It was a busy day. We headed to the school this afternoon and had a great reception. At 12:30 we set up everything and the first group was K-3rd grade. They were fun and very receptive. I did 25 minutes with them then they left and 4th-6th grade came in and once again we had a lot of fun.
The school still displays the 10 Commandments and get this…when the assistant principal introduced me, he  said; this is John Yates and he is here to share the love of God with you. DID I MENTION THIS WAS A PUBLIC SCHOOL? Praise the Lord for this leadership.
Anyway, I really plugged the service at the church and we offered pizza tonight. The guest speaker, Ken Freeman, spoke at the jr. high and high school and invited them tonight. The church was full of all ages even spilling into the choir loft. No kidding. I don’t remember doing a service when, after chairs were added to the sanctuary, there still wasn’t enough seating for everyone and many had to sit in the choir loft.
Folks, when it was all said and done, 22 people gave their hearts to Christ. All ages…I saw an 8 year old or two, up through what appeared to be a man in his 70’s.
God is great and He’s not through here, so pray for services tomorrow. We have senior adults at 10:30 a.m. then the service tomorrow night at 7.
Blessings,
John

Thanks for the prayers. God keeps working and we saw another student come to Christ as well as one making a recommitment.
Tomorrow morning Ken Freeman will be speaking in the public school. Pray for freedom and for God to use him to reach the middle school and high school kids.
Tomorrow afternoon I will be speaking to the elementary school students at 1 and 1:30. Pray for me that I will be effective in the “public school” environment and that kids may even come to the service tomorrow night.
Blessings,
John

It was a great “kickoff” service as we saw 6 professions of faith. My voice seemed really strong and not tooooo affected by all the weather. The music went well and as a result, our worship time was very good.
Please continue to pray and I will give you an update following our service this evening.

Blessings,
John

Hi everyone and may I say…….brrrrrrrrrrrr. We arrived safely to Vaiden, MS, and unloaded everything, set it up, ran our sound checks, and now we are ready for tomorrow. We met some friends from nearby for dinner and are looking forward to what God is going to do.
Pray for the weather. Right now, 20 but wind chill has it at 12 degrees. Tomorrow’s high is 34 so, well, you know how baptist are.
Nevertheless, we’ll keep you posted on everything and thanks for the prayers.
John

Hi friends,
Thank you for checking in with us and this ministry. Tomorrow morning we will head to Vaiden, MS, just 30 minutes south of Grenada, MS, if that helps you find us. The plan, Lord willing, is to arrive at the church around 4 p.m. or 4:30 to set everything up. Hey, it’s supposed to be about 30 degrees when we arrive.
Here’s a way you can pray for us. One thing is safety in travel. It’s going to be really, really cold, of course, so the less we are exposed to the elements the better. Secondly, during the week we are scheduled to be in 2 different schools and this will involve us moving some equipment and while using my voice more than just services at the church, we will be out in the weather again. This is a concern. most of you know of my penchant to losing my voice through strain or stress. Your prayers would appreciated.
I’ll keep you updated. I am leading in worship for this meeting and Bro. Ken Freeman is doing the speaking.
Blessings,
John

It was a good night with a number of visitors. The church @ Trinity Baptist was so excited and so very supportive as always.
We had a night of laughter, worship and thought provoking. It was all a blessing and thanks for the prayers. We will head home tomorrow and begin preparation for a revival in Vaiden, MS, beginning Sunday.
Blessings,
John

It was a good night at the church as we worshiped together. There were 34 in attendance which equalled any previous high attendance mark for this sweet fellowship.
I led in worship, played my horn, had a friend join me (J.J.), and then the Baptist Campus Ministry Director from Nichols St., Tim LeFleur, spoke.
Thank you for your continued prayers. We will take a couple of days down here in Mathews, LA, to spend with friends then Sunday I will be in the morning service then present a concert in the evening before heading home on Monday.
Blessings,
John

Here we go. Thanks for checking in with us. We are pulling out tomorrow for our first engagement of the new year. We head to Mathews, LA, as we’ve done in past years, most recently last year. We will be leading in worship for the New Years’ Eve service then hanging out with friends before giving a concert Sunday night.
We appreciate your prayers as we travel and want to thank you for your support of this ministry through your prayers and gifts.
Blessings,
John

Hi friends,
Wow, the hustle and bustle of the season. The sounds of Christmas…the music, the noise, children’s energy…the sound of metal being sawed off the house….err…….

Yep, the siding guys have showed up and the first task is removing a metal awning structure from the back of the house. We attempted to put it in the condition of sale when we purchased the home but the previous owner basically said; “it was here when I got here, it will be here when I leave.” So, we’ve had it. We got quotes to cover it, that was a no go, believe me. We bought some material from Lowes and did it ourselves and it work “ok” for a while but soon began to deteriorate. When it finally began to look pretty bad, we began to find someone that would be willing to remove it. It’s not aluminum but is steel. Big job.
The siding company is throwing in the removal for the job of siding the house. Yep, good deal, I’ll take it.

They are working very calculating on everything knowing that they won’t be working tomorrow with rain in the forcast.
We’ll do as usual and head to Yazoo City and return on Sunday.
Have a Merry Christmas and we’ll be in touch.
Blessings,
John

The Senior adult banquet last night was lots of fun. They are so very supportive of me and this ministry and it was a joy to “give back” to them during this time.
Tonight we will be attending the deacon banquet. Just attending tonight.
Voice is kinda tired right now so a few days off will be good before the weekend.
Blessings,
John