All our adventures as missionaries, past and present.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 05-20-2005

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Hello, all! Bit late with the email this week, but better late than never, eh? Our meetings last weekend in St. Louis and Columbia went well. To start the day off, we were at Victory Independent Baptist Church in St. Louis, MO. John Kuykendall is pastoring a church on Virginia Ave. in the heart of the city. The building is a turn of the century, ex-Vaudville theatre, built by Anheuser-Busch. Now it's a Baptist church. People, that's what church planting is all about. You go in where others might fear to, you claim structures and areas that used to be maybe used for evil, and like a conquering horde, you ride in with the Gospel and do battle with the Enemy on his turf, and prevail. I love St. Louis, and it's very heartening to know that there's guys like John Kuykendall planting churches here and aggressively pursuing revival in the city of St. Louis. Pray for this church, and it's pastor, as they try to reach souls with the Gospel in an area that has traditionally been resistant to such, and therefore needs a Baptist church all the more.

In the evening we were late to church at Faith Baptist Church in Columbia, MO. Now normally, you never want that to happen, but in our case, traffic was backed up forever outside of Columbia on I-70 due to some minivans that had had rollover accidents. We had to think fast to find back roads on the map to get us around the trouble, and got to drive on some gravel roads to finally dump back on to the highway 10 miles down the road. Pastor Joe Kline was very gracious about the whole thing. We weren't alone, as the accident made a bunch of other folks late also. Just goes to show 'ya how important it is to pray for missionaries with the driving we have to do. The service was great. I felt a lot of liberty to preach, and based on all the comments I got afterwards, it would seem that the Holy Spirit really dealt with folks, and led me to say things that echoed what their Pastor and Sunday School teachers had been saying recently. Neat how that whole "unity of the Holy Spirit" thing works, isn't it? We had some good fellowship with the Klines after church, and got home at a fairly reasonable time that night.

Pray for our Pastor, Ken Spilger and wife, Beth, and some other folks from our church. They have travelled to Uganda to teach a class in Bible Study Methods, and on the Pastoral Epistles to a class of prospective preachers. They'll be over there for three weeks. Pray for their safety, their sanity as they endure the rigors of jet lag, combined with teaching through interpreters, along with the stress of the grueling schedule they've crafted for themselves, and their health. I don't want to make Uganda sound dirty or dangerous necessarily, but the tropical climate lends itself to disease and parasites, and the stress they're putting on their bodies will tend to make them a bit more vulnerable to such things. Pray for the return flight that they'll have to go through to get home (22 hours in all). Pray for the Guimons who are hosting them, and organizing everything. It's a big job and there's loads to do. Pray for them as they rebuild from the partial house fire they had recently (got a report from Kyle recently, and it's going well, but it's still hard work). Pray for the orphans as they grow, not only physically, but as believers, those who are saved, which is most of them.

As for us, we'll be heading 5 1/2 hours north to Vinton, IA (near Iowa City), for a meeting in Faith Baptist Church (Pastor Greg Collins) this weekend. Pray for us as we drive, and that we'll be able to minister and be an encouragement to the church and Pastor Collins. Pray for our health (Anna's feeling a bit under the weather at the moment).

'Nuff said…

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 05-12-2005

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Greetings, all! I've got some good news about the van, which you're all no doubt sick of hearing about by now. Anyway, I just found out that someone sent us another $1000 for the van, for a total of $2000 so far. The van we're going to get is a 2000 Pontiac Montana with 82,000 miles. We're buying it from Mission Auto Connection, a dealer in Ohio, that helps missionaries obtain vehicles for deputation and furlough. It has dual air (great for those summer months), front wheel drive (great for those winter months), and the extended wheelbase on this particular model gives us an additional foot-and-a-half of cargo space in the back, great for those longer voyages where more luggage is needed, in addition to the display and assorted paraphernalia required by the on-the-go missionary. We've sent them the $1000 we had to put a deposit down, and they're holding it for thirty days, so pray that the rest we need will come in this month. The total cost will be $7400, so we only have $5400 to go. It's great to see our prayers being answered, and to know that we'll be in a more spacious and comfortable vehicle soon, especially with the really hot weather coming up, and the extensive travelling we'll be doing this summer.

As far as meetings go, with the exception of a brief hiatus in September for the delivery of our 5th child, Gaelin Joseph, I have booked up 2005 solid, and am already working on 2006. What a blessing! We have a varied and interesting array of locations to get to this year, and we're all looking forward to it. This weekend, we'll be in Victory Baptist Church in St. Louis, MO (Pastor John Kuykendal) in the AM, and Faith Baptist Church in Columbia, MO (Pastor Joe Kline) in the PM. Pray for the meetings, that we'll be able to minister to the churches and pastors, and that God's will will be done in folks' lives.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 05-02-2005

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We have returned from Minnesota. We were in Heritage Baptist Church (Pastor David Watkins) in Blaine, MN this weekend. It's a bit of a drive, but the kids weathered it very well. It was May 1 on Sunday, but you'd never know it from the weather – we got snow flurries and some sleet. It was a great meeting, and God truly met with us. Pastor Watkins has a great church there, and the people seem to really love the LORD, and each other. They're currently meeting in the gymnasium of a Christian school, and are saving money and looking for property to buy in the Minneapolis area so they can have their own building. Be in prayer for Heritage Baptist Church that God would provide for this need.

The trip back went well. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel in Devils Lake (intriguing name, eh?), WI on the way. The kids were starving. To give you an idea of how hungry they were, they got an orange slice with their egg, and, having eaten the orange, Ethan wolfed down the skin too before I could stop him. "Was it good?" I asked. He grinned and nodded with a full mouth. John, not to be outdone, decided he'd try his orange slice, but, based on his prune-faced expression, I don't think he enjoyed it. Kids…. We're home this weekend on account of it's Mother's Day. Be in prayer for us. That van in Georgia is still available, and we'd like to put a deposit down on it if God provides. We're praying that He would do so in the next few weeks so we can go ahead and buy it, because we really do need it. I'll keep you posted as to how He answers.

Now We Know

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Well now we know. We are only having one child, who is apparently exceedingly active, and he's a boy. So, the 2005 model will be singular, and go by the monkier of Gaelin Joseph Huckabee. Everything looked good in the ultrasound. Boy did he hate that thing! He was prepared to fight over it, and kept kicking at the scope. Big kid, too. If anyone knows a farm that's up for sale, let us know (just kidding). I'll try to get some ultrasound photos up on the website later tonight.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 04-26-2005

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Howdy, all! Things went well at Calvary Baptist Church in Campbell, MO. It's a town almost on the Arkansas border, about an hour from Walnut Ridge. Our boys had a great time playing with Pastor Tony Woods' kids, Anthony and Loren. Anthony had this battery powered, toy 4-wheeler, and the guys drove it all over. I'll get pics up soon so you can see for yourself. It was good to fellowship with the Woods'. They're our age, so we had plenty to talk about. They've got this vibrant, Independent Baptist church, surrounded by all these General Baptist churches. The General Baptists think you can lose your salvation. So, it's nice that there's a Biblical church in the area, not only soulwinning, but believing that once the Gospel "takes", it stays with you for eternity. I preached with a lot of liberty in the evening service. It's always good to know that God is using you to call people to Himself, and it was apparent that He was present in the service. It was a great meeting, and we were glad to get to be there.

The big day is coming tomorrow, when we finally get an ultrasound and get some reconnaissance photos of what's going on in Anna's womb. Will it be one baby or two, and what gender are we talking about here? Enquiring minds want to know. I'll send out another update tomorrow when we know. We'll be driving to Blaine, MN on Saturday, so pray that the drive goes without difficulty, and that our rickety old Astro holds together to get us there and back.