Entries by James

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 11-21-2005

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Howdy! Our LORD's Day went well yesterday. Our meeting in Winfield, MO was in the evening, so we got to be in our home church. Yesterday was Heritage Sunday, where folks can wear old-fashioned clothes if they like (or jeans, if they like 😉 ). Afterwards, we had a pre-Thanksgiving meal, which was excellent as always. We sat and socialized with an Englishman who's been coming to our church for a bit, and it dawned on me as I asked about English holidays how unique America is in this respect: we celebrate everything! England has bank holidays, and Christmas and Easter, but with the exception of Remembrance Day (their version of Veteran's Day), they have no nationalistic holidays. We have multiple holidays that commemorate different aspects of being American. Thanksgiving reminds us of our ancestors and how they almost didn't make it through the first winter, but how, with some assistance from the Indians, and God's providence, they lived to have the first Thanksgiving, where they took the time to give thanks to God for His provision and care. We do likewise today, and have since Lincoln formally inaugurated the holiday back in 1863. We have the Fourth of July, where we put up patriotic decorations, have parades, barbecues (wouldn't be a holiday without food, right?), set off fireworks, and just generally glory in being an American. We have Veteran's Day to honor our soldiers. We have Father's and Mother's Day to honor our parents. We have President's Day, to honor our founding fathers. We have all these traditional, and uniquely American days of celebration, where we simply take pleasure in this great country in which God blessed us to let us be born, or become citizens. It really struck home to me how great we have it here, and how very thankful to God I am to be a citizen of the United States of America.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 11-18-2005

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Greetings! We had a great week last week. To begin with, we were in Blessed Hope Baptist Church in Farmington, MO, with Pastor Jeff Brady. Their missions conference went great. We had some great fellowship with them, and with the missionaries who were with us in the conference. R.J. Saladin, to Mexico, and Lanelle Smith, to Cote D'Ivoire, Africa we've met, and also Angel Parrish with Rock of Ages to the Women's Prisons in Missouri. We went out to Lafayette Bible Baptist Church on Friday for their Revival Fires meetings. Great preaching, particularly from Pastor Bob Smith. Praise the LORD, Blessed Hope Baptist Church voted to take us on for support! On Sunday morning, we had a meeting in Larry Croy's church, New Testament Baptist Church in Waterloo, IL. For some reason, in the course of the meeting, I opted to preach a different message than I normally preach. The short of it is, six people prayed to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior! Now I know what the LORD had in mind. They had been witnessing to, and praying for, these people for some time, and I got to play a small part, and be present for the harvest. What a blessing!

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 11-09-2005

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Greetings! It's been awhile since the last letter, and I apologize. It's been crazy busy around here, and, to be honest, I'm worn out and just haven't felt like writing. However, whether I feel like it or not, it needs to be done, and you good people deserve to know what's going on in our lives. October is the season of missions conferences amongst American, Independent Baptist Churches. I scheduled four in a row, and filled our month with meetings. We had just had a baby, and when he was a week old, we were in our home church's conference, then we went up to Rhode Island, then Connecticut, and then Fort Dodge, IA (Harvest Baptist Church, Pastor Marvin Smith).

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 10-21-2005

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Greetings! We're back in St. Louis, but not for long. Our conference in Jim Townsley's church (Central Baptist in Southington, CT) went great. Jimmy Rose, the Brazil director for BIMI, preached, and the LORD really worked. He preached some outstanding messages and was a real blessing to us. It rained nearly every day we were there, which is a bit unusual for there, but it cleared up before we started growing gills. The good news is, that, like Narragansett Bay Baptist, they will be supporting us starting in January. Pray for Bro. Townsley. His voice was nearly gone while we were there, and he really had to struggle to speak above a whisper. Pray that he will heal.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 10-10-2005

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Greetings from Rhode Island! Our conference in Narragansett Bay Baptist Church (Pastor Todd Stricklin) went great. We had great preaching from Dr. Ron Bragg all week. The people are wonderful. They just went out of their way to make us feel welcome and loved. The family we stayed with, the Brandenburgs, treated us like family and made us feel right at home. Our whole time here has just been a marvelous blessing.

On Friday, we went to Newport, and my wife and children got to see the ocean for the first time. It was magical. I took them right down to the water, showed them how to look for little crabs and starfish in the tidal pools, how to keep from getting wet by observing the waves and staying out of their way, and how to look for cool seashells. They loved every minute of it. The weather was supposed to be nasty on Friday, but we all prayed for good weather, and the LORD granted it. The clouds cleared, it got warm, and the sun came out long enough for our outing and gave us the opportunity to get some great pictures. Hurricane Tammy had added to the splendor of the whole thing, by way of the massive breakers it created. For lunch, we ate on the pier. Anna discovered what I meant when I said that seafood bought in the Midwest isn't fit to eat. Until you've had really fresh fish, you can't appreciate how delicious it can be. Ours was outstanding. What a great day!
 
Best of all, this church will be supporting us! So it's been a very worthwhile trip. On Wednesday, we'll be in Southington , CT. We'll be in Central Baptist Church's Missions Conference (Pastor Jim Townsley). In the meantime, today, one of the members here has arranged for both Anna and I to get eye exams and new glasses (she's an optometrist). What a blessing! We've been needing that for ages, but neither of us have insurance, and had no way to pay for them.