MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 03-17-2007

/in /by

Greetings once again! Our meeting in Valley Bible Baptist Church (Pastor Shawn Foster) went great. We made the trip to Middleburgh, NY without a hitch. This was the same county where they got three feet of snow and were declared a disaster area a few weeks back. We went from 70 degree weather in Tulsa, OK, to 6 below in NY. Brrrrrr… We stayed with the Fosters, Shawn and Debbie and had a great time of fellowship with them. Our kids had a ball playing with their kids, which was a welcome treat for them. They don' t typically get a passel of kids to play with like that. The meetings went very well. Bro. John Halsey preached, and God met with us. Between our family, and the other missionary families, I think we tripled the size of the Patch the Pirate club there. It was a great week, albeit cold. We drove back to St. Louis in a day, not the kind of thing we normally do, but we wanted the extra day home in between conferences. 

Now, get this. We were just in bitter cold NY, and now, three days later, here we are in sunny Florida, where it's supposed to be 80 degrees and sunny all week. How do you like that? We're in a missions conference here starting tomorrow in Gospel Baptist Church in Bonita Springs, FL with Pastor Bill Lytell. Thanks, by the way to our good friends up in Narragansett Bay Baptist Church in Rhode Island for recommending this church to us. It has finally resulted in a meeting after all this time. Thanks guys! What a blessing!

Once we pulled into town, since Bonita Springs is right on the Gulf Coast, we swung by the beach before we headed to the hotel room. We had four ecstatic kids, ripping and tearing in the surf in their bare feet, and one ecstatic grown woman as well (Gaelin hated it, so I held him and took pictures). The kids were fully dressed, so they had to be careful, but that didn't stop Elizabeth from falling in, at which point caution seemed rather moot. Ahh, who needs swimming suits anyway, right? And, just in case we get to missing the beach, they brought enough with us in our van to make us feel like we're in Florida all the way home. GBC has us in a hotel five minutes from the beach, and we're loving it. So, while the folks back in St. Louis are enjoying March in St. Louis (thunderstorms and cold weather), we're down here enjoying the sand, sun, and surf. Pretty cool, eh?  God sure takes good care of us. Anyway, that's all for now. I just wanted to bring you guys up to speed before I got too much more behind on our emails. Pray for us!

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 03-06-2007

/in /by

Hello, again! This past week we were in Tulsa, OK with Tulsa Baptist Temple in their 51st (yes, 51st) annual missions conference. The church has been there for 62 years, and is on only their 5th pastor, Pastor Rocky Harrill. It was a tremendous conference. God visited us in the services, and in the preaching (we all got to preach). The LORD really knit our hearts together, and it felt like leaving family when we finally did have to leave on Monday to head back to St. Louis. The good news is this: this church will be voting to support us next week! Their missions committee unanimously voted in favor of making us one of their missionaries, and the Pastor will be presenting us to the church. What a blessing! God is bringing in the support, and we are finally beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel, with our goal of getting to the field in Uganda in sight!

We finished up the first leg of our drive up to Middleburgh, NY today. Tomorrow, and through Sunday, we will be in Valley Bible Baptist Church (Pastor Shawn Foster) for their Missions Conference. Bro. John Halsey will be speaking. We're looking forward to the great week of ministry in which we are to be involved. Pray for the conference, that God will meet with us, and that we will be a blessing, and that God will motivate the folk here to give so this church can support more missionaries, which they would very much like to do. Pray for our travels, and our health.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 02-27-2007

/in /by

Greetings! It's been a busy week and a half. The day after I got back from Montana, we had an installer in to put in our new, secure, steel doors. The install went great, the doors look very good, and our house is much more secure. On a related note, it turns out that our front door was probably "bumped" (we had a break-in about a month back), meaning that someone used a modified key blank, tapped it into the lock bumping up all the tumblers, and allowing access to our house. It's a fairly simple procedure that is making the rounds on the internet of late. That's right, most pin-and-tumbler locks are now useless. How do you like that? I'm having a locksmith in on Thursday to install some Primus deadbolts, which should prevent similar break-ins in the future. Now, we can finally leave our home, and know we've taken reasonable precautions to secure the premises against punk kids with internet access.

Our meeting in Chattanooga went well. One Accord took good care of us, and was very hospitable to us. We showed our video and gave testimonies, and were able to minister to the folks and hold forth the need for missionaries.

The following week we spent re-painting and fixing up the kids' rooms. It was a long overdue project which gives them a much nicer, better organized space in which to sleep and play. The boys' room is blue, and we put glow-in-the-dark stars up on the ceiling, which was a big hit. Elizabeth gets her own room again now that Gaelin is old enough to sleep in the same room with his brothers. We did hers in pink, with hearts and butterflies as a border around the top, which she loves.

Today, James and John turned six, and are having a great birthday. We got them their first bikes this year. We worked on mounting the bike and just standing there without falling down at first, then moved up to getting on and taking off, and then actual riding. They picked it up fast, and although getting on the bike is still a challenge (they're a scoche tall for them), they are riding very well for their first day. All they need now is practice.

Tomorrow we head off to Tulsa, OK for a missions conference in Tulsa Baptist Temple with Pastor Rocky Harrill. After that, we drive to Fairfax Station, VA for a meeting in Fairfax Baptist Temple (Pastor Troy Calvert), and from there to Middleburg, NY for a conference in Valley Bible Baptist Church (Pastor Shawn Foster). Pray for us! The weather is improving, but we're liable to get lots of rain in the near future, because it's nearly March. Pray for our health. God has kept us flu-free this February, and we're very grateful (last year, we had various strains of stomach flu for five weeks running in February).

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 02-14-2007

/in /by

Greetings from St. Louis! I made it back alive to St. Louis from Great Falls, MT. On the day I was supposed to leave (Tuesday), a winter storm moved into the Midwest and began dumping frozen sunshine all over my landing strip. As we're sitting on the tarmac in Salt Lake City, the pilot informs us that there's a 50/50 chance we might have to divert to Kansas City if the visibility doesn't improve en route.  Needless to say, I was on the phone getting some prayer going! God cleared the weather up, however, and I was able to land in St. Louis on time. The only hitch was the backed up line of planes already at the gates, so even though we landed on time, we sat on the runway for another hour waiting for gate access. At any rate, I'm home again, and it's very good to be with my family once more.

My meeting with Wayne Voss in Calvary Baptist Indian Church last Wednesday went well. I had a time locating the church because I drove to the wrong end of 1st Ave. N, but once I finally got there, we were able to have a good service. It was a privilege to get to share our burden for Uganda in this church, led by veteran BIMI missionaries Wayne and Barbara Voss these past 25 years.

The conference at Heritage Baptist Church with Pastor Sheldon Schearer went well also. We had a great conference. It was me and the Fasinro family heading to Nigeria. God greatly blessed in the services, and gave the both of us great power to preach.

It was a good few weeks up in Great Falls, MT, and I'm grateful God worked out the meetings like He did so I could go up there.

We'll be heading down to Chattanooga, TN on Saturday for a Sunday meeting, so pray for us as we travel. Pray for our continued good health. The guys got some colds and what not while I was gone, but so far, none of us have gotten the flu, and I would like to keep it that way.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 02-05-2007

/in /by

Greetings, once again! I'm up in Great Falls, MT at the moment. I flew up here last Wednesday for some meetings I had scheduled up this way. Anna and the kids stayed at home and got some much needed rest. Driving up here would have been time, and cost, prohibitive, so flying up for the meetings alone was definitely the way to go. It turned out to be a good decision, because they got sick (not stomach flu) after I left, and it's always easier to recover from sickness in your own home.

My first meeting was in Fairview Baptist Church with Pastor Richard Dion. Dr. Pat Creed, the Caribbean Director for BIMI, was the main speaker. It was a tremendous conference. The messages were encouraging to me, and were beneficial to everyone. Their goal for missions giving this year was $40,000, which they exceeded with $53,000 and some change. This was in spite of losing several giving families in the prior year. Praise the LORD! I know they're excited about what God is going to do in the coming year.

I've been staying with George and Mary Prehn, one of the families in the church. They have a great heart for missions and for missionaries, and have taken great care of me here. I will be staying with them 'til Saturday, which secures my lodging between this conference, and the next in Heritage Baptist Church with Dr. Sheldon Schearer on Saturday. George is one of those guys who has been everywhere and done everything. Among his many achievements, he spent a year at the American base in Antarctica. Pretty cool! Saturday, we went ice fishing over at a church member's frozen pond. Neither of us had ever been ice fishing before. It's pretty basic. You auger a hole in the 8-inch thick ice. Then you bait your jig with some meat (perch are carnivorous). Then, you let your line drop 18 feet or so to the bottom, whereupon you reel it in about six to eight inches and wait. Within a minute, the perch would strike, you give a jerk to set the hook, reel them in, remove the hook, toss them on the ice, and repeat. The whole process takes a couple minutes. It was the easiest fishing I've ever done. We caught about 50 in two hours (private property, no limits). We'll be having ourselves a fish fry this week, needless to say.

Sunday morning, I got the privilege of speaking in Junior Church. We had a big crowd of mostly bus kids. I gave the clearest presentation of the Gospel I could. I could tell folks were praying, because the Holy Spirit really moved. No one responded during the invitation to be saved, but that's alright, because the seed was planted. Pray that, as the faithful workers water it, that God will give the increase and that these kids, and ultimately their families, will be saved.

I have a Wednesday night meeting with Wayne Voss in Calvary Baptist Indian Church. He's a BIMI missionary to the various Native American tribes that live up here in the Great Falls area. Pray for the meeting, that God will bless. Pray for Anna and the gang. Anna's home alone with 5 little kids, and is feeling awfully isolated at the moment. Don't get me wrong. She wanted the break from traveling and needed the break from traveling, but she's still fighting sickness, which has sapped her energy levels, and is hindering her in accomplishing the tasks she wanted to complete while at home. Pray that she, and the others, will get well soon, and that she'll still be able to get her house in order before we hit the road again. Pray for me. I've picked up a cold myself, and would very much like to be well by Wednesday so I can be in good condition to preach and share our burden for Uganda in Bro. Voss' church.

Thank you for praying!