On 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!
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Blessings on the Road!
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!
We are blessed by friends!
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!
Quenching Thirst!
Proverbs 25:25 says, “As cold waters to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country.”
This is all i could think about as I was able to sit down with Aaron Antonio, a missionary to Cambodia, and talk about some of the people I had met a few years ago. In 2011, I went on a missions trip to visit Aaron, and his parents. I was able to meet people my age, and get to know them in the 3 weeks we were there. This past week, Aaron brought great news about how some of those people are now married and have kids, just like Kayleigh and me. A lot of them are also still in church! It was great to hear that so many of them are still faithful to God, and are now raising families in a pagan country! What a blessing to hear about that!