April 2000

Dear Folks, THANK YOU for faithfully praying for us, and our labours here in Ireland! The Irish weather has been bright and mild in comparison to the winter, and as always, we look forward to Summer. If the heat where you are during the Summer is just too much to bear, may I recommend a few weeks of soul-winning under the "Irish Sun" (it rarely gets above 70 degrees)? You won't regret it! There are always opportunities for folks to "take a break" and come over and help out with our Bible Clubs, and Soul-Winning! Amen!

This year's annual Men's Retreat was the best! In spite of a whole bunch of troublesome battles, and imagined losses, you would have thought you were back at Ephesus hearing Paul, Silas, and Luke preach if you had been with us! Our theme this year was being Mighty Men of Faith, just as David's mighty men were in 2 Samuel! During the two-day get-away we climbed a very steep 2,500 foot mountain; we preached; we prayed; we ate; we played American softball (Amen), and drew closer to Jesus! The folks who were able to attend are THE best you could preach to, and I thank God for them!

Second Annual Mission's Conference. Every March we dedicate the entire month to Missions, and God has for the second year in a row brought us a Missionary family for us to consider supporting as a church. They are Missionaries to France, which is our Samaria, and our hearts were broken for the French nation as Brother Yann Juoan (pronounced 'Jew-on' with a French accent) preached and presented his field of service! We now have three missionary families that we support as a church in Blarney, and the folks in Mallow are wanting to by faith start supporting missions as well!

Loss of a family. Just a word about the attendance in our churches. We work very hard at witnessing, praying, preaching, training, and loving these dear folks here in Ireland. But as was brought home to us again recently in February, with a family leaving church in Blarney, the battle is over commitment to God's word. As most people who soul-win know, people want fire insurance, but will not surrender their bad attitudes, and past problems to the One who bore not only our sins, but also our SORROWS! This has been the case with both churches - we have some strong soldiers, but we also have many carnal folks. So, the work of the Gospel here in Ireland is not just getting folks to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved (which is hard enough), but also to get them to follow Him faithfully with all the heart, and never look back! Pray for more folks to not only lose their sins at the cross, but also lose themselves! AMEN!

Soul-Winning. Recently, I have been dealing with 21 year old Pauline . After more than 8 weeks of talking with her, she has a profession of salvation, but due to a lot of problems in her life, I am not sure she has fully surrendered to the cross. There is a big problem in her life that all of us need to pray gets removed. Also, Denis up in Mallow got gloriously saved Feb 4^th, at our weekly Bible Study in the home of Ann ! He is a truly different person, and we can't stop rejoicing for God's work in his life! I also was going door-to-door in Mallow in March, and met a man mowing his grass. He turned out to be 82 years old, and was not well. I begged him to let me finish the grass. His wife came out and thanked me profusely. I finished the lawn, and then got to spend over an hour with them giving the Gospel, and watching God's word work deep, especially in the man's heart! Pray they get saved as I visit them again soon! Also, let me tell you about an Irishman named Kevin , who was saved several years ago on the streets in New York City. He knew God wanted him back in Ireland, and has returned, and is working alongside us reaching the Irish! Ain't God good?!

Special Visitor. In March, we had a visitor from one of our supporting churches in Texas named Mrs. Dale Carter. She came and spent three precious weeks with us helping out in Bible Studies, special music, soul-winning, and just being a blessing to my family and I! Pray for her as she seeks God's will for her life!

Prayer List - the Most Important Part

•       These need to get saved: Barry, Mary, Richard, Robert and Ann, Mary, Honour, and Isabella.

•       Pray for these to grow: Pauline, Denis, Peter, Marlene, Kevin, Ken, Pat, Dennis, Emmet, and John O.