Austin Gardner

Betty and I just came back from visiting the Howeth’s at the hospital. This picture was taken by Stacey, I suppose. Ethan is still in pain.

Today they got him up and had him sit in a chair. This caused intense pain.

Brother Tony was up all last night helping him since he was in such pain.

Please continue to pray.

In Peru we had the privilege of having our very own TV station. It was wild to try and keep up. I have made so many mistakes on TV that I thought it was funny to see the real professionals do the very same thing. Watch and enjoy.

Brother Philip Allen posted this on his facebook status. This are very good people of God. They have been greatly used in Brazil

Update on Charlotte. The doctor confirmed that she has Chronic Lympnocytic Leukemia. She has several small Lymph Nodes under both her arm pits & several behind her stomach (about an inch & a half in size). He feels she will not need chemo at this time & wants to do another blood test in six weeks. He said if she needs treatment, it will definitely be by chemo.

Being in Northern Ireland with our friend and missionary Travis Snode once again reminded me of the following. I hope you will consider how each of these might be worthy of consideration for your church.

The following is my goal for Vision Baptist Church and for churches all around the world. We are not there yet but are working on it. I know that I need to put forth more effort for our church to be the type of church that it should be. Work with me to make this a reality at Vision and if you are from another church pray about making these your goals. Let me know what you think!

Baptist Churches Committed to World Evangelism pledge to do the following:

The pastor and the leadership of our church do hereby commit themselves to whole heartedly to endeavor with God’s help to do the following as soon as possible

1. Work at evangelizing the world in their Jerusalem by committing to knock on and evangelize a minimum of 50,000 people that live close to their church at least twice a year

a. That means knocking on a minimum of 13,000 doors at least once each year and preferably twice a year in a systematic and organized fashion leaving a piece of literature in the house or on the door. This works out to approximately 250 doors a week if you plan to use another means to get the gospel to your area in the same year

b. Use the postal service or other means to get the gospel to each one at least one more time a year

c. Use radio, television and or Internet to reach their Jerusalem with the gospel.

2. Commit to have their church divided up and organized to pray to the Lord of the Harvest that he send forth laborers to His harvest.

a. Every part of the world will have leadership interest in prayer

b. Every missionary will have someone who takes a personal interest in the work and the country

3. The church will organize its ministries so that World Evangelism is taught and put before the people every week through the church, the pulpit, the Sunday School, VBS etc

4. The Church will strive to give 50% of its income to the support of World Evangelism as soon as God so enables them.

5. The church will commit to be a discipling church. Where discipleship is important from the pulpit, every person is involved in discipleship and being prepared for the work

6. The church will encourage, enable and motivate its people with a goal of having a minimum of one third of the church on the mission field and visit regularly getting involved in actual mission work. Short term missionary endeavor

7. Be a soul winning church where the members are accustomed to seeing people get saved and lives changed

8. Provide material to its members that will motivate and prepare them to do more to reach the world

9. Get everyone involved in the ministry and carrying the load of God’s work in their local church. Preparing men to take the load of the ministry even to the point of preparing a man with the ability to take the pastors place in the future

10. Aggressively seek to plant other local churches here in the USA sending their own members, money, prayer, and labor.

The following comes from one of our missionaries. You will enjoy reading it and it will thrill you to see the power of God. His blog is called the Gospel in China!

Vengador

Nov 9, 2009 7:30 AM - Show original item

Yesterday we broke our record for closest call with the law. About ten minutes before our service started, a police officer showed up. Well, when I say showed up, I mean he walked right into our auditorium while our musicians were practicing and the rest of us were putting out songbooks. By the time anyone noticed him, he was standing in the middle of the room asking who was in charge. Our song leader stopped the singing and asked nervously if there was a problem.

‘There’s a problem, alright!’ the officer shot back. Fantastic. The song leader came back and invited the officer to the back room to sit down. Before I went in to join them, I told my wife, ‘Well, that’s it. Guess we’re done.’ A couple of the other guys came to the back room, too, and we closed the door.

‘What is this place? Who’s in charge?’

The guys answered very carefully. ‘Like the sign says outside, we’re a consulting company. We’re about to have a class.’ Then the officer wanted to know if we had some kind of certification for our building – huge sigh of relief. It quickly became clear that he was not there because of our church, but because of our business. So he snooped around for a little while – and apparently he could care less about shelves of books about Christianity and stacks of Bibles. Then he left, telling us what we needed to do to get legit.

Meanwhile, a couple miles away, one of our members was riding the bus on the way to church. Suddenly, the bus’ engine quit, and the driver pulled over to the side of the road. While the driver checked the engine, this student (who is a studying for her doctorate in nuclear physics) realized she might be late to church and thought about some of the problems we’ve had lately. So she guessed that maybe she ought to pray for our church’s safety. A couple minutes later, the driver declared there was nothing wrong with the engine and started it back up. Really blew this girl’s mind when she got to church a couple minutes after the officer left and heard the story.

I think one of the most foolish things that we do as believers is to mistake answers to prayer for coincidence. Seriously – that officer was leaving, and something in my head said, ‘Well, there you go, wasn’t any danger after all; he was just here about the business.’ Unbelievable. A police officer walked into our illegal church ten minutes before service, while a dozen students were practicing for the song service and were putting out Bibles and songbooks – and nothing happened. If that’s not protection, then what is? And here I am ready to chalk up a victory for randomness.

Why does God bring us so close to danger? Seems to be a nasty habit of his, doesn’t it? Doesn’t do a miracle until Daniel is in the lions’ den. Doesn’t open the Red Sea until the Egyptians are hot on the trail. Doesn’t even heal Lazarus until he’s dead! It’s probably partly to do with God’s bringing us to trust him more fully. That more of the iceberg of our fear would melt into the warm waters of security in God. Honestly, that officer showing up really shook me up. It affected the rest of the service. It’s easy to feel like you’re a brave person until you’re up close to the fearsome. Skydiving is scariest when you’re in the airplane with the door open. Walking on water is scariest when the waves are hitting your feet.

So, thanks so much to all of you who join us in your prayers! Please don’t stop!

“Beware in your prayers, above everything else, of limiting God, not only by unbelief, but by fancying that you know what He can do. Expect unexpected things, above all that we ask or think. Each time, before you Intercede, be quiet first, and worship God in His glory. Think of what He can do, and how He delights to hear the prayers of His redeemed people. Think of your place and privilege in Christ, and expect great things!”

Andrew Murray

This was the quote today from the World Evangelism Today. You can get this quote each day, Monday through Friday. Click here to get more information and enter your email address. Click on World Evangelism Quote of the day and any other that might interest you!

The following is from The Businessmen Committed to World Evangelism Quote of the Day.

“Don’t ask for easy lives, ask for the strength to live your life. Don’t ask for work to equal your power, ask for power that will equal the work.”
Philips Brooks

You can also get it by clicking on the same link. You can get this quote each day, Monday through Friday. Click here to get more information and enter your email address.