MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 06-15-2005

Greetings! We have returned. Last week was candidate school at BIMI in Chattanooga, TN. It was a good week, but, as Dr. Sisk is fond of saying, "It's like heaven, because there is no night." Sleep deprivation aside, tho', things went very well. We had some great preaching by Randy King, Pastor of Wyldewood Baptist Church in Oshkosh, WI. We finished up our official training with BIMI, and got our certificates for attendance. I was able to get some good leads on some missions conferences in 2006 which I'm following up on. In addition, I did schedule a missions conference in April with Lakewood Baptist Church (Dr. David Bragg), which is great, cause we know some folks there from BIMI, and it's a great church. I got some great training on discipling, church planting, and starting Bible institutes, which gave me a bunch of ideas for when, at long last, we finally do get to the field. I got to spend some time with my director, Ron Bragg, and get some good direction to help me while on deputation, and so forth. All told, it was a very profitable week.

We have a meeting tonight in Belleville, IL (very close to home) with Hope Church (Pastor Darrell Coons), and that's it for the month. We had another meeting on the 19th, but the church cancelled at the last minute. We need the break, but consequently finances are going to be tight. If we can make it to July, we'll be all good, because that month is packed, but June was our lean month, leaner still with the loss of that meeting. Pray that we'll be able to pay all our bills, and still be able to buy food and gas. Our support it still ten percent, where it has been for the past six months, and until we get up to thirty or forty percent where we need to be, gaps in meetings like this really hurt us financially. It also makes it hard to save anything for future expenses, because everything practically is going right out the door in bills. Please pray that God will move the churches where we've been, who have not already done so, to take us on for support. Another critical need is the van for which we're trying to raise money. We have $4450 – we need $3000. Please pray that the remaining amount will come in time for us to be able to purchase the van before we leave for Montana the second week of July. It's going to be very hot in our un-air-conditioned Astro, and the possibility of getting stranded in the middle of nowhere in the 17 year old vehicle is very real. That, and the support issue, are our most dire needs right now, so we truly need prayer, and answers to them, soon. Unless something changes, our next meetings are on July 3, so we'll be in the St. Louis area and at our home church, Grace Baptist Church in St. Louis, until then.