Friday, April 11, 2014

April 2014 Update


Hello Friends,

I’m wrapping up my time serving the church in Kingman, thankful for the many friends I’ve made and for the children at church.  The kids arrive up to 30 minutes early and it was pretty chaotic until I began setting out paper, crayons and stencils ahead of time.  Many of them like to draw and their artwork decorates the walls.






 They really enjoy action songs and this picture was captured as we were singing “Give God the glory, glory” with our hands waving high.

 
One Sabbath evening we had 26 kids show up, ranging from babies to 15-year-olds.  Since we don’t have teachers for the various ages, we are all in one room and the teens help with the toddlers.  We’re grateful for the donation of a flannel board with hundreds of Bible figures and pieces of scenery.  Everyone listens to the Bible story, knowing Bridgette will reward them with candy for answering questions correctly! Please continue to pray that God will provide qualified teachers so each age group can have their own class.


I’m including a great picture of a couple in our church, Al and Bonnie, who are faithful in coming to both church and Bible study, and also lead weekly visits to residents of a nursing home.  Al serves on the church board.  They are growing by leaps and bounds as they regularly read the Bible and search out its meaning, as Pastor Bob encourages everyone to do (he mentions it in the sermon weekly).




Gloria is another active member (we used to lead singing together during morning worship) and is the inspiration behind a new walking club.  She figured people are more likely to exercise when others join in, so she got some T-shirts printed up (“Yea, though I walk” from the 23rd Psalm) and launched a weekly walking group.  (She is second from the right in the picture.)  Since some of the people are not from the church, it’s an opportunity to get to know them and potentially share the gospel.  You might give it a try where you live!


When my lease was up at the end of March, I needed a place to spend the two weeks before I leave for Colorado and to store my things until I move to the next place to serve.  God provided through Gloria who offered me the apartment adjacent to her wig shop (see picture).  It’s in a residential neighborhood and is just what I need.  Thank you, Lord!

In Colorado, I’ve kept a room in an apartment with my mom in Boulder but that lease is up at the end of April.  Mom found a studio apartment in a nearby town – another great answer to prayer because it’s in her price range and is intended for seniors.  I prayed and asked the two pastors of the Seventh Day Baptist (SDB) churches in the Denver-area to put out the word that I was looking to rent a room or two from a church member and that I needed a Colorado address in order to maintain residency there (for voter registration, health insurance, etc.).  Within a day a couple responded with the offer of a rent-free room! I called and talked with the wife and we agreed this was God’s leading.  They had sensed the Lord telling them to use their home for a ministry purpose.  I am so thankful and mindful that God is, indeed, my Provider.  (Psalm 34:10)  Thank you for your prayers!
Walking along White Cliffs Wagon Trail, Kingman

What I’ve been doing the first half of April is contacting many of the pastors and leaders of the 15 or so new or upcoming SDB churches, spread out across America.  What a blessing to hear how God is working in these areas!  A number of them became convinced of the seventh-day Sabbath through studying the Bible, and then went looking online to see if any Christians were meeting on the Sabbath (Saturday).  Some were part of Messianic Jewish congregations for a time, but then felt led to associate with us, being more Gentile-oriented. 

Besides using the information I’m collecting to help determine where God would like me to serve, I’m going to share it with SDBs to encourage others to seek God’s will for where He would like them to go to help get a new church started with firm foundations.  The more I talk with Sabbath-keepers who were not raised as SDBs, the more I believe God wants to bless Christians today with the gift of the Sabbath, which Jesus said was “made for man.”  Most Americans live at an insane pace, even on weekends.  By keeping the Sabbath, we stop the work of the other six days and give God our full attention.  We gather for worship, for instruction, for shared meals and fellowship, for family time, and for ministry work in our communities.  No legalism here – just joy in the Lord and in the Lord’s day (Jesus said, “For the Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath day,” Matthew 12:8).

I’ll spend the second half of April in Colorado visiting with friends from the Boulder SDB church (my sponsoring church) and others, reporting in to Pastor Steve Osborn, and getting settled in the new place in Brighton.  The last week of April will be spent in western New York State at the SDB Church Planting Conference.  Many thanks to the Boulder church for covering my costs to attend.
Flatiron rock formations west of Boulder, Colorado

Please join me in praying for God’s clear leading for where to serve next.  Lord willing, I will return to Kingman by the end of May to move my things to the next place.  I know I’m taking a seldom-trodden path among SDBs by responding to the Lord’s call to go where needed without full assurance of financial support or a place to live.  And yet, for whom do I live?  Why pursue comfort in this life when I can spend more time pointing someone to his only hope of eternal life?  The Apostle Paul understood that the trade-off is no sacrifice at all.  “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ, my Lord…”  (Philippians 3:7-8)

God bless you as you seek Him first daily.  I thank the Lord for you and hold you up in prayer as you also hold me up.  Rejoice in the Lord always!  (Phil. 4:4)

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