MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 09-26-2006

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Greetings, one and all! We've just finished up the second of two missions conferences in a row. Our first, at Trinity Baptist Church in Centerville, GA with Pastor Terry Hyman, went very well. Dr. Fred Moritz, Executive Director of Baptist World Mission, was the main speaker, and was greatly used of God to deliver the preaching of the Word to us. We had a great time of ministry and fellowship, and the LORD blessed. Our drive there and back went well, and everyone handled it great.

Back in St. Louis, we were involved with our home church, Grace Baptist Church (Pastor Ken Spilger), in it's 29th annual missions conference. Dr. Clayton Shumpert (CLAIM) was the main speaker. God moved and really dealt with all of us in the services. It was simply a tremendous time, and we were very pleased to get to be a part of it. Our missions giving had kind of stagnated in recent years, for a variety of reasons. I had been in prayer for some time that God would change this, and this year our prayers were answered. Our missions giving reached a level higher than any prior year. This means we will be able to give cost of living increases to all of our missionaries, as well as increase the support levels for the missionaries sent out of our church. On a more personal note, our church is helping us put new tires on the van! That was a real need, and they really went above and beyond the call of duty to help us with this. I want to especially thank our youth group, as they raised most of the funds for this need. I know you're young, but I regard you as a fine bunch of mature and upstanding young men and women. You are a credit to your parents, and to our LORD, and I wanted you to know how much I admire and respect you, and how much you have ministered to us.

Since our last email, two additional churches have been added to the roster of supporting churches. Praise the LORD! This brings our current total up to around 38%. We're praying that we'll top the elusive 50% by year's end, and reach 100, or thereabouts, by the middle of next year when we go down to Texas for language school.

On Friday, we'll be heading to Lewisburg, PA for a meeting in Faith Baptist Church with Pastor Ron Bixler. This is the first of several meetings this Fall that will put us out on the road from the first of October 'til a few days before Thanksgiving. This is a good thing (it means I succeeded in getting the schedule filled up), but the logistics of getting to the meetings do require lots of driving. Pray that we will be safe and healthy, that all our needs will be met, and that God will burden these churches for Uganda as we have been burdened, and that they will be so moved to support us financially and help us get to the field.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 09-11-2006

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Greetings, one and all! We were in Ketha Heights Baptist Church in Festus, MO with Pastor Richard Lourcey last night. He's been Pastor there for two months, and the church is growing and doing well. He led them to abandon their American Baptist status and make the switch to being Independent Baptist just a few weeks ago. Attendance is up, and rising, and his people are getting a vision for reaching their area, which is tremendous and what you want to see as a Pastor. He has a church full of young Christians, so pray that they will continue to grow individually, and as a body, and that the LORD will continue bringing people into the church. They are having their first missions conference in the history of their church in January, so pray that it will go well, and that the people will really get a grip on Grace Giving, and get a broader vision for the world.

Today we're driving down to Chattanooga, TN on our way to a conference in Trinity Baptist Church in Centerville, GA with Pastor Terry Hyman. As a matter of fact, I'm sitting in Wal-Mart right now typing this and waiting for them to finish changing the oil in our van so we can get out of Dodge while it is yet day. Pray that the drive will proceed safely and without incident. Pray that God will move in the Conference, and that we will be an edifying to the Church and to the Pastor.

Never forget. Never surrender. God bless America.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 09-08-2006

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Greetings! Our meeting in Trinity Baptist Church in Arlington, TX went well (Pastor Bob Smith). I flew down for the meeting because I was able to get an $89 round-trip ticket to Dallas, which, obviously, is way cheaper than what it would have cost to drive. Plus, it kept us from having to drive 12 hours there and back. The church service went great. I had twenty minutes to show the DVD presentation, and to just talk about our burden. God blessed, and the short of it is, they voted to support us on the spot! Wow! Wish that happened more often. What a blessing! All in all, it was a very fruitful trip.

On Sunday, we'll be in Festus, MO in Ketha Heights Baptist Church (Pastor Richard Lourcey). Pray that the meeting will go well, and that we will be able to minister to the church and the pastor. On Monday, we'll be heading down to Chattanooga, TN, and from there to Centerville, GA for a missions conference in Trinity Baptist Church (Pastor Terry Hyman). Pray that God will bless, and give us safe travel.

MISSION: Uganda Blog Update 08-30-2006

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Howdy, folks! We're doing well here in St. Louis. We had a meeting in Lighthouse Baptist Church with Pastor Pete Ruble in Festus, MO this past Sunday. It went great. I showed our slides, and then we just talked about Uganda and what the LORD is doing there, and how He wants to bring revival to the country and to the rest of Africa, and how He's given us a wide open door and an unprecedented chance to reach Uganda with the Gospel. I tried to impress upon them the urgency of the situation, what with AIDS and the threat of conflict being what they are, and how critical it is we get there to do our part to establish the Gospel in Uganda while there's still time and opportunity. It was a good time of ministry, and I think the LORD helped them get a vision for Uganda also, which is His goal for this and all the churches we visit.

Our next meeting will be in Trinity Baptist Church in Arlington, TX with Pastor Bob Smith. I'm flying down alone for the meeting because it's way cheaper than driving, not to mention lots faster. Pray for the meeting, that all will go well, that God will bless, and that I'll be able to serve Him in ministering to them there. Pray for Anna and the kids to be safe and healthy in my absence. Pray that I will continue to have success in getting meetings for next year, in particular the missions conferences I'm trying to get us scheduled for.

No Power

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Last month we had one of the worst storms in St. Louis history insofar as it made the most people lose power of any storm ever. Wednesday night we were fixing supper and getting ready for church when it started blowing in. James called the kids outside to pick up the toys when the wind began to blow. They had no sooner gotten all the toys picked up than it began to rain and continued blowing. Minutes later the power went out. It didn’t come on for 5 days! We didn’t end up getting to church that night. We suspected a tornado warning, even though we heard no sirens and couldn’t listen to the radio to find out so we went downstairs and waited. The boys were very concerned about the tree we have in our backyard. The wind was blowing so hard (60 mph with 90 mph gusts!) that it looked like it was going to blow over! They prayed for the tree and God protected it! We spent the night at home that night with all the windows open.

Thursday it got very hot – up to 100 degrees! So we spent most of the day and then the night at the church since the church had air conditioning and it would be safer for the kids. We cleaned up the church yard, visited with other folks who were there because they had no power either, and just had fun. Then we went swimming at Mom and Dad’s.

Friday another storm came through. It wasn’t as bad as the other but it knocked out the power again for many of the people who’d gotten it back on the day before. More trees blew over. This storm cooled things off. Since the church lost power with this second storm, and things had cooled off so much we went home. It was beautiful! It got so cool that we needed blankets that night! God was good to us! We didn’t lose very much food. What needed to be used we were able to share with others who also had no power. For instance, we had some ground beef that needed to be used. Mom had some sausage. We put together some chili and had it for dinner one of the nights. Another night we used up some chicken one family had and some spaghetti and cheese another family had in chicken spaghetti. It was so much fun to be that creative! It was definitely GMT – Good Missionary Training. It certainly was nice when the power came back on. An electric pole a couple houses down from us had a tree fall on it and it broke the wires. Monday night they put a new pole in and then rigged up a temporary “fix” so that we could have electricity. A couple days later they came in and made it more permanent.

As a Christian I’m never without power. Thankfully, God’s grace is always there and it is always sufficient. I do, however, have to choose to tap into it. Will I respond to problems or react to them? It’s like turning on a lightswitch and the light coming on when the power is there. When I receive God’s grace I turn on that switch and it flows through me and gives me the power to do and be what He wants me to be.