We started off in April with a busy schedule attending the Faith Baptist Bible College Missions Conference, which was a good time to reconnect with our missionary friends from last years conference. We also had two special meetings at churches that are dear to our hearts. We spent one weekend at First Baptist Church in Creston, Iowa. This was the church through which Sarah came to know the Lord and the church where she was discipled in her early years of Christian life. What a joy it was to see familiar faces who have been praying for Sarah for years and who have had such an impact on her life. We also joined Pastor Dave Peters at Hagerman Baptist Church in Waterloo, Iowa. Pastor Dave was Sarah’s youth pastor when she got saved and he and his family played a special role in Sarah’s life as she lived with them her Junior year of High School. Also, Adam Standley, who married the Peter’s oldest daughter Kellie and is the Youth Pastor at Hagerman, was the person to lead Sarah to the Lord. So, all in all, the meeting at Hagerman was particularly special. Both meetings brought fond memories and caused us all to reflect on how good and faithful God has been and is!
May proved to be a busy time as we both began preparations for speaking engagements at summer camps and also became involved in the Faith Chamber Orchestra once again. We were also able to be involved in the nursery ministry at our church here in Iowa, Faith Baptist in Cambridge. We are so thankful to be able to exercise service to the Lord wherever we are! The end of May brought meetings in northern Michigan. We took two long weekends and traveled to meetings in Iron River and Escanaba where we both found that traveling those long distances is always well worth it for the joyful fellowship we can have with brothers and sisters in Christ around the country! We were also able to see our new 2nd cousin, Abigail Grace, born to Jeremy and Naomi (Nassett) Engle at the end of May. God is so good to allow us to be close to family at such celebrated times as that!
We eagerly welcomed the month of June as we anticipated our first camp speaking opportunity at Iowa Regular Baptist Camp in Clear Lake. We studied and made preparations during the first part of the month and finally arrived at IRBC on Monday, June 23 to spend a week with an excited group of 340 Jr. Girls! We thoroughly enjoyed every minute of our time there. Sarah spent 2 summers on staff during college and enjoyed reminiscing with friends that week. But, our favorite part of the week was knowing that God was using His word and His servants to point young girls to himself. Twenty-seven girls made professions of faith! Sarah talked about Missionaries Mary Slessor, Amy Carmichael and Corrie ten Boom while Jim followed up with a short Bible application. Sarah was also invited to share her testimony with the Jr. Girls from Creston and encourage them with how close missions can be to them! They were thrilled to know that “the missionary” was from their own church! That was a special blessing to Sarah to be able to share what God did in her life and to be a testimony of His continued goodness and grace. To God be the Glory!
Our summer is peppered with ministry opportunities! July brings two more camps our way. As this is being written, we are at Whispering Cedars Baptist Camp in Nebraska. Another special camp to Sarah as she spent the summer of 2003 as a counselor and saw many decisions made for Christ. Even though we usually leave July’s update for our September Newsletter, we’ll give you a little sneak peek at how exciting this weeks camp is looking! We have about 30 Jr. Boys and Girls here, ready to hear what God’s word has for them. Sarah is doing the same morning Missionary Stories with Jim following up and Jim is giving a series of messages from the book of James that function as a challenge for the campers to think about whether or not the lives they are living are demonstrating genuine faith. Pray with us that they would see God’s Word as authority and the “law of liberty” and that the Holy Spirit would open their hearts to accept the truth that it contains and the freedom that it offers through salvation and obedience.
We are so grateful to you all for you prayers on our behalf. We pray that God would use you to reach others for Christ. A quote from one of Jim’s messages in James reminds us that “men are free when they want to do what they ought to do.” – D. Edmond Hiebert
Mark 16:15
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”
John 14:15
If you love Me, keep My commandments.
Mark 16:15
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”
John 14:15
If you love Me, keep My commandments.
