Great Thanksgiving in Independence and Lincoln

Pastor Darren Tharp and his wife

Last Tuesday we travelled from Texas to New Hope Baptist Church in Independence, Missouri for their special Thanksgiving service that evening. This church has been led by Pastor Darren Tharp for the last seven years. The church seems to be in excellent shape as the pastor took it over under difficult circumstances, but has led it with a steady hand. The spirit of his people was excellent and he has several capable assistants helping him.

Great crowd for the service

They had a Thanksgiving meal with the church family and then a service to follow. There was a great crowd in attendance. During the service the pastor had me give testimony and show our video. Then he had me preach the evening message. I preached from Romans chapter one and the Lord seemed to bless the service. At the invitation time there were two who came forward and got saved. God blessed the entire evening and we were blessed to be in attendance.

Pastor Tharp at the invitation time

On Wednesday we travelled to Lincoln, Nebraska to be with our family over the holiday. They were having a special service for Thanksgiving on Wednesday night. It was good to be back in a service there and see many of our converts and church people. I enjoyed visiting with Brother Zawlatt, one of our church ushers. I led him to Christ and baptized him back in 2013. He just returned from a trip to Burma to visit his family, so we had much to visit about. 

Brother Zawlatt

The pastor had me get up and give a testimony about how our deputation is going. It was followed by many others giving testimonies as well. Brother Travis Miller gave testimony about how Bible college is going for him down at Heritage Baptist College in Lawrence, Kansas. He gave a great testimony. We are thankful for the great training he is receiving!

Brother Travis giving testimony

  The pastor's wife, Faith Painter, gave her salvation testimony too. (Our daughter-in-law.) It was a heart stirring testimony that had several in tears including my wife. Praise the Lord for His workings in her life. She also testified about having her kids raised in a Christian home and how important it is!

Mrs. Faith Painter giving testimony

The assistant pastor Brother Josh Looper gave his salvation testimony and gave testimony about our church. While he was speaking he asked me if I remembered him saying he was only going to be in this church 3 months and he was moving out West. I shook my head yes, as I remembered him saying that to me. Then he gave testimony about falling in love with our church and now he has been here for 6 years and is the assistant pastor at our church.

Brother Looper giving testimony

Mrs. Megan Miller also gave testimony about her salvation. She talked about how my wife knocked on her door and led her to Christ. She talked about how my wife had influenced her in helping reach others for Christ. Mrs. Miller is a Sunday teacher, Bus worker, Junior church worker, and a Deacon's wife. Her son is Travis Miller who now is in Bible college at Heritage Baptist College. Door knocking works folks! Most of these people in our church were reached through door knocking. The Miller's are a great example of a whole family getting saved through this practice!

Mrs. Miller giving testimony

We went out visiting on the Burmese refugee route on Saturday and I had a chance to knock on some doors and meet some new people. I was able to lead one Karen girl to Christ and signed her up to come on the bus route on Sunday. We were excited about a chance to reach into this household and try to get the whole family to come to church. Her name is Paw Say, please pray for her entire family to be reached. Unfortunately, a blizzard hit early Sunday morning and the bus didn't run. However, I will be here one more week before we head out to Alabama and Georgia for some meetings, so I will be following up on this Karen family personally next weekend. The Sunday services were very bare bones because of the blizzard. However, the spirit was good and we enjoyed the service anyway.

Ladies Quartet singing the special Sunday morning