When I played high school basketball, we changed ends after halftime.  That is, we no longer shot the ball on the same end in the second half as we did in the first half.  August was our month to change ends in evangelism, not ends of the court but ends of the country.  We moved from western Colorado to western North Carolina, a total of 1,754 miles.

Once we arrived in NC, we enjoyed some wonderful times of fellowship.  First we visited the church of which Sarah and I were members for 15 years.  It was so refreshing to see so many friends again, and to be able to minister there in preaching and music.  From there we went back to Ambassador Baptist College and once again ministered in preaching and music.

After one more meeting here in NC, which closes on Wednesday of this week, we turn west again and head towards Mississippi and home.  We will be there long enough to change out summer clothes for winter ones before we head north again.

As a casual reading of the Book of Acts will reveal, much of the ministry of the evangelist is travel and fellowship with other believers.  Luke writes of how itinerant men strengthened and confirmed the churches.  This has been our ministry, particularly this month.  While the travel has been long, the fellowship has been sweet.

When I was in college, Bro. Ron Comfort told those of us who were studying for evangelism, “Men, one of the the greatest things that can happen in your ministry is for a pastor to recommend you to all his friends.  This is something only the Lord can do, but when it happens, it will be a great blessing to your ministry.”

On Tuesday of last week, we had nothing on the schedule.  We had to drift south toward CO from northern WY, and as we came through Thermopolis, I saw a name that rang a bell to me.  Why I remember this name above others, I cannot say, but Pastor Harvey Seidel was listed as the pastor of the First Baptist Church of Thermopolis.  In 1998, when I was traveling in the west representing Ambassador Baptist College where I was enrolled as a student at the time, we were scheduled to be with Pastor Seidel.  If I remember correctly, he had to cancel the meeting for one reason or another.  Despite this cancellation, I remembered his name.

Now, as we drove through town and passed his church, I noticed his name on the sign.  I had to stop in McDonald’s to get Internet access so that I could take care of some things.  After an equipment malfunction, I found myself in a Verizon store and felt led to casually ask about Pastor Seidel.  An old-fashioned phone book provided the right number, and after a couple of phone calls, we obtained permission to park our trailer at First Baptist Church.

What followed was something that only God can do.  As Pastor Seidel and his assistant pastor Nathan Winters spent time with me, the Lord knit our hearts together.  I was asked to preach in the midweek service and God met with us in a special way.  Then, because I had some flexibility in my schedule, Pastor Seidel asked that I preach Sunday morning as well.

After we spent time with the staff and families of First Baptist Church of Thermopolis, the Lord directed Pastor Seidel to write letters of recommendation to many of his pastor friends around the nation, one of whom has already scheduled a meeting.

We stand in awe of how our God can choose our friends for us and work in our behalf through the hearts of His servants.

Many road miles await us in the next few days as we make the transition from West (CO) to East (NC).  We appreciate your prayers.

“Let me tell you my story,” offered the well-dressed man, his wife at his side in the church auditorium.  If the story included the wonderful way that the Gospel had brought him to salvation, I would be very grateful indeed to hear.  If, on the other hand, it was just another experience of something unusual—an alien encounter, for instance—I would rather not waste my time.  But since I could have no way of knowing whether I would enjoy the story or not until I had heard it, I indicated to the man to proceed.

“I was lying in bed in my house one night when something awakened me at 2:00 in the morning.”  Oh great!  This is not the kind of story that I usually like.  “I got out of bed and began to head downstairs because I saw a light coming from the patio.  When I got midway down the stairs, this feeling came over me and I knew unmistakably that God loved me.”

And?  I waited to hear the part where the story would turn to realization of sin and turning to Christ, but the story was done.  This circumstance alone formed the basis for this man’s assurance of salvation.  In his mind, God spoke to him that night in the most definite way.

Now for my story.  Not about my salvation, but about how God speaks, really speaks, to me.  As I was alone praying one day, I began to reflect with disappointment on my shortcomings, my failures.  There were so many times when I had failed to do what I should have done or done what I should not have done.  In prayer, I began to bring these up to God when He simply shut me down.  If you don’t think that the God of heaven does this from time to time, take another look at the Book of Joshua.  God shut down my prayer because it was His turn to speak.  He reminded me that when I was yet without strength, in due time, Christ died for me, one of the ungodly.  He continued by reminding me that scarcely for a righteous man would one die.  No matter though: I was not righteous.  Yet, peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.  Still of no consequence, for I was not good.  But God commendeth His love toward me in that while I was yet a sinner, Christ died for me.  God had spoken, and though the voice was not audible even to me, there could have been nothing more real.

Recently, I have come to call these types of experiences in my life—and yes, there have been others when God spoke definitely to me—Emmaus Road experiences.  The name comes from a location casually mentioned in Luke 24.  Read it.  And start looking for your own Emmaus Road experiences.

Some years ago when I was still in high school, I heard a Christian college group in a Sunday morning church service.  They sang a song entitled “All God’s Creatures Got a Place in the Choir.”  It was a fun song, to be sure, but I was impressed with the lack of spiritual content in the song, especially for a Sunday morning service.

Unfortunately, this message follows much the same vein: very little spiritual content.  That being said, God does remind us that “Every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills.”  I suppose that we have seen the cattle upon a thousand hills since crossing the Mississippi River back in May.  Today, we saw one the beasts of the forest.

When confronted with an animal like this, especially this close up, two things come to mind.  First of all, Praise the Lord who made such a magnificent animal!  Second of all, When and where can I get my tag?  Pass the rifle; this looks a lot like dinner.

The Chinese would have us remember that a picture is worth a thousand words.  You really don’t want to read a thousand words from me, so I will simply endeavor to say what I am thinking in pictures.

Most of you only get my e-mail version and will not be affected by what I have to say here.  But for those who read my online version, the name of my blog has changed from “Notes from the Road” to “Crowing About.”  The reality is that I usually have at least something to crow about.  Hence the name.

Paul

It was the first time I had ever done something like this as evangelist.  Several months ago, Pastor Ken Schultz of the Emmanuel Baptist Church of Box Elder, SD, called me and asked if I would come and go soul-winning with him and his people for two weeks.  We would go out several hours each day, five days a week.  In addition to going out with him and his people door to door, I would also preach in the services while I was with him.  He requested that I teach on Baptist history while I was there.

The plan of his outreach was something called “The Book of John Project.”  The idea is to encourage people to read a specially prepared copy of the Gospel of John.  The copy of John is printed alone—that is, without any of the other books of the Bible with it—and has specially prepared explanatory notes introducing the reader to Christ.  Since the Gospel of John was written with the express purpose of convincing people to believe in Christ and so be saved, the book is given out to unsaved people with faith in this divinely inspired purpose statement.

But the New Testament gives us reason to believe that reading the Bible is not enough to understand the Gospel.  (See Acts 8:26-39.)  Therefore, The Book of John Project calls for personal workers to follow up with those who have read John’s Gospel so that they might answer any questions the person might have.  Of course, the objective is to see people saved.

In Box Elder, we gave out books and took names.  The plan was for the pastor and his people to follow up later, first by phone and then face to face.  In the time that we went out, we had nearly 70 people sign up to read the Gospel of John and have someone from the church return to follow up with them.  Pastor Schultz was both encouraged and nervous at the same time: that is more people than he has in his church.

I suppose I could fill a decent-sized volume with stories of encounters from these two weeks alone.  Suffice it to say that it is a joy to go out into the highways and hedges and preach Christ to sinners.

Because of a late schedule change, the Lord allowed us a couple of days in our schedule of no services.  We were able to celebrate Esther’s birthday for the first time in seven years (her entire life) on the actual date of her birthday.  But after a couple of days off, I was eager to get back into church ministry.

Because of the extra days of leeway in the schedule, I was able to show up to a church on a Friday instead of the more traditional Saturday night.  Coming in on a Friday allowed me to go soul-winning with the pastor on Saturday morning—an activity that I rarely get to do while I am on the road.

The desire in my heart to see someone saved had become a passion.  We were able to see seven campers trust Christ in camp, but somehow that was not enough.  As I prayed, asking the Holy Spirit for direction and power, He led me to go early and join the pastor on Saturday morning.

Visitation here in AZ is not unlike visitation in other places.  The cults have saturated the area so that some will decry the very idea of going from house to house.  Going out on a Saturday morning means that some will not answer the door because they are in bed, while others have left already for work or weekend play.  Still, in spite of those obstacles, we went, believing to be have been led by the Holy Spirit.

In the end, we encountered people at only two homes.  The first was a good visit, but the two men with whom we spoke did not live in the area.  The second house at which we found people home turned out to be the answer to our prayer.

Nineteen-year-old Daniel was over at his mother’s house that morning and answered the door when we knocked the second time.  Unusually, he invited us in immediately, particularly after he discovered that we were not sheriff’s deputies.

His mother gave testimony of salvation, but when the conversation turned to him, he did not know whether or not he was saved.  After hearing the gospel, however, he bowed his head and prayed to accept Christ as Savior.  Praise the Lord for His leading and enabling!

We quit the Southwest next week (who in their right mind comes to AZ in the summertime?) and begin to head north for ministry there.  Thank you all for praying.  Our greatest needs are the leading and power of the Holy Spirit—the same needs, in fact, that you have as well.

After a week of preparation work, camp started for us in the mountains of southern New Mexico.  This week of camp—it was supposed to be two but got shortened to one at the last minute—was a combined junior/teen week.  I was to preach to the juniors while my dear friend Dwight Smith preached to the teens.  The Lord blessed us with seven salvation decisions and a host of other decisions as well.

Though the plan was for me to preach to the juniors, Bro. Smith insisted that I take two of the teen slots.  The Lord greatly used those two messages to speak to the hearts of the teens.  At the testimony service Friday night, many specifically mentioned decisions that had been made during those two preaching times.

For the first time in several years, Sarah and I were able to celebrate our anniversary on the actual day, June 17.  It has been thirteen wonderful years for us and we praise the Lord for the wonderful life we have had together.

While we have been in the southwest, the Lord has opened up other doors of ministry in NM and AZ in addition to camp.  After this coming Sunday, we will pack up our trailer and begin the long trek to SD where we will be for a while before spending time in CO before we once again turn eastward.

Thank you for all your prayers for us.  We are grateful to see how God is answering on a regular basis.

The Lord has been very good to us in meetings this spring.  We have seen great things happen along the way.

In Macon, GA, Nick, a 17-year-old boy, trusted Christ as Savior on a Tuesday night.  He was a foster kid whose mother had turned to drugs and alcohol after the death of her husband and one of her sons.  As a result of her mother’s actions, the government removed her living children from her custody and placed them in foster care.  Nick had been coming to youth group on Wednesday night for a couple of months prior to the revival meeting.  After hearing the preaching several times, he admitted his need of salvation and came forward to trust Christ.

From Macon, we returned home for what we hoped would be some rest.  Instead of rest, it was missions conference and we were still in services nearly every night of the week.

On Thursday night of missions conference, our son Daniel went to Sarah once the service was over and told her, “Mama, I should have gone forward tonight.”  Of course, Sarah wanted to know why.  “Because I need to be saved,” was his answer.  I was playing the postlude on the piano at the time, but as soon as I was finished, Sarah brought him to me.  After a few simple questions in which he told me of his sin and different things that he had done, he prayed and asked the Lord to save Him.

We were to leave on Saturday of that week.  Our schedule left us with a decision.  Do we baptize him right away or wait a few months until we get back?  The Lord seemed to give me peace about doing it right away.

You can refer to Sarah’s blog to see the details of his baptism, but he followed Christ in baptism on Friday night of missions conference.

After a meeting in central IL, we are off to NM and camp.  The cowboy boots will come in handy all summer as we go from NM to SD and then on to CO.  If only I hadn’t forgotten my hat.

At least our home on wheels.  The electrical problems we encountered as a result of the blowout in NC took us out of the trailer while we were in Hampton VA.  After calling around to different RV dealerships in the area, we were assured that the trailer could be fixed some time in May, but probably not before then.  Everyone was just too booked up.  Evidently, this is the time of year when everyone gets their unit out of storage and has work done to it so that they can be ready for the camping season.

We tried a specialty shop that worked solely on trailers (work and utility trailers), but because the damage included not only our 12-volt dc system but also our 120-volt ac system, the specialty shop foreman deemed the repair to be beyond their ability.  They gave us the information for a man in Chesapeake, VA, whose specialty was mobile RV repairs.  After calling him, he assured me that he could get to it right away.

He was as good as his word.  We took the unit to him on Monday and by Tuesday night he called me to tell me that the unit was done.  Besides the blessing of a timely trailer repair, the people of the First Calvary Baptist Church gave enough to cover the entire repair! 

By Wednesday, we were back in our trailer and glad to be back home.  After the opportunity to see some friends from college, we made our way to our next meeting in Acme PA.  Of course, during that trip, we had high winds that tore up the air conditioner shroud on our unit, but we should be able to have a new one installed before we leave PA for Broadview Heights OH.

The bottom line?  There’s no place like home, even if it is on wheels.