Camp meeting was a great week of preaching, singing & fellowship. Twenty-six years we have been having this Camp meeting and the Lord continues to bless it with souls saved and Christian's helped and encouraged to stay on course for the Lord Jesus Christ. I am so grateful to so many in our church family who labored tirelessly to minister to others during the entire week. Thanks FBBC! You are a wonderful church family!
Northeast Vision was again a blessed time as Solid Rock BC ministered to over 1600 folks ... pastors and their congregations who traveled to NJ from all over New England to attend and be helped at this 3 day meeting. I know that my wife and I were encouraged and spiritually refreshed once again. We are so grateful to the SRBC family as they demonstrated such a servants heart. I know the Lord will bless them! One key event that blessed FBBC and the Sturgeon family was the salvation of their daughter, Sarah! Praise the Lord! In fact, as you read the next paragraph you will see that the fruit continues to appear as a result of Sarah getting saved.
Teen Camps and youth events galore. The Lord continues to bless the labors, prayers, and involvement of Pastor Sparks and his youth helpers, the Sturgeon's and the Burhoe's. They have been traveling hither and yon and seeing fruit for their labors at every stop along the way. In fact, as a result of Sarah Sturgeon getting saved we have seen other teens get saved as well...just a couple days after Sarah was saved my grandson, Andrea Turrisi was saved. He told me the holy Spirit convicted his that he too was not saved and he too repented of his sin and called upon the Lord Jesus Christ to save him! Glory to God!
Oh! But it does not stop there. While our teens were in Maine at youth camp with Pastor Artie Dean's church another grandson, Alexander Turrisi was doing his morning devotions out of Colossians 3:1-4 and the Lord convicted him about him not being saved. Those verses say, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. 2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." Well, Glory to God for the work of the holy Spirit in a tender open heart. Christ IS now Alexander's LIFE!
But it continues...last Sunday morning our granddaughter, Julianna Turrisi was expressing doubts about her own salvation too. Her mom, our daughter, Kelly, asked my wife to speak with her about it. They talked during the Sunday School hour and yep, Julianna was saved also! Can you just go ahead and shout right there! Glory to God!
Bonnie and I were asked to speak and preach [Clarification...Bonnie spoke to the ladies and pastor's wives (Kathy Gipp affectionately calls it 'spreaching' , and I preached to all the pastors] at Pastor's School at Hope Baptist Church in Toledo, Ohio. This is another great yearly meeting that is alternately held for three days at both Treasure Valley BC in Boise, Idaho and HBC in Toledo. This year it was in Toledo. This meeting was attended by well over 100 pastor's from all over the country. Bonnie and I were both blessed to be able to attend and to minister and be ministered unto.
We returned home to our very own Vacation Bible School (age 3 to 6th grade) which just started on Monday. Every night has been jamb packed with kids enjoying preaching, teaching, food, candy, snacks, games, singing and competition. Attendance has increased each night and last night we had 49 children. We still have three nights to go so we are praying for the Lord to bring forth fruit in the lives of these young children. The kids are bringing "penny offerings" and the money raised will be used to purchase bikes for the national pastor's in Zambia, Africa, where John and Lorna Sarra have ministered for the last 18 years.
In two weeks Cornerstone BC of Brattleboro, VT will hold its first service. Buddy Sadlosky, who has just graduated from our Bible Institute this year has been led of the Lord to start a church there. For several weeks now a heap and gob of our folks have traveled up there on Saturday mornings to distribute tracts, John and Romans, and invitations to the towns folk to attend the opening service September 9th. Buddy has asked me to preach that first service and I am honored to do so. May the Lord be lifted up and glorified in Brattelboro in the days ahead until Jesus comes!
I still have a few busy times yet this year. I will be preaching two Friday and Saturday Family camps in September for Pastor Chuck Starr in North Woodstock, NH and Pastor John Kehoe in Alburgh, VT. Please pray that the Lord blesses those camps! Thanks! I just desire to be used to draw God's people to a closer walk with Him, and to be faithful to our Saviour in these last days.
We also look forward to Pastor James Knox preaching a five night meeting here at FBBC October 1-5, and also a Bible Conference with Pastor James McGaughey preaching a missions emphasis to us on October 28 - 31.
We also have two of our missionaries scheduled to come. Brother Nick Serino, a 30 year missionary from the north slope of Arctic Alaska will be with us September 16th, and Brother Mike Wolski, missionary to Poland for about 10 years will be here on November 4.
Last but not least, we will be having Pastor Campbell from Treasured Trials Ministry here at FBBC from December 2 - 5. On February 17th 2010 he went in for simple knee surgery and came out of that surgery with his life changed drastically. After a failed spinal epidural he would be diagnosed with a condition called arachnoiditis -- which is a life time of severe pain every day, with no cure. Realizing God makes no mistakes, Pastor Campbell, and his family, want to help you give God praise, honor and glory, through your trials, whether they be physical, emotional, financial or mental, and to realize they are treasures from God. Everyone has them. How will you handle yours? Read 1 Peter 1:7.
On the physical side of things we were able to remove the top section of the church tower that has caused years of headaches due to its constant leaking. We had to hire a crane, an 80' lift and Darren Maynes and his crew to remove it and install a new roof on the lower section. Darren did a great job! It looks GREAT! Praise the Lord, no more leaks! What a relief! We did discover that the steel framing was 5" out of square which, no doubt, attributed to the leaking problem because the top section we removed did not fit properly. AH! So glad that problem is fixed. It was costly (approx $8,000 so far, but we had $6,300 come in ahead of time so we still only need about $1,700 more to pay it off completely...can you help?)
Okay, enough "blogging" for now. Have a blessed day!
