Brethren,
Greetings.
Peace, mercy, and grace be with you all from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Summertime is winding down, and children are back in school. The spiritual work, however, always keeps going!
Working with the Brethren
August was a good month for working with the brethren; there were many events, both planned and unplanned, and many opportunities for interaction, not least the county fair, which will be spoken of more below. I look forward to further interaction in the fall, especially with the gospel meeting coming up.
Lessons and Classes
I decided to "shake up" my preaching this month since I was beginning to perceive that my preaching was perhaps getting a bit predictable. On Sunday evenings, I have continued with looking into matters regarding the Bible-- the nature of inspiration, the history of the text, the transmission of the text, and analysis of differences among Bible versions. On Sunday mornings, however, I have changed up my style a little bit and focused more on encouraging brethren to evangelize those in their lives and also have spent some time reading, interpreting, and applying passages from the Gospel of Luke. Unfortunately, I was recovering from a stomach virus and severe dehydration on the first Sunday of the month, but on the fourth Sunday of August I had the good pleasure of assembling with and preaching for the church in Ashland, Ohio, since their evangelist moved away in the beginning of August. It was good to be with those brethren and to encourage and be encouraged. The lessons, as always, are available in outline and mp3 form on the website.
The Sunday morning young people's class has continued with the new converts also present. We finished for our purposes Harkrider's First Principles of Christianity: Basic Bible Doctrines 2, and will begin speaking of matters of morality highly relevant to their lives after our gospel meeting. The Bible reading program has been more successful as we've ventured into the book of Acts, and I hope that things will continue to go well.
The divided men's and women's classes are now focusing on parenting, using God's Plan for Parenting, edited by Kevin Maxey, as a guide for the class.
We have continued the Tuesday evening studies at our house, and despite rather low attendance, did go through the book of Jonah. After the gospel meeting, we will begin spending some time looking at Bible verses that are helpful to use when presenting the Gospel to others.
Earlier in August, the church in North Ridgeville, Ohio, hosted a Saturday morning lecture series for young people on dating, and I had the privilege of being one of the three speakers. I was very encouraged by the strong attendance of the young people from Norwalk, and I hope that they gained much encouragement and instruction from the lessons presented.
Evangelism
Evangelism was the big theme for August. From August 14 through 19 we manned a booth at the Huron County Fair. 28 of the brethren spent some time manning the booth; I spent about 40 hours that week at the booth, and enjoyed the time I had speaking to those in the community along with spending some time talking with the brethren.
We handed out about 250 packets of information, including a pen with our information on it, two brochures introducing us and our beliefs, an invitation to the gospel meeting, and also a card that could be handed or mailed in requesting to receive our bulletin by mail and/or a Bible study.
The results of the fair are not precisely known at this time. We did receive two cards back, both requesting the bulletin, and we hope that such will lead to studies. We hope that we will see visitors at the gospel meeting who heard of us at the fair. If nothing else, we took advantage of an opportunity to let people in the community know that we are here and willing to help them with any spiritual needs they may have, and half the congregation spent time talking with others about the faith.
Since then we have been gearing up for our gospel meeting that will be held on the second week of September. We are going to go and knock some doors the day before the meeting and handing out the rest of the gospel meeting invitations and other literature, and I hope to continue the door-knocking campaign once a month. I have spent much time encouraging the brethren to tell their family, friends, co-workers, and other acquaintances about the meeting, and also to post the announcement for the meeting wherever they may have the opportunity. We hope to be able to report good results from the meeting in the next report.
Current Studies
Cindy. Cindy and the family are now doing better since they have moved away from the troublesome people. We continue to encourage Cindy in the faith and continue to help her develop.
Ben and Katie. Ben and Katie are still going through many difficulties, and we have only seen them a couple of times in the assemblies. Katie has only recently begun to feel a little better, and we're happy for that. Ben has changed jobs, which is a mixed blessing, because now he is over the road during the week but making better money. I have finally been able to restart studies with Katie during the week. Ben and Katie have also been a good influence on Ben's sister Stephanie, who visited with us two weeks ago. We hope to continue to influence her.
Renewed in Spirit
While not part of my work here in Norwalk, I mentioned in a previous report that I have taken on the responsibility of editing an online publication, Renewed in Spirit, and that I hoped to restart this project in September of 2006. I am pleased to be able to report that we have laid the groundwork and are prepared to "renew" Renewed in Spirit as of September 1, 2006, and that anyone who is interested is able to now sign up at www.renewedinspirit.org. It is my hope and prayer that this interactive online spiritual publication will be a benefit to many souls.
Support
I would like to thank all of you for your participation in the work here in Norwalk, either through your prayers or through encouraging me or through financial support. I would like to solicit your continual prayers so that the work here may prosper.
I am greatly indebted to these churches for working with us financially and allowing me to do God's work here in Norwalk.
May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirits.
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