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| November 2008 |
Phone: 616-755-3289 |
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Dear Praying Friends, It has been a little while and there are some big goings on to update you on. I trust you are all well and I hope you will take a few minutes to read this letter in its entirety.Family Update
As is the norm there is much to say
about the family. First of all, it is official, Lena is a High School Graduate. She has worked hard all the way through but especially over the last two years, she wound up finishing almost a full year ahead while staying on the honor roll every semester. Because of the timing of her completion she has been included in the 2008 graduating class of Landmark Christian Academy, Haines City, FL and her diploma has been issued. She continues to be much in prayer about what God has for her next in life. She is praying much about college and would love to go, please pray for God’s leadership and provision in this area.
David II and Emilee are back in school working on 10th and 8th grades respectively. David II has had several chances to preach recently and even won the preaching contest this past summer at camp.
Both Emilee and Lena are continuing to work on piano and David II some with the guitar.
Over all everyone is doing well. Carmen continues to struggle with her health which is obviously a big concern. We are praying about this and would be grateful for your prayers as well.
I guess I am doing pretty well. I just had my 41st birthday and am not yet using a walker, so I guess I can’t complain.
On a serious note please pray for Carmen with winter setting in. Weather extremes are not good for her and it has been years since she has had prolonged exposure to winter. We are praying that she will make it through ok. News From the Road Since our last letter we have certainly kept the roads hot, traveling to churches in PA, MD, NJ, IN and MI. As always God has been good to us, keeping us out of harms way, our gas tank full and giving us good services as well. We have picked up two new supporters and have some promised to start soon. Please pray with us that this trend would continue and also that God would lead us to churches that would be interested in supporting a ministry like ours.
Blessed Hope Baptist Church If you have been keeping up with our travels you know that we have been working with the above named church in Cheboygan, MI since June. They had been without a pastor since April and were more or less in the same boat as many churches we have worked with in the past. They didn’t have the makings of a pulpit committee and didn’t really know how to proceed. We jumped in an ran their pulpit search, made sure that there was someone to preach every week and worked with them on various issues over the phone and on our regular trips north.
Recently they called a pastor unanimously and he has accepted. This a great opportunity for Pastor Jackson and his wife. Please pray for them and the church as they move forward.
They have some issues with the building that we are still hoping to be involved with but other than that our job there has been completed. We thank God for the opportunity to help yet another church move forward, please keep them in your prayers.
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A Great Door is Opened... When writing to the church at Corinth, the Apostle Paul used these words in I Corinthians 16:9 “For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.” At the present time my family and I can relate to the above statement. Since the beginning of this year Carmen and I have been praying about one specific thing, expanding this ministry. In the last 13 years God has used us and led us and by His grace we have been able to help a good number of churches. If I had to pick the biggest downfall of this type of ministry it would be that in starting a new church or addressing what needs to be addressed in a struggling church, they both take serious time commitments. (We spent two years in GA and upwards of two years in Elkhart, IN during which time we were available for little else) This fact coupled with the fact that the numbers of churches needing help are rapidly increasing has convinced us that we need to expand. We are convinced that if we are going to be more effective, help more churches and get more done, we have got to have other people working with us. So that we can engage in more than one project at a time. As I have already said this has been a prayer of ours all year this year, we have been praying that God would open a door where we could be able to have a way to train people and have a network of folks starting churches and helping struggling churches. This is a prayer request we didn’t share with anyone. Recently one of our supporting pastors, Tom Fry at Ambassador Baptist Church in Frederick MD, wanted to talk to me when we were in town. He asked me to pray about taking over the churches Bible Institute ministry and rework it so that we could train people to do what we are doing. In short Brother Fry asked me to pray about doing exactly what we have been praying about doing all year. We have taken this as an answer to prayer and an open door and are planning, praying and preparing to move forward. This gives us the opportunity to continue doing what we do, while training other people to do the same thing and helping them get started. My first thought when presented with this opportunity was perhaps the same as Abram’s was when God called him out in Genesis 12 : “Why can’t I serve you here?” While praying and researching the area, it has become clear that God not only opened the door we asked him to open, but also He has done so in the perfect area for such a venture. Let me show you what I mean: ¨ Frederick MD and its surrounding area (Frederick, Washington and Carroll Counties) have a population of upwards of 660,000 in right at 1500 square miles. This area has perhaps a dozen doctrinally sound Ind. Baptist Churches, at least half of which are small. ¨ Frederick is less than 50 miles from Washington DC and about the Same distance from Baltimore, the Baltimore metro area is 2.6 million people and metro Washington DC is 5.3 Million People ¨ In expanding out again, the North East US is perhaps one of the neediest areas of the country when it comes to church planting and church helps. What we are planning is basically three schools in one:
We are planning on offering classes on multiple days of the week so that a motivated student can finish quickly and get on to what God has for them to do. We are planning on keeping everyone busy on the weekends with helping area churches and starting new churches. It is not inconceivable that someone could come and enroll with an end goal of starting a church in that geographic region and toward the end of their training the staff, church members, students and others can be used as manpower to get the new church planted so that when they are finished with their training the church God has called them to start has already been started and they can have a huge head start and avail themselves of resources and help that would not normally be available to them. God has been busy putting the pieces of this very complex puzzle together. He has already given us a commitment from our first serious ministerial student and seems to be working on assembling a solid teaching staff as well. Our timeline on this project is as follows: ¨ Laying out curriculum and structuring classes-already begun ¨ Promoting our ministry and the Bible Institute in area churches-making contacts now, will go full speed as soon as we can get moved to that area ¨ The Bible institute is already in existence and has been used to train some of their church members we will roll out the new program fall term 2009, if we get moved quick enough I may teach at least a class in the spring term of this school year. Needless to say there is much to pray about and much to do. This gives us the chance to continue what we have always done, while we train others to do the same thing and develop a network of folks that can work together. As of yet we have had no opposition, but with such a big opportunity it is sure to come. Please keep all of this in prayer and we will keep you updated as to the progress.
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Needs for our Upcoming Expansion It probably goes without saying, but facing the move and added ministry, our needs at the present are many. I know that many of you pray quite specifically for us when you have the details to do so, so I thought that I would give you some specific needs we are praying about in regards to our upcoming move and new ministry opportunity. Please pray that God would meet these needs and give us wisdom in all decisions:
We will do our best to keep you posted on the progress of things, needs that are met and new needs that have arisen. We are grateful for your continued prayers on our behalf. Urgent: Support Needed! Three times in the New Testament the phrase is found, “the just shall live by faith” This is a command we have taken seriously and embraced through the years and we continue to do so. If you have read our whole letter up to this point (and I hope you have) you are perhaps overwhelmed with the needs of this situation and the enormity of the opportunity as well. If you could, imagine this for a minute from our perspective. The reality is that we don’t have enough support to do what we are presently doing let alone financing an expansion of this size. We are once again taking another large step of faith...and trusting God to continue to meet our needs. We are certainly grateful to our faithful supporters. Please pray for us during this next big step. We certainly couldn’t do this without you. If you get our letter and pray for us regularly, please keep praying. If you don’t already support us please pray seriously about doing so. No amount is too small. We have supporters that range from $10.00 to $200.00 per month and every place in between. It all helps. If God wants you to get involved please do so. If there is anyway you could give a one time offering to help with the huge expenses that this expansion will take I can assure you that any money given for this project will go to either moving expenses or equipment needs. Again we will keep you posted regarding our progress and plans. Now more than ever we covet your prayers.
Because of Calvary,
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