The Trip to Western NY

My trip to NY began with my first taste of snow this winter. The lazy flakes falling to the ground reminded me of why I love a winter wonderland. Reality soon came back as the temperature fell to about 4 degrees and I quickly remembered why I live in the South.

The trip to western NY began with a visit to Ivory Baptist Church, a church my dad had pastored in the late 70's, and one that I had not visited since. As you can see from the picture above, it has a memorable look to it and my visit took on a memorable experience. I would drive down a road and a memory would come back to me, or I would meet someone and they would mention a name or a place and memories would fill my mind. It was also wonderful to see friends that I had not seen in many years. That in and of itself was a great experience, but it was even more wonderful to see the church growing and reaching into the community. Pastor Johnessee and his family have been serving there for 13 years, and it was a joy to spend time with them.

From there I traveled to Rochester, NY to stay with my parents and attend a conference on Discipleship at First Bible Baptist Church in Greece, NY. I had a wonderful visit with my parents and a great time with their church family (East Baptist Church) on Wednesday night. This church is one of the most giving and encouraging churches that I have been with and it is always a blessing to come back. This was also one of the few times that my dad heard me speak as usually I'm filling in for him. I'm very thankful for my dad who has served the Lord faithfully for 45+ years.

During the day time, I went to the conference in Greece. This is an excellent conference on developing discipleship in your church. They have developed a fantastic program and materials for this process, but more importantly they have developed disciples who are reaching into their communities and spreading out around the world. Check out their material at www.fbbc.info and go to the discipleship tab.

While I was there I met 2 men, Dean and Tim, and both were a great blessing to me. Dean and his wife allowed me to visit them and learn more about South Africa. His wife grew up in the Pretoria area and helped give me more perspective and understanding of the task ahead of us. Tim pastors in the Salamanca area and his enthusiasm for God's Word was infectious. God is doing incredible things around the world and it is exciting and blessed to be a part of what He is doing.

Thanks for praying for us and for partnering with us in this endeavor.

The Golden Gate Bridge

I just returned from a great visit to some wonderful churches in the San Francisco area. It was an awesome privilege to share our ministry with 2 churches that are doing a wonderful work both in reaching their communities and in the area of missions. My first stop was at Santa Rosa Bible Church (about an hour north of San Fran) for their Missions Day. I had a fantastic time visiting with the people of the church and learning about their heart for the Lord and for the mission field. Pastor Chris Bauer, his staff and the church leadership are doing a wonderful job of raising up a godly congregation.

I then spent 3 days with Brent and Jeremy of the Santa Rosa pastoral staff as we went to a conference where we heard Dr. Jim Cecy challenge us on purity. He developed JARON ministries (www.jaron.org) and has put together a profound seminar on the topic of purity. During this seminar, Brent Mitten and I had fun answering in chorus to our name.

From Santa Rosa I went to Belmont (about 20 min. below San Fran) and visited with the believers of Fellowship Bible Church under the leadership of Pastors Steve Wong and Kevin Na. Here I had the opportunity to share with the young people on Friday night, visit Alcatraz (only briefly) and San Francisco on Saturday and then spend Sunday with the church family. It was exciting to see another church with a heart both for their community and the world.

So I thank the Lord for the opportunity to share our ministry with 2 more churches faithfully serving our God. Lord willing, the next report will be about my visit to NY.