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.

Fruit

 What a wonderful start to the year we have had! We have had three meetings so far, and each has been a great blessing.  The new normal is for me (Paul) to travel either alone or with my son Daniel, Sarah being full-time faculty at Ambassador Baptist College.  My oldest three children are all in college, leaving Daniel and me to travel.  With that said, there are a couple of meetings in which Sarah is scheduled to join us and be a part of a meeting here or there.

Earlier this year, I was able to travel to the Dominican Republic and minister to Haitian immigrants there.  This was a first for me, but the Lord blessed while we were there.  The missionary, a man supported by our home church for many years, asked me to speak to a group of native pastors on the subject of music.  From Tuesday through Friday, I spoke on music 16 times with 4 sessions a day.  The schedule went like this: breakfast, four teaching sessions, lunch, soul-winning, rest, evangelistic service, and supper.  This took us from 8:45 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. every day.  All told, I spoke 23 times in one week of ministry.  Seventeen people professed faith in Christ while we were there.  It was a great trip, and I have been asked to return at a later time.

This week, we are in our home church to preach the winter revival meeting.  It definitely looks and feels like winter with a coat of snow and ice on the ground everywhere.  Please pray that God will work in hearts as the Word of God goes forth.  This happens to be one of the meetings in which Sarah is with me.  That is a great blessing.

After being out of the country, I am eager to return to work on my podcast.  There are some details that I have yet to finalize, and then I can begin the recording process in earnest.  Please pray for this endeavor.  I heard this past week of online presentations of the Gospel that are approaching 1 billion views.  I would love to add to this number by proclaiming and explaining the gospel through a podcast.  Stay tuned for more information on this ongoing project.

This summer, we are scheduled to return to Italy to preach once again in several churches there.  Please pray for the funding for this trip.  A man that was saved under our ministry the last time we were in Italy has remained faithful to church, his wife having trusted Christ as well.  They both were baptized in the Mediterranean Sea upon profession of faith in Christ.

While the spring has a good number of meetings, there are some openings for us in the fall.  Please pray that God will open doors and that He will continue to bless the giving of the Gospel by whatever means we have at our disposal.

Also, remember that you, too, are an ambassador for Christ, standing in the place of Jesus to plead with men to be reconciled to Him.

End of the Year

 Merry Christmas to all!  This year has been quite a year with its share of difficulties and blessings.  We will endeavor to keep you abreast of what is going on both now and moving into the new year.

Our meetings for the year are done, and what a year it has been!  My last meeting saw a record broken for our more than two decades of evangelistic ministry.  The oldest person to ever walk the aisle and get saved in one of my meetings did so on Friday, December 8, 2023.  Herman was 81 when he responded to the conviction of the Holy Spirit.  The service was one in which people were testifying of the saving power of God in their lives.  Two couples remarked how they had met their spouse in a bar and that for them to be in church on a Friday night was a token of God's life-changing power in the Gospel.  As the service went on, the Holy Spirit seemed to lead me to a text for which I had no outline.  There were several prepared sermons with me at the pulpit, but I left all of them in the notebook and preached instead on Jesus using I Peter 2:21-25 as my text.  By the time we gave the invitation, Herman was ready to be saved.  It was glorious way to end our year.

Sarah continues to teach piano at Ambassador.  Because of some circumstances beyond her control, her work load will increase next semester.  The good news is that she has the knowledge and experience to help pianists move on to excellence.  Please pray for her as she works to help young students achieve their best in church music ministry.

The bad news for me is that now I am traveling without her.  I have heard people say, "All the old-time evangelists traveled without their wives."  Whether or not that is true, I much prefer having Sarah with me on the road.  There will a couple of meetings in which she will still be with me, but for the most part I am on my own now.

The year 2024 comes in with a bang for me as far as ministry is concerned.  I will be ministering for the first time in the Dominican Republic and Haiti in January where I am scheduled to preach 20 times in four days.  There will be other preaching opportunities while I am there, but those 20 times are to a gathering of local church pastors from around the island.  Please pray for the power of God as I endeavor to minister.

For the last couple of years, I have noticed how many people live in the world of podcasts, not only in the United States but also in other countries.  During that time, the Lord has been stirring in my heart about launching a podcast dedicated to the Gospel of Christ.  There are many podcasts aimed at Christians, and I am glad that they exist.  My burden, however, is to use the Internet for the dissemination of the Gospel.  Accordingly, I will be launching a podcast focused solely on the Gospel beginning in 2024.  Please be in prayer about this because I do not live in the world of podcasts and thus am unfamiliar with the whole process.  I do have a burden to get the Gospel to people, though, through whatever means may be at my disposal.

As we end this year, may God help you to keep your eyes on Him.  One of the greatest helps to me as a Christian in recent days has been the reality of the soon coming kingdom of Jesus Christ.  Even so come, Lord Jesus!

Faithfulness

Although I have been doing most of my travel alone while Sarah is teaching piano at Ambassador, both she and my younger two children are with me this week.  The reason is that the church where we are holding meetings, Calvary Baptist Church in Urbana, Illinois, was one of the first churches in America to ever have a young evangelist in for a full week of meetings.  I was the evangelist and the meeting was 20 years ago this year.  Since that time, the Lord has given us many fruitful meetings at Calvary.

Little did I know when I first came to the church two decades ago, that there would be a man in the church who was a student at the University of Illinois attending the church.  He was a new believer, and the Lord used my ministry in his life in a very special way.  He went on to earn his PhD in physics from the university, a degree which would have allowed him to write his own ticket in both the scientific and academic worlds.  Instead, as he served God through his local church, he began to sense the Lord's call into the ministry.  After serving for a few years as the assistant pastor of the church, the congregation called him to be senior pastor.

His faithfulness over the years has been such a blessing.  Also, his love for souls is refreshing.  Yesterday, there was an unsaved teenage girl who was supposed to come with her mom to the service.  For whatever reason, her mom decided not to come at the last minute, but the girl managed to find a ride to church anyway.  Last night, she walked the aisle to trust Christ as Savior.  She comes from a very rough background, but what a trophy of the grace of God!

This meeting goes through Wednesday of this week.  From here we are on to a meeting in SC before we head to our annual meeting in the prairie of Colorado with Shannon Munday. 

When I was in college, I was told that the longer I live, the more my friendships will be based upon faithfulness more than any other trait.  Now that college is two decades in the rearview mirror, I can say that those men were correct in their predictions.  My best friends today are not those interests seemed so well aligned with mine in college, but those who have remained faithful over the years to the truths that they were taught.

People we do not know are watching us and looking to see whether or not we will be faithful.  May we all keep our eyes on Jesus and encourage others through our faithfulness.

Pinch Hit

 Both Sarah and I are graduates of Ambassador Baptist College in Lattimore, North Carolina.  Our two older children are both students there, and when a need for a piano teacher arose, Sarah volunteered to step in and help out until someone more permanent could be found.  Accordingly, our ministry is different now than it has ever been before.  Currently, the family lives in our trailer in NC while I travel to our meetings.  The difference is striking for me because I am used to traveling with the entire family.  There was a day when the Crow family arrived at a church, the Crows poured forth from the cab of the truck like clowns out of a Volkswagen.  Now, much of my traveling is done alone.

My meetings still continue, in addition to several trips to Mississippi to take care of details on our house.  There have been a lot of hectic goings on with the changes that we are experiencing.  Our house has been in the process of having solar electric panels installed.  Not quite a year ago, we had a particularly cold day in December.  It was 3 degrees.  On this the coldest day of the year, the power company informed us that they did not have enough electricity to keep our heat on.  It was then that I decided that I was going to have to do what I could to generate my own electricity.  Solar seemed to be the answer, and we found a company that was supposed to be one of the best in the country at the time.  Our experience with them was nothing short of awful.

The process lasted over a year and after all kinds of delays, problems, lack of communication, and frustration, the solar is supposed to be brought online next week.  These kinds of things are keeping me on the road back and forth from North Carolina to Mississippi.  My hope is to have all of this taken care as soon as possible.

Our meetings have been going well, despite the changes in the family.  (In reality, we are in the time of life when a lot of things change anyway.)  For some meetings, Esther and Daniel will travel with me.  This makes special music an adventure, different from what we have ever done before.

As I type this, we have just closed a meeting in Morganton, NC, about 50 miles north of where our trailer is parked.  Once I return from MS, we will be in Greenwood, SC, before packing up the trailer and heading to IL.

God continues to open doors for us as we serve Him, and we are grateful for every opportunity He sends our way.  Two missions opportunities loom in the future for us in 2024.  The first is a meeting in the Dominican Republic in January of next year.  The second is another trip to Italy in July.  Please pray that the Lord will supply the resources needed for these two trips.  The trip to the Dominican will be a first for us.  Italy has become a favorite destination for us due to the lasting friendships we have made there and the abundant fruit we saw during our last trip.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. 

Out of the desert

 The Lord has been very good to us over the summer months. After our ministry in Canada, we made our way to Southern California to be with the Fundamental Baptist Church of Escondido.  This church has been having me in for meetings for 20 years, and it was great to be with them again.  Also, it is wonderful to be in a church that still stands today where it stood 20 years ago.

From there, it was on to the desert and a church plant in Phelan, California.  What a joy it is to serve these new works that are just getting started.  From the Mojave Desert, we then crossed to the Sonoran Desert of Arizona.  For several weeks, we ministered in different parts of Arizona from Phoenix, to Amado and Tucson, to Safford.  God opened many doors for us while we were there.

One of the highlights for me was preaching on the San Carlos Apache Reservation.  It was on this reservation 20 years ago that God first opened my eyes to the needs of the Native Americans.  There are some of these Apaches that I have known for years.  They are still serving God after all this time.  

After a fruitful, if hot, time in Arizona, we came through Mississippi for a two day stop at home before heading on to South Carolina.  While we were in Arizona, a low-hanging tree branch scraped our roof and peeled it back from the front of the trailer.  I patched it as best I could in order to get it back to my repairman in Mississippi, but we had to go on to the Carolinas without it.  After preaching five times in the Carolinas in a church and Ambassador Baptist College, I made a whirlwind trip back to Mississippi to pick up our trailer and drive it to NC.  After two days of driving, Sarah and I got on a plane to go to Colorado.

Colorado was the home of the Baptist Circuit Riders Ministry meeting, and I was invited to participate.  What a joy to see men from all over the small towns of the prairie meet for fellowship and encouragement!  These men are doing a great work, and it was good to be a part of it.

Sarah has been asked to teach piano at Ambassador Baptist College this year.  This means that there will be some meetings where I will be alone as I preach.  There are still a few where she will be able to be with me, but our family feels as if it is all over the place these days.  Please pray for us as we deal with the logistics of travel without Sarah.  We have a very busy schedule going into next year, so we need the Lord's help.

In closing, let me say what a privilege it is to serve God!  There are needs everywhere in the United States, Canada, and every place that you and I might find ourselves.  May we, like our Savior in Sychar, be ready to minister to others as the opportunity arises.