It has been quite some time since I, Sarah, have written an update for our family on this blog.  The chief reason being, I have a blog of my own that I write to keep people updated on the family happenings. 

The beginning of the year was pretty dull, as far as traveling activity, and we spent a great deal of time in our home, which was a lot of fun, too. 

We are now in the busy time of the year, with several weeks of meetings stretching out in front of us.  It is good to be back in the saddle again. 

Last week, we were in the Mobile, Al area, and had a really good meeting, which ran Sunday through Wednesday.  We drove all day Thursday, a beautiful drive into North Carolina.  To our great consternation, the air conditioning in our truck stopped blowing in the 85 degree weather.  Six people in a close, confined area, on a nine-hour drive in warm weather, with no air conditioning is not a recipe for family success and happiness.  Rolling the windows down at highway speeds only resulted in partial deafness (diesel engines are really loud) and extremely windblown hair.  So, we would roll the windows up until everyone was sweating, then briefly roll them down again until the roaring and hair-whipping became unbearable.  So it went all day long, the sweltering heat broken by the occasional whine from one of the kids. 

We have been reading through the Little House on the Prairie series as a family, and are currently in the midst of The Long Winter.  It took a great deal of imagination to picture the swirling blizzards and below freezing temperatures, although the roaring and howling of the wind was somewhat less difficult to imagine.

We called a friend in NC that met us at a gas station and worked on our air conditioning for a few hours, and got it working again.  What a tremendous blessing! 

We spent the next day visiting some friends in the ministry, and had a wonderful time of fellowship with them. Our kids had a great time playing with their children, as well.  I love to see the kids making good friends.

Saturday morning, we headed out of North Carolina toward Virginia, where our next meeting was scheduled.  It was only a five or six hour drive, so we were in no hurry, and it was such a gorgeous day.  We had almost reached Burlington when there was a huge POW!!!!  I looked in my passenger side mirror and there, to my dismay, I saw pieces of tire flying.  Our tire.  We pulled over immediately, but the tire had already done a lot of damage when it blew.  Wires and stuffing were hanging out of the wheelwell, and it was obvious that the gas line had been severed, too.  We now had a dilemma.  Paul had abdominal surgery not two weeks ago, and still  was not allowed to lift anything over ten pounds.  Have you ever tried to lift a trailer tire?  Okay, those things are really heavy!  Way over ten pounds.  I was fluttering about like a mother hen, not wanting him to do anything strenuous and undo all the work he just had done. 

He finally acquiesced to my concerns and opted to let me do the work while he sat and told me what to do.  Sounds like every man’s dream, doesn’t it?  After jacking up the axle, and loosening the lugs, I knew this was going to take a long time to repair, since changing trailer tires on the side of the highway was not one of my bucket list priorities.  I actually have helped change tires many times before, but I have never had to do it all by myself. 

While we were crouched on the side of the road, looking under the trailer, and man walked up behind me, startling me.  He asked if we needed any help.  In the providence of God, he was driving a service truck, with all the necessary tools to change a tire.  We gladly accepted his offer of help, only afterward noticing that his right arm was severely injured.  It actually looked as if it was broken, although it was not in a cast.  You can imagine that this somewhat hampered his ability to change the tire, since he was virtually one-armed.  It was all rather amusing to me, since the only two people who knew exactly what to do were physically unable to do so.  It was a bit like a three-legged race, with all of us bumbling about, but needing the others to finish.  So, between the three of us, we managed to get the tire changed.  The wiring was wrapped around the rear axle and had cut through several wires, so that the severed ends were now exposed and arcing as they dangled under the wheelwell.  Fearing an electrical fire, we cut all power to the trailer, and taped and zip-tied the wires up underneath the trailer frame. 

Paul realized right way that we had lost our main power in the trailer.  There would have to be some serious repairs made before we could stay in our home-away-from-home.  As soon as we were back on the road, he called the pastor of the church to which we were traveling, and let him know that we would now need a place to stay.  Thank God for His traveling mercies!  We are also thankful for the opportunity to meet Matthew, our “angel in disguise.”  Matthew helped us, in spite of his obvious injury, took time out of his day to help total strangers, and refused to take any payment for his help.  I know that God sent that man to help us. Paul was able to briefly witness to him, and gave him a gospel tract before he left.  Pray for this man, that he would read the tract, accept the gospel, and receive Jesus Christ as his Savior!  Perhaps he was the very reason our tire blew.  We may never know the result of this earthly encounter until we get to heaven, but if a blown tire is the price of a man’s soul, we are more than willing to pay it!

Please pray as we try to get the trailer up and running again.  Right now it is a 15,000 pound suitcase – it holds all of our things, but we cannot live in it until the electric is fixed.  We are seriously praying for God’s will concerning the trailer.  We have had an exorbitant number of problems with it in the 20 months or so we have owned it.  Please pray with us in this matter, and thank you for your prayers in regard to our safety.  God is keeping us safe during all of these incidents.

Our first meeting in a while was last week in Thaxton, Mississippi.  I know what you all are thinking.  I have been there twice, and I’m still not entirely sure exactly where it is.  At any rate, there is a great church there and we had a good meeting there last week.

The only real obstacle we encountered all week long was that half of the church was out with the flu.  One man, after getting the flu shot, got both types A and B flu virus.  Despite the sickness, the pastor went ahead with the meeting and we had a good one.  There were several nights in which the Lord was working in the hearts of His people.  It was not necessarily a meeting of seeing lots of people down an aisle, but it was a meeting in which we could sense God working in a powerful way.

Our time at our home church has been busy.  One day, some of the older men of the church (am I actually in that category now?) were sitting around bemoaning the fact that many young people do not know how to work.  The more we complained, the more we had to admit that our sons did not know how to work either.  I opined, “It is because no one has ever taught them.  We can do the work so much faster ourselves that we never slow down enough to teach them.”  From that conversation came the idea of teaching the young men in our church.  So far, the men have sided a shed, and built a shoe shelf in a woodworking shop.  They are not yet ready to make a living doing siding or building furniture, but they can at least use a screw gun and a cut a straight line with a saw.

Teaching these boys has been a great joy to me.  When we finished the vinyl siding on the shed (notice the low-risk choice of project), the boys could look back and say, “We did that.”  I was very up front with them in telling that the purpose was not necessarily to cover the shed with siding.  The purpose was to teach them how to work.  I could not help enjoying the entire outing, especially considering Josiah was one of the boys working.  He ran the circular saw just like everybody else and measured pieces of siding along with the others.  The boys have had their appetite whetted for real accomplishment.  Only the Lord knows where this whole thing will lead.

But it will have to be on hold very soon.  We will leave the week after Easter and, except for one Sunday in May, be gone until August.

Most of the time when I preach a revival meeting, I don’t get to actually see all the preparation that goes into it.  I don’t get to kneel in the cottage prayer meetings, nor do I get to hand out the flyers advertising the meeting in weeks leading up to my arrival.  I show up on Saturday, hoping the preparation has been done.

This past meeting in my home church was an exception to that rule.  I was able to see all the preparation because it came close on the heels of Christmas.  I was present at every cottage prayer meeting and saw God begin to work in the hearts of the people.  I was present to be able to hand out flyers advertising the meeting, though it was somewhat awkward to hand out something with one’s own picture on the front.

We saw God do remarkable things in the meeting.  The list of people on our prayer list was brought before God on a regular basis and grew longer as the Holy Spirit brought names to our minds in prayer.  After the week was done, most of the intercessory prayers that we have offered had been answered.  Of course, God limits His personal working to man’s free will, and some hearts were hardened to the Holy Spirit’s working.  But most of the requests that we offered were answered by God during the week of revival meetings.

One such answer to prayer was a man named Kerry.  He was first contacted by our teenagers during teen soul-winning.  He came to a service soon after and expressed some doubt about his salvation.

It was my privilege, along with a deacon from our church to visit him in his home the week after he attended our services.  There, we preached the Gospel to him and asked him again about his salvation.  At that time, he told us about “doing that already,” though his explanation of the event never mentioned Jesus Christ, instead focusing on being baptized and joining the church.

He was in church several Sundays in row, including the Sunday of revival.  Never again did he raise his hand in church about salvation until the Sunday after the meeting.  That morning, he came forward for salvation.  The pastor asked me to deal with him.  In the inquiry room, he told me, “I realized that when I went forward before, I never accepted Jesus as Savior.  Today, I want to do that.”  He was born again there after the service and could hardly wait to tell people about it.

Some plant, some water, but God gives the increase.

After the holidays and the turning of the calendar year, it is time for us once again to be in meetings.  Our schedule this year begins with a meeting at our home church.  We are looking forward to what the Lord will do.

For the second year in a row, I have been privileged to attend a special conference designed for evangelists.  The conference is officially called the Mentoring Evangelists Advance, and is hosted by Evangelists Billy Ingram and Dwight Smith.  This year, Bro. Rick Flanders was a guest speaker and his ministry was a particular blessing in challenging us all in the area of seeking God for real revival.  Without a doubt, this conference is a must for those who believe God wants them serving Him as evangelists.  You can contact Bro. Ingram or Bro. Dwight Smith for information about next year’s meeting.  For the past two years, it has been held in or around Indianapolis, IN.  I am praying that the Lord will burden their hearts about south FL next year.  You know it has to be a good conference for me to leave the south during hunting season and head north.

Would you join me in pleading with God for revival?  God has greatly burdened my heart about the subject, now more than ever before.  While there are misconceptions about revival, believers need to be abundantly clear on this salient truth: our God longs to revive His people.  Let us pray and trust God for revival in this coming year!

The Lord gave us a great meeting here in South Florida.  I met Pastor Jared Gritton when he was an assistant under his father in Urbana, IL.  We developed a friendship over the years that included not only the two of us, but also his wife Rebecca and Sarah.  In addition, all of children are very close in age to his children.

Last year, I had to come here without my family, but I left with the promise that, despite the distance, I would bring the family back the next time.  When the trailer problems descended upon us earlier this fall, I thought that I might have to postpone the fulfillment of my promise until another year. 

After returning from MN and finding that our trailer issues had been resolved, we embarked on the long drive to south FL.  (To put things in perspective, the University of South Florida is 90 miles north of us.)

God gave us a wonderful meeting here.  On Wednesday night, a teenaged boy was saved.  Leann, though she did not return and hear any more preaching, was nevertheless under deep conviction.  God worked in the lives of His people as well, and every night different ones made key decisions.  I am always encouraged to see the power of the truth to change the hearts of people.

We not only had a good meeting, but we also had a wonderful time with our two families being together.  Our children were very motivated to finish their school every day so that they could go and play with the pastor’s children.

After preaching four times in another independent Baptist church across town tomorrow, we will begin to head north, closing the 2012 schedule with a Sunday in Mobile, AL.

A lady visited the service last night with two of her three boys.  Her name is Leann (I can never be sure of the spelling on these names).  She has heard the gospel, but struggles with the idea of accepting it in simple faith.  Please pray for her.  She is under conviction and needs to simply trust Christ.

More information after the week is over.

For those of you who were praying for my back problems, I am happy to report to you that God has answered prayer.  I am completely back to normal now, whatever normal is, and am able to everything that I need to do.

After a week of resting—though I did preach at night—God just saw fit to heal my back.  There is no other explanation.  Thanks again for your prayers.

Paul

This is Sarah, reporting on our most recent family events.  While Paul is usually the one to write these updates, circumstances have changed that for the present. I will elaborate more on that point during the course of this update.

This summer, we had to have some work done on our trailer.  While having trailer repair issues is not totally unusual for an evangelist, this particular set of events was far from normal.

Unbeknownst to us, there was a factory recall on our trailer tires.  Apparently, they were given to blowing without warning, a bad situation in any case, but especially so when you are towing a large, heavy trailer at high speeds over busy interstates.  The nature of the blowout was strange, too.  The outside tread came off similar to the way a retread tire does, but the tire would not really “blow” in that is did not lose its air.  The tread would be partly attached, and whap wildly at the undercarriage, wheel wells, and sides of the trailer before finally detaching completely.  Because it did not lose air, we usually didn’t know for some time that there was even a problem.  We had to rely on the good old “passing car honk and point” system, which is not the most reliable in heavy traffic, since many people tend to honk and point for a number of trivial reasons these days.

To make a long story short(er), we had three blowouts in the course of one month.  Not only was it expensive to replace the tires, there was an extreme amount of damage done to the trailer by the flapping tread.

After moving into our new home, we took the trailer in to be repaired.  We had already had repair estimates done, and they had been submitted to the insurance company for approval.  The repair shop was given the approval, and we moved out of the trailer for what we thought would be two weeks.  The repairs were completed in the given time, but when it came time for the insurance company to pay the repair bill – a whopping $12,000 – they refused.  They decided that they would only pay about half of the amount, leaving us to fend for ourselves.

Of course, the repair shop, having done all the work, was reluctant to let the trailer go until they had been paid.  Then the blame game began.  Neither the repair shop nor the insurance company wanted to compromise on the bill.  So, effectively, our trailer was being held for ransom.  They even removed two of the wheels, lest we try to steal it in the night, I guess.  Desperate times call for desperate measures, you know!  This caused me no end of consternation, because I knew that the wheels of insurance grind ever so slowly.  They were grinding so slowly that we had to file a formal complaint with the state insurance commissioner, who then began in inquiry into the matter.  Meanwhile, we were left without a trailer in which to live during our fall meetings. 

I had to pack everything we needed for six weeks and various weather conditions into large waterproof bins that could be stored in the back of the truck.  One bin was for Paul, one for me, one for the kids, one for winter coats and outerwear, one for schoolbooks, one for foodstuffs, and one for miscellaneous items – computers, nebulizer, special music books, etc.  Of course, there was a small allotment of junk space in the miscellaneous bin, for all the extra things that accumulate on an extended trip.

We have stayed in several hotels, homes, cabins, and prophet’s chambers during the last five weeks. Each time we go somewhere new, we must unload the giant bins form the back of the truck, tote them inside, and unload them.  Each time we leave, we must repack the bins, and tote them back out to the truck where they are loaded once again.  It was due to this toting and hefting that Paul seriously injured his back.  The pain was so great that he could barely move.  The chiropractor said that it was “at best” a herniated disk in his low back, but that only an MRI would tell for certain.  As of this week, he has been on almost total bedrest out of necessity, except when preaching at night.  He is icing his back, and taking pain relief, and is now able to move slowly – no sudden movements.  The chiropractor has told him that it will take six to eight weeks to recover from this injury, and that if he is not better after that time, that surgery may be his only option.  This is really scary news for someone as active as Paul.  We covet your prayers for his healing during this time.

On a side note, he is extremely bummed that he will not be able to participate in this year’s deer hunting season.  He can only go if someone else will drag, haul, gut, and process the deer that he shoots.  I’m not seeing many volunteers at this point…

The good news is that the insurance company, after nearly two months of stalling, has finally paid the repair shop, and when we get back home, we will be able to pick up the trailer.  Well, we hope so, anyway.  They gave us the line, “The check is in the mail.”  We are naive enough to believe them at this point.  We are switching insurance companies, though, because we don’t ever want to have to deal with this again.  We are also thanking the Lord for working in this situation, and trusting Him to guide us in the future.  Please pray that the Lord will grant total healing to Paul’s back, and while you are at it, pray that I don’t hurt my back while loading the bins that he can no longer lift!

Yesterday, we began a meeting at the Goodman Road Baptist Church, just down the road from where we live.  God gave us a good day, filled with victories.

The morning service included a young couple, Maurice and Ciara, visiting at the invitation of a man in the church who happened to be their son’s football coach.  Maurice had been reared Catholic, Ciara Baptist.  As I preached on reconciliation from 2 Corinthians 5, both listened intently.  Ciara came forward at the invitation.  She knew she was saved but was concerned about her attendance in the Catholic church.  For her, coming to the Baptist church once again was “like coming home.”

Maurice was impressed by the differences between the two churches.  He confided in the man who invited him, “There are some differences between Baptist services and Catholic services.  There is a lot of energy here.”  From Ciara we learned that Maurice’s mother is exerting pressure on him to “remember where your home is,” referring to his Catholic upbringing.  For his part, Maurice likes what he has seen and has promised to return.  In all likelihood, Maurice would trust Christ as Savior if he could sit under multiple nights of preaching.  The conviction has begun, but needs to build.  Please pray for him.

Bret and Erica Ross sent their children to Bible school at the church back in the summer time.  Since then, they have been coming to the church, but neither of them were saved.  A few days before the meeting began, Erica trusted Christ as Savior and both of them were in every service on Sunday.  Sunday night, Bret came forward and trusted Christ as Savior.  He told the personal worker, “I don’t understand it.  It is like this preacher has been looking in my window and in my wallet.”  [I have no idea where the wallet idea came from, but that is what he said.]

All in all, it was a great start to the meeting.

Please pray about our trailer situation.  We had to have some repairs done for which insurance was supposed to pay.  Somewhere in the process, there was a breakdown in communication.  The repairs have been completed, but the insurance company doesn’t want to pay for them.  Pray for a resolution of this issue.  I have rearranged our plans so that I can go to a meeting without the family, but after that, there will be no way around pulling the trailer to our next meetings.  It is all in God’s hands.

“Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house.” (Proverbs 24:27)  This verse encompasses the two items that have been dominating my time for the last few weeks—life’s work (preaching, for me) and earthly home. 

On July 20, we closed on a house in Olive Branch, Mississippi, and began the work of getting things ready.  I wanted to be able to have all the necessary work completed before I left for my next meeting, but there was more work to do than we were able to get accomplished in the allotted time.  The above verse says to put occupation before building the house, however.  So, house done or not, I got on a plane to come to Utah to preach in two churches in the southern part of the state.

After spending so much time working on the house—a temporal pursuit at best—it was good to be in a revival meeting again.  The Saturday before the first meeting, the pastor and I spent almost the entire day visiting different people.  At one house, we found a man home that had previously been difficult to catch because of his travels.  This time, however, he was home.

Not only was he home, but he was also burdened about his sin.  The pastor began to talk to him about salvation and before long, he prayed to trust Christ as his Savior!  It was glorious to be able to witness the transaction of reconciliation taking place once again in the life of a sinner.

There were some Mormons who attended the services this week, some of whom did not seem to be very attentive, but others of whom did.  Two men in particular took in every word that I said.  Mormons usually have to hear the Gospel many times before the truth breaks through the layers of falsehood that their religion has erected.

We are praying that the seeds sown in this meeting will yield fruit in the months and years to come.

As soon as I get back to MS, I have to finish some work on the house before I leave for a couple of months in my fall revival schedule.  Once we get everything done that we want to accomplish, we will try to post pictures of our home.

Thank you so much for your prayers.