Getting Christ Out at Christmas

Two New Sign Ups for the Karen Bus Route

We are home for the holidays right now after traveling to Alabama and Georgia. Being home doesn't mean being idle in the Lord's work! I had two new sign ups yesterday for the Karen refugee bus route while out visiting. These boys are from a Buddhist family, but told me that their friends have been telling them about Christ and about the Christmas story. They said they desired to learn more about these things. Their parents are Buddhist and they have an idol in their home. However, their mom gave permission for them to start attending church. We brought them in and they came forward at the invitation time after a great Christmas message was preached on salvation. They made public professions of faith in Christ as their Saviour. 

This is usually a good starting place in reaching a Buddhist family for Christ. Through their children! Please pray for their parents to come to Christ because that is obviously our goal! If the parents can't be reached often times we can keep the children coming and teach them in the ways of the Bible and at least we can flip the circumstances for the next generation of this family! 

The Karen route while making pick ups Sunday morning

We enjoyed Sunday school and the morning service. My wife, daughter-in-law and three daughters sang one of the specials this morning. My other daughter Sarah played the piano for them. It was a joy to see them all singing together. Rachel is still on crutches as you will see in the picture, but she is in rehab and on the road to recovery by the end of January. One great thing that has come out of all of this was the fact she had a lot of time for sitting around and thinking. She decided that she was actually unsure if she was saved. Praise the Lord she made sure of her salvation. She will be following the Lord in baptism in the near future when she can safely put enough weight on her leg to not risk injury. To God be the glory! 

My wife and daughters singing.

At the invitation time today a lady came for Baptism that the pastor had previously led to Christ. It was a blessing to watch the baptism waters being stirred! 

Morning baptism

After the service my daughters all went to the nursing home service in the afternoon so my wife and I were on our own for lunch. We took a family from our church out for Chinese food. Say Nay Moo and his wife along with their baby went with us and we enjoyed the fellowship. Say Nay Moo is an old convert of mine and has been coming to our church faithfully since 2011. He used to live in Thailand, so we always have a lot to talk about!

Say Nay Moo and his family

  From our family to yours, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We will be traveling in January to North Carolina for many meetings, so please pray for safe travel and great meetings.

Merry Christmas from the Painter Family!

Reunion with Old Friends in Georgia

Pastor Landers

This past weekend we were reunited with some old friends in Whitesburg, Georgia. We visited the Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Whitesburg. It is led by Pastor Dexter Landers. He is an old friend that I attended Texas Baptist College with in Longview, Texas. He is doing a wonderful job leading this church. I also was excited to see his parents Brother Dexter and Kathy Landers who had us over to their house for a meal on Saturday night. We were next door neighbors when we lived in Longview, so it was good to see them and fellowship with them. The Landers work on staff for their son. His dad is an assistant pastor and his mom works in their Christian school.

Brother Dexter Landers Sr.

Mrs. Kathy Landers

We started out on Saturday with me preaching the soul winning meeting. I taught on being a productive soul winner. Then we went out soul winning. It was pouring rain all day as Winter Storm Diego was heading across the area. Fortunately it was warm enough to all be rain where we were at. Although, it was a very cold rain. We had a great time out door knocking, talking to many people along the way. Our group didn't see anyone trust Christ, but we did our part by warning folks and we invited many to attend church. 

Pastor's wife soul winning with my family

Pastor Landers and two of his boys

On Sunday morning we had a great time meeting many of the church folks. They have about four different adult classes. We attended the pastor's class. Then we went to the morning service and enjoyed the special music. The pastor's son Ryan was leading the music and did an absolutely fantastic job. He is only 15 years old and carries himself very well. One of the specials we listened to was the Sunshine class sing a Christmas song. The pastor's dad teaches this class and they did a great job getting up to sing. Then Pastor Landers preached a wonderful message about growing your faith.

Choir singing special

Sunshine Class

Pastor Landers preaching

Then on Sunday night I preached to the teenagers. It is a great group of kids that have a great spirit about them. Many of these kids will grow up to do some great things for God. In fact in the evening service the teens had an ugly sweater contest. The winner was a kid named Luke who was wearing a Hillary Clinton sweater. No contest there! Then during the service they showed my video and I gave testimony about our mission. After that the pastor preached another message on growing faith. It was a great service and we had an absolutely fantastic time. God is blessing this church. Pray for them as they are seeking to build a fourth building on their property... a new auditorium. 

Ryan Landers in festive apparel Sunday night

   

Great Time in Athens, Alabama

Pastor Kennedy

This week we hit the road again and rolled into Athens, Alabama on Wednesday. Our meeting was at the Madison Street Baptist Church. It is led by Pastor C.W. Kennedy who has been the pastor here for a little over two years. We presented our ministry on Wednesday night and I preached the evening message. We enjoyed spending time getting to know some of the people afterwards. Pastor Kennedy is doing a great job leading the church and they recently finished remodeling their auditorium. It is absolutely beautiful!

Out door knocking on Thursday

On Thursday morning I went our door knocking and visiting with Pastor Kennedy. We were out for several hours and I really enjoyed my time with him. It is always fun to do the Lord's work and fellowship at the same time. While we were out Pastor Kennedy led an older lady to Christ who is going to come to church with him on Sunday. Praise the Lord!

Missionary Stan Kiefer and his wife took us out to lunch and we enjoyed spending time visiting with them about Southeast Asia. Brother Kiefer will be heading back to the Philippines in January. Then we ate dinner at some friends house in the area. The Snider family who go to Madison Baptist Church in Madison, Alabama. We stayed with them during the missions conference last June at their church. They are a wonderful family and we appreciated their hospitality for the evening.

At the Snider's house

This weekend before we left for Alabama we were out visiting on the Karen bus route and following up on contacts. We had signed up several new bus riders and had arranged to pick a couple of adult ladies on Sunday morning. One of the ladies my wife had met out door knocking on Thursday night. Her name is Tin Win, she used to be Buddhist, but told my wife she recently became a Christian by getting baptized. My wife was able to sit down with her and explain the Gospel to her, explaining to her that baptism doesn't save anyone. Tin Win bowed her head and trusted Christ as her Saviour, she began to cry and gave my wife a hug, continually thanking her when she left. God is good. The other lady that came is Kler Say, she is already saved, but wants her husband to be saved. Please pray for him, he told me he would come to church but then did not. I will be home the last several weeks of December and will try to get him to visit church and talk to him more about Christ. Both ladies are starting to go through "Grow in Grace" booklets, please pray for their continual growth. Also, pray for us as we travel to Georgia for the weekend! 

Tin Win and Kler Say on Sunday