Dear Church,
I pray your New Year is off to a fantastic start. Stacy, the kids, and I enjoyed a wonderful holiday season as a family and were encouraged by your cards and well wishes. We sent our supporting churches a card listing our end of year blessings in pictures.
We still have not received an adequate payout from State Farm Insurance to cover a replacement van which is causing a great deal of difficulty for our work here. I can tell you, if State Farm is like a good neighbor, I would hate to see a bad one! Several times in December we had to take two vehicles to the nursing home to bring the elderly to our services. We have 2 people who use wheelchairs and one who uses a walker. With the Odyssey gone, we have been using Gabriel’s Ford Focus and our Chevy Express Van. The Focus is too small to fit everyone in, but the Express is too high for those in wheelchairs to transfer. One man had been very faithful for a long time and then stopped coming after our Odyssey was totaled. He finally spoke to me about it. “Do you know why I stopped coming,” he asked? “No, but I have been wondering about it,” was my reply. He told me how difficult it was to climb up into our Chevy Express van. He uses a walker, and climbing in the big van discouraged him from wanting to come. How sad that this man has quit coming to church because we don’t have a good way to transport him. He was saved just a few months ago. If you would like to provide Giant Print Bibles for this nursing home ministry, please contact me.
A young man in our church recently brought a first-time visitor to Anchor Baptist Church. I am seeing some signs of growth among the people and possible beginnings of a cohesive group. We have seen this at least four times in the past and each time the devil destroyed and wrought havoc. We desperately need you to pray with us for protection, wisdom, patience, and guidance as we strive to nurture this delicate chute of growth. Not only did the visitor enjoy the service, but he came back the following Sunday and promised to be back again. Several others have displayed a burden for lost souls and constantly share with me about the people they are inviting. It is exciting to see them work to help the church grow and to watch them bear the burden of reaching others.
Our “caroling at the coast” was a great outreach and a time of fellowship and rejoicing. I know three families in the community specifically that were positively affected. Several churches were represented, and some traveled a long way to be a part of the special outreach activity.
One day in December I was called to an elder care facility. A resident there had asked the staff to call and asked for me by name and so I went to see what I could do. There I met a man who had suffered a terrible accident. He was in recovery but told me the experience left him realizing he was not ready for eternity. He seemed somewhat knowledgeable about the Bible and so I taught him the gospel. As it turns out, a Rock of Ages missionary led him to Christ years ago. He still had the ROA study Bible that was given to him. He had wandered from the Lord but was so excited to get a firm assurance of salvation. The man said we will see him at church, and I hope you will pray we do! Thank you again for your prayers, support, and especially for reading these letters!