Dear Church,
The summer months are always a welcome change for us from the typical drizzling rain in Astoria. We love this dry weather and moderately warm temperature and wish it would continue all the way to October. Thank you for supporting the church plant, reading our letters, praying for us, and sending notes of encouragement along the way. We are excited to continue the work God has called us to and honored to represent your church in a spiritually dark and wicked corner of America. Thank you so much for partnering together with us!
We began July meeting at the Shilo Inn located next to the busiest road in Clatsop County. The Lord worked a tremendous miracle providing a permanent sign, high visibility, and a well-known location for our church. As mentioned previously, we purchased a 16ft enclosed trailer for storage of our church equipment. We need to have signs made for that trailer and could really use some additional funds to do the job right. This sign will be highly visible and a great advertisement for Anchor Baptist Church. Our support over the past few months has been low and expenses have been high. Thank you for praying concerning these needs! God continues to give us favor with management and we are thankful for the warm reception among all the workers. If you are traveling to the Astoria area, I hope you will consider booking a room with Shilo Inn and tell the front desk “Preacher” recommended the Shilo.
We held a revival meeting in July during the time we would normally have our Old-Fashioned Gospel Tent Meeting. Pastor Bo. Smith and Jamie, his wife, came for the entire week. Pastor Smith’s messages were all fantastic and spoke to our hearts. Several folks attended from other churches as well, which added to the excitement and spirit of the meetings. Bro. Nathan Burden from Poulsbo took care of most of the music. We also heard from the Binsels from Beaver Falls Baptist and Bro. David from Bible Missionary Baptist Church in Portland. He led singing and sang special Music as well. We all enjoyed a great time of revival and encouragement to our souls.
July was also camp month. We traveled to Clear Lake, WA and joined with the River View Baptist Church for an incredibly uplifting week of preaching, games, food, preaching, boating, preaching, and music. The preaching by Pastor Joe Brown was fantastic and many life-changing decisions were made. Stacy and I went as counselors and brought our four youngest boys. I am so thankful for Pastor Kayin Rolland coordinating the best camp I have ever attended. Thank God for our children; these fine young men are ministering with us and working hard for the Lord!
A man who started attending Anchor Baptist Church is going to deploy with the Coast Guard for several months. We will miss him as he has been a real blessing to attend the services regularly. A couple that was saved and baptized in April continues to faithfully attend the Sunday services and has shown a desire to invite others to church. The job in Astoria is not done yet and neither are we. Please continue to lift us up in prayer, through support, and by reading our letters.