For the People Had a Mind to Work: August 2009

Monday, August 24, 2009

Hello All! We are having a great time in Arkansas. The people here at Jacksonville Baptist Temple are very sweet and have really taken care of us! We left last Monday after some setbacks, but we finally made it here at about 9:30pm. When we woke up the next morning Caleb and I both felt just awful! We had headaches, upset stomachs and other issues nobody wants to hear about! Caleb pressed on and worked that afternoon, but I rested. We're not sure what the problem was, maybe allergies?, but we're feeling much better now and are adjusted to Arkansas....we think!

The church here has two mobile classrooms and Caleb is putting two small bathrooms in one, and connecting the existing bathrooms in the other one to the water and sewer lines. Things are progressing smoothly and he should be done this week, hopefully! He is going to try to set up some meetings for Wednesday and this coming Sunday with some churches in the area. It's always good to be able to present your ministry when you can!

I will try to post some before pictures this afternoon!

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Here we go again!!

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. After Anna was born Caleb left for E. Wenatchee, Washington to remodel some bathrooms in a church there. He was gone for four and a half weeks while the kids and I stayed home in Oklahoma. I didn't feel that Anna nor I were quite ready for a trip that far away so we all stayed back. We survived!! Caleb came home last week and we were very happy to have him home.

This next week is VBS at our church and then the week after that we will be going to Jacksonville, AR to do some work in a church there. We will be there for a few weeks, then we'll come back to Oklahoma for our church's 8 year Anniversary and Revival.

After that, we're not sure where we're going. Maybe North Carolina and maybe Pennsylvania, depending on who needs us! Maybe somewhere else.

Please, please pray for our trailer/camper situation. Right now we have a camper on loan from a church here in Oklahoma but it is very small, 24', with no popouts. With four kids now and winter approaching, it won't work much longer. When we go to Arkansas we won't need it because the church will be letting us use their Missions Apartment and we probably won't be taking Kayla and Noah. They will stay here with Nana and Papa (Caleb's parents and our Pastor) so they can go to the first few weeks of school. I just don't see how this camper will work if we go to NC or PA in the Fall/Winter. We know the Lord has a camper out there for us, please pray for His guidance and grace to give it to us!!!

Right now we are almost to 60% of our support. God has been so good to us and we are grateful to all of our supporting churches! We had a nice break off to have the baby and be home for a while, but we are ready to be on the road again and get work done!

Some Building Facts!

1. When a church goes from renting a facility/meeting in a home to owning their own building, it will grow by an average of 50% in the first year!
2. Having NTCP, USA come and help you build will give you a savings of 30-70%
3. NTCP, USA does not require anything from a church when it goes to work. We have some requests, but if we required something we would be no better than contractors.
4. An average of 800 Baptist churches close per year.
5. Foreign Missions cannot be supported, unless new churches are built!
6. If a church has a 50% increase in people after getting a new building, their Missions fund can grow as well.
7. Supporting NTCP, USA will ensure you a part in the reaping of all of the souls that are won because of the growth of the church that was built!
8. When we go to a church to build, we strive to be the best church members that Pastor has. That means we go on visitation, volunteer to sing specials, teach a class, and help in any area we can. We are there to be a blessing, not a burden.