MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 02-12-2008
Greetings! We are back in St. Louis, MO, but not for much longer. The conference at Northwest Bible Baptist Church went great! It was an outstanding meeting. God met with us indeed. On Tuesday, Bro. Anglea preached a message that really began the process of healing for the church. It will be a long road, because such things always are, but their attitude was truly God glorifying. It was an honor to be a visiting missionary in their conference, considering that they would have been well within their rights to call off the whole thing. Yet, despite their overwhelming grief, they chose to have a missions conference, and keep missions the center of their ministry. Continue to pray for NBBC, and for Pastor Keith Gomez as they continue grieving for their lost loved ones.
On Wednesday night, a winter storm moved into the area and dumped 8 inches of snow and general winter nastiness on the region. Did we drive home anyway? You bet! Our plane to San Francisco was leaving at 0930 the next day, so we had to get home to St. Louis, leave the kids with their grandparents, and make our way to our next meeting quickly. We pulled into town early in the morning, and Anna and I got to bed around 0430 that morning. We were up in two hours, and had to reconfigure our packing for air travel, and made our flight in time. We went from 19 degree weather in St. Louis, to 65 degree weather in San Francisco, CA.
Thursday, we did a bit of sight seeing in the city. We have always wanted to see the Golden Gate Bridge, which we did, and snapped some great photos. We got to drive down Lombard Street (think Steve McQueen). We swung by Ghiradelli Square, mecca of women everywhere. We wandered around the Wharf and got souvenirs for the kids, and finally got dinner at a local seafood joint (mmmm… fresh seafood…).
The conference in Lighthouse Baptist Church in Pleasanton, CA (Pastor Bill Bryson, about an hour East of San Francisco) went great. Dr. John Halsey preached, and gave clear Biblical teaching on Grace Giving. They are a small church, by worldly standards, and were the product of the joining of two other churches in the area. As such, their missions giving had suffered in recent years. This was the first missions conference they had had in a while, and God just worked. The short of it is they nearly doubled the amount of missions giving required to support the missionaries they already had! What a blessing! They're a great bunch of people, serving the LORD in an area of the country that is resistant to the Gospel, but they just keep at it, and have such a spiritual attitude about the whole thing. It was a privilege to get to minister there this weekend. Pray for them as they hold forth the Gospel in California, that will continue to grow and see souls saved and added to the church in the greater Bay Area of California.
Today, as soon as we get our stuff pulled together, we will be driving back to Bowie, Texas for the many meetings yet scheduled down that way, and to finish up the stellar BBTI language school already in progress. They have been taping the classes for us, and we have been listening to them while we were away. Pray that we'll be able to get back into the swing of things smoothly, and that we'll be able to stay caught up with our coursework.