Greetings, once again. We finished up our missions conference at Heritage Baptist Church in Florissant, MO last week. Most of the church is deaf, so Paul Strosneider translated for us hearing folks. It underscored yet again how imperative it is that we learn sign language at some point. I know of no ministry to the deaf in Uganda, and it would be criminal to deny the gospel to the deaf because of a failure to communicate. Alan Snare was with us in the conference, and he is a missionary to the deaf, and is deaf himself. He preached a message to the deaf on Wednesday, and two of them were saved! Once again, I was convicted of the need to learn at least enough sign to communicate. I have been to more than one church with deaf members, and I have always hated being unable to "speak" to them. So, Anna and I are considering obtaining some of the instructional materials that Paul Strosneider recommends. You can be in prayer for him. Although he has a successful ministry here in St. Louis, he is feeling burdened for the deaf in Africa. I, of course, have tried to encourage him to come to Uganda, to establish a school for the deaf, as well as for the hearing. We can bring American sign language to the Ugandan people, and to all of Africa, really, because they have no sign language of their own. Pray about that. Meanwhile, we will do what we can to learn some sign language, so we will be ready to minister to the deaf, as well as the hearing, not only in Uganda, but on deputation here in America. Pray for Heritage Baptist. They still need a pastor.
The kids, of course, were curious about "what that guy is doing", waving his hands around and not talking, so I tried to explain to them that his "ears are broken", so he has to talk with his hands. At one point, Ethan told everyone that "his ears are broken, but my ears are fixed." Heh, heh. Funny kid. We had a few days to recover and gather ourselves again, and then we went out to First Regular Baptist Church of Kansas City. We decided that we'd drive up in the daytime on Saturday, and get a hotel room that night, rather than try to drive to Kansas City early Sunday morning. The guys like staying in hotel rooms. I don't know if it's just the novelty of staying in a strange place, or, more likely, that they get to watch cable television while lying in bed (in this case, Storm Stories on the The Weather Channel), but they always get real excited about hotels (or as they call them, "heetohs"). We went to Denny's for dinner, and they got to pick from the Kid's Menu, which is always a real treat (plus kids eat free on Saturdays!).
Next day, we had a great meeting in Webster Frowner's church. Turns out, he's real good friends with William Gillespie, a missionary sent out of our church to the black folks in St. Louis. He, like Bro. Frowner, has a vision of starting Bible-based, Baptist churches for the black community. It's hard for white folks to reach the black community, because there's a sharp cultural divide. It's not that we don't want them in our church, or that anybody does anything other than try to make them feel welcome. It's not that we don't try to evangelize. We have 5-Day Clubs and door-to-door soul winning, and have seen black people get saved. The problem, however, is that they'll come to our church once, maybe twice, and then we'll never see them again. I asked Bro. Frowner why that is, and he made the very astute observation that reaching the black community is very much like reaching the Jewish community. They are both tight-knit, and tied to tradition. They come to our churches, and see that we don't have lots of emotional, sensational preaching and singing, and then leave to go to a black church where they do. The doctrine, of course, in many black churches tends to be way off base, much like it is in Jewish synagogues. Thus, Bill Gillespie decided to start churches comprised mostly of black people, but that would have sound doctrine, preaching, and traditional hymns, where black folks who get saved but would be uncomfortable going to a "white" church, can attend and get the discipleship that they would not going to a Traditionalist Church. If black people won't come to our church because we're mostly white, then the obvious solution is to form solid black churches where they will. The goal is to reach them with the Gospel, and to properly disciple them to fulfill the Great Commission. Guys like Webster Frowner and Bill Gillespie fill a real need in cities like St. Louis and Kansas City. They can reach folks that I can't as effectively because of my color and cultural background. It's not much different from the church planting we intend to do in Uganda, where we will be starting churches led by Ugandans, who, in the same way, can reach their fellow countrymen more effectively than a white American. We love the Gillespies, and have enjoyed working with them over the years. It was neat to meet someone on deputation that knows them, and is involved in the same kind of ministry. Pray for the Gillespies. They're still trying to raise support. Unfortunately, I think there's a certain degree of preferential treatment given to "Foreign" Missions, as opposed to "Home" Missions, so USA missionaries have trouble raising support, and tend to get cut first if support levels from a church drop. So, if you haven't had the Gillespies in your church yet for a meeting – do so! 😉 He can be reached at 314/388-2301. Pray for Bro. Frowner. He's 62, and needs a faithful man to commit the ministry to there, someone who would be willing to pastor the church. He currently has none, though God has blessed him with men who serve faithfully in the church as Sunday School teachers and deacons.
Pray for us, as we will be heading back to the Kansas City area tomorrow for a missions conference in Harrisonville (Grace Baptist Church, Pastor Charles Kaighen). We'll be driving back next Monday. We have a meeting in Ava, MO (Bethany Baptist Church, Pastor Robert Sorenson) the week after that, and then will be home for a church planting conference that Grace Baptist Church (our Grace Baptist, that is) will be hosting. Pray for my son, John. He started vomiting last night. No fever or any other symptoms other than nausea, but he's having trouble keeping food down. Pray that whatever bug he has will blow over by tomorrow, and that it won't spread to the other kids.
God bless and keep you all,
James Huckabee and family
Missionaries to Uganda
P.S. from Anna – Sunday Morning as James was showing the slides, Jamie, our oldest son, was sitting next to me in church quoting along with it! They always get excited about seeing our slides but I didn't realize they'd been listening that closely! He got through almost half of the slides before he got distracted by something and stopped. Out of the mouth of babes… . Thank you all for your prayers!
