July 11. It’s raining. Praise the Lord for rain! It has been four weeks or so without a good rain, and the ground was getting pretty dry. Praise the Lord for sunshine and wind this morning, too, to dry the clothes!
Matthew continued preaching on knowing the will of God, going through more of the story of Abraham and his servant’s work of finding a wife for Isaac, Abraham’s considering God’s Word, and the servant’s being busy while waiting for God’s will to be shown. After the meeting, people stood around and talked for quite a while.
When people left, I started looking for a verse for the class to translate and learn this coming week. Then I made sure everything else was ready for classes on Monday. After that, we cleaned out most of the rest of the bookshelf, and then I got journal notes ready to send to Christy and Connie.
Practiced keyboard and washed my hair this afternoon. Wrote a couple e-mails and worked more on the monthly update.
Erisa came to say that she was sorry about our leaving. I was glad to see her. She has been friendlier and visited us more than others from the other church. We talked about our leaving; and I assured her that, even though we were leaving, God would not be leaving. And if she was truly saved, someday we would meet again in heaven. She said she was sure that she was saved and has sought to lean on the Lord from the very beginning. She was glad that we had come and planted the seed of the Word of God so that many here could be saved and delivered from hell fire.
After Erisa left, I finished up the update, except for prayer requests, before going to the kitchen to make some “chex snax” (since I’ve run out of most other snacks to eat), and to make pudding for supper.
Peninnah came this afternoon and spent a couple hours weeding the flower garden.
Apekio came while we were eating and recited the rest of the Bible books to Daddy for credit for her Bible school course.
Sunny and Graham are here now correcting lessons. There isn’t much other work for them this evening. Only a few dishes to do.
“But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.” Acts 20:24
July 12. A cool, cloudy day with some brief light rain showers.
This morning before lotu, I worked on monthly update letters and got the file ready to send to Christy and Connie.
Matthew preached a good encouragement message to the people today, beginning his message in the morning, and concluding it in the afternoon, seeking to strengthen the faith of God’s people and urge them to stand strong in the Lord. Matthew used the words “Independent,” “Baptist,” and “Church” as his three points, bringing out that the church is not dependent upon a person or an organization or another church or anything else to sustain them. They are “independent” of all others and depend on God alone. As Baptists, we build our faith wholly on God’s Word, not on man’s word. And as a church, we have been called out of the world; we are to be separate from the world; and we are not to touch the uncleanness of the world.
At the end of the first meeting, Daddy gave out certificates to the five who completed the soul-winning course and had brought their notebooks for Daddy to look over. I took pictures of the group -- Eric, Sosthenes, Mata, Apekio, and Sunny. Then we took some pictures of Esau and Jaydine.
After lotu this afternoon, I got a couple more e-mails ready to send along with the two e-mails I wrote yesterday evening. But when we told our server to send and receive, it did well on receiving and it sent the two e-mails I had just written, but refused to send the ones I wrote last night. So we’ll try again this evening.
“Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.” Acts 20:28