Chris & Elizabeth Baran

We went with the young ones from our church to summer camp this week! Many of these children come from rough backgrounds and have great obstacles to overcome in their lives.  It’s heartbreaking to see what these eight year olds face everyday at home and school.  This week we also had a family of muslims come with us.  Praise the Lord, during the week a few were saved! Please keep them in your prayers, their parents are not strict muslims, but still the children who accepted Christ were afraid to go home and tell their parents they had become Christians.  One of the sisters would not accept Christ for that reason.  Again, please pray for these kids!  Those who were not saved have had seeds planted in their heart. May the Lord cotinue to draw them to Himself.

We were able to be a part of our home church’s DVBS this summer.  It was a lot of fun, my wife and I had the opportunity to help out on the bus and be team leaders.  Our highest attendance record was 126!  It was a little short of our goal but we praise the Lord for all those that came.  Many children throughout the week accepted the Lord as their personal Savior and now as many of them prepare for camp, we pray they continue to learn and change their lives. 

Our most recent meeting took place Sunday with Pastor McClain and Harvest Baptist Church. We enjoyed being a part of their services both Sunday morning and Sunday night.  In the morning services I was given the opportunity to teach the teens in Sunday School and my wife gave her testimony.  I also preached in the evening and showed our presentation.  The people of Harvest Baptist have watched my wife grow up and are very excited about what the Lord is doing in our lives. Truly missionaries are nothing spectacular.   They are just ordinary people, people you may know, who are serving an extraordinary God.

My wife and I were able to join our church in soul winning at the annual Taste of Buffalo this past Saturday. This is something our church has been faithfully doing for years. Half a million people will attend this particular festival giving us a great opportunity to give the gospel. This was my wife’s first year and she was amazed to see the great number of people. We spent the afternoon there and passed out close to five thousand tracts.  Please pray they will have an influence on the souls who received them.

We pray you all had a wonderful July 4th!  Praise the Lord for our country and how God has used it to reach the world! We spent the holiday with our friends in Springville, NY.  Pastor Friedman and Faith Baptist Church have been faithfully supporting us for a year now and asked us back to give our updated presentation.  They also wanted to meet Elizabeth (of course).  It was great to see the church faithfully pressing on.  Since the last time I was with them they’ve moved to a new location.  They had been meeting in an upstairs apartment but now the Lord has provided a storefront on main street.   Because of this they are much more visible to the people around them.  May God use this opportunity they have to bring many others to Himself.

What a great week!  My wife and I went to Georgia this past week  for Missionary Candidate School at Word for the World Baptist Ministries.  During this time, Elizabeth was officially accepted by our mission board!  We are both excited about this and thank the mission board for all their help.  Also we want to thank our home church for their constant support  in all aspects. The week was filled with intense preaching and classes for missionary couples headed to the field.  God moved throughout the meetings and really prepared our hearts for the task He has given us.  Elizabeth also benefited from the ladies sessions.   There is still so much for us to learn.  By the end of the week we were tired physically but greatly refreshed spiritually.  To God be the glory!

This past week we attended a tent revival hosted by First Bible Baptist Church in Harmony, Pennsylvania.  We thank Pastor Smith for allowing us to set up our display for the few days we could be there.  I did something at this meeting that I have never done up to this point on the deputation trail or anywhere for that matter.  Pastor Smith asked me to give our testimony during announcements so I was caught a little off guard and I was also a little nervous.  As I was giving our testimony I was asked when our anniversary was and my mind went blank!  Before I knew what I was saying  September 28, 1990 came out of my mouth.  Everyone laughed and my father-in-law kindly reminded me that my wife would have just been two years old.  The life of a missionary is always exciting, you never know what might happen.  Sometimes you even surprise yourself.   

We were invited to join Humphry Baptist Church in their Missions Emphasis Weekend in Great Valley, New York. Pastor Cialini has only been with this church for eight months and is doing a great job.  This in fact was the church’s very first year to begin faith promise.  It was a privilege for us to be a part of it.

Our home church hosted a preacher’s conference this week. It was another opportunity for us to set up our display and talk to pastors. We’re praying that the Lord would open new doors through the  contacts we met.  We would like to thank our church for giving us this opportunity!

Bible Baptist Church has been faithfully supporting us for almost a year now. They asked us to come back and give our testimony from our survey trip which we took in February.  We were only with them for one service but it was good to see them again.  Praise the Lord for faithful friends and partners in the ministry.