"Mission Possible" in New Bern, North Carolina

Pastor Jeff Owens

We attended the missions conference at Twin Rivers Baptist Church in New Bern, North Carolina. This church has been led by Dr. Jeff Owens the past five years. It is a tremendous church and they had a tremendous conference. Their theme was "Mission Possible" instead of impossible. They started with a missions breakfast on Saturday morning followed by a sermon from one of the missionaries. Then we attended their bus meetings and went out visiting and bus calling for the day.

Zaw Tay and Sa Way

Brother Chris Edwards the church song leader took me to visit some of their Karen bus riders. Here I was able to visit with the parents of one of their riders. Zaw Tay and Sa Way. They have been witnessed to before but were not saved. From a Buddhist background but not faithfully practicing at all. I was able to sit down and present the Gospel to them and they made a decision to bow their heads and trust Christ as their Saviour. Please pray that they will come to church with their son in the near future, I think they might be intimidated about going to an English speaking church.

Lweh Shree Paw

My wife went out visiting with a separate group from me on Saturday and met Lweh Shree Paw who was born in Thailand. Interesting enough, Lweh used to live in Lincoln, Nebraska back in 2015 where I previously was a pastor at. She described the building she used to live in, and it was 2020 G Street, very close to our church building. She said, she had seen my wife's face before. Lweh doesn't attend church anywhere and so my wife had the opportunity to sit down with her and discuss eternity. She presented the Gospel to Lweh and she made a decision to trust Christ as her Saviour. She came to church on Sunday and even went forward at the invitation and made a public profession of faith in Christ and wanted to follow the Lord in believer's baptism. Praise the Lord! Unfortunately, the baptistery had sprung a leak in it and all the water leaked out. Lweh will return next week to be baptized after they fix the baptistery. Please pray for her spiritual growth and she embarks on her new found Christian life.

Lweh coming forward at invitation time for baptism

We truly enjoyed the day on Sunday. After getting to attend Pastor Owens Sunday class we went into the morning service. We were very impressed with the great organization to detail there is in every aspect of their ministry. It is a great testimony to the character of the pastor and the people he leads. They had great special music and I was honored to preach the morning message.

Choir singing

Preaching morning service

Then Sunday evening I preached to the teenagers at their Youth Ablaze meeting. Youth Pastor James Elswick and his wife are doing a fantastic job in this department working with these teen boys and girls. There must have been more than forty teenagers in the meeting. Several good decisions were made about serving God at the invitation. This church is getting ready to start a Bible college and Brother Elswick will be heavily involved with that. Pray for them as they move forward with this ministry!

Youth Pastor J.V. Elswick

I was excited that the church made a decision to take on all three missionaries that they had come in for the conference. The whole purpose of deputation is to find willing partners for the mission at hand. I am glad to say that we found one in Twin Rivers Baptist Church. It is truly a blessing for us!

Missions Wall

Our spot

Before we left for North Carolina we were able to see several visitors come to church with us. One was Hser Htoo who I met out soul winning. He told me that he didn't know he was going to Heaven, but knew that he needed to turn his life around. He knew all about Jesus Christ and what He did for us, but wasn't sure that he actually ever trusted Christ as his Saviour. So I sat down with my New Testament and took him through God's plan of salvation. He bowed his head and trusted Christ as his Saviour. He then came to church with me the next day. Praise God! Please pray for his spiritual growth and faithfulness to attend church.

Hser Htoo

Some of you may remember Kler Say who came to church with my wife on Thanksgiving weekend. Since that time she has had a baby girl. Also, her husband finally came to church. Please pray that he will trust Christ and continue to come.

Kler Say with her husband and new baby girl

Lastly, I had the honor of baptizing my daughter Rachel. Many I am sure remember that she is my adult daughter that broke her leg. She is still recovering from this extremely bad break and hopefully will be fully recovered in a few more weeks. During this down time she had plenty of time to think and began to wonder if she was truly saved or not. She decided that she wanted to be 100% sure to give her that confidence that she needs. We waited on baptism until she could at least put enough weight on her bad leg that we could safely baptize her without injury. I have always baptized all of my children, so we figure why break the trend. Lol!

Rachel before baptism!

Please pray for us as we continue with more meetings in North Carolina. We are headed to Seven Springs next!