Count Your Blessings

Six months. That's how long Karen, the kids, and I have been on the field in New Mexico. Not long ago one of my Regional Advisory Team members (we call them RATS, but they're really quite nice) said, "Jim, make sure to take some down time. Don't try to get everything done at once." And he's right. Most of our challenges have been brewing for a while, and it will take time to properly address them.

Still, in six months God has done some remarkable things. So in praise to Him, let me share just a few of them.

• Reserve Baptist Church recently called a new pastor. Not long thereafter, in partnership with the State Convention and Mountain Association, they held a concert / evangelistic outreach. It was a way to tell the community that the church was alive and engaged. Well, so far, one family has returned to the church and three others trusted Christ for salvation last week!
  
• First Indian Baptist, Gallup called Mark Chandler as pastor. In six months they have gone from being nearly bankrupt to being self-sufficient. Soon a couple will move from Georgia to Gallup to serve as community missionaries. The vision is for the church to become a 7 day a week ministry center.
  
• Old Fort Wingate is soon to become a youth ranch / retreat center, reaching the Navajo for Christ!
  
• Two men in First Baptist Grants have approached me about God's call to ministry. One in particular, the son of missionaries to the Navajo, believes God is calling him to serve Native Americans!
  
• Four new ministry partnerships are confirmed, with another working! And this does not count the teams recruited through Durk Lynch (WBA Missions Development Dir.), Jack Foster, or First Indian / Church Rock.
  
• God has opened a door for a new ministry serving the Crownpoint area.

Again, this is not a complete list. To whatever extend God has used Karen and me as catalysts for these and other things, I am grateful. Most of all, I stand in awe of our wonderful Lord who is always at work redeeming a lost world unto Himself.

Join us in praising Him for these things! Keep us in your prayers as we seek to follow Christ further in our new mission field. If He's done all this in a few months, I can't wait to see what he has in store for the coming years.

To His Glory!

Bro. Jim