Again, I encourage you to make a special effort to drop by and pay these men a visit. What a wonderful way to encourage them and you might even buy them a meal.

Great Meeting

     On Aug. 1-2, the Advisory Committee and I made our annual fall tour to all our current mission locations. We were uplifted and encouraged as we heard report after report of how God is blessing your efforts through State Missions. We even heard of one of our newer ones having plans to organize sometime next summer! Praise the Lord!

Pay It Forward

     While the time for our Special Emphasis officially came to an end on July 31, we want to take a moment to thank those who have given and want others to know that anytime is a good time to take up an offering for the purpose of saving lost souls.

     I am also looking forward to making many of the local associational meetings this year. Please be understanding as several meet on the same day. We will do our best to get to as many as possible.

From Our Missionaries

      heart to seriously study His Word.

     “We concluded our series of studies in Proverbs on Sunday with the study of the Virtuous Woman from chapter 31. We thank God for the book of Proverbs that teaches us about wisdom applied to our daily lives.

     “We are praying for God's direction regarding the spiritual care of tweens. The discipleship material we use is for older ages and they need more than Sunday meetings. Perhaps the Awana program could be the answer, but that would require more human resources willing to serve. Let us pray for the volunteers to serve and all the necessary resources to better attend to the needs of pre-adolescents.”

     “We met with the Missionary Advisory Committee on Aug 1, and they were very supportive. They prayed with us and encouraged us. After they made their rounds, Bro. Paul let us know that they had voted to recommend us again. We thank God for that, for those men who take their responsibility to God and to the BMA of Arkansas so seriously and for the kind and loving way they go about it.

     “We thank God for you also, each and every one of you in the BMA that prays for us, supports us and allows us to do this with your blessing and support. It is truly humbling, and we will continue to try our best to be faithful to our calling where God has placed us.

     (8/14) “We had another great week at Faith Chapel! For the third time in the past four weeks, we set a new attendance record, and the week we didn’t set a record was our second most ever — what a month! We had 42 Sunday morning and we also had a new record for under 16 years of age — we had 15. Praise God and thank You for bringing them.

     “This is an amazing time for our mission. We are growing and need a new place to meet, so we are working on our plans to move forward with our own building on the beautiful piece of land we bought last year. We are praying for the Lord to open the doors He wants us to walk through. We know He will meet our needs, according to His riches in glory, because we are here to do His work, not our own.

     “Thank you again for your prayers for us, Faith Chapel, Flippin and the work that God gave us to do here. Please continue because He is hearing and answering them.”

     “We are working hard at developing our kid’s ministries alongside of Erin and Chris. We will be excited to see how the 4–8-year-old class helps the kids. Our 9–12-year old’s will be sitting in the main service, but we are developing a special small group for this age group.

     “I finally got back on the bike and road 27 miles this week. I plan on getting much more riding in, but I am so thankful that I am beginning to feel well again. Thanks to everyone who has been praying for my health.

     “DeAnna is knitting hats for the homeless. If folks have extra yarn or would be willing to donate some yarn, it would be very helpful.

     “We began posting advertising for Tablecon, and already we had a family check in on the church. I’m so glad to see that more people want to check out what God is doing.”

     “We have started doing some one-on-one discipleship in our ministry, and we are being more deliberate about growing relationships with individuals that are coming into our ministry. Please pray that the Lord will send people into our presence that are seeking Him and help us make meaningful connections.

     “We talked on Deut. 6:4-9, which tells us to love the Lord our God with all our heart and repeat these things to our children. We discussed how we should live by example, always teaching and showing the love and grace that Christ has given to us. We used the three A’s as a guide to showing these things to our children —Attention, Affirmation and Affection. We must show up for our children, let them know often how proud we are of them and show daily affection that meets the needs in our children’s hearts.

     “We are helping each other build a stronger, closer relationship with our Savior and deeper, richer relationships in our families. I hope everyone has a wonderful week!”

     “I saw it precisely this week as I was reading a very recent survey of pastors in this country where they pointed out which modern idols had the greatest influence on congregations — comfort, 67%; control and security, 56%; money, 55%; success, 49%; social influence, 39%; political power, 32%; and romantic love, 14%. What controls our hearts is where our treasure is — our priorities — and the Bible is emphatic in telling us to lay up treasures in Heaven (Matt. 6:19-24). There are only two kinds of treasures — the earthly and the heavenly — and the treasure we choose will be the one that governs us. In the face of this worrying survey, let us preach for people to set their sights and look for heavenly treasures.

     “This week was very busy. Thank God, we were able to make contacts and build relationships with the people with whom we are working. Tuesday, we had a visit to our apartment from two women. One was visiting her daughter, and we were able to share the gospel with her. Thursday, we continued to disciple a woman and her granddaughter for the third week of discipleship, and we are praying for her husband. Friday, we continued discipling a woman, but that day she brought her mother and began the discipleship. Saturday, we were invited to the apartment of one of the families we are discipling, and we met four people and shared with them about our work in the Northwest area of Arkansas and we were able to talk to them about the gospel.

     “Sunday, we were visiting the Fellowship Baptist Church in Bella Vista during Sunday School and sharing the church planting project that we are developing. That day, we were accompanied by seven people we are discipling.”

     “We were also offered a meeting site in a local nutrition shake shop. The ultimate highlight was when a student led the kid’s breakout discovery Bible study. This same student wasn’t even vocal about faith when our group began last fall.

     “I’m not given much space, but I want to trickle out the origin story of the Pea Ridge mission. Six years ago, my first book (Spiritual Prepper) was released. It was written to help individuals prepare spiritually for the challenges now and in the future. I then pitched a follow-up book, Church Prepper, about how churches should prepare for future challenges. The publisher was interested but asked if I had put any of these ideas into practice. I was busted. It was all theory.

     “Little did I know that a few months later I’d be introduced to leaders of the Iranian underground church. The church in Iran was and is the fastest growing church in the world. I also became friends with a former Voice of the Martyrs team member who had founded the Church Persecution Preparedness Institute. These experiences and others began to shape my approach to church. (To be continued)”