What an honor to be part of commissioning two more missionary families to the work. Philip and Lori Bassham are leaving to raise support to go to Thailand. Scott and Melissa Newton are also leaving and will be raising support to go to Barcelona, Spain. I want to ask you to pray for them just […]

In just a few hours David Lundy, Scott Lance, and I will get on a plane headed for Burkina Faso. We will be there to work with Missionary Keith Shumaker. I will be keeping you up to date on what is happening on my personal blog. I would like to invite you to follow along […]

Dear Vision, I am very excited that we are a Bible church. We go from verse to verse. Today we will see the need to be always praying. Prayer is a great spiritual weapon. We desperately need the power of God and His working in all of our lives. I hope you will search your […]

Betty and I have had a wonderful time in Arequipa, Peru with the family and being part of the Pastor’s School. We leave later this afternoon to return home. We will be excited to be back where we belong. I love Peru and miss it but I know that God has me a place at […]

We are seated in the waiting area in Beijing, China ready to board a plane that will take us back to Newark, New Jersey and then on to Atlanta. It will take about 24 hours to get home. That counts the time since we left the hotel, spend 13 hours and 45 minutes on the […]

They take off their shoes as they enter the church building and put on slippers. If you want to know how many are there count the shoes and divide by 2. They ran out of slippers and had to use plastic slip ons for the extras. That is after they bought 30 new slippers yesterday. […]

Dear Vision God bless each one of you very much today. I am here in China with Mark and Natasha Tolson. God is doing wonderful things here through Jake and Stephanie. It is so exciting to see Chinese people being saved and discipled. Those of you that give to missions through our Faith Promise program […]

Here is Mark T preaching in the English service. Not the best picture in the world because I took the picture with my Black Berry camera. The lighting was terrible. Mark did a great job. He and Natasha will do a great job as missionaries and I am very proud of them. It will be […]

I want to wish a very special Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers who read this blog and especially to the moms at Vision. I am in China right now. That is a long ways from all of you and it is already Sunday morning while it is Saturday night there. Please know that […]

Harbin Preaching from Austin Gardner on Vimeo.

McDonald’s with a little sign that I doubt most of you can read. We went late at night. It is open 24 hours a day. If you are my friend on facebook you can see more pictures and some of the people from the church in a leader’s meeting we did today. They are wonderful […]

We have arrived in Harbin, China. It is beautiful weather here. Got a good night’s sleep after traveling for over 24 hours. We are 12 hours a head of you in time. So I am writing this at 11:38 AM and it is the same pm for you. Excited about seeing what God is doing […]

I went to bed last night thinking about getting back to Alpharetta and Vision Baptist. I was thinking of all that God is doing with us and how He is working and got myself so worked up that I didn’t get much sleep. That is not good when it is the night before I stay […]

Today was a wonderful family day. To be honest we didn’t do much more than be together. We toured the advances in the city, ate lunch together, played with the kids, watched a movie together, etc. Just fun being with the family. I didn’t even preach today. Thanks for all that all of you do […]

Betty and I are having a wonderful time with 5 of our grandchildren and 2 of our children. The other half are back in the states but this is a very unusual opportunity on our part to be free and with them so much. I am excited to see how God is working here. I […]

Last year Rhonda Gibby came with us to Peru for the Pastor’s Conference. She saw how rushed everything was for us so Joe and Rhonda decided to pay for our trip down with skymiles. All Betty and I had to pay was the taxes, fees and whatever we do while we are here. Thank you […]

Betty has landed in Atlanta and will be home with in the hour or so. David, our son, is picking her up. I am in Houston and paid $50 to get home with a little buffer to get a shower and still get to church on time. Trent will be picking me up. I will […]

How can I say thank you! Betty and I are in Arequipa, Peru dealing with some family issues. Our daughter, Joy, is hurting and really needs your prayers. The men of our church gathered around the altar and prayed for us. When I got this picture I was so blessed to think of the kindness […]

If anyone ever asks you what kind of sign that I would like to have for Vision Baptist Church here in Alpharetta you will be able to show them! I love this sign. This is the sign for Kevin and Beth White and Jorge and Jenny Montenegro’s ministry there in Cochabamba. Tell me what you […]

I spend quite a bit of time on the road. It is really nice when you have a host like Beth White. She is going to give birth any day and yet she has been careful to check on every detail to make my stay very comfortable. Things like a clean towel and bath cloth […]

God is always so good to us! Things have been busy here as we talk, plan, and pray asking God to do great things in the work here in Cochabamba, Bolivia. God is greatly using the Kevin White family and the Jorge Montenegro family. They work together as a great team. I am very proud […]

We just got home from church at 1:16 AM. We left the house at 4:15 PM. I started teaching the leaders at a little after 5 until 6:30. Then at 7 we started the evening service. God moved and two people made professions of faith. Then we went to Jorge Montenegro’s house to eat supper. […]

If you have been keeping up you know that Sam Paxin and I are in Bolivia with missionary Kevin White and missionary Jorge Montenegro. These men form one of the best teams that I have ever seen. They make me think of Paul and Barnabas. God is blessing their work in a great way. I […]

God blessed us greatly on this trip. First it was a real privilege to travel with David Lundy and to strengthen our friendship. This was our first time to make a trip like this together and I got to know him and his heart so much better. I know that God has so much more […]

Tonight I preached my last message in Burkina Faso. The temperature was well into the 90s in the auditorium when I started. At 5:15 I began the men’s meeting and we talked about not being a taking church but a giving church. We talked about being used of God to make a difference with our […]

I thought that I would update you on what I saw and heard today. We took a trip to an animal reserve. As mentioned in the other two posts you can see that we were charged by elephants, ate antelope, and warthog. What I really wanted to tell you is what I learned talking to […]

This is a picture that gives the idea of what it looked like when up to 4 elephants charged our car. Keith has been a good host and we thank him for everything.

For supper last night David Lundy and I ate antelope similar to the picture you see above. The other plate was warthog. We had a great time, the food was good, the fellowship was better and we were charged by elephants. I will get you pictures of that later. Please pray for Keith Shumaker and […]

God was very good to us today. I was able to teach and preach for 4 hours this morning to about 12 people that came to learn about BE.DO.SERVE.TRAIN. We had a wonderful time in the Word of God. Then we ate lunch with the young men from the Bible college and a couple of […]

David Lundy and I are here in Burkina Faso with our missionaries, Keith and Rebecca Shumaker. They have four wonderful children, Emily, Meredith, Issac, and Caleb. They have started 3 churches and God is using them. Today 6 people made professions of faith in the church that I was privileged to be preaching in. The […]

Our last day in Morocco was a lot of fun and great blessings. All told I guess that in three days I was teaching or preaching for about 12 hours. God has given us wonderful missionaries there. I thank him for the American family and for the Peruvian family. I also praise him for the […]

I preached again last night to the little church here in Tangier. There are 2 Moroccan believers. The first night I preached from Acts 4 about the Persecution starting for the New Testament Church. The message really touched all the group. There is a Peruvian family here from our ministry back in Peru and the […]

At the airport in Casablanca after getting through immigration and customs we were sitting in a restaurant waiting on our host Aaron to arrive. We watched as the people came by! After a while a bearded young Muslim man approached an older woman and man and bowed down at the lady’s feet. He began hugging […]

David Lundy and I are sitting in the airport in Atlanta on our way to New York City and on our way to Morocco to visit our friend Aaron. I would like to ask you to pray that we will be a blessing to the people that we are going to visit. Lord willing on […]

What a great evening at the Peru Bible College. Chris Waye from Victory Baptist Church and Pastor Derik Lawrence both gave their testimony at the services and well Pastor Lawrence preached. It was a great message. I have the privilege of being on this trip with some of my greatest friends. Sam Paxin has such […]

The whole gang has arrived in Lima, Peru and we are at the Santa Cruz Hotel in Miraflores. We are on a trip to Arequipa for the Annual Pastor’s School. On this trip are Betty and I along with Chris Gardner our son and missionary in Arequipa. The we have Kelly Ross, Rhonda Gibby, Sam […]

Betty and I are still in Bridgeport and God is allowing us to be used of Him. I thank Him for the chance to preach and the chance to be with such wonderful people. On Thursday night I preached on “Now or Never” were the children of Israel had their chance to go in to […]

Lord willing, Ed Dunlop, will arrive to be with us tomorrow. We will be starting our Children’s Crusade. I want to ask you to be much in prayer that God would work and children will be saved. I hope you will arrive early and bring a friend with you. I am asking you to do […]

By now many of you may know that a young lady in our church has experienced a tragedy in her family. Rachel B lost her brother yesterday. It was a tragic ending to life. I want to ask each of you to be much in prayer for her and her family. I wish that I […]

I am “fixin” to go play golf with the pastor and missionaries here at the conference at Grace Baptist Church in Bridgeport, WV. Now this is going to be embarrassing. I play a little and enjoy doing so with my friends but even they know that I stink. The last time we played Philip told […]