Beth's Wedding

Grace's sister Beth was the last of the three siblings to tie the knot. Her wedding was on April 5, 2008 in Grove City, PA. Beth and the groom, Chris Berkholtz, met at a Christian camp several years before and they plan on being in youth work and camp ministry in the future. It was a joyous occasion. Grace was the Matron of honor for the ceremony. The rehearsal was the night before and consisted of a catered dinner, gifts, and some extra fun. The actual ceremony was fairly short and to the point. Grace an I sang one of the songs during the wedding and I acted as the videographer. I came cheap: FREE! LOL! But I did get the privilege of sitting in the balcony for the majority of the wedding while the others stood on the platform. All the while I was sipping on a juice box and taping the event. It was relaxing. The event culminated at a local Boy Scout lodge hall for the reception. The bride and groom took a week's honeymoon in Montana and will reside in Connecticut.

Ordination

Well its official! I'm ordained. Of course we baptists believe that ordination is taught in Scripture but that it merits no saving grace or extra element of God's power or even God's calling upon a soul. It is rather a formal recognition by a local church and group of God called preachers that the Lord has already called a man to preach the gospel of the grace of God. Such was the case for me on April 3, 2008. I was ordained under the Biblical authority of Sandy Lake Baptist Church of Sandy Lake, PA.

The list of men involved were as follows:

1. Pastor Tom Henricks- My faither-in-law of Sandy Lake Baptist
2. Pastor David Barnhouse and Asst. Pastor John Milton- Slippery Rock Baptist Church in Slippery Rock, PA
3. Pastor Brian Lott of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Bessemer, PA
4. Brother Troy Carter Director of Hoiser Hills Baptist Camp in Dillsboro, IN.
5. Missionary Rob Willoughby to Estonia
   
   Praise the Lord for his goodness, and his wonderful works to the children of men! (Ps. 107:8, 15 21, 31)

Friend Day 3/23/08

On Easter Sunday March 23, 2008 Anchor Baptist Church had our first annual Friend Day at Anchor Baptist Church. Four weeks previously, I had taken the initiative to try and make our day successful by setting a numerical goal of people we would like to see present. I learned a long time ago two things that helped me be motivated to be successful. "If you aim at nothing you will usually hit it." Also, "That people are the most important thing." We were wanting to minister, preach the gospel to and help people. So our goal was a good starting point for the church. I set the goal at 45 which would be the highest attendance the church had seen since Grace and arrived. I also asked our people to get involved by introducing the idea of four forms of commitments for our members to help make our day a success.

1. The first was to have each member personally sign a commitment card saying they would be present on that day unless sick or providentially hindered.

2. The second aspect to the involvement of the members was to take a number related to how many people they wanted to personally commit to trying to bring for that day. I had slips of paper with the numbers 1-5 on them separately. They could then take the number and pray for that many to come as their guest.

3. The third way for involvement was to have flyers, tracts, and commitment cards available for the members to give out to their friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, and general people in the community. The flyers and tracts were to be handed out over the next four weeks. The commitment cards for visitors were to be taken and signed by other people that our members had invited. The purpose for this was to have a church record of those we had invited. Each of the visitor commitment cards that someone signed to be present with us for the service that day were then turned in. The members commitment card was then placed on the wall of the church with sticky tact. Underneath their card was each of the visitor's cards representing the people they had invited. This way each member of the church could be reminded of their individual progress by having the commitment cards displayed. Through this they also could be reminded to pray for their own commitment and to pray for those they invited and who had committed to them.

4. The final way to help was to go out canvassing. We were able to have approximately 1000 flyers handed out all over the town of Farmville with the weeks preceding the event. My wife and I alone handed out over 700.

A wise man once said, "Work as if everything depends on you and pray as if everything depends on God!" We tried to do that. The end result was a total attendance of 51!!!! We praise the Lord for answered prayer.

A New Piano

One of our church members by the name of Paul Moore owns a flooring shop and installs carpet, hardwood, laminate, vinyl, and tile floors. He had contracted a job for a lady in a town near Greenville, NC called Simpson. Apparently, he was going to be installing new hardwood floors for her and in the process found out that she had a nice Hastings piano that she had been trying to sell, but to no avail. So now she had begun to advertise it for free, yet still no one responded. That is when Grace and I came into the picture. Mr. Moore needed the piano out of the house before beginning to lay the new flooring and asked if Grace and I would like to have the piano. Needless to say it was too good of a deal to pass up and so with a little help from Mr. Moore, his son David, myself, and Mr. Bobby Keel we moved it to our new apartment with no trouble at all. It is in good condition and is a good size and it came with the bench, the light, and some music. It does need to be tuned, but that can be worked out later. Grace wants to learn to play and this will give her the opportunity to practice with convenience instead of needing to go to the church or elsewhere. God is so Good!

We Have Officially Relocated!

During the final week of February, Grace and I headed to Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania to get all of our belongings that were in storage at her parent's home. We arrived in time for church at Sandy Lake Baptist that Wednesday evening after a day and a half stop off in Washington, DC for our anniversary. Sandy Lake Baptist is pastored by Tom Henricks, Grace's dad, and is the church we helped to start while engaged. We were met in PA by Arnold Worley and his wife who have a ministry called Transporters for Jesus. They help move preachers all over the country. He has a large trailer and truck for such purposes that the Lord has provided him which is about the size of a large U-haul. Bro. Worley and his wife helped me, Grace, and her mom and dad load the truck on Thursday morning. After a great breakfast it was time to get started loading and boy was it was a cold day with temperatures to start off right at 8 degrees. And of course we cannot forget the snow, snow, snow !!! It took us only about 4 hours to load since we basically had everything packed and had also done some pre-leg work on Wednesday. Bro. Worley and his wife decided to take off for their home in North Carolina that afternoon. Grace and I stayed the night and the headed to Farmville, NC on Friday. We met Bro. Worley and a suprising 15-20 people from the church at our new apartment on saturday morning to unload. The church folks were so gracious to unload and with that many people showing up only took about 2 hours to do so. We also, officially signed our lease with our landlord Rodney and Sheala otherwise known to us as Swan Properties. In addition to the move one of our church families helped us by buying us a new table and chairs, a couch, a coffee table, and another living room chair. Since the day of the move in Grace and I have not only been thankful for such a wonderful place, but have been trying to organize and arange everything just like we want it. With a little time and effort it will get there. Praise the Lord for his blessings in our safety, our help, our new furnishings, and our church!

Washington, DC Trip

Grace and I celebrated our very first anniversary on February 24, 2008. It was on a Sunday and I was able to take her out to a a nice restaurant in Greenville, NC after church on Sunday night. It was called "Texas Steakhouse" and really, really reminded me of home. On Monday, we left for Pennsylvania to make the formal move to NC. On the way up North we traveled up I-95 to Washington, DC to celebrate our anniversary. I had booked a hotel room with a jacuzzi tub. However, upon our revival it was pretty run down so we looked for 2 hours at Panera Bread for another room. We finally found another one with a jacuzzi tub about 12 miles south of Washington in Clinton, MD. The next day we started out by traveling by the Pentagon in route to the Arlington National Cemetery. Their we were able to see the Tomb of Unknown Soldier, the grave sites of John and Robert Kennedy, the memorial to the military chaplains, and the original home of Robert E. Lee. We walked through the cemetery to the USMC War Memorial and the symbolizing of the flag raising at Iwo Jima. It was huge, and very cool to see. Although instead of walking it, we should have driven over. Since it had been raining sporadically all day it wasn't as pleasant a walk as it could have been. But we made it safely and we did get to see it which was the important thing right? LOL! From there it was on to downtown Washington across the Potomac. We were able to find great parking by the Washington Monument directly across from the Jefferson Memorial. It was great because it was free! We were told that was very uncommon. The Jefferson Memorial was one thing we did not go to see though and the Washington Monument tour was closed for the day. But we made the most of it by walking the umpteen thousand miles of the whole mall. From the Monument to the US Capital Building and back again to the Lincoln Memorial. My what a walk! It was magnificent to see all of the old historic buildings and the Smithsonian alone was amazing from the outside at least. Since it was after business hours we did not get to tour anything but the outdoor sites. It was still awesome to see though. No wonder that they say it would take at least a good week to see every building and all of the exhibits inside the Smithsonian. That is so easily verifiable when you see the buildings. Unfortunately for us one other downfall to our rainy, I mean pleasant day, was that our digital camera's battery ran out of juice. We have a nice 6MP Casio camera with a 2.7 inch screen on the back and a great rechargeable battery. Usually it only needs recharging about every 400 pictures. It has a wonderful battery life which also makes forgetting to charge it so easy. And that is what happened. We arrived at the Washington Monument, took a few pictures and then it died. We traversed on though and when we reached the end of the mall we borrowed another guys camera and stuck in my SD memory card and got a picture by the capital. Then we walked the long trek back to the other end of the mall and kept the camera off. This allowed the battery to suck up enough reserve energy for a few last shots, including one by the Jefferson Memorial. Grace couldn't believe that I actually asked a guy to borrow his camera. Yep, that would be me! At the conclusion of the evening I took my lovely wife to a riverside restaurant that served authentic Latin food. It was called Cabana's and was probably one of the most romantic restaurants that I have ever been to. It had private candle lit booths with small sheer curtains. It was an excellent way to get out of the cold and to enjoy a relaxable private dinner. And to make it more interesting, our waiter was originally from Honduras and since we and both been there before it made for good conversation. He ended up bringing us a free desert of our choice to help us celebrate. Our night ended on a pleasant note and I am glad that things worked out for us to go. I had never seen any of our nation's historic and patriotic sites before and Grace had only seen them when she was younger and so this was a great trip for both of us. It was definitely something that we had on our travel list of things to do and places to visit. I just hope next time it is not raining, cold, nor is everything closed.

New Apartment

Here are some pictures of our new apartment in Farmville, NC. Our prayers have been answered and we are really blessed from the Lord. It is a historic house built in 1903 and totally restored. And when I say totally I mean first class. The house was gutted completely and has new double insulation, new sheet rock, and new thermopane tilt in windows. The owners have divided the house in three apartments: one upstairs and two downstairs. Our apartment is located downstairs and is the largest with 1400 square feet. The ceilings are 13ft. high with white crown molding. The walls are painted a flesh color and with the white molding gives a two tone effect. The floors are restored original hardwoods. There are all new fixtures, all new appliances,and all new wiring. Check out the pics for yourself and see how good God has been to provide such a place for us.