This has been a busy month for the Crow family, and one that has taught us some things.  In addition to the normal revivals mentioned last month, we also put together a Christian workers conference in our home church in Mississippi.

The conference idea itself is not original to me, having been implemented by at least one other ministry around the country.  The concept stemmed from the fact that most conferences are geared to pastors, missionaries, evangelists, and other full-time Christian workers.  While there is certainly nothing wrong with this kind of meeting, the Lord burdened us for the lay people of the church.  A man who works in the computer industry undergoes ongoing training from time to time to make certain that he is best equipped to do his job moving into the future.  So it is with many workers in the Western world.  Why not do the same with Sunday school teachers?  How about ushers and musicians?  These people are the muscle of the church.  The pastor provides the backbone and skeleton, but without the muscle of the laymen and laywomen, nothing in the church would get accomplished.  The conference we put together was to be something to help the laypeople of different churches.

Seven churches, including our home church, showed up for the meeting, and God blessed it mightily.  There were two preaching sessions and two teaching sessions with 9 different classes offered.  We were conscious of time and fed everyone a meal.  The feedback was overwhelmingly positive.  One man expressed how that the conference prepared him to head to church the following Sunday excited to be in his place serving God.

This is a concept that I would like to take with me to other areas other than our own church.  I would love to have these conferences all over the country to encourage those who serve.  The value of encouraging the core servants of our churches is important.  This conference serves to dispel the “Elijah Syndrome,” the concept that there are no people serving God anymore except us few.  It allows people to understand the Scriptural moorings for the way we do things.  It fosters creativity by learning ideas from others who share the same doctrinal and philosophical devotion to the Bible.  I look forward to the next time when the Lord will allow us to do the same thing.

As we prepared to go to NC for a meeting, the truck began to give us some problems.  This is very unusual for this truck, but experience has shown me that around 250,000 miles, some issues will begin to surface.  The truck gave me a message on the dash informing of an emission control problem and instructing me to take the truck to the dealership immediately.  After I got the vehicle to the mechanic and he ran a thorough investigation, we discovered that the EGR cooler needed to be replaced.  The job is to cost over $3,400.  After this meeting in NC, we are to head to Ohio with the trailer in tow.  Please pray that God will give us the wisdom to know how to proceed.  We have another vehicle that we are currently using, but it is too small to carry all that we need for our meetings on a regular basis. 

Josiah continues to do well at Ambassador Baptist College.  He plans to travel with Neighborhood Bible Time this summer.  He will be sending out letters endeavoring to raise support in the near future.  Please pray for him in this regard.  Last week, we surprised him at college and had a great, though short, time visiting with him.  It is humbling and exciting to see him serving the Lord.

The Victory Gospel Crusade in Western Ohio is coming up soon.  We are working and preparing for God to do something great as we reach out to lost people with the message of salvation.  We would covet your prayers for this endeavor as well.