Missionary Chris Lanier and Family

Missionary Chris Lanier Prayer Letters

2012-01-28T08:59:00.000-06:00

Don't forget to read a/o download our latest prayer letters from our new site, www.chrislanierfamily.org. Look for "Prayer Letter." See you there and don't forget to subscribe!

Moving Out!

2012-01-06T17:56:00.002-06:00

I know I haven't blogged anything for a while, but I plan on restarting. This is my last blog post here--please visit my new website http://www.chrislanierfamily.org and subscribe from there to keep up with us. See you there!

We have a new home on the web!

2011-11-05T13:13:00.001-05:00

Dear Friends,

Just wanted to make everyone that follows our ministry here, aware that our new website is up and running! You can now start to follow us at http://www.chrislanierfamily.org

The new site is still in the process of being completed but is very functional in its current stage.
Be sure to signup on the new site so that you will continue to receive our updates.

~Chris Lanier
Missionary to Arteaga, Mexico
(256) 797-2546
cclanier@gmail.com
chrislanierfamily.org

El Festival de la Cosecha

2011-10-26T15:31:00.001-05:00

Dear Friends,

I wanted to give a quick report about a big day we had yesterday in church. We called it a “Harvest Festival” and had a big day themed around the harvest (special music, preaching, kid’s play all about the harvest). After the preaching service, we also had a party with a moon-bounce and pony rides, of course with plenty of food.

Total results were that we had 160 people in attendance, and most importantly, there were 12 folks that trusted Christ as their Savior! God continues to bless and use the ministry here for His glory. Each of you that prays for us will be rewarded for the souls saved from hell last Sunday.

~Chris Lanier
Missionary to Arteaga, Mexico
(256) 797-2546
cclanier@gmail.com
missionarychrislanier.blogspot.com

Rolling Along

2011-10-13T21:58:00.000-05:00

We don't really have much to blog about. Sunday was a good day, and the week has gone by fast with studying, church on Wednesday, Bible studies in member's homes, and soul-winning. There was a horrible city-wide shootout yesterday--they caught a high-up thug and in trying to spring him free, various other thugs started shootouts all over the city for about 4 hours.

Tomorrow is another busy day, with promises of being more busy during the weekend. We've started getting prepared for "Día de la Coshecha." We're praying for folks to get saved and then praying for at least 150 folks to come out.

Gearing Up to Go Out

2011-10-07T15:11:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy and profitable week. We've conducted a couple home Bible studies, have one more tonight, and had good times on soul-winning/visitation. Last night we visited a family by request of one our people and then found a little ranch about 20 minutes away from our work that is completely isolated, very poor. I am praying God gives us the opportunity to start a mission out there very soon.

Wednesday was a good night, we had a great time around the Word of God and had great attendance.

Tomorrow will be soul-winning and visitation in the morning and evening, with studies/preparation for Sunday in between. We're looking forward to a great service on Sunday morning--I'm praying that we'll have 10 adult men.

My wife and I were talking a bit ago about how just 3 months ago we began praying for 5 faithful men, and that now we have them plus a couple extra. Now we are delighted to pray for 10 faithful men. Ain't God good!?

Everyone in the church is getting excited about "el festival de la cosecha" (harvest festival) coming up on the 23rd. They're getting excited about being there and getting excited about bringing family, friends and visitors. They're excited about praying for 150 people to come, and that God will save souls. What a blessing!

I had a great time in Bible study this morning with one of our faithful men. It was refreshing to talk about the work of God and the Word of God with him, and to explain our position on things from The Bible. He's a faithful man of the church and I look forward to using him in the ministry. He's a teacher by trade, and obviously gifted in that area from The Lord.

Busy times--much prayers are needed. We need to build the baptistry, organize the church, and keep going. I need wisdom in how to lead the work--when, how, etc to do everything that needs to be accomplished.

Thanks!

Cooling Off...

2011-10-02T23:04:00.001-05:00

It has been such a GREAT week! It was much different than planned, but The Lord was in all of it. It started with a call from a preacher friend in the big city who wanted some help with an evangelistic campaign he wanted to start. "When do need us to come?" "Today to get the material." How's that for advance notice?? :)

It turned out that he needed help making the flyers and daily programs; which even though I really didn't have time to make them, I told him I would without reservation. It only took a few hours anyway and it was worth to help him out. As for the actual campaign, he wanted me to lead the singing and pray for the offerings, and to preach the closing service on Saturday (Thursday thru Saturday campaign).

The first night was my favorite night. 2 adults got saved! Friday was a little less attended but was still had a good time. Saturday we started out lower than ever, but as I began to preach Erika took Ashley out into the street to invite people. A couple families actually listened to her and came! One lady that came like that got saved, making 3 salvation decisions for the week! It was great!

Wednesday at our church was great as well. We had great attendance with several first time visitors. Thursday before the campaign we spent several hours out soul-winning and visiting, and Friday we stayed at home before the campaign to clean, prepare and study for Sunday. Saturday we went soul-winning and visiting as always, and made several visits to folks that haven't come in a while. Before the campaign, we bought chicken for afterwards and then just had a great time in the campaign.

I'm honestly surprised none of us were attacked, in the campaign, especially the pastor in charge and I. The campaign was in the open air and we kept the volume on the sound system loud enough to hear for blocks. He preached against everything from sodomy and drunkenness to corruption in the government. I preached against idolatry, "saints" and images. Both of us preached very hard especially on salvation by grace through faith, not of works.

Today was an outstanding day as well. We had 2 adult visitors (a couple) to come in the AM service, and the man got saved! Yes, that's a total of 4 souls saved this week! Tonight was a great time as well with several first time visitors and a great spirit. I waxed eloquent for over an hour...but it went by super-fast...at least for me!

So, glory to God again! What a tremendous opportunity we have to serve God here in Mexico. We're proud to serve Him here and couldn't think of any other kind of life!

Tomorrow is the cooling off stage--it's family day and we look forward to catching up with each other and spending time together.

What Went Down...

2011-09-26T11:44:00.000-05:00

Okay, so nothing special "went down." We had 2 good, full days of soul-winning and visitation on Thursday and Saturday. Friday we visited some family and ran errands, then had a good time around the Word of God with a family from church, in one of their twice a week Bible studies.

Sunday was a good day as well. We prayed for 30 and had 32, which we haven't had for a couple weeks. Sunday evening the attendance was down, but we still had 5 families.

Today is our family catch up day! I also have a few errands to run. I need to make a "pastoral visit" to someone as well, and I need to talk to a young man about getting saved. His name is Victor, a drug addict without hope, without Christ.

Tomorrow we're taking some breakfast foods to a public food distribution center for poor children--they feed about a dozen kids in the morning who don't have food in their own house, then around 50 in the afternoon for lunch. Our plan is to bring breakfast once a week and have Bible time with the children. We still have to get permission--but we're going to show up tomorrow and expect results. We talked with the supervisor on Saturday, but she said she would have to get permission from her boss...so we'll get permission from our "Boss" and let Him work it all out.

Other than that, we have a few Bible studies to conduct through-out the week, Church on Wednesday, and evangelism on Thursday and Saturday.

Lots of work! Please pray with us for all of these matters!

"...habiendo huido de la corrupción que está en el mundo..."

2011-09-22T11:01:00.001-05:00

This is a great quote from 2 Peter 1:4, albeit in Spanish. In English, our Bible reads "...having escaped the corruption that is in the world..." To directly, word by word translate the Spanish back into English, it would say "having run for your life from the corruption that is in the world." Striking, isn't it?

The problem is we aren't running for our life (a great picture of escaping, no?) from the corruption of the world--we running back to the world like our lives depend on it's corruption from lust. How sad!

The Word of God is so specific. I love it. I preached a message last night called "Christians with Good Vision" out of 2 Peter 1:1-10. I mentioned far and near sighted folks, folks with blurry vision, the cross-eyed, the blind and the blind in one eye. I applied the truth of the Word of God that if we don't have all the spiritual traits mentioned in the passage, we're blind, we can't see very far off, and that if that is the case we need to examine our salvation.

We had such a good time in the Word of God. The people responded well and God blessed the meeting. What a GOOD God we serve!

Weekend Recap

2011-09-19T15:27:00.000-05:00

We had a great, Christ-honoring weekend that started on Thursday with spending about 5 hours in the streets. The Lord laid it on my heart to re-visit some folks that had begun coming to church with us while we were still travelling on deputation but have since quit. We had some real good visits, but as we thought, those particular people had been choked out by the thorns of the world. One lady said she didn't believe anymore, and that she nows believes in "la santa muerte" "holy death." We were able to find some, though, that had moved around and are excited to start coming back.

Friday we had a cleaning day and a couple families came to help us us out.

Saturday was soul-winning again all morning, then while Erika went to a baby-shower in the afternoon with the kids I did the grocery shopping. Also, a couple pastors from the big city came by to collect John/Romans and tracts.

Sunday was a great day as well. We had superb attendance in both services, especially in the PM. We had 3 first time visitor ladies with their children, and one 1 first time visitor man of 26 years. I preached on faithfulness to church in the morning and then from Acts 8 in the PM, focusing on the question of what would it take for a person to obey the great commission--as the early church stayed in Jerusalem instead of leaving to evangelize and had to be persecuted in order to leave. Great decisions were made by many in both services and testimonies to the same.

Today is catching up on tranquility for the family. I left early in the morning to take a man to a hospital appointment and then for some pastoral counseling, then came back to relax with the family.

Later today a construction foreman is coming to give me a quote to build a baptistry, and other than that we're free to get some much needed rest. Tomorrow we're going visiting in the morning, then I have a class at lunch time, then a Bible study in the evening. Wednesday is study and church, Thursday is soul-winning in the morning and afternoon, Friday is study and preparation for Sunday, Saturday is soul-winning and visitation, and of course Sunday is the Lord's day--can't wait!

Attempted, Expected, RECEIVED

2011-09-11T21:19:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I blogged that while we attempted great things for God all week, especially Saturday, we were expecting great things from Him on Sunday.

It worked! A man named Vicente came forward during the invitation to receive Christ and be saved. That's 2 ADULT MEN saved in less than one week! Hallelujah!

Just think--I could have run scared and hidden myself and my family because of the threats against us. "I shall not be moved" !!! We love being in the will of God.

Last night we were all so exhausted; Ashley fell asleep at 8:30, and the three of us (me, Erika, baby Charley) went to bed at 10:00. As soon as we fell asleep, the phone rang and we talked for about an hour. After the phone call, Ashley woke up. I took her to the bathroom and then she was wide awake. I went to the other side of the house quick, and upon return, I got bit by a scorpion! I quickly called Erika to get me a knife and some baking soda and water, and while she was getting that, I killed the scorpion. Erika had the stuff ready just as fast and I got a slit in the bite, squeezed out the venom, then applied the baking soda and water paste to the bite to draw out the rest of the poison. It worked well!

But then after we got back settled down, our neighbors had some huge party with no less than several hundred hell's angels (yes, they're in Mexico too). Ashley kept waking up, then Charley--so I kept Ashley with me in the living room and Erika kept Charley, so at least they wouldn't wake each other up, just the 2 of us. The party finally shut down at about 3:30am and we finally got some rest, but both of the kids still were very restless and didn't sleep well (so, nope, neither did we). The wake-up alarm was sort of a relief to the torment of trying to sleep!

How ironic, eh? After church everyone was so pumped up and excited! We had a good lunch then Ashley fell asleep right away, then Charley. So, everyone went to bed. Just after a few minutes, though, some friends from another like-minded church in the big city came to visit. No rest for the weary!

What a great day in the service of The King. We couldn't be happier or more content with what God has dealt us. Tired, yes, but secure in knowing we've done our best for The Lord.

Not too tired to blog! :)

Thanks for praying. It means so much! You make us a great team! God bless!

Attempt and Expect GREAT Things from God

2011-09-10T20:35:00.000-05:00

We had a great day out soul-winning today. We made several contacts and are expecting great things from The Lord tomorrow. We started soul-winning in a new neighborhood, which means we were very kind, full of smiles, handed out tracts house to house, and looked for opportunities to share The Gospel and lead people to Christ. The next time we will be just as friendly, but be more insistent on sharing The Gospel, and along with the tract we will give a John/Romans. The third time we go with our faces set, just as friendly, but giving one more opportunity to either accept or reject The Gospel. After these three times, we continue visiting the prospects, leading people to Christ from that list, and trying to make more contacts/prospects but not door to door. We continue in this way until God moves us to the next neighborhood. Sometimes, this entire process takes a few weeks or in the case of the last neighborhood we just moved from, nearly 4 months (nearly 300 families).

At any rate, in spite of our kidnapping threats and the sporadic shootings, robberies, public beatings and general violence, we're still attempting great things for God and expecting GREATER things from God.

No time to lose! We're still praying/planning/preparing for the peace march, hopefully to have it the end of this month. We are also getting ready for the Harvest Festival on October 23rd...the people from church are pumped up and excited to have goals and things to do.

Please continue to pray God will allow us to bring salvation closer to the wicked, no matter what the means. Philippians 1:20 "According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death." Why? Philippians 1:21 "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."

God help us through our prayers and yours to be true to our desires and faithful to our task.

Prayer Request Update

2011-09-08T15:34:00.000-05:00

After praying and speaking with my pastor and several other folks on both sides of the border, I felt it expedient to send Erika and the kids to my mother in law’s house for at least the afternoon. After more prayer, I decided to chisel off the address sign we have hung on the front wall. There are no other street signs that indicate what the name of our street is, anywhere, so it would be the only indication of our address. My pastor specifically prayed that if someone would come to do us harm, they would be confused and not be able to find our home. So, I felt like I needed to do my best to help them be confused!

Erika and the kids returned last night before church and stayed the night. The night was very uneventful, not even the dogs woke up for anything!

I counseled with several friends, both American and Mexican, and I and my family feel at peace that the men that called only wanted to scare us into listening long enough to tell us a bank account number to make deposits for “protection.” In reality, they probably wouldn’t come to the house if unsuccessful in extorting money from us, but daily prayer and consecration will definitely help keep that reality.

We attribute the prayers of hundreds of folks that had compassion on us to our present state of safety and security, and more than anything “the peace of God.”

Thank you to all those of the many churches that have prayed for us since this time yesterday. God answered in protection according to those prayers of faith.

Please continue to pray for us, more than anything for us to stay safe in order to bring God’s peace to this war-ravaged but beloved country of Mexico.

~Chris Lanier
Missionary to Arteaga, Mexico
(256) 797-2546
cclanier@gmail.com
missionarychrislanier.blogspot.com

Urgent Prayer Request

2011-09-07T14:52:00.000-05:00

We received 2 phone calls in our home this afternoon while I was studying, both threatening. The last conversation ended with the caller telling me “If you hang up I will come to get you.” Well, they would come get me if I hung up or not. They had already recited to me our names, address and obviously had our phone #, and not wanting to continue the conversation, I hung up.

After trying to dispel the worries of my wife, I called my Pastor to ask for prayer. Then I called my parents, then a few others that I knew I could count on to pray. After talking again with my wife and praying, I called my mother in law to come get Erika and the kids to stay there for the afternoon until church tonight.

I believe this is a tactic of the devil to scare us away. It won’t work. That’s why I stayed and why I will stay. God put us here to get people saved and to bring salvation closer to the wicked, such as this man. A man got saved in our house last night after coming to study the Bible. People are getting saved, right with God, making positive decisions for God and I declare, as Nehemiah “I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it...?” I say with the Psalmist in 56:3 “What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.”

Please pray for God’s will to be done, and that whatever the outcome, I will bring salvation closer to the wicked (Psalm 119:155).

~Chris Lanier
Missionary to Arteaga, Mexico
(256) 797-2546
cclanier@gmail.com
missionarychrislanier.blogspot.com

Meeting with the Mayor

2011-09-06T11:58:00.000-05:00

Everything went very well! We arrived to find out that the mayor wasn't there, nor does he entertain folks for appointments (how weird...). However, we had a great time handing out tracts and talking to people there in the offices about Christ and inviting them to church. Also, we got all of the information necessary to apply for permission to have the "March for Peace," and they told me all I had to do was turn in a written request and I could even have police protection. Why would I want the police when they're promoting the violence, drugs and instability?? Of course I didn't tell them that but I graciously thanked them for their time.

Very importantly, a man from our church named Fidel went with me to the mayor's office and helped me around. We went to eat a light breakfast afterwards and had a great time of fellowship and handing out tracts in the restaurant. After eating, he wanted me to meet his parents (very staunch catholics). It was very tense and uncomfortable so I tried to be very joyful and light-hearted so I would have an opportunity later to share the Gospel with them (after a good season of prayer).

God's so good to us. We can't wait to see what God's going to do in the next few weeks with this "March for Peace!"

Marcha Por La Paz

2011-09-05T13:45:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow I plan on meeting with the mayor of Arteaga (our town) to talk about having a "Peace March." My idea is simply to draw attention to the need of having Christ in order to have peace--but having a march with posters, songs, and passing out of tracts.

A man from the church (Fidel) plans on going with me which is a huge blessing. Having support from a national will be a tremendous help, and besides, Fidel says he knows the mayor and is his friend. We'll see!

Please pray the mayor doesn't give us a hard time and that he will participate with us.

Praise The Lord for Alabama!

2011-09-03T09:40:00.000-05:00

Home sweet home indeed! While praying for our supporting churches this morning, I realized that Alabama is our largest supporting state! We have a total of 7 supporting churches in Alabama, who average $65 in their monthly support, but not including our # 1 supporting church, our home church, Madison Baptist, who supports us for 25% of our overall support.

Praise GOD for Alabama!

Lanier Family Prayer Letters

2011-09-01T19:08:00.000-05:00

Listed below and to the right are all of our recent prayer letters. Enjoy! Thanks for caring!

Wedding Bells!

2011-08-31T15:52:00.001-05:00

To complete the miracle of salvation of Ismael a week ago Monday, he was gloriously married to Mari at church on Sunday morning! After 30 years of marriage, including 25 years of separation (with a pile of iniquity on both sides, including infidelity) the two were united in marriage before God and man with a glorious wedding service.

We combined a regular church service with a wedding--not one at a time, right after each other but truly combined. We sang, prayed, sang, prayed, had the ring presentation, preaching, biblical vows and a great deal of rejoicing in what The Lord has done. There were 70 in attendance, whom all heard the gospel preached and were invited to receive Christ. Most everyone was in shock at such a dramatic combination but everything went extremely well and most importantly to the glory of God.

There was a nice reception afterwards with great food and fellowship. Honestly, it was the most Christ-centered and Christ-honoring wedding/reception I've ever seen (not because I conducted it, but because of how The Lord directed everything to come to pass).

It was a great example of how God works to everyone in the church and to all the visitors. The miracle of God putting the two of them back together truly was amazing. Right now, they are celebrating on their honeymoon and will return in a few days to continue their counseling/discipleship.

Ain't God GOOD! What an answer to prayer, and a testimony to God's answering of prayer to all of you who have prayed for this. Thank you and thank GOD!

Did You Hear Heaven Rejoicing?

2011-08-20T16:14:00.000-05:00

At mid-day last Monday, a man who had come to the church a couple times came to our house seeking my approval to get together again with his estranged wife, who got saved in our church last January. She is my mother in law, which makes him by law my father in law. Well, they came seeking my approval/church blessing to get back together, and I explained how they needed to first make sure of their salvation.

The lady, my mother in law, is in love with God and has a great testimony now that she's saved. Him, on the other hand, my father in law that is, was under conviction because he wanted to do right and had made some positive changes, but knew he hadn't been saved for real. He joyfully received Christ on the spot after I explained the Gospel to him and showed him from the BIBLE how he could be saved!

Afterwards, I then counseled them that whereas they are already legally married, that was 30 years ago and they have been separated for nearly 25 years. I advised them to continue to abstain from any relations and get married as soon as possible in the church to make their vows to each other before God, both being new Christians. They happily agreed to wait it out until we could do the wedding. We agreed on August 28th of this month, and we're going to perform the wedding during a regular church service.

What a blessing! What a miracle! 30 years of marriage, 25 years of that being separated, multiple boyfriends and girlfriends, wickedness between them both and the world...only God could make something like this possible.

Thank you to those of you who read the prayer request regarding all of this and responded with prayer. It worked! Hallelujah!

Attendance!

2011-08-20T16:06:00.000-05:00

Just to report a praise in answered prayer, we had great attendance last Sunday morning and Wednesday night. Last Sunday night was down, but both services before and after were very well attended and most importantly the Spirit of God worked in the hearts of the people, especially Wednesday evening!

Rolling Along

2011-08-12T10:56:00.000-05:00

We had a low-attended service on Sunday morning, and then really low on Sunday night. Vacation time in Mexico is a faithfulness killer! All of our people are brand new and very immature spiritually, so they don't mind missing a couple services in order to take advantage of their time off with their families. I've preached about faithfulness to church and being consistent but it is taking time. It just so happened that everyone was occupied with the things of the world except for 2 faithful families this last Sunday--hopefully it will pick back up by Sunday. Wednesday night was well attended--we had 4 first time adult visitors, but 2 of them are visiting for a conference here in Mexico and won't be back until next year's conference. Other than that, we had a lady who hadn't come for a month to return and it was so good to have her back.

One of the visitor ladies, however, came after promising last May to come. Her daughter came for the first time last Sunday morning, then again on Sunday night and brought her mom on Wednesday night. Her mom came because she was hungry (physically) and needed help. We counseled with her about salvation and she assured us she's already a believer (time will tell). I gave her a bag of food items and advised her to keep her decision to serve God very sure and brought her home with everyone else. She's been abused by the world, has a multitude of health issues, and is here in Mexico after spending several years illegally in the US. Her husband is still there awaiting deportation in jail. She had been trying to kill herself but unable (to the point of hanging herself but the rope didn't hold because of her size). We visited her the next day and she's doing better, but told us that while she was at church on Wednesday night, someone broke into her house and stole her toilet. Oh! The depravity of man!!

We're really praying for a good turnout this Sunday. We know we're going to be missing one family because they have gotten a new job for Sunday afternoons (it's hard to tell a family they can't work on Sunday when it's not you that's going to go hungry).

We have a huge prayer request. A lady in the church has been estranged from her husband for 25 years. She left him for another, went back, then left again for good many years ago. They both have gone through many partners since then, but never legally divorced (hallelujah!). The lady got saved last January and we've been praying she would get back with her real husband. What a miracle to pray for! She would have to get rid of her live in boyfriend and her real husband would have to put out his live in girlfriend. Well, both her and he have put out their respective partners and are now seeking each other. Our prayer request is that now that both have made great decisions that they won't repent, will continue steadfastly and eventually move back in together as husband and wife. He is willing, she is willing, but there is a lot of forgiveness to be passed around from both sides and a lot of maturing. It took a miracle of God to get this far and will take an even bigger one for them to be able to live together again after 25 years of separation. Please pray!

Primera Etapa (first stage)

2011-08-03T22:27:00.001-05:00

We finished the first stage in the reconstruction of the church. It cost $250, which is what we were given extra this month to do what we needed to do. The reconstruction right now is mainly concerned with the roof which has cracks all over. It was very poorly done to begin with and now has to be drastically (and very expensively) redone. After this first stage of $250, we have to pay about another $2500 to finish the 2nd stage of fixing the roof completely. I don't know how in the world we can do it without a lot of help from our supporting churches. It will take years and years for the people to raise enough money to do it--I would estimate at least 8-10 years. So, we're praying fervently and effectually for the money. The people are giving from their heart already, which is covering the normal expenses of the church (gasoline, water, electric, propane, bathroom supplies, cleaning supplies, etc). So we are praying God would supply the needed $$ from our regular giving in our church here in Mexico by God sending more people to the church. First for them to get saved and live for God, and then for God to touch their hearts to give as unto The Lord to fix up the church. It would help to have help from our supporting churches but more than anything I would love to build up our church with people that have a heart to give themselves to God, first, and then give from their wallet! :)

So, please pray with us that God would build our church and that while we do our job here in Mexico God would touch hearts in both Mexico and the US to help us rebuild God's house here in Arteaga.

Baby Dedication

2011-08-03T22:08:00.000-05:00

We had our first baby/child dedication last Sunday morning! It went great. We dedicated our son Charley, and then another couple's 2 children. One of them is turning 4 in 2 weeks and the other is Ashley's age. Ashley was already dedicated to The Lord, but we re-dedicated her as well. Attendance was good as well, with several first time visitors. After the dedication, we had a luncheon and then the afternoon service directly afterwards. After the 2nd service I had all the bus-kids to help me load the trailer full of chairs to take to another church in Saltillo, then took everyone home.

I had to run a few errands and finish preparing for the other church service in Saltillo, then we left with the trailer and picked up 2 kids that are well behaved to reward them (yes, we reward kids with godly rewards, like bringing them with us to special church occasions).

The other church service was an anniversary and they had invited me to preach. We all had a great time--I always enjoy preaching and this was no exception. The attendance at this other like-minded, independent/fundamental baptist church was great. The music was good and I suppose the preaching was good! :)

Afterwards we had a great supper and enjoyed a good time of fellowship. I enjoyed fellowshipping especially with a man I led to Christ there a couple months ago, who is faithful to church and growing very well.

It's been a good week but very exhausting. We had company Friday but it was a little different because they came to our house very early in the morning. After a couple hours, we packed up and went to register Charley (this has to be done after a baby is born here in Mexico--to be honest I don't really know what it's for other than to publicly register the child, like in the US when you apply for a SSN). Afterwards, we went to lunch with our guests, dropped them off and then went grocery shopping. It was funny--we had to wait until Monday because we were really "stretched" financially and we didn't have much at all in the fridge except ketchup, and then we came home with too many groceries to fit!

The rest of the week is preparation for Sunday. Tomorrow we're dedicating to stamping Bibles, New Testaments, John/Romans and Tracts and to prayer for the people of our church and the neighborhood where we've been dedicating our time. Also we have to pay several bills and run some errands. Friday I'll be studying and preparing all day, then Saturday will be the final push of the week in evangelization and prayer.

Sunday we're expecting great things from God!

Escuelitas Bíblicas de Verano (VBS!!)

2011-07-21T17:10:00.000-05:00

We had a great, Christ-honoring EBV (VBS) this week. It was glorious and fun! The first day we started off kind of slow, with only 14 kids, but we grew each day to a total 51 by Wednesday, July 20th (the last day). We had a total of 12 salvation decisions, all to the GLORY of GOD!

We had several workers too that came each day. One lady of the church even bought extra prizes for the kids, provided the snacks for one day, and brought the refreshments for the graduation on Wednesday night. Yes, it was a huge sacrifice for her financially--may The Lord richly bless her. Another lady came to just help with anything needed, including watching Charley for us while we were running around crazy. One other lady helped us with everything, including teaching a class to the younger class (we had 2, Erika taught the older class).

The graduation went well. We had a demonstration of the theme song and Bible verse, an object lesson, a few songs and I preached a summary of what I preached throughout the VBS (Romans Road of Salvation). We had great attendance and a few parents came (all claimed to be saved already, and in different churches). Go figure.

All in all, we couldn't be happier. The Lord miraculously saved 12 young people from hell, all to His GLORY. Thank God the GOSPEL still works!

Flying Time!

2011-07-18T16:27:00.000-05:00

So either the time is flying OR it's time to fly--but I really think that it's both. Charley is already more than a month old and we are soooo busy. We have so much going on!

Between regular church services (3 per week), soul-winning (4 per week), diaper changing (don't ask) and trying to train our children for Christ (24-7, literally) we don't have time for much of anything. We really have enjoyed our family devotions each day, reading 2 chapters in Spanish. I have been immensely enjoying my own personal devotions as well--I've been experiencing a more intense hunger for The Word of God over the last month and have been richly blessed and encouraged by it. The Lord has truly been sweet through it all and I'm proud to serve Him.

Charley was pretty bad sick last week. I prayed to know whether or not to take him to the doctor, and finally had peace 3 days later to go ahead and take him. It was a common cold that was about to turn into a throat infection. The doctor also did his 30 day check-up 2 days early, and Charley had put on 2 pounds and grew almost 2 inches since birth. Hooray for Charlie! He's feeling much better now, even if he still cries for no reason just to get attention.

Ashley is JEALOUS. She was okay and happy with the baby Charlie invasion for the first week, but then realized he wasn't going away and decided to act out, accordingly.

Church is going great. We continue to have new visitors each Sunday. Some come and go, others stay. Many don't like it that we don't have hip-hop music and don't allow dancing or tongue-speaking. A few have asked why we don't show movies instead of having preaching services. Most importantly, we have a core group of about 25 that come faithfully and are growing. I couldn't be prouder with many decisions that have been made. Each service several people either come forward to the old-fashioned altar or make decisions privately in their seats. It's sweet to see people weep before The Lord and then to see their resolve when they finish, with a solid decision made. It's so glorious to see those same people then give a testimony about what God has been doing in their life, showing them, or about the decision they just made. God's so good.

In another post, I'm going to write about our VBS this week. Other than this week, July 31st will be another special day. We're going to have a baby parade and baby dedication in the AM service. After that, we're going to have a simple dinner then the PM service to follow immediately. I've been invited to preach an Anniversary service in the big city that evening, so we're going to pack up and have a 3rd service!

July is a real busy month but then we'll have a bit more calm in August. I really hope The Lord supplies the $$ we need to make the repairs on the church building in August--at least so we can buy the materials we need.

We so desperately need to fix the roof, at least to prevent the rain from inundating the inside. Afterwards, we equally desperately need to build a baptistry. After all that we need to get rid of all the mold and fungus that we have because of the roof leaking, then paint everything. Finally, there are 2 more projects that were started in the church building before we got there that have to be finished ASAP.

When we feel like we've done justice to the house of The Lord, we need to repair and raise the outside wall surrounding the property. That will be another huge and expensive endeavor but we need to do it to protect our family and the property here that we're taking care of.

It doesn't look like we're going to have any students for the school this year. The one young man we invited declined and his parents don't have the character to make him do what's right. He's an academic failure already, hates studying and learning, and has absolutely no discipline. His family began faithfully attending a couple months ago but also show no signs of growth nor desire to grow. We had really hoped to give him a chance to turn his life around but I suppose it's better to see that him and his family don't really want that, now ahead of time.

After this month whether or not we are able to start on the construction and repair projects, we're going to be preparing for a big evangelistic outreach in late October. Then in November, we're going to have a missionary come for a week around Thanksgiving. Then for Christmas we'll have another big-outreach and maybe a play. I don't really care for Christmas since I'm not catholic, but I do enjoy showing the folks we love them and impart gifts to them (especially the Christmas Shoe Boxes of Joy from Bro. Paul Deem, Directline Ministries)

Hopefully very soon I'll be able to write about VBS and the VBS graduation this coming Wednesday evening. We can't wait!

Charley Pictures!

2011-06-27T13:07:00.001-05:00

Christopher Charles

2011-06-18T22:20:00.000-05:00

Christopher Charles Lanier was born (finally!) on Tuesday, June 14th at 9:55pm. He weighed 6.8 pounds and was 19.69 inches long.

Everything went very smoothly. Erika went through 5 hours of hard labor, but we waited until we were sure it was the right time. They had to break her water after a couple hours of labor. She delivered Charley 100% natural! The doctors and nurses were amazed that she could do it and I was very proud of her.

Both Erika and Charley are doing very well. He's a bit more active at night than he is during the day, but we'll work on that little by little. He's eating very good, just like Ashley did. The difference is he is easier to keep on a schedule (hallelujah!)

I'll post pictures as soon as I have time to download them from the camera and upload them to the website.

Great Weekend!

2011-06-12T22:54:00.000-05:00

We had great services both this morning and this afternoon with many great decisions made!

Erika still doesn't want to introduce baby Charley to the world. Maybe tonight, maybe tomorrow--maybe next week. Everything seems like it's up in the air and that there's no certainty to any plans we make! The good thing and most important thing is that both Erika and the baby are doing fine--just that they don't want to separate just yet!

We appreciate your prayers as always. Keep in touch!

Below and Above!

2011-06-06T10:01:00.000-05:00

We had a bit below average attendance in the AM and PM service, but 3 saved! I'll take the losses for the gains!

Double Blessing!

2011-05-28T21:24:00.001-05:00

We had 2 saved on Wednesday night after church! Praise The Lord!

New Van!

2011-05-23T21:08:00.000-05:00

So we got the new van home, finally, and picked up 30 people the first time we used it last Wednesday (yes, of course all at once!). It was full on Sunday morning and Sunday night, too.

We love the looks we get with the great looking van with our church name on it. People notice us and we feel like we're making so much more of an impact in our city. Praise God!

Grrrrrrrreat!

2011-05-23T21:06:00.000-05:00

I always loved that Frosted Flakes commercial!

Well, things are going great here! We now have an AM AND PM service on Sunday, as well as the Wednesday service. We recently started 4 organized soul-winning times which have been well attended too!

We couldn't ask for anything more. We're all excited in the work, healthy, and can't wait to see what else God's going to do on behalf of the people of Arteaga!

Pressing On

2011-05-16T17:52:00.000-05:00

So I went last Monday, a week ago, to pick up the van that was given to us for the church here in Mexico. I waited on the paperwork to be finished (it was supposed to be finished by the time I got there) until Thursday and finally left.

Before I got home (I had taken the bus to the border, crossed in a taxi, and stayed in a cheap hotel all week) I called Erika to pack a suitcase and be ready to go by 9:30pm. I had bought several things while waiting, and I had to leave them in the van that was given to us. Being that the stuff was in the van, and the lying office that was doing the work had the keys, I didn't feel comfortable leaving it there until I came back to pick up the van again. Also, the papers on our own van and trailer were about to expire in 2 weeks, so I figured we'd get it all done in one quick trip.

That was all pretty uneventful, other than getting stopped 2x by different unlawful police officers looking for bribes. Of course, I argued and fought and finally they let me go. Also, an apparent drug runner and definitely loser tried to stop us on our return from the border at 4:30am. I didn't slow down, though, and on the contrary I sped up to make him realize I wasn't going to stop and he would die if he tried. It worked, praise The Lord! The problem is that if you slow down or come close to stopping, it's over and they already have you. Sounds tough but that's what it takes to stay alive and protect your family.

So anyway, we left late on Thursday night and drove to the border, turned in all of our van and trailer paperwork, got all new paperwork for everything including my visa, and then went to the company that is legalizing the church van to pick up all of the stuff. Thankfully, it was still intact and we had no problems.

We tried to get some rest on Friday once back at home but there was too much to do. Saturday we spent most of the day soul-winning, visiting, and preparing for Sunday. It was a great day.

Sunday was weird, to be honest. Attendance was a bit low but there was an awful spirit and I had no liberty in the service what-so-ever. As a family we've decided to double our prayer efforts and studies to be better prepared, and especially pray specifically for The Spirit of God to be in control.

Today a man came by while I was studying asking for work. He has a different history which I'll share in the future if he starts coming to church and then to work for us on some projects.

PROJECTS: New roof on the church building!! New outside wall!!

The wall is a new project that we've really got to do for security sake. It's only 3 feet high with a metal rail fence on top, which makes it see through to the inside of the property. People can easily see whether I am there or not, based on whether the van is or not. If I'm gone and Erika and the kids are there alone, anyone call easily jump/climb the low wall and get in. These are rough and tough times in Mexico and I really need to protect them. Along with building up the wall, I need to install solid metal swing doors so people can't see them either.

It's just that while I was gone last week someone tried to break in and assault Erika, also demanding money and food. God protected her, praise The Lord!

Mucho trabajo! Lot's of work! Prayer and supplication, then by hand we'll build the work that God has called us to.

I got word today from a church that will begin supporting us. We're so thankful. We're at 96% and rising!

Keep in touch! cclanier@gmail.com

Decisions Decisions!

2011-05-05T15:53:00.000-05:00

We're so happy to be sent here to Mexico. We've seen so many people get saved, and I was just rejoicing about not only the salvation decisions, but the decisions made by the people in our church since they've been saved. Last night I preached a simple message on faithfulness to church and several people made decisions to either continue coming faithfully or to start coming faithfully. Last Sunday, there were also numerous decisions made about raising children and fostering a celebrative environment in the home.

I honestly don't know which is more exciting! Of course salvation is the important and special decision someone can make, but let's hear it for all the other decisions made for Christ after salvation! Glory!

Children's Day in Mexico

2011-05-03T14:13:00.000-05:00

After praying about it, we decided to have a small celebration after church last Sunday. Saturday was "Children's Day" so we thought we would do a small party for the people in honor of childrens day. It went very well! Some friends of ours from Texas were down and wanted to take care of most of the cost, which was a great blessing. We had a pasta salad, cokes, drinks and a cake. We were planning for about 50-60 and had 51! What a blessing!

I preached a message on Celebrating Childhood and somehow waxed eloquent for 90 minutes! The people responded very well and many adults made decisions to raise their children in an environment that would foster a celebration throughout their lives. Aside from the loooong preaching, we had a great time of singing as well. The entire service lasted 2 hours and was just an over all great time in The Lord. We had one completely new family and a couple individual folks that had never come before.

Things are going well and we're excited to be here. We're focusing on soul-winning, visitation, and informal Bible studies in people's homes.

The doctor visit for Erika went very well. Little Charlie is not so little for his age (with 6 weeks to go he's already almost 5 pounds!)(which in comparison to Ashley, is huge--she weighed barely 5 pounds at birth!). He's doing very well and Erika is as well. She's very uncomfortable but hanging in.

We are excited to have a new supporting church in Plainview, TX. Thanks to Calvary Baptist and their great Pastor for their help!

Please pray that the many churches we were in in February, March, and April will take us on for support soon. Otherwise, even though we hate it, we'll have to raise more support. We lack so little, though--so please pray God would touch their hearts.

Onward!

Getting It Done!

2011-04-24T08:33:00.000-05:00

So here we are in Mexico! We got here a couple days ago very safely and are excited to be back home. There isn't any catastrophic damage this time to the property, thank God. Everything was very clean thanks to our family and well attended.

Even though nothing needed worked on or repaired immediately, my family needed a time to ourselves. We've been non-stop for two years and we needed some time just for us to enjoy each other and get ourselves charged up. Spiritually, we just needed to get prepared for the "great work" ahead of us.

So, we took a couple days to be alone to do just that. It is vacation time here in Mexico as well, which means everyone goes back to their original family's home, or just on a vacation.

We're feeling very good and SO ready to get started now. God's been good to us and we're excited about finally getting officially started this week with our church.

Is No News Truly Good News?

2011-04-08T10:34:00.000-05:00

Here I am blogging about the lack of something to blog about. Things have been pretty uneventful, just a few items of real interest in our lives.

Last week, we went to visit some dear friends of ours for the weekend and to help out in their church. I helped on their buses, taught SS, and preached. It was a great time.

Then this week we were able to be in our home church again for the last time on Wednesday. I love and appreciate Madison Baptist Church so much. They pray for us, they provide for us, and they care about us. I love their stand on the Bible being inspired and preserved, I love their stand on godly, conservative HYMNS, I love their stand on godly, separated living, and standards of modesty. They inspire me with their generosity and watch care over the nearly 30 missionary families from their midst.

Last night I went to the memorial service for the mother of one of my old bus kids. Her name was Madison and I began picking her up when she was four years old. I still remember her first Sunday to come. She was so enthusiastic and personable. Through it all, good times and bad, she was always that same way and we still love her dearly. Her mother passing was difficult for everyone, most of all Madison, but I'm glad I had the opportunity to be there at the memorial service for her and her family/friends. Since we're going to Mexico for a long time, several years, it seems impossible that we'll ever see Madison again. We'll continue to pray for her though and hope that one day she'll remember thatvMadison Baptist Church and old Bro. Chris love and care for her and she'll come back to us.

I just got off the phone with our tax guy and he told me we're going to receive close to $3,000 back from our federal taxes and we have to pay about $24 for our AL state taxes. What a blessing! Only in America.

So today we're getting ready to get back on the road and look forward with earnest expectation to being home in Mexico in just a couple weeks. We're excited about our upcoming meetings as well. We're trusting The Lord to send in the rest of our support (at least projected) by the 1st of May. We only lack a couple hundred dollars (if you include "promised" but not solid support). Also today we're scheduled to have lunch with our dear Pastor and supper with one of my closest friends. Tomorrow Erika will be at a ladies meeting all day, and I'll be with Ashley and a friend (whose wife will also be at the ladies meeting). Sunday morning we'll be off on yet another whirlwind adventure.

Thanks for your interest and don't forget to keep in touch!

Update and Prayer Letters

2011-03-25T11:41:00.000-05:00

Well we're up in Ohio after a great meeting at Cranberry Baptist Church in Beckley, WV. We were so blessed and encouraged there. We had a long drive from Tampa, FL to get there but it was well worth it. Even with the $90 breakdown off of I-77N--it wasn't much, just a blown heater hose. The Lord was so good to us to put us right next to an HONEST mechanic's shop and also allowed the van to break before we got up into the mountains in no-mans-land.

So we're here in Ohio until Sunday afternoon. We got into town last night with my parents and will leave tomorrow night to have a meeting in southern Ohio, in Waverly. We're looking forward and praying for a great meeting there as well.

After Sunday morning, we'll be going lightning fast back to Beckley, WV for an international banquet, then drive a bit south after the evening service. Then we'll be in Alabama for a couple weeks, then have a few meetings in and around until we head back to Mexico.

Good-Lord-a-willin' we'll be back home for good in a month. Please pray to that end and that God will send the rest of our support by then as well.

Also, our 2 most recent prayer letters are finally posted on the website. Enjoy!

...Must...Write...Update...

2011-03-17T21:23:00.000-05:00

So it's been the proverbial "long time" without an update--I guess it happens to everyone that blogs. I promised myself I wouldn't do that when I first started, but here I am blogging about my lack of blogging.

It's been pretty busy, though. We have been in great meetings since we left Mexico on February 25th. We had a very difficult leaving but did it because we wanted to get finished up and get back as soon as possible. We've had meetings and travelled in Amarillo, TX, Clarendon, TX, Altus, OK, Mustang, OK, and Borger, TX. We are praying that at least 3 of these churches will begin financially supporting us.

After all of those meetings, we visited a great Hispanic church in OKC, OK and then travelled to where we are now, Brandon, FL. It was a long but uneventful drive.

The best things so far have been a few salvation decisions we've been a part of. We've also enlisted a great deal of prayer support and met a bunch of great people. We announced a need for a 15 passenger van in a church in OK and they gave us one of theirs! We only wanted them to pray with us about it--I thought we would have to pray and raise the $$, but Tabernacle Baptist in Altus gave us one. We weren't over the excitement of all that yet, and a man from the same church volunteered a reupholster a seat in the van, paint the exterior, put our church name on it, AND drive it to the border for us! We couldn't believe it...what a great God, church, and people of God. Now, we're praying for the $1500 to import it permanently to Mexico and put license plates on it.

We'll be around here in Brandon, FL until next Tuesday and then we're off to a great church in Beckley, WV. From there we have meetings in OH, AL, and GA. We really hope to be back in Mexico by May--and see where The Lord leads from there. I don't have peace exactly yet nor wisdom from God--we're still praying what HE wants.

Wonderful Grace of Jesus

2011-02-15T16:25:00.000-06:00

I don't have time to write all of the details, but we had a huge "big day" last Sunday. It was "Dia de Vaquero" ("Cowboy Day") and we had a great turnout. We picked up about 50 people, had about 40 walk ins, and about 40-50 drive ins, for a total of somewhere between 130-140. We settled on 135!

Most importantly, we had 12 saved! It was a great Spirit filled day and The Lord really performed a miraculous work on behalf of the Mexican people.

God's GOOD!

SAVED by HIS Power Divine

2011-02-09T13:38:00.000-06:00

I was getting very troubled at the lack of people getting saved at church the last part of January. We had the wolf problem right after 3 folks received Christ the first Sunday of January, and it took a couple weeks to get worked out of all that mess. Then afterwards, attendance went back to normal and a couple visitors floated in and out without getting saved.

So, we began praying more. Last Sunday we had 1 saved in the service, but it was a visitor that I didn't know. There was another visitor that had attended faithfully for a few services that I knew wasn't saved because she told me. She didn't want to get saved on Sunday, so that night during a Bible study with my family and hers I went over the plan of salvation again. She told me she didn't want to get saved that morning because she was ashamed and thought everyone would laugh at her. She told me she felt horrible because she knew she had rejected Christ and the Holy Spirit. She still didn't want to be saved, though--something that we couldn't understand. We prayed for her though and trusted God to work on her overnight.

However, she came back to us early on Monday morning, miserable and afraid she would be eternally lost. She told me she couldn't sleep all night, under conviction and knew she had to get saved. She told me she was too prideful to admit that she was a wicked person, even though she knew it, and that was the reason she didn't want to get saved. I showed her the Scriptures again, allowing the Word of God to make a good impression on her heart and she tearfully asked me if she could receive Christ right then. I showed her a couple more verses about receiving Christ and then told her to confess with her own mouth and believe in her heart, and that God would save her. As always, I left her alone to talk with The Lord and went back to check on her a few minutes later. Her countenance was changed, her burden was gone and she was joyfully reborn!

We're getting ready for the big day on Sunday, "Dia de Vaquero" (Cowboy Day). We've been praying and preparing for a month and the people are very excited. We'll have a big dinner, pony rides, a mechanical bull, a man to do lasso tricks, a big moon bounce, a piñata, and a few gifts to give to the people that bring the most visitors. The nicest gift is a leather bound Bible, and for the kids we're going to give stick-horses to the boy and girl who bring the most visitors. Of course, plastic cowboy hats for everyone!

Today (Feb 9) is the first day since last Wednesday that we've had water in the house. It's hard to understand for many Americans, but in Mexico when the weather dips below freezing and the water pipes freeze, it causes major problems. You have to wait for them to thaw out first, then wait and see how many pipes burst. Finally, you fix everything and hope it doesn't freeze again.

Well, it got super cold and our pipes froze, even though the day before I re-wrapped everything above ground and got up every 3 hours that night to turn the water on. The next day it thawed and we fixed the problems, but it froze again and stayed frozen several days. I did all I could to thaw and fix but to no avail. Finally, I had to tear up the concrete all around the back to find any burst pipes underneath. I found them, fixed them, and all of that took a week, with professional help. I did all the manual labor, and he did the technical stuff like soldering the pipes.

So, we've been limited with our time to prepare for Sunday. We had a work day yesterday for the inside of the church and a few people came to help and did a great job. Tonight we're going to have a regular service, but only a quick challenge about praying for the lost and then we're going to pray for the lost for a good long time. Several people promised to pray for an hour during the week and we're really expecting the power of God to fall on Sunday.

Tomorrow we're going to beat the streets and get the word out about Sunday with special flyers. I hope I can win the leather bound Bible! We'll do some more soul-winning, visitation and canvassing on Saturday and make the final preparations. Saturday night a friend is bringing his church and several other churches to have an anniversary service.

Friday is our last appointment for the baby before we go back to the States for 3 months. We're excited to see Charlie again!

Our support is doing well. We received monthly support from a couple new churches that we weren't expecting, but didn't receive from a few regular churches that we were expecting. God's always faithful though to give us what we need plus some extra. We're honored to be His messengers to Mexico and can't wait to continue what He has planned for us when we get back in May! We plan on leaving on February 25th and returning back home to Mexico maybe as soon as Easter, but possibly as late as mid-May. It depends on the rest of our support.

Two more weeks here in Mexico to lay the ground-work for organizing the church when we get back! We're thankful for this grand opportunity and expect great works of God here where He put us!

VICTORY in Jesus!

2011-01-24T16:50:00.000-06:00

We had a great day yesterday! The spirit was great, the service went great, God spoke to hearts, and the attendance was back up to normal!

It was difficult to keep doing the same thing that we had been doing, in the midst of the wolf attacks and massive drop in attendance. We stuck to it, though, and doubled our efforts. God punished the wolf and he's doing right now. The other she-wolf still has yet to get right or come back, but we won't grow weary in well doing knowing by faith AND experience that we WILL reap.

God's always good and we're so thankful. The people are getting really excited about the "Dia de Vaquero" and we're busy getting the plans together.

The family is doing well. We can't complain! We're looking forward to having some family come in from out of town to stay with us for a little while. They heard about God doing something in our family and want to come find out what we have going on! We look forward to prayerfully winning them to Christ. If they do get saved, we are praying they'll move into town and get involved in what God's doing here in our family and community.

Word gets around about us pretty fast, somehow. People have been telling me that they've recently heard that in our church we only preach The Bible, and it doesn't matter if it's "duro" (difficult, hard, and in this case offensive). Our people enjoy handing out tracts and talking to people about what's going on, and inviting people to church. Some come, some go, and some stay. It's God that is doing the work but it's exciting to see the people of the church performing their responsibility to go, plant, water, and reap.

As a result, people have been referring us to people that need help, like a family where the husband beats his wife, is drunk, and doesn't let her go out of the house. I've visited 2x since Saturday, and both times a scared family member came to the door (2 different, 1 lady and 1 teen-girl) and very timidly told me they weren't allowed to talk to me, let alone come to church. Another family the man is a drug-addict and only works to buy drugs and liquor. His wife and baby boy have absolutely nothing, and she is terribly confused between being catholic, mormon, jFw, 7thDA, and a practicing witch. She's came to church 2X, but not since last June. Also a result of the people doing such a great job with evangelizing the community, they are bringing friends, neighbors and family to church. Some are even bring family that live 45 minutes away from our church!

We're so proud to be here as God's messengers to Arteaga. The field truly is white and the fruit is definitely ripe for the picking.

Claiming Victory

2011-01-20T13:29:00.000-06:00

We had a great service last Wednesday and Sunday, albeit the attendance was still down. We kept soul-winning, visiting, and praying and even though we missed several families, God gave us peace and still worked in the hearts of those that did come.

Last night God brought more than usual, 30 folks. That was our average before the gossip and backbiting and wolf attacks, so it was encouraging to see The Lord still at work. We had one new family to come last night as well. The service went great.

I did something unusual, though after I dismissed the kids to their class and right before the preaching. I took four chairs and put them beside the pulpit, and told the people the chairs were for 2 couples that had received Christ but no longer want to come to church. I told the church that it was our responsibility to pray for them, and that I was going to leave the chairs there until those two families came back.

Well, a church member called one of the families and told them they were not right for not coming to church anymore, and that they weren't going to grow and God wouldn't work in their hearts while being outside His will. Afterwards, that church member called us to joyfully tell us that the family admitted they were wrong and would be back on Sunday!

God's GOOD!!

I've cancelled our trip to Washington state in honor of our support being so close. We're going to trust God to give us the rest of what we need by the end of Spring.

Erika, Ashley, and Charlie are doing well. My new Grampa continues to grow. It's so special to hear him praying and singing hymns during his devotions. He's a completely new man and I'm so proud he's staying with us for a little while. He helps me with all of the maintenance and work on the property, and enables me to spend more time studying and praying.

I thank God for my family.

Manning the Trenches

2011-01-12T16:26:00.000-06:00

It's been a week of super hard work. After such a victorious Sunday on January 2nd, and a pretty good service on Wednesday the 5th, the devil really hit us hard. As I've always feared in starting the church here in Arteaga, we had a few wolves come to the church and began attacking the new sheep. It started right after Christmas, and came to a head right after the service on January 2nd.

Two wolves--one man and one woman of different families began criticizing me, the church, and other attendees. They began by saying horrible things about others, not just me, but to other people in the church. Since everyone is either newly born again or not at all, it really did damage. We've lost 3 complete families as a result of it. However, the two wolves were members of 2 of the families, and I had to publicly ran the wolf-man out after he publicly began hurting others. The wolf-woman voluntarily took her family out after spewing negative rhetoric to the baby sheep.

I was discouraged to be honest on Sunday morning. The wolves didn't come, but they had hurt others already, and the word had gotten around that there was problems (already!) in the church. So, our attendance went down from our average of 40 on Sunday morning to 20. I wept before the people before the service starting, calling for a season of prayer at the altar before we could start the service. We prayed God would keep His church in Arteaga pure, and protected from the wolves. We had a great service afterwards and God spoke to hearts. I was still so discouraged, but did my best to be joyful in front of the people and encourage them to press on.

Monday morning during my devotions I wept again, talking to The Lord about why I was so discouraged. As I prayed, however, I realized that God gave me exactly what I had been asking for before Sunday, and then again at church that day. I had been praying the entire week before that God would keep the wolves away and protect His sheep, and that He did. So, after spending time with The Lord and pouring my heart out to Him, I realized He had done exactly what I had been asking for and that I should be happy as I trust Him.

Now, we're in the process of bringing the wounded sheep back and reconciling them. It's hard for me to admit that even that we're such a young church we have had such a nasty problem, but hopefully as I humble myself to the people and apologize to them for not keeping the wolves away soon enough, they will grow in the faith and remain in church.

We've also had a member of our family in the hospital for two weeks, and we've been taking turns visiting, staying, and taking care of him. He has one kidney, which is a transplant, and the other was removed a long time ago. The remaining kidney (the transplant) has quit working and he needs yet another. The problem is that here in Mexico, that means no hope for you. They will normally just let you die because there aren't enough resources to go around for everyone. For example, they've already removed both of his kidneys and given him one new one--to them he's not worth the time, money, and attention. He needs to be on 24 hour dialysis for the rest of his life, but they won't do the surgery to put the "stuff" in place. They've promised for 2 weeks to "do it tomorrow" but still haven't. After they do that, they'll keep him for a couple days and then send him home to be on dialysis at home.

So, for our family and extended family, it's been difficult. We've seen 6 people in our immediate family here in Mexico get saved recently, and they can't understand why this, why now.

Trials are one of our proofs of being christians, and chastisement as well. I've learned through the trial in the church and family that I need to be at the throne of God 3X as much as I had been, and in the Bible 2X as much as I had been. I want God to use us for His honor and glory, and be a good leader/under shepherd.

On a victorious note, my brother in law Rogelio (who got saved last February) is still making great strides and changes in his life. He's reading his Bible each day, preparing questions, taking notes, and praying (with a prayer list) each day. He makes me so proud. His family is following his example and allowing The Lord to change them, too (especially his wife in her submission to him).

Tonight will be interesting, in seeing who comes and who doesn't. Sunday will be the "proof" of the final results of the wolves--we're praying that no matter what we'll give God the glory.

Making Blood Brothers

2011-01-03T19:51:00.000-06:00

We had wonderful services yesterday. I was still feeling lousy, but really burdened to pray for the salvation of the lost that would come to the morning service. So, I spent about 30 minutes that I normally spend making the final touches on the auditorium in prayer instead.

God answered the prayer! The service went great, and during the invitation 3 people came forward to be saved. Two of them had consistently told me they were already Christians, but I knew they weren't because they never had any type of real salvation testimony. The third was a wicked man, a very drunk old man that I have come close to physically beating on 2 occasions (he was drunk and wanted to beat his wife for no reason and I stopped him). He finally came to church and was gloriously saved! There was also a great time of testifying and rejoicing with some others in the church that had already been saved. I rejoice knowing that even though I have nothing to do with these people other than Jesus Christ, we are all covered and washed in His pure blood, making us blood brothers!

Sunday night we finally got a family to let us have a Bible study in their house. We didn't really tell them, though. We just showed up and they invited us to eat, and then I got out the Bible. We studied together with much rejoicing, crying, and conviction until 11:30. We hope to continue in this manner as long as we can.

Last Saturday was a great day too. It was New Years Day, but I called for volunteers to come work. We had a great group of 5 men and 5 ladies that came and worked all day, and we nearly finished all of the work that needed to be done. Today, Monday, the 5 men came back to finish up but after working 6 long hours outside, we still weren't able to get everything finished. Such is the work here--it never ends and if it does, something will tear up and there's a completely new task to be done.

The final count isn't in yet because I haven't had time to do the math, but it appears our monthly support may be as high as 80%! I still feel we need to raise our goal, though, especially after this last round of disasters to the property. We need to be able to take care of all of those emergency expenses without going broke (like we did this month). The church is already paying it's own bills, but still not in a place to be able to pay for "big" things that it needs, like a completely new roof and roof seal. All in good time--we are averaging 40 on Sunday and 30 on Wednesday, but for the people to be able to take on tasks like the roof (about $5000) would take about 200 people tithing and giving offerings for about a year. So, yeah--we may need to raise our goal.

Bro. Rogelio, who got saved last February, is making great steps of faith and allowing The Lord to work in his life. I'm very proud of him and his family--I am sure he's going to be our first pastor. He's also facing a great deal of opposition from his super catholic family. They have what is called a "Niño Dios" (Child God) which is supposed to be Jesus. They put him in a manger but then they cook and do things for him, worship and pray to him, and it's all abominable blasphemy. Well, Rogelio's family did the celebration and Rogelio didn't go, for the first time. That night, somehow the idol fell and broke his head off, and the entire family blames Rogelio because he didn't come to worship it and give it gifts. When he laughed at them (as I did when I heard the story) they nearly kicked him out of the family forever. They said "So now you're acting like a Christian," and he responded "I AM a Christian." He makes me so proud!

So we're keepin' on keepin' on. Pray for us, for laborers and for God to keep the wolves away. They always prey on baby sheep and I had to run one off yesterday in the midst of the victory. Pray for the people to keep on going in their Christian walk.

I will post our latest prayer letter when I have the time. Thanks for your time!

God's great!

What a God!

2010-12-20T13:58:00.000-06:00

We stand amazed! What a wonderful and gracious God we serve. Last Wednesday, we had 29 folks in the service, an increase of 10 from the previous Sunday! Glory! I preached on "Jesus's Prayer Requests" and we all had a marvelous time.

All last week, my stomach was bothering me and finally the worst came late on Thursday night. After that came to pass, I got some kind of cold/flu starting on Friday, then just getting worse and worse until Sunday.

Sunday was a great day, as I was reminded that God is strongest when we are weakest. We had such a great service. It was our "Fiesta Navideña" and we went all out. A grand total of 42 people came, and 2 adults got saved! There were numerous first time adult and child visitors. We gave away the Christmas Shoe Boxes of Joy, ate tamales and cake, and really had a great time.

My body finally had had enough by Sunday night. The fever rose real fast and high and kept me awake for half of the night. It finally broke and I was able to sleep, and now I'm too foolish to stay home and rest.

We plan on mostly just taking it easy this week. We've been working so hard since we got here and we're finally about caught up. We have soul-winning/visitation on Tuesday, services on Wednesday, and Noche Buena (Christmas Eve, which in Mexico is more important than Christmas) on Friday. Back to soul-winning on Saturday and starting all over on Sunday.

My family is so happy to be in Mexico. We need more support and it's going to be the hardest ever to leave if we have to again. We lack about $500 to be at our goal--it isn't much but getting support during this recession isn't easy, especially moreso to raise it for Mexico.

Along that lines, let me say I'm glad God isn't sending us to a country in the 10/40 window that already had their chance to be saved and rejected it, or some godless European nation that has forgotten The Lord. There is so much fruit in Mexico!

Praise God for the opportunity to be here!

Happy in the service of The King

2010-12-12T16:46:00.000-06:00

Services went great today. I preached "To Whom Shall We Go?" out of John 6 and we all had a great time. There were no new visitors, and all of the adults have claimed to have gotten saved before. The invitation went well--I don't understand how or why but several public apologies were given to different folks, many decisions were made, and God just got ahold of the time and used it for His glory. There were a total of 19, with 2 first time child visitors.

After the service everyone asked me if they could ask me a question, and then asked me if we could have services during the week, on Wednesday. I hadn't considered that as an option yet because we're not here full-time, but I wouldn't ever tell anyone no if they actually WANTED to attend church and hear me preach! So, glory to God! We'll have Sunday and Wednesday services for as long as we're here.

We're Having a BABY!!

2010-12-10T20:51:00.000-06:00

Yep, we're expecting and very very excited! We found out Erika was pregnant the beginning of November, but we didn't want to tell anyone until we were able to have an ultrasound done. We pretty much refuse to go to a doctor in the US because of what they did to us before, so we waited until we got home here in Mexico.

Our appointment was last Wednesday, and everything went very well. The baby is already 12 weeks, and is 5 centimeters long! (if you remember, we had the miscarriage on September 15th, which means Erika got pregnant right at 2 weeks later)

There's a bunch more to say about all of that but I don't have time to write about it now. Later!

Ya Llegamos!

2010-12-10T20:47:00.000-06:00

So we're finally home in Mexico! We arrived on Monday afternoon, after praying about going in a day early. We had gotten to the border early enough to cross, so we prayed and felt it was alright with The Lord to go ahead and cross a day early. We had absolutely no problems getting across the border. They didn't tax us or give us any kind of hard time. There were police and Army patrols all the way from the border to Monterrey. Surprisingly, there were hundreds (literally) of folks in line for inspection at various checkpoints along the way, but we got waved on at each stop. Praise God!

We got to where we live (owned by Bro. Paul Deem of Directline Ministries) and found out our water pump that supplies water to the house had burned up. So, we assessed all the damage and went to visit family. We stayed with my mother in law for 3 nights while everything was getting fixed (the water pump, air tank, water leaks underneath the house) and finally stayed in our own bed last night, Dec 9th.

We also found out that someone stole some copper piping from the back. More work to do!

During the day, we've been keeping busy cleaning up the yard, the house, and trying to get everything fixed. It's been very tiring and VERY expensive! So far, we've had to replace almost $1,000 of "stuff" just to make the house livable. Who knows what it will cost to fix all of the stolen pipes from the back of the property, but surely God will provided.

We've been able to talk to our people and plan on making some good visits tomorrow. We still need to clean up the church building (the last hurricane did some damage) and get ready for services on Sunday.

I've also been busy giving out cases of Bibles and tracts to national pastors from the big city. There has been a dearth of them for about a year. Thankfully, God allowed us to bring 15 cases of tracts and 6 cases of Bibles.

We're trying to win the drug war by pointing people to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. We can't wait to be here permanently! There is such a need for evangelization here and the fields are truly ripe.

I found out that not only will my cell phone not work in Mexico, it won't even accept incoming voice mail messages. So, I could check my messages periodically, but my cell phone service provider will not let people leave voice mails. Email cclanier@gmail.com for anything!

Almost There!

2010-12-02T22:44:00.000-06:00

Only 5 more days until we get back home in Mexico! We have had a good trip so far. We have traveled from north central Ohio to south east Ohio, to Knoxville, TN and then to Harriman, TN. From Harriman we drove ALL day last Monday to Livingston, LA. We left when it was still dark (about 6:30am) and arrived at about 10:00pm. It was a long, grueling day. Dragging the trailer makes it so much slower and longer...but I do have to say that it's less stressful than driving fast and getting stuck behind people with trailers! From Livingston we left mid-morning to get to Spring, TX by that evening. Since we had been stuck in the van for several days, we decided to go to a mall close by the prophets chamber we were to stay at to walk around and relax. Ashley especially loved the kids play area.

After Spring, TX we met some friends in Houston for lunch, then drove to Helotes, TX (outside of San Antonio). The drive was especially long...we got stuck in rush hour traffic and arrived at the church at 6:30. It was a good thing we were shooting for 5:30! We had a great meeting there, and went to eat with some of the folks afterwards. The prophets chamber was very comfortable, but Ashley didn't let us sleep very well. We finally got moving in the late morning and just skipped breakfast, loaded up and drove into San Antonio after lunch.

We're staying in south-east San Antonio until Saturday morning. This afternoon I caught up on some paperwork and tried to catch up on some rest. We had supper at the Spaghetti Factory (gross) and then walked up and down the River Walk. That was pretty fun!

Tomorrow we're going to the Alamo (FREE!!) and maybe a wax museum. We'll see. Saturday we're back on the road to Killeen, TX for a meeting on Sunday morning. Sunday night we'll be at Capitol City Baptist Church in Austin, stay in town over night, then headed to the BORDER to stay overnight on Monday.

Tuesday is the big day! We can't wait.

Our support didn't increase this month. We were very disappointed, but trust The Lord to bring it to pass in His time. So, we'll do what we love for 6 weeks in Mexico and then continue on deputation in late January.

Pray for us, and for safety crossing the border and until we arrive home in Arteaga. God bless!

Flying the Coop

2010-11-27T20:19:00.000-06:00

We're officially on our way back to Mexico! We left yesterday (November 26th) from my parent's home in West Salem, OH and drove to Charleston, WV. On the way, we stopped at Bro. Paul Deem's warehouse to load up with Scriptures and Christmas Shoe Boxes of Joy. We completely filled the trailer, even a little bit over the maximum recommended weight. We're just driving slower! Today we drove from Charleston, WV to Knoxville, TN. We'll visit with our dear friends (practically family) at Knoxville Baptist Tabernacle in the morning, and then present our ministry with the good folks at Harriman Baptist Tabernacle tomorrow evening.

Then it's off to Livingston, LA to stay in a prophets chamber on Monday night, then to Spring, TX to stay in a prophets chamber there, then on Wednesday (December 1st) we'll present our ministry in Helotes, TX. We'll be "free" for the following 2 days, and we'll find some free stuff to do around San Antonio. We plan on going soul-winning in Killeen, TX on Saturday, December 4th, and then present our work there during the AM service the next day. That evening, we don't have any planned meeting so we may just stay in town and resist the temptation of just driving home to Mexico. We're still praying about it. We'll see!

Monday, December 6th we'll officially be headed to Mexico! We plan on staying at the border that evening and then crossing on Tuesday morning, to arrive home that afternoon. Talk about excited! There is so much to do, so much to get started and finished--it will be good to be home.

Please pray for our support to go up. That's all we want and need. We want to live, work, and be IN Mexico for good. Thanks for your interest and time! God bless you!

Ain't God Good

2010-11-23T22:04:00.000-06:00

It's been so busy but so great to serve God the last couple weeks. We've had great meetings, met great bunches of people, and just had a wonderful time on deputation. Last Sunday we visited a church in Beckley, WV for both services, and got invited back to present the work officially next spring.

Monday was another day on the road, but it was fine. Today I got up early to drive 4 hours away to pick up a trailer to fill up for Mexico, and then another 4 hours to get to our meeting for church tonight. It was a combination meeting--most importantly my sister Angie got baptized. We got to present our work and preach. It was a joyous time. The people from the church were so kind and everything went very well. God's so fantastic towards us!

Tomorrow will be a long errand running day. We need to get the trailer registered and renew the registration on the van, then go on a shopping spree for our trip to Mexico. It will be our last opportunity to stock up on the stuff the we either can't get or is too expensive in Mexico. Thursday is Thanksgiving, of course, and then we're back on the road on Friday.

Ain't God good?

How About an Update??

2010-11-16T22:50:00.001-06:00

Time's disappearing so fast! We've been on the go go go the last couple weeks, as usual. Never a dull moment! We finished our last Missions Conference for the year last week, and have been in south-east Ohio for a few days. We celebrated my 33rd birthday right before leaving Knoxville, TN, albeit a belated celebration. We had a good time, though, just the 3 of us. We ate at a nice restaurant while on the road to help Directline Ministries, with Bro. Paul Deem.

Last Sunday, we dropped in on a couple churches in Marietta, OH. Those went well and we hope we'll be able to schedule meetings with them after the new year. We've also been helping pick up, sort, organize and prepare "Christmas Shoe Boxes of Joy" for shipment. It's a great blessing to see the generosity of God's people as they get behind the ministry and go the extra mile to help out.

We were originally planning on going home to Madison, AL for the last service of revival, but we just won't be able to make it. Erika is not doing well with her health, and we would have to travel all day Thursday to get there, come right back where we are on Saturday, and then drive up to my parent's house in north-central Ohio on Monday the 22nd. It would just be too much. We hate not making it--it was our last opportunity to see our friends at our home-church before we go back to Mexico for 2 months. We'll make it back there, though, by early April 2011.

Feel free to check out our Itinerary, by clicking the link below on the right. I keep it pretty up to date and accurate.

We're still praying and praying for our support to go up substantially by the end of this month. We can't wait to "cash in" on some promises! It's always great to see those promises come to fruition, but we love it when we get support that we didn't know or expect was coming! Hopefully we'll get all of our regular support, some already promised support, and some that we had no idea about on December 1st. It would be great to be at least 75% before we get back to Mexico in 2 weeks.

It's hard to believe we've been on this last trip for 6 full months. We'll have been in exactly 50 different churches by the time we cross the border on December 7th. Probably a dozen of those churches weren't scheduled meetings, and a few of those were just fellowships or campmeetings. We presented our work in probably about 35 different churches, and several of those have already taken us on, and hopefully a few more will in the near future. It takes time!

God's been good to us. We've seen Him continue to answer specific prayers and always provide way above our needs. Please pray for Erika and her health. She's wore out and missing her family, and just can't wait to be home! Neither can I--it hurts to be here when we so want to just get started with our people in Mexico. It would be awesome if our support came up to 100% by January 1st!

"But until then..." we'll just keep on doing our best. Thank God for the opportunity! What a blessing to serve Him!

Work Work Work!

2010-11-01T12:19:00.000-05:00

I enjoy working. This last week, my dad helped me change the breaks on my car. This morning, we helped my dad's neighbor cut, load, and stack logs. I don't have the opportunity very often here in the States to do much of this kind of stuff, so I really enjoyed it. It was a good break from being on the phone, email, and desk!

We look forward to working with Paul Deem of Directline Ministry in a couple weeks. We're going to help him organizing "Christmas Shoe Boxes of Joy" to be sent all over the world, and doing some pickups for him. Other than that, we won't have much to do this month. We have a missions conference scheduled to begin this Friday in Knoxville, TN, and then another Sunday night meeting in Harriman, TN on November 28th. After that, we're headed back to Mexico for 7 weeks. We need to renew Erika's visa, check on our people and work, and prepare for our next trip (Washington state to Florida in two months).

We desperately need our support to come in. Thankfully, 'we've had 3 churches in as many weeks to take us on for support, but we need a bunch more that we've already been in to begin supporting us. Also, we need the churches we're going to be in during our next trip to take us on as well. Prayerfully all of this will come to pass!

Erika and Ashley are doing well. Erika's been busy sorting out all of our "stuff" to be packed for Mexico, and Ashley has been busy destroying it.

So we're not too busy this week, but we're busy enough. We're at the tail end of this trip. We can already taste the fresh Mexican food IN Mexico!

Latest Prayer Letter

2010-11-01T11:28:00.003-05:00

Our latest prayer can be read by clicking the link under "Prayer Letters" below. Enjoy!

Recapping Trip So Far

2010-10-27T22:16:00.000-05:00

We've been on the road now for 7 weeks and have driven 8,500 miles! We've almost completed this trip and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. We will be in the current missions conference until Sunday, then starting another Friday the 5th of November. We have a free Wednesday night on November 3rd, and hopefully we'll be able to attend a church with my newly saved sister.

There isn't that much new to talk about. This trip has been long but fruitful. Several churches that we've been in have either already taken us on for support or have promised support in the future. We'll find out how much our support has increased sometime either tomorrow or Friday.

Erika and Ashley are doing well. Ashley is a little sick with a cough still. Erika and I are just tired and looking forward to being back in Mexico in December.

So, as of right now we only have 2 more scheduled meetings before we return to Mexico. Hopefully, a few more will come through before then, but we do have plans to help Bro. Paul Deem with picking up the Christmas Shoe Boxes of Joy to ship to Mexico. Afterwards, we will hopefully be able to attend a couple nights of Madison Baptist's revival, and then be on our way to Mexico via a couple meetings in Knoxville.

We're still soaring in the clouds about my sister Angie getting saved. 17 years of prayer! 6 full months of daily, purposed begging of God for the last 6 months. God can and will!

So we'll keep on keepin' on. I'll update again when we get our month-end statement.

"Ministering" in Miami

2010-10-18T21:39:00.000-05:00

So it's been a couple weeks since my last post. So much has happened--we've been travelling and travelling so much. This has been such a good trip. Since our last post, we've driven a couple thousand more miles and been in 5 churches. One of those churches has already taken us on for monthly support, and we were promised from a couple others. We were even in a Spanish church in Dalton, GA and had a great time.

Most importantly is that my sister Angie has been travelling with us for a week and a half. At the last meeting of a missions conference we were in on last Sunday night, she accepted Christ as her Savior! I was the first saved in my family back in 1993, 17 years ago. Since, everyone in my immediate family has been saved, ending with Angie last night. Erika and I became more burdened for her last Spring and began praying earnestly for her everyday, begging God to work in her heart. Even up until Sunday night, she was adamant about being "okay" and not needing what we called "being saved." The Holy Spirit convicted her heart, though, and she gloriously received Christ!

We've been so privileged to see God work and save so many people in the last 14 months of deputation, but none was so special as my own sister. What a blessing!

Our support should be quite a bit up this next month. We're praying for 75% by Christmas, and it looks like we'll have it. Well, Erika is praying for 100% before Christmas...so maybe God will look over my lack of faith!

Ashley the Destroyer is talking and making a mess everywhere she goes. Thankfully, we're in one spot for a few days so she doesn't have to sit in the car seat buckled down tight.

Miami is a beautiful place. We just arrived this afternoon and started a missions conference that will last until Wednesday night. Thursday we plan on having a family day at the Everglades, then on to meetings in Riverview, Orlando, and then Tampa before heading up north on October 25th. What a lovely place, though. Miami is a great place with a bunch of great people. We've already enjoyed meeting the great people of Bible Baptist Church of Pembroke Pines, and look forward to "suffering" here a couple days longer in their missions conference.

STOP!!

2010-10-09T22:26:00.000-05:00

So, I've tweeked this blog a little. My idea is to get more web traffic, which has already worked. I want more traffic because I want to expose people to the Gospel. So, if you're reading this STOP and look around--watch the video towards the bottom of the page. Send me an email if you have a question or comment! cclanier@gmail.com

Account Paid in FULL!

2010-10-06T12:28:00.000-05:00

We're rejoicing that we financially qualified for a 100% reduction for our medical bill! Finally, a "normal" person gets benefits normally reserved for "everyone else." Thank you US Taxpayers! $4000.00 paid for by every US citizen's hard-earned money.

What a blessing. We really didn't mind paying some of the bill, but really prayed God would take care of all of it. So, we prayed knowing that no matter what, God would provide.

It's a good thing, too. They really didn't do anything for us--I mentioned I would write more about our experience later. So, very briefly, we didn't feel we received the care we needed. We found out all too late that here in the US, most hospitals and doctors do NOT treat a pregnancy/unborn baby as viable life. Consequently, they did nothing to save our baby. We sat for nearly 4 hours as Erika was bleeding profusely and having contractions. The head nurse and then the attending doctor told us that this was nature's way of expelling "it" and that there was nothing they could do. In reality, there was nothing that they wanted to do, because our baby was a "thing" to them that was better off ripped out with forceps. When I told them and pleaded with them that there were medicines that would help, which made Ashley possible, they informed us that they don't do that until the "thing" is a viable life, which they defined as at least 16 weeks, usually 20. So, all they did was a blood test to have a control for a beta level, removed the baby with forceps, and then did an ultrasound to make sure there wasn't another "thing" inside to remove. I found out later that they are supposed to do the ultrasound first to see if there is a heartbeat, before poking and prodding around.

We went to the hospital so they could save our baby, but they didn't do it. It was all in God's hands, though. We're so excited that we have 2 babies in Heaven and not at all angry or bitter with the hospital.

God allowed it to happen and we really are joyful about it. We know now, however, not to go to the hospital again. We've done some research about natural "stuff" we can get so we look forward to using it next time.

Praise God He provided the $$ for the bill!

Coincidence? I think NOT!

2010-10-03T21:41:00.000-05:00

We had a great day today. We started by getting up early to re-visit a church about an hour away. We got there and the Pastor met us out in the auditorium, obviously shaken and surprised. Then he told us that he had just been thinking about us, as he had just read our prayer letter and had prayed for us just a few minutes earlier! We had a great time there at Berlin Heights Baptist Church, Pastor Cotterill. How neat! We had a great lunch afterwards in the pastor's home and then came back to my parent's house to get a quick nap.

It WAS a quick nap--we got back up after just a few minutes to head out to re-visit another church about an hour away. When we pulled in, I saw a familiar van and I told Erika I thought it was a friend of ours, Bro. Paul Deem. We went inside and sure enough, they were there! They are dear friends of ours, and they are the family that is allowing us to use their property in Mexico to start our work. We had no idea that they were going to be there at Columbia Road Baptist Church, but we were so happy to see them. Pastor Jenkins also formally invited us to their missions conference coming up in a few weeks, too! What a blessing! After church Bro. Paul, his wife, and all 3 of us Lanier's went to eat and had a great time catching up in good fellowship.

So, two "coincidental" happenings in one day. Thank God He's in charge!

Round Two, FIGHT!

2010-10-02T17:58:00.001-05:00

We've finished our first leg of this trip. Well, kind of. We have 2 more meetings up north here and then we're down south for the rest of October.

Our meeting on Wednesday went awesome. Roanoke Baptist Church and Pastor Tarr were such blessings to us. We enjoyed a great time in chapel--the students' hearts were so tender and there was such a sweet spirit. They filled the altar during the invitation--a credit to their spirituality and that of their godly pastor. After chapel, we went to eat and then soul-winning. We got back just in time for the evening service, which went (somehow) better than chapel. I got to preach and again, the altar was full. We rested that night at the pastor's home, and got back to my parent's house on Thursday afternoon.

Tomorrow (Sunday, October 3rd) we're going to visit a couple churches that we've already presented our work in. I'm going to be back on the phone on Monday and Tuesday, then we start a missions conference in Clyde, OH.

Everyone in the family is healthy. Erika is feeling great, no cramps or bleeding. Ashley's little mouth is all better. I'm still fat and bald and feeling great!

Poor Baby!

2010-09-28T19:26:00.001-05:00

So Ashley has a sore mouth. She has just enough of an overbite that she can bite her upper jaw, just behind her front teeth. It wouldn't be so terribly bad, but she has been aggravating it with her fingers, making her entire mouth a huge raw mess. We've been putting baby orajel on it and giving her baby tylenol, but it has just been getting worse. She's been so horribly cranky, too...no sleep, no food...just plain miserable.

Finally, I decided our methods must be flawed. It's day # 4 with no reprieve in site, so I went to CVS to get some antibiotics for her mouth. The only thing is here in the States, you can't get antibiotics over the counter. Unlike Mexico, where they give you what you need (to be continued in some other post), you have to get a prescription, bla bla bla, pay more money, bla bla bla, go broke just trying to keep your family healthy yada yada yada. So, I made a plan. I wanted to get an edge on whatever infection she may have, get rid of the pain, and start the healing process.

What was the culmination of that plan scared my wife, let alone poor Ashley. I got some adult ambesol, some canker sore treatment, some tiny toothbrushes, and peroxide. When I got it all in order, I started with using a q-tip and the ambesol to numb the area. Then, the tiny toothbrush with baby toothpaste, scrubbing all of the accumulated "stuff" off and away. Then, I used the other side of the q-tip to put peroxide all over the area. Finally, it was time for the canker sore medicine to coat and re-numb the area. Ashley really loved it! RIGHT. She screamed like we were killing her for about 5 minutes, even after we stopped "helping" her.

When it was all over (but the crying) Ashley fell asleep for about an hour, the first complete hour since last Friday night. Consequently, Erika and I got a full hour of un-interrupted sleep too! As Ashley woke up, she screamed for a few minutes and I thought maybe it didn't work, but she soon calmed down and was ready to eat, again for the first time in days. She had eaten a bit here and there, but not a complete meal since Saturday lunch time.

Now, it's just keeping her mouth clean and her fingers out. Nothing but cold food, either. She's been awake now for 2 complete hours without acting like she's being tortured, so we're going to claim the victory on this one. We had to hurt her pretty bad to help her, but it was worth it because now she's so happy. Until tonight when we put the ambesol back on, and give her another dose of tylenol. :)

GLORY to His Name!

2010-09-26T20:51:00.001-05:00

The Lanier family has truly been blessed yet again! We went up to Chicago on Friday and had a blast. We started by getting to the church on the north-east side a few hours early to beat the rush hour, and just walking along the lake. There was a little park nearby so we were able to play with Ashley for a while too. We had a small supper and finally had church that evening with a very ethnically diverse group of people. I preached and we had a great time. I preached too fast, though, as far as my talking-speed was concerned. Many of the people don't speak any English and needed a translator, but I just couldn't get on the same page. It was my lack of ability, but God still worked in the invitation. Afterwards, we ate at a church-members house. They cooked a fabulous meal--we ate and ate. It was Burmese food, I think! We drove up to Wisconsin (almost 2 hours) that night to sleep at a farm. On Saturday, the folks from Chicago came up to the farm for a family day of shooting, fishing, and horse-back riding. We had some more AWESOME food again, but I don't remember which "ethnicity" it was. We went visiting afterwards, and we met a lot of good people from all over the world. We went to a Pakistani restaurant to eat that night and I loved it. Erika was a bit leary, so I ate for her too!

Sunday was a FAST day. We rushed out of the hotel to get to church on time (it was an hour away, in heavy traffic) and Erika and I did SS for everyone. We showed our DVD, then gave testimonies, and Erika spent a while giving the testimony about how we met and then got married. She spoke in Spanish and I translated, then all of the other translators. If I remember correctly, there were 6 different languages represented and translated into! The good pastor preached the morning service. During the service, the pastor had asked my wife beforehand to counsel with one of the Spanish ladies, and the lady received Christ outside where we met. GLORY!

RIGHT after the service, we packed up and sped south to Indianapolis for our evening meeting. We made it about 45 minutes early and it turned out perfect. We set up and got to meet the people coming in. Everyone was so kind and friendly. The pastor really is doing a great job and his people are too. They had only guitars for the song service and it reminded me so much of Mexico. I preached and afterwards the altar was filled and one lady got born again. God's so good...we are always amazed. After the service we had a marshmallow and hotdog roast. It was a great time of food, fun, and fellowship.

Tomorrow is a little while on the phone for me, and then we're all heading to the Zoo. The pastor tonight offered to treat us to tickets there, and we eagerly agreed!

Erika Update:
She's doing very well. By Wednesday we'll know for sure she's out of any danger of infection and positively will NOT require a D&C.

TRIP UPDATE:
3,500 miles to go and we've only been on the road for 3 weeks, with 5 weeks to go (including going from northern-Ohio to southeastern-Florida)
2 Saved! (and many serious decisions about being a witness for Christ)
8 church visits, with promises of support from 6
11 more churches to go, including 5 missions conferences

Praise The LORD!

Maxin' and Relaxin' :)

2010-09-23T21:15:00.000-05:00

Sorry, the title's an old army saying for when you're just enjoying yourself. It usually held a negative connotation, though--to imply that you should actually be doing something productive.

Thank God I'm not in the Army anymore. We arrived in Indianapolis, IN on Wednesday afternoon. We are staying in an awesome prophet's chamber at Charity Baptist Church. It's more like a house and it is exactly what we needed. It's very private, outside the city, and within minutes Walmart and a Starbucks. The pastor was very kind to us and even invited us to present our work on Sunday night. What a blessing! This is a great work, here. The younger-aged Pastor has a great vision which is so obvious. He has been out visiting each day lately and their schedule is full of activities, all geared towards building up the inside and reaching to the outside. It's been a breath of fresh air to be around.

Our meeting went very well last night. The pastor promised support to us and we look forward to receiving it very soon. The church was very friendly and full of good questions for us. We met a few Hispanics, too, and I was able to practice up on my Spanish.

Today we ran errands and passed out tracts most of the day. We took a "family nap" this afternoon, even! The church property has a little playground on it, so while Erika did laundry I played with Ashley the Destroyer out there. Erika came out a few times too and took some pictures.

Tomorrow we're off to an awesome sounding church in Chicago, IL. We'll spend the evening in church, then drive 2 hours away to a farm in Wisconsin. We'll stay there all day on Saturday for a church family day, riding horses and fishing, and again "maxin' and relaxin," and then be in that same church on Sunday morning.

We have really needed this little rest. I only made a few calls today and I need to make a couple more tomorrow, but I really have needed just to spend time with my family. Erika is doing fabulous and is recovering well. She scared me last Tuesday night, telling me she felt "cold inside," but that soon passed after we prayed. That "cold inside" feeling is a classic symptom of an infection, and means you'll have to have a D&C. Thankfully, God worked it out. We're still praying, though--and will be praying for one more week that we won't need the surgery. After that we'll declare her "all clear" and give God the glory!

The Hope of China, Taiwan, Ghana, & Denmark is Christ!

2010-09-21T23:16:00.001-05:00

I have been burdened/convicted about keeping this blog pointed in the right direction. I want to be positive and honest, and definitely always to remember that it's wide-open for public review. A few weeks ago, I found out that you can check your blog's "stats" and find out all of your blog's visitors information, down to their country. I've discovered it's not infallible, but you can get a general idea of which countries in the world are reading something off of your blog.

So, to that end, I've discovered that our little blog gets hits from all over the world, from Mexico to Taiwan, and a few places in between. Big countries like Russia and little countries like Denmark have had visitors to my website. What a blessing! As I was sharing this bit of info with my wife, I told her we wouldn't ever have a chance to be in all of these different countries, but these dear people are visiting our website and I have the chance to introduce them to Jesus Christ. I'm no 'Internet Evangelist," but I can see the use of the internet as a positive medium to share the Gospel with folks I may never meet. I don't go to chat rooms, I don't do any kind of instant messaging (I think most of all that is wicked, if not 100%) but I do think we need to take a hold on the opportunities we have to sow seeds among the heathen.

That being said, each communist or closed country in the world should be able to get on the internet and find Jesus Christ preached in the right manner. It's their only hope to hear the Gospel, if some good Gospel preaching missionary can't get to their country.

So, if you're from one of those countries that missionaries can't get into, or if you aren't, be saved. Yes, ye must be born again! Your sins have separated you from God and you'll burn in hell for all eternity to pay for them unless you repent and put your faith in the Gospel. You can't be a good enough person, you can't earn your way, and religion will not save you. Jesus is the only way, believe Him. God's Word is 100% true. There is hope in Christ!

I hope some of these people from these other countries that have visited can hear a good, audible Gospel presentation. If not, I hope these dear visitors to our website can be sensible enough to email to ask "what must I do to be saved?"

Please continue to pray for the peace of Mexico, Jerusalem, and the rest of the world. While you pray for peace for them, pray they would accept The GOD of Peace. Pray for laborers into the harvest!

Prayer Request

2010-09-21T23:01:00.000-05:00

Please remember Erika if you don't mind. We're praying she won't have to have a D&C. Specifically ask God for that, please.

I Feel Like Travelin' On!

2010-09-21T23:00:00.000-05:00

So we've had a great time the last few days. We arrived at home with my parents on last Friday afternoon and have enjoyed being with family. We rested all day on Friday so that Erika would be well enough for church on Sunday. Sunday, we went to one of our favorite supporting churches, Emmanuel Baptist Church in Ashland, OH. It's a small church that loves God and for whatever reason loves us. They took up a penny offering for us during their VBS last August, so we stopped in to give them a thank you card in person. The pastor had me to preach and they even gave us another outstanding love offering. We went to eat Mexican food afterwards, and then made plans to be with them again on Sunday night. Their church is only about 20 minutes away, and money has been kind of tight anyway--so we decided to stay close to home.

Monday was another "trip planning" day. I'm making plans to start cold-calling in Virginia. I spent the entire day getting a list together to start calling on Thursday. That night, we went to the Global Independent Baptist Fellowship meeting at Cleveland Baptist Church in Cleveland, OH. What a good night of godly music and preaching! We ran into several old friends and made some new ones. We went back tonight as well and saw some more old friends and made some more new ones! Ain't God Good.

Tomorrow we're off to Indianapolis. We've got a meeting in Greenwood tomorrow night, Chicago on Friday and Sunday morning, and nothing on the calendar yet for Sunday night (a great pastor just emailed me a list to see if I can drum up something on short notice). We're looking forward to these meetings, and then another in Roanoke, Indiana a week from this Sunday. As always, we're praying each church we get into will take us on for monthly support.

Our "miles driven" since the 4th of September (the beginning of this trip) is now 2,500. 2 1/2 weeks down, and 6 to go! Praise God for safety!

Believe The Gospel to be Saved from Hell

2010-09-18T14:54:00.005-05:00

The Gospel of Jesus Christ from Way of Life on Vimeo.

Miscarriage Comforts

2010-09-17T21:57:00.000-05:00

This is the second miscarriage that we have gone through. The first happened just less than 2 months after Erika and I were married. After the miscarriage was a multitude of other problems which ended up spiraling almost out of control, until The Lord in His infinite mercy said "that's enough" and gave us a reprieve. For either of us, it was the worst thing to ever happen and being newlyweds, we were devastated. However, just when we knew we couldn't go further, God's Comforter came down and met with us, dried up our tears and gave us the grace and strength to go on for Him.

This second one was full of grace from the beginning. We had peace and comfort moment by moment. We cried and prayed, prayed and cried, but always knew God knew all about it. We want to testify of just how God truly is good.

The following verses have been of a great help.

Psalm 139:16
“Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect;”
Jeremiah 1:5
“Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee”
Psalm 139:16
"Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect"
2 Samuel 12:23
“…I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”

God formed our baby and allowed us 2 weeks with him. We didn't know him but we loved him, and look forward to meeting him in Heaven. We are so glad God gave us those 2 weeks and we have no regrets.

Thank you to all of you that have prayed for us.

Baby News #2

2010-09-16T12:35:00.000-05:00

Mournfully, we had a miscarriage last night, September 15th. Erika had just a bit of spotting at 4:30, but then within an hour she had severe cramping and then bleeding. We rushed to the ER and after a cervical exam proved her cervix to already be open about 5 hours later, they went ahead and pulled the baby out, already gone on to Glory. They performed an ultrasound afterwards to make sure there wasn't something else in the uterus, gave us the "good" test results, and then sent us on our way.

We are rejoicing in God's goodness to us and are proud to be under His control. His grace is sufficient.

Please pray for a couple things.

#1, that Erika would heal 100% (including physically, emotionally, spiritually).
#2, that God would continue to work through this and our family for His glory
#3, that we would have the necessary funds to cover the emergency room visit

We will be traveling up to Ohio as we continue on deputation when Erika feels up to it. We will be with family there as we have meetings in and around the area as well, praise The Lord.

Baby News

2010-09-10T22:15:00.000-05:00

So it's day # 7 and we're still hanging on! What a great week it's been. We've travelled about 1,100 miles with 300 more to go tomorrow. We've been privileged to be in 4 churches. God's been so good in taking care of us, providing for us, meeting all of our needs and just been "real." As far as new meetings are concerned, God's seen fit to allow us to schedule several meetings this week. I was also able to get a "housing/staying/living arrangements" plan together for our trip to Wisconsin next June. God's so good!

Our appointment at the Pregnancy Resource Clinic here in Evansville, IN went wonderful. We were able to get the approximate due date, May 12th 2011. They told us everything looked good and healthy, but we weren't able to hear the heart beat yet. We'll have to wait at least 3 weeks for that, but we may wait longer so as to not have another ultrasound so soon. Time will tell! They weren't able to either confirm or deny the existence of twins, either. Only God knows!

We finished up our meeting with Landmark Baptist Church tonight, in their annual missions conference. We were so encouraged and blessed by the dear people of the church. They took such good care of us and we truly enjoyed their fellowship and encouragement. We love them and are praying their Faith Promise comes in so well that they'll be able to support us monthly.

We're still praying in that regard for about 20 churches to take us on for an average of $50 apiece. That will put us right at 100% of our monthly goal. God can!

So we're off to the great state of Mississippi tomorrow. We plan on going soul winning first thing and leaving out on the 5 hour drive afterwards. We are very excited about being in our first meeting in MS! Their Missions Conference starts on Sunday morning and we'll be there for the duration, until Wednesday night.

And we're off again!

Day 6 Already (?)

2010-09-09T15:51:00.000-05:00

Wow, this trip is already flying by. We left on Saturday and were in 2 great churches in South Carolina on Sunday, and at Knoxville Baptist Tabernacle on Monday thru Wednesday morning. We really enjoyed being at the Tabernacle again and seeing old friends. I got to preach 3 times and go soul-winning while there.

Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Evansville, IN to start a missions conference. We got in a couple hours early and were able to get rested and ready for the evening service. We had a great meal before hand and a great service! We made a supply run to Walmart afterwards and came back to the hotel and went to bed.

On our way from Knoxville to Evansville, though, we realized I had left my Bible at the church in Knoxville. The good pastor assured me he would mail it to me right away...I hope it gets here by tomorrow afternoon! The worst would be if it gets here Saturday after we leave, and has to be mailed again to our next destination in Mississippi!

While on a family walk today, we noticed a "Pregnancy Resource Clinic" so we stopped in to see what it was all about. As we suspected, they're just like "Choose Life" that we know and love. We told them we'd like to find out about the exact age and due date of the new baby, so they're going to squeeze us in tomorrow. It's so exciting! I really hope there's at least twins in there, if not triplets. Erika's not too keen on the whole idea, but we'll find out tomorrow!

I found out recently that I can check how many times this blog is viewed, and from the general country location it is viewed from as well. Awesome! I found out that we've had visitors from here in the US, in Mexico, Candada, Russia and Ghana, West Africa. How neat is that?

If you've happened to drop by here, shoot me an email and let me know. What a blessing!

Lanier # 4!!

2010-09-05T21:08:00.002-05:00

Yep, you read it right! What does it mean? It means we're having another baby!

It's all way too soon to know much. We calculate that the baby is about 2 weeks "old." Erika gave me the "proof" on Thursday and I've been waiting for her to want to start telling folks. We skype'd my parents right away and told them, and I told my pastor on Saturday morning, but Erika wanted to kind of keep it quiet for a while "in case something happens." We talked about it a few times and started announcing it to the world this morning at our first meeting of the trip.

I hope it's twins--one boy and one girl. Erika wants a boy. It's funny--Erika didn't have any morning sickness until Friday, the day after she took the test and showed me the "positive." It was good timing on her part because if I had heard her hacking and gagging I would have taken her immediately to get a test. She's got morning sickness pretty bad; twice as bad as with Ashley. So, it's gotta be twins! :)

I do want to add that we prayed that our second baby would be exactly two years younger than Ashley, when born. God saw fit to answer, very specifically and positively. Again, by our calculations, the baby will be born in the middle/end of May.

SO excited. We can't wait. What a great way to start this trip!

Aaaaaannnd....OFF We Go!

2010-09-03T21:57:00.001-05:00

Well it's been a pretty productive week. We've scheduled a few meetings and made quite a few contacts to follow up on next week. Our little break did us well. We needed some extra time to make a new display, new prayer cards, and "visit" our home church.

Our support this last month was really good. We picked up one more church! Our total support is almost 65% now, and there shouldn't be much excuse for it to not be closer to about 80% by 2011. We are still waiting on 2 churches that have promised to start sending too. We are very excited about how God is providing.

But we're back on the road tomorrow! We're headed off to South Carolina tomorrow, and from there to Knoxville for a couple days, enroute to a missions conference in Indiana. Then, to a missions conference back down in Mississippi. From there, it's up north to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, back in Indiana, then back to Ohio, and finally back south to Georgia for a meeting on the 13th of October. We may or may not stop by our hosts in Alabama around then, but either yes or no we'll need to head to LA (Lower Alabama) for a missions conference on the 16th, finishing there on the 17th, and driving overnight to get to another missions conference in Miami, FL starting on the 18th. After Miami, we have several meetings in Florida, and then WHAM. NOTHING after October 31st until November 28th.

Yep, that's a bunch of missions conferences to look forward to. A total of 6, with a couple meetings which are part of a "Missions Emphasis" month (a total of 2). It would be so great if each of these churches took us on for support. We are praying for 19 more, that average $50 apiece.

So, it's a two month trip, with a geographical range from Chicago, IL to LA (again, Lower Alabama), down/over to Miami, FL to the top right of the trip in Cleveland, OH. To drive a big circle between the 4 corners would be about 3,500 miles, but we're going back and forth quite between states, so it will probably be closer to 6,500 by the time we finish after nearly 2 months of traveling.

I put new tires on the van today to prepare. I forgot I needed an oil change, but it can wait until Knoxville. I need to meet with Pastor Allison tomorrow morning, pick up some dry-cleaning, load up the van and we'll hopefully be on the road right after lunch. We're in no hurry, but there's a great Mexican restaurant we HAVE to go to when we get to where we're going tomorrow evening.

Happy trails to us!

Latest Prayer Letter

2010-09-02T14:20:00.000-05:00

The July/August Prayer letter is now uploaded and viewable. Look below for "Prayer Letters" and you'll see it at the top of the list.

Pray for the Peace of Mexico

2010-09-01T22:53:00.000-05:00

The last few weeks have been rife with negative news from Mexico. I have taken a pretty harsh and critical stand against most everything that is publicized--knowing that each news agency has an agenda. Even the "shock factor" of spreading the tales of decapitation and torture attracts so much attention.

Yes, I have been in denial. There is, however, real danger in Mexico, and some seemingly much closer than we had previously thought. We used to downplay the atrocities by telling folks that the problems are all up by Juarez. Now, we have the story of 72 people tortured to death on the east side of Mexico, and a mayor of a town less than an hour away killed in a shootout.

I spoke with a man from the US Consulate in Monterrey today and he implied that most of the problems that we or anyone else "normal" would have is while traveling between the border and Monterrey. He mentioned to me that the drug cartels have set up road blocks on the toll roads and regular roads to and from Monterrey, and even inside of Monterrey. The gangsters detain to steal money and cars, and create havoc. They spread fear and terrorize all walks of life. Their "motto" is that maybe you don't have money, but you probably have friends that do.

For balance, I also spoke with a veteran missionary that lives in our little town of Arteaga. His work is up higher in the mountains. He told me that if the gangs wanted an American, they would know where to find him. They have called and threatened him, painted graffiti on his church, and driven slowly by his house. Perhaps his time is coming, as I "joked" with him, but he says that it's just a bunch of cowardly kids. The man from the consulate said the same thing, commenting to me that many are not really who they say they are, but think they can squeeze some money out of folks by saying they are the "Zetas" gang. He's not afraid, and not planning on leaving where God has called him.

While speaking with another missionary to Mexico, I made the comment that I would feel safer at our work in Mexico than I would in somewhere like Detroit, MI. I've been stopped by people there while driving, walking, and trying to park. I've never felt more afraid for my family than when a maniac jumped out in front of us while we were driving down the street and screamed at me to stop and let him by. I let him go, and don't you know the same whacko asked me for money after I parked.

So, what to do. The only hope for Mexico (and the US & World) is Christ. We're determined to reach Mexico for Christ with the Gospel, and to trust God to turn the entire country "upside down." We'll do our part and The Lord do His part. We're going to take precautions, just like we do while we're out soul-winning in the projects in the States. We're going to do our best to be wise, but not afraid to share the Gospel with the dear people God has called us to reach.

We think of what the greatest missionary in history would do in our situation. The Apostle Paul, I don't think, would let fear of danger prevent him from going where God told him to go or from doing what God told him to do. On the contrary, he seems to have run right where the worst problems would be to give them the opportunity to be saved.

The Lanier family, missionaries to Mexico will go to Mexico. We will do our best to bring salvation closer to the wicked. What hope can they have outside "What" sets men free? The government has failed them, religion has failed them, their military has failed them, and their police force has failed them. Christ can and will set them free.

God help us to be faithful.

Pressing On

2010-08-30T20:41:00.000-05:00

We have really enjoyed getting some rest this last week. Not having meetings is not our first choice, but it's been good for our little family to take a break. We would normally drop in on non-supporting churches and try to make contacts for future meetings, but we really felt we should just get charged up and ready for our next road trip. So, we've been attending services at our home church. It's been great and wonderfully refreshing.

Last Saturday we spent most of the day out and about. We stayed a couple hours at a park, where walked around, sat around, dangled our feet in the water and let the fish bite us, and just relaxed. It was great to be somewhere and nowhere at the same time, with definitely no worries about time and schedule.

Sunday was such a good, refreshing day. We so enjoyed being at home with our friends.

Today was a day of follow-ups, cold calling, and final work on our prayer letter. I had to "purge" the old distribution list. There were churches on there that I don't even remember anymore. I had to add a bunch of new churches as well. We've booked so many meetings in the last 2 months that it took me a while to get all of them added to the list. I am holding off on the the new churches that I won't be in until the spring of 2011. I spent a good chunk of time getting the necessary work done and I didn't have time enough to add the churches we won't be in for nearly a year. That will wait until the next prayer letter!

I was able to make some good contacts today, and scheduled one meeting in Texas. Praise The Lord!

Tomorrow will be mostly follow-ups in Wisconsin and Texas.

Tonight or tomorrow, we'll find out how our support is coming. We aren't expecting too much as far as new support, but it would be wonderful to be surprised!

We're also getting ready to get ready to be on the road on Saturday. Sometimes, we have to really motivate ourselves to get going. This next trip is going to be so long that it takes a bit more planning. For example, we'll be gone for nearly 2 months, and by then the weather will be changing. So, we pretty much have to pack everything in order to be ready for anything.

Ashley is continuing to improve in her sleeping and eating habits. It's been difficult on all 3 of us, but keeping her on a tight schedule is working very well. I put her to sleep just a few minutes ago and she'll be ready to wake up in just a little while to eat her 2nd supper!

All in a days work!

Items of Prayer

2010-08-26T11:19:00.000-05:00

We have a great opportunity when we pray to our God. My family and I pray, sing, and study together each day and it's a blessing to know that our Lord likes that.

When thinking of what to pray for, we pray for people, different circumstances, goals and visions. We pray for others, of course, and various ministries. We pray for laborers for His harvest, both in Mexico and across the world. Then we thank Him for what He's going to do, by faith.

We are specifically praying for Bro. Paul Deem of Directline Ministry (www.directlineministry.com). It is a missionary helps ministry, providing Bibles, materials, and equipment to missionaries all over the world. Recently, he sent an entire container stuffed with food, medical equipment, miscellaneous "stuff" and plenty of Scriptures to a missionary in Haiti to help with quake relief. This man has dedicated his life to being a blessing to others. Each year, he sends "Christmas Joy in a Shoe Box" packages all over Mexico and the world. Hundreds of churches, youth groups, and Christian schools all from around the US participate in this wonderful avenue of getting the Gospel to needy people.

We also specifically pray for Bro. Allen Johnson of Wings Bearing Prescious Seed (www.wingsbearingpreciousseed.org). This man and ministry ships our Bibles and tracts to us in Mexico, free of charge. He also sends the same types of material all over the world to independent, fundamental baptist missionaries. He recently took a trip to South Africa to make a difference for Jesus Christ during the World Cup. He not only sends the stuff, he distributes it personally as he does his part in winning people to The Lord.

Thirdly, we pray for the Bible and Literature Foundation (www.biblelit.org) who prints our Spanish Bibles. They also print our tracts. This ministry is beneficial to missionaries all over the world, and has been for years and years. They have a godly heritage starting with Bro. Lemmon Sr, now Jr, and Bro. Shannon as he prepares to follow his dad and grandfather. This is a solid, fundamental group that enables us missionaries to fight the battle by fashioning our weapons for us. I can't imagine being a missionary without good folks like these putting our supplies together! Literally thousands of souls have been reached because of their hard work and dedication in Shelbyville, TN.

Lastly, we spend time in prayer each day for our home church, Madison Baptist Church (www.madisonbaptist.com) in Madison, AL. Pastor Mike Allison is our wonderful, godly pastor. MBC supports scores of missionaries around the world, including 25 families from within. All of these missionaries are soul-winners, Bible believers (KJB), and are fundamental in their doctrine. You won't find their wives dressing immodestly, their kids going to the theatre, and you won't catch them listening to some flavor of contemporary "Christian" music. These missionaries are fighting the good fight all over the world, from South Korea, to South Africa, to South America, here in the US and our neighbors in Mexico, and even an Hispanic family in Burkina Faso (this guy came to the US for the American dream, learned the culture, customs, got saved, and is now in a French speaking country in Africa!). The Lord has truly blessed MBC because of their sacrificial giving and going to reach souls across the world with the Gospel. We beseech God to protect Pastor Allison and the people, and to provide everything necessary to continue to be a lighthouse across the world.

Of course, we pray for others and other things. We pray each day for each church and individual that supports us. We pray for our people in Mexico. We pray for lost family members we share on both sides of the border. There's a list of different families we specifically pray for each day. We spend a few minutes each day begging God for more meetings and more support.

The point is this. We pray and God works. Not because we're special, but because HE is special. He's the ONLY God that hears and answers prayers. Just the other day, we were praying about a specific burden we had and that God would give us relief. We were broken and weeping, both my wife and I tearfully asking God to give us wisdom, character to use it, and to resolve the problem. AS we were talking to the Lord about it, He answered. He not only answered, but He fixed the problem in a miraculous way right then.

Perhaps you are reading this as a Pastor. If so, pray about supporting these fine ministries. If not, pray specifically for them. Perhaps you are a friend or a casual onlooker that stumbled here while cruising the internet. You could join us in prayer. What a privilege, honor and DUTY we have to commune daily with The Father.

Hallelujah!

Taking a "Break"

2010-08-25T22:19:00.002-05:00

It's been good to be without meetings to run off to this week. I hate to admit it--we need meetings and we need love offerings and we need new prayer help and we need monthly financial support; but it's been good for us to be "still" for the last week.

We've booked quite a few meetings in the last week, all over the country and all over the schedule. I booked a meeting today for June, 2015. It's hard to imagine that far away...we'll be on our first furlough!

I've also been catching up with what I call "trip planning." Along with booking meetings, I always book prophets chambers and plan each day of each trip (where to stay, having a meal with pastors in the area for future meetings, etc). It can be rather confusing. For example, today I called to try to book meetings in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. Most of these calls were follow-ups that have been mounting, but a few were still cold calls. Along with planning when I'm going to be there, adjusting to pastor's schedules when possible (sometimes, we just can't get the schedules to line up because of travel times or various conflicts). Then, once I get meetings figured out, I have to then plan the logistics of the trip, which sometimes includes booking meetings to help with expenses on the way. So, I did this today for our trip to Indiana/Illinois, and for our trip to Mexico in December. It takes hours and has got to be right and practical--very meticulous--but it is worth it.

We're getting ready for an extended road trip and only The Lord can work out the details--sometimes I confess to Him in prayer that I'm too dumb to know what I don't know. There are so many things I'm sure I don't think of, so we just pray God would fill in the blanks.

One thing that bothers me, and I confess as a weakness, is when I schedule a meeting and then go through the planning process just to have the meeting cancelled. This happened to us some time ago. We traveled 7 HOURS to a church, and the pastor called while we were on the way to cancel. I had already scheduled a stay in a prophets chamber in a different church to save the 1st church money, and was looking forward to meeting them. So, we drove all that way for absolutely nothing. 7 hours, no meetings (just visits) and no love offerings/support. This sounds almost not too bad, but the pastor rescheduled the meeting for a different date. All was well until I got a call, and it was him calling to cancel, again (shame on me!). I had planned the trip again, so we're going to drive 7 hours again for nothing. This time, I had told a pastor in the area that we would be in his area and be happy just to visit. "Don't worry, we're already going to be in the area, we're going to stay in a prophets chamber, don't even worry about a love offering." THAT, dear friend, is why many missionaries quit before they get to the field. It's sometimes very discouraging (or at least aggravating!) planning meetings and trips. Add to that just the stress of keeping it all straight on paper and in mind. One minute you're calling one time zone about a meeting in 6 months, and the next getting a call in Spanish for a meeting in a totally different time zone, for a meeting in 6 weeks. All while you're actually working a plan for getting a water line fixed in Mexico which is supposedly leaking like a fire hydrant.

So, with all that in the back of my head, we're preparing for a big trip coming up the first week of September. We'll be gone with no certain dwelling place for 9 weeks (about 20 churches). As a credit to God's goodness, we won't have to spend a dime on hotels because He's helped me to find prophets chambers along the way. Right after this trip, we'll be preparing to return to Mexico, which I already have planned as well, including places to stay. Hallelujah to God that all of the prophets chambers we'll be staying in belong to 100% fundamental baptist churches. After a two month stint at home in Mexico, it's on the road to Washington state. Yes, of course meetings on the way up, the way back, and a bunch there. From Washington state, we travel back down "south" to Texas/Oklahoma, then real "south" to Florida. That trip will be a whole lot of fun...thousands of miles, thousands of dollars, and hopefully thousands of $$ in new support! That particular trip will be 8 weeks long, and we'll present the work in about 25 churches.

All to get back to Mexico...that's what we keep telling ourselves. Not only will it be worth in all when we see Christ, it will be worth it all when we are in Mexico for our first full term as church planting missionaries.

So, this is how our "break" is going. One more week and then we "get busy." Tomorrow will be another day of follow-ups and only a few "cold calls" to fill in a couple blank areas (but in areas where we're already going to be). I'm still working Wisconsin. I have one meeting scheduled for June 2011, one for June 2015, one for August 2011 (if we're still on deputation...) and one open meeting for whenever we get in the area.

I honestly don't know how some folks drag their deputation out into 4-5 years. We've been on deputation full time from the start, for just 13 months. We're at 60% of our support and looking forward to miraculous things to happen in the next few months. We're praying for 20 more churches to take us on for support for $50 a month. That will give 100% of our monthly goal.

So, I'll quit ranting. I'll be more light-hearted in my next post, promise! :)

Workin!

2010-08-19T23:32:00.001-05:00

We had a an uneventful trip down to our meeting last night. The "interesting" stuff happened after we got there! We got to the church just before 5:00pm, as planned. Then, as planned, we went to eat supper. We found a great barbeque place (Hooks BBQ, Andalusia, AL) and relaxed for a few minutes before we had to get to the church, which we had planned to be right after 6:00pm. After we ate, we got our clothes to change into and went to the bathrooms. Suddenly, while I was changing, I realized I had no suit pants to go with my suit coat! I calmly went to the women's restroom where Erika and Ashley were changing, knocked on the door with my blue jeans and white dress shirt, and calmly told her (for real, I was calm!) that I had no pants. So, we made a quick plan to figure something out!

Erika went out to make sure there weren't any khakis in the suitcase, and I brushed my teeth back in the restroom. While brushing, I decided since we were still early, we should try to find a Walmart and buy a pair of dress pants. So, I finished up and asked the waitress who told me that there was a Super Walmart just a mile and a half down the road! So, we drove there and I ran in to look for a good pair of pants.

I found a good pair for $10! They needed to be ironed, though, so we went to the hotel where the church had reserved a room for us (which just happened to be about a half mile from the Walmart, and we had passed it on the way there from the BBQ place). So, we got to the hotel, checked in, got the pants ironed, and left for church.

Arriving at about 6:40, nearly exhausted, we had a great time with some great people. Ashley of course stole everyone's hearts, as always.

Driving back today was again uneventful. We arrived home at about 4:00 and I got back to work getting re-organized. The only problem with our trip was that there was no cell-phone coverage where we were, and I missed several calls that I could't make up while driving. So, I regrouped and got everything back in order and finished up at about 9:00. I spent a couple hours with my family, and now here I am.

Tomorrow will be a busy day with follow-ups. Wisconsin is really proving to be very difficult. I booked one meeting, but it's for August of 2011. Hopefully, as I explained to the pastor, I'll be back in Mexico but I don't want to make the same mistake I made our first 6 months of deputation, and not book too far in advance thinking we would have our support and not need any more meetings.

The plan for tomorrow then is to make follow-up calls and to run some errands. Prayerfully, I'll be able to reap some of the hard work and hours I spent last week and this week for the Wisconsin trip. We'll see!

Slowin' Doooown...

2010-08-18T00:17:00.000-05:00

So it's been a slow week. We had a great weekend, and came back home late on Sunday night so I could get a good start on Monday morning, calling to Wisconsin.

It's been sloooooow. I sent exactly 117 emails, and made over a hundred calls to independent baptist churches in Wisconsin. I haven't even gotten much of a positive response, either. I've been shooting for June, thinking it would be good to plan that far ahead because it takes about 2 months to completely book an area that far away, and by that time it will only be 6 months away.

I have gotten several replies from churches that tell me they can't have me because of my stand on the King James Bible. I wonder if that's just an excuse or if they really are inviting missionaries in. I've heard I'm planning too far ahead and even that I'm not planning far enough ahead. I've gotten the "don't call us, we'll call you" as well.

All in all, I'm pretty non-plussed. I'm going to keep trying for the rest of this week, and then try somewhere else if nothing comes out of it. I know it takes time, but it almost seems that the timing isn't right at all.

We haven't booked not a single meeting since last week. I'm not discouraged--just stating facts. I'll be busy again early tomorrow and then we're leaving out around lunch to be in our last meeting for the month down in Andalusia, AL.

Gearing Up for the Weekend

2010-08-13T10:20:00.002-05:00

It's Friday already! Our meeting on Wednesday night went wonderful. We enjoyed ourselves as we sang, shared, and I especially enjoyed preaching on both Wednesday night and again on Thursday morning at a nursing home. The dear church gave us a wonderful love offering, and a ministry from the church gave me a couple bags of shirts, pants, ties, and sweaters. What a blessing! We enjoyed getting to know everyone and having fellowship. The pastor and his wife took us out to eat at a Mexican restaurant which was fabulous, then took us to a "religious landmark" in town. It was the place where Bob Jones Sr. grew up, well and all. Most everything around is very city-fied, but it was pleasant to visit and pray where such a great man of God from yesteryear once stood.

I got the prayer cards ordered last night! They should be in some time on Monday. Look below to get the preview!

Today will be another errands day and getting ready for cold calling on Monday--prayerfully, I'll start booking for June 2011 in Wisconsin then.

Monday Monday

2010-08-09T23:56:00.000-05:00

Praise The Lord for another good day. We caught up on our sleep a bit today and left SC by about 10:30 this morning. We drove for a couple hours and stopped for lunch. While eating @ Shoneys, I made some calls and scheduled a meeting. While back on the road, I scheduled another. When we finally arrived at our great host's house in Madison, I booked another in Oregon, for a total of 3!

I spent the evening getting re-organized and trying to get a plan together for our prayer-card crisis. I spoke to the guy that's making the new one, and he told me it would probably be ready this week. So, I edited a picture we have of us and some of our people in Mexico, just adding a little contact information, and uploaded it to walmart.com. I was going to just get the old prayer card printed and delivered for the mean time, but it would be about $200 to get only 100 done and delivered by Wednesday morning. $20 for the mean-time is much better!

I'm still adjusting to the Mac computer. I have decided I definitely do NOT like it. I don't like the absence of a regular "delete" key, nor the absence of the "home" and "end" keys. My email is still destroyed, but at least workable. The paint program doesn't work nearly as well as M$ Paint, and even the internet has issues. The only thing I like about it is that it generally doesn't get bogged down and it responds pretty well to commands.

Tomorrow is an errand running and phone-follow up day. I'm always amazed at how things just kind of pile up. Walmart, the bank, the church, dry cleaners, and an auto-car wash--and whatever else comes up while I'm out. Everything needs to be done tomorrow because we're leaving out again on Wednesday, and not returning until Thursday night.

So, it's off to bed. I'm so thankful we have one more day to rest and recuperate before heading back out again. We're pretty filled up with meetings, except for the last week and a half of August. There's still hope for them, though! Maybe we'll fill them up tomorrow!

Back to Reality

2010-08-08T21:06:00.000-05:00

We had great time at 2 different camp-meetings last week. We made several excellent contacts and ran into some old friends. We were greatly encouraged and pumped back up! We really needed a week of good preaching and fellowship. It was so nice to soak up such awesome preaching and singing and taking time to fellowship with other preachers and laymen. God worked in our lives and took care of us, even if we've been too tired to really appreciate it all yet!

We've been in South Carolina all day today (Sunday, August 8th). We came here because I had a meeting booked over here, but on the way the Pastor called and cancelled. I had reserved a prophets chamber at a great church in the area, and after prayer, we decided to keep on going and to trust God. No meetings, just simple faith. So, we got to the prophets chamber late on Saturday evening and prepared for Sunday. Sunday morning we had a great time in what I believe to be one of the best churches we've visited in the last year. The missions Pastor took us out to eat afterwards to a Mexican place and we had a great time. We got some rest in the afternoon and went to a different church that the missions pastor from the morning recommended to us to drop in on. The time was alright and we enjoyed ourselves.

Tomorrow we're headed back. I need to make several calls tomorrow at lunch, while driving back home (about a 6 hour drive). I'm looking forward to booking meetings in the next couple days with pastors that I've met this last week, and as well as thru some follow-ups I have to make.

We're out of prayer cards. I gave the pictures and information to a friend of mine a month ago and he told me 2 weeks, but we still don't have the finished product. Prayerfully, he'll be able to finish them and I can get them printed and delivered by Wednesday. It will cost us extra money, but we don't have a choice.

Macintosh Blues

2010-07-30T22:49:00.000-05:00

So I finally took everyone in the world's advice and bought a Macintosh laptop. The problem is that I've never known anything other than a PC environment, for 20 years exactly. I'm having serious adaptation issues; especially with word-processing and email clients. The mouse/track pad is also more than somewhat aggravating. I even bought a Micro$oft Office for Mac package to help in the weaning process, but it hasn't been much consolation. The good things about this Mac is that it doesn't lock up, doesn't bog down, and does what I want when I want. I can clutter the desktop, clean it up, open as many frivolous programs as I want and it doesn't even blink. The internet is super fast and doesn't hassle me as I fly in and around several different sites at once.

On a sad note, our support didn't come in as I thought it would this month. 4 supporting churches didn't send anything, and 1 sent less than normal. When we only have 15 supporting churches, it impacted our income dramatically.

I have several decisions to make regarding a couple meetings. Also, I need wisdom about where to book meetings next, and for when. Only God knows what we should do and we've been praying He would let us know what exactly that is.

Perhaps we'll go to a campmeeting starting tomorrow--it would be good to get pumped up and out of the "office" for the weekend. Perhaps it will be beneficial in planning what avenue to take next. I was so hoping/praying that our support would indicate which direction we need to take, and perhaps this is the answer--to keep booking and planning meetings, and using the opportunity tomorrow to make some good contacts.

Spiritual B-day

2010-07-28T23:42:00.000-05:00

I've been saved for exactly 17 years today. So much has happened that it confuses me to even try to think about it. Everything from 3 years of being ostracized by my family to joining the army, being in the army for 4 years and then Bible college. Meeting Erika, getting married, having a miscarriage, having a baby (Ashley) to starting a whirl-wind tour of the US on deputation. Seeing souls saved and living for God both in Mexico and the US, meeting unbelievable people, and basking in God's glory at every turn. It's been a great trip and I can't imagine what God has in store for the next 17 years.

Today was a good day. I booked one meeting and made several good contacts to follow up on. I was "unpeaceful" about where to go to church tonight, so I prayerfully narrowed it down to 3 and finally made the decision after supper. It turned out to be great--we attended a great church close-by, and it was exactly what God intended for us. The pastor was out of town, and the missions director of the church invited me to show our DVD and to preach. Everything was so obviously in God's control. We had a great time and were in awe and wonder at how God puts things together. They gave us a handsome love offering and a couple in the church gave us an awesome love-gift. We were just going to visit and see if we could get a meeting some other time, and we already had the meeting!

What a wonderful way to celebrate my spiritual birthday! God has truly looked out for me and He really blessed me unusually well today.

R&R!

2010-07-26T19:56:00.000-05:00

So it's been a couple weeks since I've posted an update. Since the last blog update, the biggest news is that we've survived the Madison Baptist Church Vacation Bible School and Missions Conference 2010! It was a great week with many souls saved and several decisions made for God. I was able to share a testimony for the church on Monday night of the conference, and Tuesday I sang "Mexico Needs The Lord" to the tune of "People Need The Lord." Friday night for the VBS graduation, I preached a 20 minute Gospel message.

The Lord blessed us by having us to stay with the Alan Snyder family from church. We moved out of the Beard home on Saturday of the conference, and stayed with the Snyder's all week long. We learned a lot from them about raising children and we're thankful we had the opportunity to be there. We also started a new plan with Ashley--only nursing her at night before bed, and then I would take her for the entire night so she wouldn't wake Erika up. It worked very well, and we are continuing to discipline her to sleep through the night. Along with that, we are keeping her on a strict nap schedule during the day, which is somehow making her sleep better at night. Praise The Lord for wisdom in raising her.

Also throughout the week, we were able to book 10 meetings. Alan and I made a deal that I would pray for his business and he would pray for our meetings and support. God has been so good to us. Some of the meetings were put right in front of us in such a way that only God could have done put them together.

We moved out of the Snyder house on Sunday afternoon, since we had a meeting near their house on Sunday morning. We had a meeting a few hours away on Sunday night, so just went straight there from the Snyder's, and went to the Beard's late Sunday night.

Today has been a rest and recovery day. We slept in, then I got busy on the phone until about 5:00. I was able to book 2 more meetings!

We still have more white on the calendar and need a bunch more meetings. We are praying that we will be able to book some while we are at a couple different camp meetings starting this Saturday and next Wednesday.

I've also nearly completed planning for our trip to Washington state. I desperately need at least 3 more meetings to make the trip almost breaking even.

The rest of the week will be spent on the phone, even though I'm at a point where I need to decide where to try to book meetings next. Prayerfully I'll know by tomorrow after I finish making some follow-up calls.

Rolling Along

2010-07-15T15:47:00.000-05:00

It's been a profitable couple days since my last post. We've booked a couple meetings and made several good contacts. Prayerfully, the contacts will become fruitful.

Yesterday, I planned on dropping in on 1 of 2 different churches, and when I called the first the pastor told me that they already had a missionary scheduled, but that I could come anyway. I always get a bit nervous when there's another missionary around at a meeting I have scheduled, so I decided to go to the other one. Well, when we got there (about 35 minutes away) they had cancelled the regular service to hold a VBS. So, we stuck around for a few minutes, getting to know folks and handing out prayer cards, then decided to make a run for the 1st church (only about 15 minutes away). We ended up having a great time meeting the fine pastor and his dear people. It was an old country church that I've been to several times before but it had been a long time. I was encouraged that the pastor is still keeping on and fighting the good fight. Hopefully, we'll be able to book a meeting with him in the future.

Today, I filled out a couple questionnaires and surveys, and sent our packet out to several churches. I spent only about 5 hours on the phone but didn't book any meetings. Hopefully we'll reap some meetings from the phone calls and packets emailed in the next couple days when I make follow ups.

This afternoon, I had to run several errands so I took Ashley with me to "help." Erika needed some time to study for VBS next week, so it worked out well. Tonight, we plan on attending the Spanish church at Madison. Tomorrow is another exciting day on the phones. I have several "appointments" on the phone with pastors, so hopefully that will be fruitful.

Another BIG Wow!

2010-07-13T22:26:00.000-05:00

So, Monday morning I was only able to spend an hour or so on the phone before we had to leave to get to a preacher's fellowship on time. We had a great time and saw some old friends, enjoyed the preaching and had a great meal afterwards.

We had passed what appeared to be a good, independent and fundamental baptist church on the way in New Market, AL. On the way home, I told Erika I would be calling that church to see if we could set up a meeting. "Why don't we stop, she said." I told her that it was 7:00 on a Monday night, there wouldn't be anyone there, but maybe I would drop off some prayer cards in their door.

Well, when we got to the church there was a lady in the parking lot. So, we stopped and tried not to be too horribly scary, and explained we just came to drop off a few prayer cards. It turned out to be the pastor's wife, and she very kindly explained she was there to get ready for a ladies meeting to take place in a couple minutes. So, Erika went in while I caught up on paperwork in the van and watched baby Ashley.

They came out a couple hours later laughing and having a good time, and the pastor's wife gave me her husband's cell phone # to call to set up a meeting. She also gave me a "Baptist Bread" devotional and then a small paper, saying "thanks for dropping by!"

The "paper" turned out be to a check for $100.00!!

Ain't God good!

We went home rejoicing, and planning on continuing to try to out-give God.

Weekend Recap

2010-07-11T22:26:00.000-05:00

We had a tremendous weekend. We went to the Tennessee Valley Independent Baptist Fellowship meeting on Saturday afternoon and were encouraged by the preaching and great fellowship. We were so happy to see some old friends that we hadn't since we started on deputation nearly a year ago. We got back late but it was worth it!

Sunday, we went to church at Madison in the morning and then went to eat with Pastor Allison and Mrs. Allison. We got back to get a bit of rest and then rushed out to attend Sweet Springs Baptist Church in Ardmore, AL. We didn't have a meeting, but it was a good opportunity to drop in at a great church. We went to eat afterwards with some old friends and finally came home.

God's been good to us--more than we deserve. It was nice to not be "under the gun" in a scheduled meeting, but even with all the pressure that comes with, I wish we would have had a meeting. We enjoyed the weekend nonetheless!

Back to the phone tomorrow! Maybe a preacher's fellowship in Cowan, TN. We'll see.

WOW!

2010-07-09T23:46:00.000-05:00

So we began our trip back to Alabama at about 10:30, planning on being back at where we stay by about 7:00. There were numerous accidents however, and a lot of rain. The worst accident was south of Louisville, KY and involved a few cars and a semi tractor-trailer. It was pretty bad--they had the interstate blocked for about 50 miles, and the traffic on our side was stopped so that the rubber-neckers could get their fix. The result--a much longer drive than we intended, but things were looking up by the time we got to Nashville. We stopped one last time to fill up with gas then we were back on our way--almost. As I was pulling away from the pump, I heard the old familiar sound of a tire flopping. I stopped right there, got out, and yep, definitely had a flat tire. How I got it I'll never know--everything was fine on the interstate by I got an immediate flat at the gas station.

So, I went through the drill. Unpack the van, unload the jack, and then lower the tire from the bottom of the van. I had a problem with the spare last winter, but this time I knew I just had to pry the locking mechanism with a flat head screw driver and the spare would eventually fall (this time, however, I was careful to not lower the winch cable so far as to let the spare tire bounce off of my forehead when finally released).

One guy in a nurse uniform asked me if I needed help, but I really was fine. Everything was going fine. As I was finally putting the lug-nuts back on, a well-dressed guy came up and asked if I needed anything. I told him "no thanks" and he and I started talking. He asked where I was coming from, where I was going, etc. I wasn't really paying much attention to him, I was then getting my mind back on driving the last hour and a half home, and to finally eat supper. All of the sudden, the guy said "I don't know why, but The Lord wants me to give this to you." NOW, he had my attention! I declined, of course, but as he insisted I stood up to properly converse with him, then politely asked him to hand it to my wife. I asked him if he was indeed a Christian, and he went on to tell me he attends a baptist church in Nashville, and that he's definitely saved and on his way to Heaven. Then he told me he knew God wanted him to give us the money, but he didn't know why, and if we knew. I told him then that we were missionaries to Mexico, and that we would be able to use the money to get new tires on the van. $200.00 worth!

The other day at Walmart, they told me they couldn't do a rotation/balance on my tires because the tires were trash. The thing was, even though I had the money to get the new tires, I didn't feel like it was the right time. So, I told my wife we would wait and see how The Lord would work it all out.

This isn't the first time something like this has happened, either. As a matter of fact, I could give three other very interesting stories about how God has put people in our way to help meet our needs since we started on deputation last July. It's been a miraculous year and we praise THE God of Heaven for blessing us so much!

Blessed, as ALWAYS

2010-07-08T22:36:00.000-05:00

We had a fantastic meeting in Clyde, OH on Wednesday night. There was a great crowd and the people were on fire for The Lord. We were privileged to present our burden for Mexico there--I gave a testimony, showed our DVD, and preached a message on "Bringing Salvation Closer to the Wicked." One young man received Christ and others made decisions at the old fashioned altar. God's just always good! We were invited to come back for their annual Missions Conference in October and we are praying the church will also take us on for monthly financial support.

By the way--we've noticed a trend in the churches we visit and present our work. God is blessing the churches that are majoring on accomplishing the Great Commission. He is blessing them spiritually, numerically, and financially. Pastor Kevin Folger testified at his church's Missions Conference that Cleveland has been economically depressed for about 10 years, yet their Faith Promise giving continues to rise, as they continue to do their best to turn the world upside down. Other churches and other pastors tell us the same thing, but their are some churches that aren't experiencing the same blessings. The solution is easy to see--major on getting God's Gospel to the lost and dying world, starting in Jerusalem (where that particular local church is) and spreading out to the uttermost. God help us to refocus and rededicate our lives and ministry to soul-winning and evangelism.

On a lighter note, we're about to be back on the road, starting tomorrow Lord willing. We're going to be very busy the rest of this month, so I took the family out for a day without planners and cell phones. We had a wonderful time and ran into a couple different folks we've met over the last year, quite unexpectedly. Thank God we can fellowship with good folks, even if by surprise!

So, we're on the road again tomorrow, as long as Ashley lets me sleep tonight (if not...driving 10 hours back south to Alabama will be horrendous). We want to go visiting and soul-winning down in Crossville, AL on Saturday, and attend a Tennessee Independent Baptist Fellowship meeting there afterwards. Sunday is a free day so far, but prayerfully we'll be able to either put some meetings together by then or just drop in somewhere.

Bookin'!

2010-07-06T21:00:00.001-05:00

So, I booked a few meetings today. One is all the way in the Northwest, in NW Washington, and the other in southeast Indiana. We praise God for more opportunities to present our work and burden for Arteaga, Mexico.

I also spoke with a dear man of God from Georgia early this morning. He took about 20 minutes out of his day to get to know me and talk about how good God is. Afterwards, he invited me to his campmeeting coming up in the beginning of August.

I was able to get everything done today that I needed to, with The Lord's help. Walmart told me they couldn't do my tire rotation and balance, that the tires were too dangerous. It could all be cured by spending $350 on 4 new tires, though! I didn't feel that was what God wanted right then, so I thanked them with some tracts and left. We even had a couple hours to ourselves to go get ice cream while Ashley stayed with my parents!

God's so good to us, all the time. It's 10:00pm and I'm about to get my notes and plans ready for tomorrow. Tomorrow night we'll be in Clyde, OH for a meeting at Harvest Baptist Temple. The town of Clyde is infamous in my family--it's the only place in the world where my mother has gotten a speeding ticket. They not only gave her a ticket, but they hauled her off to jail, too! All for a speeding ticket!

Planning

2010-07-05T22:24:00.000-05:00

I will never get over how much planning and preparing we do as missionaries on deputation. I spend all day calling, then in the evening I get organized and ready to make calls the next day. Some are cold calls, some are follow up calls from previous conversations, and some are follow up calls to churches/pastors where we've had meetings. I spend the evenings spamming pastors with my packet of information, too.

Tonight in between all of the preparation for tomorrow, I changed the oil in the van and put air in the tires. While I waited for it to drain, I started transferring information from my old calendar/planner to my new one. I had to put about 30 new phone #'s in my phone, too. Getting and staying organized is such a hassle!

So, tomorrow will be another exciting day on the phone and internet, sending packets via spam. In between, I am going to get the tires rotated/balanced on the van at Walmart, stop at AAA, and then take the family to a thrift store to update our wardrobe.

Prayerfully, joyfully, and determined!

Sunday Stories

2010-07-05T22:18:00.001-05:00

Well we had a great time on Sunday, all day. We "dropped in" on a great church in Mansfield, OH (Caesarea Baptist Church) and were blessed by meeting a good, like-minded pastor. There was a good patriotic theme for the preaching service and the people were very friendly. The pastor was even kind enough to take us to eat at Bob Evans for lunch!

Sunday night was equally wonderful. We had a great time at First Baptist Church of Eaton. The people were more friendly than most and we just had an all-around good time. I preached "What Must We Do With The Gospel" and had real liberty. The good pastor took us out to eat, and we enjoyed Bob Evans for the 2nd time in a row! They also put us up in the Hampton Inn, a very nice hotel (right across from a buffalo wing place!).

We missed the fireworks completely. I was hoping to be able to take Erika and Ashley to see some (neither ever have) but the timing was not good, being on Sunday night. Maybe next year!

Planning for Sunday, July 4th, 2010

2010-07-03T21:04:00.000-05:00

It's 10:00 pm on July 3rd and I'm still getting prepared for tomorrow. It never ceases to amaze me that no matter how long we've been traveling, and how long/short we've been in one place, it still seems to be laborious getting back on the road. My hat goes off to those dear missionaries that have a van-load of children!

We plan on being in what appears to be a solid, King James Bible believing church in Mansfield, OH tomorrow morning. At least their website appears that way! We look forward to meeting new people and maybe book a meeting to present our work with the church. Tomorrow night, we'll be in what I know for a fact to be a good church in Eaton, OH.

Lord willing, we'll be able to see the fireworks tomorrow night after the services. We'll have to go to Dayton, OH so we'll just have to see how The Lord works it all out!

Getting Started

2010-07-03T20:57:00.000-05:00

So this is our first attempt at blogging, ever. I was recommended to start a blog to be able to quickly disseminate information to interested folks, so we'll see if it's worth the time!

I started a google website last fall, and I haven't had time to work on it like I would like. Hopefully, the idea of having this blog is to be able to just quickly make a post whenever I can and allow subscribers to check it out whenever they want, and not be so labor intensive.

Somehow, I plan on loading in our schedule, most importantly. I've heard that using google's calendar is pretty user friendly and easy to integrate (we'll see...). I'll also be uploading all of our contact information, including email, phone, home church info, and financial support information (send that money!) :)

I look forward to using this blog as yet another medium to draw attention to our ministry, with the idea of getting the word out that we are excited about serving The Lord in Mexico.