Operation UK

Sunday evening, our home church had a commissioning service for our family. We had a great time of fellowship with our church family and were challenged from God's Word by Dr. Thurman Wade, and my father and pastor, Doug Anderson. The preaching was great and the time of prayer and fellowship was wonderful with our families and home church. We appreciate so very much the privilege to partner with Bible Baptist and for all of the dear people that pray for our family on a daily basis. We are counting down the days until we leave, until then, there is much work to be accomplished! Please continue to pray as we finish our preparation and preaching schedule!

John

II Cor.4:7

Sara's Dad and Mom with the children.

Dr. Thurman Wade is the General Director of Macedonia World Baptist Missions.

Commissioning Prayer.

Pastor's Presentation.

Ladies in the church made this beautiful cake!

John & Dr. Wade.

July 23, our son Titus turned four years old! We are so very thankful for Titus and for what he means to us! He has been such a good boy as we traveled and presented our ministry across the country to many churches. His name means "Pleasing", we are praying that he will grow up to be pleasing in the sight of the Lord! Happy Birthday buddy!

Also, our daughter Sydney turned two on July 25. She is such a pretty little girl, she takes after her mom, thankfully! She also has been a blessing to our family and we are so thankful that the Lord has given her to us! Love you Sweetie! Below are a few pictures from their party.

I rarely post things that do not relate directly to our ministry and what the Lord is doing in our lives; however, this subject in a measure relates greatly to any ministry and every Christian's life. I hope you don't mind me being a little personal tonight:  My father has been pastoring eighteen years at the same church. Quite an accomplishment for any pastor in any ministry, especially when the average pastor's tenure is 21 months nationwide! You do not stay somewhere this long without being misunderstood, misrepresented, and even outright lied about! I praise the Lord that through the thick and thin, he has stuck it out! It is a great testimony to the grace of God! I recently was speaking to someone about my father and the ministry, my friend asked me, "What do you admire the most about your father"? Without hesitation I said, "My father is not a perfect man, but my father is a man of great integrity." I began to think about that,  just because you may have a great REPUTATION does not mean that you have INTEGRITY! You see, your reputation is what people THINK about you; your integrity is what GOD KNOWS about you! The last fourteen months have been the most difficult that I have ever seen my father go through. People who have benefited from his life and ministry, their homes are together today as a result of his love and counsel, their children are saved today because of the ministry of our church, their lives enhanced spiritually; turn and attack and say things that are harmful to the work of God, the man of God, and the NAME of God! It is difficult to watch your pastor, mentor, friend, and father be attacked by people of low or no integrity, but it is a great blessing to see that through every bit or it, he has maintained his integrity!  Praise God! Thank God that there are men, just like my father, who have great integrity. Let us not concern ourselves more with what men think, than with what God knows! By the way, if you live a life of integrity, you will have a good day at the Judgement Seat of Christ; if your life is solely dependent upon the opinions of others, you may need to do some house cleaning! May God help each of us to determine that we will be a people of integrity! Thanks for letting be brag on the Lord and a little on my dad tonight!

Love you Dad!

John

II Cor.4:7

Titus and Grandaddy!

All of our final paperwork is in for our visas. Please pray that the final process will go smoothly and that we will receive our visas in quick order. We have sold half of our belongings and are preparing to sell the other half! We are greatly anticipating our move, but there are many details that must be cared for. Thank you for your prayers, we were able to open our British bank accounts and get our UK banking situation resolved. This week we will know the final costs on our shipping and deposit for the home in the UK. These will be extremely busy days, so please pray for wisdom and direction!

 God Bless!

John

I love technology today! One of the "fads" in the last three years has been instant messaging, or better known as text messaging. This morning, I was up early praying about some of the needs in our ministry and for our move over to the UK this summer. We have been praying specifically about one decision that needed to be made, but we were needing an additional $1000 to take care of it. I prayed this morning very specifically about the $1000 need. I finished my prayer time and started checking emails, when my phone vibrated this morning with an instant message. It was a friend of mine in Ohio that I have not seen or heard from in over 8 months. I called him on the home phone and we caught up with what was going on in our lives and with our families. Before we hung up he said " We want to be a blessing and help you guys get over to England this summer, we are sending you a check for $1000, will this help"? Don't you love instant messaging?!?! I know that each one of us have needs and have requests that we have prayed to God and God has answered; but isn't it great when it is instant! A friend of mine, who is a missionary in India, preached a message with this thought: "God always answers your prayer! When you pray outside of the will of God, the answer is NO! When you pray in the will of God but the timing is wrong, God says SLOW! When you pray in the will of God, but there is something that God wants to teach you before He answers, God will say GROW! But when you pray in God's will, the timing is right, your heart is right, and your willing to obey God no matter what the answer is, God says GO!" Thank the Lord for His provision and for His Instant Messaging and Answering Service called Prayer!

We are in the process of selling off our "stuff", ordering our container, and making final preparations for our move abroad. It is amazing when you start going through all of your "stuff" to see how much can fit in small places! Sara is having a yard sale on the Fourth of July, we are hoping to get rid of most of our "stuff" then. We also have made contact with a new realtor in the UK that is currently assisting us with finding the right rental home for our situation. Please begin to pray that through this relationship we will be able to introduce her to Christ. Her name is Frances. 

PRAYER REQUESTS:

1. Mark Stewart is the Middle East Director for Macedonia World Baptist Missions. Brother Mark's wife, Sandra, passed away on Tuesday after a two year battle with cancer. Please pray for Brother Mark and his two precious daughters, they are eight and six. Brother Mark has always been a great encouragement to me, there have been many late nights when I have been driving alone that Brother Mark has called to say hello and that he is praying for me. I think he stayed on the phone to make sure I did not fall asleep while driving. He has been a dear friend to me, please pray for he and his family at this time. Also, please pray for me as I plan to attend the funeral sometime this week.

2. England is the most difficult country in the world to open a bank account in. Please pray for me tomorrow as I work diligently to finish the final requirements to open the account. 

3. Please continue to pray that the Lord will provide the necessary funds that we need for this move abroad.

We look forward to all that God will do in the days ahead! May God bless you in a wonderful way!

John

II Cor.4:7

Please pray for us, we have been in contact with Home Office of London, British Consulate in the States, and three courier companies regarding our visas to get into the UK. We are not running into any roadblocks so far, and everything seems to be going according to schedule to get into the UK in more than enough time for our departure date. We have two specific things I would like you to pray with us about: (1) We have to have an exact address in the UK in order to obtain our visa. We have almost secured this, but until this is cared for, we will not be able to get the visa. (2) We have been in contact with a church in the UK that does not have a pastor right now. They have a parsonage that is empty at this point. We have contacted them and asked if we could rent this from them until we find a permanent home. Please, Please pray that if this is the Lord's will for us, that He would work out the details in order for us to temporarily move into this parsonage until we settle into a more permanent situation. Thanks to each of you that email and let us know that you are praying for us, we greatly appreciate it and need it during these weeks. 

John 

II Cor.4:7

I was filling up our car with fuel the two days ago when I began to have a panic attack, like many of you have had recently, when I saw how the cost of fuel continues to rise. I at first began to complain, then I remembered that fuel costs $10 a gallon in the United Kingdom, most countries do not have a choice of regular, plus, or premium. The countries that do have lower prices are mostly under great oppression by a wicked tyrant that is consumed by his own desires. Then the ultimate conviction came, at least I have a car to put fuel in!!!! As I reflected, I began to realize that God has truly been good to each of us to allow us to live in our country. This does present a great challenge to many missionaries who are driving across the country raising their support. Please pray for these dear families as they follow God's will. We know that God will provide, but please pray that their faith will be increased during this test. As our cost of fuel rises and as we see the world panic, the Lord gave me this verse yesterday, "They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the LORD was my stay." - Psalm 18:18 Although the prices may rise, God is our STAY! Praise the LORD anyway!

I am currently working on a new podcast that we will be airing each week. I have been told that over 50% of Londoners listen to a Ipod or an MP3 player every day! What a great way to begin reaching people via a podcast! These are great days to be serving the Lord, we have more technology opportunities to share the Gospel than ever before! I can't wait until we start!