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 | February 3, 2010

Just a word of praise!

Our family has had a wonderful week!  We have so many things to praise the Lord for today.  It all began with a blessed weekend.  Despite five inches of snow in Virginia Beach where we were staying and ten inches of snow in Richmond where we were heading, we were able to drive safely through the heart of the storm to get to our meeting.  On Sunday, we had a wonderful time at Calvary Baptist Church in Colonial Heights, VA with Pastor Ray Haskett and the many members who drove through all the snow to get there.  We also had a wonderful time of fellowship with Pastor Haskett, his wife, his staff, and Dr. & Mrs. Jack Reiss at lunch following the service.

Due to a midweek cancellation, we were then able to spend a few “family days” in Williamsburg, VA.  It has been a much-needed time of relaxation and refreshing for all of us!  Monday was a great day for us as well.  I woke up to an email and a voice mail!  The email was to inform us that Harvest Baptist Church (Pastor Jeremy McClain) in Greenville, PA had voted to take us on for support.  The voicemail was from Pastor Randy Ouzts at Trinity Baptist in Greenwood, SC.  After returning the call, we were informed that they too had voted us in for support!  This has brought our support level to 57% in just over one year of deputation!  God is so good!

Now, we look forward to our Thursday mid-week service.  We are heading to Calvary Baptist Church in Portsmouth, OH to take part in their Family Crusade with Dr. Clarence Sexton.  Then on Sunday evening, we will be presenting our ministry at Calvary.  Sunday morning will have our family at Solida Baptist in South Point, OH.  We had a snow service there last winter and the attendance was down so we are going back again.  This weekend the forecast calls for snow again!  Maybe we can dodge it this time?  Thanks to each of you for your prayers and support. God Bless!

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Posted by: Matthew | January 28, 2010

Family Time

Kids and Cousins

For the first time in our deputation, our travels took us near Crystal’s family.  It is so funny how deputation has changed travel for our family.  I can remember in the not so distant past when a trip to see Crystal’s parents would begin by packing the previous night.  We would rise early in the morning and spend the day making this long journey across the state of Virginia.  My how things have changed.  On Wednesday, we got up and spent the day doing school, finishing paperwork, cleaning up the house, and packing the car.  At 3:00, we all loaded into the car and set off on our trip.  Along the way, we stopped at Wayside Baptist in Hillsborough, NC to present our burden and to preach the Word!  We thank God for a great service that night.  After church, we continued on our way and ended up in Virginia Beach that night around 1:30 AM.  As we headed into the in-laws neighborhood, Crystal said, “That was a pretty easy trip today.”  The funny thing is that she was serious!  We are thankful that we have these three days to spend with the family.

This trip will continue in Richmond, VA on Sunday unless the church happens to be buried in a foot of snow as forecasted.  From there, our road trip will go through Georgia, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, and end up in Tennessee.  We look forward to these upcoming meetings and pray that God will use our family to be a blessing.  We also want to thank the Lord for a good month of January.  Our previous meetings have gone extremely well.  We are just so thankful for the many blessings that God has sent our way!

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Posted by: Matthew | January 17, 2010

Year One Done!

What a year!!  Tonight we officially finished our first year of deputation.  It has been one incredible year as we watched God supply, protect, and guide.  We have traveled as far North as Chicago, as far south as Louisiana, as far west as Kansas, and to Peru and back!  We visited 93 different churches in 18 different states. the following is a year one report.  We truly praise God for the mighty things that He has done!

Support Level:  56%

Change Jars Distributed: Nearly 1000

Haven of Hope Donations: Over $23,000

Prayer Partners Gained: Innumerable

We have been so blessed this past year.  Our schedule is really full in the upcoming four months.  Please pray for safety as we travel, increased financial support, and that we may be a blessing to the churches we contact.

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Posted by: Matthew | January 8, 2010

January Prayer Letter

We thank God for his blessings over the past two months.  Click here to see our latest prayer letter:

January 2010 Newsletter

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Posted by: Matthew | January 8, 2010

Changing Lives Update

We are simply amazed at the blessings of God on our “Changing The Lives Of Children” project.  Click here to get the latest update on the project:

Changing Lives Update

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Posted by: Matthew | January 1, 2010

Here We Go Again!

The year 2009 brought many blessings to our family.  We traveled over 35,000 deputation miles without incident.  We were in 89 different churches in 18 different states.  God allowed us to be blessed through these services and allowed us to minister in return.  Through these travels and meetings, God provided mightily.  In just eleven months, God has raised our support level to 55%.  850 people took home jars for the “Changing The Lives Of Children” project and have already sent in an astounding $21,000!  To God be the glory!  Our prayers and focus remain the same. Would you pray along with us that God would allow our family to be in Peru by August of this year?  In order for that to take place, we are praying for increased support from our 2009 meeting and for blessed meetings in the year 2010. The following is our schedule for the next three months.  Please pray for our family as we travel:

January

3rd          Fellowship Baptist (Roanoke, VA)

10th – 13th     Eastside Baptist Mission Conference (Greenwood, SC)

17th          AM Blomingdale-Salem Baptist (Barboursville, WV)

17th          PM  Lighthouse Baptist (Louisville, KY)

24th          Madison Missionary Baptist (Minford, OH)

27th          Wayside Baptist (Hillsboro, NC)

31st          Calvary Baptist (Colonial Heights, VA)

February

3rd          Sandy Creek Baptist (Madison, GA)

5th – 6th     Calvary Baptist Family Conference (Portsmouth, OH)

7th          AM  Solida Baptist (South Point, OH)

7th          PM  Calvary Baptist (Portsmouth, OH)

10th          Calvary Baptist (Lewisburg, WV)

14th          AM  Landmark Baptist (Winchester, KY)

14th (PM) – 17th     Gunnings Baptist Mission Conference (Blountville, TN)

21st          Boone’s Creek Bible Church

24th          Gospel Light Baptist (Walkertown, NC)

25th          Augusta Highway Baptist (Greenwood, SC)

28th          AM  Joy Baptist (Glade Spring, VA)

28th          PM  First Christian Church (Ramseur, NC)

March

3rd          Valley Baptist (Oswego, IL)

4th – 7th (AM)     Danvers Baptist Mission Conference (Danvers, IL)

7th (PM)          Princeville Baptist (Princeville, IL)

10th – 14th     Temple Baptist Mission Conference (Lenoir, NC)

21st – 24th     Faith Baptist Mission Conference (Fairless Hills, PA)

28th          AM  Porter’s Grove Baptist (Rising Sun, MD)

28th          PM  Kennett Square Baptist (Kennett Square, PA)

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Posted by: Matthew | December 22, 2009

Home For The Holidays

It has been a blessing to have a lighter schedule through the month of December.  We had meetings the first two Sundays of the month and then had one meeting while we were visiting Crystal’s parents last week.  We are now officially home for the holidays.  While we are here, I will be preaching in my home church, Chilhowie Baptist,  this Sunday morning and then at New Grace Baptist Church on New Years Eve.  It was a blessing to celebrate Christmas with my sister these past two days.  We look forward to watching our kids in the children’s program at church tomorrow night and then having our family Christmas the following two days.  We pray that each of you have a blessed Christmas season.

We have enjoyed both the snow and the family time that we have shared this month.  In just a few days, we will be mailing out our first prayer letter of 2010.  We are so excited to report on what God has done in just 11 months!  We praise Him for both His provision and His protection.  Can’t wait to share all the good news of 2009!  Stay tuned!

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Posted by: Matthew | December 7, 2009

Home at Last!

Our family is so excited about being home for the month of December.  We have four deputation meetings and three other speaking engagements this month but they are all close to home!  We started the month with two great meetings yesterday.  We are so thankful to Pastor Surber and the people of Galilean Baptist Church for adding us to their missionary family yesterday morning.  We also had a wonderful service last night at Holy Mountain Baptist Church.  It was the end of a wonderful weekend.

As you can tell by the pictures, Saturday had already been a great day for us.  Knowing we would be home this weekend, this day had been set aside to go to Whitetop Mountain and pick out a Christmas tree.  We woke up to a beautiful snow.  It was like a scene from movie!  We went up and came home with a great tree and a truckload of memories.  The day ended up with the wedding of Robert and Emily Brandt.  I officiated the ceremony and much to my relief it all went extremely well!  Needless to say, this was a weekend that we will not soon forget!

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Posted by: Matthew | December 4, 2009

10,000 Hits

We received two big hits this past week.  Our website/blog which has now been up for one year received its 10,000th hit!  We want to simply say thank you for caring enough about our family to keep up with us and to pray for us faithfully.  It is the prayers of God’s people that protect us from things like our second hit.  On our way to Calvary Baptist Church in Chattanooga, a truck in front of us ran over a shredded tire.  A piece of that tire flew directly at us.  In the picture to the left, Lauren points out the initial landing point.  From there, it hit just between the windshield and hood, the windshield, the sunroof, and finally the car carrier before it went on its way.  Just a few feet higher and we would have taken a direct hit to the windshield.  Things would have been different if that would have happened.  As it turned out, we ended up with one dent, one scratch, and increased heart rates.  It is the prayers of people like you that protect us as we travel the many miles of deputation.  Just wanted to let you know and to also say thanks for caring about our family.  We love you all!  Keep praying!

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Posted by: Matthew | November 26, 2009

A Florida Thanksgiving Christmas??

We are praying that God will allow us to be in Peru for the 2010 holidays.  Knowing that this would be our last holiday season in the states for a while, dad and mom decided to treat all the grandchildren to an early Christmas.  They took the entire family to Disney World (as our Christmas present). My sister and her family joined my parents and our family in Florida for Thanksgiving.  We stayed together in a house, visited the parks, rested, and had a huge Thanksgiving feast together (thanks to Cracker Barrel).

Needless to say, our children had a blast!  It was such a blessing to have two meetings on the Sundays around this week.  We had a wonderful time last Sunday with Pastor Steve Roberson and the members of Calvary Baptist Church.  They definitely got a week that was already going to be exciting off to a good start.  We were surprised to have “Christmas for the Missionaries”.  It was unbelievable!  When we unloaded at the motel, the gifts entirely covered one of the beds!  Brother Martin was a wonderful host and the people were so friendly.  It was a great meeting.  Now, we look forward to being at East Sleigh Avenue Baptist in Tampa this coming Sunday.

This post could not be made on Thanksgiving Day without giving thanks.  This year has brought us so much for which to be thankful.  God has greatly blessed our deputation ministry.  We have seen 32 churches partner with us in just 10 months.  Along with the individuals who have also committed support, our level has grown to 45%.  We have also distributed 825 change jars and collected almost $18,500 for Haven of Hope Children’s Home.  God has given us a number of great meetings and travel safety throughout this portion of our deputation.  Our health, for the most part, has remained good.  We have also had many comments as to how God has used our ministry to be a blessing to others.  We could never thank God enough for all that He has done.

Finally, let me take time to simply say thanks to you.  If you are reading this, obviously you care enough to keep up with and pray for our family.  We appreciate all the support that we have gained throughout this year.  This blog that updates our ministry is less than 100 hits short of 10,000 in this ten month timeframe.  We are so humbled and thankful that you are concerned about our family enough to take time out to read these posts.  We are even more thankful that you are keeping us before the Lord faithfully.  It is only through His blessing that our departure date continually draws closer.  Thank you for caring so much about our family! 

 

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