The fall round of meetings has begun, and the Lord has blessed already.  We began in New Bern, North Carolina.  Our meeting with Bro. Bill Wingard had to be cut short, however, due to hurricane Dorian, which came through during the week we were there.  After the last night of the meeting, which was Wednesday, we loaded up the trailer and headed north and west, toward our next meeting and away from the winds of the storm.  We did see the rain of the storm and a couple of gusts, but nothing remotely dangerous.

From NC, it was on to Alexandria, Virginia, where the Lord saved two young men in that meeting.  The Lighthouse Baptist Church brings out more unsaved than most of the churches in which we minister.  It was a blessing to see what the Lord did.

We are currently in Bellevue, Nebraska, just outside of Omaha, where were not scheduled to have a meeting, but the Lord gave us one anyway.  Yet another of His provisions.  By this time next week, we hope to be in Merrill, Oregon.  Please pray for safety as we head the rest of the way west.

With the long days of travel, the school schedule has been thrown into somewhat of a disarray.  It has been difficult to keep up with the studies when we spend as many as 10 hours on the road in a day.  After a weekend respite from travel, which included school for the children, we plan to hit the road tomorrow again, heading across Nebraska.

One of the additions to our ministry this fall has been children’s meetings led by our children.  Every night, the children 3 years old through third grade will be dismissed.  My daughter Abigail teaches the lesson, songs, and verses.  The rest of the family is present for crowd control.  The difference in the services has been noticeable, and I am happy to see my children develop in this important skill.

Josiah is adjusting well in his new life at college, and although we miss him, we know he is exactly where God wants him. We are thankful that he has been able to get a part-time job as well.  In the meantime, we are reworking all of our special music to adapt to this change.

Pray for safety as we travel, and pray for God’s blessing as we minister in churches.

Summer is camp season for many evangelists, and this year has been a great year for camps in our ministry.  Every year, we head west to Silver City, New Mexico, to minister at Gila Christian Ranch.  This year, the Lord blessed again with many souls saved and young people surrendering to the Lord’s will for the their lives.  Then, after a travel week to get home, Sarah and my girls got on a plane and headed for New York City.  The Bay Ridge Baptist Church of Brooklyn paid for them to fly to New York and then join them to head to camp at the Wilds of New England.  The Lord used their time there to work in their hearts as well as to encourage those of the youth in New York.

After years of serving as evangelist for Gila Christian Ranch, God has allowed me to serve on its board of directors.  Gila has had a unique ministry over the years of ministering to the youth of the Southwest.  The camp is currently in a project that will require some concrete work and a capable stone mason.  It will be a few months before these jobs are ready to be done, but we are praying for the Lord to provide us with the skilled laborers to complete this task before the next camp season.

July’s schedule has been a busy one, and August only provides a brief respite before we take Josiah to Ambassador Baptist College where he will be a freshman this coming fall.  By September, we hope to be on the road again in our trailer (see last month’s post) as we travel.

In the past month, a need has arisen about which we need much prayer.  In April of this year, Sarah began to have problems with serious muscle spasms.  The first one appeared in her back in the major muscle connecting the lower ribs to the pelvis.  When this spasm first occurred, she nearly fell to the ground in pain. 

In time, the spasms have moved to where they now are in her shoulder and down her right arm.  The muscles spasm and the nerves seem to be irritated as well.  The pain seems to be the worst at night, having robbed her of sleep every night for at least two weeks.  At this point, we have not been able to find the cause of these problems.  The pain is so intense that Sarah cannot even sit through a service, much less play the piano.  Obviously, this has quite an impact on our ministry and travel plans.

Would you please pray that God would intervene in Sarah’s body and heal her?  God is the great physician and He alone can solve this problem. 

As always, thank you for your prayers for our family and ministry.

As regular readers will remember, we have been mentioning our trailer and the issues that we have been facing regarding it for a long time.  There was a bent frame that caused a large number of issues throughout the last five months of 2018 with the final result that we traveled from December of 2018 to this present time completely without our trailer.  You will remember that extended warranty companies refused to honor their commitments, the manufacturer would not stand behind their work, and the insurance company was involved.  Up until recently, there seemed to be no way of getting back into our trailer until we could raise the money to get a costly repair completed.

In addition to the funding of the repair, there was also the issue of who would do the work.  Two different repair shops told us that the repair was so delicate that it must be taken to the manufacturer of the frame and have them do the work.  This means an extra trip to northern Indiana to where their shop is located.

Because of an incident a year ago today on I-10 just east of El Paso, Texas, I decided to approach the insurance company about possibly paying for the repair.  About a week and half ago, after what seemed an agonizingly long time of evaluation, they finally approved the repair.  They have even sent me a check to pay for the estimated amount.  The repair has been scheduled in northern Indiana for July 29.  The money is already in the bank to pay for the estimated amount.

There are a couple of prayer requests regarding the trailer still.  First of all, the estimate that I was given and that was in turn passed on to the insurance company, was based upon nothing more than photos provided to the manufacturer.  They have emphasized to me more than once that the cost of the repair could be more than their original estimate.  Please pray that everything goes smoothly in case they need more for the repair.  The second prayer request regards the timing of the repair.  Meetings get going again in late August and we have to take Josiah to college around the same time.  The trailer being completed in a timely manner is very important.

Right now, we are in camp season.  I am typing this from Gila Christian Ranch, a camp outside of Silver City, New Mexico.  My three younger children are with me, while Josiah and Sarah remain in Mississippi.  Josiah is working to earn money for college, being employed by a construction company whose owner is a member of our church.  Sarah is getting caught up on all kinds of things that she could not do very well with a house full of noise.

Thank you so much for all your prayers regarding our trailer and our ministry.  We are very grateful for all that God has done in our behalf, and we look forward to reporting on more victories in the near future.

This past month has been a busy month of meetings.  Since our last update, we have had a meeting every week.  Our travels have taken us up the East coast and out to Michigan where I sit now.  God has done some great things in churches in South Carolina, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

In Pennsylvania, I was preaching about a man in the Bible who did right even when his parents did not.  The night after I preached to the adults about his remarkable story, a girl was saved in the children’s meeting with just such a story.  It was a blessing to hear those who regularly worked with the children tell the story of her background and how she had come to understand the Gospel and trust Christ as Savior.

This week, in Michigan, we are involved in the first meeting of a new church merger between two other independent Baptist churches.  One church just left the American Baptist Convention not long ago to become independent while the other church lost their pastor to illness.  Their first Sunday as Victory Baptist Church was the week before Easter, and on Easter Sunday, they began their first ever revival meeting.  It was great to see God working yesterday, and we look forward to what He will do in the future.

Many continue to ask about our trailer situation.  There is nothing new to report regarding the situation.  Part of the reason is that we have been so busy in meetings that I have not been able to do much regarding it.  The trailer sits in Mississippi while we are all over the country.  Taking pictures, studying documents, measuring parts–all are impossible while we are on the road.  When we return, I plan to do some work to try to get things done on it.

Josiah is graduating from high school in a couple of weeks.  All of his course work is done, and we are just waiting to get home so that we can put together a ceremony for him.  He is planning to attend Ambassador Baptist College in the fall to study for the ministry.  Please pray for him as he seeks the Lord’s leading in his life.  Pray also for his mother who will be losing her firstborn to college.

After a couple of weeks at home, we will start the round of camps in different places.  Camps alone will take the family from New Mexico to New Hampshire this year.

Finally, please pray for the family to get some rest in the next few weeks that we are home.  Jesus told His disciples at one point to come apart into a desert place and rest awhile.  That is the greatest need that our family has right now.  Some have nagging illnesses that have plagued them for as many as five weeks while we have been on the road.  All are weary and in need of a break.  Please pray that, as God has used the times of ministry to affect the lives of people, so He will use the time of rest to refresh us and renew us so that we can hit the road once again in the fall.

Since last month’s writing, we have changed ends, of the country, that is.  We are now on the east coast, having driven the distance to get here.  The little 5×8 cargo trailer that keeps our luggage out of the elements has been from California to the Carolinas, and God has seen to our safety the entire way.

The truck had to have some routine 200,000-mile maintenance done to it while we were in Georgia, but the mechanic that did the work for me charged me less than half of what another shop was going to charge me.  He replaced the upper and lower ball joints on both sides of the front end.  The truck is running very well now, much to my relief.

Our meetings have been the highlight of the last month.  Night after night, week after week, we are able to see God work in hearts as a result of the preaching.  Below is an excerpt from a note that I received in the past month:

“This week has been life-changing.  All of your messages have been exactly what I needed…Over the 16 years of being saved there have been only a few camp meetings/revivals that have had a similar effect as this week has.  July 2010, called to preach, October 2012 called to ministry/pastorate, and March 2019 sell out to God.  Give Him all.”

In the same meeting, another lady who had been struggling with assurance was able to get help from the Word of God after she and her husband met with me privately after one of the services.  What a joy to be able to serve God!

These kinds of things make everything worth while as the fatigue begins to mount from being in a service night after night.  I am thankful for the working of God in hearts and hungry to see more of it in the days to come.

Our trailer situation has not changed.  It still sits at home while we are on the road, and I still wonder to myself what to do about it.  There is a possibility of getting it fixed by a man in our church who has worked on vehicles of all kinds for many years.  At this point, I don’t even know what I want regarding the trailer.  It would be wonderful to be in it again, but I have given to whole thing over to the Lord.  He knows what it best, and I am trusting Him to guide my steps in this regard.

Please pray for the family.  The weeks of being in different beds in different places and being in services every night has begun to wear on us physically.  Sarah, in particular, has been ill for a long time.  A lingering cough and fever plagued her this week.  So acute was the cough that she had to leave Sunday school this morning and go to the store and get something for it.  The children are so weary that my teenagers have begun taking Sunday afternoon naps!

We are also in need of wisdom as we move forward regarding a missions trip this year.  A door to return to the Philippines has opened again, but there are issues with Josiah’s graduation and the timing of our leaving for Asia.  Other details are important as well, such as Josiah getting a job to pay for his coming college bill.

In short, this is a time of great change in our lives as we have known them over the past years.  How grateful we are, not only that God knows the future, but also that we have many who regularly pray for us as we serve Him.

Ever since 2003, my family and I have lived in a fifth wheel travel trailer as we have ministered in evangelism.  Although we have owned a house for over eight years, home was usually wherever we parked our trailer.  Through those years, we have had three different trailers that we owned and another that we borrowed.  Our most recent trailer was purchased in 2015.

As many of you know, we had problems with the unit throughout 2018.  At the end of the year, we were advised to trade the unit in.  The root of the problem was a i-beam that was bent, lost its camber, in technical terms.  Beginning in December, we began the process of trying to get warranty companies and the original manufacturers to stand behind their product.  Yesterday, I received my final answer.  No one will stand behind the defective i-beam.  That means that we now have a trailer that would make a great trailer to live in, but will not stand up to the travel that we do.

We will continue to travel in evangelism, just no longer in a trailer.  Wherever churches put us is where we will stay.  In the mean time, we need to sell our trailer to someone who can use it for its intended purpose: a home that only occasionally needs to be mobile.  We are not completely opposed to another RV, but we will be very picky about getting one that we believe will meet our needs.

While staying in Texas a few weeks ago, I (Paul) passed out and fell in the restroom.  Sarah and our hosts decided to call the paramedics because they could not find a pulse when they came to check me.  (The sound of my head hitting the door created a very disturbing noise, the more so because it happened at night.)  By the time the paramedics arrived, I had stabilized enough to speak to people, but they had a difficult time doing a blood sugar test because no blood would come out of my finger.  After three times of being pricked, they were finally able to get enough blood to test my blood sugar.

Although I declined to go the emergency room at the time, I did go for some tests the following day.  Everything came back normal, and I was told that it is a routine thing for healthy adults to pass out, fall, hit their head, lose blood pressure, and temporarily go into shock.  Who knew? 

Our meetings in California were abundantly blessed of the Lord, and we look forward to seeing what God will do in the days to come.  Our schedule is full throughout the rest of this month, March, and into April.  Please continue to pray that God will use us as we preach in different churches.  The open-ended nature of our trailer situation has the potential to distract us from what is most important thing: the ministry of the Gospel.

Thank you again for your prayers.  We are trusting the Lord for great things as we head east for many meetings.  We look forward to giving a report of more people saved, and strengthened as a result of our ministry.

Paul

As I write this, the Monday evening service at the Big Valley Bible Baptist Church in Lodi, California, is in the books.  It was an interesting service for two reasons.  First of all, there have been a good number of visitors in this meeting from all over this area (not far from Sacramento and Stockton).  Second, there is a very godly woman in the church who is a tremendous example of faithfulness.

Betty is 93 years old and never misses a service, except for the time when she fell and broke four ribs.  Other than that, she is in her place every time the doors are open.  When others less than half her age come to pastor and make excuse after excuse for why they can’t be faithful, she is serious about serving God, even at her age.

This evening, the message on faith really spoke to her heart and she felt led of the Lord to respond in the invitation.  Being legally blind and somewhat unsteady on her feet, she called for help from my son Josiah so that she could respond at the altar call.  She told me afterwards that the Lord had really used the message to speak to her heart.

I could not help being amazed by her dedication.  Here she was in her nineties recovering from a fall in which she broke four ribs, yet she wanted everyone to be sure which side she was on.  In personal conversation after the service, she relayed to me that she has a life’s goal to be an old woman of joy.  Too many, she said, were crabby and cranky.  She wanted to be known for being full of joy.  It was impossible to hear her speak without thinking of the fruit of the Spirit and how God produces joy in the life of a surrendered Christian.

There can be no doubt that she was a blessing and a challenge to me.  If God gives me that many years to serve Him, I want to be like Betty in two ways: first of all, in faithfulness, and second of all, in joy.

As always, thank you for your prayers.  Keep faithful and keep joyful.

Paul