Back to Normal

 The May rush of graduations is over for us as of today.  We had relatives in from out of town to celebrate Esther's graduation, with an honorable mention of Josiah's college graduation from college as well thrown into the mix.  Esther was the first of our children to not have a more formal graduation ceremony.  The details simply could not be worked out this year as they had with our other two children in days gone by.  That meant that the graduation reception at our house was the only means of celebration for Esther.  She was fine with not having a ceremony, though, if for no other reason than the fact that she did not have to give a public speech.  She plans to return to Ambassador Baptist College in the fall to continue studying for her one-year Bible certificate that she began in January of this year.  That will mean three of my four children will be in college at the same time. Josiah is on track to graduate with his master's degree a year from now.  Abigail has two more years to go, and Esther will be done this time next year as well.

In the mean time, the Crow family is back to whatever normal is for us.  Josiah is working on an internship in our home church in Mississippi; Abigail is a camp counselor all summer long at Southland Christian Camp in Ringgold, Louisiana; and our younger two are at home preparing for the summer ministry.

The highlight of this summer's ministry is to be a trip to Europe where we will spend six weeks preaching mostly in Italy, but also in Germany.  In these letters, I have mentioned the financial need that exists to enable us to be without income for those weeks, plus pay for our airfare.  Many gifts have come in for this need with more on the way.  At the present time the money that has actually come in is around 40% of what we need for the trip.  We are still a month out, and churches that have promised to give have not yet taken up the offerings for our upcoming trip.  We are confident that God will meet the need in His way and in His time.  Many of you who read these letters have given toward the need, and we are grateful for your generosity.

Until the exact date when we leave for Italy, June 24, we have some local engagements and one camp in which I will preach before we head out.  The schedule includes two American military churches, four Italian churches, and one missionary camp in Germany.  Our days will be filled with ministry, and we could not be more excited to see what God will do.

As the summer summer begins for each of us, may we all seize every opportunity that God gives us to serve Him.  As always, thank you all for your prayers and support.

A New Outreach

 As I write this, Dale and I are outside of Park Rapids, Minnesota, where we will be in a meeting through Wednesday of this week.  God has used the team as we have served together over the past couple of months.  We have gotten to know each other's strengths and weaknesses and the Lord is helping us to connect with people as we travel.  After this week, Dale will go back to Kings Mountain for a couple of months as the Crow family travels together once again.

God has brought in more money for our European missions trip.  We are not yet where we wanted to be with the total amount, but we are closer than we were last month.  Some churches have promised but not yet delivered on that promise.  One church is taking up an offering today for the need.  By next month, I should be able to give a dollar amount as to how much has come in.  This we know, our God is able.

Throughout 2024, I have been talking about a project of mine that I wanted to become a reality.  It is a podcast totally dedicated to the Gospel.  As of Friday of last week, it became a reality.  I have called it Evangel.  You can find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other platforms that feature podcasts.  One word of warning: there is a church in North Dakota that goes by the name Evangel.  They have their own podcast that is decidedly different from mine, at least based upon the description.  Also, there are many Spanish language podcasts called Evangel.  None of those are mine, either.  The goal is to put a new episode out every month.  You can recognize my podcast not only by its name, but also by its slogan: proclaiming and explaining the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

My son Josiah is supposed to graduate from college on Friday of this week.  After that, we head home for a few days before taking the family--all six of us--to New York City for a meeting there.  We are looking forward to what will do while we are in New York again.  This will be the first time that the entire family has been together for a full meeting in a few years.  We are looking forward to it.

Once we arrive back home in Mississippi, we will also be having some kind of graduation ceremony for my daughter Esther.  She is finally done with high school (home school), and we are very pleased with how hard she has worked.  Now only Daniel remains to be homeschooled.  If his high school is anything like the others, it will be over before we know it.

In a world that is divided by all kinds of things, I am happy to report that we are observing the fruits of kindness in this church in Minnesota.  Pastor Josh Hawn is man who stands for the truth, and yet has seen great strides in his small town because of his kindness to others.  It has been a great reminder to me of the power of God when we simply reach out to others with grace.  As we head into the summer, may all our interactions with others be seasoned with grace.

Thank you, as always, for your prayers.

Team

 My how our ministry team has changed!  Gone are the days when Crow children dropped out of the backseat of our truck like clowns from a Volkswagen.  Only Daniel remains with me, and now I can give somewhat of a report about Dale being part of the team.  Everything has gone very well in meetings.  Dale's contributions have been a great blessing in every church in which we have ministered.  It has been a joy for him as well to travel with us.

This is a very busy season for us in meetings just now.  God is supplying meetings in many different places and daily supplying the strength to serve Him.  We have been in Indiana and Ohio for a few weeks and will return home on April 1.  Dale will get a brief hiatus while the family is back together again ministering in South Carolina and Georgia.  Then, the three of us--Daniel, Dale, and I--get back on the road again as a team.  To be sure, this is a different dynamic from what I have done in the past, but God is blessing the arrangement.

We are actively making preparations for our trip to Europe this summer.  The plan is to leave June 25 and return August 6.  Most of our ministry will be in Italy, but we do have one week in Germany as well.  There will be a lot of travel and expense in order to be gone for this long a time.  Our needs have always been taken care of on the mission field, but there is a difficulty paying our bills back home when we are gone for so long a time.  We are praying for 10 churches to be able to contribute $1,000 each to our missions needs.  So far, 4 churches have responded.  Would you pray that God will supply the remainder of the money that is needed?

Europe has become the dark continent spiritually.  To be there is to miss none of the conveniences of the United States, but there is such a spiritual darkness that is there.  It is such a joy to see people that were saved the last time we were in Italy serving God faithfully today.  Families have been transformed because of the light of the Gospel.  As you pray for laborers, please remember Europe.  

Sarah has just a little over a month before her teaching duties will end for the summer.  It will be great to have her with me again as we travel.

Our older children will embark upon their summer ministries as soon as the semester is done.  Abigail plans to work at Southland Christian Camp in Louisiana as a counselor, while Josiah will serve in our home church in Mississippi as an intern for the summer.  Esther and Daniel will be with us in Europe for the summer.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers as we continue to see God work through the ministry of evangelism.  May God give you fruit for your labor for Him.

Build Thine House

 This past month has been a fruitful month for ministry here in the United States.  This time of year, I try to keep our meetings in the South and that has been true this year as well.  My home church Clearview Baptist Church has always been one of my favorite places in all the world to preach.  The day after our winter revival closes, the entire church meets in the fellowship hall to assemble 5,000 outreach packets that we then distribute to every door in the community until we run out.  (This distribution process takes a couple of months.)  The whole process is very organized and profitable in that it gives everyone an outlet in which to participate in getting out the gospel.  Additionally, we have seen good fruit from the packets that we hand out.  This routine has been a part of my family's life and service to God through our local church for many years, and though my three oldest were unable to be there for it this year due to their college commitments, Daniel and I still participated.  There is nothing quite like working to get the gospel into the hands of other people.

Additionally, we were also in Beaufort, South Carolina, for a meeting.  God blessed there as well with a soul trusting Christ as Savior.  My traveling evangelistic team has shrunk from 6 to 2 people now.  Daniel and I go to meetings and try to provide what special music we can in addition to the preaching.  Things are about to change, though.  A friend of mine named Dale Lieser has agreed to travel with us in the month of March.  Dale is an accomplished pianist and a dear friend.  We are testing the waters to see how this arrangement will work for us.  Dale is blind, and I need wisdom to be able to meet his needs while we are on the road.  I have no doubt that he will be a great blessing in the churches where we minister.

My podcast proceeds more slowly that I wish it would.  As soon as it is online, I will let you know.  For those who wish to have more current news than once a month, you can follow my wife on Facebook (Sarah Crow).  While I am not on FB, I am on Instagram where you can follow me at @crowing617.  I will announce the opening podcast there.

Several months ago, we noted that water was dripping from the upstairs bathroom of our home down the wall into the downstairs bathroom.  After putting off the problem for a while, I decided to deal with it while the rest of the family was in NC.  I tore out the downstairs bathroom down to studs and am in the process of redoing it now.  By the end of next week, I hope to have everything completed.  After working on this project, I have come to the realization that one of the greatest blessings of human existence is that God does all the work on my heavenly mansion without me having to lift a finger in the process.  Other than seeing Jesus, one of the greatest blessings of heaven may be no more remodeling projects.

Before too long, we will celebrate two graduations at our house: Esther from high school and Josiah from college.  Life is happening fast.  Thank you all for all your prayers.

Fruit

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

End of the Year

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Faithfulness

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

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

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

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

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

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