Summer 2015 Update

Sharing the Brain Teaser Survey at the Farmer's Market

Greetings!

It’s been a wonderful summer for evangelism. Thank you so much for your prayer support. We’ve given out thousands of gospel tracts, 60-70 Bibles, and many gospels of John. Here are some of the stories from our table ministry at Thursday Farmer’s Markets, Friday night concerts, Heritage Days Festival in June and Allegany County Fair in July:

Judith works the ministry table - Farmer's Market

A couple with two children took tracts. The father said, “I was born a Christian.” He said he had read the Bible many times since he had lots of time for reading whenever he was in prison. (!)

A young woman asked for my opinion on polygamy because she is involved with a married man who says she is his second wife in God’s eyes and the Bible doesn’t actually forbid it. Her parents (Christians) later asked for prayers for her, as she won’t listen to them.

Heritage Days booth - lots of interest in our tracts.

      A young man with a Christian upbringing admitted he has not yet committed his life to Christ. After hearing the courtroom illustration and the “good judge” who must see that justice is done, he said that was the best explanation he had heard of how the gospel works. He agreed to think seriously about it.

 

We gave out over 500 custom hand fans for Heritage Days

I had a long conversation with an atheist young man whose wife became a Christian after they married. He pointed out objections to Christianity (such as Israelites in the Bible killing women and children). I respectfully challenged him to consider the ultimate source of his sense of right and wrong, and how he considers God unfair. He appreciated how we listened to him since, he said, other Christians have just told him he was wrong.

County Fair - many Bibles given out.

A young woman said she was feeling pressured to join the Mormons and get baptized but had some doubts. She was open to hear more about their teachings that conflict with the Bible and how they are not another Christian denomination but a different religion. She took a couple brochures related to Mormonism. 

 

A young man stopped to chat at the Farmer’s Market and then came back each week. He is clearly seeking to know God but hesitates to make changes, such as dealing with his love life. He took books by Ray Comfort and Billy Graham.

 
 

 

Pastor Ron shares with the vendor next to us.

An older woman and her daughter stopped to browse our booth at the Fair, originally from the Philippines now living in West Virginia. The woman said she was baptized at an SDB church in the Philippines! Each was happy to receive a Bible.

 

It was a huge unexpected blessing when the Mark Cahill ministry sent us a box of tracts, free! I had emailed them about a typo I saw on their website, and these were their thank-you to me. Praise God for His provision! (www.markcahill.org)

In late May I visited the Shiloh, NJ, SDB Church and gave an update on the work I’ve been doing in Cumberland. They are on my support team and have been a great encouragement. I enjoyed the hospitality of Pastor Don and Charlotte Chroniger, including a meal in an Amish restaurant and a drive to see nearby historic places.

 

I also visited with church members of the Raritan Valley SDB Church that weekend. We talked about church planting and re-planting and the resources needed for either one. They welcome your prayers as they consider God’s future plan for SDB witness in northern New Jersey.

 

  

Pastor Ron and Karen, Fran from Friendship Haven Church

Have you heard of prayer walks? We’ve done a few here in Cumberland and it has been good to pray for the city, the neighborhoods and whatever God brings to mind. Sometimes we stop to talk with residents as well, encouraging them in their spiritual journey.

At the end of June I served as a counselor at Camp Joy in Berea, WV, for Junior Camp. We had times for music, crafts, lessons, meals, chores, campfire, recreation and lots more. It was very fun, though I was glad it was only 4 days rather than a full week!

 

This summer I started riding with a local bike club, the Western Maryland Wheelman. Every Tuesday we rode about 20 miles up and back on the GAP trail (Great Allegheny Passage). In July I actually rode with them on the GAP 48 miles round-trip from Cumberland to the Eastern Continental Divide, with 1,787 ft. elevation gain. Got a bit saddle sore but really enjoyed it! Another good way to meet people in the community.

 

Pastor Ron & Karen Higson, Roseanna & David White, me

The church I serve, Full Gospel SDB, was welcomed as a new member of the Conference at the annual meeting of Seventh Day Baptists of USA and Canada in July. We celebrated this special moment and thanked the Lord for allowing this church to grow and be a consistent witness here in Cumberland. Congratulations to Pastor Ron Higson and his flock!

 

 In August I was happy to do evangelism workshops for churches in the Appalachian Association: the German SDB in Salemville, PA, and Shepherd’s Fold Ministry SDB in Johnson City, TN. I’m calling the training “Taking the Gospel to People” to emphasize how we can engage people in conversations about spiritual things on a daily basis in respectful, natural ways, and minimize fear. I was also invited to share evangelism tips with the adult Sunday School class of Friendship Haven Church, one of our partners in ministry in Cumberland.

 

In September I traveled to Las Vegas for a Xango convention (my home-based business with natural nutritional supplements and good-for-you products). I stayed with my good buddies Gretchen Zwiebel and Pat Williams and enjoyed world-class keynote speakers, Eric Alexander and Robert Kiyosaki.

 

Since I was just two hours away from Kingman, AZ, I rented a car and went to visit the church I previously served, the Kingdom of God SDB, spending a few days there.   

What a blessing to see these friends again and encourage them to keep up the good work. 

Pastor Bob Peet, AZ, baptized 4 new believers

  

So, what’s up next?  Here’s the plan as of today.

1.     Pack the car and leave Cumberland on September 30, taking 11 days to travel to Colorado, visiting friends, families and churches along the way (Milton, WI, and North Loup, NE).

2.     Participate in the SDB Church Planting Conference October 22-24, in Colorado Springs.

3.     Rejoice on October 24 when my son, Paul Petersen, marries Aimée Woodard (Boulder).

4.     Fly to Puerto Rico on October 26 to serve a short mission for the new SDB church in San Sebastian, helping them create their organizing documents (constitution, covenant), and serving where needed. Thankfully I speak Spanish (my undergraduate degree, time in Spain and Honduras) and I’m excited to accept this invitation from Pastora Judith Houts.

5.     Return to Colorado December 14 to celebrate the season with family and my home church in Boulder. Maybe rest a bit…

6.     Between now and year-end work with Pastor Ben Figueroa of Seattle, WA, to seek God’s timing and plans for how I can serve their new Spanish-speaking SDB church, the Iglesia Bautista del Séptimo Día. Pastor Ben and his wife, Marcela, are experienced church planters. Estoy lista para aprender! (I’m ready to learn!)

Ladies of the Kingdom of God Church

From the bush in my back yard. Lovely Maryland!

Please keep up the great prayer support, and consider making a financial gift before year-end to help cover travel/moving expenses. Many thanks. I’m praying for additional monthly supporters, to bring my income up to cover things like car repairs and self-employment taxes. I’m hoping to participate in a new matching funds program in 2016 but no details yet, so gifts should still be directed to:    

 SDB Missionary Society

 19 Hillside Ave

 Ashaway RI 02804

(401) 596-4326  Email: Office@sdbmissions.org

 

God bless you as you live for Jesus and make Him famous among all people!

Spring Update - April 2015

Happy springtime!

This morning I noticed a cardinal building a nest in a tree outside my front window. A few days ago a robin built one on the back porch drainpipe and now is nesting in it. I’m amazed watching spring unfold in western Maryland, with flowers everywhere including on the trees and shrubs. Coming from a drier climate, this is quite a feast for the senses. It reminds me of the hymn, “This is my Father’s world, the birds their carols raise. The morning light, the lily bright, declare their Maker's praise.”

 

Since I last posted, we held two evangelism training sessions. It was exciting to have eight people from Friendship Haven Church and four from our church for the January crash course in Way of the Master witnessing.  There were many thoughtful questions as people considered how to reach those they knew who aren’t yet saved. Everyone participated and tried out the dialog on each other.

 

In early March there were six students from both churches for the afternoon course. I covered answers to common objections to the Christian faith, as well as ideas for how to reach people from the major world religions. Roseanna and David White (from our church) covered how to handle questions about evolution. I had not done this training before and am glad to have it ready for the next time, after many hours spent developing the curriculum.   

Evangelism training - role playing

One of the best websites I recommended for apologetics (meaning, defense of the faith) is by Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason, http://www.str.org/. Check it out for tips as you dialog with people wherever you live work and play.

In the area of continuing education, I completed a course called “Bible Interpretation”, Module 4 of the CALLED program (SDB Board of Christian Ed). Pastor Steve Osborn of my home church in Boulder, CO, is my mentor for the mostly self-study courses. It is probably the most important class I’ve taken for mission work to help me with “accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15) as I lead Sabbath School, Bible Study and people to Christ. I will continue to meet with Pastor Steve monthly for accountability, then start the next CALLED class in the fall.

Making chains - one loop for each book of the Bible.

We made and colored our own Bible Bookcase.

In the children’s Sabbath School we’ve been studying lessons from the Book of Genesis beginning with Creation and up to the life of Joseph so far. We act out the stories using stick puppets or doing the parts ourselves, reading right from the Bible. Life sure gets messy in Genesis and we find much that is similar to life today in families and following God wherever He leads. Since we don’t have much budget for curriculum I’m using free online resources.

It’s been fun to teach them songs related to the Bible stories (Dem Bones, Father Abraham, Jacob’s Ladder). The children sang “Easter Song” by 2^nd Chapter of Acts for Resurrection Sabbath and the sunrise service on Easter morning. They enjoyed ringing little bells for that too. 

  

I’ve been leading our mid-week Bible Study since December, going verse by verse through the book of Acts. There is so much to learn from that book! The followers of Jesus in the early days “went about preaching the word” and making disciples (Acts 8:4). They didn’t have church buildings or even a complete Bible yet, but they were convinced Jesus was sending them into the world as His ambassadors, just as God the Father had sent Him (John 20:21). 

So grateful for hikes in the woods!

If I had a quarter for every time someone has told me, “I’m not comfortable doing evangelism,” I’d be rich! I’ve concluded that none of us are truly comfortable, but if God is prompting us to make His name known, He will also give us words and compassion, because “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20).  It’s not about my ability – it’s about laying down my fears or lack of concern, so that someone else can hear the gospel. It’s not easy, but being a Christian is not easy anywhere in the world. For those who, like Moses, don’t speak well, there are terrific gospel tracts, plus the Gospel of John, to hand out. 

Speaking of the Gospel of John, the Lord provided 23 copies of that for our table ministry through the Red Brick SDB Church in Salemville, PA! They had extras from some past event and offered them to me. Also, 25 copies of a small book by Billy Graham, “Death and the Life After”. I was invited to Salemville to speak to the children during their monthly kid’s program, “Your Big Back Yard.” They were learning about missions and I shared about being a missionary within my own country as I help churches get started and train them in evangelism. They liked the million dollar bill gospel tracts that featured a Star Wars theme.

A Maryland mountain sunset (before the leaves returned)

Your prayers, as always, are very important. We may never know how often I am protected from harm because of your prayers. I am so appreciative. Please pray for the outreaches we have planned beginning in late May at concerts in downtown Cumberland, at the Farmer’s Market on Thursdays all summer, and at the Heritage Days Festival in June.  Heritage Days is one of the biggest events in Cumberland, a weekend of history, tours, arts and fun. I wanted to have something special for our church booth like hand fans with a gospel message on the back along with our church info. To get a good quantity will cost between $300 and $500, way beyond our evangelism budget. God has provided the funding through a donor who felt led to give extra last month and I’m so excited to order the fans!

 One more news item. I’ve joined forces with a couple business ladies to grow our home-based businesses and provide accountability (Monica Davis and Shellie Ujcic). We are each in different network marketing companies and helping to grow a networking group of all types of businesses. We started meeting in December as a Monday morning Bible study at Monica’s office downtown. 

 

In February Shellie and I started volunteering in the office part-time for the network group in exchange for using the space for our businesses. It has worked well for all three of us, and helped me see what is needed for success in direct selling. It’s more challenging than I expected, but I sense God is wanting me to do this and will use it in ways I can’t imagine right now. For example, after giving a short talk to our group on how food in America has changed dramatically in the past 50 years, I got invited to speak to the staff and workers of a local organization for folks with disabilities. The talk will be called, “Sugar is not my friend."

Recent visit by SDB Conference President Bill Probasco and his wife, Valerie.

God bless you as you seek to bless others!

A New Year to Spend for Christ

Rocky Mountains seen from the Boulder Seventh Day Baptist Church, Colorado

Cast of the Christmas Play

I hope your New Year is off to a great start! December was a busy ministry month for Full Gospel Seventh Day Baptist Church. I helped the children prepare a Christmas play, written by two of them, ages 9 and 10. It featured lively caroling and pointed to the meaning of Christmas underlying our traditions. I’ll continue to work with the children this winter/spring as I teach Sabbath School. We’re learning the books of the Bible and the major Old Testament stories with accompanying songs (Arky, Arky, Father Abraham, Only a Boy Named David).

 

 

On “Moonlight Madness” shopping night we set up the ministry table downtown and gave away 75 mini candy canes with a gospel poem attached. 

At the local nursing home we led the residents in singing carols while Pastor Ron shared the Christmas story from the Bible. The candlelight Christmas Eve service was advertised in the paper resulting in a few from the community coming.

 

God does amazing things when we follow His lead. We’d wanted to pass out gospel tracts at a nearby indoor mall but they don’t allow it. However, we were welcome to come and sing Christmas carols.  In faith we set a date and signed their vendor contract. Realizing an opportunity (and need) to partner, I contacted an elder of Friendship Haven Church, whom I’d met when I got my car serviced at his shop, and received permission to make an announcement during their worship service.  I invited them to join us for this caroling and outreach event. A number of people expressed interest but what really excited me was the youth pastor saying he was bringing the youth group. We had 13 from our church and 19 from theirs show up! We sang carols heralding the Savior’s birth to the shoppers and praised God for putting together His perfect choir to give Him glory and bear witness.

 

I took advantage of being near historical sights to visit Old Bedford Village (30 minutes north) and see their recreation of Christmas celebrations from 150 to 250 years ago. I went there with my friend from business networking, Monica, and her husband. It was very peaceful to wander through the village lit only by candles and oil lamps, hearing carolers and smelling freshly baked cookies.  I was reminded that darkness has to flee when light comes.  Jesus said, “I have come as Light into the world, so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in darkness” (John 12:46).

The week of Christmas I spent in Colorado visiting family and friends and giving an update to my sending church in Boulder. It was very refreshing and I was grateful to see everyone.  I'm pictured with my sister, Mary Ellen Felling, and mother, Barbara Burdick.

I enjoyed the first week of the New Year with my grown kids, Ana and Paul, in Wheeling, WV. Ana is an audio technician for a Disney on Ice show, currently touring the eastern U.S. We got to see the show, watch Ana work live, go hiking with some of the crew, and even visit a local drive-through light display.  Paul is a new missionary to college students working with the Navigators at the University of Colorado, Boulder.  Both have challenging mission fields! 

Pastor Ron Higson. Full Gospel SDB

One unexpected blessing for the church has been a growing number of worshippers attending online.  We live stream the service at 11:00 Eastern time on Sabbath (Saturday) morning. Some are SDBs who can’t make it to their local church that week, and some don’t have a SDB church nearby. We also make the sermons available as YouTube videos. If you want to point someone to the live service, it’s available from the church website, www.fullgospelSDB.org.

I’ve been very excited recently while studying the book of Acts, as I lead our weekly Bible study, and also by reading “Radical” by David Platt. When I think of church planting, I don’t think of a new building where people meet for worship, I think of a dedicated group of believers crying out to God to use them to reach the world for Jesus, beginning in their community.  Here is an excerpt from “Radical.”

“One of the unintended consequences of contemporary church strategies that revolve around performances, places, programs, and professionals is that somewhere along the way people get left out of the picture. But according to Jesus, people are God’s method for winning the world to Himself. People who have been radically transformed by Jesus. People who are not sidelined to sit in a chair on Sundays while they watch professionals take care of ministry for them. People who are equipped on Sundays to participate in ministry every day of the week. People who are fit and free to do precisely what Jesus did and what Jesus told us to do. Make disciples.”

Please pray for the evangelism training course I’m teaching on January 31; that it would inspire us to have deeper conversations daily with those who do not know Jesus, so that God would be glorified and draw more souls to Himself. I’ve invited the folks who partnered with us for the caroling and Pastor Ron has invited other churches as well.

May you also let your light shine!  “For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”  2 Corinthians 4:6