For the People Had a Mind to Work: March 2012

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Missions Conference

Our Pastor always says that during a Missions Conference, a church decides how much they want God to bless their church that week. Jesus came to earth to seek and to save those that were lost, and it should be our primary burden as well. And that's what a Missions Conference is for, to remind us what our purpose should be and to help us refocus on that goal!

Our theme this year is "Seeing Things From God's Perspective". Like the song says "Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace." When we see people how God sees people, we will reach out to tell them about a saving grace and a God who loves them!

The first part of the week we had two foreign missionaries that we already support: the Rogers family to Brazil, and the Allen family to Papua New Guinea with an aviation ministry. We've known the Rogers since college, and Sammy was even in our wedding as a Groomsman. It was great to see them and to hear how things have been going on the field for them.
We enjoyed learning more about the Allen's ministry. With their airplane they can visit villages that would take 5 days to get to by foot, in 15 minutes through the air. He told a story of one village where they've started a church where the village didn't even have a word for God or good. They had words for evil, devil, bad, and multiple ones at that. But no word for God. But they do now, praise the Lord! They are able to reach tribes that nobody else can reach.

This weekend we've had a Home Missions focus. Bro. Dedmon is starting a church in Springfield, MO after turning over the church in Luthor, OK to another Pastor. 20 years ago Springfield had 30+ IFB churches that were preaching the truth, and now he could only find 4. That's a sad statistic!

We also have the Sullivan family who are going to be starting a church in Maine along the coast. He preached a message on seeing Hell from God's Perspective and it was powerful! We had four people saved that night! God was really moving in hearts.

Tonight we will be collecting Faith Promise cards and getting a rough total for support for the year. Last year we pledged $69,000 for the year and we're on track to meet it. God is an amazing God who always provides if we have faith in His promises. We're excited to be able to take on more Missionaries to help spread the Gospel further into the world.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

March 2012

After a mostly uneventful two-day trip we finally made it to Mustang, Oklahoma to our home church. We were able to leave Carson, MS at our scheduled time and encountered a rain storm not even 5 minutes after leaving, so we left right on time! It would not have been fun to try to pull the fifth wheel out while it was raining. We stayed the night in Kilgore, TX at a campsite and then we were able to get going early the next morning. We thought we would bypass the Dallas traffic by going around Dallas, but I don't think we bypassed any traffic! It was stop and go, changing speed limits, going through towns, the whole way. But we did make it! We will be home for about a month, depending on where we're going next and when they're ready for us to come. Next week is our Missions Conference and we're pretty excited! Missions Conferences are when a church decides how much they want to be blessed that year. Missions is the life of a church, you can't grow if you're not reaching souls and Missions is the way we can reach people around the world. Our church was also able to buy a brand new baby grand digital piano and I (Laura) was blessed enough to be the first to play it. When we left in December the church started a campaign to raise money for a new piano and it was really exciting to see the campaign finished by the time we got back. What a great testimony to the church for their faithfulness and desire to see the church improve! It looks great on the podium and sounds even better. Please continue to pray for Caleb's knee. We're pretty sure he only sprained it since it didn't swell very badly and it only hurts if he's on it for too long. But it is still giving him problems, probably because he can't seem to stay off of it for very long. Both of us have a lot of doctor appointments, we are definitely getting old! When we left Carson, MS all of the framing in the second half of the building was done with sheet rock on most of them, including insulation. There is a second floor for storage and heat and air. All of the electrical in the second half is done. All of the plumbing is in the walls. Two families are staying behind to get some more work done, the goal is to have all of the sheet rock and walls done, including mudding and taping. This would just leave flooring and finishing to be done by the church. We were also able to help with some demolition on camp buildings. We will let you know where we're going next as soon as we find out!

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.