Entries by James

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 11-28-2005

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Our LORD's day went great yesterday. We were in Faith Baptist Church in Bridgeton, MO (Pastor Dan Gonnerman). The Adult Sunday School and morning service went very well. I enjoy teaching and preaching, and it's always a privilege to get to do it. We're winding down for 2005. Next week, we'll be in Heritage Baptist Church in Lawrence, KS (Pastor Scott Hanks). Then, it's time for Christmas break. I'll still be making phone calls and what not, but we'll be home, and attending our home church for the month of December. Our kids will get to be in the Christmas program, and we'll be home to visit with family around the holidays. Continue to pray for me as I schedule meetings, that I'll be able to get in touch with the Pastors I'm trying to reach, and that they'll schedule us, and that their churches will eventually support us. Pray that the churches where we've been will also be able to eventually support us, and that God will prosper them to that end. Pray that our support will come up dramatically in the next fewmonths, and that the money will be there for Christmas. Thanks for all your prayers, and for your kind concern.

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.