Dear Church,                                                                  

Thank you for the encouraging notes, texts, e-mails, along with prayers and financial support during the month of September. We are thankful to partner together with likeminded churches who share with us in ministering the Gospel. I’m 46 years old since my birthday in October and just can’t believe the time has gone by so quickly. Each week seems to fly by and leaves me feeling like I was shorted a day or two. September is gone and the year is right behind it! Lord, teach us to number our days!

We praise the Lord for each opportunity to share the gospel and witness of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Our nursing home ministry started several months ago and has grown each week. We had 10 in attendance last week and plan to be there once a month for the foreseeable future. If interest grows, we may consider spending more time there. My work with the fire department as Chaplain has afforded me ample opportunity to minister the love of Christ to the firefighters as well as the community. Please keep this effort in prayer. It seems the devil has been fighting and yet God continues to bless the work. Lately I have been used of the Lord, and so has Stacy, to reach out to hurting people through my duties as chaplain. As a result of my visit to one home after a death, a man asked me if I would speak and share the gospel at the “celebration of life” service for his wife. I told him I would do that as the pastor of Anchor Baptist Church but not as the chaplain of the fire department. He thought that was great and I had an opportunity to comfort family as well as share the old old story of Jesus and his love. God was working on several people, but no one made a profession of faith.

The people of Clatsop County need a church and pastor, though most reject both. I have noticed there is often a difference between what we want and what we need. When I preached at the celebration of life mentioned earlier, one lady recognized me from a call I had responded to when her friend died. She reminded me and I recalled the situation immediately. My mind went back to when I was knocking on doors and sharing the gospel in a neighborhood. I had knocked on her friend’s door and asked if I could share from the Bible how one can have eternal life. The answer was “no,” and I was turned away. Just a few weeks later I responded to the same house as a chaplain but this time a person died. I had tried to share the good news earlier and even made it in time, but the person rejected. The scripture says, “as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement.”  

So much has transpired in our work here in Astoria that I am not able to share in our prayer letter. Christians are not the only ones who read these. In fact, there are several enemies of the Cross who scrutinize these letters and use them to criticize our ministry. Will you please pray for us concerning several unspoken prayer requests? We also ask you to pray with us that God would send a helper, several solid Christian families, and give us a permanent building where we can place our sign and leave our equipment setup. Thank you for your prayers and support.

-The Byers Family