Two Memorial Services (Mar 23, 2009)
Dear Friend of Grace,
This past week the Lord gave me the privilege of preaching two memorial services. The first was for Auria Dominguez who came to the United States for a simple knee surgery. Shortly before the surgery, our Spanish pastor, Mark Liedtke, and I were able to lead Auria to the Lord, largely thanks to the prayers of her two sisters, Hilda and Maria. Auria developed some complications and went to meet her Savior. We are thankful that God gave us her soul in the nick of time.
The other funeral was for Patsy Durham, long-time member of Grace Baptist Church. Patsy had served as teacher of our Mary-Martha Sunday School class for over 16 years. She also served as our church secretary for many years. She lived a radiant Christian life, which made her eulogy relatively easy to do. At her memorial service, five hands were raised to accept Jesus Christ as personal Savior. Pray for us as we attempt to follow up with others who were noticeably under conviction. Patsy's son, Rodney, was in church yesterday at Grace. It was a great delight to see him sitting in his mother's pew.
The Lord blessed with several in-town visitors this week. Pray for us as we follow up with them.
One of the visitors from last night service was Farid Fahim visiting from Belgium. He and his wife came with their sister-in-law Wilma, who is a member of our church. They came to hear our missionary to France, John Gribbin. Brother Gribbin preached a powerful message on the love of Christ, which can be heard by logging on to our website. Please pray that this message will bear fruit in the lives of the Fahims and that they will soon trust Christ as personal Savior.
We received another missionary report this week on Wednesday from Don Winan. He and his wife Lola have been serving in Australia for a good number of years. They are dear friends. We are excited about our own Sam Liedtke who will be traveling to Australia this summer as part of a Go Forth missions team. Pray that God will confirm His call in Sam's life.
Yesterday morning, we had a touring group from Ambassador Baptist College. Incoming President, Alton Beal, preached a powerful message during our Sunday School hour, and there was good fruit from the message. The ensemble, under the direction of Dr. Don Scovill, did a great job in the Sunday School and morning worship hours. This week I will traveling along with my wife Karen to ABC to participate in their annual board meeting. Thank you for your prayers in travel.
Yesterday morning, I finished my sermon series on the Sword of the Lord. This week we talked about The Sharp Sword from Hebrews 4:12. A teenage girl raised her hand for salvation but did not the pull the trigger. One of our bus workers, Ben Shuler, noticed her hand and followed up with her after church. He was able to lead her to Christ. Amen!
Chris Clark, a member of our Soul Winner's Club, also was able to give testimony last night that God used her to bring a soul to Christ this week. Amen again!
One child was saved in the counseling center of bus church this week. We praise the Lord for this fruit among the 130 riders who boarded our buses this week.
On the base front, we ministered to 39 soldiers this week with four of them standing to receive Christ as personal Savior. Praise the Lord!
Our satellite church in Lumpkin had 17 people in attendance this week. Five of these were first time visitors. The efforts of Pastor and Mrs. Allison are showing results. Amen! We are also happy to announce that the doctors have declared Mrs. Allison cancer free!
Daniel Henderson was able to lead his son Chase to the Lord this week. It was my privilege to baptize Chase last night and to welcome him as the newest member of Grace Baptist Church. What a great thrill to see the third generation of Hendersons coming into the faith!
Don't forget that our annual Sword of the Lord conference begins next week. Dr. John Hamblin will begin our conference on Sunday morning, March 29. Dr. Shelton Smith will be joining him on Monday and Tuesday. A special pastors' fellowship will take place Tuesday, March 31 at 10:00 AM.
During the economic meltdown, God is raising the budget at Grace Baptist Church. Giving is at an all-time high. We praise the Lord for the sacrifice of His people that is allowing us to do more than ever to reach the world with the Gospel.
Last week our new broadcast equipment was installed to launch our new half-hour weekly radio program, A Touch of Grace. Pray that God will open markets for this broadcast to be heard. In addition, we are in the process of uploading pages to our new website. Within a couple of months, you should see a greatly improved site.
Thank you for your continued prayers and support of this ministry. We could not do what we do without your support.
Under the Grip of Grace,
