Christmas Blessings

 The last month of ministry and life in general has flooded my mind with a realization of the manifold blessings of God.  He has given us another year of serving Him and seeing others turn to Him as we give the truth.

For the family, this Christmas will be the first in which our family will not be all present.  Josiah is currently in Colombia ministering with a friend from college. He plans to be there through the new year serving God. The rest of us are currently in Mississippi doing the kinds of things that normally occupy our time near the Christmas season.

For an evangelist, meetings are usually fewer in number this time of year.  Despite that tendency, the Lord has blessed with meetings unusually close to the Christmas holiday that have been a blessing to us.  

One meeting in particular deserves special mention because of what the Lord did.  Great Hope Baptist Church of Chesapeake, Virginia, has done a living nativity for the past 3 years.  Last year, they discovered that it would be better to have two Gospel preaching stations rather than one.  That way, there would never be a bottleneck of people to distract those who were hearing the Gospel.  The pastor of the church, John Godfrey, Jr., is a friend of mine from my days in college.  For two years straight during the college years, we traveled together in music groups.  He called me this year and asked me to help present the Gospel at the end of the living nativity.

The event lasted three nights, from December 13-15, 2024.  In that time, we had 1,785 people attend the event. After they went to each location to hear actors tell the story of Mary, Joseph, and the birth of Jesus, they then proceeded to the cross and the empty tomb where a man dressed as a Roman soldier told them about the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. From there, the groups--each numbered about 60 people--came into one of two tents where the pastor and I preached the Gospel, he in one tent and I in the other.  The entire event was built around making much of Jesus.  Over the three days, we had 270 people profess Christ as Savior.  It was a great way to celebrate the Christmas holiday.

Not long after Christmas, Abigail and I head for Louisiana, she to work in a winter camp and I to preach in Lake Charles.  We scarcely return from there before she heads off to college, and I to my traveling schedule.

As many of you know, I have been producing a podcast on a regular basis throughout much of 2024.  The computer that I have been using for seven years is giving me some problems recently.  This machine has become essential to the work that I have been doing.  Please pray for wisdom as to whether we should repair or replace what we currently have.

May all of you have a merry Christmas and a wonderful, fruitful new year.

Gratitude

A week from today, the United States of America will celebrate the greatest holiday of all, Thanksgiving. Granted, there is more hype surrounding other holidays, but the idea of being grateful should reign supreme among the nobility of virtues. Truly, our family has much to be thankful for.

God gave many open doors of ministry during the last month. An annual highlight is our trip to Fort Morgan, Colorado, to minister in the Platte Valley Baptist Church. Every year, together with Evangelist Dwight Smith and family, we have ministered among those dear country people. This year, we dug out some pictures from the very first time we were there ten years ago. In those ten years, our children have grown up, our horizons (waistlines) have broadened, and my hairline has receded to the back of my head. Also, the church has more than doubled in that time. During our time there, four people walked the aisle to trust Christ as Savior. The Wednesday before our family arrived, six were saved in a special teen service. What a thrill to minister with faithful people!

Because Sarah is still teaching at Ambassador Baptist College, I travel either alone, with pianist Dale Lieser, or with Dale and my son Daniel. God has given us some good meetings together as we learn how to serve each other and the churches where we are.

Work is already underway for the 2025 schedule with many weeks already full. We are looking forward to seeing what God will do in our travels then.

In the family front, Josiah has one more semester after December to complete before he graduates with his master's degree. Please pray for the Lord's leading as he seeks a place of ministry. Abigail has one more year after this school year before she will graduate with her bachelor's degree. Esther has one more semester after December and she will finish her one year Bible certificate. Daniel is in his junior year of high school and looks forward to getting his driver's permit soon. Pray for his mother in that regard.

My podcast continues with a new episode being added every month. In the next week or so, I plan to begin a short series of episodes on objections to the Gospel. These have value, not only for unsaved people, but also for believers who must give the Gospel to less-than-receptive coworkers and family members. Below are links.

Spotify  Apple Podcasts YouTube

In addition to the podcast, I also publish preaching shorts under a YouTube channel with the same name and logo as the podcast. You find a link to the entire channel, including podcast and shorts here.

May the grace of God fill you with gratitude this holiday season. Thank you as always for your prayers.

Still Going

 It was with horror that I realized that it had been a long time since I had last updated you all on our ministry.  Allow me to dive right in.

The summer was dominated by a trip to Western Europe.  For six weeks, we traveled mostly in Italy, but also for one week in Germany.  In Italy, we ministered in different local churches all over the country.  Two of them were American military churches while the rest of them were Italian works.  One night a Franciscan monk walked into our service.  He looked as if he had just walked off the set of a Robin Hood movie, complete with brown robe, rope for a belt, sandals, and everything.  We talked with him for a while about his salvation, and though he agreed with everything that we said, he still clung to the merit of his works for salvation.  We were in Sicily in the south all the way to Milan and Aviano in the north of Italy.

In Germany, we ministered to a family camp-like setting of missionaries from all over the continent of Europe.  It was a great time to make their acquaintance and to minister to their spiritual needs.  We made a lot of great memories there, both with the missionaries and with the German people that hosted us.

The family had scarcely returned from Europe when we packed up the trailer and moved the whole operation to North Carolina.  Sarah is once again teaching piano at the Ambassador Baptist College while three of our children are students at the school.  I still travel in meetings in different places.  When I drive, Daniel and Dale Lieser accompany me, and when I fly Daniel stays home.  I have spent more days in airports than I care to count in recent days.

God continues to provide for us, even though my ministry seems so different from what it once was.  Gone are the days when my family piles out of the truck like clowns out of a Volkswagen.  Now, the team is often just two people: Dale at the piano and I at the pulpit.  Still, the Word of God is not bound.  That should be the main focus of my ministry anyway.

Please pray for our family.  My children are making momentous decisions now, far greater than which shoes to wear with this dress or if they should iron their shirt.  Sarah and I are experiencing what many of you faced long ago: the reality that parents can't control the decisions of their adult children like they could when the children were younger.  We thank the Lord that there has been no friction because of bad choices that our children have made.  Still, the daily lesson of not intervening and taking each situation to God in prayer requires a greater step of faith on our part.

I have endeavored to work harder at giving the Gospel online.  I have a podcast called Evangel (search for Evangel Paul Crow on Spotify or Apple podcasts) as well as a YouTube channel that I am building.  The goal is not to become a great online influencer as a full time job.  Rather it is to give the Gospel in a medium that seems to dominate the lives of people today.  More people speak English today than any other language in the world.  Given this fact, I want to get the Gospel to them.  I met people in Europe who were saved as a result of finding someone online who gave the Gospel.  In my opinion, we need more people giving the Gospel online, not less.  Rather than curse the darkness, I have decided to light a candle.  Please pray that people all over the world would find the podcast and listen.  God will give the increase if they can just hear.

Back to Normal

 The May rush of graduations is over for us as of today.  We had relatives in from out of town to celebrate Esther's graduation, with an honorable mention of Josiah's college graduation from college as well thrown into the mix.  Esther was the first of our children to not have a more formal graduation ceremony.  The details simply could not be worked out this year as they had with our other two children in days gone by.  That meant that the graduation reception at our house was the only means of celebration for Esther.  She was fine with not having a ceremony, though, if for no other reason than the fact that she did not have to give a public speech.  She plans to return to Ambassador Baptist College in the fall to continue studying for her one-year Bible certificate that she began in January of this year.  That will mean three of my four children will be in college at the same time. Josiah is on track to graduate with his master's degree a year from now.  Abigail has two more years to go, and Esther will be done this time next year as well.

In the mean time, the Crow family is back to whatever normal is for us.  Josiah is working on an internship in our home church in Mississippi; Abigail is a camp counselor all summer long at Southland Christian Camp in Ringgold, Louisiana; and our younger two are at home preparing for the summer ministry.

The highlight of this summer's ministry is to be a trip to Europe where we will spend six weeks preaching mostly in Italy, but also in Germany.  In these letters, I have mentioned the financial need that exists to enable us to be without income for those weeks, plus pay for our airfare.  Many gifts have come in for this need with more on the way.  At the present time the money that has actually come in is around 40% of what we need for the trip.  We are still a month out, and churches that have promised to give have not yet taken up the offerings for our upcoming trip.  We are confident that God will meet the need in His way and in His time.  Many of you who read these letters have given toward the need, and we are grateful for your generosity.

Until the exact date when we leave for Italy, June 24, we have some local engagements and one camp in which I will preach before we head out.  The schedule includes two American military churches, four Italian churches, and one missionary camp in Germany.  Our days will be filled with ministry, and we could not be more excited to see what God will do.

As the summer summer begins for each of us, may we all seize every opportunity that God gives us to serve Him.  As always, thank you all for your prayers and support.

A New Outreach

 As I write this, Dale and I are outside of Park Rapids, Minnesota, where we will be in a meeting through Wednesday of this week.  God has used the team as we have served together over the past couple of months.  We have gotten to know each other's strengths and weaknesses and the Lord is helping us to connect with people as we travel.  After this week, Dale will go back to Kings Mountain for a couple of months as the Crow family travels together once again.

God has brought in more money for our European missions trip.  We are not yet where we wanted to be with the total amount, but we are closer than we were last month.  Some churches have promised but not yet delivered on that promise.  One church is taking up an offering today for the need.  By next month, I should be able to give a dollar amount as to how much has come in.  This we know, our God is able.

Throughout 2024, I have been talking about a project of mine that I wanted to become a reality.  It is a podcast totally dedicated to the Gospel.  As of Friday of last week, it became a reality.  I have called it Evangel.  You can find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other platforms that feature podcasts.  One word of warning: there is a church in North Dakota that goes by the name Evangel.  They have their own podcast that is decidedly different from mine, at least based upon the description.  Also, there are many Spanish language podcasts called Evangel.  None of those are mine, either.  The goal is to put a new episode out every month.  You can recognize my podcast not only by its name, but also by its slogan: proclaiming and explaining the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

My son Josiah is supposed to graduate from college on Friday of this week.  After that, we head home for a few days before taking the family--all six of us--to New York City for a meeting there.  We are looking forward to what will do while we are in New York again.  This will be the first time that the entire family has been together for a full meeting in a few years.  We are looking forward to it.

Once we arrive back home in Mississippi, we will also be having some kind of graduation ceremony for my daughter Esther.  She is finally done with high school (home school), and we are very pleased with how hard she has worked.  Now only Daniel remains to be homeschooled.  If his high school is anything like the others, it will be over before we know it.

In a world that is divided by all kinds of things, I am happy to report that we are observing the fruits of kindness in this church in Minnesota.  Pastor Josh Hawn is man who stands for the truth, and yet has seen great strides in his small town because of his kindness to others.  It has been a great reminder to me of the power of God when we simply reach out to others with grace.  As we head into the summer, may all our interactions with others be seasoned with grace.

Thank you, as always, for your prayers.

Team

 My how our ministry team has changed!  Gone are the days when Crow children dropped out of the backseat of our truck like clowns from a Volkswagen.  Only Daniel remains with me, and now I can give somewhat of a report about Dale being part of the team.  Everything has gone very well in meetings.  Dale's contributions have been a great blessing in every church in which we have ministered.  It has been a joy for him as well to travel with us.

This is a very busy season for us in meetings just now.  God is supplying meetings in many different places and daily supplying the strength to serve Him.  We have been in Indiana and Ohio for a few weeks and will return home on April 1.  Dale will get a brief hiatus while the family is back together again ministering in South Carolina and Georgia.  Then, the three of us--Daniel, Dale, and I--get back on the road again as a team.  To be sure, this is a different dynamic from what I have done in the past, but God is blessing the arrangement.

We are actively making preparations for our trip to Europe this summer.  The plan is to leave June 25 and return August 6.  Most of our ministry will be in Italy, but we do have one week in Germany as well.  There will be a lot of travel and expense in order to be gone for this long a time.  Our needs have always been taken care of on the mission field, but there is a difficulty paying our bills back home when we are gone for so long a time.  We are praying for 10 churches to be able to contribute $1,000 each to our missions needs.  So far, 4 churches have responded.  Would you pray that God will supply the remainder of the money that is needed?

Europe has become the dark continent spiritually.  To be there is to miss none of the conveniences of the United States, but there is such a spiritual darkness that is there.  It is such a joy to see people that were saved the last time we were in Italy serving God faithfully today.  Families have been transformed because of the light of the Gospel.  As you pray for laborers, please remember Europe.  

Sarah has just a little over a month before her teaching duties will end for the summer.  It will be great to have her with me again as we travel.

Our older children will embark upon their summer ministries as soon as the semester is done.  Abigail plans to work at Southland Christian Camp in Louisiana as a counselor, while Josiah will serve in our home church in Mississippi as an intern for the summer.  Esther and Daniel will be with us in Europe for the summer.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers as we continue to see God work through the ministry of evangelism.  May God give you fruit for your labor for Him.

Build Thine House

 This past month has been a fruitful month for ministry here in the United States.  This time of year, I try to keep our meetings in the South and that has been true this year as well.  My home church Clearview Baptist Church has always been one of my favorite places in all the world to preach.  The day after our winter revival closes, the entire church meets in the fellowship hall to assemble 5,000 outreach packets that we then distribute to every door in the community until we run out.  (This distribution process takes a couple of months.)  The whole process is very organized and profitable in that it gives everyone an outlet in which to participate in getting out the gospel.  Additionally, we have seen good fruit from the packets that we hand out.  This routine has been a part of my family's life and service to God through our local church for many years, and though my three oldest were unable to be there for it this year due to their college commitments, Daniel and I still participated.  There is nothing quite like working to get the gospel into the hands of other people.

Additionally, we were also in Beaufort, South Carolina, for a meeting.  God blessed there as well with a soul trusting Christ as Savior.  My traveling evangelistic team has shrunk from 6 to 2 people now.  Daniel and I go to meetings and try to provide what special music we can in addition to the preaching.  Things are about to change, though.  A friend of mine named Dale Lieser has agreed to travel with us in the month of March.  Dale is an accomplished pianist and a dear friend.  We are testing the waters to see how this arrangement will work for us.  Dale is blind, and I need wisdom to be able to meet his needs while we are on the road.  I have no doubt that he will be a great blessing in the churches where we minister.

My podcast proceeds more slowly that I wish it would.  As soon as it is online, I will let you know.  For those who wish to have more current news than once a month, you can follow my wife on Facebook (Sarah Crow).  While I am not on FB, I am on Instagram where you can follow me at @crowing617.  I will announce the opening podcast there.

Several months ago, we noted that water was dripping from the upstairs bathroom of our home down the wall into the downstairs bathroom.  After putting off the problem for a while, I decided to deal with it while the rest of the family was in NC.  I tore out the downstairs bathroom down to studs and am in the process of redoing it now.  By the end of next week, I hope to have everything completed.  After working on this project, I have come to the realization that one of the greatest blessings of human existence is that God does all the work on my heavenly mansion without me having to lift a finger in the process.  Other than seeing Jesus, one of the greatest blessings of heaven may be no more remodeling projects.

Before too long, we will celebrate two graduations at our house: Esther from high school and Josiah from college.  Life is happening fast.  Thank you all for all your prayers.