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