The Baran Family

Our next missions conference took place at our home church in Eden, New York.  It was so good to see our church family again!  Throughout our travels they have shown their care and support over and over again.  We were excited to finally introduce Brother Lewis to the congregation.  They were thrilled to meet Brother Lewis and see the ministry in Cebu!  We appreciate the Lord giving our friends and family the opportunity to meet the man that we will be working with.  It was a blessing to see our two worlds come together!  God has blessed us so much and we look forward to serving Him in Cebu!

I was part of a missions conference hosted by Pastor Keith Troyer and Grace Baptist Church in Greenville, Pennsylvania.  It was a special conference for many reasons but probably one of the greatest was that Brother Travis Lewis was with us.  Most of you already know that we are planning on working with Brother Lewis and his family in Cebu!   We were so excited to see him here in the States! It was another reminder of our future home in the Philippines.  We were happy to go over plans and talk about what God has already done in Cebu through the work that Brother Lewis started.  This was an exciting time!  We greatly enjoyed the conference and all the fellowship.  The preaching was amazing and we were refreshed.  It was wonderful to spend those few days with Brother Lewis and my in-laws!

We went to Warren, Pennsylvania to present our burden to Pastor Wimer and the people at Bible Baptist Church.  Warren is very close to where my grandma lives in Jamestown, New York so we were able to spend a couple of days with her and celebrate her birthday.  It was nice to rest a little bit and visit family!  The meeting went really well.  Little did I know that my wife had known this pastor and his family since she was a young teenager.  It had been eight years since they had last seen each other so it was neat for Elizabeth to see what God has done with this family.  What an encouragement to see a pastor faithfully serving in the area that God has placed him. 

We were able to visit Pastor Larger and Revival Baptist Church for their Sunday services.  This church is a new ministry that began just a few short years ago.  It was so exciting for us to see and reminded me of what we want to accomplish in the Philippines!  Praise the Lord for those who are burdened about this country and are willing to do something about it.    We were also blessed to see some of our family members attend the church there in Reynoldsburg.  We’re thankful for the times that we’ve been able to see family and friends throughout our travels.