Breakfast on the farm

We have been blessed in so many incredible ways over the past few weeks. We have gone from the deep south to NYC which provided a pretty stark contrast as you might expect, yet the love of the Lord Jesus and burden for souls is there regardless of accent or culture. The conference in Murfreesboro was outstanding, I learned a tremendous amount about the unreached people groups around the world and the means by which we all can and must be a part in reaching them. We had the privilege of ministering to the kids while we were there and established many contacts for the future. In Garfield, NJ we were encouraged by a young couple that facilitated the missions apartment for us. Derek is the assistant pastor of the church and was a good friend to us during our stay. While there we had three meetings at churches in the area and praise the Lord for the relationships established. We also had opportunity to join our friends from Rochester to distribute thousands of tracts to the lost at the St Patricks day parade in NYC. The following day we hit Times Square and got a poor reception as you might expect to our tract distribution efforts. The kids were very excited as we drove around New York and saw lady liberty out in the harbor. We must have played the New Manna Youth Choir song about how the Cross is our statue of Liberty 20 times! We stopped by our home (continue to pray for its sale) for one day prior to heading to Utica where we are now for a missions conference. We have been staying in the home of a family that is in California helping with their kids. It is out in the sticks and it has the feel of a farm - a wood stove, a chicken coop for our eggs in the morning and a glorious unhindered view of the stars at night. We are enjoying our stay and the conference has been great. The speaker is a pastor from Buffalo that we have a meeting with in November so we praise the Lord that we could make his acquaintance in advance. He has been quite a blessing already, Sunday night we hadnt had dinner so were going to Denny's with another missionary when the preacher came in and paid for the meal for all of us. This was a great help indeed. The kids are doing good, learning lessons along the way seeing many places they have never seen before. Emma thinks she is funny as she has learned how to shake her head no when she is asked if she is going to be a good girl at church - she starts giggling as she emphatically turns her head left and right. We head to Naples on Sunday for a much anticipated meeting with our friend Tom Street and then off to another missions conference in Beaver Dams, NY. Praise the Lord for His protection and grace shown toward us. He have wanted for nothing and would pray that we can be a blessing to those we are with in even a small proportion to what they have been to us. So as we sit down to our farm fresh eggs and morning devotions, we are praying for our dear friends and church families to be blessed and want to encourage you that the Lord is answering your prayers on our behalf.

Hartselle Ala to Murfreesboro TN

God has a great way of working things out, amen? While at Grace in Ocean Springs we were invited to be a part of the unreached peoples conference with First Bible International in Murfreesboro, TN. by Bro. Fielder. We were scheduled to go from Pensacola to NY for a meeting on the 8th but with this conference on the 9th back in TN we made a call and the Pastor in NY graciously rescheduled us for a few weeks from now. This left us with Sunday open before the conference in TN on Mon. So we called a church with a prophet chamber in Alabama and he not only let us use the chamber (which was beautiful) but he allowed us to present and preach Sunday Morning. We had a great meeting with Pastor Mike Eaton and the great church family there and then through that I was invited to the Southern TN/Northern Ala Ind Fund Baptist fellowship meeting on morning morning in...yep, Murfreesboro. We went to the fellowship and gained some exposure to a number of good brothers and pastors in that area as well as being given some great tools and resources for our travel convenience. The key speaker was Dr. Shelton Smith, the president of the Sword of the Lord. We walked out with names and numbers of more than 50 churches in that fellowship. The Lord is so good, all the time. That led us to the FBI conference monday night where we were totally blessed. I will post again on this conference as it continues tonight but pray as we have opportunity to minister to the kids etc while we are here. Also pray for two men I witnessed to today at the playground - Michael (former pentecostal - admittedly lost and concerned) and Charles - unchurched father of four. Both of them were receptive to the gospel and said they would read the tract and strongly consider visiting Franklin Road Baptist in the near future.