Updates

Hello again to everyone! I trust you are doing well and staying faithful to our Lord. The camp we spoke at in June was such a blessing! There were six churches represented and around fifty young people who were great to preach to. Several kids were saved and several others made life-changing decisions. May God continue to raise up a younger generation to fear and follow Him!

I’ve had several pulpit supply’s here in Illinois in the last few months. What a blessing preaching at our home church in Rockford, along with churches in Belvidere, LaSalle, and Cedarville. God touched hearts in each service and I am so grateful to help out when a church has a need.

This fall we have a few opportunities for revival meetings; we will be helping out with the music and doing children’s meetings for a revival in Pennsylvania the first week of September. Then we have two other meetings to follow in Illinois. We are praying for a mighty outpouring of God’s Spirit everywhere we go!

The world is in a mess; lies are rampant everywhere we turn. Let us be seizing every opportunity to speak God’s truth into the lives around us!

“Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” What an encouraging verse given to us by David, the sweet Psalmist of Israel. Of course, we know the Lord is the one who inspired David to pen his psalms, and so it is really God Himself who admonishes us to wait upon Him!

I hope that all of us have learned or relearned the lesson of waiting upon God during this Covid-19 pandemic. Many churches are just now beginning to assemble once again, while some are still waiting. Whatever the case may be, God’s timetable is always best and He is accomplishing His eternal purposes, whether we understand those purposes or not. Most of the time we don’t understand, but it is still our job to trust Him! Our two meetings in May were postponed, but we still got away from Illinois to visit with family in Tennessee for a few weeks – what a refreshing time! I was also able to preach two Sunday morning services at the church our family attends. The Lord blessed with such a wonderful spirit in each of the services.

I am eagerly anticipating preaching at a church camp in Iowa starting on June 15, and my two oldest kids are eagerly anticipating being campers! Would you pray that God would both save lost kids and revive the believers as well?

We are still praying that God would open more doors for later this year. Our world has always needed Jesus, but it just seems more evident right now with all the current events. Keep being faithful where you are and shining the light of Christ to all those around you!

Psalm 112:7 states: “He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.” These are certainly strange and unusual days that we are living in. The global pandemic Coronavirus dominates the headlines and has brought to a halt much of normal life. There is fear and frustration every where we look. Sadly, many of God’s people are caught up in the pandemic of fear as well. What is the answer? Just like anything else in life, the answer is found in our unchangeable God and His unchangeable Word. Though this virus is touching seemingly every area of our lives like nothing has ever done before, it should not touch our confidence in God. As believers, we need not fear whatever “evil tidings” come our way, because we have been promised the never changing presence of God! We may be confused about what’s going on in our world but our God is not. He is still on the throne accomplishing His eternal purposes! Fix your heart upon Him today and experience the joy and peace that passes understanding, and that will also be a great testimony at this time to the lost around us.

The youth rally I was scheduled to preach at the beginning of April has of course been canceled, and the revival meeting has been pushed back to the first week of May. We are praying that things will have calmed down by then and we could continue serving in churches for the cause of Christ and revival. But our Lord knows best and we will trust His timing. I hope that you will be faithful to God no matter where He has you and that you will look for creative ways to reach out and minister to people at this time. May we seize the opportunity to offer hope to those fearful hearts around us, and may God use this time to awaken our nation back to Him!

Happy New Year to you all! This post is a little late; you can thank that on all the sickness that’s been going around! It hit our family and I’ve been out of commission for a while now. Thankfully, I feel like I have turned a corner and now I can get back to doing what needs to be done!

I did have a minor back surgery in December and, praise God, have felt much better since then! I am still taking things slow as I need to strengthen my back muscles again, but compared to how I was feeling it is like a night and day difference. My prayer is that all this back trouble would be behind me now, but whatever the Lord wants I know is always best. Oh for grace to trust Him more!

We begin the year here in our home church; we have seen some visitors recently and even some additions to the church – praise God! I pray it is just the beginning taste of what God is going to do in our midst this year. We do have some meetings lined up, but much of 2020 is still open. Would you pray that God would open the doors that He wants? We desire to increase Christ to God’s people, and we are trusting the Lord to lead us every step of this journey. Thank you for your time and interest in our ministry – to God be the glory great things he hath done and is going to do!

We have recently returned home from our last meeting of this year; the Lord was good and gave us strength and safety during our 3 meetings in 5 weeks stretch. What a wonderful time we had being with the folks of Believer’s Baptist in Warsaw, IN! God gave me great liberty in preaching and I know many hearts were touched. It was an added blessing to be able to do some neat things on this trip, like visit Billy Sunday’s house and also take a trip to a camel farm – that’s right, a camel farm!

We then had a great time ministering at Harmony Baptist Church in Galesburg, IL. The people were so nice and really seemed to receive the messages well. The pastor told me there were several visitors throughout the week, and that is always a blessing. I trust the Lord will continue to give an increase in the hearts who received the seed of God’s Word.

Our most recent meeting certainly did not go as I expected – I missed the Sunday morning service and had to sit down the rest of the week to preach! Early Sunday morning I had a terrible episode with my back and the herniated disc I am dealing with. I bent over to pick something up and, well, that was a no-no! I had intense pain for several hours and could barely walk. To God be the glory though, He raised me up and gave me the measure of health I needed to be able to sit and preach the rest of the week. The Perryopolis Baptist Church in Perryopolis, PA, was so kind and gracious and understanding of my situation, they did so much to take care of us and try to make me as comfortable as possible. Praise the Lord for His working in lives, as people were at the altar every night, and one first time visitor accepted Christ as his Savior!

We turn our attention now to trying to get my back completely healthy (I have an upcoming MRI and meeting with my doctor to see what needs to be done), and then working on Christmas plans for our home church. Thanks to all for your prayers for us as we seek to keep increasing Christ wherever God has us!

We have enjoyed being home the last few months and just serving in our home church. But the itch to preach is starting to take over, and we are ready to get back on the road! We have 3 meetings in the next 5 weeks, for which we are extremely grateful to the Lord. We are excited to see what God is going to do, and we are just happy to be along for the ride!

This Sunday we start at Believer’s Baptist Church in Warsaw, IN. Then we will be moving on to a work in Galesburg, IL, and then the first week in November we will be at a church just south of Pittsburgh, PA. Would you pray that we would experience a fresh breath from heaven in each of these meetings? May you all enjoy this Fall season and be found faithful in serving our precious Savior!

We just returned from Ramey, PA, where we had the privilege of ministering at Servant’s Heart Camp for two weeks – what a blessing to finally see the camp in person and witness the wonderful way God is using brother Jim Fry and the staff there! We watched God give many spiritual victories in both the teen and junior week. I dealt with a teen girl one night for almost an hour regarding salvation, and it was neat to see the Spirit of God open her eyes to the answer of Christ and simple faith in Him. She cried out to God for almost 10 minutes asking Him to save her; it was one of the most sweet and genuine prayers I have ever heard!

We had other kids saved, others make surrender decisions, others call home to their parents to confess sins – God truly did an amazing work! I wish each of you could have been there to hear the testimony time at the end of each week, as many young people gave evidence of their sensitivity to the Lord and wanting to obey Him. These two weeks greatly encouraged my heart in seeing God is not done working in the hearts of people! Oh, another added blessing was that Haileigh and Dom got to be campers for the Junior week – needless to say, they were extremely happy about that and had a real blast!

We were also able to minister in two churches in the area on the different Sunday’s; much thanks to the Cromwell United Bible Church in Three Springs, PA, and the First Baptist Church of Limestone, PA, for taking care of us and allowing us to serve with them. We had great Sunday’s in both these places. I guess I’m just trying to say not only is it such an honor, but it is so much fun to serve the King of Kings! May all of us be faithful in serving Him no matter where we are!

What a wonderful time we had on our most recent trip! Preaching at churches, spending time with family and friends, and being able to do some neat things were just some of the blessings we enjoyed. We preached on Sunday, May 19, at Good News Baptist in Chesapeake, VA. Pastor Mike Ascher grew up at my home church here in Illinois, and so it was a real joy to be able to reconnect with him. The church people were so friendly and were an easy crowd to preach to. The Lord gave us a wonderful day and many folks indicated that God was working in their hearts.

The next week we had a revival meeting in Henderson, NC, at the church that my Grandfather pastored for many years. My Uncle is now leading the church and doing a fine job continuing the work in that community. Needless to say, it was very special for me to be able to hold meetings here. God blessed during the week with good liberty in preaching and tender hearts to receive the Word. We praise God for everyone who took care of us and graciously met every need we had. We were then able to preach the following Sunday at another sister church in the area, and we are so grateful for God’s people there who welcomed us and met our needs!

The Lord is so good in allowing us to do special things on our trips. We spent a few days in Williamsburg, VA. There is so much to see and do in this historical area that we couldn’t possibly do it all, but we did get to enjoy walking around colonial Williamsburg and going into some of the different buildings. The kids especially liked the carriage ride we took around the town!

On our way back home we stopped at the Ark Encounter and Creation Museum in Kentucky. What a blessing that two different individuals we’ve come across in our travels gave us free passes for both of these attractions! We very much enjoyed going through the Ark and the Creation Museum and learning more about the greatness and power of our awesome God! I encourage every believer to make the effort to go see these God-glorifying places.

We are back home for several weeks before we head to Pennsylvania for camp ministry in July. Thank you all for your prayers and interest in our ministry – keep pressing forward for Christ!

Even though the first few months of this year looked quiet as far as traveling goes, we have still kept plenty busy with various things. After a lengthy battle with Alzheimer’s and more recent kidney failure, Alanna’s dad passed away at the end of January. Thus, we headed down to Oklahoma for the funeral and to be with family. What a blessing that all of her sibling’s were able to be there and spend several weeks together. Back home here in Illinois, I have been filling in at our home church for a good part of February and March as our Pastor continues to recover from his stem cell transplant for his bone cancer. We have enjoyed being home and ministering among our precious church family!

We recently encountered a bit of a discouraging season for us as a family; we had to cancel a meeting in Minnesota at the end of March because, well, my back just went and completely gave out! For the last several months I have dealt with two bulging discs in my back that has caused nerve pain down my right leg. For the most part it has been manageable; but a few weeks ago as I was carrying my son’s car seat, I felt my leg just give out from me. There were several days that I had severe pain in both my back and leg, and, frankly, I just couldn’t move! We were so disappointed that we couldn’t make it to our meeting, but we know God’s ways are best even when we don’t understand. My mobility and pain level has been slowly improving, but I will still have to continue treatments/therapy for quite some time. Would you pray with us that God would give us strength through this time and would bring a healing touch to my back? Pray as well that I would not squander the lessons that my Heavenly Father is trying to teach me.

This month we will still be filling in here at home, and then we will head out in mid-May to be at a church in Virginia and then a meeting in North Carolina. Thank you for your interest in and prayers for our ministry – may Christ continue to be increased in all we say and do!

Happy New Year to everyone!  We trust you all had a wonderful holiday season with family and friends.  We enjoyed our two trips at the end of the year – our international trip to Moldova to spend Thanksgiving with Alanna’s sister and brother-in-law, and then our stateside trip to Oklahoma to spend with Alanna’s parents and other siblings for Christmas.  We praise the Lord for safety and strength with the many miles traveled, and for the great memories made with family.

The beginning of 2019 will keep us around home and ministering at our church.  Our Pastor has bone cancer and is going through treatments, and so I will be filling the pulpit several times, especially after he has his bone marrow transplant sometime in February.  We are grateful the Lord worked it out that we can be here and be a help as needed.

Would you please pray that the Lord would continue to fill our schedule for later in the year?  We are thankful for the doors that have already opened, but we are eagerly looking to God to bring in more opportunities.  Please check out our itinerary and be praying for the meetings we have!

May we all look to Christ in 2019 and be busy about His service!