In the Work

This has been a busy month for the Crow family, and one that has taught us some things.  In addition to the normal revivals mentioned last month, we also put together a Christian workers conference in our home church in Mississippi.

The conference idea itself is not original to me, having been implemented by at least one other ministry around the country.  The concept stemmed from the fact that most conferences are geared to pastors, missionaries, evangelists, and other full-time Christian workers.  While there is certainly nothing wrong with this kind of meeting, the Lord burdened us for the lay people of the church.  A man who works in the computer industry undergoes ongoing training from time to time to make certain that he is best equipped to do his job moving into the future.  So it is with many workers in the Western world.  Why not do the same with Sunday school teachers?  How about ushers and musicians?  These people are the muscle of the church.  The pastor provides the backbone and skeleton, but without the muscle of the laymen and laywomen, nothing in the church would get accomplished.  The conference we put together was to be something to help the laypeople of different churches.

Seven churches, including our home church, showed up for the meeting, and God blessed it mightily.  There were two preaching sessions and two teaching sessions with 9 different classes offered.  We were conscious of time and fed everyone a meal.  The feedback was overwhelmingly positive.  One man expressed how that the conference prepared him to head to church the following Sunday excited to be in his place serving God.

This is a concept that I would like to take with me to other areas other than our own church.  I would love to have these conferences all over the country to encourage those who serve.  The value of encouraging the core servants of our churches is important.  This conference serves to dispel the “Elijah Syndrome,” the concept that there are no people serving God anymore except us few.  It allows people to understand the Scriptural moorings for the way we do things.  It fosters creativity by learning ideas from others who share the same doctrinal and philosophical devotion to the Bible.  I look forward to the next time when the Lord will allow us to do the same thing.

As we prepared to go to NC for a meeting, the truck began to give us some problems.  This is very unusual for this truck, but experience has shown me that around 250,000 miles, some issues will begin to surface.  The truck gave me a message on the dash informing of an emission control problem and instructing me to take the truck to the dealership immediately.  After I got the vehicle to the mechanic and he ran a thorough investigation, we discovered that the EGR cooler needed to be replaced.  The job is to cost over $3,400.  After this meeting in NC, we are to head to Ohio with the trailer in tow.  Please pray that God will give us the wisdom to know how to proceed.  We have another vehicle that we are currently using, but it is too small to carry all that we need for our meetings on a regular basis. 

Josiah continues to do well at Ambassador Baptist College.  He plans to travel with Neighborhood Bible Time this summer.  He will be sending out letters endeavoring to raise support in the near future.  Please pray for him in this regard.  Last week, we surprised him at college and had a great, though short, time visiting with him.  It is humbling and exciting to see him serving the Lord.

The Victory Gospel Crusade in Western Ohio is coming up soon.  We are working and preparing for God to do something great as we reach out to lost people with the message of salvation.  We would covet your prayers for this endeavor as well.

New Decade

The meetings have begun again for us.  We will start in the near vicinity (Louisiana and Mississippi) and progress into other southern states before the winter is out.  Then it is off to the East and Midwest for more meetings there.

Two unique opportunities have come our way for the year 2020.  First of all, for the very first time ever, we will be part of the Victory Gospel Crusade headed by Evangelist Dwight Smith.  In the month of May, we will be in Western Ohio ministering in three different places north of Dayton.  The VGC has been greatly used of God since its inception to bring many people to Christ and to see churches revived in a tangible way.  This year marks the first time that our schedule has been able to accommodate participation in this event.  Please pray that God will use the VGC once again to bring many to the Savior and to see churches revived.

The second great opportunity is another trip to the Philippines for Sarah and me.  This will be the fourth time that at least one member of our family will be ministering there.  The Lord is opening up more venues of ministry there on the island of Luzon, and we look forward to seeing what God will do while we are there.

Our trailer is in good running order after the repairs that were made last year.  I am grateful for all that went on last year to get the chassis fixed and ready for the road.
Josiah continues to do well at Ambassador Baptist College, making the President’s List last semester for good grades.  Please pray for him as he seeks the Lord’s leading for summer ministry.

School is once again in session for our other three children.  They do not enjoy home school, but they have gotten to the place where they realize that some things have to be done whether we want to do them or not.  At least, that’s the way it is most days.  There are a few times when they have to be reminded.

I was working in the shop last Friday cutting a piece of white oak with my table saw when the push stick I was using suddenly caught something (workpiece or blade, I don’t know which) wrong.  The saw then ripped the plastic push stick out of my hand and drove it backwards into my arm.  While the long sleeve shirt that I was wearing did protect me somewhat, I still had to take a trip to the emergency room.  There was a cut 4 centimeters long and 1 ½ centimeters wide on the under side of my forearm.  (They don’t measure using inches in the emergency room, apparently.)  Nine stitches later, everything was put to right again, and recovery has been without incident, saving that some of my dress shirts rub on the cut and irritate it a little.  Still, if that is the worst of it, I can’t complain.  On the positive side, I will have a very manly scar to show for the incident while still retaining all ten of my fingers.  It could have been much worse.

Earlier this month, I was asked to be one of three founding editors of a website dedicated to being another voice to reach people with the message of spiritual truth.  When it is up and running, I will announce on this blog to direct your eyes there.  In 1934, Evangelist John R. Rice began a publication entitled The Sword of the Lord that continues to be published in newspaper format to this day.  Our goal as editors is to stand for the same truths as those for which the men of the past stood.  We will simply propagate our message in a different format.

Thank you so much for your prayers as we begin a new decade.  For the Crow family, 2020 will mark the completion of 18 years in full-time evangelism.  We are looking to do more this year than ever before.  To all of you, keep looking up: our Lord’s coming draws nigh.

Home Again

Josiah's first semester of college is over and he will soon be home with us in Mississippi for a few weeks.  Our meetings are all local, for the most part, and short: no one is doing week-long revival meetings around the Christmas holiday.  Our family will be ministering together in our home church at Christmas, as well as traveling to other churches in the area.

After the first of the year, things will begin to pick up again as the meetings begin for us anew.  One new venture is a Christian workers' conference being hosted at our home church Clearview Baptist Church.  Many conferences are specifically designed to enrich the pastor in his effort to better himself as a minister of Christ.  These conferences assume a certain level of base knowledge on the part of those attending.  These meetings are good and have their place.  There are some people, however, who need to be taught the first principles of what it means to serve God through the local church.  It is to these people that our conference is geared.  Our hope is that the meeting will fill a great need, help to better equip people to serve God, and be a help to churches around our area.  Please pray for us as we move forward with the plans for this endeavor.

This summer we are to return to the Philippines for another missions trip.  The Lord is continuing to expand our ministry there and we are grateful.

The year 2020 promises to be an important year in many respects.  Our desire is that it will be a spiritual turning point for some that we minister to, that it will be the year that some trusted Christ as Savior and finally surrendered to His will in their lives.

Thank you all for your prayers.

Preparations

In our last update, we mentioned the Victory Gospel Crusade and its impact on different places in America.  The crusade began as the vision of Evangelist Dwight Smith in 2016.  Below are some numbers to give an idea how the Lord has used the ministry in the few years it has been operating.

2016 -- St. Paul, Minnesota
4 evangelists
5 sponsoring independent Baptist churches
27 preachers involved
30,000 pieces of gospel literature distributed
3 weeks of meeting (one for preparation, two for preaching)
45 salvation decisions

2017 -- Worcester, Massachusetts
4 evangelists
4 sponsoring independent Baptist churches
60,000 pieces of gospel literature distributed
5 weeks of meeting (one for preparation, four for preaching)
159 salvation decisions

2018 -- Indianapolis, Indiana
4 evangelists
6 sponsoring independent Baptist churches
30,000 pieces of gospel literature distributed
3 weeks of meeting (one for preparation, two for preaching)
68 salvation decisions

2019 -- Newport News, Virginia
several sponsoring independent Baptist churches
55,000 pieces of gospel literature distributed
Newport News Baptist Church planted
16 salvation decisions

Every person making a decision in the meetings was given follow up material and handed over to an independent Baptist church for follow-up.

In 2020, the Lord has opened the door for our family to be a part of the Victory Gospel Crusade in western Ohio.  In the month of May, we will be in different locations preaching the Gospel.  The coming weeks will be taken up in part with preparatory meetings with pastors in the area as we move toward this great endeavor.

In addition to preparing for the Victory Gospel Crusade, our church in Mississippi is preparing for a Christian workers conference.  Many conferences are geared for pastors, but this one is targeting laymen: Sunday school teachers, soul-winners, bus workers, ushers, church musicians, and the like.  In preparing for this endeavor, I am traveling to churches in our area and promoting the upcoming conference.

In all of this traveling and ministering, we will have to take a couple of days to go and get Josiah from college.  The family will be eager to see him again.

In addition to the ministry needs, we will also be hosting 20 people at our house for Thanksgiving.  This, too, requires a lot of preparation.  In short, this month is all about preparation for different upcoming events.  Thank you for your prayers.

Thieves Break Through...

Our last very short update spoke of a recent break-in at our house in Mississippi.  The initial report was correct: the thieves broke in our back door, stole all my firearms, found my car keys, and stole my car.  After examining the scene, the detectives have both recovered our car and identified a suspect.  It seems that the thief was kind enough to leave his ID in the car.  In addition, the breaking in process inflicted a cut on one of the thieves--enough to leave his blood on both the inside of our house and car.  The suspect has two outstanding warrants for his arrest and has a history of burglary and grand theft auto.

The car, according to police, showed no signs of damage because there was no need to damage it: the thieves had already taken the keys.  The insurance company has been helpful in all of this, having already given us a check for the stolen firearms with the stipulation that we replace what we wish to replace in the next two years.

While all this drama has been going on back home, the Lord has been giving us good meetings on the road.  This fall at first appeared to be rather sparse in the schedule, but God has opened doors in a tremendous way.  We have seen people saved and Christians encouraged in our meetings, which are in the West right now.

In addition to our current meetings, we have spent a lot of time working on the schedule for next year.  The Lord willing, after Thanksgiving, we will post the following year's schedule online.  We praise God for every meeting that He has given us so far.

Josiah continues to do well at college.  He is a member of the traveling mixed group known as the Ensemble, as well as a men's octet that also travels on occasion.  In a recent phone conversation with us, he admitted that he has gotten to the place where he is tired all the time.  While we didn't say this to him, the thought of "You ain't seen nothing yet" did cross our minds.

Part of next year's schedule will be joining the Victory Gospel Crusade in Western Ohio.  For three years, Evangelist Dwight Smith has asked me to be a part of this ministry, but each time we have been in Asia during his meetings.  The Victory Gospel Crusade is an effort to reach urban areas with the Gospel through extended meetings under a tent.  We will give more information about this unique ministry as the time draws nearer.

We are so grateful for your prayers.  These are wonderful days to serve God, and we count it a privilege to be a part of it.

Breaking In

This update is a bit early, but also slightly more action than we normally have to relate.  Today between the morning service and afternoon dinner, I received a call from the Olive Branch, Mississippi, Police department.  They wondered if I knew where my car was.  We had left this car in our driveway back home when we left for this round of meetings.  I told them that I was in Montana, but that I had left the car in my driveway when I left town.  The car had been illegally parked in another part of the subdivision, and someone had called the police to report it.  Upon further investigation, our house had been broken into by means of the back door (someone kicked it in).  As I write this message, the police are going through the house with a list that I have given them. 

As I write this, we are going through the house by means of video chat with our friends and the police detectives.  We know that the thieves stole all our firearms, except the ones that we carry with us.  Beyond that, we are going through the tedious process of trying to ascertain what has been taken. 

We will update more as we know more.  Thanks for praying.

Stormy Start

The fall round of meetings has begun, and the Lord has blessed already.  We began in New Bern, North Carolina.  Our meeting with Bro. Bill Wingard had to be cut short, however, due to hurricane Dorian, which came through during the week we were there.  After the last night of the meeting, which was Wednesday, we loaded up the trailer and headed north and west, toward our next meeting and away from the winds of the storm.  We did see the rain of the storm and a couple of gusts, but nothing remotely dangerous.

From NC, it was on to Alexandria, Virginia, where the Lord saved two young men in that meeting.  The Lighthouse Baptist Church brings out more unsaved than most of the churches in which we minister.  It was a blessing to see what the Lord did.

We are currently in Bellevue, Nebraska, just outside of Omaha, where were not scheduled to have a meeting, but the Lord gave us one anyway.  Yet another of His provisions.  By this time next week, we hope to be in Merrill, Oregon.  Please pray for safety as we head the rest of the way west.

With the long days of travel, the school schedule has been thrown into somewhat of a disarray.  It has been difficult to keep up with the studies when we spend as many as 10 hours on the road in a day.  After a weekend respite from travel, which included school for the children, we plan to hit the road tomorrow again, heading across Nebraska.

One of the additions to our ministry this fall has been children’s meetings led by our children.  Every night, the children 3 years old through third grade will be dismissed.  My daughter Abigail teaches the lesson, songs, and verses.  The rest of the family is present for crowd control.  The difference in the services has been noticeable, and I am happy to see my children develop in this important skill.

Josiah is adjusting well in his new life at college, and although we miss him, we know he is exactly where God wants him. We are thankful that he has been able to get a part-time job as well.  In the meantime, we are reworking all of our special music to adapt to this change.

Pray for safety as we travel, and pray for God’s blessing as we minister in churches.

Answered Prayer

We have several momentous things to relate this month.  The first is that our trailer is fixed!  After months of being out of our “home on wheels,” the Lord worked it out that we were able to get it repaired.  We took it to Indiana during the end of July, and the factory repaired it in two days (practically unheard of in the world of RV repairs).  The repairs that they did included straightening the twisted I-beam, reinforcing the beam with steel above and below, bracing, two new axles, and an upgraded suspension system.  Everything seems to be done well, and we hope that this latest repair will enable us to use the trailer for a long time to come.  We thank the Lord for answering prayer about this matter.  We are all looking forward to moving back into the trailer for our fall meetings and having a little more stability in our day-to-day routine.

Second, we dropped our son Josiah off at Ambassador Baptist College in Lattimore, NC, for his freshman year.  It has been a busy weekend for us, settling him in the dorm, attending various college events and sessions, as well as visiting area churches and catching up with friends.  He is excited about this new chapter in his life, and we are, too.  It does mean a significant change in our family and ministry dynamic, but we will manage.  The younger siblings are already dividing up his drawers and closet space in the trailer, and his bunk has been claimed, too.  They have to be reminded that he will be back for short visits between semesters.  When we were moving him into his dorm room, he was amazed at the amount of space that he was given to store his clothes and other necessary items.  “Four drawers!” he exclaimed.  I laughed at his disbelief.  It would seem that living in an RV all these years has accustomed him to about half of that.  After sharing an RV bedroom with three siblings, sharing a dorm room with two roommates is akin to living in the lap of luxury. 

We started our home school year last week, but took a short break in order to drive Josiah to North Carolina.  We are currently on our way back, and school will resume in the morning, much to everyone’s dismay.  Abigail is in tenth grade, Esther is in eighth grade, and Daniel is in sixth grade this year.  Home schooling on the road is a very difficult thing to do.  There are so many variables from day to day and week to week, that we must constantly adjust our schedules to accommodate travel as well as late nights, and different time zones.  It takes determination to stay on schedule and yet maintain flexibility.

In other news, Sarah’s arm is slowly doing better.  She has spent a lot of time at the chiropractor’s office, as well as several visits to a massage therapist, and we are happy to see improvement, albeit slow.  She still doesn’t have feeling in two fingers on her right hand, and the arm aches often.  We covet your prayers for continued healing, and hope that she will soon be able to resume her normal activities, including playing the piano for our meetings, as we head into the fall. 

Prayer requests:

Meetings for Fall 2019/Spring 2020

Souls saved and lives changed in our meetings

Safety in travel

A job for Josiah while he is at college

Healing for Sarah

Planning our next mission trip

Camp!

Summer is camp season for many evangelists, and this year has been a great year for camps in our ministry.  Every year, we head west to Silver City, New Mexico, to minister at Gila Christian Ranch.  This year, the Lord blessed again with many souls saved and young people surrendering to the Lord's will for the their lives.  Then, after a travel week to get home, Sarah and my girls got on a plane and headed for New York City.  The Bay Ridge Baptist Church of Brooklyn paid for them to fly to New York and then join them to head to camp at the Wilds of New England.  The Lord used their time there to work in their hearts as well as to encourage those of the youth in New York.

After years of serving as evangelist for Gila Christian Ranch, God has allowed me to serve on its board of directors.  Gila has had a unique ministry over the years of ministering to the youth of the Southwest.  The camp is currently in a project that will require some concrete work and a capable stone mason.  It will be a few months before these jobs are ready to be done, but we are praying for the Lord to provide us with the skilled laborers to complete this task before the next camp season.

July's schedule has been a busy one, and August only provides a brief respite before we take Josiah to Ambassador Baptist College where he will be a freshman this coming fall.  By September, we hope to be on the road again in our trailer (see last month's post) as we travel.

In the past month, a need has arisen about which we need much prayer.  In April of this year, Sarah began to have problems with serious muscle spasms.  The first one appeared in her back in the major muscle connecting the lower ribs to the pelvis.  When this spasm first occurred, she nearly fell to the ground in pain. 

In time, the spasms have moved to where they now are in her shoulder and down her right arm.  The muscles spasm and the nerves seem to be irritated as well.  The pain seems to be the worst at night, having robbed her of sleep every night for at least two weeks.  At this point, we have not been able to find the cause of these problems.  The pain is so intense that Sarah cannot even sit through a service, much less play the piano.  Obviously, this has quite an impact on our ministry and travel plans.

Would you please pray that God would intervene in Sarah's body and heal her?  God is the great physician and He alone can solve this problem. 

As always, thank you for your prayers for our family and ministry.

Answered Prayer

As regular readers will remember, we have been mentioning our trailer and the issues that we have been facing regarding it for a long time.  There was a bent frame that caused a large number of issues throughout the last five months of 2018 with the final result that we traveled from December of 2018 to this present time completely without our trailer.  You will remember that extended warranty companies refused to honor their commitments, the manufacturer would not stand behind their work, and the insurance company was involved.  Up until recently, there seemed to be no way of getting back into our trailer until we could raise the money to get a costly repair completed.

In addition to the funding of the repair, there was also the issue of who would do the work.  Two different repair shops told us that the repair was so delicate that it must be taken to the manufacturer of the frame and have them do the work.  This means an extra trip to northern Indiana to where their shop is located.

Because of an incident a year ago today on I-10 just east of El Paso, Texas, I decided to approach the insurance company about possibly paying for the repair.  About a week and half ago, after what seemed an agonizingly long time of evaluation, they finally approved the repair.  They have even sent me a check to pay for the estimated amount.  The repair has been scheduled in northern Indiana for July 29.  The money is already in the bank to pay for the estimated amount.

There are a couple of prayer requests regarding the trailer still.  First of all, the estimate that I was given and that was in turn passed on to the insurance company, was based upon nothing more than photos provided to the manufacturer.  They have emphasized to me more than once that the cost of the repair could be more than their original estimate.  Please pray that everything goes smoothly in case they need more for the repair.  The second prayer request regards the timing of the repair.  Meetings get going again in late August and we have to take Josiah to college around the same time.  The trailer being completed in a timely manner is very important.

Right now, we are in camp season.  I am typing this from Gila Christian Ranch, a camp outside of Silver City, New Mexico.  My three younger children are with me, while Josiah and Sarah remain in Mississippi.  Josiah is working to earn money for college, being employed by a construction company whose owner is a member of our church.  Sarah is getting caught up on all kinds of things that she could not do very well with a house full of noise.

Thank you so much for all your prayers regarding our trailer and our ministry.  We are very grateful for all that God has done in our behalf, and we look forward to reporting on more victories in the near future.

Life Changes

May has been a different kind of schedule for the Crow family.  Our last meeting of the spring round of revivals was late in April, after which headed home to prepare for our first home school graduation.  The preparation left us more frayed and frazzled than any of the scheduled revival meetings that we have ever been a part of.  Both sets of grandparents came in from out of town and stayed for at least a week.

Josiah’s graduation ceremony itself was a simple one held in a church two blocks from our home in Olive Branch, Mississippi.  He gave a brief address to those who attended, and Paul gave the charge to the graduate.  Special music filled out the rest of the schedule, along with a brief reminisce about home schooling on the road.  The entire service lasted about 30 minutes.

Josiah plans to attend Ambassador Baptist College in the fall to pursue the Lord’s leading in his life.  He is working for a construction worker in our church this summer to earn money for college.  Please pray for him and for the family as we continue to undergo some great times of transition.

In 2017, a contractor that Paul had hired to put a roof on our house assured us that he could install siding as well.  Because of his testimony of salvation and his good standing in a church in our area, Paul hired him, but was unable to check on his work because of our travel schedule.  He finished the roof—albeit not properly—began the siding, and then walked away without finishing.  After calling around, I discovered another man who claimed he knew how to do vinyl siding.  His crew did some more work incorrectly and then walked off without finishing as well.

Since that time, Paul has wanted to fix things himself but was missing one important tool: a metal brake.  This device enables a person to neatly bend aluminum to trim the windows of the house prior to installing the siding.  Since both contractors failed to do the trim properly, water was soaking the wood trim around the windows.  When Paul’s parents came from Indiana for the graduation, they brought their metal brake with them and left it in Mississippi so that the job could be completed.  In this time without meetings, Paul has been working every day taking siding off the house, trimming the windows properly, and then replacing the siding.  The progress is slow, but things are moving along.

Many have continued to wonder about our trailer.  After being denied by the warranty company and the manufacturer, we have begun to probe the possibility of turning the issue over to the insurance company.  You may remember that we had a bearing fail in West Texas last year.  It is possible that damage was done at that time when we had to drive 20 miles on three wheels.  The manufacturer of the failed I-beam can repair the beam at a cost of nearly $6,000.  My prayer is that the insurance company will take care of the problem.  We need the Lord’s will, obviously.  Would you pray with us about this matter?  If the insurance company takes care of the repair, we could be back in our trailer by the time the meetings begin again in the fall.

Speaking of fall, there are still a good many openings in the fall.  We would request prayer for that as well.

So much has changed so far this year.  Doubtless, more changes are on the horizon.  In this world of change, we are confident that our unchanging God will continue to stand beside as He has always done.  As always, thank you for your prayers.

Faint, Yet Pursuing

This past month has been a busy month of meetings.  Since our last update, we have had a meeting every week.  Our travels have taken us up the East coast and out to Michigan where I sit now.  God has done some great things in churches in South Carolina, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

In Pennsylvania, I was preaching about a man in the Bible who did right even when his parents did not.  The night after I preached to the adults about his remarkable story, a girl was saved in the children's meeting with just such a story.  It was a blessing to hear those who regularly worked with the children tell the story of her background and how she had come to understand the Gospel and trust Christ as Savior.

This week, in Michigan, we are involved in the first meeting of a new church merger between two other independent Baptist churches.  One church just left the American Baptist Convention not long ago to become independent while the other church lost their pastor to illness.  Their first Sunday as Victory Baptist Church was the week before Easter, and on Easter Sunday, they began their first ever revival meeting.  It was great to see God working yesterday, and we look forward to what He will do in the future.

Many continue to ask about our trailer situation.  There is nothing new to report regarding the situation.  Part of the reason is that we have been so busy in meetings that I have not been able to do much regarding it.  The trailer sits in Mississippi while we are all over the country.  Taking pictures, studying documents, measuring parts--all are impossible while we are on the road.  When we return, I plan to do some work to try to get things done on it.

Josiah is graduating from high school in a couple of weeks.  All of his course work is done, and we are just waiting to get home so that we can put together a ceremony for him.  He is planning to attend Ambassador Baptist College in the fall to study for the ministry.  Please pray for him as he seeks the Lord's leading in his life.  Pray also for his mother who will be losing her firstborn to college.

After a couple of weeks at home, we will start the round of camps in different places.  Camps alone will take the family from New Mexico to New Hampshire this year.

Finally, please pray for the family to get some rest in the next few weeks that we are home.  Jesus told His disciples at one point to come apart into a desert place and rest awhile.  That is the greatest need that our family has right now.  Some have nagging illnesses that have plagued them for as many as five weeks while we have been on the road.  All are weary and in need of a break.  Please pray that, as God has used the times of ministry to affect the lives of people, so He will use the time of rest to refresh us and renew us so that we can hit the road once again in the fall.

Change

Since last month's writing, we have changed ends, of the country, that is.  We are now on the east coast, having driven the distance to get here.  The little 5x8 cargo trailer that keeps our luggage out of the elements has been from California to the Carolinas, and God has seen to our safety the entire way.

The truck had to have some routine 200,000-mile maintenance done to it while we were in Georgia, but the mechanic that did the work for me charged me less than half of what another shop was going to charge me.  He replaced the upper and lower ball joints on both sides of the front end.  The truck is running very well now, much to my relief.

Our meetings have been the highlight of the last month.  Night after night, week after week, we are able to see God work in hearts as a result of the preaching.  Below is an excerpt from a note that I received in the past month:

"This week has been life-changing.  All of your messages have been exactly what I needed...Over the 16 years of being saved there have been only a few camp meetings/revivals that have had a similar effect as this week has.  July 2010, called to preach, October 2012 called to ministry/pastorate, and March 2019 sell out to God.  Give Him all."

In the same meeting, another lady who had been struggling with assurance was able to get help from the Word of God after she and her husband met with me privately after one of the services.  What a joy to be able to serve God!

These kinds of things make everything worth while as the fatigue begins to mount from being in a service night after night.  I am thankful for the working of God in hearts and hungry to see more of it in the days to come.

Our trailer situation has not changed.  It still sits at home while we are on the road, and I still wonder to myself what to do about it.  There is a possibility of getting it fixed by a man in our church who has worked on vehicles of all kinds for many years.  At this point, I don't even know what I want regarding the trailer.  It would be wonderful to be in it again, but I have given to whole thing over to the Lord.  He knows what it best, and I am trusting Him to guide my steps in this regard.

Please pray for the family.  The weeks of being in different beds in different places and being in services every night has begun to wear on us physically.  Sarah, in particular, has been ill for a long time.  A lingering cough and fever plagued her this week.  So acute was the cough that she had to leave Sunday school this morning and go to the store and get something for it.  The children are so weary that my teenagers have begun taking Sunday afternoon naps!

We are also in need of wisdom as we move forward regarding a missions trip this year.  A door to return to the Philippines has opened again, but there are issues with Josiah's graduation and the timing of our leaving for Asia.  Other details are important as well, such as Josiah getting a job to pay for his coming college bill.

In short, this is a time of great change in our lives as we have known them over the past years.  How grateful we are, not only that God knows the future, but also that we have many who regularly pray for us as we serve Him.

End of the Trailer

Ever since 2003, my family and I have lived in a fifth wheel travel trailer as we have ministered in evangelism.  Although we have owned a house for over eight years, home was usually wherever we parked our trailer.  Through those years, we have had three different trailers that we owned and another that we borrowed.  Our most recent trailer was purchased in 2015.

As many of you know, we had problems with the unit throughout 2018.  At the end of the year, we were advised to trade the unit in.  The root of the problem was a i-beam that was bent, lost its camber, in technical terms.  Beginning in December, we began the process of trying to get warranty companies and the original manufacturers to stand behind their product.  Yesterday, I received my final answer.  No one will stand behind the defective i-beam.  That means that we now have a trailer that would make a great trailer to live in, but will not stand up to the travel that we do.

We will continue to travel in evangelism, just no longer in a trailer.  Wherever churches put us is where we will stay.  In the mean time, we need to sell our trailer to someone who can use it for its intended purpose: a home that only occasionally needs to be mobile.  We are not completely opposed to another RV, but we will be very picky about getting one that we believe will meet our needs.

While staying in Texas a few weeks ago, I (Paul) passed out and fell in the restroom.  Sarah and our hosts decided to call the paramedics because they could not find a pulse when they came to check me.  (The sound of my head hitting the door created a very disturbing noise, the more so because it happened at night.)  By the time the paramedics arrived, I had stabilized enough to speak to people, but they had a difficult time doing a blood sugar test because no blood would come out of my finger.  After three times of being pricked, they were finally able to get enough blood to test my blood sugar.

Although I declined to go the emergency room at the time, I did go for some tests the following day.  Everything came back normal, and I was told that it is a routine thing for healthy adults to pass out, fall, hit their head, lose blood pressure, and temporarily go into shock.  Who knew? 

Our meetings in California were abundantly blessed of the Lord, and we look forward to seeing what God will do in the days to come.  Our schedule is full throughout the rest of this month, March, and into April.  Please continue to pray that God will use us as we preach in different churches.  The open-ended nature of our trailer situation has the potential to distract us from what is most important thing: the ministry of the Gospel.

Thank you again for your prayers.  We are trusting the Lord for great things as we head east for many meetings.  We look forward to giving a report of more people saved, and strengthened as a result of our ministry.

Paul

No Excuses

As I write this, the Monday evening service at the Big Valley Bible Baptist Church in Lodi, California, is in the books.  It was an interesting service for two reasons.  First of all, there have been a good number of visitors in this meeting from all over this area (not far from Sacramento and Stockton).  Second, there is a very godly woman in the church who is a tremendous example of faithfulness.

Betty is 93 years old and never misses a service, except for the time when she fell and broke four ribs.  Other than that, she is in her place every time the doors are open.  When others less than half her age come to pastor and make excuse after excuse for why they can't be faithful, she is serious about serving God, even at her age.

This evening, the message on faith really spoke to her heart and she felt led of the Lord to respond in the invitation.  Being legally blind and somewhat unsteady on her feet, she called for help from my son Josiah so that she could respond at the altar call.  She told me afterwards that the Lord had really used the message to speak to her heart.

I could not help being amazed by her dedication.  Here she was in her nineties recovering from a fall in which she broke four ribs, yet she wanted everyone to be sure which side she was on.  In personal conversation after the service, she relayed to me that she has a life's goal to be an old woman of joy.  Too many, she said, were crabby and cranky.  She wanted to be known for being full of joy.  It was impossible to hear her speak without thinking of the fruit of the Spirit and how God produces joy in the life of a surrendered Christian.

There can be no doubt that she was a blessing and a challenge to me.  If God gives me that many years to serve Him, I want to be like Betty in two ways: first of all, in faithfulness, and second of all, in joy.

As always, thank you for your prayers.  Keep faithful and keep joyful.

Paul

Homeless

The spring round of meetings has begun for the Crow family!  Traveling, singing, preaching, ministering every night to churches and individuals in and out of the services is now in full swing.  The biggest news from our family is that we are now traveling without our fifth wheel travel trailer, our home on wheels.  It all happened something like this.

It was a dark and stormy night… No, seriously, we had a lot of problems with the trailer last year.  Broken leaf springs, broken slide out mechanisms, a failed axle—all these were issues that we had to deal with in 2018.  In an attempt to fix these issues, I took the trailer in to a place called Custom Spring in Memphis, Tennessee, in December.  After repairing and strengthening the springs, the shop manager strongly recommended to me that I trade the trailer in.  From that shop, the trailer went to the RV repair shop to get the slide out problem repaired.  After looking at the issues there, the RV shop manager strongly recommended to me that we trade the trailer in.

Wondering what God’s will might be for us in this matter, I began looking at different RV options for us.  I found no suitable floor plans that I felt that we could use, at least none under $125,000.  Accordingly, we pursued a plan of repairing the existing trailer and moving on from there.

The problem is that one of our I-beams (not the latest Apple product, but a large piece of steel on which the trailer sits) has lost its camber, twisted, in layman’s terms.  This twist has caused a lot of problems: the slide out issues, the broken leaf springs, the government shutdown, climate change, illegal immigration, hair loss—you get the picture.

Three companies are involved in the repair of this problem.  First of all, there is a company that provided an extended (5 year) warranty for the trailer.  They are claiming, of course, that they do not need to pay because of a technicality in the original contract.  The dealership is looking for the original right now so that we can prove our point to the warranty company.

The second company involved is the trailer manufacturer.  They are claiming that if there is a problem with the I-beam, that it is not their fault but that of the beam manufacturer (the third company).  In order for them to turn in the claim to the manufacturer, someone must take very precise measurements of the beam so that they begin the process.

All of this sounds very tedious and time consuming to me.  We would love to be in our trailer once again to be at home while we travel, but that is not possible at this time.  Instead, our home church has loaned us a 5 x 8 cargo trailer into which we have packed our belongings and are currently staying wherever we can find a place.  The difficulty is in finding available prophet’s chambers along our southern route to California.  It is missions conference time for many of the churches that we know and that means that their prophet’s chambers are booked.  For 15 years, I never thought about booking prophet’s chambers.  Now I know that it is usually best to call 6 months in advance.

I am excited to hear of churches in their preparation efforts for upcoming meetings.  Cottage prayer meetings, church prayer meetings, 40 days of prayer and fasting—these kinds of things excite an evangelist as he goes into a meeting, knowing that the prayer preparation will lead to miracles from God.  In the final analysis, our trailer troubles fit into the category of “light affliction,” according to the Apostle Paul; and like his woes under that same heading, these things work for us.

Our trailer problems will be resolved in God’s way and in His time.  In the meantime, please pray for souls to be saved, for Christians to surrender to God, and for churches to be revived.

Year in Review

Merry Christmas!  We close 2018 in just a few days, and marvel at what God has done this past year in our family and ministry.  We traveled widely throughout the United States, holding meetings in Alabama, North Carolina, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, New Mexico, West Virginia, Ohio, South Dakota, Wyoming, Indiana, South Carolina, Texas, and Colorado.  We praise the Lord for salvation decisions made in those meetings, as well as other important decisions. We also praise the Lord for His protection over the thousands of miles that we traveled.

A highlight of our year was our family mission trip to the Philippines during the month of May.  We spent a month ministering in different churches and teaching music in two camps while there.  Sarah and the girls stayed busy making a lot of handmade items to sell to help support our mission trip expenses.  A lot of yarn went into that trip! We are not sure where our next mission trip will take us, but we are exploring our options for 2019. 

This has been a bittersweet year in that it is the last that we will all travel together as a family.  Josiah is a senior in high school this year, and will graduate next spring.  His plan is to attend Ambassador Baptist College where he will study for the ministry.  We are so excited, and yet, it means a lot of changes for our family.  He is an integral part of our music ministry as well as the first to leave the nest. We know the Lord has great things in store for him, but we are going to have to adjust when he is away at college.

Our trailer has been in what seems a constant state of repair this fall.  We traveled without it for our last two meetings of the year, due to breaking a leaf spring while driving on Thanksgiving Day, which was a real adventure.  We rigged it with a block of wood and a few bungee cords and drove it another 500 miles to Mississippi where we left it.  Since we had to get to our next meetings, we only had a day to gather all our necessary belongings, pack them into suitcases, throw them in the bed of the truck, and get to our next meeting, which happened to be in Texas.  It was a little more excitement than we had anticipated, but the Lord saw us through.  The trailer is currently in the repair shop awaiting parts.  Please pray that the issues we are having would be corrected for good.  It is very difficult to maintain an itinerant ministry schedule when your “ox is in the ditch” more often than not.  We are praying for direction and provision for the trailer issues, since it is a big part of keeping our family together on the road. 

We are so grateful for what God has done in our lives this year, as well as what He has allowed us to be a part of in our ministry.  We could not accomplish this without the prayers and support of God’s people.  Your prayers on our behalf are important, and we thank God  for the churches and individuals He has placed along our way.  Please continue to pray that God would open doors of ministry for us, guide us in our daily decisions, provide for our needs, and protect us as we travel. 

Prayer requests:

Meetings for 2019

               Souls saved

               Lives surrendered to God

Trailer repairs (that the current ones would be fixed, and that there wouldn’t be any more problems for a looooong time!)

College preparation for Josiah

Summer job for Josiah (due to our constantly being on the road, he has not been able to have a job, and he will need to earn money for college)

Continued health for our family

               Esther is scheduled to have a peanut challenge allergy test on January 7, 2019, to                                 conclusively determine whether or not she is allergic to peanuts

Direction and provision for our 2019 family mission trip

May the Lord give you all a fruitful and prosperous new year.

Into the Holidays

After a cancellation in our schedule, we spent a couple of weeks at home in Mississippi, enough time to experience the first winter precipitation of the season!  It was very early for us to be getting snow/sleet (whatever happened to global warming?), but it was beautiful and enjoyable nonetheless.

The time in Mississippi allowed me to finish a set of bunk beds for the trailer while I was home.  RV mattresses can be very expensive ($500 for an RV twin) due to their unusual sizing, but I was able to find a deal in which I could pick them up for $130 apiece.  Once we had the mattresses, it was a small step to build the bunkbeds in the trailer.  Previously, the boys had shared a fold out sofa bed—the most uncomfortable I have ever encountered in 25 years of traveling—Abigail had slept in the one bunk while Esther slept on the floor.  Now, Daniel is on the floor, while each of the other three has a bunk of their own.  In a few short months, Josiah will be gone and all the floor sleeping will be a thing of the past.  From a parental standpoint, each child having a separate bed is a great aid in teaching personal responsibility.  No longer can one child blame the other for the state of his or her bed, not that our children would ever do that.  But in case they might be tempted to blame someone else, having their own separate area of responsibility will discourage that, or so the theory goes.

The schedule between now and Christmas is a busy one.  On the family side of things, November is a busy birthday month for us.  Sarah’s birthday comes two days before Daniel’s, and then Thanksgiving arrives the following week.  This year, we will be in a meeting through Tuesday on the week of Thanksgiving, celebrate the holiday on Wednesday and spend the rest of the week trying to get to our next meeting on the busiest American travel weekend of the year.  Please pray for us.  Ohio to Texas to Colorado to Mississippi—that is the traveling schedule over the next few weeks.

On the ministry front, in addition to our meetings, there is also another great opportunity in the early part of December.  One of my good friends from Mississippi is getting ordained and I have been asked to be on the counsel of men examining him for the ministry.  What a great privilege and responsibility!

December will be our “down” time as we spend some time at home preparing for the Christmas holiday, working in our home church, and getting ready to resume travel once again in January.  Thank you so much for your prayers.

In our ministry, there are always background projects that are ongoing about which we rarely speak.  Sarah’s piano books are still in demand, and she has begun a series of YouTube tutorials regarding hymnplaying.  She has always been an excellent piano teacher and is now attempting to use technology to bring her instruction to a wider audience.  Anyone interested may contact her directly via Facebook or through my phone or e-mail.  In addition to Sarah’s work, I am working on writing projects of my own.  A long-term project is another book, while short term projects include choral arrangements that I put out from time to time.  Combined with our traveling schedule, the work keeps us busy.

Thank you as always for your prayers.  May your year end holiday celebrations be filled with Christ and His wonderful love for us.

Paul Crow

Coats, Conversions, and the Ox in the Ditch

 Greetings to all from the evangelism trail.  We have entered a very busy time in our fall schedule, and life seems rather like a whirlwind at times.  Since we last wrote, Esther is our newest successful hunter (or is that, huntress?), having bagged a nice little deer while we were in Wyoming.  She was absolutely thrilled to go hunting with Paul and to actually bring home a deer!  We were all quite happy for her as well.

We were home briefly(for about ten days) during which Paul preached in our home church and we ministered in music.  I went on a binge-cleanout of our things and attempted a garage sale over the weekend, but it was a huge waste of effort, since hardly anyone came by.  The fact that I was selling winter clothing was not helped by the heat wave that his that weekend, spiking temps into the 90’s.  I mean, really, who wants to even think about sweaters and long sleeves when you are standing in flip-flops and sweating at 10:00 am?  So, I had to pack everything back up into bins and put it all back in the house for the time being, until I can get a little more time to dispose of it properly.  Such is the life of and evangelist’s wife. 

We are back on the road and have held two meetings since leaving home. The first was a missions conference in southern Indiana, where the Lord used His Word to convict us about reaching our Jerusalem.  How many opportunities do we allow to pass us by each week, just because we aren’t keeping eternity’s values in view? 

Last week, we were in the Lansing, MI, area.  The temperatures have dropped significantly as we have traveled north, necessitating long sleeves, tights, boots, hats, gloves, and coats!  This morning as we packed up the trailer to leave, it was 27 degrees! 

Please pray for the needs of our trailer.  The last three weeks, we have had to deal with some serious trailer issues.  Of course, there is always something, but these have been serious, time-consuming repairs.  What most people do not realize is that, yes, you can take it into an RV service center to be repaired, but many times, they are booked solid for weeks, even months.  They are in no hurry to put us in line in front of other customers.  Parts usually have to be ordered, and they take days, or maybe even weeks, to arrive, then several more days for the repair.  In the meantime, our family is in limbo, having our “home on wheels” in the shop for an unspecified and seemingly interminable amount of time.  Our other option is to get the parts and fix it ourselves.  Paul, who has become quite the trailer repairman in the last sixteen years, does an admirable job of not only diagnosing the problem, but fixing it as well.  Josiah helps at times, and so does Daniel.  This is usually our best option, since it is the fastest.  It also means a lot of running back and forth to get parts, tools, and other necessities, and a great deal of time sitting on the ground under the trailer.

 I believe in the last update, I mentioned the broken gears in the main slide out.  Paul fixed them while we were in South Dakota.  By the time we had reached Indiana two weeks ago, they had broken again.  Three days later, it was once again operational.  We drove to Michigan, and found to our dismay, when we arrived, that we had a broken leaf spring and a bad tire. Two days later, those were both replaced.  When we packed up this morning, we found that our KantLeak water system, has, in fact, been falsely advertised.  It has been leaking for some time in the bowels of the trailer, and has rotted out part of the bay.  The trailer place has no solution for this problem, having recognized the inferiority of the product and moved on to another type of system.  That still remains to be fixed.  There is another problem with the slide out, that involved cutting off some carriage bolts and readjusting the arms of the mechanism that runs underneath the slide.  Paul is currently working on that, now that we are in Indiana again. 

I do not say this in a complaining spirit, but rather to let you know the everyday struggles of the evangelist.  These problems are not unique to us--just today we were told of another evangelist who plugged into a hookup and blew all of his appliances and electronics because the box had wrong wiring.  It happens, and it is difficult to maintain an attitude of joy when everything seems to be falling apart around you.  The desire of every evangelist is to study the Word and share the Gospel.  It is really hard to do this when you are working on your trailer/vehicle all day.  Pray for those who have an itinerant ministry, that God would supply their needs, and encourage their hearts.  Pray that the devil would be kept at bay and that the distractions he throws in our paths would not discourage us.  Pray for souls.

We were privileged to see two young boys trust Christ this past Sunday in Michigan.  One had been coming for quite some time and had heard the Gospel numerous times, and the church was thrilled to see him walk the aisle and trust Christ as his Savior, along with his friend.  God still answers prayer. 

We are in northern Indiana this week, and begin our next meeting in a few days.  It will be a busy time, but we are thankful for the ministry the Lord has given to our family.  Pray for us, brethren, that the Word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified.  Thank you for your prayers, your support, and your friendship.

Sarah

sarah@paulcrow.org

Into Fall

September is here, and with it, the first breath of autumn.  We have been traveling in the northern midwest and mountain states, and I personally have found the cooler weather quite a relief from the brutal heat of summer we have experienced so far this year.

We had the privilege of being a part of Opening Revival at Ambassador Baptist College in late August, and we are so excited about what God is doing there.  It is always a joy to spend time with the students and to fellowship with the faculty as well as with numerous friends who still live in the area. 

Two weeks ago, we were in Brookings, SD, where we had the privilege of seeing a young man from South Dakota State University in the morning service.  After the gospel was clearly presented in the message, he walked the aisle and trusted Christ!  We are always excited to see souls trust Christ in our meetings. 

This week we are in Sheridan, WY, and Paul has been able to do some hunting.  So far, we have two deer for our freezer, and he is currently out with Esther, who is hoping to get her first deer this year (we are all very hopeful for her sake).  The meat that we get from hunting goes a long way to fill our freezer for the coming months, and we are grateful for God’s provision in this manner.

In addition to holding meetings, we are staying busy with school, and trying to cram in some family activities as well.  Earlier this month, we had some issues with our trailer slide out, but after several days of tedious work and scrambling for parts, Paul and Josiah were able to complete the repairs.  The ability to fix it ourselves is quite a blessing, since every time we have to take it in to a dealership or service center to be repaired, it means a total disruption of our daily life for several days, if not weeks. 

It will not be long before we turn our rig towards home, where we will stop for a few days to pick up some warmer clothing for the coming winter months and also to have Josiah’s senior pictures taken before heading out again for the rest of the year.  The Lord has blessed us with a full schedule, and as we travel, we covet your prayers for safety and fruitfulness in ministry.

Sarah