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| March 2007 |
Phone: 814-777-4231 |
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Dear Praying Friends, Greetings from the heart of the Appalachian Mountains. We trust this letter finds all of you well. As is typical we have much to report on, So I hope you will take a few minutes and read what we have been up to. The Move As always, it was hard to say good bye to the people of Ayers Road Baptist Church. Without a doubt, one of the hardest things about this type of work is getting close to people and then moving to the next town. On Monday March 12 our moving crew arrived. Bob Buckley, Billy Butt and Rodney McKenzie from Ambassador Baptist in Frederick, MD. The church is one of our supporters and they had taken up an offering and got some outside donations that covered all of their expenses along with gas for the truck and trailer which helped hugely as you can imagine. Monday night several of the church folks came over to help with some last minute loading up and eat some pizza. Even with the really late night we were up and off first thing the next morning. It was a long trip but we made it in one piece and got the moving crew off to their wives on Wednesday morning. We are certainly grateful to them and their church for the help and support in this venture. The Appalachian Project After about a week of exhausting fifth wheel setting up and box unpacking we were ready to turn our focus to the job at hand. A typical day has me in the office in the morning, doing what you might imagine, studying, praying, working on the Constitution (Something this church has never had) and various other related tasks. Most afternoons I am out visiting, doing follow up and trying to meet folks in the community. We just had our first youth activity with 9 teens in attendance and have several teen boys coming to play basketball every week. We are presently in the planning stages of taking a group to our home church’s youth camp in July. We are also working on getting a van route started and planning Vacation Bible School for the 3rd week of June. Also on Saturday, May 19, we launched a one hour live call in radio show on a secular AM station that covers the whole county. This is a great opportunity to reach a lot of people. Please keep this situation in prayer. Carmen just had her first ladies Bible study with 15 in attendance. They are going to meet every three weeks and at this point it looks like they should have 9 regulars. I am a tough man to work for, which is why I have never had any employees and explains the one full day off I have taken in the time we have been here. I am working on freeing up a little more time and trying to get a grip on things but there is always so much to do. This church has so far to go, please keep it in your prayers.
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Family Update The new environment seems to be agreeing with everyone and we are all doing well. The most notable news is that Lena finished with her 10th grade year of school in March, after starting in September, and got all A’s with the exception of two B’s. She took a little break and is now starting on her 11th grade work. She is excited about the fact that she will be 16 the sixth of June. Unfortunately for her mother and I, reality is setting in that she will be grown before we know it and setting out to do what God has for her. David II is doing some outside work for the folks near by and in enjoying it. He is now, and has been for some time, the second tallest in the family and is closing in on me. I would guess he will hit the six foot mark in the not to distant future. Emilee is well also, the folks who live behind the church have a seven year old daughter who she is spending some time with which is nice, she has not had a playmate since we left Indiana. One of the ladies in the church raises bunnies so naturally we now have a few in a bunny house outside our trailer, mostly due to Emilee’s desperate pleading. She is enjoying them and doing a pretty good job taking care of them as well. Carmen and her health continue to be a walking testimony to God’s grace as she is up every morning, working hard at what she has to do, teaching Sunday School & Junior church, Planning Ladies Bible Study and visiting with me. It is hard to believe at this time last year it was all she could do to get out of bed. Please continue to pray with us that this will continue. I am about the same as usual, busy and tired. There is one notable piece of news regarding me. Some time ago I started back to school, just to try to keep myself on top of some things, and to have something to do in my spare time (like I know what that is). The school transferred all of my credits from my Bible Institute diploma as well as from some other classes and I was able to finish a Bachelor’s Degree in Theology quite easily and the First week of June I will Receive a Master’s Degree in Theology as well. I have enjoyed the extra study and it has done me some good as well. Update from Macon To those of you that get our E mail updates this will be old news but the Sunday after our last Sunday in Macon the church issued a 100% call to Austin Tucker who was then Youth Pastor at Riverland Baptist Church in Dunnellon, FL. Brother Tucker accepted and they have been moved to Macon, and are working hard at the task at hand. From what we hear the church is doing well and God is blessing. After Just a few weeks Brother Tucker was able to Baptize his first convert there, we are excited about what God is doing and Praise the Lord for how he worked this whole situation out. Please keep praying for Ayers Road Baptist Church. Support Update In our last letter we asked you to pray about our support situation which had changed for the worse the same week we decided to make this move. Last week we received word that Victory Baptist Church in Longview, TX (Bob Page is the Pastor) has taken us on for support. We thank God for this and ask that you would continue to pray that God will supply the resources that we need.
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Summer Help In a situation like this one, of the big issues is manpower, the more help you have the more you can get done. If you would like to come and see first hand the need here in these mountains and lend a hand for a few days or a week, we have a place you can stay and can feed you when you are here. We have folks coming the first week of June and we are looking at being at camp the last week of July but other than that the summer is wide open. If you want to put feet to your prayers and come help out, let us know. A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words Or so they say. In our last prayer letter we painted a pretty good picture of what this area is like. I would hope in this letter continue to see the need. A recent survey says that 68% of this county claim no religious affiliation what so ever. People have asked things like, Why did you go to a place that is so rural? And what is it like? If a picture is worth a thousand words as they say it is, let me leave you with what I believe to be the reason we are here: Please continue to pray that God would show the people in these mountains that there is indeed great hope. Thanks again for all that you do, we truly could not do this without you.
Because of Calvary, The Iseminger Family
David & Carmen Romans 10:13-15
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