Time Change Sunday

This is a picture of two of our fine ladies, Masoka (left) and May. Masoka and her family have been coming to our church since they moved to America from Congo (about four years ago). May and her husband moved to Lincoln from Kansas City about six months ago and are originally from Nigeria. They have actually lived in America for quite awhile, May is a registered nurse and her husband (not pictured) actually works for Immigration. I enjoy the opportunity I have to work with such an array of people from so many different backgrounds and cultures. I would have never imagined how much I would love it, before God prepared my heart for such a ministry.

Overall we had a pretty good Sunday as we sort of kicked off our "Old School" Bible conference. The attendance was not bad considering that it was time change (daylight savings) Sunday. That is always a beating for us because we have so many people from other countries coming and they often times don't understand the time change concept. I was excited that one of my converts from two Thursday nights ago came and made a public profession of faith in Christ. It was a tremendous blessing to see the fruits of my labor from a record cold Thursday night when many did not feel like going soul winning!

Speaking of our conference, we will be having Dr. Bob Gray the 2nd from Longview, Texas preaching for us on Monday night and on Tuesday night at 7 pm. We are excited to have him here and expect to receive greatly from the truths that he delivers to us from the Lord. Be sure to come out and be with us on Monday and Tuesday night.

Don't Forget the "Old School"

We had a good service Wednesday night with me teaching a Bible study on the "Role of the New Testament Baptist Church." We have been teaching our doctrinal statement for our yearly theme of "Back to the Basics" and right now spending some time teaching on the church.

Thursday night we went soul winning with 25 soul winners out on the bus. We covered the Regency Apartment Complex and had seven trust Christ as their Saviour. That actually wasn't too bad for just going to one complex with everybody. The wonderful thing about it is that every single soul that comes to trust Christ is precious to God.

Next Monday and Tuesday we have our "Old School" conference. I am very excited about having Dr. Bob Gray the 2nd as our special guest speaker for it. He is becoming more popular all the time as a speaker and we are honored to be able to have him come speak for us here at our church.

Dr. Gray the 2nd is the pastor of the Longview Baptist Temple in Longview, Texas. That is my home church and the church that Lincoln Baptist Church was birthed by and out of back in 2002. Dr. Gray the 2nd's father, Dr. Bob Gray Sr. was my pastor back then. However, I still served under Dr. Bob Gray the 2nd through the church and the college. I remember the years I spent in Longview with much fondness, and am grateful for the influence I gain from Dr. Gray the 2nd and all of the many fine mentors I had there. I do pray you will be able to make our conference starting Monday night at 7 PM.

One last thing I would like to mention is a prayer request for Sam Smith. He is a young man from Heritage Baptist Church in Lawrence, Kansas who was in a bad accident involving a semi truck yesterday (Thursday). He has seventeen broken bones and is in surgery today. He is the brother of Faith Smith whom is soon to marry my son, Brother Jonathan. Please pray for his recovery and for the family during these difficult times.  

This is Brother Ed Fauth who is a 86 years old and a faithful member of our church. He went 'out' back in January with a bad infection. It made him very weak and caused him to have to go to a nursing home/rehab hospital for four weeks. He just got out a few days ago and couldn't wait to get back to church. One of his jobs at the church is to work in the kitchen handing out doughnuts and coffee before Sunday school. He wasn't really supposed to be standing that long, but insisted on being back at his post. Once he was down there he told me that "now everything is in order because I got my building back." By building he meant 'spot.' I decided to take a picture of him. He was also back on Sunday night for church. I told him he was like the "Comeback Kid." Praise God for faithful people like Brother Fauth!

Speaking of Sunday, Brother Fauth chose one of the coldest ones of the year to make his return. It was -4 degrees on Sunday morning with -27 degree wind chill factor. We had church and we ran our bus route. It was a low attendance day overall, but a great spirit abounded and we even had a visiting couple come in. One of my members told me that there were 25 churches in our town that had canceled church that morning. That is ridiculous! I never even had that though cross my mind.

Sunday night we had a good service as well. The temperatures were supposed to drop to -10 overnight, but we keep it warm inside the building, between the furnace and the preaching. We had 42 folks here in attendance with a good spirit. I preached a message called "The Lions Are Lacking." There was a great response as I preached that message primarily from Psalm 34:10. I challenged our people to "seek the Lord." The altars were full at the invitation. I am looking forward to our Wednesday night Bible study as we continue our "Back to the Basics Theme."

This is Lucille Garcia, she is a member of our church and is going to be turning 100 years old on March 4th. She has been a faithful member of our church for many years. I enjoy getting to visit with her early on Sunday mornings before most folks arrive. She gets a ride from one of our Sunday school teachers and is usually there an hour ahead of time. I thank God for the opportunity to pastor someone who has seen an entire century pass by on this earth.

This past Sunday we had a good crowd in attendance with several visitors. We also had a good family join our church membership roll. We are always thankful to see that a new family has come on board to help us reach this city for Christ. I believe our church is a big family in itself, but it is so good because it is composed of so many good families. Thank God for families!

We also had one saved in junior church on Sunday morning and they made a profession of faith in Christ. We had a decent group on Sunday night as we enjoyed a potluck dinner after the service along with some great fellowship with some of our people. God truly has blessed our church. Now, we are gearing ourselves up for a new month and for our Bible conference that is just a few weeks away. I am excited about having Dr. Bob Gray 2nd here for our conference. It should be a great time.

We had our Valentine Banquet this past Friday night and everyone who attended had great fun. We have great food served with lots of fellowship and then we played some adult games. One thing we have discovered is that adults like games just as much as kids, maybe more! Below we played a game where they had to get the cookie into their mouth from their forehead without using their hands. One of the contestants discovered a new way to do this, which was by jumping up and catching it into his mouth. Believe it or not, he actually won. On Sunday we had some decent weather for once and decent crowds. There was a visiting family that recently move here from Georgia and we also had one profession of faith made with a baptism. Praise God for soul winning, which helps bring the converts down the aisles of Sunday. I believe this will be the greatest year that we have ever had at Lincoln baptist Church. Come join us for the ride, it will be the most fun you have ever had.

We had a wonderful time out soul winning tonight, getting to see 19 precious souls trust Christ as their Saviour. It was a great privilege to have these three gentleman come all the way from Red Cloud, Nebraska to go with us. Pictured next to me is Brad, and his two friends Kenny and Keller. Brad has some relatives that live in Lincoln. He visited our church a few weeks back when he was in town for the weekend. He heard about our soul winning night and bus and wanted to come out and go with us. They drove 2 1/2 hours to come soul winning with us tonight. I believe they truly enjoy themselves as we went and came back on the bus rejoicing. Thank God for soul winning and the blessed Gospel of Jesus Christ!

Last night I really enjoyed listening to our Sons of Grace Quartet sing "There is a Fountain." It is an old time classic song, but it is one of my favorites. I could never get tired of hearing it. I then got up and preached out of Acts chapter 2 about how we need to spend time daily in prayer, Bible reading, and out soul winning. The altars were full at the invitation. We had good services in the morning too with two getting saved and following the Lord in believer's baptism.

Our theme this year is "Back to the Basics" and I am really enjoying it. I am teaching our doctrinal statement on Wednesday nights and many have been coming to hear the teaching on what we believe. I believe it is important for people to know what we believe and why we believe it. Our theme is based on an old time school setting and we will be linking everything we do this year back to that theme. This concept will start with our Bible conference on March 10th and 11th when we have Dr. Bob Gray the 2nd here to preach from the Longview Baptist Temple in Longview, Texas. In case you didn't catch the last blog I posted, we will be calling our Bible conference "Old School." May God bless you and we will see you on the soul winning trail.