MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 08-20-208

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Hello, again! Our trip East went well. We had a great meeting with Pastor Barry Pace at Antioch Baptist Church in Sunset, SC. We made it to the service this time, and had a great meeting. On Sunday, we were in Mile Creek Baptist Church, with Pastor Jim Roberts. The meeting went great, and they are going to support us! Wednesday again we were in Trinity Baptist Church in Mocksville, NC with Pastor Darrell Cox. We had a good meeting and God blessed. Finally, on Sunday, the 17th we were in West Madison Baptist Church in Madison, WV with Pastor John Browning. This is the same church where we had to reschedule so fortuitously a year-and-a-half ago when a big Nor'Easter swept into Maryland and the accompanying rainfall flooded the church basement. We had another tremendous Sunday, and God moved and helped us present our burden for Uganda well. It was a good trip, and I think some solid support will come of it.

Tomorrow, Anna and I are flying to Hawaii for meetings in six churches. Our children will be staying with her folks while we are gone. Pray that they will be safe and well, and that they will have fun at Grandma's. Pray that our flight there and back will go well, and that our meetings in Hawaii will be fruitful. Like Alaska, the remoteness of Hawaii keeps missionaries from coming to the islands as often. Yet, the churches in Hawaii need to hear about missions, too. I intend to be a servant to the churches where we are as much as possible. Pray that we will be an encouragement and a blessing as we seek to present our vision for Uganda with the churches in Hawaii.

After our return from Hawaii, we will be in our church's Missions Conference in September, and then we will all be driving up to Alaska for meetings in 11 churches. Our Fall is as full of meetings as the calendar would allow. Pray that all our travels will generate the support we need so that we can be ready to go to the field in Spring of 2009.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 08-04-2008

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Greetings! Our summer break has gone well. It was good to be home for a while, and our church and families were happy to have us around.

We had a great Fourth of July, with much pyrotechnic goodness. We attended our church's 4th of July picnic, which was great fun as always.

Our daughter Elizabeth was baptized. We had been instructing her about baptism for a while, and she was adamant in her desire to be baptized. Her Grandpa Spilger did the honors. He had to lift her up to see over the rim of the baptismal. It's always a blessing to see children following Jesus, particularly when they are your own.

I preached for our Pastor for three Sundays so he and his family could go on vacation. They had a great time out West, and I was happy to be of service. It was a blessing as always to preach God's Word.

Elizabeth turns five tomorrow, but we are celebrating today. She's busy learning to ride her new pink and purple bicycle, so pray for her as she learns the physics of bike riding.

Tomorrow, we are departing for some meetings out East. We will be in Antioch Baptist Church with Pastor Barry Pace in Sunset, SC on Wednesday. This is the same church that we attempted to visit more than a year ago, but missed the service because we became desperately, hopefully lost. Never fear! I have the Pastor's cellphone, and (for sure) the physical address of the church, so we'll be fine. Pray for the meetings to come, and many more to follow this Fall as we seek to complete deputation and be ready to go to Africa next year. Pray that the churches which we have visisted in the past who have expressed interest in joining with us in ministry to Uganda will do so. Pray for our travels. We have had no car troubles in a while and would like to keep it that way.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 06-24-2008

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Hello, once again! Our church just wrapped up it's annual Family Workshop, which coincides with the ever-popular Children's Workshop. We were very glad to be home and able to participate. Evangelist John Bishop was the speaker, and it was good to be challenged from the Word.

Last week, I participated in some of the filming for the Pendragon project, a Christian film that one of our homeschool families has been working on for the past three years. It was my screen debut. My small part was as pallbearer for a king at a torch lit funeral. We shot it at the nearby Fort Bellefontaine here in North County. Pretty cool!

God has greatly supplied this month. We received a huge sum of money from BIMI, which will go in the bank to buy plane tickets to Uganda. We also received some to buy plane tickets to Hawaii, where Anna and I will be going in August for a series of meetings. It's exciting to see God providing like He is, just further confirmation that He intends for us to go and is behind us all the way. Pray for us as we continue getting ready, and for the heavy traveling we will be doing this Fall. Pray that we will reach 80% of our support by the end of the summer, and be fully supported by January.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 06-14-2008

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Hello again! Our trip to Hammond, IN went well. We went to both services at 1st Baptist of Hammond on Sunday, and presented our burden for Uganda in the evening service. We got to hear some great preaching from Jack Schaap, and had a great day fellowshipping with the folks at FBH. It was a good meeting, and was worth the trip. On Monday, before we went back to St. Louis, we visited the Chicago Field Museum, because I've always wanted to go see the Maneaters of Tsavo, which are on display there. These are the actual lions that in 1898 terrorized the British-sponsored rail building crew that was constructing a railroad across Kenya and Uganda. All told, they killed and consumed 140 men before Colonel John Patterson killed them both. They were a unique pair of male, maneless lions in perfect health that happened to have a taste for human flesh to the exclusion of all other food.Our meeting last week in Louisiana had to be rescheduled, so we've been enjoying a needed respite from travelling. We're home until the first week of August, when we'll begin our Fall journeys. I'll be filling the pulpit here in our home church in July while my Pastor and his family go on vacation, among other things. It's been very good to be home for a bit.

Today, Anna and I ran our first official 5K race down at the riverfront in St. Louis. We've been preparing for months, running up and down the hilly, gravel roads in Bowie, TX, and today we attained our goal. This is one of the things we do to stay in shape so we'll be in prime physical condition when we go to Africa. We both finished the, as we later figured it, 5.5K run at 34'07", which is pretty good for our first time. We're going to try to do another run sometime this summer, and will be working hard on decreasing our run times.

That's all for now.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 05-31-2008

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The trip home went well. We made the whole drive in one day, and got home early enough that a crew from our church was able to come over and help us unload the truck double quick. Our first week was disgustingly busy, as Anna helped her sister Naomi get ready for her wedding to Gavin Walsh on the very next Saturday. We were all in the wedding, so we were all involved. Then, on Sunday, we had a homeschool high-school graduation for 4 of my former Sunday School students, including my brother-in-law, Paul. Needless to say, we barely had time to breathe.

We've been busy unpacking and cleaning this week, and are enjoying being home in St. Louis. Today, we're heading to Hammond, IN for a meeting with Pastor Jack Schaap and First Baptist Church of Hammond. Pray for our drive today, and our meeting tomorrow. Pray for God's blessing and leadership in the services, and that we will be able to communicate our burden for Uganda well.