Isemingerfamily@juno.com

Phone:  814-777-4231

Dear Praying Friends,

The fall is upon us.  Back home that means the air turns chilly, the leaves fall off of the trees and it becomes a beautiful time of year. 

Someone said that in GA the seasons are almost summer, summer, still summer and Christmas.  It seems that fall here means that the grass goes dormant and you don’t feel like you are walking into a blast furnace when you go outside.

But anyway, 2005 is winding down, and we are looking ahead to 2006.

Revival Report

Due to the on going work at Ayers Road Baptist Church in GA, I trimmed my fall schedule down to just two revival meetings and made preparation to travel by plane to both of them.

September 11-14 had me with Pastor Bill Gerak at First Baptist in Perth Amboy, NJ.  God Blessed here with a truly great meeting and an enjoyable time.  It was great to see that God is still able to do great things if that is what people want. (See the next section for details)

After two weeks back in GA it was time to go again and I boarded a plane to Pittsburg to be with Pastor Erik Lingenfelter at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Claysburg, PA,  October 2-7.  This is the church Carmen grew up in and the town where all 3 of the kids were born, so it is the closest thing to “home” that we have.  It was the first time I have gone there without my family, and no one was real happy about it, it is just the way it had to work this time around.   The meeting went well, several important decisions were made and at the close of the week everyone seemed pleased.  I had carried an extra suitcase with clothes that our kids had out grown  to deliver to some friends,  so after delivering them I had an empty suitcase that  was able to be filled  with Claysburg Pizza & Strombolis and Benzel’s Pretzels which perhaps made it a little more bearable for those who could not come.

What Made the Difference?

I mentioned about the meeting in NJ going so well.  In retrospect, it was perhaps the best meeting God has allowed us to be apart of.  Over the 4 days there were salvation decisions & baptisms in every service,  prolonged invitations with many people responding and many important decisions being made. 

As I made my way home I had a chance to ponder what made this meeting different that the countless others that we have held.  This is the realization that I came to:  I realized that as far as I know, I had not prepared any differently, I had not prayed any more or less nor did I have some new revelation or exciting message that was different than any other I had preached. Clearly the difference in this meeting was the preparation of the people in the church.  The week I was there was the final week of a four week attendance contest and the whole church was working hard, they had visitors in every service and as a church they were excited and asking God to do something, which is exactly what He did.

So the lesson learned was this; Revival isn’t just a meeting it’s a personal state of mind and a spiritual state of heart   I think we would all see a difference in our churches if we could reach that level of spiritual excitement about the things of Christ in our souls.

 News from GA

The work in Macon continues on all fronts.  We have had several salvation decisions here since our last letter as well as several new visitors and we are preparing to baptize some new converts.  The discipleship program on Wednesday nights is going well (many of those who need it most still are not coming, but I realize there is not much we can do about that.) 

The remodeling/construction work continues as does everything else that is going on.

Last night (October 14) we had a game night at the church and had 22 in attendance including 3 that had not previously been here, It was a great night of Food, Fellowship & Fun.  One of the exciting things to see was out of the 17 that were here, (not counting our family) only 2 of them were in church here when we got here.

Please continue to pray for the work here, there is so much to do and it often feels like it is moving at a snails pace.

Supporters: Thank you for your faithfulness.  Our support base is a vital part of this puzzle and we could not be doing what we are without you.

 Family News

Since our last letter the big news is the kids are back on school again.  It is hard to believe that Emilee is in 5th grade, David is in 7th and Lena is a freshman in High School.  The new thing this year is that Lena is enrolled in the Landmark Baptist Academy, which is part of Landmark Baptist Church in Haines City,  FL.  Every semester we send in the grade reports, and they keep the records and issue the report cards and then in four years her diploma.  They produce the curriculum that we have been using for some time and we are planning to enroll all 3 kids for their high school years, it is a little more expensive than just buying the books, but we are thinking that with our lifestyle/ministry and dealing with GED testing, a diploma would be the best way for us to go. 

I just recently endured my 38th Birthday.  I am not sure where the time has gone but it chose to take some more of my hair with it.

Carmen is still plugging along. At her last Doctor’s appointment, we found out that the rheumatologist she had been hoping  to see will  not see her because she does not deal with her particular problems.  Her Doctor says he is bound and determined to help her and will stick with her until he has.  He decided to change some of her meds which has caused her pain level to increase again, but hopefully as he adjust the meds the pain will decrease.

Folks helping out

For a lot of years now I have been talking about the fact that the key to getting small churches back on their feet is connecting churches that can help with churches that need help.  It certainly seems that this is a key component to keeping things rolling here.  Here are several examples:

¨ With 3 Sunday School classes and a junior church we have not had to spend any money on Sunday School material as of yet, thanks to Calvary Baptist in Avon Park, FL and Bible Baptist in Burton, MI

¨ As we work on our Wednesday night discipleship classes and I work on putting together a discipleship program that we will be able to use both here and in other churches,  two churches (Gospel Light Baptist in Kearny, NJ and Lancaster Baptist in Lancaster, CA) have provided me with their discipleship material to work off of.

¨ We recently received the first of two care packages from Beacon Baptist in Millville, DE.  Going through the box was not unlike a small early Christmas and we are grateful for their thoughtfulness

¨ Our home church, Lincoln Ave Baptist in Ionia, MI is sending down several books from the church bookstore that will be a big help to the folks here.

Attendance Contest

From mid October until mid November we will be having an attendance contest here in GA.  Church folks can earn points by inviting and bringing visitors to church with them and continue to earn points every time their visitor returns.  The winner will receive a good leather bound KJV Bible with their name on it.

 I am convinced that the success of this (or any church, for that matter) is the involvement of the folks in the pew, please pray that folks will work at this and God will bless their efforts.

 Truck Update

Either in our last prayer letter or in an e-mail update, I mentioned that our truck is presently out of commission.  Of course with diesel at $3.25 a gallon I am not all that worried about it at the present, but the time will come before to long when we will be pulling our trailer to the  next “mission”.  

At this point we are not sure of the exact problem with the truck but it is probably either a head gasket or a cracked head. 

Not to long ago someone at our home church gave $500 toward repair or replacement of the truck.  With this money we will hopefully be able to figure out the actual problem and direction we are going to go.  Please pray that God will be very liberal with His wisdom in this matter.   Also, we are very grateful for the generosity of whomever gave the money for this purpose.

Prayer Requests

As always we have many things that you can pray about as you pray for us.   Some of the more important ones can be found below:

God’s Power, guidance and wisdom in decisions

Our family’s health and

wellbeing

Our truck situation, when the time comes

Carmen’s health

The continued faithfulness of our supporters as we continue in the GA project

God’s blessing on Ayers Road Baptist Church (growth, leadership, workers, stability in the finances)

We have one more prayer letter left this year which we hope to get to you before Christmas. 

We truly covet your prayers for our family and our ministry.

Because of Calvary,

The Iseminger Family

David & Carmen

Lena , David II & Emilee

Romans 10:13-15