Last Sunday of 2015

Kelly getting baptized

Kelly got saved last Sunday and then followed the Lord in baptism this Sunday. It is always good to see new converts going forward in their faith. Please pray for Kelly to continue to be faithful to church and to grow in the Lord.

We had a pretty good day overall for a holiday weekend. I asked my son to take a picture of David and his wife Grace. They are from Africa and have been coming to our church for many years. David was sporting a new suit today, which I thought he looked pretty sharp so I had a picture taken of them. They were both saved many years ago through the personal soul winning efforts of our church. Grace was saved out of a false world religion and changed her name to Grace so she could have a Christian name. God is good to allow us to see these trophies of grace come through our church doors. Pray for their spiritual growth!

The Sunday Before Christmas...

Bro. Painter with Yien and his boys

Bro. Jonathan Painter led Yien and his two boys to Christ on Saturday and the father got baptized on Sunday. The boys are supposed to get baptized next Sunday. The wife and mother was sick today and could not come. I am always excited about reaching new families. God is doing some great things in the area of us reaching new families. Please pray for Yien and his family to experience much spiritual growth.

My 9 year old daughter getting the job done. 

Saw and Boh Boh Wah with their new church clothing

On Saturday one of our members sent me a picture of two of my daughters out visiting and soul winning. Here my 9 year old daughter Debbie is getting the job done handing out a Gospel tract. We should observe this and ask ourselves how we spent our Saturday this past week. Being a witness for Christ or just spending the day like most Fall Saturday's; raking our leaves? Only what is done for Christ will last. Just a few more years and it will all be over. We need to get busy getting the Gospel out to a needy world!


This is two of our riders on the Burmese refugee bus route. It is Saw and his younger brother Boh Boh Wah. They just got matching clothing for church and were pretty excited to wear it on Sunday. Boh Boh Wah looks excited in the picture, Saw does not. However, Saw was actually much more excited than the picture showed. Thank God for another great week and weekend at Lincoln Baptist Church!

Adaptability in Soul Winning

Missionary Saint Jomhong soul winning here last September

Last Thursday night I was out soul winning with my partner Say Nay Moo. While out soul winning we knocked on a door and had a Thai man answer the door who was named Sakda. Sadka is the first actual Thai man I have ever met in this city in the almost 14 years I have been here. We have many Burmese refugees here who use to live in refugee camps in Thailand, but before now not any actual Thai people. This man Sadka did not speak much English and my partner who speaks many languages, only spoke a little Thai. The man had acknowledge that he did not know he was going to heaven, but I was at a loss at how we could get him the Gospel...

Then it occurred to me that Missionary to Thailand; Saint Jomhong is still living in the United States. I had Saint's cell phone number and called him up. I told him what I was doing and that I had a man right in front of me from Thailand that was lost. I handed my phone to Sadka and Saint who speaks Thai fluently went right to work presenting the Gospel. After about ten minutes the man bowed his head and trusted Christ as his Saviour. Praise God!

Sometimes while out soul winning we have to adapt. I am glad Saint was available by phone and I am glad that I was able to think fast at the door. In this case our adaptability worked! Praise God for another soul going to Heaven!

GREAT CHRISTMAS PARTY

You had to get the ball through the wreath!

Some of our Ladies enjoying the party!

 We had a great Christmas party this past Friday night. We typically spend a lot of time soul winning and we preach and teach the Book pretty intensely, so it is nice to just relax and have fun sometimes.
  This year we had one of the best parties we have ever had. Great crowd for the party and a great spirit among the people that attended. I love having fellowship with people that love each other and people that truly love the Lord instead of themselves.
  We actually had a lot of new faces at the party this year and they all really enjoyed themselves! We served up some great food and played some really fun games. Adults love to play games! I am excited about finishing our year off strong and having the best year of soul winning and growth that we have ever had in 2016!

They had to hook the candy cane!

They had to sort through the boxes to see how bells are in each one!

What's Wrong with a Culturally Diverse Church?

Mrs. Painter with her visitors on Sunday morning. Ma Jee and her children.

Mrs. Painter hosted an activity to the Burmese refugee girls at our house.

Lincoln Baptist Church is culturally diverse. Our services are in English, however, we have people attend every week from all over world. We have a core of Americans, but a great outreach for refugees. For example this past Sunday morning we had two visiting couples that were from Congo and a Karen lady that came with her children. All first timers! We also had a Burmese couple and a Sudanese family return from the previous week. Praise God!

More activities from the Saturday get together.

However, it has been brought to my attention that some don't like the fact that our church is so culturally diverse. Might I say that God loves the souls of all men! In Matthew 28:19 He said, "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the   Holy Ghost:" I think He meant all nations!!!

Folks, our church is not run like some conglomeration of multiple churches from different countries. We run our church like an independent, fundamental, KJB preaching and believing Baptist Church! What I cannot understand is why someone would want to support missionaries to go across the world to reach these same kind of people, but not want to go to church with them themselves! I will always oppose this Pharisee attitude that self righteous Christians carry with them while they sit on their blessed assurance and do nothing to reach a dying world!!!

The Bible tells us in Revelation 7:9,  "After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;" I'll bet that will be tough for some people! Image this, Christ loves everybody! Christ also wants every nation, kindred, people, and tongue reached in any given area. Christ had much love patience and tolerance for many different kinds of people. However, He had very little patience for self-righteous Pharisees. Those were the ones that we can see in the Scriptures that He criticized. God has been good to us so we are going to keep reaching everybody! Somebody say Amen!
 

Great Thanksgiving Week

It was a fantastic week and weekend, despite battling a lot of bad weather. I will let the pictures speak for themselves with their captions.

A new Burmese couple were my visitors on Sunday morning. We had several other visitors as well.

The Karen girls with my daughters and their Karen dresses.

Men's outing on Tuesday night. We had eleven men out. Perhaps we can turn the world upside down.

Bro. Jonathan leading a Karen man to Christ using a translator.

Had some men from our church over for Thanksgiving who have no family on this side of the world. They have never played darts before. My wife and I found them to be quite good at it.

What a Blessing!

Matthew 5:10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

During our morning service time our assistant pastor noticed these signs placed around our building, so he started picking them up and toting them off to the dumpster in the back. Then he was confronted by a man who came seemingly from nowhere and told him that he he was stealing his property. The man told him that he was exercising his right to picket our church because of what we believe! After arguing for several minutes the man decided to leave for now. Here is the reason behind the title...

I sent this picture to a pastor friend of mine and he texted me back and said, "what a blessing." I thought about it for a second and decide he was right. It is a blessing to be persecuted for righteousness' sake! By the way, let me make clear that we do not hate Sodomites, nor does God. However, God hates the act of Sodomy and we preach that fact here. Apparently it isn't well liked by everyone that we do preach against it, especially in our neighborhood. We have a church five blocks away from us that has a rainbow flag painted on their sign!

The Week After

Bro. Painter and Hieu Nguyen

This was the week after our seven week campaign, which usually the week after a campaign is pretty flat. However, not the case for us, overall we had several visitors and one baptized. It really was a pretty good week following the the excitement of our Big Day. I was excited to see our assistant pastor bring a convert from Saturday named Hieu, who also followed the Lord in believers baptism. We even had some visitors come from Virginia. They were in Omaha for a wedding the previous day and decided to drive one hour to Lincoln so they could attend our church. They had seen our website and decided they liked the look of our church. I was delighted to hear that they actually drove an hour out of their way to attend a soul winning church! Praise God for others who want the soul winning atmosphere too!!!

A Diverse Church

The crowd after Sunday morning service

We had our final week of "Christ is Our Mission" and had Missionary Nathan Owens with us for the weekend. One of the comments made by the visiting missionary and his wife was how diverse our church is and what a sweet spirit there is among such a diverse crowd. Then one of our men took this picture and sent it to me on Sunday afternoon. I got to looking at the picture and figuring up where everybody is from and realized something... Wow, eleven different nations are represented in this auditorium! I also realized that there is a sweet spirit in our church these days!!! Somebody say, Amen!!!

I preached on "Christ is a Master Soul Winner" on Sunday morning. At the invitation time we had 4 Nigerians come to know Christ as their personal Saviour. We had a total of 5 public professions made and 129 in Sunday school. (Which I thought was very good considering our bus numbers were a lot lower than normal.)

Sunday night we had a presentation about South Africa from Brother Owens and then we had him preach. He preach a fantastic message on repairing the altar of the heart. He and his wife also did a fantastic job on Saturday out soul winning. They followed up on several Cameroonians in our area. This was helpful especially since the Owens have planted several churches in Cameroon and can speak the language. Pleased pray for the Owens while they work at raising the rest of their support so they can get to South Africa and start churches there.

Missionary Owens and his wife

Week 6: Visitors Sunday Morning and Evening

Family from Burundi on Thursday night with Blaise

 It started on Thursday night this week when some of our soul winners were out knocking doors. (This is always what starts things happening!) One of our teams had the ability to speak four different languages between the two of them. (What a valuable soul winning team!) This team met a new family who recently moved here from Burundi, Africa. They spoke Swahili. So happens that Blaise is from Congo and can speak Swahili. It was a great time for all of them! This family came to church on Sunday on one of our buses and Bro. Blaise stayed with them through Sunday school. It was a great blessing to have them come and visit!

The Family from Burundi on Sunday morning

Being dealt with at the Altar

The Looper's and the Botti's

Then Sunday evening Bro. Looper had a married couple come and visit our services. The husband he had met on Thursday night and led him to Christ. Then the wife got saved during the Sunday night service at the invitation time. It was very exciting to see a married couple come to Christ! They made a profession of faith and said they would bring their kids next Sunday morning and discuss baptism with us. Praise God for a solid weekend coming into our final week of this campaign.

Bro. Looper dealing with them at the altar Sunday night.

Week 5: New Life

Ku Rae Moo

I had the opportunity to meet Ku Rae Moo and her mother under better circumstances this week. Many know that last week while I was out visiting, I was called upon to assist inside an apartment building with the delivery of a baby. After the baby and placenta both successfully came out the paramedics arrived and I gladly turned over the duties to them. The mother does not speak much English, but one of my Karen men went with me and witnessed to her. We were happy to find out that she is already a believer. My wife and I brought a baby gift to her as well and had the opportunity to hold the baby and get some photos. We are hopeful to see them come to church soon...

Myself along with Pler and Ku Rae Moo

Mom and Baby One Week Later in same apartment

Yuu Yuu Lyn (red bag)

We were pleased to see Yuu Yuu return to church this past Sunday. She has been away in Ohio for some time and has just recently come back to Lincoln. She came for Sunday school and the morning service. Yuu Yuu speaks Burmese, Karen, and English very well.

Samatha gets saved and baptized!

We had a good week for our campaign with multiple visitors again. Several return visitors came too! We also got to see four people make a public profession of faith and one follow the Lord in believer's baptism! Praise God for the continued miracle of new life, not just physically, but spiritually!

Week 4: Pastor's Are Called Upon for Everything!

In the fourth week of our campaign something very interesting happened during my Saturday visiting time. I was just finishing witnessing to a man in the parking lot of an apartment complex when a Karen (Burmese refugee) lady came outside from the building and yelled over to me, "You, come here, inside now!" I turned and looked around behind me and said, "Are you talking to me?" The lady answered, "Yes you!" while pointing at me, "Help inside, now!" So my daughter and I ran into the building to see what was going on. Once in the hallway the lady started making motions with her hands around here stomach to indicated someone was pregnant. Then she said, "Bathroom" while pointing inside an apartment. I then realized what was probably going on and in I went....

Sure enough as I went inside there was several people gathered around the bathroom door. I looked in and saw a lady laying on the bathroom floor trying to have a baby. There was an elderly Karen lady trying to help her. I asked the crowd that was gathering if anyone had called 911. They said, "No English." I called 911 and got an ambulance to start coming to the apartment building. The operator asked me questions and instructed me while the baby was coming out. I wiped the babies mouth and made sure the throat was clear from the fluid. The operate told me the baby should be crying and instructed me to turn the baby over. After which the baby then started crying. The operator then asked me if the placenta had come out yet, I said, "No." Then a few moments later the mother pushed the placenta out. I told the operator, she said, "This was very good."

Now the operator asked me if the mother was doing okay. I said, she looks okay other than having just had a baby. The operator said, "You need to ask her if she is okay." I asked, but no response, because the mother doesn't understand English. Then it occurred to me how I could ask her about her condition in the Karen language. I said to the mother "O Soo Ah?" (Which means, How are you?) The mother answered back, "O Soo." (Which means good.) I told the operator, who then said to me, "good you can communicate in their language," I responded, "No, I only know a few greeting words in their language."

Now the operator wanted me to tie off the cord and cut it. I told her I did not have anything to do that with, so she suggested using my shoe lace. I told her I would wait for the paramedics, she told me that it had to be done pretty soon. thankfully about that time I heard the ambulance pulling up outside. I told the operator that the paramedics were here. They came in and relieved me from the rest of my duty. I was thankful for their timely arrival. AMEN!

This was an experience I have never had as a pastor and hopefully won't again. Although, I performed my duty, which caused me to think about the duty we have as Christians to help bring new converts into the world for the Saviour!

The Scene after the paramedics arrived!

 Sunday we had a good day with five first time visitors and several return visitors. During the invitation time we had 8 public professions of faith made and got to see one follow the Lord in believer's baptism. Praise God for a wonderful week and weekend!

Tha Mee Hser's mom comes to church!

Corey got saved and baptized!

Week Three; Missionary Ben Smith

We had a great 3rd week to the Christ is Our Mission Campaign as we had Missionary Ben Smith with us. Brother Smith is our Missionary to South Sudan. It was a privilege to have the opportunity to see his presentation on Sunday night and listen to his burden for the Sudanese people. He is getting ready to make a trip to South Sudan at the end of the month with his pastor from Heritage Baptist Church. May God bless them on their trip and as he raises the final amount of his support.

Missionary Ben Smith and Family

We had a good week in Sunday school with multiple visitors coming and seeing one get baptized after the morning service. We were able to give away several prize bags to adult visitors that are full of Licorice from all over the world. Then on Sunday night we were blessed to see another convert follow the Lord in believer's baptism. So we had a total of three public professions made and two follow the Lord in believer's baptism.

Yana getting baptized Sunday morning.

Clinton getting baptized Sunday night.

We had a couples activity last Friday night. We went to Cabela's and then to Cracker Barrel afterwards for dinner. Everyone who came had a great time. As you can see in the picture below this event created great unity in our couples. (Ha, Ha)

The Painter's enjoying each others company!

The Miller's enjoying shopping

The Looper's having some alone time

Christ is Our Mission

Iraqi lady praying and trusting Christ through translator.

We had the second week of our Sunday school campaign called "Christ is Our Mission." God was really good to us. We saw 28 people trust Christ as their Saviour this week! Perhaps one of the more interesting situations is an Iraqi lady who got saved at the invitation time of the morning service. She has lived in America a few years and actually knew a lot of English. I was able to present the Gospel to her in English. We did run into a little snag toward the end of the presentation and I was able to call upon one of our church members from Sudan named Amiot. Amiot speaks Arabic fluently as well as several other languages and she was able to assist me in leading this lady. Praise God for a diverse church!

I am thankful that we can have someone from almost any part of the world walk into our church and be able to be presented a clear presentation of the Gospel in their language. We have one member that can speak 12 different languages! Praise God!!!!

Plavia getting baptized!

We also had Plavia from South Sudan come as a visitor for my mother today. She trusted Christ as her Saviour and followed the Lord in believer's baptism this morning. It was exciting to see her willingness to follow the Lord in the first step of obedience after trusting Christ. Please pray for her spiritual growth as she continues to come to church. 

Shee Say and Htee Say

We had a good day on all of the buses. The Karen route had a solid attendance day. My wife had her picture taken with two of the new riders that are actually becoming quite faithful. Shee Say and Htee Say along with their older brother attend every week now. God is really blessing this ministry as my wife and I are striving to learn the Burmese language.

One thing for our church to remember as we strive to win many nationalities to Christ is what the Bible says in 1 Chronicles 28:7 "Moreover I will establish his kingdom for ever, if he be constant to do my commandments and my judgments, as at this day." If we be constant as a church, God will establish His work in these nationality groups.

Soul Winning Missionary

Saint and Chow after the service

This past weekend we had Missionary Saint Jomhong with us from the Longview Baptist Temple. Bro. Saint is a Missionary to the Kingdom of Thailand. He did an excellent job while he spent the weekend with us. He went soul winning all day Saturday and preached and presented his work on Sunday evening. In fact there is an interesting story I will tell you about involving Saint...

Chow getting baptized!

Saint met a Vietnamese man named Chow while he was out soul winning on Saturday. He was unable to led the man to the Lord because the man told him he was a Buddhist. However, the man told Saint he would come to church on Sunday. Interestingly enough, Chow had been witnessed to by my son and Bro. Zawlatt about a month earlier. They too could not lead him to Christ because he said he was Buddhist. Then Sunday morning came and the regular bus route went by to pick up Chow, but he was not home. However, I was running my Karen route and saw a man walking down the street in  a different area from where Chow lives. (I did not know Chow, yet.) My wife was at a door getting some people and I yelled over to the man and asked him to come to church. He was hesitant, but then decided to come. Once at the church we discovered this was the man Saint had invited.

After Sunday school Saint decided to speak to Chow about his salvation. Saint presented the Gospel to Chow and he then made a decision to trust Christ as his personal Saviour! Praise God! We then conducted the morning service and at the invitation time Chow came forward and decided to follow the Lord in believer's baptism. Thank God for the work of many soul winners to get this Buddhist man saved. This would be our first Buddhist that has gotten baptized at our church. Praise God! 

Saint preaching on Sunday night

Saint soul winning on Saturday

This week was the first week of our campaign called "Christ is Our Mission." The theme has a missions emphasis being placed on it. Total we had 64 souls saved for the week with two following the Lord in believer's baptism. One of our men Bro. Looper has been taking Spanish classes and was able on Saturday to led his first soul to Christ completely in the Spanish language. Praise God for a great start to our campaign.

Bro. Looper witnessing to a Spanish man

Busy Week!

We kept the baptistery tank busy all week. Baptizing people on Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday. God had blessed our soul winning efforts by keeping a steady flow of converts lining up to get into the tank. After seeing 21 come to the Saviour on Thursday night, we had 17 more come to Christ on Saturday and Sunday. Then finished with a total of 38 saved for the week and 6 public professions of faith being made and 4 following the Lord in believer's baptism this week! Praise God for his goodness!

Mimi getting baptized on Saturday afternoon!

Zawlatt getting baptized on Wednesday night

Tina Marie; one of the baptisms from Sunday morning