Church Planters

UPDATED OCTOBER 2009

Greetings Praying Friends,

I feel somewhat like the Apostle Paul when he started his second missionary journey recorded in Acts 15:36, when he said "Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do." Our Lord has impressed both Burma and I to go by and visit and report to each church, pastor and individual who have invested prayer, time and resources into the ministry of church planting and discipleship for the past 30 some years.

We are determined to spend quality time with each one of you, to thank you for your faithfulness in standing by us and to encourage you in the biblical ministry of church planting and Christian growth and fellowship among the family of God. We have been blessed to identify with you mission-minded people and to share with you the blessings and struggles of the ministry we have experienced on the field.

For those of you that we have already sat down with and shared the vision and burden that our Lord has placed on our hearts of continued church planting, you have been such an encouragement to us. Your excitement and acceptance of these goals of outreach and ministry to church planters, literally around the world, is solid proof of God's hand of blessing. So far, we have had 100% of all pastors and churches desire to continue to invest time, prayer and resources into this critically needed ministry. After we have had an opportunity to sit down with all of you and personally share the enormous scope of this outreach, we will share more specific challenges and opportunities. Just one example; Burma and I have been invited to go to Uganda, Central Africa, for four weeks of discipleship and church planting training with 100-200 pastors, pastor's wives and laymen. More on this outreach later.

We have a special prayer request! Since we have not had the opportunity to visit with many of you in the past 25 years, we feel compelled to see each one. This means many long, tedious hours on the road in our '99 Chevrolet Tahoe. After pulling into a rest area in Tennessee, Burma fell while getting out of our vehicle. She endured several days of pain and finally decided to see a doctor. Result is that she has a fractured vertebra. Please pray with us as we accept this new challenge in our lives! Welll Gloory!

AIN'T GOD GOOD!!!

Serving Him 'till He comes,

Zane & Burma Abbott

UPDATED SEPTEMBER 2009

Dear Prayer Partners,

WOW!! What A summer.  Psalms 74:17 Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: thou hast made summer and winter.  When God made the summer, He made a time for great things.

Our summer started out with being a part of a massive remodeling project at our Church, Grace Baptist Church.  The project is almost complete.  Only a few minor items need to be finished.  Please pray that God will use the work to bring lost folk to Himself.

Afterwards we took our first vacation.  It was a tremendous blessing to get away for a few days and enjoy a time of rest and recuperation. 

After returning to NM we jumped into a Vacation Bible School / Day Camp with a local Navajo Church.  I did the Bible teaching, Memory Verse work, balloon tying, and filling in as needed.  Jean Ann worked with crafts and Memory Verses.  Lydia helped with music and review games.  Samuel worked with a local traditional bowyer and taught archery to the children.  We met from 8 AM till 2 PM each day.  We had a high day of 100 in attendance with 32 children and 6 teenagers making professions of faith in Jesus Christ.  20 of these followed the Lord in Believer’s Baptism the Sunday after the VBS / Day Camp.  Please pray as these youngsters begin their new walk in Christ.

Afterwards, Samuel and I had the joy of helping to hang drywall in a new church building in the Candy Kitchen area.  This area is located close to the Ramah portion of the Navajo Reservation.  There are very few churches in this area.  It is a privilege to be a part of spreading the Gospel in this remote area.  Please pray that many will come to know Jesus as their Saviour.

We then did a remodeling project in our home.  One bedroom has been remodeled and another bedroom has new paint.  Our garden did well this year and we are stocking our freezer with fresh vegetables.  We have also enjoyed sharing the vegetables with several who are a part of our ministry.  Please Praise God for His goodness!

Our van route is going and we are replacing children who have moved on.  We are planning several activities this fall and winter that will bring a clear presentation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to Children who have never heard of a Saviour who loves them.  We have started working on our Christmas play.  We are trying to incorporate humor along with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Christmas Story.  Please pray for wisdom and guidance as we reach out with the Good News of God’s love.

Winter time is approaching and we are preparing for the cold.  School has started and Jean Ann, Samuel, and Lydia are getting back into the “Home School Mode”.  Please pray as we gather firewood and prepare for winter.  Our need for a better vehicle to haul firewood and other activities is becoming more apparent.

PRAISES         

Visitors

Salvation Decisions

Opportunities to work

Summer Victories

PRAYER REQUESTS

Finances

Vehicle

Fall / Winter Programs

Spiritual Growth

Your Co Labours in Christ,

Ray, Jean Ann, Samuel, and Lydia

The Clemons Family

UPDATED OCTOBER 2009

Dear Church Members,

It is hard to believe summer is over. This past summer has been very busy for us. In June, my wife and I went to Phoenix, Arizona. My wife taught a couple workshops for deaf teenagers (girls), and I taught to deaf teenagers (boys). Also, I preached to deaf teenagers.

In July our second son, Tim, came with us to go to New Jersey for the Northeast Deaf Family Retreat. I was one of the speakers at that camp, and my wife taught a workshop to deaf ladies. I was in charge of the sports program for the afternoon, and my son Tim helped me. It is such a blessing to have our children involved in our ministry.

At the end of July, my wife and I went to Powell, Tennessee, for a Deaf Retreat. I was one of the main speakers there. Several people rededicated their live for God.

In August, I went to Ohio for Deaf Camp. It was for deaf teenagers, and 27 teenagers got saved. It has been a great honor that I was able to preach for these camps this summer. I saw God work in the lives of these people. Thank you for your prayers for our safety as we traveled to these camps.

We need someone to help us in the deaf youth department. We also need a van driver. Right now we don't have a van driver and there are around six to eight teens who want to come but don't have transportation.

Thank you,

Bruce Kelly & family

Prayer Request - We are raising money for a church building. We may have found one. This building last year cost $400,000, and it is in foreclosure. The bank wants sell it for $150,000, which is a very good price for Atlanta. So far we have raised $39,000. Please pray much for us to be able purchase this building.

UPDATED SEPTEMBER 2009

Dear Friends,

It is about 12:45 a.m. and strangely enough, I am up. For a pregnant woman, I think that is very rare, considering sleep usually comes very easy for us; but for some reason the Lord has woken me up with some things that are on my heart. I can’t think of a more fitting time to write and share with friends as to what is going on in our lives than when things are fresh on your heart, so here I sit typing away. The news in our lives could fill a book since the last time we wrote, but I will try to keep it to this newsletter and just hit the major highlights.

Last time I told you that Michael and I were expecting, that is still the case (PTL) only this time we now know that it is going to be a little girl, Alaina Kathleen. We are so excited that the Lord is entrusting us with this little one—excited and nervous. Also, with the other half of our team, Phil and Tori are expecting the opposite—a little boy, Noah Philip.

So we are adding one of each to our little church congregation!

Some have asked what the plans are for me after the baby and I am thrilled to say that I will be staying home with Alaina. Since that is an income that we have depended on, I am still going to be trying to find work at home. I would like to be able to clean houses a couple days a week or even watch some children at my home, but as of right now that is in the Lord’s hands—and something else for you dear friends to pray about for us. Since this pregnancy has been so difficult lately (still getting very sick day after day and having bad back pain) Michael and I have talked and I am now a stay-at-home wife. I ask you to please continue to pray for me. Pregnancy would not be a bad thing at all for me if not for the constant sickness but these days it seems like things are getting a little worse. Continue to pray for Tori also. There have been several scary moments with Noah and Tori and they need to be covered with your prayers. Tori is having to keep a slow pace due to the scares but as of right now everything is great with both her and the baby and I have never seen such an excited mother!

Michael and Philip both continue to work their jobs, take care of their new houses and honey-do lists and stay faithfully working at the church trying to build up our small congregation--not necessarily in that order. As a wife to Michael, I know the labor load is long and hard, but God is giving strength of Samson to meet the weekly tasks. As you will read later in the church update, both Michael and Phil’s church work load has increased since the last time I wrote, so cover them in your prayers too. It seems hard to believe that River City has been in existence for almost 8 months now. It has been an incredible journey so far. We might still be few but God has blessed us with some great people who have become the definition of faithful. There is no doubt in my mind that with these few faithful ones, we will be able to reach Cape for Christ. Now you might be wondering what I was talking about when I said that Michael and Phil’s plate got a little fuller since last time. Well, we have now added our Wednesday night services! It has been a long time coming, but we believed that God allowed us to start them when the people were ready, and ready they were! They have been so faithful. Something that is a little unusual about our little church is that our numbers really don’t change from Sunday morning to Sunday night and even to Wednesday night now! If they are there on Sunday morning, it is rare that they are not there on both Sunday evening and Wednesday!

We have also started our Thursday night GROW program, which is what most people call visitation and soon we will be having our first youth activity! As if that isn’t enough, now on Saturday nights, you can find the men of the church, praying at Men’s prayer meeting for the next day. Again, I have no doubt that God is going to bless River City Baptist Church in a mighty way to reach Cape Girardeau.

Out of everything thing I just mentioned, there is more! River City Baptist Church has chartered! We officially have 13 precious members; with several people who we believe might still join. Our charter service was a sweet service, getting to watch people line up who wanted to get on board and become an independent, Bible-believing church. The month of August has some exciting new events. We saw our first baptism and that same day we saw another church attendee accept the Lord as her Saviour. We will be having our first baby dedication. We had our first wedding! There is just so much excitement in a new church! We are also going to be doing some major advertising this next month. We are going to be trying to fill the area of Cape Girardeau with news of River City Baptist Church. God has allowed us to save up enough so that we can not only spread the news through door to door but we are going to be advertising some on the local Christian radio and sending another flyer out (which we have seen a lot of fruit come from these mail outs) so be in prayer that the news of our church reaches the right ears and eyes. We are also praying about reaching the SEMO college campus. They average around 10,000 students, so the mission field there is just endless. Michael contacted the college and we thought that we were going to have the opportunity to pass out flyers and tracks and a small gift to the college students at a welcome back picnic that they have. We were told we could and ordered everything to pass out and then got contacted that we were going to be on a waiting list now. We are just praying that things will change and God will allow us this opportunity. Our heart is to really reach these students.

Each month we see that God’s hand continues to be with River City Baptist Church. The summer slumps are coming to an end and we are seeing more and more visitors attend with promises of coming back. We are so excited to see God allow our little church to grow. Continue to remember us in your prayers as we continue to run the race here in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.

Love In Christ,

The Morris Family & The Wayman Family

Church prayer requests:

• 10 new families by the end of the year (just had one join—so 9 more!!!)

• A church van (we want to start a transportation ministry)

• A church building (when the time is right)

• Growing Youth department (we want to reach young people for Christ)

• Sunday School (We need teachers, Sunday School material, Sunday School rooms)

• October 11th – Anniversary Service (Big Day)

UPDATED SEPTEMBER 2009

Summer has quickly come to an end and what a busy season it was. We had four different mission groups come to help with various areas of ministry. We evangelized city parks, subway stations and neighborhoods. We conducted Vacation Bible Camp. We cleaned, painted and even constructed. But of all the excitement the most exciting has come about within the last few weeks. God's hand is truly at work and the evidences are a direct result of prayers from faithful people such as you.

For those of you new to our "ministry" we are church planting missionaries to all five boroughs of New York City. Millions of people reside in this great city without a saving knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We moved here under the direction and calling of God, hoping to make a difference in that statistic. Hundreds of you have partnered with us either financially and/or prayerfully to support this God-sized task. We are happy to report slowly, but surely the hearts of New Yorkers are being softened and new life is being "reborn".

Susan began meeting with a young single mother on a weekly basis over two months ago and shortly thereafter at the kitchen table in our small apartment, had the privilege of leading her to Christ. Since then one-on-one discipleship has begun and this young woman's life is being transformed by the grace of God. Ron has been faithful to preach the Gospel each week at our church services. An older gentleman had been visiting for several weeks and during each sermon the Holy Spirit began convicting his heart. After only a few services he finally asked to speak with Ron privately and said in all his years in New York City he had never heard the Gospel presented in a way he could understand until now. There in Ron's quiet office, he received Christ. Ron began one-on-one discipleship with him this past week. Another precious woman from a devout Catholic background came to Ron seeking salvation after hearing the Gospel preached in our service. She gave her heart and life to Jesus Christ that very day. Stories like these of Julie, Dennis and Maria are the reason we are here. Thank you for praying.

We have also seen 3 precious souls who have been saved in months past be baptized over the last few weeks and we have others scheduled to do so in the weeks to come. The baptistry in our church building had not been used for years and I believe in our last letter we requested prayer because upon filling it the first time we discovered a major leak. Praise God one of the men of the church was able to fix it at a rather inexpensive cost and we have had the need to fill it almost every week during August. Thank you for praying.

Times have been and are very busy here in the city. We had a record high in attendance of over 100 for a special celebration service we had last week. Several families have visited with us and are praying about making Glendale Baptist their church home. Ron had the privilege of marrying the very first couple from our church in August. We also currently have 5 people going through one-on-one discipleship and several others waiting in the works. We are so excited to see God's hand moving upon the people of New York City.

We have all been called to the highest of all callings and that is reproducing Christ in others. It is truly our heartfelt goal and desire as we minister in this great city. We once again thank you for your prayers and support. We appreciate you more than we can ever adequately express. May God richly bless each and every one of you.

In His service,

Ron and Susan Taylor, Church Planting Missionaries to New York City

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