Mayday! Mayday!

I had some wild and harrowing experiences on my trip to Bolt Independent Fundamental Baptist Church in West Virginia, with Pastor Jim Lucas (and on the way back with a stop at Fountain Square Baptist Church in Indianapolis with Pastor Aaron Campbell.)

I’ve been hearing these kind of stories all my life from missionaries we’ve had in at Wyldewood Baptist Church, in Oshkosh, WI (Pastor Jason Brenenstuhl, Mission Pastor Randy King). It was surreal for these things to be happening to me. I thank God to have been part of a church for the past 27 years that has always been generous to other missionaries and full-time servants. I have hosted many of them myself. Now I get to reap what we have sowed and see God do similar things for me.

The devil fought this event tooth and nail. We had something go wrong virtually every day – but, praise God, NONE of it hindered the sessions.

Day ONE: WV is a 14 hour drive from WI. 10 miles from the church I had a blowout. Hit a pothole rounding a curve between mountains with a truck coming the other way. Tire slit on the sidewall, un-repairable.
DAY TWO: My computer went haywire and then froze up. While trying to fix it, it spent hours trying to do updates, then was unable to complete the process, so it uninstalled the updates (another couple hours). Once I finally got it to reboot successfully (another hour or more), it wanted to redo the updates (another couple hours). Gah! Frustration. But it was ready for church!
DAY THREE: The Pastor got sick (serious matter) and missed the service.
DAY FOUR: Some family matters reared up involving kids who had been coming to the rally – but they all came!
DAY FIVE: Got my windshield cracked by a rock kicked back at me by a truck that was run off the road by another truck in front of him.
DAY SIX: When back in Indy, Pastor Campbell’s youth leader had a blowout while driving kids to the meeting. Shredded his tire. We started over an hour late.
DAY SEVEN: Two weeks later I got some photos sent to me from the Dayton, OH PD claiming I was speeding on my way through. It’s impossible for me to defend myself over what they claim happened weeks ago, based on photos, and it would cost more to travel back to Dayton to fight it. Grrrr. What a scam.

THANK GOD the blowout happened so close to my destination, so help was nearby. Not only that, but there are few areas in those mountain roads that have shoulders to pull off on, but this happened right near such a place. Not only that, but my tires were brand new (not yet 1,000 miles on them). So they were not well-worn yet, otherwise adding a new tire would’ve been a mismatch requiring me to get two new tires.

When I got to the church, one of the deacons told me, “My brother owns a tire shop. Give me your tire and I’ll get it replaced.” I explained to him they were brand new top-quality tires I just had put on and I didn’t expect anybody else to pay for it. He bellowed back, “I didn’t ask you how much it cost. I said gimme the tire and I’ll get it replaced!” Praise God, two days later I had a brand new, top-quality tire.

We had a BLAST at the youth revival. Other area churches are trying to start working together on youth outreach, and these meetings were the kick-start for that endeavor. What a thrill to know that my ministry might have a part in youth being reached for Christ all over West Virginia!

We did some puppet shows and skits every day as well. When the Pastor got sick, I had to fill in and ended up doing even more. Here is a clip from our last day’s puppet show and skit. I think you’ll find them hilarious: http://youtu.be/cYhlU9t_LRA

On the way there, I spent a night at the church in Indy to break up the long trip. Pastor Campbell built a shower stall for the occasion. On the way back, I did three lessons at his church. Here are the three Youtube video messages I did at Fountain Square Baptist Church in Indianapolis with Pastor Aaron Campbell. Pastor Campbell appears as a “giant” in the 3rd message (the sound is very low in the first two because we forgot the lapel mike that ties into the broadcast):

“Fresh Fossils” (Sunday School)
“Jesus Saith, I Am the Truth” (AM Service)
“Giants in the Earth” (Youth Service)

After a flurry of activity, my summer schedule thins out dramatically. If you are interested in using my ministry to fortify faith in the Bible, especially as each generation in America gets further away from God, NOW is a good time to set up some meetings. I am working on another trip to Mexico, with stops in Tennessee and Texas on the way there and back, for the first week in June. The rest of the summer is available. You can contact me by email or phone: