Missions Conference

Last night was the closing service for the missions conference at Oakwood Baptist Church. We had a wonderful time with the church people and staff as well as with the other missionaries. The Lord stirred our hearts for ministry and missions as we were there. The people at the church were wonderful and extremely service oriented. I don't know how many people came up to me to ask if we needed anything. One practice that they had at the missions conference which was wonderful was the "host family" idea. This host family helped us by meeting us before each service, taking our children to the nursery, picking them up after the services, watching them while we were talking to other people, etc. Sometimes it is very difficult to talk to other people while you have to watch your kids run around the church lobby! We absolutely loved that program and our host family, Chris and Lisa Traynor. We also enjoyed spending time with my sister and brother-in-law, Hannah and Vic Irving. Vic is the youth pastor, and everybody seemed to love Pastor Vic and Miss Hannah. We were certainly blessed by our time at Oakwood.

One of the missionaries that was at Oakwood was Tom Kweder, representing ROGMA International. ROGMA is a free correspondence course ministry that has materials in many different languages. The materials seem to be top-notch quality. They were mostly written by fundamentalist pastor, Dr. William Piper (father of John Piper). Brother Kweder told me that they have 100,000 people at any time enrolled in the program. Each course has a lesson that is mailed to a grader who either passes or fails the student. Once the student has passed the course, they can go on to the next course. There are three different levels with 12 courses in each level. I am excited about getting more familiar with these resources and using them in Mexico.

We arrived at my parents house this afternoon. We are looking forward to a few days of a little bit more rest!

Thank you for your prayers during the travels. Everything went well (except for the three hour delay on the Texas-Louisiana border caused by an overturned tractor-trailer).