Here is a picture of Adela Marquez and her three children while attending our BCP Family Camp in Ankeny, Iowa this past week. We were thrilled to have so many young people as part of the week. We pray that many of them will want to follow their parents in serving the Lord. Adela and her husband, Alberto Marquez, serve in a Hispanic (bilingual) ministry in Phoenix, AZ.
Every three years our mission agency, Baptist Church Planters, has Family Camp at Faith Baptist Bible College in Ankeny, Iowa. This week almost all of our missionaries and their families are gathered here for a week of spiritual challenge and sweet fellowship in the Lord. Here the president of the mission, Dr. David Little, is addressing the BCP family in the opening service.
On Sunday, July 8 we shared our ministry with Emmanuel Baptist Church in Des Moines, Iowa. We have known Pastor and Mrs. Dan Bunge for many years and we are glad to see how the Lord continues to use them in ministry. Years ago, while we were living in Front Royal, VA (Herb was the pastor of Skyline Baptist Church), we brought a team of teens from VA here to this church to lead in a week of VBS. Our continuing fellowship and ministry together has been a blessing over the years!
We are so grateful for the BCP staff that help keep things happening in the home office of our mission agency. We are especially thankful for Doris Reynolds (seated) who faithfully served the Lord as Office Manager at BCP for many years. She recently retired but we will still see her . . . she’ll be volunteering and we’ll be fellowshipping with her whenever we are in the Grafton, OH area.
Since we live in a fifth-wheel trailer and pull our home from location to location as we serve in this ministry, we often have “roadside events”. This past Friday, May 25 we were only 45 minutes from our destination (Muskegon, MI) when we blew a trailer tire. We were thankful that: 1) we had a gorgeous day 2) we had a battery operated impact wrench to use (a Christmas gift from Wanda’s brother) 3) we were able to pull off to the side of the road onto an entrance ramp and 4) we didn’t receive any damage to the trailer. We would prefer to not have these events but the Lord knows and we will seek to trust and rejoice!
On Friday, May 18 we were able to meet Pastor Oscar Urrea from Santiago, Chile and his interpreter, Jaime. We met Pastor Urrea three years ago when he ministered at our church, Skyline Baptist Church in Front Royal, VA. This time however, Herb was able to converse with Pastor Urrea in Spanish! Pastor Urrea (with International Partnership Ministries) has started Antioch Ministry, establishing Baptist churches in Chile.
In the next few weeks, Herb will be speaking at two Hispanic Summits here in California. Below is a flyer promoting a summit in Ducor, CA on Saturday, April 21. Please pray that these events will be ones of reaching various Hispanic pastors and encouraging their ministries.
During these few months that we are living in one place (we have our trailer parked at the home of my brother in Greenville, SC), I have been blessed with a very gracious and patient tutor. Elena is fluent in both English and Spanish and that is great because my “teacher brain”, has to know the rules and the reason “why” something is said a certain way. ¡Muchas gracias, mi tutora!