From Darkness to Light

Pastor Doug Rogers

From Rogers City Baptist Church we headed to meet with the Berean Baptist Church in Mackinaw City, MI. The church is led by Pastor Doug Rogers who has been here for many years. He also started Faith Baptist Church in Berne, Indiana which is a partner with our ministry. Their missions conference was going to be starting the following weekend and their theme was "From Darkness to Light". However, the week prior to their conference they take the missionaries along with their staff to the Servants Retreat on Mackinaw Island.

Meily from Thailand

I already put this story out in our latest letter, but while we were waiting for the group to arrive in Mackinaw City we grabbed a bite to eat and met a Thai girl working at the establishment that we were eating at. She is Buddhist, but we had a chance to lay the foundation of the Gospel out for her. She was getting ready to return to Thailand in a few days and lives in area we have been at before. In fact my wife has been texting with her since her departure and we are going to be sending a missionary we know in Thailand to follow up on her and hopefully we will be able to report to you soon that she has been born again! Please pray for Meily to get saved when our missionary friends visit her.  

Dr. Jim Green

The Servants Retreat is hosted by Dr. Don Green and his son Dr. Jim Green. It is a wonderfully refreshing and relaxing time. We got to stay several nights at the famous Grand Hotel which had Vice President Mike Pence staying there the previous week before we arrived. As much as I like our Vice President, the crowd staying during the Servants Retreat is a more important crowd in God's eyes as it is a group of men of God!

The men of God at the Retreat

The guest speaker for the retreat was Evangelist Tim Green. He preached a great message both Tuesday night and Wednesday night as well as in the split sessions on Wednesday morning. We enjoyed hearing him as well as Dr. Don Green who also preached on Wednesday morning with Holy Spirit fullness!

Brother Tim Green

On Wednesday evening before the preaching Brother Jim Green asked Pastor Russell Tharp from Bible Baptist Church in Central Lake, Michigan to sing a special. He sang "We Believe" and did an absolutely fantastic job at it! As hearts were stirred from the singing, Brother Tim Green got up and preached a great message!

Pastor Tharp singing

During the refreshment time on Tuesday evening before the service started my wife had a chance to give the Gospel to a young man who was standing by as an attendant for the refreshments. His name was Jayson and he is from the Philippines. After my wife took him through the plan of salvation he had to get to work, so my wife left him a Gospel tract. (Many foreigner works are brought in here to work the tourist season and then return to their countries during the winter time.) The next morning Mrs. Terri Green told us that after the service last night she tried to give this young Filipino fellow a tract and he already had one and showed her our tract. He also told her that he prayed and asked Christ to save him. Praise God.... but wait, it gets better than that. Jayson approached us on Wednesday evening before the service and thanked my wife for sharing the Gospel with him. He said that after she talked to him he felt conviction and knew that he needed to trust the Saviour! He told us he bowed his head and prayed and asked Christ to save him!!!

Jayson who trusted Christ

We headed back to the mainland on Thursday and drove four and half hours to Adrian to prepare for the missions conference. We are thankful for the Berean Baptist Church taking us on this retreat and a special thank you to Brother Kevin Chase who is in charge of the group in the church that takes care of us for this conference and paid our way to go to the retreat, because it does cost a significant amount to be able to go. For us this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and we are thankful for it!!! By the way Brother Chase is the administrator of Berean Baptist Academy.

Brother Kevin Chase

We stayed with Dr. Mike Cox and his wife during the conference. Brother Cox is one of the former pastors of Berean Baptist Church and is the founder of the FBMI mission board. He and his wife are our friends and they currently help Harvest Baptist Church in Grasslake which is a partnering church with us. Speaking of Harvest Baptist Church, I ate lunch with their new pastor, Brother Kelly Daniel. Brother Daniel has been there just a little over a month and is a good friend of mine as well. He and I were actually ordained on the exact same day at the same time... July 4, 2001. It was good to talk with him and see how he is settling into the new church. Unfortunately, I failed to get a picture with him. Lol!

Dr. Mike Cox

On Saturday my wife and I went out soul winning with Berean Baptist Church. I went out and pounded doors with Brother Doug Campbell and my wife went separate with his wife and another lady named Phyllis. I was able to lead a man named Emmanuel to Christ who just moved from Detroit. He wasn't able to come on Sunday but said he wants to make it next week.

Phyllis and my wife

On Sunday morning my wife and went to the Shepherds class, which is a class for special education adults. We enjoyed meeting the people as I tried to shake hands with every person in there, which there was a lot of folks in there, probably at least 60 folks. I taught a lesson and then my wife and I answered questions about Thailand. Brother Doug Campbell, my soul winning partner from Saturday, was the song leader for the class and introduced me to the class.

Brother Doug Campbell

After Sunday school I taught in the one of the junior churches and my wife and I told them about Thailand after the invitation time. Two young ladies got saved during the invitation time. My wife did an excellent job teaching them about Thai customs and telling them many Thai sayings...  On Sunday night all the missionaries gave a flag presentation for their country and then Missionary Ben Turner preached the evening message.

Mrs. Painter talking to junior church

On Monday morning Brother Turner preached Chapel and then Pastor Rogers took the men out and bought them new suits in Toledo. Then Monday night Missionary Ben Turner gave an update of his work in Canada and preached the evening message. Brother Turner started a church in the Vancouver area in 2001 and has been faithfully serving there since. His son is currently on deputation as a missionary going to Uganda and was also at this conference.

Missionary Ben Turner in between his son and father

Tuesday morning Brother Turner's son, Caleb preached the chapel service and my wife and I spoke to some of the elementary kids after the service about Thailand. We had a great time and the kids really enjoyed listening to us tell them about various custom differences. In the afternoon the missionary wives were taken shopping in Toledo to get a new outfit to go with the husband's new suits. Then on Tuesday evening another missionary presented his work and preached.

My wife teaching the kids

Wednesday morning there was a men's breakfast. We had a great meal and then the missionaries all gave their salvation testimony's. I told about mine and then how I was called from being a deputy sheriff to going into the ministry first as a pastor and then becoming a missionary.

Men's Breakfast

After the men's breakfast I preached the morning chapel service. I preached to a good crowd of not only kids, but adults. Many stayed over for chapel after the men's breakfast was over. I preached on "The Compassion of Christ" and hearts seemed stirred. Their students are very attentive and well behaved which is a blessing!

Preaching Chapel

After lunch on Wednesday we had a question and answer time with all of the high school kids. All the missionaries were included in this and there were a lot of great questions. Then we went soul winning with the teenagers. My partner was Jacob and we knocked on many doors. We were privileged enough to have a man named Robert answer the door. I was able to not only invite him to church but talk to him about his eternity. He didn't know if he would go to Heaven when he dies, but said he would like to know that. I then took him through the plan of salvation with my New Testament and after about 15 minutes of talking and explaining Robert bowed his head and asked Christ to be his Saviour. Praise God!

My partner Jacob

On Thursday morning after attending chapel we went to the Senior Citizens service for a question and answer time with all of the missionaries. We talked and answered questions for the Senior Citizens of the church and then afterwards ate lunch with them. It was blessing to spend time with these precious folks. This church covers every aspect of getting their missionaries for their conferences in touch with every level of their church. We met with every group and level of people while here. It is a very missions minded church!

Lunch with Senior Citizens

Thursday night is the final service of this conference. It was now my turn to present our mission before the entire church and to preach the final message. God seemed to truly bless the service as I presented and then preached the Word of God. During the invitation the altars filled up with people moving forward and making decisions. After the service the Faith Promise Commitment cards were collected and then pictures were taken with each group and their missionary family. Each missionary has a different group assigned to it and that group takes care of the missionary during the conference and if the church partners with the missionary that group continues to pray for and be a blessing to that missionary family. Afterwards each group host a shower of blessings party for their missionary family. This was a tremendous blessing for us as these sweet folks fulfilled many things of need for our mission to Thailand. We cannot thank Pastor Rogers and this church for all the goodness that they did for us. Please pray for us as we head to a missions conference in Iowa on Friday. Also, please pray for Berean Baptist Church as many of them are headed to Belize next week for a missions trip.

Missionaries with Pastor and his wife