Sep 1, 2013 Ministry Travels and Family Visits

Greetings to you all this time from the shoreline in New Jersey!!

We arrived home in the States on June 23rd and enjoyed being here for the birth of our newest grandson Lucian who arrived on July 11th to our daughter Rachel and her husband Ian.  It was so nice to be able to be here to hold him and be around for weeks afterwards to bond a bit with him.

I was also able to visit and share at several of the assemblies in the Connecticut area during that stay as well.  We visited the saints at Branford four times and were able to do a series on Psalm 1 which I enjoyed very much.  We also had visits at Westville, Wellspring, Waterbury and Cheshire.  It was such an encouraging time for us. It was so good for us to have that time with good friends and family.  A special thanks to all of you who had us over for meals and great times of fellowship.
 
Currently we are at CMML in New Jersey and enjoying the quiet of this wonderful place the Lord has provided.  It is a great time to be refreshed.  We will be speaking at several assemblies in and around NJ for several weeks and plan on being here until the middle of October.  Yesterday evening I was able to join a group from CMML and the Belmar 5th Ave assembly to visit the Auditorium in Ocean Grove where Luis Palau was speaking for the last meeting of their Summer Sessions.  It was a nice time with a good devotional message followed by an old fashioned Hymn sing accompanied by the huge pipe organ.  A good time of fellowship and encouragement was enjoyed by all.
 
Joyce is visiting with her parents in Florida this week to celebrate their 65th wedding anniversary, and is enjoying her time with family there. She will by flying back here to NJ on Thursday the 5th.

From here we plan on returning to Connecticut for a couple of days and then head out to Chicago. We will be in Chicago for three weeks speaking on Sundays at  Warrenville and Palos Hills, two assemblies that always feel like home to us. From Chicago we will head to Kansas City and visit with an assembly there, pick up a car from Missionary Motors in KC and drive down to Florida to be there in time for Thanksgiving with the Ken Brooks family…it will be the first time all the children of Ken and Elaine will be together for Thanksgiving in over 30 years.

Please keep our travels in your prayers.  We will be home this year for a number of months.  Thanks for all your kind notes and support.  Our Lord is great, and greatly to be praised.

Update April 30, 2013 Korea Trip and Return

Greetings to you all from Baguio.  It is nice to be home. 

We enjoyed a very nice ten day visit to South Korea from April 12-23.  It was nice to be with our friends Tim and Yolly Stafford and to experience what special things the Lord is doing in their lives and ministry in and around Seoul.  

    We enjoyed a very warm welcome from many Filipinos and had the privilege of teaching a couple of Bible Studies with them at the home of Tim and Yolly.   This is a ministry that Tim and Yolly did not expect when they moved to Korea last year to begin a work for the Lord, but the Lord had other plans and He has used their warm and welcoming hearts to reach out to this group.  One night we had over twenty filling their small apartment. It was a special treat for me to teach this group in Tagalog and to speak to them as well in Ilokano, since some were from the Ilokano speaking regions of the Philippines.  At times I felt like I had not even left the Philippines, the smells of Filipino food cooking and the sound of Tagalog being spoken around me, made me feel right at home.    
  I was also given the opportunity to share from the word at two local Korean churches on the two Lord’s days we were there.  I have found the Korean brothers and sisters to be so very warm and welcoming and I have enjoyed their fellowship.  Tim translated for me at one of the gatherings and another dear brother took on that challenge the following Saturday and Sunday. We just continue to pray for Tim and Yolly and look forward to visiting again as the Lord allows.   We pray that the things shared will produce fruit for the Lord and His Kingdom.

    Here in Baguio the work continues on.  We are in the middle of the school break, which is vacation time here in the mountains.  May 1^st is a holiday here and we are planning a tract distribution in and around Baguio for that day since many will be in town.  Normally it is the day of our assembly outing, but the elders decided this year that it would be profitable to use this day as an outreach.  We are praying that many will be convicted of their need of a Savior and that the Lord will use this activity for the furtherance of His Kingdom.

    We will begin the third “semester “ of Bible school at the assembly at Navy Base in a couple of weeks.  We are continuing our study in eschatology.  We will have five more sessions this time around and plan to cover chapters 12-16 of Revelation.  We pray it will be an encouragement to the saints.

    The home Bible studies will be starting up again this week after a brief break for VBS and for my Korea trip.  We pray that these studies may continue to be used of the Lord as a way of encouraging His people and also as a means of sharing the gospel with those who still do not have a saving knowledge of the savior.

    Thank you all once again for your kind prayers and support of the Lord’s work here among us.  May the Lord bless you as you labor for Him in your part of the vineyard.  

February 5, 2013 Update

Greetings to you all, once again, from the mountains of Central Luzon. It has been a while since our last update. The busy holidays are now behind us and the new year is already over a month old, the time just seems to fly by.

The work of the Lord here is going along well, for which we give Him thanks. The Men's Conference in December went very well, there were several hundred men in attendance and the word shared was well received.

The daily home Bible studies are still producing some nice fruit for His glory and we are so thankful. We began the third Semester of Bible School at the Navy Base Assembly this past Lord's Day afternoon and attendance is still very good. This will run now until the second week of March. My preparations for Special Studies are all complete and Joyce and I will be heading down the hill for that week of classes on the 18th of February and returning home on the 22nd. They are expecting over 100 men and women for these classes this year since they are offering them free of charge to any full time worker and their wives. With that in mind I had to limit the amount of handout material I will be bringing. I plan on giving them a simple outline for each class. My subject this year is Expository Teaching, something near and dear to my heart.

 The Lord provided, through the women's conference in Chicago, funds which were used to help a poor family from the assembly in Baguio Gold. We were enabled to purchase materials for his family to build a new structure to live in. It is about double the size of the small shanty that they lived in for many years. Their home now has windows and a new roof that will not leak when the rainy season begins. It also has a concrete floor and new wood and siding for the walls...such a blessing. This man and his children have been faithful at the assembly there for many years. A special thanks to all who had a part in providing these funds for Habitat and Health. The funds also allowed us to help a woman with some medical work she needed done. So we are very thankful to the Lord.

 I am now beginning my preparations for our visit to Korea in April. I will have a rather full schedule while I am there but we are looking forward to spending time with Tim and Yolly Stafford, and to visit with the saints both in the Korean and Filipino assembilies.

Please keep Special Studies, the Bible School, the Home Bible Studies and the preparations for Korea in your prayers.

 Thank you all for your prayers and kind support of the Lord's work here among us. May He be glorified.