Well, we had a really good crowd tonight.  There were a number of things that seemed to “fail” tonight.  I began the service with one of my “friends” then as we headed into the song service the Song Show program failed.  We had rehearsed things before the service and all was well.  That’s the way it is sometimes.  We had to change several things on the fly but things worked out.

At the conclusion of the service there was a teenager that gave her heart to Jesus.  Just to show you…”in our weakness”.  We’ll pull out in the morning for Yazoo City for a couple of days with parents to help them out.  We’ll be in touch.

Blessings,
John

It was a good night albeit a difficult one.  Lots of distractions with “small ones” in the congregation.  This church has a heart for kids and with that comes distractions many times.  There was a little movement at the invitation and we are grateful for that.

Pray that God will continue to work.  The pastor has felt led to close out services tomorrow night so there will be no “hold over”.  Pray this last service will be effective for the Kingdom and the seed will be planted according to His will.

John

Small crowd at the church tonight but the good side is that we did meet tonight and had a good service.  The schools are still closed in the area but, of course, that is mainly due to the rural bus routes whose roads are still pretty dangerous.  For the most part things are thawing although the high today was around 38.

The pastor is considering extending.  He mentioned it tonight following the service and asked the folks to pray over night.  We’ll see.  You pray also will ya?  I don’t want the extension for any reason other that God’s plan.  They’re desire is the same so your prayers along side us would be much appreciated.

John

Well, I know you’ve been keeping up with us and we appreciate it so much.  It turned out we received 12 inches of snow with drifts to 18 inches.  With both services cancelled today the pastor along with the deacons are deciding how long to go this week.  We are due in northeast MS, Saturday afternoon so it is conceivable that we would go through Friday but the pastor is saying that most likely we would just do Monday through Wednesday. 

Things are slowly melting but with colder temps tonight there can always be icing.  Thank you for keeping up with us.  You are a real blessing,

John 

Well, here we are.  Yesterday around 2 p.m. the weather began with a mix of sleet and snow.  Within the hour it turned more to snow.  Lots of snow.  Lots of snow.  When we went to bed last night it was still snowing and the last measurement was 11 inches.

 Needless to say, services have been cancelled for the day.  Continue to pray that God’s will is done.  It is obvious this is the right decision just not sure what God is doing.  The last time this area had a snow like this was…………when I was here last year.  How bout that?

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

John

Thanks for the prayers.  We arrived safely, after driving through some pretty nasty stuff, around 5 p.m. yesterday.  After spending the night we are headed to the church this morning to set up the equipment for the revival meeting.  The weather forcast calls for up to 3 inches of snow.  Pray that God’s will is done.  Should it snow, church WILL be cancelled.  They simply are not equipped to handle it here in any amount.  God knows what needs to be done.  Lord willing, we will begin tomorrow morning at 11:00.  Remember to pray for me in every aspect.  I am doing both the preaching and the music.

Thanks,

John

It was a good night.  Thanks for the prayers.  We began things with a magician friend of mine.  Perry was really captivating and had the kids in the palm of his hand.  I think he even made one 4 year old disappear. LOL

After that a performing arts group from the school did a black light presentation to music that was wonderful.  Following that I began and went for about an hr. using 4 of my friends.  The kids were really responsive as were the parents.  At the conclusion there was an invitation and there was a flood of kids that came forward for the counselors to deal with and after a time they will be able to follow up for better accuracy.

Tomorrow we’ll head home.  WHEW!!  It’s been a long road trip having been out since the 13th of Feb. with, by the time we get home, about 1700 miles logged in.  We are looking forward to getting home and getting some things done, resting, and preparing for the upcoming revival meeting that begins Sunday in Gates, TN.

Again, thank you so much for your constant prayer support.  We couldn’t do what we do without you!

John

First, sorry for the delay in blogging and we appreciate you checking in with us so regularly.  We simply had no way to blog while working at First Presbyterian in Hattiesburg.  We got to Hattiesburg Friday afternoon around 3 p.m. and moved things in for the evenings program.  Things began around 5:30 with dinner then around 6:45 I had kids ages 4 through 14.  Whew!  Huge age spread which made things a bit difficult.  It seemed that what happened was that those 12-14 years old were present with my ministry when I was here about 6 years ago and had fond memories so they just had to come back in.

We did the same thing Saturday night then loaded our equipment having finished our presentations.  Sunday we attended Sunday School and worship then ate lunch with the missions committee and the other missionaries.  Following lunch we headed to Columbia, MS, about 35 minutes down the road.  About 4 p.m. we headed out to Goss Baptist Church to set up for the evening concert.  Everything went well.  Tomorrow we will do a “teaser” in morning chapel time at Columbia Academy and hopefully get a good group interested in the Spiritual Renewal night at the school tomorrow night.  There will be a couple of other things going on then I will conclude with a concert and an invitation. 

You can pray that I do exactly what God wants so as to be as effective as possible with all the ages that will be in attendance.  There will be ages 4 through adults.

Thanks,

John

Wow, it’s been quite a layover between Tyler and Hattiesburg.  It’s been a nice visit and busy as I’ve helped around the house, run errands, done some odd jobs AND attempted to prepare for my upcoming services in Hattiesburg and Columbia. 

Please pray that what I’ve prepared will be what God wants.  Also, pray that I can finish my prep work as I have a couple of services yet completed.

Blessings,

John

Following our time in Gladewater we headed to Tyler, TX, to do a children’s workers appreciation banquet.  Green Acres Baptist Church is a really exciting fellowship and the people at the banquet included volunteer workers, teachers of all kids programs and the number was about 350.  It was a great night although I wasn’t as pleased with my presentation as I have but all in all it was a good night.

Thank you for the prayers.  We’re halfway through this road trip.  Tomorrow we will head to Yazoo City to help the “folks” out for a bit.  On Friday we’ll head to Hattiesburg, MS, for the next leg of the ministry journey.  We’ll spend the weekend there before heading on. We will be ministering at First Presbyterian there for their annual Missions Conference.

When we do these conferences, and we do them all over, we will be doing a simultaneous jam service with kids while the adults are having their service with the different missionaries.  Pray that we are effective as can be.

Blessings,

John