September is here, and with it, the first breath of autumn.  We have been traveling in the northern midwest and mountain states, and I personally have found the cooler weather quite a relief from the brutal heat of summer we have experienced so far this year.

We had the privilege of being a part of Opening Revival at Ambassador Baptist College in late August, and we are so excited about what God is doing there.  It is always a joy to spend time with the students and to fellowship with the faculty as well as with numerous friends who still live in the area. 

Two weeks ago, we were in Brookings, SD, where we had the privilege of seeing a young man from South Dakota State University in the morning service.  After the gospel was clearly presented in the message, he walked the aisle and trusted Christ!  We are always excited to see souls trust Christ in our meetings. 

This week we are in Sheridan, WY, and Paul has been able to do some hunting.  So far, we have two deer for our freezer, and he is currently out with Esther, who is hoping to get her first deer this year (we are all very hopeful for her sake).  The meat that we get from hunting goes a long way to fill our freezer for the coming months, and we are grateful for God’s provision in this manner.

In addition to holding meetings, we are staying busy with school, and trying to cram in some family activities as well.  Earlier this month, we had some issues with our trailer slide out, but after several days of tedious work and scrambling for parts, Paul and Josiah were able to complete the repairs.  The ability to fix it ourselves is quite a blessing, since every time we have to take it in to a dealership or service center to be repaired, it means a total disruption of our daily life for several days, if not weeks. 

It will not be long before we turn our rig towards home, where we will stop for a few days to pick up some warmer clothing for the coming winter months and also to have Josiah’s senior pictures taken before heading out again for the rest of the year.  The Lord has blessed us with a full schedule, and as we travel, we covet your prayers for safety and fruitfulness in ministry.

Sarah

Camp is done for the summer, and while we love camps, and the unique ministry opportunities they present, we also give a sigh of relief when they are all over for the summer and our life returns to semi-normal.  We were home briefly at the end of July and were able to spend some time at a conference with some of our home church staff.  The opportunity for fellowship was a welcome blessing, and we had a great time together. 

School has resumed for the children, and with it comes a lot more scheduling and responsibility.  Travel days have to be planned carefully and extra school work done in advance of long drives.  This year is a milestone for us.  Josiah, our oldest, is a senior in high school.  I can hardly believe that he will be graduating next summer.  Abigail is a freshman, Esther started junior high, and Daniel is in the fifth grade, so everyone will be quite busy this school year. 

We have had some good meetings in Ohio this month, and have also had the opportunity to do some fun things as a family as well.  Our kids experienced their first amusement park about a week ago, and loved it.  The big roller coasters were a huge hit with the older three.  We are thankful that the Lord enabled us to spend some time with them doing something new and exciting.

The past month has seen a couple of waves of unusually high repair bills for different things.  First, there were trailer expenses that were very expensive, then our house air conditioner had to have some major repairs.  Every time of financial testing gives us opportunity to lean on the Lord and witness His miraculous provision for us.

We have seen the Lord answer specific prayer and continually provide for every need that has arisen in our daily life and ministry.  It is a wonderful thing to have access to the throne of grace!  We are praying specifically about producing a family musical recording this winter, and would ask that you pray with us for God’s direction and provision in that endeavor.  There are a lot of details that must fall into place before this recording can happen, and we are still trying to sort out all those details.

We are currently in North Carolina, and have several meetings here in the next few weeks.  We are excited to see what God does, and look forward to the blessings He has in store for us.

Thank you for your prayers. 

As the focus goes to Christmas and the birth of our Savior, it does my heart good to reflect on what God has done this year through our family.  This year marked 15 years that we have been traveling and preaching all over the United States and certain foreign countries of the world.

The fall round of meetings was particularly good for us, taking us from Virginia to Montana and back to South Carolina before ending the season in Ripley, TN, 80 miles from home.  The Lord has been so good to us to allow us to travel and to strengthen churches in the places to which He sends us.

We are all home now, enjoying the time at our home church and resting a bit before the schedule resumes again in January.  Josiah is learning to drive, everyone is doing school, and we are all enjoying the time at home.

As we head toward the new year, we are excited to see God’s continued working in our lives and ministry.  Thank you so much for all your prayers and support this past year.  May God bless you all.

After a great time of ministering in camp in the Southwest, we are back in the swing of revival meetings once again.  The schedule is full this fall, with lots of churches and lots of travel.

So far, one of the highlights of this fall has been the Inter-Mountain Baptist Fellowship meeting in Cody, WY.  Many of the men were men whom I had never met before.  In answer to specific prayer, the Lord greatly used the services to encourage and strengthen the preachers before they had to leave this morning.  While the goal was not to get new meetings but to be a blessing, many did express a desire to have us back in the future.

Earlier this year, the Lord opened a ministry opportunity that I never envisioned myself doing.  A church asked us to help them in the interim after their pastor had resigned.  I had never seen myself doing anything like that, but the Lord opened the door and we went through it.  Though we were only able to spend four weeks there, the Lord allowed us to be able to bring a stability to the church and see an interim pastor installed that continues to help and see the work move forward.  God’s ways are never our ways.

My 2018 itinerary is very minute at this time, but it is posted online for anyone thinking of scheduling a meeting for next year.  We are excited about the doors that God is opening up for us.

After a month in Central America, my family and I arrived back in the United States on the afternoon of December 29, 2016.  It was good to be home in the United States once again, even though the Miami airport into which we flew still featured English as occasional tongue of a minute minority.  Deciphering the accent of the rental car agent in Miami was almost as difficult as communicating with Guatemalans: at least you expected them to speak Spanish.  The heavily accented “English” was a challenge indeed.

In fact, our arrival back in United States presented us with a long sequence of events, the consequences of which still affect our lives.  The wait for a rental car in Miami was almost as long as the flight from Guatemala City.  And they didn’t give give us a drink, snack, or seat like the airline did.  We were finally able to get a rental car and drive across the peninsula to the Gulf side where our trailer awaited us in North Port.

On the way across Florida, we stopped by a Sprint store to try to get Sarah’s cell phone working again.  That was when we discovered that someone had stolen our credit card information and used it for fraudulent purchases in Michigan during our absence.  The credit card company, sensing something was not right, then canceled the cell phone payment causing us to be overdue.  The service was cut off due to a lack of payment.

After a long trip across Florida complete with its bad news, we finally arrived in North Port where our trailer was parked.  A Russian speaking church rents this church’s facility from them, and although the midweek service was complete, choir practice was ongoing when we arrived.  It usually goes until 10:00 pm, we were told.  We would have to wait until they were gone to set up our trailer so that we could finally get to bed.  No problemo — we would just get the trailer all ready to move so that as soon as the last note was dying off, we would chase everyone out of the parking lot and park the trailer where all the choir members’ cars were currently parked.  While attempting to hook up the truck and trailer, we discovered that the trailer battery was, after a full month of being unplugged from any type of power source, DEAD.  The trailer jacks refused to budge in any direction due to the lack of power.  This necessitated a frenzied search for the extension cords in the darkened bays, barked orders at small minions to “hold the flashlight where I can see,” and a good deal of scrabbling around in small spaces.  Finally the appropriate cords were found, outlets located, and the jacks received enough power to attach to the truck.  Still, the Russians sang on, oblivious to the drama outside.  In the end, I jumped the gun and asked the Russians to move 15 minutes early.  We finally got to bed around 11:00 that night.

When we finally did get the trailer set up, everyone began unpacking their bags.  We found that our children had apparently decided that their cheap souvenirs were more important than the clothing they took with them to Guatemala.  This was deduced by the large number of articles left behind.  The news was received rather mildly, probably due to the fact that we were numb with fatigue.  We patted the children on the head, gave them candy, and sent them to bed, congratulating them on the fact that they hadn’t exceeded the airline’s  luggage weight limits.

Now, as we leave 2016 behind, and look forward to 2017, we have so many things for which to be grateful.  The Lord kept us safe in our travels, and blessed us with good health and several ministry opportunities.  We made new friends, and had many new experiences.  We are grateful for everyday things that we tend to take for granted here in the states – hot, running water, drinkable water, washing machines, traffic patterns and good roads, to name a few!

We are still experiencing a bit of reverse culture shock as we adjust to life in the States again (I keep answering people in Spanish when they ask me a question), and we are really looking forward to hearing church services in our own language again. Thank you all for your prayers for us regarding this trip.  God had His hand of blessing and protection upon us, and we thank Him for this amazing opportunity to minister in a foreign country.

The busy fall schedule is on us now.  The Lord has opened many doors for us this fall and we are eagerly looking forward to seeing lives changed as a result of the Word of God reaching them.

With respect to our family, we endured a period of time in July and August during which we had to be out of our trailer to have some warranty work done as well as some body work due to two blown tires.  We were in a prophet’s chamber graciously provided to us by the Cloverleaf Baptist Church of Mobile, AL.  We are grateful that we are back in the trailer now and everything is working well.

There is an addition to our website that might be easy to miss at first glance.  We now have not only 2016’s itinerary but also 2017’s available to view.  Of course, the following year is not as full as this year’s, but it is available as it stands so that those interested can plan.  For those pastors who are trying to plan their calendars for the next year, we hope to be able to aid in this planning.

School is progressing about a month ahead of normal schedule so that we can be all done by the time we head to Guatemala in late November.  The Lord is bringing in funds on a weekly basis for our trip to Central America.  Our passports are bought, the tickets are purchased, and we are looking forward to our time.  Sarah has turned the inside of the trailer into a large craft area, making and selling all kinds of homemade items.  See her Facebook page or follow her on Instagram @rvmamacrow for pictures of her latest.  For my part, I don’t know if I actually want you to visit those pages or not.  The more orders she receives, the longer I have to trip over the sewing machine and iron cords on a regular basis.  Nevertheless the proceeds are helping us tremendously along with the items we sell on our table–CD’s, books, and so forth.

We are most grateful for the souls that have been saved recently.  A man named Hollis was the latest to trust Christ.  He came to Christ last Sunday morning.  He was born in Trinidad but brought up in New York City where he joined a gang after he was orphaned.  The evidence of God’s conviction over sin was evident Sunday morning.  He told the pastor at the front of the auditorium, “I’m lost!  I need to be saved.” If you like, you can find a picture of Hollis as well as others who have been saved in our meetings on my Instagram account @crowing617.

Thank you all for all your prayers for us.  It is wonderful to see the Lord working on a regular basis, and we rejoice to be in His service.