INDEPENDENCE DAY!
It was truly independence day for 15 people in Milwaukee this week who professed Jesus Christ as Saviour!
We had a tremendous VBS week at All Bible Baptist Church in Milwaukee, WI (Pastor Pete Methum). It was seven busy days. We had the morning VBS at Tri-County Baptist (Pastor Clayton Jones) and evening sessions at All Bible, for a total of 15 sessions over the week.
We averaged 40 kids a day (plus 15-20 adults). We had 18 visitors during the week. It’s hard to tell sometimes with kids, but during the week over 20 kids, and at least two adults, made indications that they had trusted Christ as Saviour. Trying to whittle out the ones who didn’t seem to really grasp the message, I’m pretty confident at least 15 were legitimate (if more were, that’s better yet!).
I spoke on things like dinosaurs and giants in the morning sessions. Things kids usually like. However the message that really got their attention (this being a group mostly of inner city, “minority” kids) was my lesson on “Evolution and Racism”, exposing the racist foundation of the theory of evolution and the racism of Darwin, Marx, Hitler, and others influenced by the theory. Even better was that was the day the mother of several of the kids came. She told Pastor Methum it was the best message she’d ever heard. She raised her hand for receiving Christ as Saviour!
GRACE BEYOND WORDS
Right after that I spent a few days as an exhibitor at the “Grace Beyond Words” conference at Quentin Road Bible Baptist Church in Lake Zurich, WI (Pastor Jim Scudder), compliments of Bro. Phil Stringer. My old creationist compatriot, Dr. Carl Baugh, was there, as was Tim Carpenter, the Bearing Precious Seed (Bible printing) representative out of my home church, Wyldewood Baptist, and our former Pastor Randy King. The messages were superb. I went to two of Bruce Malone’s workshop sessions (he also is a creation speaker) and got some ideas for future messages of my own.
My display was quite popular and I made many contacts in the upper Midwest. I have travelled several times to New York, down to Texas and Mexico, to Alabama and Florida, out to Washington state, to Russia and Poland. I love to go to different places, but I’ll also love to sprinkle meetings closer to home in between the longer trips.
My new laptop came in handy. With a 10 hour battery, I was able to show the online videos of my messages. I’ve only had a few available, but, just in time, several more were put on YouTube at my previous meeting! http://genesisevidence.org/home/what-gem-offers/gem-online-messages/
NEW YORK
We had a great time at First Baptist Church in Parishville, NY (Pastor Pedro Morales) for three messages on Sunday and another on Wednesday. They added Monday and Tuesday messages by popular demand. The Morales’ were very gracious hosts, doing their best to try to accommodate my food preferences. Pastor Morales put all the messages on YouTube, which I was able to use right away in my display at the Grace meeting in Illinois.
We shared an additional common bond with Pastor Morales being a native Puerto Rican, and my daughter, Hannah, taking a mission trip to Puerto Rico this winter.
I tacked on to that a return meeting to Baldwinsville, NY at Temple Baptist Church to fill the pulpit for retiring Pastor Bruce Craig. Their new pastor is arrived the same week. He is Kevin Griffin, who was a Bible college friend of my good friend, Robert Hatch. All three recent pastors of Temple (the other being Aaron Overton) were in attendance (and no one got into a fight 🙂
On a recommendation from our Couriers for Christ missionary, Don Stertz, and from Tim Breckheimer (Temple’s song leader who I’ve know for 15+ years on the internet), Pastor Craig had me in for a Pastor’s Fellowship which gave me good exposure and is mostly responsible for the several trips I’ve made to churches in New York.
I also got to meet Mr. & Mrs. Dominic Pardi. Their son, Chip (Dominic), has been an internet compatriot of mine (and Tim) for probably 20 years on numerous email groups and forums. Additionally, I got to meet Linda Overton, who was in town at the same time.
COMING UP:
I have a few future meetings planned for later in the year, including a return to Bible Baptist Church of Winneconne, WI (Pastor Robert Hatch) in August and a meeting for the Northwoods Creation Association in Ashland, WI this fall. Tacked onto the NCA meeting will be a weekend session at Harbor Lights Baptist Church (Pastor Randy Hoffman) up in Ashland. Then comes a return to Truth Baptist Church in Portage, WI (Pastor Reggie Williams) for a weekend in October. A return to West Virginia is in the works. My 5th trip to New York is scheduled for the end of October. More on that next month.
I’ve still got room for more, especially toward winter! NOW is the time to schedule a meeting for your church. Call 920-376-0828 or respond to this email. If any of you are interested in having me for a meeting, I have created a new page on my website that tells what I have what I might need, and some pointers and basic information. Check it out at: http://genesisevidence.org/my-needs/
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