Visitors — Sleep Deprivation — and Marriage Enrichment

We are off and running as we enter what is already a tiring week. Sunday night Rev. Evan Drake, president of our mission, began a three-night series of meetings about the biblical family. Families are just as dysfunctional here as they are in the U. S.  Each night’s meetings were very well attended and he really seemed to have everyone’s attention.

Rev. Evan Drake - marriage seminar

Monday night, Evan broke out of his outline briefly to talk about purity before marriage. At then end of the meeting, he invited the young people to come forward if they were serious about remaining pure until marriage. There was a pause of maybe 20-30 seconds and then one young lady came to the front. Then all or nearly all the others came forward too. Next Evan asked if there were any couples who wanted to improve their marriages. In about a minute the front of the church was pretty packed. What made this surprising was that he did not make a lengthy invitation, and he didn’t apply any pressure. He just said to come if you want to do this and he let the Holy Spirit do the convincing.

Dr. Eugene Priddy - preaching in West End

At 1st Baptist Church - West End

Sunday morning, our founding president, Dr. Eugene Priddy, spoke down in West End. At the end of the service, a man came forward to receive Christ. Pastor Bush asked me to pray with him as he surrendered to his Savior and King. What a wonderful privilege to be there to witness a new birth. Pastor Bush said the man had been coming to church for a while and they had talked several times about his need and Sunday was the day he finally took that all important step. Several people have recently trusted Christ at that church and are continuing to attend, read their Bibles, and grow in faith. I’m very excited about what the Lord is doing through Pastor Bush in West End. Even so, as he told me the other day, the need seems to be growing faster than we can reach people with the good news.

After church on Sunday, we (the visitors from BBI and the Radio HRGS staff) went to the Argentine Grill in West End for “lunch.” I put “lunch” in quotes because we were supposed to meet at 1:30. However, Evan, Herman, and Sam got lost on the way and so it was almost as close to supper time as it was lunch time. By the time we got the food, we were more than ready for it. And that worked well, because the meal was abundant and delicious. But it is an outdoor restaurant, so you do have to accept a few of the things that go along with eating outside. What a great time we had!

[Show as slideshow]

I spent most of Tuesday working on our reluctant lawn tractor. As I said in the HRGS Update below, the new carburetor got it running. But it still has no power. It seems to be running lean, so I’ll pull the spark plug today to check on that. However, there is no mixture adjustment to the carburetor. I have other theories, but checking them involves tearing down the machine, because the compression is a little lower than it should be. A valve not fully closing, maybe? On top of that — or should I say underneath that — there are at least two new rust holes in the mower deck. Those John Deere zero turn riding mowers are starting to look very attractive!

Last night was is the last night of the marriage seminar. I was up way past my bed time, but it was well worth it. Evan is not just a good teacher, he teaches good stuff. He and the others from Tampa will be leaving on Thursday, so maybe today we’ll all have time to visit a while. It seems like we’re usually too busy here to be able to talk about all the things we should be talking about. Know what I mean? Hope you have a great week. Here’s the audio update.

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