Cruel Summer

Sorry for the reference to the old Bananarama song, but here's how things are going in Brownwood.

1. Mission attendance is way down, as are the offerings for August. I feel that this is temporary as some have been on vacation and others are falling prey to Satan's distractions, but still it can be discouraging. I am fully aware, though, that ups and downs are a part of mission work and general church ministry as well.

2. Mission advancement is challenging. Over the next few months I am going to work to teach the fundamentals about being a scriptural church, and even plan to introduce a church constitution and set of by-laws, as well as a church covenant, documents all prepared for one of our sister churches, as an example. I suspect with the watering down of Christianity, and how that watered down system has been prevalently taught in Brownwood, that there will be problems here. Hence, I have been very slow to move in this direction.

3. Missionary time continues to be strained. Due to the increasing workload of my job (namely trying to get the sales caught up), my time and ability to follow up and evangelize is being cut into heavily.

4. For the fourth time this summer, my home air conditioner is not working. It works fine as long as the temperature stays below 80 degrees outside. Here in Brownwood, it routinely tops 100.

Keep us in prayer, the next two years (the time table for being self-supporting) are going to be times of difficult transition.