Looking Ahead...

Dear Friends and Prayer Warriors, the Lord is good.  Thank you for the words of encouragement that many of you sent after last week's post.  The Lord is our Sustainer.  Though we have a very real enemy and the war will wage continually, we're thankful to have our Lord as our shield and defender, and prayer warriors like you to intercede on our behalf.

On a family outing down by the dam.

To provide clarification, our ministry here in East Tennessee is called “Mountain Vision” and it is two pronged: our pastor training ministry and our benevolence ministry.  As we come to the end of September I have some mixed news to share with you pertaining to our benevolence ministry.  The storehouse in Greeneville has seen a marked rise in clients this month.  As a matter of fact, September has been the busiest month since they started keeping records in mid-2009.  The number of people we served this month nearly doubled over what we have done during the previous months this year.  On one hand, that's great news because it means the Lord is giving us more opportunities to meet people's needs and share the love of Christ with them.  On the other hand, it means the economy is not getting better and more people are facing more significant needs.  As a matter of fact, it seems to be taking a turn for the worse here in our area.   

For example, Ms. Penny keeps our daughter Lily in the childcare at the YMCA.  It's her part-time job.  One evening this week as we were picking Lily up after going to work out, Ms. Penny mentioned that she had lost her full-time job where she has worked forever, and she wasn't sure how she was going to be able to take care of her daughter.  She is embarrassed that she's having to ask for government assistance for the first time, since she never thought she'd have to do that.  Right now, she's in limbo waiting for some form of assistance to kick in while trying to keep herself and her daughter fed in the meantime.  We are hoping to be able to help her at our food distribution next Thursday.  There are many, many more like her in our community.

Over the last few weeks Mountain Vision has begun to forge an exciting new partnership with First Baptist Church in Greeneville, TN.  For the Christmas season we are very excited about Mountain Vision partnering with their church to help pull off their annual event “The Christmas Store”.  “The Christmas Store” is an outreach that First Baptist puts on each year to help provide Christmas for needy families in the area as well as to reach out and share the Gospel of Christ with those who participate.  They collect critical items that a family needs (diapers, toilet paper, peanut butter, and other non-perishables) and purchase new toys for children under 12 which they then distribute to the families.  On the day of the event, after families receive their gifts, they also receive a Bible and sit down with a counselor who shares the Gospel clearly with them.  Last year, First Baptist served 85 families and this year the goal is 100.  We are working on ideas to include several of our partner churches in NC in this outreach project for the holidays.  Please stay tuned for more detailed plans that we can share with you on how you can be a part of this outreach this holiday season.  Hopefully we will be able to share those details in the next couple of weeks!  We hope through this partnership we can help their church more effectively reach out to the lost people in their community as well as to recruit volunteers from their church to aid our Storehouse ministry. 

On the pastor training side of our ministry we are preparing to launch!  Over the past week Daniel has been reaching out to pastors as well as the heads of local Southern Baptist Associations in an attempt to arrange meetings to discuss partnership with these associations as well as to recruit pastors for the BTCP training program.  Please pray for these phone calls and meetings that the Lord would go before Daniel and stir the hearts of the men he will talk to, that they will have an excitement in their hearts and see the need for this ministry. 

Personally, Lily is so close to walking!  She just will not let go quite yet but enjoys pushing her musical walker all over the house.  She also loves being outside, just like her parents! 

Things you can be praying for this week:

·                       1.  Daniel’s meetings with pastors and association leaders.  That they would be excited about the pastor training program and want to participate. 

·                       2. Continued planning for “The Christmas Store”.  That local NC churches would be excited about partnership and families helped would come to know Christ through this ministry.

·                       3.  On Saturday night, Meredith and I are going on a Sunday school class outing to see "Courageous".  Please be in prayer for our newly forming friendships, that the Lord would help us to establish community here in Greeneville.

Checking out the gravel.

Taking daddy for a walk around the yard.