Posted by: Matthew | September 14, 2008

Welcome!

Welcome to our site! Through this blog, we plan to keep you up to date with our family and ministry as we travel on deputation. As you read our posts, we pray that God would burden you to pray for our family. Pray for safety as we travel, that God would continue to open doors to present our ministry, and that God would burden churches to add us to their missionary family! Thank you again for visiting and please come back frequently, we will update our blogs at least once a week!

Scroll Below For Our Latest Updates!!

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Posted by: Matthew | November 10, 2009

Tanner Turns Three

IMG_0730On our latest road trip, our baby boy turned three years old.  To celebrate the day we set out on a seven hour road trip from Kentucky to Pennsylvania.  That would be a great celebration for any three year old, right?  However, Tanner is a road warrior.  We really think that he likes traveling better than being at home.  He is actually the best traveler out of our four children.

IMG_0718Knowing this trip was coming, plans were mapped out, stops planned, and presents wrapped.  The pit stops on this day would be Tanner’s favorite two destinations beginning with Chuck E. Cheese in Charleston, WV.  It was there that pizza was devoured, cupcakes were consumed, games played, tickets redeemed, and presents were opened.  Tanner had a blast!  He loves being the center of attention.  The second stop was thought out as well.  Dinner was served at Chic-Fil-A.  But, it was not the chicken nuggets that had Tanner’s attention.  It was obviously the playland.  For some reason, everything revolves around the Chic-Fil-A playland for Tanner.  Everytime we pass by one he goes crazy.  Thus, celebration two occurred there.  It was a really good day and the traveling ended two great meetings in Pennsylvania on Sunday.  You just learn to work everything in to the deputation schedule!

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Happy Birthday Tanner!

 

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Posted by: Matthew | October 29, 2009

Busy But Blessed!

IMG_0672The month of October brings two words to mind: Busy & Blessed!

This past month took our family to 14 different churches in 9 different states.  For those of you who wonder, the states were (in order) Kentucky, South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, Illinois, Tennessee, Alabama, and West Virginia.  Today we find ourselves on day number 12 of 18 straight nights in church.  Although this time has been extremely busy, we are so blessed to have a number of opportunities to present our burden for Peru.  God continues to bless as our support has risen to 43% and our children’s home project has grown to $17,500!  God is so good!!

IMG_0677We had a couple of special blessings this month as we were able to be with two churches that God has greatly used in our lives.  On October 11th, we were with Forrest Hills Baptist Church in Stone Mountain, GA.  It was there, 13 years ago, that God allowed our ministry and our family to begin!  We served as youth pastor there and had two of our four children during our three and half years in Georgia.  What an honor it was to return and see many dear friends.  We also had the opportunity to be in the Missions Conference at Temple Baptist Church in Powell, TN.  Through the ministry of Temple Baptist Church and Crown College, Crystal and I grew mightily in the Lord and learned much about serving Him!  We are so thankful that Dr. Sexton (top picture) followed God’s leading to begin this ministry.  Both he and the college have impacted our lives tremendously.  We were also blessed to spend a great amount of time with Mike & Valarie Fox (bottom picture) during our visit.  Other than my father, no man has had a greater influence in my life.  I am thankful for his Godly example and friendship.  We thank God for every opportunity to share our burden, but this conference was very special to our family.

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Posted by: Matthew | October 16, 2009

Back To Beginnings

It was a blessing for our family to return to Forrest Hills Baptist Church this past weekend.  It was just over 13 years ago that God allowed us to begin our ministry there.  What a blessing it was to see so many familiar faces faithfully in their place.  We are so thankful for how God is using Dr. Warrren to guide this wonderful church.  We enjoyed so much our stay with the Mitchell Rose family.  It was an eye opener to go out to eat with Keith and Amy Hamilton and their soon to be four children.  Keith was in college and Amy in our youth group while we served at Forrest Hills.  How encouraging it is to see how God is now using them to minister there.  But, it did show us how old we are getting!!  We praise God for allowing us to distribute 27 change jars while we were there! We are so thankful that God gave us an opportunity to get our feet on the ground at FHBC.

At this moment, we are packing for a difficult leg of our deputation.  Starting Sunday night, we will be in church 18 straight nights in four different states. This will include two single meetings and five mission conferences.  Please pray for strength and patience for both Crystal and I and especially for our children.  We are praying that these days will reap great blessings from the Lord.  We are currently stuck near 40% on our support level.  Our slow summer has caught up with us this month.  We are praying that a very heavy schedule through October and November will see our support rise between 50-60% by January.  If this happens, our goal of departing in August will remain a reality.  However, please pray that we will be patient and wait upon the Lord.  His timing is always perfect.  Thank you so much for following us through this blog.  Please keep our family daily before the Lord.  It is only through His power and protection that safety will be maintained and His will accomplished.

P.S.  Sorry there are no pictures with this post.  My computer is messed up right now, so I am working from someone else’ computer.  I know things are so much more interesting with pictures!

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Posted by: Matthew | October 6, 2009

Lauren Turns Eight

IMG_0605Our eighth month of deputation also brought the eighth birthday of our baby girl!  We traveled home for two days so that Lauren could celebrate her birthday with our family and a couple of friends. Although the stay was short, it was very enjoyable.  During this time, Madeline and Kyle were also able to go to the Chilhowie football game and see many of their friends as well.  I enjoyed watching Chilhowie get a critical victory over Virginia High!  For Crystal, this time ended up being a lot of work.  We still had a great couple of days.  Happy Birthday Lauren!!

IMG_0632Following our short time at home, we traveled to Beattyville, KY.  We had a wonderful time at both Ida May and Bear Track Bible Churches.  It was a joy to spend the weekend with my cousin Mark Coburn and his family.  It was also a blessing to stay at Youth Haven Bible Camp and to present our ministry with Brother William Owen’s church there.  God did so many wonderful things in my life as a young man at that camp.  Many memories flooded my mind this weekend.  It was truly a blessing!  This morning we head to Calvary Baptist in Greenwood, SC.  We will be preaching a three day revival in the Christian school there. Wednesday also brings the opportunity to share our work at a new church.  We end this leg of the trip at Forrest Hills Baptist Church in Stone Mountain, GA.  We are excited about seeing so many of the people where God allowed both our ministry and our family to begin.  Both Madeline and Kyle were born in the 3 1/2 years that God allowed us to serve at FHBC!  Please pray for our family as we travel.

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Posted by: Matthew | September 24, 2009

An Awesome Six Days

The last six days have been wonderful for our family.  Friday through Sunday was spent with the people of Fellowship Baptist Church in Wytheville, VA.  We had an incredible time.  The church was so friendly and welcoming.  The services were truly challenging and the concern for missions was very evident.  Our family is so thankful for their concern in helping us to meet our needs as well as their commitment to support our family.  It was a blessing to be with the Mullinax Family(to China), the Stanley Family (to Australia), and to see our dear friends the Seaver Family (to Alaska).  I can say without a doubt, we were blessed to be in this conference.  I am so thankful to Pastor Drake and all the members at Fellowship.

The next three nights I was privileged to preach a revival at Grosses Creek Baptist Church.  What a wonderful meeting this was as well.  It was an honor to see so many dear friends as the choirs from Cleghorn, Chilhowie (our home church), and Macedonia (one of our supporting churches) came and sang each night.  The response to the messages was tremendous and our family had a wonderful time.  We are so thankful for their tremendous concern for our needs. it was exciting to see so many children’s home jars go out the door and it was exciting to see so much money given toward the project throughout the meeting.  We look forward to the possibility of partnering with Grosses Creek in reaching Lima for Christ.

God just continues to show himself faithful.  These six days have seen wonderful church services, additional support, many of our needs met, new contacts made, six meetings scheduled for next year, need I go on….  GOD IS GOOD!!!!  Thank you Lord for your blessing.  God continues to show that as we obey Him, He will do the rest.

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Posted by: Matthew | September 16, 2009

2619 Miles Later!

IMG_0478Our latest journey took us to churches in the states of Louisiana and Alabama.  Although many miles were traveled, we had a tremendous time.  We not only visited some wonderful churches, but we also saw some great friends from our prior ministry.  This has truly been one of the greatest blessing of deputation.  We have been able to catch up with people from our childhoods, college, and early ministry times.  We most likely would have never seen these dear people again this side of Heaven were it not for deputation.  It has been such a blessing to see how God is using these people all over the United States.  We look forward to catching up with so many more over the next year.

 Please Pray: God continues to bless with meetings, financial support, and prayer partners.  However, God is also beginning to build a team of workers around our family as well.  Would you pray for Amy Noland, Lura Martinez, and Micah & Katie Smith as they consider and pray about both short and long term possibilities of assisting our family in Peru.  Several other individuals and churches are praying about and planning short term trips upon our arrival.  We are so excited to see so many people sharing in our burden for the Peruvian people!!  I am sure that each of them would appreciate your prayer support.

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Posted by: Matthew | September 6, 2009

September Newsletter

10701 Herrell LTRHDWe are excited to share with you the news from the first seven months of deputation!  To catch up on how God has been blessing, click the following link:

September 2009 Prayer Letter

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Posted by: Matthew | August 28, 2009

September – December 2009 Schedule

September

6th -    Shady Grove Baptist Church (Bossier City, LA)

9th -    Bellingrath Road Baptist Church (Theodore, AL)

13th -    Bethel Baptist Church (Hartselle, AL)

18th – 20th    Fellowship Baptist Missions Conference (Wytheville, VA)

21st – 23rd    Grosses Creek Baptist Church Revival (Chilhowie, VA)

27th – 30th    Tri-State Baptist Missions Conference (South Point, OH)

 

October

4th -    AM Ida May Bible Church (Beattyville, KY)   

            PM  Bear Track Bible Church (Beattyville, KY)

7th – 9th    Calvary Baptist Church School Revival (Greenwood, SC)

11th -    Forrest Hills Baptist Church (Stone Mt., GA)

14th -    Lynwood Bible Church (Bristol, TN)

16th -    Pleasant Grove Baptist Missions Conference (Fairview, NC)

18th -    AM  Grace Baptist Church (Tremont, IL) 

              PM  Bayview Baptist Church (Washington, IL)

19th – 20th    Temple Baptist Missions Conference (Powell, TN)

21st – 23rd    Tabernacle Baptist Missions Conference (Kingsport, TN)

24th – 28th    Rivereast Baptist Missions Conference (Gadsden, AL)

29th – 1st    Crossroads Baptist Missions Conference (Ashland, KY)

 

November

1st – 4th    Temple Baptist Missions Conference (Flatwoods, KY)

8th -    AM  Calvary Ind. Baptist Church (Quarryville, PA) 

            PM  Great Hope Baptist Church (Carlisle, PA)

11th – 13th    Harvest Baptist Missions Conference (Greenville, PA)

15th -    Lighthouse Baptist Church (Bessemer, PA)

18th -    Walnut Creek Baptist Church (Erie, PA)

22nd -    Calvary Baptist Church (Chattanooga, TN)

23rd – 28th    Family Time

29th -    East Sligh Avenue Baptist Church (Tampa, FL)

 

December

6th -    AM  Galilean Baptist Church (Meadowview, VA) 

            PM  Holy Mountain Baptist Church (Kingsport, TN)

13th -    Greencove Baptist Church (Damascus, VA)

15th – 22nd    Pallett Family Christmas

23rd – 27th    Herrell Family Christmas

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Posted by: Matthew | August 17, 2009

AMAZING!!!!

BCO1266What difference can a little change make?

The Answer: A BIG DIFFERENCE!

When our family set out on deputation 7 months ago, there were many things that we desired to accomplish.  As most of you know, one of our ministry goals is to start Haven of Hope Children’s Home.  With that thought in mind, the Lord put a project on my wife’s heart.  We put the project together and called it “Changing the Lives of Children”.  To sum it up, we are passing out change jars and asking individuals to drop their spare change in them.  To be honest, at the start, I doubted something like this would work.  It just proves to me again how little I understand the power of God!  I am writing today to simply give an update on the project.

100_2308Let me begin by saying this is not a typing error or misprint!  As of today, we have passed out 535 change jars.  That in itself would be simply amazing!  However, that is not the news that I am reporting today.  I wanted to let everyone who prays for a family know that God hears and answers prayers.  To the glory of God alone, may I report that today, August 17th, the “Changing The Lives of Children” Fund exceeded the $10,000 mark!!!!!  Yes, that is a one and four zeros!  Jar by jar, VBS by VBS, individual by individual, and family by family God has brought in ten thousand dollars toward the Haven of Hope project.  PRAISE THE LORD!  There was a $1000 dollar donation given by Eric McClure and the #24 Nationwide Hefty Racing Team.  Other than that, 100% has been raised through change jars and VBS offerings.  We simply want to say thank you to everyone who is helping in this project.  Our family is now believing that God is going to have all the funds we need for the home raised before we even depart for Peru. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you!  Your change is making a Big Difference.  Please continue to put your spare change in the Haven of Hope Jar.  Our prayer remains the same, that God will allow us to build our children’s home from pocket change!

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Posted by: Matthew | August 7, 2009

Six Month Update

Peru Mission Trip 2007 206The last week of July finished our first six months of deputation and we thought that we would give you the figures.  This six month time frame included four months of part-time deputation and two months being full-time on the road.  We logged 16, 737 miles and visited 53 churches.  We are so thankful for the 24 churches that decided to partner with us over these months.  We are blessed to have several other commitments of support from the other churches as well.  Along with our individual commitments, our support has now grown to 36%!  The hand of God has been so obvious in this process.  Going in, we were told of a bad economy and struggling churches.  After six months, we have been assured of the power of God and the faithfulness of His people.  Faithful is He who calleth you, who will also perform it!

IMG_0133The most surprising event to the start of deputation has been the overwhelming response to our “Changing the Lives of Children” project.  Through our first 53 churches, we have distributed over 500 change jars.  The final week of the first six months saw the children’s home fund surpass the $9000.00 mark!!  We are truly thankful for the individuals and churches that have partnered with us in this projected.  We are especially thankful to the seven churches that chose to give their VBS offerings to Haven of Hope!  We have truly come to realize that all we have to do is obey God.  We are thankful that we do not have to raise a dime of support or children’s home funds.  All we must do is obey God and allow Him to show Himself faithful.  Where He guides, He provides!  Blessed be the name of the Lord!!

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