Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Mexico Mission Trip and Beyond


We are still planning to travel to Mexico with Bro. and Sis. Landress on December 12th. Bro. Larry has planned a three night Tent Revival in the state of Chiapas in the southwest part of Mexico. We will be singing and preaching each night and we are really looking forward to it. 

Bro. Larry and I both ordered our tents from Miami Missionary Tent Company in Miami, Oklahoma. Even though we will be in a part of Mexico that we have never been before it should be pretty comfortable working under the blue and white Gospel tent!

He and his mission organization, Holiness In Mexico, have been having good success with tent revivals for several years in Mexico. They generally have very good crowds with several folks saved in each meeting. Although I always feel very limited because of the language barrier in Mexico, I know the Lord will send His Word into the right hearts. 

This will be our third foreign mission focus for 2013 in addition to our home mission project of tent revivals in the USA. We have taken on much more than we can handle when it comes to missions projects this year. 

The first project of the year was trying to provide as much funding as we could for the completion of the new branch church in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria with Bro. Shobanke and Christ Ambassadors Holiness Church.

The second project was the near spur of the moment trip to Nigeria to dedicate that new church earlier this month. 

The third project in order of completion but the first one actually planned is this upcoming tent revival with Bro. Landress to Mexico. 

By the time the airfare and other traveling expenses are paid and offerings are given, the total for these three projects will probably be very near or beyond $20,000. That is in addition to the expenses of tent revival that have been that much and more each of the last few years. 

There is no way we could do all or any of that on our own. God miraculously and faithfully provides the resources for these mission projects through revival offerings plus special offerings from churches and individuals. 

Dryden Rd. Church, Amazing Grace Tabernacle, Dodds Pentecostal, Corwin Pentecostal, House of Deliverance, Bethany Revival Center and other churches and individuals helped with the new Abeokuta church project. 

Richton First Assembly, Zoar Holiness, Ellisville First Assembly, Bethany Revival Center, Beams of Light and few individuals helped with this last trip to Nigeria. 

Bethany Revival Center and some other friends have already given toward the upcoming Mexico trip. 

In reality every church that has us for revival helps on these missions projects since we try to save as much as possible out of our own income. But it is obvious that we could not do it on our income alone. As I said earlier we have taken on much more in missions projects than we can handle this year but each step seemed to be ordered by the Lord. 

Every time we try to follow God's direction we sense God's protection. Every time we following God's guiding we experience God's providing.

At times it looks like God is asking us to do impossible things. I am not talking about difficult things but impossible things for us to complete. This is where faith gets exciting. If God is asking us to do impossible things then we must learn to trust Him to work out all of the impossible details. Think about it. If we can see a clear path into every future endeavor then faith is not worth one thin dime.

I know this is true. He has proven it to me personally and to my family time and time again. Yet when I am looking at bus payments, repair bills, repairs not yet completed, the price of diesel and then I feel God nudging me with a new vision or leading me into a new venture it is easy to become paralyzed with fear. 

When we have no extra money at all and I know it will require $5,000-15,000 for a mission project or ministry expense it is sometimes difficult to squeak out "Yes, Lord." I have folks say to me often, "How do you do that?" or " I could never afford to do that." I completely understand. I get it. But faith often requires risk. I can not afford it either. Not by a long shot.

Faith does not mean you are leaping into the dark. No, but faith does require leaping. It is still scary. It is still hard. It is still breath taking. But it is not a leap in the dark. Faith requires leaping into the hands of God! It is a wild ride sometimes but it is totally worth it. The hand of God is the safest place I know.

On December 12th we will be leaping again. We already have some big leaps on the radar for 2014 and God has been quickening my heart and enticing me with tidbits of big leaps in 2015 and beyond. I think it is bound to be exciting. Come join us on our journey of faith.

Thanks for reading.

Davy




Monday November 25, 2013

We had a good day in Oklahoma today. We spent some time with the Millikins this afternoon and evening and enjoyed the fellowship very much. They celebrated Sis. Millikin's birthday which is later this week and had a good time of singing, worship and prayer with Bro. Marty and several folks that had gathered in. It was wonderful to feel the Lord so close. Please continue to hold up Bro. Marty and the whole family before God.

I made a small change to the blog tonight. The spammers have really stepped up their comments on our blog the last few months. We have always received some spam comments but it has really increased lately. Some days I receive 50 or more crazy comments. I was getting spam comments on last night's post within 30 minutes. It is slightly aggravating. Blogger catches that they are spam but they are still sent to my email and every time I look at the mail on my phone I have 6-10 comments to delete.

The only thing that can be done short of disabling comments is to require word verification. I am afraid it will discourage people from commenting but I have decided to enable the extra step for a while. Maybe the spam bots will "learn" to leave us alone and then I can remove the word verification. We will see.

We love to read your comments so try not to let the word verification slow you down. 

Thank you so much for reading. I know that many of you are faithful to read every day and many more check in a few times a week and we appreciate it very much. We have folks tell us every week that they read the blog and pray for us and that is a great blessing to us. May God bless you for it.

Davy

Monday, November 25, 2013

Travel Day

The last service at Trinity Holiness Fellowship meeting was Saturday morning. By the time church was over and we had eaten and said our goodbyes it was nearly 3:00 PM. We were supposed to preach for Bro. Roger Boyd nearby on Sunday but we had been considering a change of plans all week. We wanted to go to Oklahoma to spend some time with the Millikins and we finally decided how to do it just before church Saturday morning.

Our next revival is in Hazard, Kentucky next Sunday and we had five rest days scheduled for this week. We thought about taking the bus and tent trailer to Kentucky and then driving the Green Machine to Oklahoma. The weather was going to be extremely cold this week in Kentucky and I hated to leave the bus with it that cold. We did not know what to do.

Then a brother suggested leaving the bus at Trinity in Hokes Bluff. It was forecast to be cold there too but not below 20. I mentioned it to Kelly Jo about 10:00 AM, cleared it with Pastor Shaneyfelt right before church and the plan came together. Pastor Boyd was gracious to let us out of our scheduled service Sunday. We were packed and ready to go before 5:00 PM and we hit the road.

We had planned to drive until about midnight, get a room and the finish Sunday morning. But the traffic was light and we were making good time and feeling good so we pressed on through. We arrived 725 miles later in Claremore, Oklahoma at 4:00 AM. 

We spent some time with the Millikins Sunday afternoon and went to Claremore to church Sunday night. We had a great service and it was wonderful to see all of our friends. Bro. Marty Millikin is very weak and in need of a miracle. Bro. Jimmy, Sis. Shauna and elder Bro. and Sis. Millikin need God's help too. In fact, Sis. Millikin is having cancer surgery Wednesday. 

We plan to spend a few days here trying to encourage and assist our friends any way we can. Please pray for the Millikin family. It is never too late for God to do a miracle. We will keep you posted.

Davy