Great Past Two Weeks

Edward Diaz, newest member

These past two weeks have been absolutely fantastic at the Lincoln Baptist Church. Two Sunday's ago Edward Diaz joined our church. He is originally from Los Angeles, California and was saved and baptized in the great Hillside Bible Baptist Church in downtown L.A. Dr. Ray Ramirez has a great soul winning work there that my wife and I had the privilege to visit back in 2001. I am glad to welcome Edward aboard at our church.

Karen bus route

This past Sunday we had 17 ride on our Karen bus route. The Karen people are a tribal people from Burma that are coming to our city by way of Thailand. I had the Lord place a real burden on my heart about trying to reach out to this community in our city. I spend a little time each Saturday with my wife visiting them and then we bring some in each week on a small bus route that seems to be growing a little more every week.

Say Paw, one of our visitors on Sunday.

Many of us do not realize that these Karen people spent much time enslaved throughout history. You see to many, these people may be the least of these. However, Matthew 25:45 says, Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.   If to some, these people are the least of these, then I want to do a good turn to Christ and help reach them.

The Rashidi family

I found my wife this past Sunday taking a family picture for the Rashidi family. I asked her to snap a picture for me and she did. I am glad to have this fine family from Congo come to our church. The young man in the black suit is one of our bus captains. He does a fine job helping us reach many people for Christ through the bus ministry. Overall we have been blessed the past two weeks with many souls saved and one following the Lord in believers baptism!

Great Night on Soul Winning Bus

 We had a great time out soul winning this past Thursday night. We went out with 29 soul winners and got to she 20 precious souls come to trust Christ as their Saviour! On the way back we sang songs about the Saviour, it was truly a refreshing and exciting time. Helping add to the excitement was a group of nine people that came from a church in the Red Cloud area. Eight of these nine had never been soul winning before and had wanted to come and experience our soul winning program. These nine were very sharp people and I think were truly blessed by coming.

 A man from their church has come and visited our church on numerous occasions because he was attracted to our soul winning emphasis and our stand on the King James Bible. This man has become a friend to myself and our church here. He has actually been a great help and blessing to our bus ministry. In return I am hoping we can help them establish a soul winning work in that part of the state where there is no soul winning churches. Soul winning is the answer to a dying nation, even in a rural setting like Webster County.

Christ is Our Standard

Dr. Gray and his target.

 This past week we held our Bible conference called "Christ is Our Standard." Our guest speaker was Dr. Bob Gray the 2nd from the Longview Baptist Temple. The conference went great despite Brother Gray's plane being held up on Monday. He came in later than the service time, which would seem to put a damper on the service, but Dr. Richard Haley from Riverside Baptist Church filled the pulpit and preached a great message on "Wearing the Badge of Honor."
God blessed and hearts were stirred.

Then Tuesday morning we held a shooting activity at the range for those who wished to participate. It went very well and all who attended had a great time. Then in the evening Dr. Gray preached a message on "Why We Have All These Rules and Standards." Once again hearts were stirred and decisions were made.

I want to thank both of our speakers for taking time out of their schedules to come be a blessing to our church. We had a great time!

My daughter-in-law shot a tight grouping.

This past Sunday we had a Ukrainian family visit our Home and Family class. The husband had come twice before, but today his wife was able to make it also. We were very honored to have them as our guest. The visiting wife told my wife how much she enjoyed the class. They plan to return next week and we will be praying for them. God bless and have a great week on the Soul Winning trail.

Looking down the gun sights with my wife!

New Beginnings

My wife and I are first time ever grandparents and are very excited to see our first one come into this world after a long weekend (for the parents) of wrestling with getting this one out! This is my wife pictured with our new granddaughter, Allysa Rose. She was born at 2:02 AM on February 2nd. It is precious to see a new birth take place and new life come into this world. We couldn't be more pleased to have an addition to the Painter family!

This new birth also reminds me of the other opportunities we have in this life to see the new birth or a new beginning take place. Of course, there is a precious baby like this one. Then there is the opportunity we have to see a soul get born again. The spiritual new birth is a precious thing to see, it is a spiritual new born babe according to the Bible. It is also a new beginning representing new life for the individual that trust Christ. Praise God for every soul that gets saved!

The new beginning also reminds me of the fresh start our church has recently enjoyed. We had gone through some much needed changes at the end of 2014 that I am sure many thought may not be for the best. However, the opposite has been true. We have enjoyed five straight weeks of some of the best offerings we have ever seen. More than meeting our church budget each week has been a very encouraging thing to me. Besides the finances the over all spirit of our church has been the best it has ever been since the beginning of our church. God has created an excitement and refreshing spirit in our Sunday school department, our music ministry, our workers meetings, our ladies meetings, etc... It has truly been refreshing.

Our theme for the year is "Christ is..." it has created excitement at every level. Our people our excited, our soul winning bus has had the best spirit I can ever remember. Truly the Lord has lifted a great burden from our church and I am excited to shout it from the mountain tops! I look forward to this year being a year of New Beginning for the Lincoln Baptist Church!

The Highways and the Hedges

There are souls in need of Christ everywhere. Here is a long distance picture of one of our bus captains leading three souls to Christ on Sunday afternoon. Our bus captain is the one in the black jacket. He led these three gentlemen to Christ while taking his bus route home after the morning services. We must be ever ready to present the Gospel on a moments notice.

While our bus director was sending me this picture I was at a grocery store with my wife after we had just dropped off some people after church services. While in the store I ran into a man who graduated high school with me many years ago. He is a business owner here in our town and although I was not able to win him to Christ, I was able to give him a Gospel tract and give him something to think about. You never know, he may be saved one day in the near future too.

Folks, I implore you to be ever ready to sow the seed, water the seed, and reap the harvest whenever we possibly can. There is only a little time left to get souls saved before our Saviour returns!

Making Something Happen

This past Saturday I was out visiting with my two youngest daughters. It was a cold Saturday morning and we had just made a visit in an apartment building. We went down to the next level and I stopped at a door and knocked. My girls asked me, "Do you know the person who lives here?" I said to them, "No." They said, "Then why are we knocking on the door?" I said, "Because it has been a slow morning." They said, "Huh?" I said, "It has been slow this morning, so it is time to make something happen!" They looked confused and about that time a man named David answered the door. I witnessed to him and was able to lead him to Christ. Praise God for that!

After we left, I explained to my girls that sometimes when we are out visiting on a cold morning we have to create some excitement ourselves. We try to promote an aggressive soul winning program at our church and in doing so we really want our teachers and bus captains looking for people to win while out making their visits. That morning was cold and difficult to find people, so we just hit a door of someone we don't know in order to make something happen. It worked. Then we lead another one about 30 minutes later at another place. God is good when we work hard.

My wife also had one saved on Saturday afternoon. Becky came and got baptized on Sunday morning. Please pray for her spiritual growth! We also had two others saved during the morning service and they made public professions of faith. Let's make something happen!!!!

Good Final Sunday of 2014

We had a good final Sunday to the year of 2014. The overall attendance was low, but the visitors were high. We had 5 public professions of faith made with one following the Lord in believers baptism. I am glad about getting the opportunity see another year through all the way to the end here at Lincoln Baptist Church.

God blessed our soul winning efforts on Saturday with us getting to see 13 souls come to the Saviour during our Saturday bus calling and class visiting. I look forward to seeing the greatest year ever in our church in 2015. The sky is the limit if we go forward by faith! God bless everyone and have a Happy New Year!