I've Never Saw it on Quite This Fassion.

Last night, April 8^th, we had another interesting service. Pastor Minnville, pictured in the April 5^th post, preached on the rich man and Lazarus. He preaches mostly in Patios which means my family and I don’t understand much if anything said. Each night of the crusade we have had up to twenty standing outside the building listening, talking and otherwise. About five minutes into the sermon one of the fellows outside made a negative comment. Without missing a stride Pastor Minnville walked around the corner and preached for the next thirty minutes out the window to the crowd outside. The church people “Amen-ed” him on even though most could no longer see him. Pastor Minnville is sixty-nine years old and has slowed quite a bit, but last night we saw that he still had a good firing desire to preach. It was great!

After the service Sister Minnville led a fifteen year old girl, Tracy, to the Lord. Sister Minnville called me and Tracy’s mother into the room and she told us both that she had accepted Christ.

When it rains it pours

You’ve heard the phrase “It’s either rain or shine”. This Sunday we had both the same day. We had our first Sunday morning service this Sunday. (The Crusade started last Sunday night) The AM service was quite and calm with only my family attending. Ethan led the singing, the girls sang a special, and I preached on assurance of salvation. The pm service started around seven with four children. Within just a few minutes several more joined the service. There were several that came and went during the service. We had three different groups for the service; one for the singing, a second for the first half of the preaching, and a third for the second half of the preaching. In all we had about twenty that came through the service at one time or another. There were about six or seven that lasted the entire service. The biggest disturbance of the meeting was an opossum that walked through the church with a mango in his mouth. The fifteen or so people that were there scattered. Several tried running away while a few others took folding chairs to swat at it. (They like to eat them.) We never did catch it. We have two that are asking lots of questions about salvation and one couple that is interested in getting married. Please keep us in your prayers.

One down, and one to go

Tonight’s meeting concluded the first week of Crusade in Mourne Sion. Last Sunday was very eventful with three children sick at home, two getting sick at church, and a flat tire with no jack. We had three other churches that brought people during the week as far as an hour and fifteen minutes away. Apart from the other churches our attendance was from four one night to eighteen on Sunday night. One received Christ as Saviour, Praise the Lord!!! There are a couple more that we are praying will come forward for salvation. The picture above is the Tuesday night service. Pastor Minnville from Tabernacle Baptist is preaching.

Another trial and error in language

One night this week during the crusade I was trying to tell a young lady in Patios, “Thank you for coming tonight”. However, I confused the word “oswe-a” with “anbetan”. So what the lady heard was, “Thank you for coming tonight, troublesome”. After a good laugh at my expense they were kind enough to correct me. I have really enjoyed learning the Patios. Most are willing and able to teach you a word or two occasionally.

Our first Meeting

Our first meeting in the building was Sunday night March 30th. Sunday morning three of the children were sick with the stomach virus and we all stayed home. We were hoping to get rested for the evening’s events. The Devil really fought hard to distract from the Lord’s work. Here is a basic time line of the afternoon.
· 2:00 PM. Charity, Hope, Ethan, and I left home to finish cleaning the church building, assist Pastor Minnville with an open air service, and get ready for church at 6:30 pm.
· 2:35 pm: We arrive at the building and start cleaning.
· 2:50 pm: Me and Ethan start working on the bathroom toilet. We replaced the float, the cut off, the seat, and the flapper for the night service.
· 3:55 pm: We finish the toilet and are told by the neighbor that the water is turned off daily between 5:00 and 6:00. (What good is a toilet without water?????)
· 4:01 pm: We discover we are late for the open air service. We drive to two locations and still can’t find our friends.
· 5:00: We find the group and the open air service is over. We return to the church building for final preparations.
· 6:30: Church is supposed to be starting and not one person has arrived.
· 7:00: We start church with seven people.
· 7:30: During my message Ethan and Charity leave the building. Ethan now has the stomach virus and is vomiting outside the back door. Charity went to help.
· 8:00: I begin dealing with a lady about salvation during the invitation. Oliver is also dealing with a young man.
· 8:05: No one is leading the service; no one is leading the singing. The 18 people that were there decide the service is over and decide to leave.
· 9:00: I finish talking to the lady to find an empty building. Oliver informed me that the young man he spoke with did pray to receive Christ as his Saviour. PRAISE THE LORD!!!!

· 9:30: We get all the lights off and decide to go home.
· 9:31: I discover I have a flat tire and return to the building for a quick tire change.
· 9:37: I don’t have a jack and now must borrow one from a neighbor.
· 9:45-11:00: I can’t get to the spare because the door hinge is broke. I remove the door panel and kick the door open to retrieve the spare tire. The van falls off the jack twice. We pick up the van by hand and put the jack under the van. We finally get the spare on the van and the flat one in the van. Ethan now has a fever and is complaining about being cold in 73 degree weather.
· 11:05: We start home.
· 11:09: I stop in the middle of the road so Hope doesn’t vomit in the van.
· 11:45: We arrive safely at home and thank God for the soul that was saved as I fall asleep in the bed.

A Building for Church

We finally found a building for church. A friend from Brother Nye’s church told us about this place that was once a dance hall and rum shop. The owner died several years ago. The building has been vacant since. The owner agreed to rent us the building for a couple weeks to have a crusade. The crusade will start March 30th and will continue until April 11th.

In search of a church building

We have been working in the village of Mongouge for the past several weeks, trying to visit, start a couple Bible studies, find a building for a church, and become more familiar with some of the people. I and at least one of the children have gone to Mongouge six of the last seven days. We have made a few friends and have had opportunity to sing and witness to several homes. We have also been looking for a building to start a church in the past couple weeks with no success. On March the 7th a friend told us about a building in the area where we have been working. On the 8th we looked at the building and ask the owner about renting the building short term. We plan to rent the building the first two weeks of April for a crusade (revival). Pray that all will go well, that attendance from the community will be good, and that people will be saved.