If my calculations are correct, we have put 1606 invitations to the church through letterboxes this week! That is the most we have ever done in one week. Good job everyone! Since January, we have contacted 7,000 homes with an invitation to the church and gospel literature. Our goal is to hit all 33,000 this year, so we are 1/5 of the way there! Most of the people who we meet are very friendly and willing to take the literature. One lady today was very unhappy that we had driven down her “private drive”. We did not see any signs, so we went ahead, but hopefully people understand that we are not tryin to attack them or their church. We are only trying to let people know about our church and make the gospel available for them to accept or reject.
Midweek Service
31 May, 2008 at 12:37 pm (Announcements)
I had previously posted that our midweek services would be on Thursday nights beginning next week. We have decided to postpone this change until after we finish distributing our current leaflets. We forgot to change the day on the 10,000 leaflets that we just ordered, so we will wait to move the service day for a few weeks until we get all of the leaflets passed out. I will let you know when we decided to change the service.
Missions Conference at Faith Baptist
31 May, 2008 at 8:43 am (Update)
Pastor Martin Wickens asked me to preach last night and tonight at Faith Baptist Church for their missions conference. It was a privilege to preach last night, and I am excited about what God is doing in the church there. There seemed to be a real good spirit in the meeting. You can read what Bro. Martin wrote on his blog here.
We are looking forward to a good day of doing outreach today and then to the meeting in Glengormley tomorrow. Please pray for the services tomorrow as we start a new series called “Surviviving Parenting.” We will be looking at “Your Child’s Greatest Need” in the morning service.
Update from the Williams to Honduras
30 May, 2008 at 3:58 pm (Missions)
Here is an udpate from our missionaries to Honduras, Evan and Carmen Williams:
Just a quick update to let you all know that we are still pressing forward for the privilege of reaching the lost in Honduras. The meetings have been going really well and all our travels have been blessed of the Lord with safety, praise the Lord.We have had great news since our last update in that another two churches have confirmed their support of our ministry. Praise the Lord with us for this answer to our prayers.
Our daughter today hands in her university dissertation, a work that has taken her some time in finishing up. This marks the end of her two BA’s in English and Spanish and lifts the stress off of her for the summer. Thank you for all your prayer for her during her finals, we now await her results. Pray for her that she might be guided of the Lord as to where to go from here. Pray to that as she settles down now to get her driving exam she will be able to get this out of the way before the end of July.
Our son continues in therapy. During his last visit the therapist noticed that one of the bones in his foot had moved out of line, hindering him from placing his foot flat on the ground when he stands on it. They are now working to correct this with out surgery so pray with us that God might intervene. Remember too his employment status.
Things in Ireland have turned for the worst for the building trade and a lot of men and apprentices are now with out work. Evan is one of them, due to his injury. Pray with us that when he is able to return to work God will open a door of opportunity for him.
Our next communique will be via our quarterly prayer letter, due out June 21st. Until then pray with us as we continue to visit churches here in the USA. Thank you for all your support and prayers.
Video of Organisational Service
28 May, 2008 at 3:47 pm (Church)
Here is the video of the organisational service of our church on this past Sunday evening as we officially organised Northwest Baptist Church with a church charter and church membership.
Video of Baptismal Service
28 May, 2008 at 7:46 am (Church)
Here is the video from our baptismal service on Sunday. What an amazing thing to see new believers in Christ show their love for Christ by obeying Him and following Him in baptism!
Thanks from Austin Gardner
27 May, 2008 at 10:26 am (General)
It was a huge blessing to me and to our church to have Pastor Austin Gardner from Vision Baptist Church with us last week. It was a life-changing week for many of us, and we are so excited about the days ahead! The following thank you letter comes from Pastor Gardner.
I am so very grateful to God for the opportunity to be with Travis and Teri Snode as we organized their church this weekend. We worked hard and talked late into the night and I believe that God has really big plans for this church and its ministry.
I want to take this opportunity to thank all of the people from the church for all their special kindness and friendship to me. I want to thank you for being so warm, open, and friendly. You were a good group to preach to and I really enjoyed it. I am very proud of you and for you.
I want to thank the Snodes for their invitation and super hospitality. They worked extremely hard and were very busy but they were the greatest of hosts. Teri carries a load that would kill most ladies but does a great job of it. Travis is really the man of the hour and I am so glad that we have the chance to work with them.
They have an organized church now with 10 members. It may not be much now but a lot is on the way. We talked late into the night and there are wonderful things coming. I know that God is going to bless.
Organisational Service
27 May, 2008 at 10:21 am (Update)
Northwest Baptist Church is officially organised with church membership and a charter now. The pastor of our sending church, Austin Gardner, was with us for the past 5 days preaching and teaching. We had a good time in the services on Sunday morning. Then in the afternoon, we baptised 4 new believers in Jesus Christ, at the Lisnagelvin Leisure Centre. In the evening service, we organised our church, and 10 people signed the church charter to become members. You can see pictures of the day below. We had 23 in the morning service and 27 in the evening.
Now or Never
24 May, 2008 at 9:44 pm (Update)
It has been such a blessing to see how God has blessed our church. We have seen His do some great things, since we arrived here. On September 16, 2007, we launched the church in our community with 47 people in attendance and 29 first-time visitors. Over the past year, we have had 130 first-time visitors. We have seen several professions of faith, and lives changed.
On Sunday night, we will have the organisational service for our church, as we formally organise and sign a church charter. I believe this is the beginning of something big for our church.
It has been such a blessing to have my pastor, Austin Gardner, from Vision Baptist Church with us for these days. We are sent by Vision Baptist, and our church will be its first daughter church. Bro. Gardner has been preaching a whole lot for us while he is here. He has preached the last four nights, taught for 2 1/2 hours on Thursday and Friday mornings, preached for the youth rally tonight, and then will preach 3 times tomorrow.
The Lord blessed our youth rally. We had 47 people total, with several folks and young people from other churches. It was a good time. Many had to leave to get back for their services on tomorrow, but the message tonight was very, very good on “Now or Never.” We have a great opportunity, like the children of Israel, and we need to go through the door, to trust the Lord, to not listen to the evil report, or we may never get another opportunity. We will have the message uploaded to the Internet soon, and I hope that you will listen to it if you could not be here. I believe that every Christian needs to hear and heed this message.
Please be praying for the services tomorrow. We had discipleship classes at 10.30 AM, which are training for every Christian, and especially those who will be the future workers and teachers in our church. At 11.30 AM is our morning service. Our baptismal service will be at 5.30 PM at Lisnagelvin Leisure Centre, and then our evening service will be at 7.00 PM. Tea and refreshments will follow the evening service.
The New Testament Church
23 May, 2008 at 8:21 am (Announcements, Update)
Well, I am so excited about what God is doing in and through our church! We had a great service last night. Bro. Austin Gardner preached a tremendously helpful message, dealing with the questions of “What is a New Testament Church?” and “How Will We Get Involved.”
We had 21 in the service last night and 32 on Wednesday night. Most of the people there last night are going to be joining our church and will have the privilege and responsibility to be charter (founding) members of a brand new church on Sunday night. I am excited about working with a group of people who have taken this step of faith and gotten ahold of the vision to do something great for God.
We are in the early days of our ministry here, and I know God is going to do great things! Thank you for continuing to pray. You can listen in to the messages here. Also, if you have not been able to join us for any of the sessions, come along tonight or tomorrow at 7.30 PM.
Here is a brief rundown of what will be going on the rest of the weekend with Austin Gardner preaching each meeting.
- Friday
- 10.30 – 1.00 PM: Training Session
- 7.30 PM: Bible Conference Service
- Saturday
- 11.00 AM: Community Outreach
- 4.00 – 7.00 PM: Youth Rally (Registration is from 3:30 – 4:00 PM.)
- 7.30 PM: Bible Conference Service
- Sunday
- 10.30 AM: Discipleship Classes
- 11.30 AM: Morning Service
- 5.30 PM: Baptismal Service (Lisnagelvin Leisure Centre)
- 6.30 PM: Volunteer Meeting
- 7.00 PM: Church Charter Service (Tea and refreshments to follow!)
