"Light in the 10/40 Window" in Center, Texas

Pastor Danny Dodson

We just finished attending the 2018 Faith Promise Missions Conference at Central Baptist Church in Center, Texas. This church has been led for 32 years by Pastor Danny Dodson. This is a very solid church with a strong staff too. His song leader is Brother Eddy Grimes who has been there for 31 1/2 years. There is something to be said for longevity in a church ministry! The church is also very strong on missions which is always refreshing to find. As you tour their beautiful facilities you see the missions emphasis put on it at every corner!!! 

Brother Sneathern

The conference theme was "Light in the 10/40 Window." The main guest speaker was Missionary Elvis Sneathern from Mt. Pleasant, Arkansas. He is the former pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church there in Mt. Pleasant. He preached some great messages all throughout the conference. There were many other guest speakers that played a part in the conference as well. Men of God like Pastor Ken Graham of Victory Baptist Church in Benton, Arkansas; Pastor Rusty Silvertooth of Fundamental Baptist Church in Livingstone, Louisiana; and Pastor J.D. Weido of Bible Baptist Church in El Dorado, Arkansas among others. All of them preached great messages!

Pastor Weido

I was actually just in Pastor J.D. Weido's church the week before coming to this conference. It was a privilege to get a chance to be with him and I was excited at the message he preached on Saturday. He pulled out a picture of Pastor Wiley Bennett who was one of my best friends in this life. Brother Bennett passed away a number of years ago, but was formerly the pastor of Woodland Hills Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas. Brother Weido also pulled out a pair of Brother Bennetts shoes. He talked about what a great missions minded pastor Brother Bennett was and who was going to fill his shoes? It was a great message and he also used a great illustration with ten apples and how the tenth belongs to God and what over the tenth will you be willing to give to God... he then held up an apple core and asked if all we would give God would be the core? It was a great illustration and message.

Pastor Weido Preaching!

We were privilege to be hosted by Randy and Tammy Hagler. Miss Tammy is one of the bus captains at the church. After she heard about the ministry we had in Lincoln, Nebraska to the many Burmese refugees there she asked me if we would like to go visiting on her bus route with her on Saturday afternoon. She wanted to take us to visit a Burmese family that rode her bus last Sunday and then to knock some doors and see if we could get some new ones. (Their town has a community of Burmese refugees living in it too.) We were glad to go with her as we love to go visiting and soul winning. Plus, we especially love to talk to the wonderful Asian people that are from the part of the world we are going to as missionaries!

Tammy Hagler and the family that rode last week

While knocking some doors we ran across two girls from a Buddhist home walking in a parking lot. Their names are Nee Ler and Moo La, they were born in Thailand. Miss Tammy Hagler started talking to them, but asked my wife to take over when she learned they were Buddhist. My wife uses an illustration book that combines pictures with the Bible verses that is particularly helpful in dealing with Buddhist. It is not a simple booklet but a rather an in depth booklet with much detail and explanation. We often use this in Thailand with the verses of course in Thai, this booklet my wife used had the verses in English. These girls had been told about Jesus before, but were unsure about their eternity. My wife was able to thoroughly explain the Gospel to them from this booklet and they made a decision to bow their heads and ask Christ to be their Saviour. Praise God! They even wanted to go to church on the church bus, but unfortunately their parents said no, we are Buddhist. I had actually knocked on the door of their parents earlier in the afternoon and spoke to them about Christ. They would not except the Gospel because of their Buddhism... that is unfortunate. Please pray for God to work on their hearts so that this family can be changed forever through the power of God's Word! This is exactly what we are in this thing for... the souls of people.

Nee Ler and Moo La

The conference was jammed packed with preaching and singing. We enjoyed a lot of good music. On Sunday my wife taught one of the girls Sunday school classes and I also preached the junior church. It was great to see their workers in action as they do a great job with the kids. Brother Walters in particular did an excellent job at managing the junior church. You can tell that he puts a certain level of excitement into it that only a person who loves what they are doing could do! On Sunday night the church voted to take us on for support. We praise the Lord for another partner in the ministry!

Special music

Brother Walters in Junior Church

We are headed to Independence, Missouri to be with Pastor Darren Tharp and New Hope Baptist Church for their annual Thanksgiving service on Tuesday night. Pray for our safe travels and for us to be a blessing to these folks on Tuesday night. Happy Thanksgiving to all!!!