Waiting

As the schedule for 2016 began to fill and we got to know our trailer, there grew a list of warranty items that needed to be addressed.  This is always a difficult thing because it means that we have to move out of the trailer and take it to a repair facility that is swamped with other units in the same situation as our own.  In late June, two tire blowouts within 50 miles of each other on I-10 in the desert did some additional damage to the trailer that was to be repaired as well.

Because all the RV repair facilities are so busy this time of year, we scheduled an appointment over a month in advance in order to insure that the work would get done.  The day after our meeting closed in Semmes, AL, we moved out of the trailer into a local church prophet's chamber and took our home to the shop.  That is when the waiting began.

RV repairs can be counted on to cost more than originally thought and take longer than originally expected.  As I write this, we have been out of the trailer for over a week, and the unit is still not ready to go.  The reasons are somewhat complex.

Essentially, there are two veins of repairs that need to be accomplished.  The first, and faster, vein involves warranty work.  Any repairs need to be reported to the manufacturer who then authorizes them to be made so that we can remain happy costumers.  AFter a week of having the trailer in the shop, most of these repairs are complete; but there are still parts on order which have not yet arrived.

The second vein involves the tire blowout and the insurance company.  Every one of these blowouts does enough damage to usually measure in the thousands of dollars, depending on exactly how the tire blows.  We had a good (if there can be such a thing) and a bad blowout on either side of the unit.  Insurance has to receive the claim from the RV repair facility, review the claim, approve the claim, and communicate back to the shop the green light to do the work.  In automobile cases, the insurance company usually does this very quickly because they assume that you need to have your car.  In the case of RV's, they take much longer because the damage in question occurred to a "recreational" vehicle, after all.  We have had RV claims go on for months.

Another dynamic that we deal with is the obtaining of parts for the unit.  The parts do not sit in a warehouse ready to be picked up and installed.  They have to be fabricated at the manufacturer and then shipped to the repair facility.  In our case, we are told that the parts can be here within a week and a half to two weeks.  The hope is that in that time, the insurance company will approve the repair and the unit can get finally fixed.

And so we wait.  The hope is that everything will be done before we have to get going again with our fall schedule, a schedule that starts August 7.

Apart Into a Desert Place

This past week closed yet another camp at the Gila Christian Ranch in Silver City, New Mexico.  Technically, it is not desert, only semi-arid, but it is a place where people can come away from the influences of the world and focus on the things of God.

This year, both juniors and teens were combined in camp so as to save the driving burden on commuting churches.  All four of my children were campers, two in junior camp and two in teen camp, while Sarah worked 14-16 hours a day in the kitchen.  The Lord blessed and several campers were saved.

Many of the campers had little background in church, and no help whatsoever from home.  It was sad to see the effects on both teens and juniors who had to witness the adults who are supposed to guide them act wickedly, especially in the area of morals.  It comes as no surprise that these kids really struggle.  When we lovingly instructed them at camp, many responded positively and opened their hearts to the Word of God.

As the Gospel went forth, several campers, both juniors and teens, were saved.  Others made life-changing decisions of surrender, while others understood purity for the first time and pledged to keep themselves pure.  Also encouraging was evidence of past camp decisions that are still guiding the lives of some of these young people, some of whom have no help outside of the local church and camp.

There are some that decry the entire idea of camp, asserting that decisions made there are temporary.  While it is certainly possible to make a decision that does not last, it is also true that lives are changed forever as a result of one person hearing the Word of God in a camp setting.  Just as children made decisions to do right in Bible times, so young people today are hearing God's Word and are choosing to do what it says.

Thank you so much for your prayers for our ministry.  The time of extended meetings is over for a couple of weeks, the scheduling calling for isolated Sundays instead.  Our next full meeting is not until July 10-13, 2016.  May God bless you all and give you all a fruit for your labor as you serve Him in your area of His harvest.

The Isles Wait

Isaiah prophesied that isles would wait for the Law of God.  As I reflect on my recent trip to the Philippines, I am reminded of this truth.  My ministry there was definitely to receptive hearts as I preached and taught for nearly two and a half weeks.  If my math is correct, I ministered to 13 different churches while I was there, some by preaching in them directly and others by virtue of their coming to another place to hear me preach.  God blessed His Word in a great way during the time.

Below are some pictures with a little information about each.  Many of the churches were not photographed individually because one week consisted of my preaching and teaching in a music camp.  I spoke up to four times a day during camp, a schedule that left very little time for picture taking.


This is the Hillcrest Baptist Church of Angeles City.  They hosted me for a four day meeting in which several other churches participated.  I made the mistake of taking this picture on American, rather than Filipino, time.  By the time I got up to preach, the auditorium was full.

Two churches planted out of Hillcrest are Ambassador Fundamental Baptist Church here,

and the New and Living Way Baptist Church here.

 Then in Imus, Cavite, there was the Bethany Bible Baptist Church.

I got no pictures of camp to speak of, nor did I get pictures of many of the other churches except for this one, the Calvary Baptist Church, notable because it was the only church I preached in with air conditioning.

All in all, the Lord gave me a wonderful time of ministry among these dear people.  One of the most gratifying aspects of the trip was the tender hearts of people to hear the Word of God.  Their universal plea to me was that I come back and preach and teach more.  We are seeking the Lord’s will about next year and how to proceed.

Now, from the steamy countryside of the Philippines, I have migrated to the Sonoran Desert where I sit in a trailer struggling to keep cool while the temperature outside is 109.  Next week, we flee to higher ground to camp in NM from where we will begin to travel east again.  Thank you so much for your prayers.

Trailer Luck

The spring schedule is now in full swing.  We are now firmly ensconced in our new trailer (woohoo!) and on the road for the next several months.  We are rejoicing in the blessing of our new trailer and the relative ease of living in it after being in such close quarters for most of last year. While we were extremely grateful for the “little trailer” as we affectionately called it, having six people in a 29’ camper for the better part of nine months was a little taxing at times.  Especially when several of those people are not the neatest roommates.  However, we all survived and were practically dancing with joy when our new trailer finally made it into our driveway last December.  We all have a little space to ourselves, now, and best of all, we are back to a 12-gallon water heater once again (the little trailer had a 6-gallon tank, and I took WAY too many cold showers last year)!  We are all happy campers about that particular feature.

This week, we began our first extended time in the new trailer.  Heading out of Mississippi, we stopped in Jackson, the state capital, where we met a pastor and stayed overnight in his church parking lot.  He took us on a small tour of Jackson, which was saddening to say the least.  The city’s infrastructure is collapsing, and the people who live there have very little means of supporting themselves.  Hence, many turn to a life of crime.  I don’t remember the last time I have seen so many buildings with fences, windows with bars, and parking lots surrounded by razor wire.  It was a teensy bit scary, to be honest.  Jackson is the fourth most violent city in America, ranking fourth in the number of murders per capita in the country.  It is a dark place in need of the light of the Gospel. Pray that God would send laborers into this very needy field!

As we pulled out of Jackson this morning, we headed west.  it wasn’t long before we needed to fuel the truck.  Paul pulled off on an exit that advertised fuel, and began driving in search of the promised gas station.  It was nowhere to be found.  You must understand that pulling a fifth wheel through an unknown area, looking for fuel has to be one of the most stressful situations.  The streets wind and curve, the lanes narrow, and the chances that you will get stuck in a small parking lot trying to turn around increase the further you go.  After we decided that the fuel sign was just a cruel hoax, doubtless an attempt to lure unsuspecting motorists into the labyrinthine innards of the city, where they can be mugged, we spotted a large (this is good) parking lot in which we could easily turn around.  Things were looking up, in spite of the Great Fuel Hoax.  We turned around and pulled onto the street, heading back toward the interstate.  The truck seemed to be struggling up the hill, and with dread in his voice, Paul pulled to the side of the road and asked me to get out and see if the trailer brakes were locked up.  Sure enough, they were. 

I must insert a small bit of trailer trivia here.  Fifth wheels are designed with an emergency cable that runs from the trailer hitch to the hitch pin in the back of the truck.  The purpose of this cord is, in the event that your trailer becomes disconnected from your truck (very bad luck), the trailer brakes immediately lock, which keeps the trailer from careening into anything at a high rate of speed.  Apparently careening into objects at a low rate of speed is far superior, in the minds of the trailer manufacturers, provided one is not rear-ended by a tractor and trailer speeding up from behind.
In a strange and weird twist of trailer luck (this is usually bad luck, for the record), the emergency trailer brake cord had gotten pinched in the hitch and pulled the emergency pin out of the trailer.  To make things worse, we could not get it out!  We were finally able to get the brakes unlocked by plugging in the pin, but we could not make any turns without pulling the pin out again.  Paul pulled along the road until we could get partially in a parking lot, and we had to detach the trailer in order to release the pressure on the hitch enough to get the cord out from between the hitch and the base.  No one stopped to help, but perhaps they were a little nervous when they saw two people on the side of the road, one with a roll of duct tape in his hand, and his companion wielding a small crowbar. Thank the Lord we were able to remedy the situation with very little loss of time.  And, yes, duct tape, once again, really did save the day.

After this little incident, we had another one that actually did some damage to the trailer.  Thanks to a clueless motorist, who instead of allowing us to merge onto the highway lane (I say lane because there was only one due to alleged construction), sped up and blocked our entrance, forcing us to run over a very substantial construction cone/tower.  This striped ziggurat flew under the truck and hit the front panel of the trailer right next to the landing gear, crunching the fiberglass and crumpling the metal trim.  There was nothing to be done, so we drove onward, ruing the day that Cracker Jacks started issuing driver’s licenses. 


All told, it was a fairly good day, in spite of all the difficulties. We are looking forward to tomorrow’s services.  Pray for the family.  We are dealing with sore throats, sniffles, and general malaise due to not feeling well this week.

Of Blowouts and Tunnels

Victory Baptist Church.  For forty years, a lighthouse of truth and Baptist witness to the South Carolina low country.  As its address on Parris Island Gateway would suggest, the church has had a ministry to United States Marines, either active duty or retired, for many years.  For their fortieth anniversary celebration, Pastor Chuck Rice decided to invite two former pastors and Evangelist Paul Crow as guest speakers.  It is impossible for me to speak for the two former pastors.  As for me, my trip to even get settled in at Victory Baptist Church was filled with a little more drama than usual.

It seemed like a good idea at the time: leave south Florida on Friday morning and get in to Beaufort, South Carolina a day early.  A chance for everyone to catch their breath before charging headlong into the next meeting could only be a good thing.  As we headed up I-95 north of Savanna, Georgia, however, we heard a sudden pop and the truck seemed to lose power.  Sarah was able to look in her mirror and saw the tread of one of our brand new tires (purchased earlier this year) come flying off.  We had suffered a blowout.  Not to worry, there was a brand new spare on the back bumper.  There are worse things in this world than changing a flat on the side of the Interstate in the dark with spectators flying past at 70-plus miles per hour while your children contemplate playing chicken.

Still, we arrived safely at Victory Baptist Church after 8:00 Friday night.  Everything was set up and ready to go.  Everything except for one thing.  In our haste to get to South Carolina, we had failed to dump our sewage tanks.  The next morning after some inquiries, we decided to dump the black water straight into the church septic system.  That meant unhooking everything and backing the trailer through a small gate.  Everything about the dumping process was pretty seamless.  No spilled water on the church ground, everything going where it needed to go, no leaky black water hoses—it was perfect.  We then maneuvered the trailer back into the parking space.  Not a problem.

Everything was in place, when I began to jack the trailer up off the truck hitch.  (We are in a borrowed unit right now that is a bumper pull, not a fifth wheel.)  Now the tongue was high enough so that it barely cleared the hitch.  As I walked away from the hitch to go to the cab of the truck and pull it out, a terrible noise sounded behind me.  The trailer had shifted and the tongue had come off the blocks where I had left the jack.  The jack had buried itself in the soft, sandy dirt.  Sarah had been in the trailer, and the sudden jolt gave her quite a fright.

In the end, a bottle jack saved the day and got the trailer back to straight and level.  More importantly, God had spared me from what might have been a dangerous accident.  A 10,000-lb trailer jolting and careening around can be dangerous.  God protected us.

The only other incident that happened was that my children decided to begin a subterranean project of tunneling under the church fellowship hall.  Happily, we discovered the project before too much progress had been made and the workers decided to fill the holes back in.  Hopefully, no one will notice at the big celebration tomorrow.  I know now why we usually make it a policy to arrive at the church on Saturday night.

We look forward to the upcoming meeting with Pastor Rice and Victory Baptist Church.  Thank you all so much for your prayers.

Trailer Update

Many have asked about a trailer for our family.  As you may remember, we totaled our previous trailer in March of this year.  Even before our trailer was totaled, we had been looking for a replacement for some time.  After much prayer and search, we believe that we have found the trailer that would meet our needs as we travel.  It is made by a recently formed company named Grand Design.  The model is the Solitude 366DEN.  We have looked into these units for quite some time and have been impressed by the many details that they seem to get just right.

Some have given special gifts toward the purchase of the new trailer, and, although we do not yet have the money to pay for it entirely, we are very grateful for every sacrifice that has been made so that we could get the trailer.  Now we have decisions to make.  We want to make very wise use of the money that God has provided.  Right now, there are eight 2015 models that we know about.  Obviously, with the calendar year coming to a close, the dealerships are very motivated to move their 2015 models.  The 2016 models are already arriving and space will be an issue, not to mention the mounting cost of holding onto a unit losing its value.  Of course, the model number means nothing to us.  The fact that it has sat on the lot for a while doesn’t matter to us.  Here is the important need that we have.  Of the eight 2015 units that we currently know of, we need at least one to not sell until after the first of the year.  God knows which one it will be.  Our current thinking is that if we can hold out until 2016 to buy a 2015 trailer, we will be able to get a better deal.

Everything is in God’s hands.  For our part, we are so busy in meetings right now that we don’t have time to get into a new trailer anyway, even if we had the money to purchase one.  We are seeing the Gospel go forward, Christians challenged, and pastors encouraged.  We are still living in a borrowed bumper pull trailer, on loan from a family in our church.  We are taxing this unit to the limit, already having pulled it from Mississippi to Montana, Montana to Virginia, Mississippi to Minnesota to Florida… You get the picture.  The fact that it is still holding together is a tribute to the power of God very similar to Israelite shoes not waxing old during the wilderness wandering.

As you pray for the temporal needs of our trailer, please do not forget to pray for the greater works: the salvation of souls and the strengthening of churches.  May you all be steadfast in the work of the Lord.

Answered Prayer

The fall season of meetings is upon us, and we are seeing God do some wonderful things.  Last week, we were in a meeting at the Bible Baptist Church of Brookings, South Dakota.  Pastor Ivan Yoder has only been there for a year, but the signs of a healthy church abound under his leadership.  In all, three people were born again during the course of the meeting.  One was saved in the afternoon before the service, and the other two were dealt with in the invitations.  Below are pictures of the two who were saved in the services.

We are currently in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota for our third meeting at the Berean Baptist Church.  On Thursday, I go to Deer River, Minnesota for a men’s meeting that will last through Saturday.  The meeting closes in Ham Lake on Sunday.

After Minnesota, we begin to head south, first to Indiana, and then to North Carolina and all the way to Florida before turning again for Mississippi just in time for Thanksgiving. 

We are eager to see how God is going to work in every place where He has allowed us to minister this year.  Thank you all so much for your prayers.

Regarding the replacement trailer, there are events in motion that are nothing short of miraculous.  When the details fall into place, you may be certain that I will pass them on to you who have prayed so much. 

Born Again!

August represents a bit of slump in my schedule as an evangelist.  Pastors, too, speak of this slump as many of their members are absent from services due to vacations.  A lull in my schedule means more activity in my local church, just as any faithful member would do.  It means being faithful to services and visitation.

Last night, as the groups divided up, I had two very familiar partners, Sarah and Josiah.  We were knocking on doors—cold turkey calling, as some have called it.  Not long into our intended route, we had the opportunity to talk with Tanisha.  Unlike many that we meet, she readily admitted to having doubts about eternity.  In fact, the more we talked about sin, the more visibly conviction showed on her face.  We ended at the cross where the sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary takes care of all our sin—past, present, and future.  There on her doorstep, Tanisha prayed and asked Christ to save her.  Would you pray for her that we would be able to disciple her and see her grow in the Lord?  Her picture is here below.

In the weeks to come, I will be filling local pulpits that are currently vacant in north MS before we head again for another round of meetings.

Please continue to pray about the needs of our trailer.  God knows, and He will provide in His time.

At Such a Time

The greetings of the ancient Persians have always seemed somewhat melodramatic to me: “Peace, and at such a time.”  Times have always been turbulent, but God has always been in control.

God’s control of our circumstances is such a wonderful resting place for our troubled souls so prone to worry.  For my part, the cares of this world have looked a lot like a search for a different trailer, at least in the past couple of months.  We have been looking for a couple of years, actually, mostly to no avail.  The problems are these.

First, if a trailer has room to house a family, it is poorly built.  There is little reason to purchase a trailer that will quickly fall apart as the miles go by.

Second, if a trailer is well-built, it doesn’t have room for four children and is outrageously expensive.  One company makes well-built trailers with space for two children, but their units start at $115,000 and go up from there.

Third, more modestly priced trailers may have enough bunks for four children, but they have very little space for clothes.  Evidently children who camp in these either have to wear the same clothes all the time or else wear little to nothing at all.  I wonder if RV design engineers are reading this.

Fourth, very few units available today have a rear bedroom and a washer and dryer.  Some have a nearly worthless washer/dryer combination unit, but reviews of this setup are universally negative.

Because of these issues, we looked in vain for many months for a trailer that would serve us well in travels.  Then, earlier this year after a lot of searching, we came upon a company called Grand Design.  They make a unit called a Solitude 366 DEN.  As we walked through this unit, we finally found something that would meet all of our needs in a trailer.

Now, a dealership in MN is offering us a great deal on a new Solitude 366 DEN.  We have been able to get together about 2/3 of the needed money for the unit.  We would like to be able to not have to take on another monthly payment for this trailer.  Would you pray with us about this matter?  It may be that God would have us finance the remaining 1/3 of the price.  If so, we would need Him to make this abundantly clear to us.  As we see the situation, it would be best to get the trailer in the next month or so.  That way, we could get moved in before the schedule gets hectic again in the fall.

At the end of the day, though, God is still on the throne…And at such a time.

Answered Prayer

The meeting last week with Pastor Dave Rogers in Willmar, MN, was a good meeting.  Pastor Rogers has been faithful for many years there in Willmar.  Somewhere along the line, someone forgot to tell his people that old-fashioned revival meetings no longer work in the 21st Century.  They just kept on bringing their unsaved friends and relatives as if preaching still worked!  Not surprisingly, we saw two trust Christ as Savior on Thursday night of the meeting.

The dynamic at work in Bro. Rogers church is an often repeated one.  Whenever lost people sit under the sound of the Gospel for consecutive nights, they often trust Christ or leave angry.  Such is the nature of an extended meeting.  After reading stories of days gone by, some today are decrying the use of evangelists because we are no longer seeing the numbers of people attend the services as we once did.  Consider the facts of the Scripture.  The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes it (Romans 1:16).  Satan is powerless to prevent the Gospel from doing its work.  If he is to prevent men and women from trusting Christ, he must resort to other tactics.  His tactic of choice today seems to be keeping men and women from hearing the Gospel.

Why do so many invitations to come and hear an evangelist preach go unheeded by lost men and women?  The answer is that a simple invitation for a sinner hear to the Gospel represents an attack on Satan’s domain.  It is spiritual warfare.  The good news is, Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.  Still, every Christian needs to bathe invitations in prayer and understand that God’s power is desperately needed on something as simple as an invitation.

When we do reach out and get lost people to sit under the sound of the Gospel, the result will often be conversion.

As we traveled across SD last Saturday, I was nervous, given our experience with wind the week before.  We prayed that God would control the wind and keep us and the borrowed trailer safe.  He answered every prayer.  In over 500 miles of driving, the trailer did not so much as sway one time due to wind.  A couple of hours after we arrived in SD, the winds picked up again and have been gusting and blowing ever since.  In fact, I think I just saw a downwind chicken lay the same egg three times!

Windblown

Since we began, April has traditionally been a busy month for us.  Accordingly, we find ourselves in a cycle of traveling and preaching for several days on end.  Our first trip took us from IN to Willmar, MN.

We are currently traveling with a borrowed trailer from a family in our church.  The unit is a 30-foot bumper pull trailer in which the children sleep on two different beds, one a couch fold out and the other a dinette fold down.  While much smaller than what we were used to, this trailer is a great blessing from the Lord. 

As we traveled through IL, we faced some tremendous cross winds.  Yesterday, we passed a tractor and trailer that had blown over in the wind.  As we drove, a particularly strong gust of wind struck the truck and trailer.  The trailer fishtailed and whipped violently in the wind.  At one point, both tires on the one side were off the ground.  Despite all the excitement, we were able to make it safely to Willmar, arriving this afternoon. 

As for our search for a trailer in northern IN, we were disappointed by the lack of options that we have available to us.  Today, there are far fewer companies that make a unit that will work for us than there were when we first started in evangelism.  When we had nearly despaired of finding a trailer that would serve us well, we were introduced to a new company that has been in business for only a couple years.  They make a unit that will work for us.

Please pray that God will give us wisdom as we continue our search.  Please also pray that the Lord will bring in the finances that we need to pay for the unit.  So far, we have a little over half of what is needed to purchase the trailer outright.

Above all, though, please pray for souls to be saved.  Pray that Satan will be hindered as he tries to distract men and women from hearing the Word of God.  Pray that God’s power would be on us as we minister in every church.  Pray that the Word of the Lord would have free course and be glorified. 

And, as always, thank you for your prayers.

Totaled

The insurance company got back with us this week and gave us an amount for the trailer.  They will be giving us about $1,000 more for the trailer than what we paid for it originally.  All in all, I am very pleased with the way State Farm has handled the claim.

As for a new trailer, Sarah and I will be touring trailer factories in northern IN trying to see where we go from here.  We would covet your prayers for God’s wisdom as we look.  We are trusting the Lord the settle the entire thing.  So far, He has worked everything out very well and we are actually excited to see what He will do in the future.

Thank you so much for all your prayers.

Oops!

Well, it happened.  In nearly twelve years of pulling the trailer, I have never had a major accident.  Until this past Monday, that is.  Traveling like a barn sour horse, we came out of Taylors, SC, and entered the automotive quagmire of Atlanta, GA.  A wreck on the northeast side delayed us for a couple of hours so that by the time we hit the intersection of I-20, it was officially rush hour.  It took us about four hours to get from the Mall of Georgia to Six Flags.  (We stopped at neither place, but for those who know Atlanta, these are familiar landmarks on the outskirts of the metropolitan area.)  After making it through the traffic to the west side of the city, I realized that we needed to stop for fuel.

Motorists who have not pulled a large rig such as a forty-foot trailer rarely appreciate the difficulty that larger vehicles face.  Just any filling station won’t do: evangelists need one with lots of space in which to maneuver.  Thankfully, filling stations have taken steps to accommodate the needs of larger vehicles, some of them even creating designated lanes for RV’s.  It was into one of these designated lanes that I pulled.  It was late and we were in Villa Rica, GA, not far from the AL state line, ready to be rid of GA traffic for the night.

As I pulled into the RV lane of this gas station, I quickly realized that not all RV lanes are created equal.  Not all are endowed by their creators with ample space for large RV’s.  In fact, this one seemed to have been designed for smart cars more than for any sized RV.  It was especially unsuitable for a truck pulling a trailer, no matter what the sign said.

Not to worry, though.  I have been pulling large trailers for twelve years, right?  When we were done fueling, I had to back up to reposition the trailer in the lane so that it would clear when I pulled through and made a left hand turn to return to the freeway.  No problem.  I kept the rig on the right side so that my trailer would follow and miss the large concrete bumpers erected to protect the narrowly placed pumps.  Textbook.  One learns a few things through experience over years of repetition. 

In front of me sat several cars parked in designated parking areas—areas that some engineer is probably still laughing about because there is no way a large RV can make the turn out of the RV fueling lane with those cars there.  I had to carefully watch the cars in front of me so as not to hit them and watch in my mirrors to make sure that my trailer cleared those awful concrete barricades.  The barricades were quite war worn, bearing the the scars of several victories in previous encounters with different RV’s.  I had missed every obstacle when I began to turn the wheel to the left.  The rear of the trailer pivoted to the right as I did so and, out of my line of sight, struck the right hand barrier.  We did not so much as feel the impact, because we were going very slowly.  Nor could we hear anything, but as I completed the turn, I felt a slight pop.

The barrier had torn the back part of our trailer to bits.  Although it was towable, it is still not livable.  As technicians at the local RV service center examined the damage, they used the word totaled a lot.  Of course, the service center pronouncing the unit totaled is not the same as the insurance adjustor announcing the unit totaled.  We will have to wait and see what insurance says.  In the mean time, we are in the busiest time of our year without a trailer.

Please pray for us as we seek the Lord’s will concerning a replacement.  Some have already offered to help fund the new unit.  We are so thankful for the willingness of God’s people to help me the need.  Whatever happens, we are confident that God will provide.

Running Water

What a busy schedule the Lord has given us so far this year!  We are very grateful to see how He is opening door after door and blessing our ministry in every place where we have been.

Currently, we are in the state of North Carolina where we have nearly a month of meetings in different places in the western part of the state.  You may have seen the news that cold weather has descended upon the eastern seaboard to such an extent that many inhabitants are longing to return to the days of global warming.  The cold has significant effects on anyone wanting to live in a trailer.

A couple of days ago, the temperature was predicted to drop into the single digits.  It is customary in the trailer to leave the water running a trickle in order to keep it from freezing during nights when the temperature dips below 32 (Fahrenheit).  The problem is that the temperature can drop so low that even running water can freeze.

So to allay the problem, we actually winterized the trailer by using an air compressor to blow the water out of the lines.  In the meantime, we moved into the church’s mission house so that we could appropriately bathe and hydrate ourselves.

Then we moved on the next church, Emmanuel Baptist of Kings Mountain NC.  There we tried to hook up water only to find that all the outside spigots had frozen during the cold snap.  Not to worry, though.  After about an hour of working with a cheap Wal-mart hair dryer, we were able to get everything thawed.  Or at least, so it seemed.  As the outside temperatures climbed in the mid-40’s, the janitor and his family arrived to clean the church before the Lord’s day.  What did they find?  The pipes burst inside the building, necessitating that the water be cut off again.

So we still have no running water.  But then again, neither did much of humanity in days gone by.  It makes me sort of wonder, Do wells freeze deep in the ground so that you have to break the ice off them before you lower the bucket?  If conditions continue as they have been, I may soon be in a position to find out.

Strengthen

Acts 15:41 “And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the
churches.”

As an evangelist, this ministry of confirming the churches is a major thrust
of my ministry as I travel. I want to see souls saved and churches strengthened.
December was a great month for us financially, compared to years gone by.
Two things helped us out tremendously: first of all, several weekend meetings
during the month, and second of all, a special financial gift from the
Maranatha Baptist Church of Ripley, Tennessee. For the first time in many
years, we had a little bit of financial breathing room during the Christmas
season.

January found our family in Silver City, New Mexico, ministering in the Calvary
Baptist Church for four weeks. Would you pray that God gives them a
pastor? They need wisdom as they seek the Lord’s will in this matter.
February has us all over the country from Texas to North Carolina ministering
in a different church every week. Please pray for souls to be saved and
churches to be strengthened. It is wonderful to see those prayers answered
as we travel.

Many of you have prayed about our trailer situation in the past. The unit we
are in is wearing out and in need of replacement. Yesterday, for the first
time since we have been looking, I received some encouraging news as far
as a trailer replacement. Please pray for wisdom for us to make the right
decision in this regard. I am now convinced that if we get the right trailer,
we may be able to keep it for the next ten years instead of purchasing a different
one every three or four years due to wear and tear.

Thank you so much for your prayers.

Victory!

In the middle of October, my family and I went to eastern Colorado to the town of Fort Morgan.  Pastor Shannon Munday wanted me to preach the week before he started a revival meeting with another Evangelist, Bro. Dwight Smith.  The Lord worked everything in a wonderful way. 

On Sunday, October 19, I preached and the Lord worked on a teenaged boy’s heart named Josh with the result that he trusted Christ as Savior.  A few weeks ago, Josh had attempted suicide; now, he is on his way to heaven.  The next Sunday was Bring a Friend Sunday.  That morning, Bro. Smith preached the Gospel and many people came to be saved.  One entire row of unsaved people stepped out of the aisle in the invitation and came forward to be dealt with about salvation.  There were so many people to be dealt with that the pastor ran out of personal workers.  I had been leading the invitation hymn with Sarah at the piano.  In the absence of personal workers, I came down from the platform and dealt with a man.  Still, we needed more, so Sarah left the piano to go deal with a lady.  Bro. Dwight took over the playing of the piano.

The meeting went through Wednesday night with both Crow and Smith family working together.  By the time the meeting closed Wednesday night, we had seen sixteen people trust Christ as Savior.  It was one of the greatest meetings I have ever been in.

On the way out of town, we had a leaf spring shackle break on the trailer, causing one side of the trailer to ride lower than the other.  In the providence of God, we were able to get to our destination in Colby, KS, and get the broken part fixed with spare parts that I have been carrying around for several years (since the last time I had trouble with my leaf springs). 

Now, after preaching in the Colby Independent Baptist Church, we will head back to MS on Monday.

Thank you so much for your prayers.

Visitors

Tuesday morning, a farmer from this part of South Dakota went to the operating room for surgery.  It was to be a six hour procedure to remove a malicious tumor from his liver.  Once the doctors had opened him up and looked at his liver, they aborted the rest of the operation and sewed him back up: there was nothing they could surgically due to the tumor’s proximity to his bile duct.  The farmer’s son contacted a church member and wept, thinking that his Dad would not have much longer to live.

At the service that night, the church member spoke with the pastor and me, expressing his desire to go and see his friend who, as far as he knew, was not saved.  Reasoning that three would be a crowd in the hospital room, we elected to go with just two of us from the church.

So it was that yesterday morning, the church member and I headed to the hospital in Sioux Falls, SD.  The patient we found was sore from having been cut open the day before, but in good spirits, having retained his sense of humor through the ordeal. 

As is generally the custom, we engaged in small talk for a while, during which Tom, the patient, wept occasionally.  He had never dreamed that such a thing would happen to him; he was only 63 years old.  Of course, the main goal of our visit was not small talk, but the Gospel.  At one point in the conversation, God, in answer to our prayers, opened the door to talk about the most important thing.  I asked pointedly, “Tom, are you ready to go?”  He responded that he was.

After being interrupted by a phone call that I had to take, I reentered the room, wanting more information about Tom’s readiness.  We talked about being born again, that just as there is a definite point in time when a person is born physically, so there is a definite point in time when a person is born again spiritually.  Then came the most important question that I could ask: “Tom, was there ever a time when you trusted Jesus Christ as Savior?”

Tom’s answer came without hesitation.  “Yes.”  After another question about when that happened, he related to us how that he had begun attending a Bible study.  What could it hurt?  It was only one night a week, and he needed to read the Bible anyway.  Each person in the study group was supposed to read a certain portion of the Bible.  As he was reading his portion, God spoke to him in a definite way.  It was then that he trusted Christ as Savior.

Tom is still apprehensive about the future in this life.  Although he was saved about six years ago, he has never really grown in the Lord, his woman pastor notwithstanding.  Still, it was a joy to hear how God is still reaching out to man, offering His saving grace to all who will believe.

Duct Tape Diary

“If you weren’t born with a wrench in your hand, trailer life is not for you.”  Such forthrightness from a trailer salesman was interesting to hear.  Yet the truth of what he was trying to convey was very well put.  He who would live in a trailer must grow accustomed to constant maintenance.  For the Crow family, we are running out of innovations to keep the mechanism together.  “Extremely flexible” caulk won’t stretch enough to compensate for the flex in the front of the trailer to keep the water from pouring in, while “extremely durable” plastic latches are unable to withstand the onslaught of a junior high boy.  Not only are parts for RV’s expensive; they are are also hard to get once one quits the big cities.

Enter the Crow family in Millbank, South Dakota.  The town boasts a population of just over 3,000 people, but no RV dealer.  In fact, I think it would be easier to purchase a tractor here than anything to do with a home on wheels.  Parts availability will obviously be a problem here until Case International ventures into the trailer business.

Enter the roll of duct tape.  Strong.  Versatile.  Ubiquitous.  And, as of a couple of months ago, the weapon of choice against trailer entropy.  The high dollar tubes of caulk all proved feckless in stemming the flow of water into the front of my trailer.  In the course of owning this trailer, I have had to see a lot of money go out the tubes, as it were, only to have the flexible sealant break open because the front flex was too much.  After trying everything I knew to do, including spending $6,000 to have a shop do it professionally, I decided to bite the bullet and don the duct tape.  Sadly, the hillbilly fix has been the best yet.  The duct seals and forms a sort of roof under which the trailer can flex all it wants without the water entering in and rotting the trailer from within.  Duct tape saves the day again.  Cue hero music.

No one in my family broke the door handle.  Just ask them and they will be glad to assure you of their innocence.  Nevertheless, the latch that holds the screen door closed was mysteriously broken apart in the night, no doubt by a thief who, upon breaking and entering our trailer, was dissuaded from further crime by the lack of viable goods to steal.  Evidently, A Beka school books don’t bring much on the black market.  Regardless of how it actually broke, the latch had to be fixed.  Though we did not know it, there is a housefly convention going on right now in Millbank.  After we kill one in the trailer, there are at least four who break into the trailer to attend its funeral.  We needed a means to keep the door latched.

Once again, duct tape provided the perfect solution.  After taping the plastic back together and reinstalling the latch, we are finally beginning to turn the tide in the war against the flies.

By the time the year ends, there is no telling what all in our trailer will be held together with duct tape.  Stayed tuned for more of the duct tape diary.  Who knows what it will be next?

Twelve Years

July, 2014, marks twelve years that my family and I have been in full time evangelism.  It has been a wonder to see the Lord’s working in the hearts of people as the Word of God has gone forth.

We have had an interesting year so far, including something that we have never done before outside of our home church.  After the spring schedule of revival meetings and the early summer of camp in New Mexico, the Lord has directed us to Louisiana for six weeks.  During this meeting, we have not had meetings every night, but the pastor has given me his pulpit during most of the regularly scheduled services.  I have also been helping with outreach and will be assisting with vacation Bible school later on.  Every Sunday night, I have been teaching on Baptist history, we just finished a four-part series entitle “Praying Like Paul,” and a deacon and I just yesterday installed a cabinet that we built for the church office.  Below is a picture of the two of us the day we installed the piece of furniture.

In just over two weeks time, we leave LA and head north for a schedule of revivals in the Midwest and mountain states.  Please pray for us as we travel.  A major concern right now is the trailer.  Please pray that God holds it together as we travel.

Your Prayer for Me

My family and I are separated for the next couple of weeks as I labor in the Calvary Baptist Church in Silver City, New Mexico, and the Gila Christian Ranch, the camp connected with the church.  My family are all home ministering in our home church while I am away.

One of the greatest treasures that God has given me in the ministry is the number of people that pray for me on a regular basis.  They come from all over the country, from all walks of life, and from all stages of spiritual growth.  Still, they thrill my heart with the words “I pray for you daily.”  It is not uncommon for some of you to ask me for a prayer list.  Understandably, you want to know what requests are on my heart so that you can partner with me in asking God for them.  For those of you who want that prayer list, I offer you one today.  This is the most important prayer list I have ever given anyone, and it is my desire that you partner with me in praying for these requests.  As you will soon see, this prayer list is not original, but it is of utmost importance.

The first request that I would venture is that God would help us to maintain a clear conscience in everything that we do in the ministry.  The writer of Hebrews requested, “Pray for us: for we trust we have a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly.” (Hebrews 13:18)  As one in the place of serving God, there is a temptation to do so in a dishonest fashion.  Some had succumbed to the temptation in Paul’s day.  He reminded Timothy, “Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck: Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander.” (1 Timothy 1:19-20)  Timothy had not far to look before he could see evidence of some who started in ministry only to abandon the idea of a clear conscience.

The next request is for freedom of the Scripture.  This request comes from the Apostle Paul in his second letter to the Thessalonians.  He requested, “Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you.” (2 Thessalonians 3:1)  “Free course” refers to a runner who is unhindered in his push to the finish line.  It describes ability to move unhindered and swiftly.  So Paul instructed the Thessalonians to pray concerning his ministry, and so I would request that you would pray for me.

The next request comes from the very next verse.  “And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.” (2 Thessalonians 3:2)  Deliverance from those who are unsaved is an important request.  For every man that God raises up, Satan raises up a man or woman to oppose them.  Paul’s request was he might be delivered from such people.

The final request is perhaps the most important.  It is given almost verbatim in two books of the Bible.  To the Ephesians, Paul put it this way, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.” (Ephesians 6:18-20)  To the Colossians, the request was similarly worded: “Withal praying for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: That I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak.” (Colossians 4:3-4)  The ability to speak fluently and persuasively was highly valued in the Hellenistic Age in which Paul lived and ministered.  He therefore requested for the ability to speak well in the cause of the Gospel—that God would empower him to speak with not only skill, but also with boldness.  If the Apostle Paul needed skill and boldness to proclaim the Gospel, then who am I to not request prayer for the very same thing?

These are my four requests that I would ask you to pray for in my behalf.  But would you not take these requests and step farther pray for your pastor along these same lines?  Would you not take him to the throne of God and ask that God would do for him what I am asking that he do for me?

Thank you for your prayers and for listening to my prayer list.