Year End Update

Ministry Update

The regular schedule of our revival meetings for 2011 has come to an end. We have only two Sundays of preaching left before the end of the year. What a great year the Lord has given us!

This past month has seen some good meetings, though they were unusual in that I flew to them all without my family. Just a couple of stories will suffice to show you how God is answering prayer.

On Sunday, November 6, 2011, I opened a meeting in the Cornerstone Baptist Church of Phoenix, Arizona. After the service began—in fact after I had announced the text to begin my message—a man came into the auditorium and took a seat. At the invitation he raised his hand for salvation, but I did not see it due to the size of the auditorium. The pastor, however, was aware of what was going on and asked me to approach the man after I turned the service over to the pastor.

The man was very open and willing to step into a room apart and listen to what I had to say to him. He had a fascinating background to relate. He was fluent in five languages, had been a citizen of three different countries, and had served in Saddam Hussein’s army during the Iran/Iraq War of the 1980’s. His journey to Phoenix led him first through Canada, then Chicago, and finally on to Phoenix.

Louie, as he was called by his English-speaking friends, was Assyrian. As I reviewed the Gospel with him, the Spirit of God convicted him of his sin. Before long, he prayed and asked the Lord to save him.

On the closing night of that meeting, a little boy of perhaps eleven years of age listened intently to the preaching. Being convinced of his need for a Savior, he was impatient by the time the invitation came. As soon as everyone around him bowed their heads and closed their eyes, he marched right up to the pastor on the platform. He needed to be saved and was unwilling to wait for any formalities!

The Lord has given us good meetings, not only this month, but all year long. We praise Him for His working through us.

In the coming weeks, we will be relocating to Southaven, MS, where I will be accepting a position as staff evangelist at the Clearview Baptist Church. For many years, I wanted to be staff evangelist at a local church, but the Lord delayed answering that prayer at different places and for reasons of His own. Now, we believe He has led us to the right church, the right pastor, the right place, and the right time. We are scheduled to move the week before Christmas. Pray for us. Our phone numbers will remain the same as well as our e-mail, but we will have a new snail mail address. It will be posted on our website once the move is complete.

Thank you for another year of supporting our ministry with your prayers. The longer I serve the Lord as an evangelist, the more convinced I am that we can do nothing without the power of God, power that comes to us through the prayers of God’s people.

If You Give Josiah a Cookie

Family Update

We are in week six of our school year, and as the maxim goes, so far, so good. Abigail has been initiated to the delights of cursive writing, and all the details of correct handwriting formation. Josiah is forging ahead in math and English, boggling his way through the dizzying array of terms, formulas, definitions, and diagrams. Esther is still joyfully throwing herself into her kindergarten work and loving every minute of it. I must confess that at times she gloats a little when she finishes her schoolwork before her siblings complete theirs. Of course, her gloating is always received in the best and kindest way... Daniel is content to roar around the trailer making as much noise as possible, and commandeering his older siblings’ belongings while they are engaged in their studies. I had no idea this much drama would be a part of my daily life! We are once again attempting potty-training with Daniel, with more or less success.

Our summer has been so busy, and has flown by with amazing speed. We have covered a lot of territory, and the Lord has given us many ministry opportunities. Frankly, we all needed a break. Thankfully, we were able to take a few days of R&R at Paul’s parents’ farm in northern Indiana last week. The kids were thrilled to see their grandparents, as well as meet their brand-new cousin. Grandpa and Grandma were happy to see us as well. The kids had all kinds of lovely adventures – riding the tractor, playing in the barns, fishing in the pond, and gathering eggs from the chickens. All in all, it was a really nice, relaxing time for all of us.

This week, we are holding a meeting in Warren, IL. We are staying in an RV campground just over the Wisconsin border. The weather has been nice this week, but it is supposed to get rather cold tomorrow and the next day. I am so glad we have some of our winter clothing with us. Of course, I have to swap it all out with the summer things, and I haven’t quite found the time to do that, so right now we are all digging clothes out of the boxes sitting on the living room floor. I really need to get that done. Jumping over boxes to reach the kitchen table does not enhance our trailer living experience. There is always the chance that you will land on a stray toy!

Josiah has had a rough summer physically. It seems that everywhere we have been, allergies are at an all-time high, causing the need to have numerous breathing treatments. There have been a few “stupid attacks” (as we sweetly refer to them) of eating things that he should have known better than to ingest. The most recent of these was last week, when a misinformed sibling gave him a cookie, telling him that I said he could have it. I found out thirty minutes later, and was highly upset with both of them – the younger for giving it to him (I never said he could have it), and the older for eating it (I had already said that those particular cookies were off-limits to him). We ended up driving to the emergency room where he was treated and observed for several hours. Thank God there were no serious side effects, other than a few new gray hairs upon my head.

If you have ever read the children’s book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, this may make sense to you.

If you give Josiah a cookie, he will want to have a drink.

If you give him a drink, he will throw up in the sink.

After he throws up in the sink, he will finish taking his shower.

After his shower, his stomach will feel very bad.

Because his stomach feels bad, he will hurry and get dressed.

After he is dressed, he will wander downstairs.

When he goes downstairs, he will find Grandma.

When he finds Grandma, he will tell her that he ate a cookie.

When he tells her that he ate a cookie, Grandma will panic.

When Grandma panics, she will run downstairs to tell his mother.

When his mother hears the news, she is incredulous.

Because she is incredulous, she runs upstairs to verify the story.

In order to verify the story, Josiah and Abigail are called into the kitchen.

When they are called into the kitchen, the interrogation begins.

When the interrogation begins, their mother becomes highly animated (this means upset).

When she becomes highly animated, the tears begin to flow.

Because the tears begin to flow, the mother gives her children hugs.

Because hugs do not allay the pain in Josiah’s tummy, she also administers Benadryl.

Because the mother is scared, she talks with the father.

They both decide the best course of action is to go to the hospital.

Since they have to go to the hospital, Grandma takes Josiah and his mother.

After they get to the hospital, the waiting begins.

Because they have to wait, they are subjected to inane television programs.

After some debate, they change the channel.

Since they changed the channel, they begin to watch a cooking show.

While they watch the cooking show, they decide that it makes them hungry.

Because they are hungry, the clock goes more slowly.

After several hours, they are released with a prescription.

Because they have a prescription, they have to get it filled.

Because they have to get it filled, they go to Walmart.

Because they go to Walmart, they have to wait 30 minutes.

Because they have to wait 30 minutes, they do some shopping.

Because they are shopping, they do not hear their name called over the loudspeaker.

Because they do not hear the page, they do not find out until 40 minutes have passed that Walmart does not have the medicine in stock.

Because Walmart does not have the medicine in stock, the pharmacist volunteers to call it in to the CVS.

When the pharmacist goes to make the call, he realizes that they DO have the medicine after all – it was just hidden behind something else.

Because they have the medicine after all, the wait was prolonged another 15 minutes.

Because they were all exhausted, Josiah, his mother, and grandma all sat on the bench, stomachs growling.

After escaping Walmart, they still had to go to CVS to get more Benadryl (Walmart was out of that, too).

On the way to CVS, they took a short cut.

Because they took a short cut, they got lost.

Because they got lost, it took twice as long as they had expected.

Because it took so long to get home, they were practically starved when they arrived.

Because they were so hungry, they ate dinner.

However, Josiah did not have another cookie for dessert...

Hopefully, that is THE END.

Rain

Ministry Update

More than one English idiom deals with rain coming from the sky. Two come immediately to mind. The first is this: When it rains, it pours.

On Saturday, June 18, 2011, we took delivery of another trailer, having lived in our first one for nearly eight years. We had looked at the unit before and told the dealership what things needed to be done to fix it up. They had two weeks to get the work done. In addition, they gave us their assurance that they would run some tests on it themselves so as to ensure that it was all ready for us by the deadline. During the two weeks, we were away at camp, after which we returned to begin the tedious process of moving from one trailer to another. When we arrived to pick up the trailer, it was not ready, nor would it be ready for another two days. It seems that the promises of the sales team were never communicated to the service department. We should have checked things more thoroughly, but instead we were concentrated wholly on getting our things moved from one unit to the other.

After two very full days of moving things, we said our goodbye to the old trailer and headed out toward I-25 and our next meeting in Kansas. We would never get there.

As we negotiated the hills and mesas on our way to Albuquerque, we discovered that something was wrong with the truck. It still ran, but it was losing power at higher rpm—not good for pulling a trailer in the hills.

We found a place to park in Rio Rancho, NM, just north and west of Albuquerque, and began to settle in for the night. This would be our first night in the new trailer away from the campground. Operating the slide-outs, we discovered that the rear bedroom slide-out had some serious problems that we had not noticed in our preoccupation with moving. During the trip one of the drawers in the kids’ room had fallen out and broken into its component pieces, the next morning we discovered that the rear bathroom toilet leaked, and the next day my closet with my hanging clothes collapsed to the floor. When it rains, it pours.

The second English idiom comes from the time-honored pages of the King James Bible: showers of blessing. Many years ago, a man named Paul Schmidt worked for my Dad in SC. He had since moved to Albuquerque, married, and adopted a little girl. His church was where we parked. He had all the tools I needed to fix my trailer and after a few days of working, the toilet leak was stopped, the closet was back up and stronger than ever, the slide-out was completely fixed, and the kids’ drawer was back together. When it came time to pay for the repair on my truck (bad throttle position sensor; cost for the part alone over $600), he took care of the entire thing. As if that were not enough, his wife provided us with many meals while we were working on the trailer, and his little girl Monique had a great time with our children playing.

Now we are ready to go again, except that Daniel and Esther have been running fevers for a while. Please pray for their recovery.

And speaking of rain and water, we are now off to Minot, ND.

Out West

Ministry Update

Years ago when I was in college, I heard a seasoned evangelist remark that an evangelist must have bats in belfry to schedule meetings in the state of Arizona during June. Yet, we find ourselves heading to New Mexico for two weeks of meetings this month. Granted, NM is not AZ, but it is very hot.

The summer will be a full one with not only our own meetings, but also vacation Bible schools inherited from a friend who was unable to keep all of his scheduled meetings. Things will taper off slightly around the first couple of weeks in September, after which our fall schedule will begin in earnest. Thank you for your prayers for our safety over the thousands of miles that we will cover this year.

After living in our current trailer for eight years, seven of those full-time, we have come to the decision that it is time to replace our trailer. The reason for this decision is not because what we have is falling apart, but rather we can no longer accommodate our family with the present configuration. We would like to sell our current trailer and get another one that we have already picked out to replace what we have. With the present economy, anyone trying to sell anything faces an uphill struggle, a struggle only compounded by the fact that an RV is considered a luxury item. God has all these details in His hands and we can trust Him to do what is best in our lives.

Family Update

School’s out! We have been enjoying our summer break for almost two weeks now! I don’t know who is more excited – the students or the teacher! We are looking forward to a very busy summer of camps and vacation Bible schools. The Lord has given us safety in travel this spring, and provided for all of our needs.

Our house in Indiana is for sale, and we are looking for the Lord to provide the right buyer in His time. Please pray with us about this step. There are so many decisions to be made.

I had the greatest blessing this week. We stopped at a church for the night, and prepared to spend the midweek service with them. The assistant told us that we were welcome to peruse the missions closet while we were there. I was amazed when he opened a door and an entire store appeared before me! It was like a small Goodwill, with clothes on racks according to size, as well as household goods, shoes, jewelry, and miscellaneous craft items. The Lord knew that some of our clothing needed to be replaced, and He provided amply for almost every member of the family! It was such a blessing! Now I have to pray that the closet rods hold up under the strain!

Everyone is healthy and strong right now, and although we have had a bit of sickness now and then, it has passed quickly. Probably the only thing any of us are suffering from at present is torrential boredom on the long drives! I have endeavored to fill the hours by reading aloud several classics of literature. We most recently finished “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Graham. Even Paul enjoyed the rollicking adventures of Mr. Toad! Right now, we are forging our way across the prairie with Laura Ingalls Wilder in “Little House on the Prairie.” I am ever a lover of good books, and I am attempting to instill a love of reading in my own children. I anticipate a summer full of adventure and learning!

Greatest Snow on Earth

Ministry Update

For the second year in a row, God has brought us to Richfield UT to minister in the Bible Baptist Church. God is steadily growing this work in the middle of Mormon country. We will head out as soon as possible after the meeting is over and cross the country to southwest MO.

Thank you all for your prayers. God has been at work so far this year and we look forward to seeing more of what He has planned for us this year.

Family Update

Greetings from Utah! The weather here is clear and cold, and absolutely beautiful! The trip here from California was a bit rough, since we had several delays and a breakdown on the way. After a few days, the trailer was repaired, and we headed out somewhat wounded in wallet, but in good spirits! The Lord is good—had we broken down just a few miles farther up the road, we could have been in a serious accident. While we were waiting for the repairs to be finished, everyone decided to get sick. It was rather convenient for everyone to be sick at the same time, but on the down side, I felt as if I was living in a tuberculosis ward with all of the terrible coughing and moaning, especially at night. Thankfully, everyone is on the mend, and we are all up and running.

Paul and I had the opportunity to go skiing for the first time last Friday. We went with the pastor and his wife and daughter. The pastor had never been before, either, so we pooled our ignorance in an amusing and dangerous way. We did have an instructor, but upon conferring with other skiers, I have determined that he played a tremendous practical joke on us by telling us to do the opposite of the proper technique in almost every area. We spent most of the afternoon lying on the snowy ground after having crashed too many times to count. Being one with nature is not all it is cracked up to be. There is something humiliating about lying on the ground while 4- and 5-year-old skiers whiz by you with the encouraging shouts of their instructors echoing off the mountainside. Adults are supposed to be more coordinated, right? I am very glad to say that there were no serious injuries incurred, although I had some very sore spots the next day—probably from flinging myself on the ground to avoid certain destruction in the form of a fence, tree, or another human on skis! All said, I would try it again—with a different instructor... one that didn’t smile so much when he was telling us how to ski!

We have had a major change in our house. Daniel at some point last week lost his pacifier, or “pappy,” as he calls it. While we knew this would come at some point, we hadn’t planned to go cold turkey. Thankfully, he has been so sick and tired every time he is to go to bed, that he hasn’t really had a hard time. He has been very clingy lately, though. I hope it stays lost forever! We are also considering buying dentures for Abigail, since every time we turn around, she has another loose tooth. Maybe we will just get her some “Billy Bob teeth” out of the quarter machine.

We have had a lot of sickness already this year, so I would ask that you pray for our health, especially that of the children. If one of them gets sick, they almost always all get whatever it is. This is partly due to the fact that we are in such close quarters all the time (either the truck or the trailer), and partly due to the fact that none of them ever covers their mouth when coughing or sneezing. I know I have been sprayed with germs on more than one occasion. Bring on the Lysol and hand sanitizer!

Today I went hiking up the mountain with the pastor’s wife and another lady from the church. The climb was not all that bad, but the altitude nearly killed me! I could barely catch my breath just walking uphill! The view from the top was breathtaking, with the brilliant blue sky behind the red, rocky mountain, sprinkled with dark green cedars and dusted with snow! Our God has given us such a beautiful world! I am so glad that I am able to experience so much of it!

In Regions Beyond

Ministry Update

A few years ago, someone was in one of our meetings and purchased a copy of every preaching CD I had available on my table. Their mission: to send it to American troops in Iraq. So it was that I preached to men in harm’s way on the other side of the world. Last night, a Marine named Ron Miller came up to me and told me a similar story, only this time my preaching CD’s went to Afghanistan. He told me of Marines gathered around the stereo to listen to me open the Word of God by way of recording. I wept as he told the story. He took off his globe and anchor tie clasp and gave it to me as a token of appreciation for my ministry to those Marines, some of whom breathed their last there in that mountainous country.

When I turned 18 some years back, I got out the phone book and found the number for the local Marine recruiter in the town where I lived. I wanted to join the Marines, I told him. After a few questions pertaining to my medical history, the recruiter told a disappointed youngster that there was no way I could ever join the Marines due to medical problems. God used the news in my life as another confirmation of my call to the ministry, but I have never lost my love of the Marine Corps, though I could never be one of them. To know now that I had the opportunity to preach the Gospel of Christ to Marines facing combat every day was one of the greatest blessings of my life.

“In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.” Ecclesiastes 11:6

CA at Last!

Ministry Update

The first month of 2011 has come to a close, with the Lord doing some wonderful things for us. In north MS, a man gave us two brand new trailer tires, both of which were greatly needed. We have only two Sundays available between now and the beginning of May, one them due to a cancelation. God has burdened my heart to pray and to trust Him for the greater works promised in John 14:12. Thank you for praying with us that souls would be saved and Christians would be revived.

Family Update

I’m loving California in January. The people here are all apologizing for the cold weather, which happens to be in the 60’s. Ummm... I think I can handle it after such a cold Indiana winter! We made it across the country with only a few mishaps – frozen water in Mississippi, a new water pump in the trailer, a transmission rebuild and a tire blowout in Texas, and some dreadful sickness that gave the children fevers and general malaise for a week. All of the sickness did wreck my school schedule a bit, which is the worst of all the aforementioned mishaps! I am a stickler about keeping a tight school schedule! Anyway, things are on their way to being back on track.

On a personal note, I have started an “everyday blog” about life in general, just not things related to family happenings. Well, I guess it is still family, but just more about my random thoughts and interests than I normally write about in the ministry/family update. Please feel free to visit http://sarahsnotes-rvmama.blogspot.com to find out more. The updates on things are generally a little shorter and more frequent – that is, when I have internet access!

We are glad to be in meetings again. This morning, a little girl was saved in the services, and a young man received assurance of his salvation. I believe we are going to have an amazing week. The people have been praying and fasting in anticipation of what the Lord is going to do, and I think we will see some great answers to prayer. We serve a wonderful God!

I think 2011 is going to be a great year, and I hope that you will pray with us as we serve the Lord in itinerant ministry.