Chris & Elizabeth Baran

We were in a missions conference in Akron, New York with Pastor LaCapruccia and Fellowship Baptist Church this past week. Throughout our time there I gave our testimony, presented our burden, and taught Jr. Church and Children’s Sunday School.  We were also part of a missionary quartet in one service.  It was a blessing to meet the people and serve with them in just a short weekend.  It makes it difficult to leave when you meet new friends and see how they lovingly serve in their church. I look forward to the day when we shall no longer say goodbye.  Oh, what a day that will be!

We were privileged to be counselors for a second time at camp this summer. Much to our surprise, my wife and I were team leaders!  It was a lot of fun and we actually placed fifth out of twelve teams.  My in-laws surpassed us but we did manage to beat our assistant pastor.    We had a great week with our teens.  The preaching was amazing and many many decisions were made.  It’s great to go to a camp where the Lord not only touches the hearts of the teens but also the hearts of the workers.

It was exciting to be a part of the annual prison revival hosted by Old Time Baptist Church under the Rock of Ages prison ministry at the Gowanda Correctional Facility in Collins, NY.  I use to go and preach in this prison once a month before I went on deputation. I enjoy preaching in the prison. The receptiveness of the men is amazing. They soak in everything you say. At this particular revival, I was asked to be one of the preachers. I enjoyed it so much. I was also able to talk to one of the men concerning his assurance of salvation. God worked mightily. Praise His glorious name!

We volunteered to work in the booth that our church sets up each year at the Dunkirk Fair.  In this booth we pass out tracts but the main goal is to talk to people about eternity. Several were saved and my wife was able to lead one young lady to Christ.  Many of the people we talked to were quick to acknowledge that they were sinners but still they weren’t ready to trust Jesus to save them from their sin.  My prayer is that they will be continually pricked by the Holy Spirit until they can no longer run from the truth.   

After working with juniors at camp we traveled to Greenville, PA to help Grace Baptist Church with their Vacation Bible School.  Some of the kids made great decisions concerning music and other standards.  I was also able to lead one young man to Christ.  Please keep him in your prayers, his name is Jonathan.  On the final day, a great number of parents attended and heard the gospel.  We pray this will give the church several inroads into their homes. 

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.