Return from Indochina

The past three weeks we have been in the Indochina area of Thailand and Burma. God truly blessed our trip as we surveyed many towns for potential churches. We also spent a good amount of time with one of our missionaries that our church supports, Brother Andy Long. We went soul winning and saw 26 precious Buddhist souls trust Christ. We also saw 26 first timers come to the Bible Baptist Mission that Brother Long just started in the last five weeks. God did many great things while we were there. Our hearts were stirred about our mission more than ever and it was difficult to leave an area that is 99% lost with only a few people looking for them...

Meanwhile we had a great Sunday at our home church this past weekend while we are still shaking off the jet lag. We saw several trust Christ on Saturday and one follow the Lord in baptism Sunday morning. Then on Sunday evening we saw another one follow the Lord in believer's baptism.

We are really looking forward to getting out and promoting the ministry that has laid on our heart this next month. Please pray for us as we strive to get churches started in the Indochina area and get the needed support raised.

Celebrating 15 Years

Members enjoying pizza after services

Mother and daughter

Really enjoying some pizza

Angelo gave incredible testimony about our church

Little Tam Sue and Peace Soe

For 15 years our church has been about reaching people. Today we celebrated our anniversary as a church with pizza and cake after the service. God has been good to us by allowing us in 15 years to see 2,255 people walk the aisle of our church and profess their faith in Christ. People from every corner of the globe! We have reached and will continue to reach people in our city. We will also start to stretch out across the globe and start churches in other sections of the world. Please pray for us as we move ahead into the future! I will be surveying potential cities in the the next month....  (Please enjoy pictures of our day.)

They Get Saved on the Road Too!

Last weekend I was preaching at the Lighthouse Baptist Church in Aurora, Colorado. Then during the week I was able to attend a conference in Colorado Springs at the Grace Baptist Church. God blessed the services and I was able to present our new Indochina Missions ministry. While I was there I also had a chance to do some soul winning. I was able to lead Kayla to Christ who is from Payton, Colorado. While I was away our church had nine visitors.
Then I returned this past Sunday and we were able to have several first time visitors attend including this couple from Columbia that my mother brought. Overall we had 30 riders on the Burmese refugee route, 50 adults in the two adult classes, and three public professions of faith made at the invitation. God is blessing our church so wonderfully right now!

A Couple of Good Stories This Week

Helen and my wife

On Thursday night my wife and I were door knocking in a neighborhood and ran across a lady named Helen Moo. I mentioned to her that she just recently got married. She seemed surprised and says to me, "How do you know?" I told her that a man and his wife in my church told me they were going to Helen Moo's wedding a few weeks ago. I told her that another man in my church texted the same day and told me he was going to a friend's wedding that the name he gave me was the same name. I told her that since she said her name was this, I figure that it must be her. My wife and I were able to see her trust Christ as her Saviour that night. I was also able to led her brother to Christ, her sister and her sister's husband to Christ too. Praise God for a small world sometimes...

Then on Saturday while out visiting our Karen route we stopped at one of our regular riders homes. When I knocked on the door there were a couple of Jehovah's "False" Witnesses there. They were feeding a line of false doctrine to our church members just like a pack of wolves luring in a flock of sheep for the kill. I began to denounce their lies and one of the JFW's slammed the door in my face telling me they were having a private conversation here. I started to walk away and thought to myself, wait a minute. I was invited in by the people that come to my church every week for almost 2 years now and all of a sudden I was being kicked out by some strangers. I figured as a pastor I have an obligation to protect my flock from false doctrine. So I went back into the house and began to denounce these lies being told against my Saviour Jesus Christ. The JFW's finally got frustrated when I continued to interfere with their lies and they left. I was then able to witness to the kids Aunt who was there and she accepted Christ as her Saviour. My wife and our translator were surprised at my boldness, but were glad that I did what I did. What kind of a shepherd runs from the wolf that is trying to slaughter the flock?

We had a good mother days service today with multiple visitors coming. God has been good to us!

Celebrating a Birthday IN Church Instead of OUT

When I was out visiting on Saturday, I visited Hla at his house and he told he had to go to church the next day because it was his birthday. These were refreshing words to the ears of a pastor. Usually, I hear that one cannot make it to church tomorrow because it is their birthday. Sure enough, Hla and wife and daughter were in church. I took them to lunch afterwards to help celebrate his birthday some more. Hla and his family have been coming to our church since 2010. They are a very nice family. In fact Hla's wife Tha Be will be in Burma this Summer when I am in Thailand and wanted us to come and visit her family there. I told them that maybe we can do it the next year.

Saw Pwah

This is Saw Pwah who I ate dinner with Saturday night. His daughter is going to start translating for us this next week for soul winning. He has a very talented family and they are wanting me to to travel to their village in their homeland and see about us starting a church there. I told him that we will make plans for that trip in 2020 when we will be more ready to take on such a task. He said he will be planning and saving his money.

Overall we had a good Sunday. Three adult visitors came and we saw one follow the Lord in baptism. The attendance was a little low as many battled the city marathon trying to get to church.

Anto was wearing a new dress.

Tamaner brought her sister in law

Some Good Visitors

Wa Sa Na and my wife

Taween and my daughter

 We had some really good visitors today. The first was Wa Sa Na and her two sons. She is a Karen lady who was born in Thailand and speaks Thai, Karen, and English fluently. She seemed to enjoy our Sunday school class and said she would be back next week. The second one is Taween Deng who is from Sudan. She came with her child and seemed to enjoy herself very much. God blessed with some other visitors as well, but I do not have pictures of them. Our church is blessed to have such fine visitors!

Vietnamese Tracts Are Hot Off the Press

Thao and her son at Jason's Deli last week.

This past week we finally got our Vietnamese custom made tracts back from the printers. It was something we had been praying about for several years. We have tried to get our custom made Gospel tracts put into as many languages as we possible can by using our members to translate them. Last December we ran across Thao and her family from Vietnam. They had only lived in America for 12 days at this time, but spoke English very well. I was able at that time to lead the whole family to Christ and see them get baptized the following Sunday. They have been faithfully coming every week ever since. Recently, my son asked Thao if she could translate a tract for us. She said it would be no problem and went straight to work on it. Now we have our custom tracts in Vietnamese as well as Burmese, Karen, Spanish, French, and Arabic. God has been blessing the use of these Gospel tracts.

We had a pretty good week overall with one being saved in Wednesday evening service. We topped off our Sunday school campaign with several visitors and good attendance on the bus routes. We will now be marching ahead into March and looking toward our Anniversary Sunday on June the 4th when our church turns 15 years old.

Great Decision for Christ

This is Amiot pictured standing behind my wife. She is fluent in Arabic, and has translated some of our Gospel tracts into Arabic. This past week my wife and I led three Muslim's to Christ from the Middle East. She helped us confirm their faith in Christ and they made a public professions of faith in Christ. We took a nice picture of them with Amiot, but we are not using it or their names for safety reasons. It is a glorious Easter Sunday when one turns to Christ!

Also, pictured is Chigozie Obioma and his wife Christina. They have been coming regularly to our church since around the beginning of the year. Chigozie is originally from Nigeria and is a professor at the University of Nebraska. He has also written several books that have been published in over 30 countries around the world. His wife Christina is currently completing her doctorate from the University of Michigan. We love having so many great people coming to our church!

We had several visitors for our campaign this week. One was Sandico from Sudan that came with my son. He came forward at the invitation time and was given assurance of his salvation. We also had a great special this week with some of the children singing with the adults the song "Celebrate Our Saviour." God gave us a very good Easter Sunday!

Set Sail with Sunday School

Brandon and my son

 Today was the second week of our campaign "Set Sail with Sunday School." God blessed us with a very good day overall. We had 30 on the Karen route. We had several visitors in the kids classes and also in the adult classes. Brandon who came last week and said he was saved, decided he was unsure of his salvation and decided to get saved. He then followed the Lord in believer's baptism. My wife brought several visitors to Sunday school including Shanon who recently moved here from Cameroon. Also, Sha Ku who is Karen came as my wife's visitor. I also caught a picture with Calvin who got saved at our church in April of 2011 and has been coming all these years. The Lord has truly been good to us! Somebody say Amen!

Shanon and my wife

Sha Ku and my wife

Calvin and me

Special Guest

Looper's with their folks.

We had the first week of our campaign this past Sunday and were blessed with very good attendance. We had a variety of visitors come. One particular couple that visited was Brother Looper's folks from the state of Washington. We felt very privileged to have them in our services for the entire day. I preached on "Set Sail with Sunday School" during the morning service. There were many who don't already attend that said they felt motivated to come to Sunday school the next week.

Then on Sunday evening I preached on "Failing to Recognize the Preeminence of Christ." The altars were full at the invitation time and we had a return visitor from the morning back for the evening service. His name was Brandon and he brought another visitor with him named Chelsea. Chelsea got saved at the invitation and followed the Lord in believer's baptism. Praise the Lord!  

Chelsea getting baptized.

Walking Miracle

This is Brother Miller who literally became a walking miracle this past Sunday night. It all started last Friday morning when Brother Miller who works at one of the local hospitals was asked to go fill in a shift at the heart hospital in town here. Shortly after Brother Miller started his shift he began to feel chest pain and fell down in front a group of heart specialist. The team of people at this heart hospital are truly experts. They literally had a stint in Brother Miller's heart in seven minutes. The type of heart attack he had is nicknamed "the widow maker" because most don't survive it. However, he was released by Sunday afternoon and in church Sunday night because he wanted to be... what a testimony. Brother Miller even had a chance to witness to the priest at the hospital. Praise God for his hand of protection and care!

Newly Vietnamese Translated Tract

This is Dong and his wife Thao who just translated our new Vietnamese customized gospel tract. We will now send it to the printers this next week looking forward to getting it back for distribution. We strive to have our Gospel tracts in every language that we can... these are often translated by our own members. The diversity of our city makes it necessary for us to get the Gospel into every language that we possibly can in order to effectively evangelize the community God has entrusted to us.

God blessed us today with several visitors and one getting saved at the invitation and making a public profession of faith in Christ. Below is my two daughters pictured with Paw Ka Moo. The Karen skirts that my daughters are wearing were sewn by Paw's mother and given to the girls. Paw's family is a blessing and they are planning a trip with us into Burma for the Summer of 2020. This is their native country and they would like us to visit their home land and see about getting the Gospel to the area.

Beautiful Sunday!

Gropp ladies with my wife

King's Quartet

Marry Bell and her children

We had an absolutely beautiful Sunday today. Not only did the temperature reach 80 degrees outside, the spirit was beautiful on the inside. We had solid attendance in almost every class. Our Karen route was very full and the Karen ministry had great attendance overall with many adults coming. My wife had Marry Bell come be a visitor today and we snapped a quick picture after the services were over. We also snapped several other pictures of our day for you to view.

Dr. Bob Gray the 2nd

We had a great conference for our church with Dr. Bob Gray the 2nd this past Monday and Tuesday night. He preached two fantastic messages. We had an ice cream social each night after the conference and the folks had fun spending time in fellowship with Dr. Gray. The first night Brother Gray asked me how many different nations are represented in the meeting. I looked around the auditorium and told him seven. (America, Burma, Congo, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, and Vietnam.) I told him there is a lot more in our Sunday services. He was amazed! God has blessed us with a very diverse church. Some have indicated this is a draw back, but we disagree. It is an advantage!   

Congratulations, fellow American!

Tamaner Sue took her citizenship test last Wednesday and passed with flying colors. She is now a fellow citizen of this great country! Tamaner has come to our church for several years and been used as a valuable translator and interpreter to help us reach many others from Burma. She has also been teaching us to speak more of the Karen language. So let me say from all of Lincoln Baptist Church congratulations on this great accomplishment Tamaner Sue!

We battled time change today like everyone else, but still had a decent day with two making professions of faith in Christ. We are looking forward to having Dr. Bob Gray the 2nd preach here the next two nights. If you are in the area please come and join us at 7 pm on Monday and Tuesday night.

Tam Sue's First Sunday

Tam Sue and her family

Little Tam Sue made it to church this Sunday for the first time. As I mentioned recently one of our Karen families had a baby and named it "Tam Sue" after my wife. It was a great honor for us and everyone was to glad to see her come to church today. There had been some sickness and her mother had been having back trouble since the birth and they had not been able to bring her. However, today the entire family was able to come.

Overall we had a fair Sunday with 117 in Sunday school. Considering the fact that many were out sick with the flu and one family even had me take them to the hospital the night before because of sickness it was a good day. God blessed the nursing home services today as well with 3 trusting Christ as their Saviour.

My daughter witnessing to some children on Saturday

A New Grandson

My wife with Nathan at Hospital

This past Thursday night I had a new grandson born. His name is Nathan Allen Painter. It was exciting to see his parents have him in church this morning for his very first Sunday outside of the womb. God blessed our Lord's day with solid attendance in Sunday school of 128. That was good since as many as 24 regulars were missing that normally never miss. We also saw a convert from early in the week named Manny follow the Lord in believer's baptism.

Manny getting baptized

 This past Friday night we had a Valentine party for the adult Sunday schools here at the church. The attendance was good and the participation in the games was excellent. Many people said this was the best party/banquet they have ever attended at our church. God is blessing in a mighty way at our church and the spirit has never been better. Please pray for continual spiritual growth in our people as we continue to win many to Christ...

Looper bowling

Ta and Thao trying to feed teammates blindfolded

Good Folks!

Ivan and Inna

Ivan and his family have been coming to our church since 2012 after my wife met them out soul winning. They are from the Ukraine and just very good folks! Friday he and his boys came out and helped Brother Looper change a tire on the church bus. I am thankful to have good families like this coming to our church. Overall we had a pretty good Sunday with a couple of visitors. Attendance was solid, but no baptisms today. Feel free to look at a few other pictures from our Sunday.

Playing game on bus

They made matching skirts

Another Convert Down the Aisle

This is Hsa Bweh who I led to Christ a week ago. He came to church as my visitor today. He also attended my adult Sunday school class which had very good attendance of nineteen. My class is one of two adult classes and almost always has much less than the auditorium class. I was happy to have Hsa here today and to see him come down the aisle and make a public profession of faith in Christ during the invitation time. God is blessing our Karen ministry as well as our entire church. We had a young married couple come again that came last week and has attended several times over the past several months. Please pray for Hsa to grow in the Lord and for his wife to come to church next week.

Our Interpreter Gets Saved!

Ta Ma Ner and my wife

Ta Ma Ner is one of our interpreters that we use in our Karen ministry. Many years ago I met her out soul winning and led her to Christ. However, later she said she was previously saved in Thailand. Yesterday, however, my wife started doing a "Grow in Grace" discipleship study with her. The first lesson is on salvation and Ta Ma Ner made a decision to trust Christ as her Saviour. Ta Ma Ner has helped my wife and I led dozens of her people to Christ over the past several years. Yesterday, she told my wife that every time she was interpreting the plan of salvation for us that she was learning more and thinking about it. Now she knows for sure without a doubt she has a home in Heaven. Praise God!
Today we had 120 in Sunday school and two make public professions of faith in Christ with one following the Lord in baptism!

Nicole getting baptized.