Blizzard

Ministry Update

The Lord has given us many opportunities of service over the past couple of weeks. During the terrible blizzard (see below), I was in Denver, CO for a training session with Baptist Youth Mission. I will be traveling with them this summer as one of their youth evangelists doing vacation Bible schools and teen revivals. I am looking forward to it.

One of the opportunities that I enjoyed today was preaching to a juvenile detention center. I went in to address an audience that was not really interested in who I was. As my time went on and I preached to them, God gave me an entrance into their hearts. I was interrupted by the guard before I could give an invitation, but I was at least able to go through the Gospel with them. The longer I preach, the more grateful I am to preach in jails, for one, and to teenagers, for another.

Thank you all for your prayers. Our busy season of revival meetings is upon us. Our only hope is that the trailer will be ready to go for that time. The Lord is opening new doors for us as we go, and we are grateful for every opportunity that He provides for ministry.

Family Update

Well, having survived the great “Blizzard” that came through southern Ohio, I now feel up to date on my quota of bad weather. In fact, we had about three months’ worth of weather in the ten days we were there. It was really quite unbelievable. In the first week we were in Ohio, it was sunny, then it froze, then it rained and flooded, and then it iced and thawed. After that, the blizzard came with snow coming down two inches per hour, and then two days later, we were playing in the foot-deep snow in 60 degree weather. Needless to say, our snowman only survived for two days. The kids loved playing in the snow, and I was glad that it was rather warm, since they didn’t have proper snow clothes.

Our trailer has been giving us problems. The brakes have locked up on the rear wheel of the trailer, and must be repaired before we can drive it again. This has made for much scrambling and packing lately as we go to our different meetings. I am looking forward to getting back “home” to the trailer.

Today we had a wonderful meeting with Bro. Don Snow in New Philadelphia, OH. He and his family have been personal friends of our family since I was in diapers (literally). It was such a blessing to see them again and catch up on what is happening there at the church. Of course, I took a lot of teasing from him, but I managed to bear up with a longsuffering spirit, as you can well imagine.

Today, I looked in Abigail’s ears, and jokingly told her that there were potatoes growing in them. With a fearful voice, she said, “For weal?” I am certain that my laughter reassured her.

Esther has managed to fall as many times as possible in the last several days. Probably because she noticed that the bruises from her last tumble have started to fade. She fell out of bed last night in the hotel where we were staying. I say staying because we definitely were not sleeping. She bounced around on the bed for over an hour before we finally called the front desk to see if they had a spare cage. Once we procured a pack-n-play, she promptly fell asleep. Familiar surroundings, I guess. Today, she fell down a short flight of stairs at the pastor’s house. Later, I caught her about to follow Josiah’s example and jump off of the three-foot high platform at the church. She was all crouched and ready to spring, when I screeched “NO!” from the back of the auditorium. Tonight, she opened the drawers of the hotel dresser, and was climbing in them. I am not sure what mischief she was planning, but that also was nipped in the bud.

Josiah came into contact with peanut residue while in the gymnasium, and so, looked somewhat like a spotted hyena tonight, in addition to wheezing a lot. We treated him and washed him off as best we could. Sometimes things happen that are out of our control. He is a little trooper, though, and seems to be recovering quite well. Please pray that he would get over the sickness he has been fighting for a week or so. It puts him off balance enough that other things bother his breathing and complexion (hives, eczema). We are praying that the Lord would heal him of his allergies, and give us grace to deal with them for the time being.