This is Christopher who got saved several weeks ago when I was out soul winning on a Thursday morning.  I was unable to find him at home until this past Saturday morning. When I did, he told me and my partner that he has been so blessed since that day I stopped him on the street. He said, he was without a job and that very day I led him to Christ he got a job. He said, he had lost his license and since that day he got his license back. He said, he had no car and since that day he had a car given to him. He said, God has not stopped blessing him since that day I stopped him on the street. Praise God for personal soul winning! He was so excited that he got baptized in his full suit. I tried to stop him, but he told me that he has a new life now, so he will just get a new suit. He almost dove in he was so excited! We had three baptized total and have more Faith Promise money committed than we have ever had before. We have $200 a week committed so far, which is just fantastic for a church like ours. Praise God for His wonderful blessings. On the lighter side, I wanted to mention a story from this past Thursday night soul winning. Two of our men while out soul winning talked to a lady at the first door they went to who said, "I used to to go to Lincoln Baptist Church, then Pastor Painter said, 'If you don't like the preaching, you can just leave.' So I left!" The two men left and laughed up a storm about it. Yes, I do sometimes make that statement when I preach, I guess someone really took it to heart. Ha! Praise God for this great country we live in that allows us to preach our convictions and stand for truth. I always do so without apology, but sometimes we can get a laugh out of it all too!

 Today we took Brother and Mrs. Gaiser on a trip to the Durham Museum in Omaha. They won our campaign Sunday school contest for bring the most visitors to Sunday school in September. They are pictured below at the train station. I also caught my wife enjoying a soda at the soda fountain shop. (above) It was a fun afternoon. We enjoy having a good family like this one in our church. They do so much for our church. From the nursery to ushering to teaching Sunday school to so much more. It is so refreshing to have faithful dependable people that you can count on as a pastor. I thank the Lord for all of our wonderful families that we have at Lincoln Baptist Church.

We just finished our missions conference and it was an absolutely fantastic time. We got to enjoy great singing and preaching by our guest. Pictured at top is Pastor Richard Haley who was our main conference speaker. He did a fantastic job. Then we had Missionary Jared Zapata pictured below with myself and Brother Haley. Brother Zapata did a wonderful job preaching on Monday night and with his presentations on Sunday. I would highly recommend him to any church looking for a solid missionary to take on for support. On Sunday we had a good crowd of 129 and we had five public professions of faith made. It was a great weekend and conference.

 This Sunday we saw a change up in our Sunday school department. We resumed our Home and Family class which was on a four week break. Then we had Brother Jager (pictured at the top right) teaching the Joint Heirs adult class. Finally we had a brand new teacher in Bro. Gaiser (pictured below) teaching the Overcomers teen class. It is great to have such faithful men like these two that can be used to help teach. Both of these men are of the finest quality and a great blessing to our church. Unfortunately good men and dependable men are hard to find. However, God has blessed us with some. We had a decent attendance with 104 in Sunday school, it is little below our average, but still decent. We also had one convert baptized. Next weekend starts our missions conference with the theme of Regions Beyond. We are excited about our incoming guest and I for one am looking forward to being stirred up about missions.

This is Dina who got baptized on Sunday. She was led to Christ by my wife this past Thursday night and came to church this past Sunday. She was one of three baptized this past Sunday morning. We had 35 people saved this week with four making public professions of faith, and three following the Lord in believer's baptism. Praise God for His wonderful blessings. These past four weeks we have had an entirely different spirit in our church. Many of our members have told me they feel the power of God coming down in our services. We have had 13 baptized these past four weeks as well. There have been many visitors every week. There has also been a real feeling of complete unity among our members. These are things we haven't felt for some time our church. Praise God for all of these things! Looking forward to an even better October.

Here are a few pictures from the day. I took a quick snap shot this morning of the bus route that I drive for. We had a good day with 41 riders. Josue Vasquez is the bus captain and is doing an excellent job. Praise God for a church which loves the bus ministry. I spent some time with the teens before evening church playing a little table top ping pong. Here is me playing against one of our fine teenagers Blaise Rashidi. Of course I won, beating Blaise 15 to 4. Blaise is my soul winning partner every Saturday morning and is an excellent soul winner. Both Josue and Blaise have been called into the ministry and will be going off to Bible college next year. Travis Miller also pictured in the middle of the bottom picture has been called into the ministry. He will be around for a few more years before going off to Bible college. Overall we had 6 public professions of faith made and 2 baptized. I am glad I am a part of an independent Baptist church that wins souls and baptizes converts on a regular basis!

This is Roberta who was one of five people who got baptized on Sunday. Her two teenage children were led to Christ on Thursday night by Brother Gaiser, one of our faithful men. Brother Gaiser then went by on Saturday to follow up and led their mother to Christ. Their father had already been saved before and all four came to church on Sunday and got baptized. Then a convert on mine from Thursday night also came on Sunday and got baptized too. Praise God for soul winning. It is the best to reach families!