Ministry Update

I arrived back home around 1:00 this morning. It was good to be home. The Lord gave us a wonderful meeting in New Castle IN. The meeting went Sunday through Sunday with no services on Friday or Saturday. During the week, each service was a teen rally in which I did almost all of the public work: piano, program, preaching, etc. The only thing that I didn’t do was pray for the meal each night. It was a tiring week, but a fruitful one: we saw 8 teens trust Christ as Savior.

I leave again Saturday headed for Keene, NH to preach a revival meeting for Roger Maxwell. Thank you for your prayers last week and I covet them again this coming week.

Family Update

My wife and family are glad to have me home. Sarah had a list of things for me to do from unusual cleaning projects to fix up things around the house. She took a few hours getting used to having a man to order around the house again. Before long, however, she was back to normal. When I went outside to take out the trash Tuesday, Abigail got a forlorn look on her face and asked, “Is Daddy gone again?” She was much encouraged to hear that I would be right back. After the NH meeting we will take off driving and be together again.

Paul

After several weeks off for the birth of our third child, I am in a meeting once again. I am preaching a teen meeting in New Castle, IN that will run through Thursday night. I will also be preaching to the church on Sunday following the teen meeting. I am program director, pianist, and preacher for the meeting, so things are a bit hectic right now. Last night, however, we did have 16 visitors and one young man trusted Christ as Savior. Please pray for the following things:

1. Revival in the hearts of the saved teens in attendance. Several are really struggling spiritually.

2. A good rapport with the teens. Pray that God would give me an entrance into their hearts.

3. Attendance to be good. Pray that God will bring in teens whose hearts have been opened by the Spirit of God.

4. Salvations. The pastor’s main goal in this meeting is evangelism.

The man who is currently the lay youth leader was saved as a 15 year old in this church years ago and now is one of the core leaders in the church. We would love to see those kinds of results this week as well — fruit that will remain.

Paul

Family Update

I know many of you are wondering how the family is adjusting to a new little one, so I thought I would take a few minutes and send out an update. Esther Faith is making her presence known in the household at all hours of the day and night – as was expected. We are parked at the home of some dear friends who have really helped take care of the two older children during my hospital stay and subsequent recovery from surgery. This has been an incredible blessing to me and has allowed me a little more peace and quiet than I would have had otherwise.

Josiah and Abigail have taken to her quite well. I knew Josiah would have no problem, but I thought jealousy might be an issue with Abigail. Thankfully, this is not the case at all. She wants to hold and admire “Bee-bee Essah” just as much as Josiah does. She seems to be quite pleased with this living baby doll that has come to live with us. I will say, though, that she gets very upset when Esther cries. Josiah was likewise horrified when he saw her umbilical stump (those things do look pretty nasty). I have assured him that it will look just like his belly button in a few days. I think he was relieved.

I am recovering slowly from the c-section, but so far, everything is going well. I was really disappointed to have to have the surgery, but I believe the Lord had a reason for it, even though I don’t know or see what it could possibly be. This means that Paul will have to go to a few meetings without the family just because I will not be able to travel and exert a lot of activity for several weeks, but the Lord knew all that ahead of time also. Please pray that my recovery will be quick and free from complications. Thank you so much for your prayers on our behalf over the last several months.

The trailer is rather in an uproar with baby stuff everywhere. It will take a while to get things sorted out and put in their respective places, and probably some trial and error runs on final resting places of certain items. It is a little crowded and disorganized at the moment, but I hope to remedy that over the next few weeks. In the meantime, pray that I don’t trip over diaper bags and baskets of baby clothes while I am wandering around the trailer in the middle of the night, sleepy and disoriented!

Ministry Update

After a couple of weeks without preaching, it was good to be able to preach at the church in which I grew up. The Lord gave us two good services, with my two brothers attending the morning service. Both my brothers claim to be saved, but they are not in church right now. It was a blessing to have them attend. The Lord also gave us a generous love offering from that church to help with the expenses of not being in meetings right now. What a blessing it is to serve Christ!

Family Update

Many of you may have thought that we had fallen off the edge of the world since you hadn’t heard from us in so long, but despite your hopes, we are still here! We haven’t had a lot to write about, so I haven’t taken the time to sit down and narrate our adventures as a family this past month.

Abigail celebrated her second birthday on May 4. We had an awful cake (made so that everyone could partake with no ill results) that nearly made Paul and me sick. The kids were thrilled with it until they tasted it, and then they quickly lost interest. Josiah ate all the icing off of his piece, but no one else bothered to make an effort. There are just some things that cannot be substituted!

Now when we ask Abigail how old she is, she proudly holds up five fingers and says, “Four!” We are still coaching her on the correct answer. She is now out of the nursery and in the 2’s & 3’s class, which she seems to enjoy. She is learning new songs and Bible stories each week, and when she chooses to talk, she can go on and on. Josiah is a great teacher, and is always singing with her. Their best duet numbers as of right now are “Jesus Loves Me” and “I’m in the Lord’s Army!” Usually, Abigail lags behind on the tempo, and ends up being an echo, but it is fun to listen to them sing together.

Josiah will be starting kindergarten in the fall, and he is looking forward to it. He knows all of hi letters, so that job will be easier for me when the time comes. Now all I have to do is teach him the sounds and how they go together. No Problem, HA!

No, we have not had the baby yet. I will go no further on this subject. I have had all kinds of suggestions from drinking castor oil to horseback riding to shoveling mulch. The thought that comes to mind is, “Why make myself more miserable than I already am?” The baby will not come until she is ready anyway! As one well-wisher told me recently, “Keep hanging in there and hanging out there!”

Right now we are just sitting around waiting for the baby to make her appearance. If you are on praying ground, please pray that she comes soon. Boredom has set in, and I can only do so much about it. If I do not go by June 23, they will take her by C-section. This would effectively ground us for the rest of the summer, and we would have to cancel some meetings, which is wholly undesirable for all of us. The last thing I want is another major operation. Do keep this in mind as you pray for our family. Josiah asks every day if the baby will come today. I have to tell him that I don’t know – we will have to wait and see. This is not a satisfactory answer for either of us, but that is the answer I have to give. Abigail is still clueless, I think, even though she knows there is a baby in Mama’s tummy. I don’t think she realizes that the center of attention is going to take a drastic shift in the next week or two. Life is so interesting!

My youngest brother graduates from high school this coming weekend. He was selected to be the valedictorian of his class – we are all very proud of his accomplishments. After graduation, he plans to attend Ambassador Baptist College in pursuit of the one-year Bible certificate. Our family traveled up to Ohio two weekends ago to be a part of his baccalaureate exercises at the church. We put on a mini concert and Paul preached the Sunday evening service. It was really neat to be a part of Micah’s “festivities.”

Ministry Update

The Lord gave us a good meeting in Amarillo. Sunday morning there was a girl there who was weeping over her soul, having admitted in the invitation that she was lost. She never did come and talk to us, even though we had a fellowship following the service. I tried to approach her to talk with her about it, but she always avoided me. She did not come to any of the rest of the services.

The drive back home was a most interesting experience. We left Monday night after the service and drove 125 miles before stopping in the parking lot of Flying J for the night. Tuesday we did 791 miles, again stopping for the night in a Flying J just west of Nashville, Tennessee. We got a decent start that next morning, especially considering how late we got in the night before. We planned to fuel once at the Flying J west of Knoxville and then head over the mountains in plenty of time to make the Wednesday night service at our home church. As we moved around the parking lot at Flying J, Sarah was in the trailer fixing lunch for the family and heard a horrid grinding sound. While the children ate their food, I crawled under the trailer to check it out. I found a broken leaf spring on the passenger side middle axle. After several phone calls, we were able to accurately assess the situation: although there was a dealer in Knoxville that had the spring in stock, there was no one that could do the work right away. A call to a mobile RV repairman has still not been answered; the dealer that sold me the part was so covered up that they could not get to it for at least a week; an RV dealer that could do the work was twenty miles east over Tennessee interstate under construction. TN seems to have the roughest construction zones of any of the states that I have been in. Traveling this stretch of construction would have wreaked havoc on any trailer with a broken leaf spring. Things did not look good. I had just finished preaching a message about joy and how God wants us to have joy in our lives in both good times and bad. Now we were stranded in a Flying J with no one to work on our trailer, bone weary from long hours of travel, the heat of the parking lot adding to the potential for irritation: I was being tested. I was reminded of what Moses said to God: “[The people] be ready to stone me.” Had any suitable stones been available at that time, I think my family might have tempted.

After a couple more phone calls, I decided to buy the part and install it myself. It took little time to get the part and after a good time of witnessing to the employees who sold me the part, I was on my way back toward the trailer to change my first ever leaf spring. I found that the parking space that I had chosen was covered in part by a fresh blanket of motor oil, not far from where I had to work. Consequently, whenever I got under the trailer, I had to go around to the other side and crawl on my stomach or back to where I had to work on the broken spring. Every time I needed to get a tool, it was back out again, rocking my body back and forth on my shoulders to achieve some kind of motion. After three or four trips like this, I asked my wife to come out and join me just so that she could hand me tools.

In the midst of this project, the Lord sent along a man by the name of David. He was literally a truck driver who came off the street, initially to buy fuel. He saw that we were working and he and his wife came over to help us. As we worked together, we were both feeling each other out, looking for an opportunity to witness to the other. It turns out, he and his wife had both trusted Christ as Savior many years ago. Hours later, with the greatest help coming from our Lord Himself, we were able to finish the project. I went to pay David and he insisted that I take some money from him. In the end, he gave me a few tools, a can of WD-40, and $240. We were able to get on the road again and finally made it home well after everyone had left the church. It was a trip in which God reassured us of so many truths of His Word, not the least of which is that “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” The total cost of the repair, if you discount the gifts that David gave me, came to less than $40.

We will be in NC for most of the month of May, going to Ohio for a short time around the 20^th. We will home the entire month of June and most of July before our schedule gets busy again. Thank you all for your continued prayers.

As a student at Ambassador Baptist College, I enrolled in the evangelist program, believing that God would one day put me into that ministry. It wasn’t long before I was sitting in Bro. Ron Comfort’s Evangelist class listening to a most timely lecture. As I recall, the lecture was entitled “So You Want to Be an Evangelist.” I do not claim to have near the experience that he has, but I have learned by experience the veracity of all that he said in that class lecture(s). (I think he actually spent a couple of classes finishing that lecture.)

After months of communicating with this pastor about the needs of our trailer, we arrived to find a potentially disastrous electrical setup. The pastor had asked an RV dealer how to set things up and had been misinformed from the start. From there, someone in the church volunteered to do the electrical work and his knowledge of electricity was less than desirable, at least for the project at hand. For the neophytes of electrical science, there are some basic principles that are necessary when wiring a receptacle. First, electricity only works in a circle. There is no such thing as running a wire one way and having electricity. Even though you may see only one wire, there are actually at least two wires, one called hot and the other called neutral. Without two wires, there could be no electricity because there must be a circuit. In today’s wiring, there is usually a third wire called a ground that is present. That is why most receptacles have three “prongs”: one hot wire, one neutral, and one ground. When we arrived at this church, there was a 30-amp plug wired horrendously wrong. Instead of there being a hot, a neutral, and a ground, there were two hot’s and one neutral. The problem was that where the neutral was supposed to be, there was a hot wire, and where the ground was supposed to be, there was the normal neutral wire. In short, it could have spelled disaster for us had we just plugged in. Not long ago, I invested in a voltage meter and was able to ascertain the problem before disaster had a chance to strike our trailer. (There was a day in which I foolishly trusted any plug that was present.) We pulled in, unhooked the trailer, and headed out to Home Depot to get the parts to give us power.

It was at this juncture that things began to go wrong. Leaving a sick, feverish, teething toddler with her mother, Josiah and I found the electrical section of Home Depot. In mere seconds we had located the proper plug and gone to the wiring section to pick up another piece of wire. I wasn’t sure at this point that I would need it, but I thought that I would pick it up just in case. After calling and calling and calling over the telephone for someone to help us in the electrical section, no one ever showed up. We waited for half an hour all to no avail. By now, though the trailer was parked, we were without the most basic need of trailer life: electricity. To compound our problems a primal disease was beginning to afflict us, threatening to rob us of reason and turn us all into ravening beasts: it was the disease of hunger. Otherwise happy children would cry at the slightest hint of provocation. Otherwise patient parents felt their fuses shortening by the minute. Reason was taking flight and being replaced by omnivorous hallucinations. Suddenly my son resembled nothing so much as an Oscar Meyer hot dog. My truck magically morphed into a turkey on the table, complete with all the trimmings. I am not the most efficient electrician in the world, even when I am in a healthy frame of mind, but in my current state, the chances of getting much done quickly were about as good as my pregnant wife winning the Boston Marathon. When we returned from Home Depot, I backed the truck neatly into a parking space, only to have the guy wire of a telephone pole hook on my back bumper. I decided to pull up a bit just to better center myself in the space and the wire ripped and bent my back bumper. In spite of the current opposition, I plunged ahead with the electrical project, feeling like a horrible provider while my family sat in the dark, boiling trailer. I discovered that I did indeed need the wire that I had waited for at the store. I would now have to return all the way across town to the slow Home Depot. My wife was able to cook supper without power (no TV dinners tonight) on the gas stove and she insisted that I eat something. As I left the church parking lot, my truck resembling an insurance claim, I made my way toward the interstate that would take me across town only to find the way blocked by a train over 100 cars long, oozing along the tracks almost imperceptibly. I drove and drove, trying to get around it, but to no avail. When I finally got around the train and onto the interstate, I ended up missing my exit. After turning around, I found that Home Depot had shut off all the lights in their parking lot. I almost left without the wire when I noticed people going into the store. I went right back to the electrical department, finding no one. Finally, a woman appeared, though she did nothing for my confidence. I asked if she could get me the wire I needed, and she lamented to me, “I don’t know how to cut wire.” At that point I bit my tongue trying to resist all the chauvinist comments that came to mind, not to mention a commentary on the wisdom of allowing a woman who cannot even cut a wire to work in Home Depot. After another half an hour and two more female employees later, I finally got the wire I needed and paid for it. Of course, it was totally dark by this time and I would have to probe around in the electrical box with the minimal light of the streetlight thirty yards away. The children were both in bed by the time I returned and enlisted my wife’s help. By 11:30 pm, after arriving at 6:30 that evening, we finally had power to our trailer.

If my wife had anything to say about the curriculum of the Evangelist course at Ambassador Baptist College, she would insist that it include a course in electricity with the following inclusions: wiring a hot box, while holding a flashlight between shoulder and chin, squatting in the bushes with twigs raking your legs, the twigs providing a ready bridge for the local insect population – all in the dark. Extra credit might be doing it all in the rain. As for me, I don’t really see much hope for her as an academic dean of the program, but that does not mean that she might not have an occasional great idea.

Paul

Ministry Update

The Lord gave us a great meeting in Fort Worth. On Tuesday night there was a fourteen-year-old girl named Lacy and last night an 11-year-old boy named Elijah was saved. It was a great meeting with the Lord giving us a tremendous rapport with the pastor and the members of the church.

Our next meeting is in Amarillo TX where I will preach a very unusual schedule for a revival meeting: Saturday through Monday. From Amarillo, we will head back to North Carolina to be there, for the most part, until the baby is born.

Family Update

The family is doing well. Josiah has improved since we have been in TX. I am not sure if it is because of the change in climate, or the cold front that has moved in the last few days. Whatever the reason, I am pleased. Abigail woke up last night with a fever, but has only a runny nose and cough this morning. Pray that it doesn’t turn into an ear infection.

I took the kids outside yesterday to play for a while. I gave them squirt guns filled with water, and I blew bubbles for them to shoot. You should have seen them, running around the yard, shrieking and laughing and squirting their guns. I was thankful that I was shot only once by a stray stream of water. I nearly hyperventilated blowing a half a jar of bubbles, though!

The day before yesterday, I was taking a walk, and just as I came in sight of the trailer, a dog started growling and barking and running in circles around me. He kept snapping at me, and I thought I was going to get bitten! Then, all of a sudden, he ran across the street and threw up and began doing unspeakable things. I hurried on to the trailer, thankful to be in one piece. The last several times I have gone out, I have carried a length of dowel rod with me, lest I be attacked again. It did come in handy when another dog started to chase me. I shook it at him, and in my sternest voice said, “Stay right there!” He did, and I lost my opportunity to get a world class punt record. Oh, well. Maybe next time.

We were in the truck the other day, and Josiah was asking his interminable questions, and Paul responded to one with one of his own, “How would you like to be jack-slapped?” There was a pause, and then Josiah said, “Am I allergic to that?” We died laughing. Pray that his sense of humor won’t be totally warped!

Ministry Update

The Lord gave us an excellent close to the meeting in Virginia and then some exciting times of rest and relaxation for a couple of days in North Carolina. One of the highlights for me was getting an education in the woods turkey hunting – but that is another story. Today we traveled over 400 miles and are staying in the church parking lot of Bible Baptist Church just outside Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where Mark Falls is pastor. Our plan is to continue on to Fort Worth in the next two days. We will be in a four day meeting there and then go on to Amarillo.

Family Update

This has been quite a week for us. Early Monday morning, I had to go in for the three hour glucose test since I didn’t pass the one hour test that I had two weeks ago. This entailed not eating or drinking anything from midnight the day before until after noon on Monday. I was allowed to have water, but nothing else. I had to drink 12 ounces of the awfullest tasting orange sugar drink, which is bad enough by itself, but when taken on an empty stomach while pregnant, was almost more than I could handle. I thank the Lord that I only had one elevated reading, which means that I do not have gestational diabetes, but they recommended that I go on the diet anyway, since all the readings were not normal. After “donating” seven vials of blood for the testing, I was feeling rather anemic when I finally left the clinic, and my right arm was throbbing. I am glad that ordeal is over.

The children enjoyed their first Easter egg hunt on Sunday (yes, we are complete heathens). Of course, I could not use real eggs for health reasons, so plastic candy-filled eggs were our alternative. It was so much fun to watch them run around the yard finding eggs. Josiah was much faster, and if he found two eggs together, he would call out to Abigail, “Abigail, here’s your egg!” She would then run from wherever she was, calling, “Thank you! Thank you!” It was so cute!

Josiah has been having more trouble this week than he has all this year. There is something about this time of year. He has had several breathing treatments each day, but nothing serious up to this point. We would appreciate your continued prayers throughout this season, especially since our travels have coincided with spring in each area of the country we have visited for the last six weeks or so.

Josiah was talking today (as usual), and began a discourse on hot air balloons. I am not sure where he learned about them, but he is extremely interested in taking a ride in one. He said that if we got a hot air balloon, he and Daddy and Abigail could ride in it while I drive the truck. He also said that he would blow it up for the ride. He couldn’t understand why we laughed when he informed us of this plan. I will say, though, he could probably put enough hot air in it to get it off the ground! We are trying to teach him proper grammar as it comes up in conversation, but it doesn’t seem to be working. I know it is confusing for him at times. The other day, he was telling a story about a bird and said that it “flied” through the woods. “Flew,” I corrected. “Yes,” he continued. “The bird was flew-ming through the woods.” Whatever.

Abigail has learned the first line of “Happy Birthday” and will sing it several dozen times in a row before getting distracted. She has also taken to repeating the last two or three words of each sentence she hears. We were in the store the other day, and I had to get her a new pair of shoes. As I stood, looking at the meager selection, she looked up and saw a pair of shiny, purple shoes. “Ohhhh!” she breathed. “Shoes! I like shoes!” It was so funny I had to laugh. Paul groaned when I told him. I know he envisions our trailer looking like a shoe outlet as she gets older. He will get used to the idea eventually. He can at least be thankful that she doesn’t know that for every pair of shoes there is a purse and earrings to match!