Out in the Highlands of Colorado

Pastor Stephen Hutto

We spent this pastor Sunday out in the highlands of Colorado with the Highland Baptist Church. This is definitely a country church surrounded by a lot of open range ranches. Brother Stephen Hutto is the pastor of this church and is doing a fantastic job reaching the ranchers around this church. He had three different families that live on the surrounding ranches there that just recently started attending. Many may over look this low population area, but there is a need to reach every part of the world. Thailand is so populated that sometimes you forget that there are souls lost out in these more desolate areas of our own country that need Christ too! I taught Sunday school and preached the morning service then there was a luncheon at the church and an afternoon service to follow. I preached that as well. It was a very enjoyable day!

Sunday evening we attended Fountain Independent Baptist Church in Fountain, Colorado. Pastor Stephen Hutto's father is the pastor there; Pastor Wayland Hutto. I presented our ministry there last January. This past Sunday evening they had a missionary to the Philippine Islands there to preach the evening service. It was very heart stirring!

Pai Hser and Mu Htee Paw

The previous weekend we were in Sterling, Colorado for a meeting and we had no meeting over July the 4th. Since Sterling is only 5 hours from Lincoln where all are family is, we decided to go home for the week and be with our family over the holidays. While home, I went out visiting and door knocking with our church as my practice always is... My wife and I had the opportunity to meet Pai Hser who is a Karen refugee from Burma, but lived in Thailand for many years. His English was very poor, so I spoke to him in the Karen language, but my Karen is very poor. My family and I speak some of the Karen language, but mostly conversational, none of us are fluent. I was able to ascertain that he used to be Buddhist and now sometimes attends a Karen church in our town. However, he didn't know if he would go to Heaven or not. I began to present the Gospel to him a little bit, but as it was my Karen was to little to understand his questions and his English was to little, so I would need a lot of help.

Fortunately for me, Mu Htee Paw from our church was close by and began to translate for me. We were able to spend about 15 minutes with him presenting the Gospel. He realized that he has to do more to become a Christian than just to attend church. He actually has to realize that there is no saving faith in Buddha or for that matter anything of value in Buddhism. I think he realized that Buddha is a dead end or he wouldn't have started attending church in an attempt to become a Christian. He also realized that he had to put his complete trust and faith in the completed work of Christ as the payment for our sins. He bowed his head and trusted Christ! Please pray for his spiritual growth. Also, pray for Mu Htee Paw, she along with several others in our home church are valuable weapons in helping to reach this community of 7,000 refugees that live in the Lincoln area. I will be in Ellicott, Colorado on Wednesday evening and in Colorado Springs next weekend. Pray for us as we travel!