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STATE MISSIONS: Growing Pains
Paul White
It was my privilege to bring the morning message at my home church in Brookland. The message was entitled, “Growing Pains.” Connection Point is one of our newest churches having organized last August. A special thank you to my son and pastor, Chad for the opportunity and to the Lord for His guidance.
Annual Spring Advisory Committee Meeting
It was that time again — when we call all our current missionaries to meet with us at the office in Little Rock. We are mandated by the association to meet at least twice a year, once at the office and the other at each location where our families are planting.
We had an outstanding day hearing the uplifting and encouraging reports. It was refreshing to hear how God is blessing each work as we begin to distance ourselves from the pandemic. God also blessed us with perfect attendance among both the committee members and missionaries. A special thanks to these men for taking out of their time to serve you, our association.
From Our Missionaries
Misión Creciendo en Cristo (Growing in Christ), North Little Rock: Juan Carlos Posadas writes, “Your prayers were answered! The Spring Youth Camp 2022, Contracorriente (Countercurrent) was a success. There were several professions of faith, and all the boys and girls consecrated themselves to the
Lord. Three churches participated — El Faro, South City and Growing in Christ. The fellowship was endearing, and the participants related as if they were from the same local church.
“The ladies met on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. to continue their study on the women of the Bible. They are very excited about taking advantage of the study.
“The food was very good and plentiful. Scott and Myrtie Small are excellent hosts. We recommend going to Stoneridge Baptist Camp for your church retreats. Another good thing is that we had no accidents.
“After our Sunday service, we had an activity to raise funds for the construction of the playground. It was excellent, and we managed to sell all the food the sisters had prepared.
“Thank you for your prayers, especially for Justin, a young man from our congregation who went to camp and received Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.”
Ebenezer, West Little Rock: Ruben Isturiz writes, “Our Celebration Service had a mix of joy and sadness. We rejoiced for the great things God did in the lives of each one of us. I see the maturity in Ebenezer is manifesting little by little, but it is still a long way from completion. There was sadness because of the news that a 31-year-old girl had died in a traffic accident last
Wednesday. We were ministering to hersince Thanksgiving. She leaves behind four children that her grandmother is now taking care of and has custody.
“Last week was spring break time and all the Berean Groups (cells) took a break. My wife, Kory was on vacation so we could enjoy ourselves more as a family.
“Please be praying for the plans we have for this month. We will be developing a series of sermons ‘The importance of the Cross in the life of the Disciple.’ On Easter Sunday we will have our Dawn Service at 6 in the morning. We will be in the temple and it will be followed by breakfast.
“Thank you for your support, thank you for your prayers. To God be the glory!”
Faith Chapel, Flippin: Johnny Shew writes, “Once again, three weeks in a row, the Lord added to our number. We had a man join that had been saved and baptized when he was much younger, but he had fallen out of church and away from the Lord later in life. We have been praying for him for some time. He is our niece’s husband’s stepfather. Two weeks ago, his parents
(who have been coming for over a year)and his wife joined us, and we began to pray even more specifically for him. He came to worship with his wife, and came forward and wanted to join us. He not only came back to church, but he also came back to the Lord! Don’t ever tell me that prayer doesn’t matter — He hears our prayers and answers them in a mighty way!
“Sunday night, we went home to our mother church, The Bridge in Mountain Home and baptized two new members who brought seven first-time visitors with them. Praise God! They were so excited and overjoyed too — as they said, ‘get closer to God through baptism.’ Again, I say, Praise God!
“Thank You, Lord for hearing our prayers and thank You, Lord for your answers! We thank you all for your prayers and support for us, for Faith Chapel, for Flippin and our community. We ask that you please continue. God is answering them!”
Faith Journey, Benton/Saline County: Bryan Clay writes, “This week at Faith Journey has been a week of expectation. We are quickly learning that with church planting comes times of waiting and watching to see what the Lord has planned for us. Ephesians 3:20 tell us ‘Now unto Him that is able to do
exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him beunto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.’
“We are still in search of the right facility to begin our meetings at Faith Journey. We had a meeting scheduled for Sunday evening with the owners of a promising spot, but had to reschedule to another evening this coming week due to a conflict in their schedule. We understand that God’s delays have a purpose, and we continue to pray for God’s will in providing the right place to start this mission.
“We hope we can share more about this upcoming meeting with everyone in next week’s report. We are continuing to meet with families to share with them how they can be a part of Faith Journey as we grow. We are excited to see this mission begin to take shape, and we wait with faithful expectation.”