God is faithful

June 26^th

Making Room

In our preparation for the new baby this week, we converted our hallway closets into a triple bunk.  The boys love them.  There was a bit of debate over who gets to sleep in the top bunk. Birth order settled that one.  This also had freed up the living room area in the front half of the RV while the little ones nap or sleep. .

Zanesville to St.Clairsville

We’ve been in Zanesville Ohio for the last 10 days. Like many small to mid-sized towns, there may not be any one place where people congregate.  There, people are typically in good moods and have time to discuss the Gospel tract you just offered them. Being near and in the Bible belt, we find many people with some level of Christian background. So, when presented with the Biblical Gospel and an explanation of God as a holy and righteous judge, the light bulb turns on and they say ‘I never looked at God like this.’ As we trust God and reach out to people, we know that sometimes we are sowing the seed of the Gospel in places where false and incomplete gospel seeds were planted.

Discouragement and Encouragement

                On the road we face many discouragements and encouragements. It is never an encouragement when we call churches in an area that we plan to visit and don’t get a return call. Sometimes church leaders are too busy for people outside of their church or for  our relatively unknown ministry. A pastor we had contacted recently apologized for not getting back to us. He went on to explain how busy his week was. He invited us to visit his church when we are back in the area to team up and hit the streets. One thing we remind ourselves is that God calls us to share the Gospel whether or not we are able to team up other Christians. God is so faithful to lead us to those in need and to those who are able to direct us. Like many times before, God directs our path in unpredictable ways that clearly shows His perfect guidance. For instance, we went to Wheeling, WV to minister to the homeless. We didn’t find many homeless people. We decided to make an  unplanned visit to a relative’s house near by. When we showed up we found a devine appointment. Kerry’s aunt had a friend over for lunch. Her aunt was tell ing her friend about our ministry at the same time we showed up for a surprise visit. The friend happened to be very involved with a variety of social services and community outreaches in the area. She was able to give us all the frequented locations of the area homeless. She also filled us in on the locations and times of the local soup kitchens as well. These times are so encouraging when we see Gods’ help so clearly. Gods is great : )

Praise reports:

- We thank God for blessing us with continued opportunities to serve Him and for His provision.

-Praise God for keeping us safe and especially so during recent car failures.

-I thank God that I got to feel the baby kick.

-Praise God for keeping us healthy.

-Thank God for all of you who pray for us and support us.

May God bless you. I pray that you can see His blessing in your life. Remember to pray for all the small things as well as the big things in your life. Remember Jesus offers us a close relationship with Him. He promises to ‘draw near to us as we draw near to Him.’ We can get closer with Jesus through prayer, reading the Bible, and setting your mind on Jesus throughout your day.

-Christopher

Eastern Ohio

We wrapped up our visit and ministry in Columbus, Ohio.  Some of the outreaches included a downtown homeless outreach, bus terminal tract and Bible distribution and state park camper outreaches. We are ministering in Zanesville, Ohio and will continue to the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia in July.

Please prayer for this ministry, our family, Kerry and her pregnancy, and God's continued guidance.  Thank you and God bless you.

God Uses Gospel Tracts

Have you ever passed out a Gospel tract? Do you wonder if handing out a tract still leads people to salvation? The short answer is yes. We see God use them in our outreaches. Whether it’s a person repenting of their sin or taking a tract to read as they walk by us. Charles Spurgeon called tracts silent preachers. He also viewed tracts as a valuable evangelistic tool for those people who don’t have time to speak you.  "When preaching and private talk are not available, you need to have a tract ready. Get good, striking tracts or none at all. But a touching gospel tract may be the seed of eternal life. Therefore, do not go out without your tracts." Note that Spurgeon strongly recommended the use of quality and creative tracts.

The Gospel is the most important message you can give anyone in your life. Think about how much time and preparation you put into a resume to detail your value for a potential employer. Or, how thoughtful you are when picking a greeting card for someone you care about.  Give out tracts that you would accept if someone handed it to you. We use tracts from Living Waters Publications. They are creative and more importantly, they feature the biblical Gospel.  Their Trillion Dollar Bill tract has given us more opportunities to talk to people than any other. We are stamping our web address (OnTheRoadFamilyOutreach.com) on materials that we hand out. Now, when a person gets a tract or Bible from us, they can later send us questions about the Gospel and Christianity.

You never know who you might lead to Christ with a tract and the effect it will have on the world. After all, the famous missionary Hudson Taylor and the great preacher, George Whitefield, were saved through Gospel tracts. Billy Graham once said of Gospel Tracts: "Nothing surpasses a tract for sowing the seed of the Good News."  So get yourself some tracts. When you want to handout a tract just say, “Did you get one of these?”

Please Pray

We had a great experience speaking at New Beginnings Pentecostal Church in Bethel, Ohio. Many who attended came up afterwards for suggestions in their own personal witnessing with people they want to reach with the gospel.

Prayer Requests

• For open doors to churches to teach the evangelism workshop and to guest pastor, preaching sermons to encourage congregations in reaching the lost.
• For extra workers to come along side us in day to day ministry work and special events.
• For Kerry's dear childhood friend's dad who is suddenly in very poor health. Please pray for Bob's healing and most importantly, his salvation.