Stormy Weekend (Apr 13, 2009)

Dear Friend of Grace,

In between the violent storms of Friday night and the torrential rains of this morning, the Lord parted the clouds and gave us a beautiful Easter weekend. What great services we had to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior. The Lord blessed with tremendous attendance figures. We had 696 in Sunday School and 787 for the morning worship. Praise the Lord for the way He is growing this ministry.

Though buses were slightly down, three bus kids (2 brothers and 1 sister) followed the Lord in believers baptism yesterday. Nijay, Nekoe, and Niagara all had been saved for about a year. But through consistent discipleship of our bus youth workers, all three children felt the need to be baptized. It was my privilege to plunge them beneath baptismal waters yesterday.

In addition to these three, it was my privilege to baptize Meagan Welles. Meagan is the daughter of Gordon and Karen Welles, two great members of our church. Meagan was led to the Lord by her father Saturday night and made that faith public yesterday morning through the ordinance of baptism. It was exciting to welcome her as the newest member of Grace Baptist Church.

On post this week, we had the privilege of ministering to 279 soldiers. Of these, 54 stood to receive the Lord as personal Savior. Bob Ingram was able to preach "in the field" on Wednesday to 125 men. God keeps opening more doors for the Freedom House, for which we praise the Lord. Pray for our assistant director, Nathan Farnsworth, who will be married this coming Saturday at Lakewood Baptist Church in Chattanooga.

A pancake breakfast was offered at our satellite church in Lumpkin. Pastor Allison reports that he had one new visitor yesterday, and the attendance continues to slowly rise in Stewart County. Praise the Lord for the faithfulness of Pastor and Mrs. Allison that is making inroads into this needy part of Georgia.

Last night the choir of Grace Baptist presented an Easter cantata entitled "In the Presence of Jehovah." It was good music, and there were several visitors in attendance to hear it. Pray for us as we follow up on these new contacts from the morning and evening services.

Offerings continue to escalate despite the supposed economic meltdown. We praise the Lord that He is not dependent upon a "stimulus package" to meet our needs.

Continue to pray for us as we seek to take the Gospel to Columbus and around the world. We were privileged to have veteran BIMI missionary Jim Daly present the field of Indonesia Wednesday night. It was our privilege to add Jim and Dawn to our missionary family, making them the 151st missionary of Grace Baptist Church.

Thank you for your interest in this ministry. We love you.

Under the Grip of Grace,
Jeff Amsbaugh