Blessing

Fun Sights

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We were just able to present our work to a church in NYC. I know a lot of people, family members included, who would hate to even visit. The traffic, the smells, the rude people, are all things people don’t like about it.

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I gotta say, I loved it! When we left the church, we had a 2 hour drive ahead of us, but even though we were sleepy I couldn’t help but appreciate the sight of the skyline at night! It was truly awesome.

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The church we presented in was a classic old church complete with pipe organ and curved pews! It was gorgeous. The pastor and church have worked on it to make it nice instead of letting it get run down!

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Deputation isn’t the easiest thing, as my brother who went with us on this trip found out. There’s a lot of tedium that goes with traveling, but you also get to see some pretty cool sights, and meet a lot of pretty cool people. I can’t tell you how encouraging some of the pastors that we have met have been. The Devil would love you to think that Christians are down and out, but we still serve a great God who has a great plan for your life. Just let him direct you. Maybe he would put you in a city like New York, or maybe he would take you to Papua New Guinea where there is a population less than half that of NYC.

God will take care of you, and you will have a blast serving Him if you let Him lead!

Winter Camp 2015

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We were able to participate in our last Winter Camp before Papua New Guinea just a few weeks ago. Our church, Faith Bible Baptist Church, puts on a teen camp every year between Christmas and New Year Day. Its a great blessing and a way for young people to get closer to God after the holiday season. This year’s theme was “Who Will Go?”  This was a missions theme designed to get teens to think about the ministry.

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It was a great blessing to be able to help encourage teens to consider the mission field! Pastor Seth wanted us to show that being a missionary is attainable. Sometimes it seems impossible or insurmountable to get to a field (let alone stay there!), but we were able to testify about how God can lead you to the perfect place that he wants you to minister in.

 

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At the end of Winter Camp, Pastor Seth had asked pastors to come down and pray over us. He wanted to “Send us out” as missionaries who were influenced by Winter Camp as teenagers, ourselves. Not only did Pastors come down, but just about all of camp crowded down to the altar. What a blessing to be supported by our fellow Christians! The two pastors who led the prayer are pastors from churches that support us already! What a great encouragement for us to actually see some of the people behind us.

 

Winter Camp will always be good memories for us. This is another great one that we will cherish.

I think even Adrienne came away with some good experiences!

MMMMmmmmm Ice Cream at snow camp…..

 

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God answering prayer!

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I always like to see God answering prayer, not only because we benefit from it, but it shows how great of a king we serve! I heard a pastor last week talk about how day to day we seem to question where God is, but when we look back, it’s so easy to God involved in our lives and protecting us and providing for us. I’ve had one of these moments.

It’s time to buy tires for our vehicle, and I’ve been praying that God would provide them for us. I’ve heard many Christians speak of Gods provision and I wanted to see that in my life too. Last week I took the plunge and ordered the tires. I had money saved up so this is all well and good. (By the way I believe that good stewardship of resources is how God usually provides our needs) On Sunday we visited and church and their love offering was almost the exact amount of our gas money to get there and home, and the cost of our new tires! Thank you LORD for providing for our family. 

Our God is great. Our God is a benevolent God who takes care of his children’s as opposed to asking for child sacrifices. Our God paid our debts. Our God gives us the opportunity to serve him. What an almighty king he is and so worthy of our thanks and praise!

Going to Church is a Blessing!

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mbcOn Sunday, we visited the church that Justin got saved in. Just over 17 years ago (this month), Justin asked Jesus to save him from his sins. Going back to the PLACE where he called on Christ was very awesome, but the awesomeness didn’t end there. While we were there, we met some of the people who are still attending after 17 YEARS! Talk about being faithful to your church. Justin was able to talk with his old Sunday School teacher, Mrs Blackman. She and her husband actually gave Justin a gift to help fund his first missions trip to Ireland. This trip, if you’ve heard our presentation then you know this, is what God used to lead Justin to the missions field. What a blessing to be able to see people who affected our lives for the LORD still serving God in their church! We serve a Great God, and its our privilege to go forward, arm in arm, with great saints like these!

Sunday Meeting

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This past Sunday, we were able to visit a church about an hour and a half from our home church. This meeting proved to be a little more special for us!

First, while I was setting up our display, I noticed a couple of the kids that rode into church in the church van were sitting and watching us. Then I recognized Mikel, he was a bus kid on the route that I used to work on in our home church. I said “hi” to him and to Jaques, his brother. It was a great way to start a meeting! It seems like the LORD has put several of my old bus kids back in our path over the last month! I can’t tell you how great it is to know that some kids that we invested time and care into, are in a great church that will love them and take care of them!

Second, the church was a blessing! The people were all friendly and curious towards us. We felt welcome for sure!

Last, (can you tell I preach? Maybe I should have alliterated my post!) the Pastor and his family were great! Lunch with Pastor and his kids was fun and tasty! Eating very spicy fajitas with a brother in the LORD will draw you close together. There is fellowship in suffering. 🙂 I was able to share my heart with him, and he with me. It’s such a blessing when you can make a FRIEND on the road. He said some very nice things about us in front of his church, and we were humbled to have been a blessing on Sunday. It’s so good to be used of God, and to also be ministered to. But then again, isn’t that the whole point of going to church and fellowshipping with other believers?

Blessings on the Road!

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Kayleigh and I have been able to visit some great churches who are blessed to have great pastors!

A little more than a month ago, we visited Bradford Baptist Church. Pastor Mills is doing a great job! We were impressed with how he worked with his people! He took us out to lunch and brought one of the men that he’s been working with for a while. It was great to break down that formality that seems to go along with a special guest in your church. Most of the time when you host, you typically want to put your best foot forward, so we dress things up and everything is in its perfect place. I think Pastor Mills put Bradford Baptist’s best foot forward by working with his people, and even taking time in between services to help more of his members after lunch with us! That is a great example to us; never forget that PEOPLE are the ministry.

Last week we visited Sempronius Baptist Church, with Pastor Grimes. Again, I was happy to see a man who loves the people that he has. He pulled me aside during the lunch time in between services, and he told me about some of his people who were there that day. He explained some of their history, where they are at now, and expressed how much he appreciated their faithfulness and love for their church, and the LORD. I am happy to see a close knit church like that. Pastors should love their flock. I believe that is in part why God requires pastors to have their family in order. A good father will be very similar to a good Pastor, and you can tell that Pastor Grimes loves his people as if they were his family.

Thank you pastors, for opening up and letting us see that! It was a great encouragement to Kayleigh and me. We are blessed to have visited and meet the people in those churches!

Word For The World Baptist Ministries

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This past week, Kayleigh, Adrienne, and I went to Rossville, GA for the annual conference at our mission board. During the week, we hear about 7 full length sermons a day, we get to meet and visit with veteran missionaries who have been on the field for 20 and 30 years, and we get to see friends who are also on deputation. It was a blessing this year to go. Kayleigh and I both needed the sermons. They were an encouragement and helped to revive us in our work! Another thing that made the trip worth going was being encouraged by one of the missionaries that we will be working with for a short time. Niels Gade and his wife talked with us for a few hours one evening, and he had the perfect things that I needed to hear. It was a blessing!

 

Please pray for him, though. He is supposed to be working on the mission station in PNG while Bro. Wells is back with his family on furlough. The Wells had been gone for a week and a half, and Bro. Gade fell and broke his shoulder. He came back to the States immediately for treatment, and he is facing surgery to repair his shoulder, or an amputation. These options are determined by the spread of the cancer that weakened his shoulder. He has bone cancer, and when the shoulder broke, it was basically released into the blood. 

 

We know that God works in ways we don’t understand, and we know that He is protecting and guiding us as he puts us through tests. I know that I’m grateful that Bro. Gade for talking with me, but we are praying that God heals his cancer and his shoulder so that he may return to his work in PNG. Please pray with us for Niels Gade, and his family.

 

Thanks!

Adrienne

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Well, Adrienne is now 9 months old! People told us that she would get bigger very quickly. I can’t tell you how many times we hear the phrase, “they grow up so fast”, but lo and behold she has changed so much even in the past few months! 

     We love our girl! I am reminded, though, that she is still a human like we are. My wife and I were talking about how much we loved her and she said, “Yeah, Adrienne loves herself and thinks that we are ok too.” How true that was. She still needs to be taught what is right, and she needs to get saved. She needs to know there is a God who loves her more than she even loves herself right now. My mom would always call me and  my siblings “dirty rotten sinners”, and looking back, we were 🙂 I know what she means now. Being a parent is all about how you train them, and we have our work cut out for us for sure, but we thank God for our little girl! We love her, and would love for you to pray for her, especially those who’ve been able to meet her! Thank you so much for praying and caring for my family and me!

We are blessed by friends!

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A few sundays ago, we were invited to visit this girls sunday school class, ages 9-12, at Old Time Baptist Church in Hamburg, NY. We were told that they had taken an offering up for us and wanted to present it. The class was able to raise over $600 over this past year! Kayleigh and I were floored! We appreciated the gift so much. Its so awesome to see these girls learning that if they give to the LORD, He will use what they give for His glory. What an awesome lesson they have learned. While we were there, we were also quite impressed with the questions that they brought about PNG. I was stunned. I answered GOOD questions from them for about 35 minutes. I couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t just, “what food do they eat?” or “what do they look like?” but a lot of penetrating questions about the culture and way of life. I’ve had question time struggle to be 15 minutes long at churches before. What a way to teach them to have a heart for lost people, and for our LORD. It was an honor to be able to speak to them and visit. They were a huge blessing to Kayleigh and me, Thank you so much for caring about us, where we are going to minister, and our King!