Church Planters

UPDATED SEPTEMBER 2010

First, let me start by reporting of the continued results of your prayers and investment of our trip to Uganda , Central Africa . Several pastors have contacted us as to the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in several remote areas where we had services. Oh, how the Lord has met their needs through increased faith and a stronger and more committed prayer life. Those of you who reverently prayed for our ministry there and gave extra funds for that evangelistic effort to materialize, it is still bearing "precious fruit!" Only heaven will reveal your part in the Holy Spirit's working over there in Uganda , Africa .

We are receiving several good reports of God's blessings on our precious church of 22 years in IWAKUNI, Japan . A solid foundation of Biblical doctrine and missions had been laid, and to the Glory of God, Bro. Chris Parker is building on that foundation. One Japanese lady for which you all prayer for several years and missionaries Dan Gardner and Ron White had shared the plan of salvation with several times, accepted Christ as her Savior shortly after we left. Some plant, some water, but God gives the increase! Well, thanks to your prayers and the Grace of God, that Japanese lady has passed on to glory with Christ Jesus in her heart.

Talking about going on to glory, another sweet member of our church in Japan , Mrs. Cook, went home to heaven. The family asked me to perform the funeral service. What an honor to preach the gospel of the "Death, Burial but most of all, the Resurrection" of our Precious Lord.

We are very, very busy, but we are not at liberty to share much of what we do and with whom. In the past three months, we have had some 33 pastors and missionaries to make use of our facilities. One missionary from France said in part, "Your ministry is a place of refuge and quite healing." So many of the missionaries that come our way, work in the Middle East or countries where the true gospel is often neglected, especially in the 10/40 window. To hear of their sacrifice and constant threats of danger, just to share the gospel, makes me thankful for God's grace. We offer Rest, Renewal, Restoration, etc. to many of the truly burned out and very discouraged missionaries. We often hear weeks later of how their ministries are greatly affected because of our ministry to them here at Mt. View . We covet your prayers as we counsel, provide needs and loving care to these choice servants of God.

Your consistent prayers and faithful financial investment in our ministry since 1978, has enabled us to touch lives literally, around the world. To God Be the Glory!

Serving Him,

Zane & Burma Abbott

UPDATED February 2010 

Special Prayer Request 

Jaiden Jones is 8 yrs old.  When Jaiden was around 4 yrs old it was discovered that he had a brain tumor.  An operation to remove the tumor was not advisable.  Other treatment was used and Jaiden has done fine until now.  Last Thursday Jaiden began experiencing headaches.  On Friday his parents rushed him to the hospital.  The headaches were caused by swelling of the tumor.  They will operate on Jaiden this afternoon (2-1-10). There are using a new Laser procedure that may allow them to remove the tumor. 

I met Jaiden through Boy Scouts. And now Jaiden and his brother and sister ride our van to Church. 

Please pray for Jaiden and the Jones family.  I will send updates ASAP. 

Update #1 Feb.-1-2010 at 6 PM

Jaiden came through the surgery OK.  The Doctors were able to remove all but a small portion of the tumor.  Jaiden will be kept sedated for about 24 hours.  

Update #2 February 2, 2010 at 11 AM

Jaiden was taken off pain meds and sedatives at 9:30 AM.  They need to wake Jaiden up and remove his breathing tube.  He is getting mucous buildup in his lungs and needs to cough the mucous out.  He will be put back on pain meds after he clears his lungs. 

Update #3 February 3, 2010 at noon

Jaiden is awake today and doing as well as can expected.  His mom is very upbeat about his progress.  They will try to get him walking later today.   He should be allowed to eat solid food tomorrow.  They will know more about the success of the surgery in the coming days.  As for now, there doesn’t seem to be any abnormal side effects. 

 Thank you for your prayers,

Ray Clemons

Your Missionary to Native American Children.

UPDATED APRIL 2010 

Dear friends and faithful supporters,

The long winter has finally lifted here in Minot and there are signs that spring is just around the corner.  I noticed that Daylight Savings Time has made a noticeable improvement in the vibrancy of the people here. It is nice to see people out and about again; many are riding bikes, kids are playing, couples are walking together, and many are back to walking and running for exercise.  

I was excited to preach my first Easter service yesterday. We had a great service and had many new visitors. I praise the Lord that it was our highest day since arriving here at the end of last June with 74 people present. I praise the Lord for His faithfulness to us!  

I want to thank you for faithfully praying for Heritage Baptist Church . We have not located a permanent building but are satisfied to stay where we are for now. I have looked at many potential locations over the past months but have not sensed that “this is the one”. I believe that when we find the right place we will know that it is the Lord’s will.  

There have been one or two larger buildings that have sparked my vision for what the Lord may be planning to do here in Minot . For instance, I recently received a call from a land developer from Los Angeles California who owns a building in Minot . His former tenant backed out of the lease and the building has been vacant for over a year. He was wondering if we would be interested in leasing some or buying the property. I went to look at the building last week. It was newly built in 2001 with an addition added in 2005 that could easily accommodate a church and Christian school; it was in practically move-in condition. With both additions combined, the building was 21000 sq. ft. The price was far above what we could handle to lease or buy but I have been praying that if this is where God wants us now or in the future that He will provide for it. I believe that through showing me this building the Lord was renewing my vision for His work here.  

Thank you for praying for my family as well. Lauren, my middle child, had a minor surgery on her mouth just a few weeks ago to remove a small benign cyst that had developed from an abrasion but she is doing well. Joshua, the youngest child will be having dental surgery this week to fix some bad teeth (the result of too many fruit snacks!). Andrew has his driving permit and is working a part time job. I praise the Lord that He has turned a corner and is again doing very good in school. My wife Lori is also doing well. She is working with troubled teens at an auxiliary school. It is a challenging job but she is building relationships with many of the teens. Her job has also provided our family with great health insurance. We thank the Lord!

Thank you for sacrificially and faithfully supporting us financially as well. I want you all to know that you are very much appreciated. Please pray that God continues to bless as we press on in His service.  

God bless you,  

Pastor Brian

UPDATED SEPTEMBER 2010

My good friend, Pastor Jim Crockett, introduced me to a young couple planting a church in Concord , North Carolina . Pastor Brandon King started Crossview Baptist Church about 18 months ago, meeting in a public school. I have been blessed to spend some time with the Kings, and I am impressed and encouraged by the growth and stability of this new work. Please pray for Pastor King and his people on Sunday, September 12, as they host a "Back to Church" Sunday. They are hoping this will be a great day with visitors attending and souls saved!

People often ask, "Why invest missions money in USA church planting?" Below are a few of the reasons why this is both a necessary and wise investment? Because, Bible-believing churches in the USA form the greatest source of international missionaries! It is imperative that we keep planting churches here so that we can send missionaries to other nations and people groups of the world who need the glorious gospel. Also, because church planting is a most effective evangelistic methodology! Churches under three years of age win an average of ten people to Christ per year for every one hundred church members. Churches over fifteen years of age win an average of three people per year for every one hundred church members. And, because many existing churches are not reaching people!
 
 In Him,
 Charles T. Shoemaker

UPDATED JULY 2010 

Summer is in full swing here in New York City . We are anticipating God to do some great things.

This letter is simply to ask for prayer. Every summer we have mission groups from all over the US come and minister with us. This year is no different. We have a different group visiting each week through the middle of August.

This week we have a group with us from San Diego , CA. Yesterday we spent the day canvassing the area inviting people to our upcoming VBS. All together we passed out 2,000 invitations. Today we are ministering with prayer stations in the subways and tonight we will be in the area parks doing a "mini-VBS".

We are excited about this year's VBS. We have a group visiting with us from Rochester , NY that will be helping us with Hero Headquarters. The kids will meet unlikely Bible heroes who are often overlooked. In fact, we don't know a single one of their names! They were not famous leaders or called by God to perform amazing miracles-yet their small acts were used by God to do wonderful things! Kids will discover that if they're willing to be used by God in any situation, no matter how big or small, they can make a difference. With God's power at work, they can be heroes right where they are! Please pray with us during the evenings of July 12th-15th. Our VBS is always a tremendous outreach to families and we are excited about reaping a great harvest.

Pray for us as we minister in the subways. Prayer stations are a great tool to meet new people. We set up a station with a large banner and pass out flyers encouraging people to stop by if they need prayer for ANYTHING. Some of the encounters we have with people are nothing less than divinely ordained. It however can be a very oppressive way to minister. We meet people from all walks of life...prostitutes, those with demonic oppression, drug addicts, homeless, troubled marriages, or someone simply just wanting prayer for an upcoming job interview. We've seen many people saved through this ministry. Please pray for us as we minister, that our hearts would be clean and pure, ready to be used by God. Also, pray for those who will be ministered to, that the Gospel seed would fall on good soil.

Other groups will be helping us with maintenance or physical needs around the church. Others will be evangelizing the neighborhood. No matter what they will be doing, will you pray with us? Pray that through it all our Lord will be glorified and lives will be changed, both those ministering and being ministered too. We want to see the Lord change this city and we are believing that He will!

In His service,

Ron and Susan Taylor

UPDATED JULY 2009

Hello friends and fellow laborers for Christ!

I know that it has been far too long since I last wrote and there is much going on in our corner of the world.  I am grateful to report that my bride is doing much better since her surgery.  She isn’t 100% and there have been new issues that have popped up over the last several months, but she is improving and by the time all this is done, she will have lived and researched enough medical background information that any medical school should be able to give her an honorary M.D.  Maybe that’s dreaming, but it’s my dream.

There is not much new news in our fellowship.  We have a small, but faithful group of people that have been with us now for a while.  We haven’t seen new faces since early in the year.  We hosted Fireproof and had a wonderful turnout of first time guests.  One of the couples was not attached to a local church and we are continuing to reach out to them and pray for them.  We stay busy knocking on doors and getting the gospel out into our town.  This spring, we sponsored a little league team for the second year running.  We are also working with a new minor league football team.  I am the team’s Chaplain and we sponsor them.  We are praying that these opportunities to touch lives will work with our door knocking and tract handing out times.  Just this month, several of our people spent some time downtown during the dairy parade handing out tracts.

Please continue to pray for our outreach efforts.  The Lord is working here, and we know that He asks us to be faithful and in His time, He will bring the increase.  Also please pray for the financial situation within our church.  The bills are being paid, but things are a little tight for us.

On the home front, I could go on all day so let me be brief and hit the highlights.  We praise the Lord that after 18 months with the boys in a Christian school, we are now looking forward to returning to homeschool.  Life as a bi-vocational church planter is very busy, especially with my secular job having the busiest season during the first half of the year.  This year time has been particularly tight because of the normal demands of church planting and working a second job because I have had to work more hours than normal because of the work demands but also because last year I had to take several days off without pay for Christie’s surgery.  This put us behind in some of our financial obligations.  We are doing all that we can to catch up, but that is a slow process.

Please continue to pray for Christie’s health as she improves and the doctors continue to unravel the mystery that is her health.  Please pray also for our homeschooling adventure.  The boys are getting to the age where we have to spend more time thinking about their futures and tailoring their educations accordingly.  Please pray finally for our finances.  We are still trying to raise additional monthly support so that we aren’t relying so much on outside work.  We know that budgets are tight all over.

Finally, we would like to praise God for several things.  Christie’s health is still improving and we are confident in God that He will continue to heal her body.  We thank God for the faithful people that worship with us every week.  We are watching people grow in God’s grace every week and that is very exciting.  I am grateful that I have work that provides health insurance that has been a huge blessing for us, especially since Christie had three major surgeries last year.

In other news, I wrote most of this email last night.  I was able to travel to Albany today to stand for traditional marriage.  You may know that our state has begun to take measures to recognize homosexual marriage.  We listened to some speakers and then took our message into the city.  Several groups went into the city to pray for our leadership while many others (including myself, my oldest son, a college friend who pastors nearby, and his son) went into the legislative building.  There we quietly and respectfully visited with several Senators at their offices to express our rejection of homosexual marriage.  It was very interesting to see the looks on the faces of the staffers when they saw the size of our group.  While there seems to be some turmoil in our Senate, please continue to pray that this state does not fall victim to the destruction of the family.

May the Lord continually bless you as you seek to serve Him.

Patrick Wraight