email prayer letter list and he's
been receiving our letters every month. Now, I am scheduled to
be with him on June 24th. It's always exciting to watch God
provide us with these unique meetings in His perfect
timing.
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| Braden
takes a shot during our family game of "horse". |
Nothing
but net as I take my shot. |
This
campground is in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains here in North
Carolina. |
Liberty
Baptist Church in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. |
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| Street
sign for LBC. |
The
choir is practicing when we arrive. |
After
the regular service they had a short baptismal service. |
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