Zambia, Africa... November 8 - 23, 2011

Well, on Sunday night , November 7th, at midnight 23 of us left VIA a bus to drive through the night and early morning hours to head to Washington, DC Dulles airport. We arrived at 7:00 am in DC and at 11:00 AM we were aboard an Ethiopian airplane heading to Zambia, Africa.

We flew to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, had a 2 hour layover then departed for Lusaka with a short stop to refuel in Zimbabwe.

We arrived safely in Lusaka and were greeted by John Sarra, Yohannes Getaneh, Joseph (John Sarra's right hand man), Pastor Douglas Sakawaka and a few others. We were so warmly greeted and hugged and loved. I have been to Zambia several times since 1993 when I first took John Sarra there to view the work and get God's direction for his life and ministry these last 18 years. It was so wonderful to see many of the men I knew from previous trips still serving the Lord faithfully! Joy flooded my soul!

We then split up to spend the first night in two different locations to sleep that first night. The next morning we split the group into two groups of 8 and 15. Eight of us stayed in Lusaka and preached and taught several times for the next 6 days at a Bible conference run by 9 pastors from the area of Lusaka, teens and adult services and also ministering to the deaf at Brother Yohannes Getaneh's ministries. The remaining 15 went on to John and Lorna Sarra's mission station in the copper belt area of Luanshya (about 5 hours drive away from Lusaka).

Those who stayed with me in Lusaka for those first 6 days were blessed to minister in the deaf church and school, the deaf Bible college, a bible study group at the Intercontinental Hotel (where there met about 18 hotel staff who have been faithfully meeting each week), and also at the Bible conference in a compound area of Lusaka. Pastor Drummond, George Kie, Cameron Prewitt and myself preached and preached, and Cam drew chalk drawings and preached. It was an amazing week there because in the 6 short day while we were there we saw 46 deaf folks, 5 teenagers, and 18 adults saved at the Bible conference during that first week. The group that went on to the mission station saw 28 saved. All together we were aware of 97 souls who were born into the family of God through repentance of sin and faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary! There was also a plowing, and planting of the seed of corn as Ed Young, George Kie and Cameron prepared about 10 acres of fallow ground to plans corn for the mission station. Physical seed and spiritual seed planted in order to see a harvest of souls and nutrition for the body. GLORY TO GOD!

I want to say that I was blessed to have such a great bunch of young people and "ol goomers" go on this missions trip. There was a GREAT spirit during the entire trip. THANKS FOR GOING! You ALL blessed my heart and filled me with wonderful memories as we worked together for the Lord Jesus Christ . I sure do love you all!

Below is a web site to view some of the video and pictures taken by Brent Burhoe who was at the Mission station. I have also attached a few more pictures at the beginning of this post. They were taken in the area of Lusaka with our group of 8 so you can get a brief glimpse of the deaf work and services at the compound in Lusaka.

Go to this site to see the video of our trip to Zambia, Africa: http://vimeo.com/32826221

Thanks Brent! Great job putting the video together!

Ministry Updates: Some food for thought...and comment:

Ministry Updates: Some food for thought...and comment:

Some food for thought...and comment:

I read the following from Oswald Chambers. Insightful. Let me hear your comments. When you were under the fig tree, I saw you —John 1:48

Worshiping in Everyday Occasions. We presume that we would be ready for battle if confronted with a great crisis, but it is not the crisis that builds something within us— it simply reveals what we are made of already. Do you find yourself saying, “If God calls me to battle, of course I will rise to the occasion”? Yet you won’t rise to the occasion unless you have done so on God’s training ground. If you are not doing the task that is closest to you now, which God has engineered into your life, when the crisis comes, instead of being fit for battle, you will be revealed as being unfit. Crises always reveal a person’s true character.

A private relationship of worshiping God is the greatest essential element of spiritual fitness. The time will come, as Nathanael experienced in this passage, that a private “fig-tree” life will no longer be possible. Everything will be out in the open, and you will find yourself to be of no value there if you have not been worshiping in everyday occasions in your own home. If your worship is right in your private relationship with God, then when He sets you free, you will be ready. It is in the unseen life, which only God saw, that you have become perfectly fit. And when the strain of the crisis comes, you can be relied upon by God.

Are you saying, “But I can’t be expected to live a sanctified life in my present circumstances; I have no time for prayer or Bible study right now; besides, my opportunity for battle hasn’t come yet, but when it does, of course I will be ready”? No, you will not. If you have not been worshiping in everyday occasions, when you get involved in God’s work, you will not only be useless yourself but also a hindrance to those around you.

God’s training ground, where the missionary weapons are found, is the hidden, personal, worshiping life of the saint.

ABOUT 60 OR 70 OF THE FOLKS FROM FBBC WENT TO THE BALL GAME MONDAY NIGHT. Here is Johnny Hugging the New Britain Rock Cats Mascot!

OH YEAH MAN!

Johnny is such a great sport!

PLEASE PRAY FOR 4 ORPHANED CHILDREN

Please pray for Tom, age 12, Simon, age 10, Titus and Tabitha, age 7. About 5 or so years ago their Dad died of a heart attack. Yesterday morning Simon found his Mom dead. She had died the night before of a heart attack. This is such a heart breaking situation. These are four GREAT kids.

Please pray that I would have the wisdom of the Lord to be able to help these kids. Also, please pray for the funeral service this Saturday at 4:00 PM.

Thanks for caring!

JOB 29:11-2 When the ear heard me, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me: 12 Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.

A SOUL SAVED TODAY!

PRAISE THE LORD!

Today we saw an answer to 13 years of prayer! Todd Sturgeon's Mom was in Connecticut (she lives in Florida) visiting Todd and his family and his Mom and Step Dad came to church. Well, she was gloriously saved this morning. Thirteen years but worth it all today as she stepped out and came forward to repent of her sin and trust the Lord Jesus Christ as her Saviour! GLORY TO GOD! A new name written down in glory!

VBS IS OVER...BUT THE LORD IS STILL WORKING!

Well, day 5 and the last night of this years VBS was a great finish to blessed week. We had well over 100 kids, teens and adults here for the last night. There was a skit on salvation at the conclusion of the night. To our knowledge there were four children saved during the week.

However, it did not stop there as I just got off the telephone from speaking to two of our families and was told that two more (their children and grandchildren) boys were saved this afternoon. So, the seed sowed by the holy Spirit this past week is still reaping souls even after the VBS is concluded. God's word never returns void!

I praise the Lord for all the teens and adults who worked so hard to make this a blessed VBS. They ALL did an AWESOME job! MY THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!

All of us (children, teens and adults) are already looking forward to next years VBS!

"Ship Ahoy" for next year!

Day 4 at VBS August 11, 2011

PRAISE THE LORD! We had 59 children come to VBS last night with 7 first time visitors. Another young boy was saved. His name is Nelson Guzman and he is 8 years old. It sure is exciting. He is a cousin of one of our church family.

These kids are having a fun time for sure, but the sole purpose is to provide an opportunity for lost kids to hear the gospel. We even had a teen come as a participant because he was invited by one of the visitors who has been coming all week long. He felt out of place being a ninth grader sitting with 6th graders so I hooked him up with a few of our teen boys who were working in the VBS. He seemed to feel better after that and opened up a tad. I invited him to come to church on Sunday so he could go to the teen class. He seemed very interested. He then told me he was planning to return again tonight. GLORY!

I have attached a few more pictures from last night...KEEP PRAYING!

VBS 2011 DAY THREE

We had another GREAT night at VBS tonight. Forty-nine children came and (I believe) we had 4 visitors. One young girl of 8 years old came because her Mother and her were driving by on RT 177 and saw our sign in front of the church office. The GREAT news is that this girl was gloriously saved tonight. She had heard about salvation before but it never really “clicked” until tonight. Praise the Lord!

We are looking forward to tomorrow night and anticipating the Lord working in the hearts of these kids tomorrow and Friday night. Please keep praying!

THANKS to all of our adults and teens and the Kaisers for laboring for Christ in this VBS!

Day 2 at VBS August 9, 2011

Praise the Lord! Tonight we had 12 more come to VBS bringing 52 children to the VBS! The GREAT NEWS is that one 8 year old boy was saved tonight! GLORY TO GOD!

His name is Dylan. He is a deaf boy and so very nice. So polite and very happy. He and his sister both came to VBS for the first time tonight. They have both been ministered to by my daughter, Shari, who has "babysat" for them during the last several week. As my daughter is an ASL interpreter she has been communicating the gospel to the children. Last night at VBS Victoria Anderson, who is one of our Teen ASL interpreters was signing for Dylan and she lead him to Christ. He was very happy to be saved! Praise the Lord!

Keep PRAYING!

HAPPY DAY EXPRESS - VBS

Well, the first night of VBS was tonight. We had 40 children and about 30 adult workers and a bunch of our teenagers and singles working everywhere. IT WAS AN AWESOME first night. We had a blast to be sure. The kids can't wait to get back tomorrow and many were excited to invite their friends and neighborhood kids. The theme is all centered around Getting Onboard the Heaven Bound Train. The auditorium was decorated with a train complete with lights, "smoke" from the steam engine and sound effects of a train chugging down the tracks. The kids learned a theme song, had a bible lesson and craft time, and then snacks. They were so excited. Praise the Lord for all the folks helping the Kaiser's tonight. I am praying for more children tomorrow and for the Lord to work in the hearts of the children who are ready to get saved.

GLORY TO GOD FOR ALL THAT HE ACCOMPLISHES THIS WEEK IN THE HEARTS OF THESE CHILDREN.

My wife, Bonnie, and 55 folks from our church family drove 4 hours to Berlin, NJ to attend the 3rd N.E. Vision Summit held at Solid Rock Baptist Church. It was an added plus to go there right after attending our own Camp Meeting the week previous. We were all spiritually ready for more great preaching in NJ.

The Clark family and members of SRBC blessed our heart in so many ways. They are all so giving, loving, and caring servants of the Lord Jesus Christ! They took care of every need imaginable and then showered all of us with so much more! Praise the Lord for this wonderful church family.

The preaching was holy Spirit led. Each and every message and service dealt with us by God in the areas of personal convictions, courage, consecration, complacency, focus back to the Lord Jesus Christ, humility, God's ability, sin, service, and so much more. Words can not describe the filling of my cup during the last three days.

Every message was GREAT, however two messages in particular stand out in my heart right now. Both of them were preached by Pastor Doug Fisher. One dealt with the topic of "Keeping Rank" and the second dealt with the topic of "Humility". WOW!

The music was all Christ honoring and uplifting! Thank the Lord for old fashioned Spirit led music. All I can say is again, WOW!

The last day of the conference we filled 15 buses to the max and drove into Philadelphia to the green in front of Independence Hall and sang hymns, patriotic songs, quoted scriptures and handed out 1,oo0's of tracts and John and Romans. One 19 year old was saved that I am personally aware of and who knows how many more souls will be birthed into the kingdom of God as a result of the few hours in Philadelphia that day. Again, it was a WOW experience.

God ministered to me personally so much during these two back to back meetings (Camp Meeting and N.E .Vision Summit) and I am so grateful to my God and Saviour Jesus Christ for ministering to me, my wife, my kids, my grandkids, and my church family! THANK YOU LORD!

MY LOVELY BRIDE OF 41 YEARS!

Bonnie and I were able to take a few days after the camp meeting to get away for our 41st anniversary. What a joy to spend some time together for a couple days. Today we went into Boston and walked around the Science Museum. Enjoyable to say the least. One of the exhibits was a 3D film of the ocean area around South Africa (see us in our 3D glasses). Afterwards we went to Quincy Market for a late lunch. What a great time just walking hand in hand with my honey!

UPDATE July 10, 2011

Thought you all might like to see some pictures of my new grandbaby, Brady Kristopher Deschene born to my daughter, Tina on June 17th as well as some pictures taken just yesterday of the church fellowship hall and kitchen.

My wife spent 3 weeks in FL helping our daughter after the C-section for the birth of Brady. I sure missed her for those three weeks, but she was a great blessing and help to my daughter and her family in FL. It will be awhile before I too will be able to get my hands on the new baby and I can't wait to do so. He sure is a handsome baby!

While Bonnie was in FL I worked on completing the fellowship hall. My kids and grandkids worked many hours with me to get much cleaning done by carting much junk out to the dumpster and putting things away from all over the work site. Our church folks moved all the appliances and supplies from the old kitchen last Wednesday night and the final touch was completed by several of our ladies to set up the new kitchen. The fire marshal, building inspector and health official all gave their approvals and we are ready to use the new facilities for our camp meeting that starts today and runs from July 10-17. The health official said, "This is a first class kitchen, I wish all the kitchens in town looked as good as yours." THAT was a blessing to hear!

I will post some pictures of the camp meeting later next week (if I remember to do so).