God really blessed tonight! There were 71 people in attendance. Three got saved! Many people made decisions to be faithful to God and to take the next step to find out what God wants them to do in their lives.
Tomorrow morning we head out to a village work. It is about 2 hours away, I understand! I will preach, Keith will translate, and then one more brother will translate the language into the tribal dialect! I hope you will pray for us!
I am pretty sure that John will also be saying a few words. He is always a blessing to the churches. We are leaving at 7 am to get out to preach. Then we will have a service again at the main church tomorrow night.
I hope you will pray for Burkina Faso that God will move and work here. Pray that Keith can raise up a group of young men and women (through the work of the Holy Spirit of course) that will be willing and able to be trained and then sent out across the city, the country and the continent.
I also want to thank you for praying for me, being faithful to the services, Brother Tony for preaching, and just a thousand things that all of you are doing that I do not know about!
This Sunday is an important day just like every other Sunday. Be in your place. Be faithful, invite someone, come praying and let God work in and through you.
I miss each of you and can’t wait to be back with you and see all that God is doing there.
Brethren, let me ask you, do you imagine that the gospel is a nose of wax which can be shaped to suit the face of each succeeding age? Is the revelation once given by the Spirit of God to be interpreted according to the fashion of the period? Is “advanced thought” to be the cord with which the spirit of the Lord is to be straitened? Is the old truth that saved men hundreds of years ago to be banished because something fresh has been hatched in the nests of the wise? Think ye that the witness of the Holy Ghost can be shaped and moulded at our will? Is the divine Spirit to be rather the pupil than the teacher of the ages? “Is the spirit of the Lord straitened?” …
Charles Spurgeon
Pray for us as we leave in just a few minutes to preach again at the church here in Burkina Faso. I am tired–really–jet lag I guess. I will get some water in the throat and on the face and see if I wake up. God bless each of you. Know that John and I are praying for you and that we love you.
Since my life liked this so much I thought I would post it for all to see. This will help you understand what keeps us dads so humble. We know our place
I was out walking with my 4 year old daughter. She picked up something off
the ground and started to put it in her mouth. I took the item away from her
and I asked her not to do that.
“Why?” my daughter asked.
“Because it’s been on the ground, you don’t know where it’s been, it’s
dirty, and probably has germs,” I replied.
At this point, my daughter looked at me with total admiration and asked,
“Momma, how do you know all this stuff, you are so smart.”
I was thinking quickly.
“All moms know this stuff. It’s on the Mom Test. You have to know it, or
they don’t let you be a Mom.”
We walked along in silence for 2 or 3 minutes, but she was evidently
pondering this new information.
“OH…I get it!” she beamed, “So if you don’t pass the test you have to be the dad.”
”Exactly,” I replied back with a big smile on my face.
The gecko making a clucking noise finally came out from hiding! He is not as cute or talkative as the one on the TV commercials. I just wanted you to know that the TV gecko is a fraud! They have them in the house all the time–can’t get rid them! They do not bother anyone just come out and run from one hiding place to another.
The Shumakers are tremendous Christians! Their heart for these people is enormous. It is a blessing to see how Mrs. Rebecca works and serves. She is a real Christian lady! They have 3 wonderful, beautiful children. Isaac (which means laughter) has got to be one of the happiest children that I have ever known.
Be sure and check out the Church Planting discussion to hear an interview with a missionary wife that you all know from Morocco!
Burkina Faso means the land of the upright man! The Shumakers are doing all in their power to make this word become a reality. There is probably a short window of opportunity to get the gospel to this country. All of Africa is hardening. Will you pray about coming to West Africa as a missionary? Would you see about how God could use you to get the gospel here before the door closes? Please pray for the Shumakers!
We just had the privilege of going to our first service with Missionary Keith Shumaker and his family! The church is called Water of Life Baptist Church (that is translated obviously)! What a great job this wonderful family is doing! If you support them as missionaries you can know that they are being used of God and it would be well worth your time and money to come and visit!
There were 65 people in attendance! Several made decisions as I preached on How to turn the world upside down!
The construction is coming along great.
The Shumakers are a very faithful family! They have had many health issues, political problems have been endured, their support is down 40% because of a devaluation of the dollar but all is praise and glory to God from their lips. Stay tuned and keep up with what God is doing here.
I can’t wait to see you again. I thank Brother Tony Howeth for all he does for our church and I know you will enjoy his message tonight!
This Sunday you will be blessed to hear from one of the finest young preachers that I know: Trent Cornwell. I love this young man and thank God for him. I know that he is praying and that God will give him the message of the morning and the evening! Please support him and pray for him! Invite someone to be with you and have one of those Sundays with higher attendance with me out of the country than in!
I love you guys and count it a great honor to be your pastor. I have had God dealing with me very clearly to be grateful to Him for all that He has done in our church.
We have arrived in Ouagaoudou, Burkina Faso with Missionary Keith Shumaker. We arrived at about 2:30 AM and have been in bed until about 9 am Africa time. That was after getting into bed at about 4:00 am. This is a miracle as those who know John will figure out. I supposed that he would get up at 4:30 as usual but he wimped out and slept almost like a normal human–that is between 5 and 5.5 hours.
The man at the immigrations desk really liked me. He made me fill out the paper work like 3 times. He asked me if I knew how to read. I have filled out papers all over the world. John’s papers were like my original papers and his were fine but I think the man must have thought I was cute–he made me stand there for maybe 10 minutes. When I got finally through John had all of our bags and was waiting.
I think this is going to be one of those exciting trips. This morning started off with a nice cold shower! Nothing like that to get you going in the morning. God wants me to appreciate all the small things He does for me.
We are excited about being here with the Shumaker family. We had a great time with our missionary friends in Morocco! There will be some posts from the Our Generation Radio as soon as I am able to get them up so please stay tuned.
Pray for us that God will use us and work in our lives here. Please pray for all the activities and ministries of Vision this week and be in your place doing your part for the great kingdom of our God.
John and I are on our way to Burkina Faso to visit with Keith Shumaker. We will be there on Thursday morning in the early morning hours.
On the way we will stop over for about 14 hours in Casablanca, Morocco to visit with our friends there. We will be doing several interviews that will be made available on the Our Generation Radio. You can find the Our Generation Radio at this web page. I hope you will subscribe to the podcasts and be able to keep up with all that God is doing through the interviews etc.
We will also, Lord willing, posts some things from Burkina Faso. That is if we have good internet service which I do not know if we will have or not!
Please pray for us and if you have not done so be sure and read the last post by Trent! It is great!
As you know, our pastor left this morning for Burkina Faso. He is accompanied by his friend and body guard John Pearson. They will be there to teach and to encourage our missionary Keith Shumaker.
Moments after the pastor pulls out of the business park the games began. We started with red - red rover in the auditoruim, then we played dodgeball out back, and then finished with karoke in the spanish auditoruim. Just joking (or am I). We continue at the work that we are passionate about. There are so many things we can do to serve the Lord! If you can not imagine that there is so much to be done then let me invite you to come to the church, go down the hall to the 3rd door on the left, and say to Mark Coffey “I am here to help.. is there anything I can do?”.
Growing up I had a very narrow view of ministry. Sing or preach. I couldn’t and still can not really carry a tune, if you do not believe me ask the teenagers. I had a horrible speech impetiment so I didn’t see preaching as an option for a long time. However, I remember when a deacon in the church helped open my eyes to the fact that ministry is more then just teaching or preaching. I begin to enjoy doing all kinds of things in the ministry.
The Bible has a whole lot to say about.. well about almost everything. It especially has a great deal of information about how everyones talents and abilities are important to the church. Here is a study out of I Chronicles that may help us broaden our view of what ministry is and can be.
King David charged all the people to do their jobs with every fiber of their being (I Chronicles 22:1-19). God needs people of every talent- not just prophet and priests – to obey them.
Ministerial Duties…
Priests (24:1)
Prophets (I Chronicles 25:1)
Assistants for sacrifices (23:29-31)
Assistants for purification ceremonies (23:28)
Service Duties…
Bakers of the bread of the Presence (23:29)
Those who checked the weights and measures (23:29)
Custodians (23:28)
Financial Duties…
Those who cared for the treasuries (26:20)
Those who cared for the dedication gifts (26:26-28)
Artistic Duties…
Musicians (25:6)
Singers (25:7)
Protective Duties…
Temple guards (23:5)
Guards for the gates and storehouses (26:12-18)
Individual Assignments…
Recording secretary (24:6)
Chaplain to the king (25:5)
Private prophet to the king (25:2)
Captain of the guard (26:1)
Chief officer of the treasuries (26:23, 24)
I am not saying that our church needs a “guard for the gates” aka bouncer. However, there are so many different abilities that are needed to make a church run effectively. We should all search our hearts and consider what talent we have that we think is not usable for the church and ask God to show us how to use it for His glory! Even though the work of God is not a game, I do not know of anything more exciting and challenging. Everyone has a position on the team and a role to play!
The following is a post by Pastor Keith Lee! We have been praying for their baby, Matthew Lee! I hope you will continue to pray! Brother Lee is the pastor of Fellowship Baptist Church! They are good brethren and in great need of our love and prayers right now!
Thanks for all your prayers. The Lord is good.
Today Matthew made some improvement. Although he continues to be on the ventilator, the doctors have began to ween him down. At this time the ventilator continues to breath for him.
I was concerned that Matthew may have had some damage from his “code blue” episode yesterday. The doctors have ran several test and do not believe there was any damage. Praise the Lord!!!
Another encouraging thing is that when Amanda is in the room he tries to open his eyes and begins to squirm around. This means he is aware of her presence. This is wonderful.
The Doctors have identified a common virus (moraxella) as part of the problem. They have sent off another culture to test for the specific virus.
Please pray with us that they identify the exact virus. This will allow them to treat Matthew with the best antibiotics.
Again, thank you for your prayers. Many churches have specifically prayed for Matthew. I believe your prayers and the goodness of the Lord has gotten Matthew and our family this far.
Jeff Bush is preaching the mission’s conference at Lighthouse Baptist Church in Dawsonville! Lord willing, I will be going tomorrow night to hear him preach! I wanted to invite you to go also. You can go on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday night!
Since I will be leaving for Burkina Faso on Tuesday I will be going on Monday evening! I would love to have a good number from our church there. I am convinced that we must support our sister churches in their different ministries when we can. We have no better friend than Pastor Charles Blackstock and Lighthouse Baptist Church. The services will start at 7 pm. It will be a great evening!
If you would like to go just let me know and Lord willing we can sit together as a church!
