Greetings from SE Iowa again where the rains keep coming! They remind us of the showers of blessings in our lives because of your faithful prayers and financial gifts. Thank you all for helping us continue to witness to neighbors, hurting people and people without the knowledge of God. We believe our church family also deeply appreciates having a missionary couple here.
We have been challenging the church family to memorize verses for evangelism and will soon be making special tracts available to encourage them to witness this summer. We have had some church guests return from time to time and want to have spiritual influence in their lives while reaching new people. A new family with 4 children has been attending and are very eager to become involved. They have been part of another church plant and have already been a great encouragement. They are quite musical, too! The teen boy we have mentioned before continues to come although he's gone to be with his father for a month. He has some difficult things in his life to deal with.
Faith Baptist Church is experiencing some growing pains, and each Sunday we wish a little more for our own building! Our car is filled with equipment we lug in each week, set up, tear down, and lug back out. But this is a good thing because we now have need of a nursery. Because we want it to be clean and safe, we set up a floor (rubber linked tiles), a gated fence, table, chairs, toys, bulletin board, supplies, etc. each week. It's a lot of work and takes time, but last week we had 3 little ones to teach and begin to build a spiritual foundation. So it's worth it!Another family movie night is planned for July 17. The last one was very successful, and we're praying this will be a tool to attract unchurched people.
During the last week of June, we will be in Minnesota where Ed has the opportunity to be the speaker for a family camp. We'll be doing music, children's stories, and workshops, in addition to his preaching. Then a couple of weeks later we head off to the CBM Family Conference where we will not only enjoy seeing friends and being encouraged by the messages, but we'll be involved in a couple of services.
We'd like to introduce the newest member or our own family - Reed William Rider! He was born to Elizabeth (daughter) and Troy on May 23. That makes 3 boys for them! As you can see, he's beautiful and - you'll have to take our word for it - just about perfect!
When Reed was born, we had a family reunion with all 4 of our children and their families there. What a special time that was!
We're now awaiting word for another little grandson to arrive. Jonathan (son) and Josalyn were expecting a baby in August, but he has decided to come early. She's in the hospital where they're trying to hold things off as long as possible. Today is the goal date the doctors set as a safe point for him to be born. So maybe today!
Once again, thank you for your interest in what God is doing here. Your faithful support has a large part in that; you are truly our coworkers. Please pray for a good summer and for increased support through deputation opportunities. We have gained new support, but are still about 81% and hope to be scheduling meetings in some new churches in the near future. We are praying that you, too, will find ways this summer to share the good news of life in Christ!