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…

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.