The work in Providence is started! We thank God for a team from Every City and Village Ministries that came up form Missouri, Mississippi, and Alabama last month to help us get off to a good start with our outreach. They canvassed approximately 1,500 doors, set up a free Bible tent, and generated several promising contacts for the church. We had our first Sunday service, meeting with them at a conference room they had rented at their hotel on July 20th.
Though we have been looking for a location since May, each time it seems that we have something worked out for a long-term meeting place, something keeps it from happening. Please pray that we soon find a good, long-term place for the church to meet. We held the last two Sunday services at a local park in Providence. Last Sunday, we had a visitor who promised to return the following week, and another family came to play at the park as we finished. Now, they’re saying they’ll return next week for church!
We have also been joined in Rhode Island by another family; Betsy’s much younger sister and her husband, both Bible college graduates, have moved up here to be a help in the work. Her husband, David Gerken, is planning to work bi-vocationally and is working on arranging a job and housing right now. They have extensive experience in ministry, particularly in children’s ministry, and David also holds a bus driver’s CDL. We are excited about how much they can add to the work and how many more ways we will be able to minister to the community from the beginning with their help! Please pray that God guides and provides for them to have the right income and housing, and blesses their efforts to assist in reaching Providence.
Starting services means that we are basically winding down deputation. We are going to be running a Sunday Afternoon service instead of an evening service, so we will probably have occasional meetings in the evenings as well as just fellowshipping with like-minded churches as we can on Sunday Evenings.
We are starting, not because we are fully supported, but because we and our sending pastor are convinced that this is the time that God has for us to start, with all of the other pieces put together. We are only at about 30% of our needed support. However, the need is great, and we cannot wait. Souls hang in the balance. We are moving forward by faith. Please pray that God will provide the needed funds for our support and the church expenses as we get started.
It is clear that the devil is scared of what might happen in Providence if he doesn’t hinder the work. In the last few weeks, we have had to repair our vehicle three times, and both our family and the one that came up to help us have had to deal with chicken pox (one after the other, to make it take longer for us to function as a church). Betsy has also been feeling rough for the last while, but she is soldiering on and encouraging me to do all that needs to be done. Please pray that she will have her strength back, that God will drive off these attacks designed to hinder our service, and that all that the devil is scared of happening in Providence will come to pass. We are excited about what God is preparing to do in Providence as He blesses our labors and your prayers and support.