Dear praying friends,

As I sit down to write another prayer letter and look back on what has taken place recently it is hard to believe it has only been 2 months since I last gave you an update.

In July we held our 2nd Vacation Bible Time and had a good increase in attendance over last year. All together we had 35 young folks in the 1st-6th grades attend at least one night. We had 3 young men make professions of faith with 2 of them returning for services the weeks following VBT. We continue to follow up on them and try to help them grow and looking for fruit of true salvation. Please pray for their families, as it will be very difficult for these young men without a saved mom and dad. On Friday night we held our closing assembly with most of the young people attending and several parents and older siblings in attendance to hear their youngsters quote the verses and sing the songs they had learned for the week. We then gave a clear Gospel presentation at the end of the service. While no one was saved, please pray that those who heard of the saving Grace of Christ would be saved soon as we follow up and visit with them.

Also, in July we were able to see a young lady saved who we had been praying for. Lesley Strickland accepted Christ in her home as my wife and I visited her and has been faithful to attend on Sunday mornings ever since. Pray for her growth and for her husband Chris and one year old daughter Leah as well. They come as a family each week and it is exciting to see Lesley’s excitement about the things of the Lord. We will be baptizing her and another young girl in the next couple of weeks.

In August it was our pleasure to have Bro. Dan Hummel of Beacon of Truth Baptist Ministries with us to guide us in the assembling of Scriptures. On a Friday evening and the good portion of the following Saturday, we were able to assemble around 4000-4500 Scriptures in the Spanish language designated for the Canary Islands. Bro. Hummel then preached for us in the Sunday AM and PM services and did a tremendous job. We greatly enjoyed the fellowship of him and his wife. Their ministry has been a great blessing to our church as they have graciously supplied us now on separate occasions with 10,000 Romans with first class, full color, custom designed covers to use in our door to door evangelism efforts. We can’t say thank you enough for their sacrificial ministry on behalf of the work here.

Also in August, we were able to start the Lighthouse Baptist Bible Institute to begin the training of Evan and Kelly Francis for the work of the ministry that the Lord has called them to. As you no doubt remember, the Lord has placed His hand on them to eventually go to the country of Taiwan to serve as missionaries. The classes are going well and it is exciting to see them growing in the understanding of the Word. We are currently holding classes on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights with myself, Pastor Webb, Bro. Byler and Bro. Hoyle teaching each week. It is amazing that in a church this small the Lord has supplied so many capable men in our church as well as Calvary Baptist to take part in this ministry. I am teaching Bibliology/Theology and Bible Study Methods on Monday nights. All told they will be taking 6 classes this semester including a one week block course on the Philosophy of Christian Music taught in November by Pastor Joe Russ of Calvary Baptist along with one directed study course. Several of our other church members and one from Calvary are taking advantage of the courses as well. Please pray as we seek to train this dear couple for the work of the ministry.

I also had the honor of taking part in the 50th Anniversary Remembrance Conference at our home church, Calvary Baptist, August 28-31. It was a great conference as I was privileged to preach 3 times during those days and also thoroughly enjoyed the preaching of Pastor Kent Brandenburg of Bethel Baptist Church in El Sobrante, CA and Pastor Bobby Mitchell of Mid-Coast Baptist Church in Brunswick, ME. God was honored, His Word plainly and powerfully proclaimed and the fellowship was refreshing. I especially enjoyed the time we spent on Saturday at the meeting house for Sandy Creek Baptist Church in Liberty, NC. Pastor Brandenburg brought an excellent presentation of Baptist History in America with an emphasis on the great work the Lord did there in Sandy Creek through Pastor Shubal Stearns and those who labored with him.

Please pray for all of the visitation we continue to do. We have knocked on many doors and passed out thousands of our most recent church newsletter since our last prayer letter. We continue to have visitors and many who express there need of salvation. It is our desire that all of them be saved before it is too late.

On the home front, I ask that you pray for Kelly as her pregnancy is going well and her due date is fast approaching. The doctors tell us the baby is a girl and we have settled on the name Tabitha Joy and are excited about her arrival. Please pray for Kelly as she faithfully homeschools our other children as well as all of her other duties as mom and Pastor’s wife. The Lord has truly blessed me with a virtuous woman which I am very thankful to Him for.

Thank you again for all of your prayers and sacrificial giving on behalf of our family and this ministry. May the Lord reward each of you in ways that only He can.

As we enter a new year, it is exciting to reflect upon God’s goodness to this point and also to see in His Word that the best is yet to come. I trust that each of you had a wonderful Christmas and are yourselves looking to the Lord for His blessings and power for the New Year if He tarries in His coming for us. As we see things taking place in the world around us, I wonder almost every day if we might hear the trumpet and the voice of the archangel a lot sooner than some seem to think. May the Lord continue to enable us to occupy until He comes.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas with family and want to thank all of you who helped make this Christmas special through your cards, monetary gifts, prayers and phone calls. We truly are blessed to have each of you interested and involved in this ministry.

The Thanksgiving/Christmas season was very busy as I am sure yours was as well. The homeschool group presented a Thanksgiving program causing us to look back at the history of our nation and the sacrifices that many made to bring us to today. In December we held a Christmas banquet which was well attended and Pastor Joe Russ, the assistant pastor of our sending church, brought a good challenge from the Word. We also held a Christmas program which several visitors attended and had the opportunity to go Christmas caroling. One of the homes we went to was that of Nancy Kelly. She is the former mayor of Rolesville and has visited our church several times, but is still unsaved. Please pray for her as I believe she was moved by our coming to sing for her and her mother.

The church continues to progress in many ways. We were able to baptize Mark and Jeff Armstrong at the end of November and they along with Lesley Strickland, who as you know was recently saved and baptized, all joined the church this past Lord’s Day. All continue to grow in many ways which is exciting to see. With so many rejecting the Word of God it is refreshing to see souls who hunger to know what it says and obey it. They are all starting to give financially, are faithfully witnessing to family and friends, coming out to church visitation, and are faithful to the church services.

This is a great excitement to the church and we are looking forward to each taking on more responsibility eventually now that they are members.

Also, pray Ricky and Pat Strickland who will be joining the church this Sunday. They are Lesley’s in-laws and the ones who brought us into contact with her. They had been looking for a good church for over a year and have been attending faithfully for several months. Bro. Strickland is an avid reader and in just a few months has come to a correct position on the King James Version and is now reading a book on Baptist History, wanting to come to a better understanding of the heritage we have as a Bible believing church.

Pray also for more to get involved in the church in spreading the gospel. I preached a message this past Sunday on the importance of total involvement and many who had never been involved before are now doing so. We have started a phone calling program to invite folks to church and send them the Gospel through the mail, continue to knock doors and canvass the area, and seek to be faithful reaching souls each day. We had to hold off on newsletters for a couple of months but are going to pick that back up this year as well as a salvation correspondence course we hope folks will respond too. It is amazing that as we are faithful to use every avenue the Lord enables us to use that He faithfully gives the increase and builds His church.

There are several families that have visited recently who are looking for a new church. All come from 25-30 minutes away with a family visiting last night from 50 minutes away. Churches that hold to the King James Version, Christ-honoring music and standards of holiness are quickly becoming a thing of the past (even here in the “Bible belt”). Several families have indicated to us that they are in the churches they are in because they didn’t think there were churches like ours around anymore. Pray with us that the Lord would help us to continue to come into contact with these souls who desire the truth.

Finally, regarding the church, pray for us as we pursue the Lord’s will regarding a building. There is a church of God that is moving to a new facility they are building and we have been in contact about renting/leasing there current building. It is less than a mile away from were we meet now, but it much more visible being right on the main road and has thousands of cars pass by it each day coming into and out of Raleigh. I hope to meet with the Pastor soon. Pray with us that the Lord would open this door if it is His will. It would be available about the same time that our current lease runs out.

As far as our family goes, everyone is well and growing, especially Tabitha. Seth killed his first two deer this year, a five-point and a doe which he was very excited about. Kelly continues to do a great job homeschooling the children and the three oldest are actively involved in the special music of the church as well as visiting with me on a regular basis.

I know these are very difficult times for many financially, and we greatly appreciate all each of you do to help this work along. We think of and pray for you often and trust the Lord will bless you in ways that only He can. Thank you again for all the cards, e-mails and extra monetary gifts and may the Lord richly bless each of you.