Praises from the Bus Ministry, Sending Out Missionary Seth Acree (Jun 29, 2009)
Our teen bus workers were able to take a group of our bus teens to Six Flags in Atlanta this Friday. Nearly thirty kids were in attendance, and they had a wonderful time. During the devotion segment of the trip, three kids bowed their heads and prayed to receive Christ as Savior. Amen! Many of these children had never been on an outing like this before. It created a great memory for them. We appreciate our bus workers and the diligent work that they put into the ministry.
Bus attendance figures yesterday were very respectable for the middle of summer. Seven kids prayed to receive Christ in the counseling center of bus church. Two more bus kids that had been saved earlier were baptized yesterday. We praise the Lord for Quantavius Carter and Shannon Bonaparte making their new faith public. Quantavius had his mother in attendance yesterday to watch his baptism. Mrs. Carter was recently led to the Lord by our bus workers in her home. She promised me yesterday that she was going to stay with her new faith and that she would be faithful to church. Amen!
Every year we honor a student who came to us through the bus ministry with the Lloyd and Anita Berrey Scholarship. This gives a promising bus kid a tuition-free scholarship to Grace Christian School. We were privileged to present this award yesterday to Devin Mason. Devin is now coming to church every time the doors are open, and his zeal is uncommon. We are excited about his enrollment in our school.
On post this week, 129 soldiers attended four Bible studies. Brother Ingram reports that 23 of these stood to receive Jesus Christ as personal Savior. This week Brother Ingram begins discussion with the powers that be to get us back into the reception station at Fort Benning. If this becomes a reality, we will have a significant Saturday evening Bible study that should result in numerous salvation decisions among those who are new recruits into the Army. Also, this week we are giving out Bibles and watermelons to the soldiers to celebrate the Fourth of July. Pray that God will use this to help us lead some of them to Christ.
We have moved our RU meetings to Thursday night, and attendance has been greatly benefited. Our numbers jumped by 13 this week. Praise the Lord!
Last night at church, Seth Acree, missionary appointee with BIMI, presented the field of Ghana, West Africa. Seth was raised at Grace Baptist Church and called to preach here. It was our privilege, not only to take the Acrees on for support, but also to assume responsibilities as their sending church. Seth did a marvelous job preaching from Isaiah 6, and there were a good number of decisions at the altar. Seth and Melissa Acree are now the 150th missionary supported by Grace, and this ties the highest number of missionaries we have ever had. This coming week as we vote to support Jason Christenson to Egypt, we will reach our highest level ever. Amen!
Don't forget that our annual missions bump-up Sunday is July 26. Pat Creed will be with us again, and we are excited about watching our missions budget grow yet another step as people "bump-up" their faith promise commitments. Pray what God would have you do.
This coming Saturday, we will have our annual God and Country picnic at the North 40. The picnic will get started at 10:00 AM, and we will start serving lunch around 11:30 AM. Everything should be done by 2:00. On Sunday, the choir has a special patriotic package planned. The color guard of GBC will "present the colors," and I will begin a new three-part sermon series entitled "Sweet Land of Liberty." I hope you will be a part of this very special weekend.
We appreciate the prayers that many of you have offered for our daughter Ashley. The doctors discovered that she had a hernia in her stomach. We are trying now to eradicate the high levels of acid in her stomach so this hernia can heal. We will discover tomorrow the results of the study that were done on her gall bladder. Please continue to pray. Your prayers are still coveted for the unspoken personal matter that remains unresolved.
Thank you for your continued interest in this ministry. Pray for us as we follow-up with the visitors who graced our halls this week.