This summer was a busy one. We started out the month of June with the wonderful people of New Testament Baptist Church, Kinston, North Carolina. The missions conference was a great blessing to our heart. We enjoyed meeting new missionaries and being involved in every aspect of ministry at the church during the missions conference. Pastor Daniel, Pastor Jackie, and the people there have a real heart for missions.

From there we headed home and quickly transitioned to camp mode. The majority of our summer was spent ministering one last time at Living Water Christian Camp. This is the camp our church operates. What a great joy it was to be involved in staff training, program, services, preaching, and much more. God blessed the summer with many souls saved, and many more taking their next spiritual step.

We did have a few meetings sprinkled in during the summer months. We were able to go down to Alabama and minster at First Baptist Church, Double Springs, Alabama. A college roommate of mine, Phillip Twilley is the pastor there. He is doing a great work there and it was so encouraging to see God growing His church in that place. From there we headed to Lighthouse Baptist Church, Columbus, Mississippi. What a great time we had with Pastor Banks and the people there. Their hospitality is second to none! We thank God for the opportunity to present our ministry and preach on a Wednesday night. The church voted to take us on for support and we thank God for partnering us with another great supporting church.

The next week was spent relaxing as a family with Edwin's mom in Florida. We were able to celebrate our 10th Anniversary while there. It was a much needed time or rest and rejuvenation. During this time Edwin injured his back trying to pick up Canaan (I guess at 34, he is getting old and his body is falling apart). It took Edwin quite a bit of time to recover, but he is doing much better now.

After finishing up summer camp, we loaded up and made the long drive from North Carolina to Maine. We made stops in Maryland, to visit one of Cassie's favorite places growing up. We also stopped in Boston to see Edwin's sister who is a student at Harvard.

Our time in Maine has been very profitable. We had a great time ministering in a few different churches and have enjoyed some great fellowship with the Lynn Family, who used to live in North Carolina, but now minister here in Maine. Pastor Lynn now pastors West Hampden Baptist Church and they have been so kind to open up their home to us during our time here. One of the great blessing so far was actually at a church we weren't schedule to be at. We had an open morning on Sunday, August 24th and went to a church nearby. The Pastor asked me to present our ministry and preach in the AM service. They took up a special offering for us and want us to stay in contact. On top of all that, one lady accepted Christ after the service! Praise the Lord!

Next week we head to Connecticut. We have meetings there, in New York City, in Pennsylvania, and again in Maine before we head home for a few days. We are eagerly anticpating our trip out to Oregon and Washington during the month of October. We will be in a Home Missions Conference, a few individual church services, and a Missions Weekend at a church during our time out there. We plan to do some preliminary looking for housing and a place for services.

As many of you know, our plans are now to move out to Oregon during the late March/early April time frame of next year with a desire to plant in October of 2015. There is much to be done between now and then and we are still staying sensitive to God's leading concerning all the timing and details. Please be in prayer for us concerning all of this.

Thank you again for all your support and prayer. God bless!!!

The months of April and May have been some of the busiest and most profitable of our eight months of deputation. The Lord blessed us with a few missions conferences and many meetings. We were able to make new friends and partners in ministry and look forward to seeing how God uses the new connections we made to further His work in Oregon and the Northwest.

We left North Carolina at the beginning of April and headed for the Northwest. Our first stop was a great Missions Conference with Pastor Brandon Hardy and the great people of Bethel Baptist Church in Salem, Oregon. The Lord truly directed each preacher as to the message to preach and we certainly were challenged and grew during our time here. We had a wonderful time going door to door, enjoying meals with the Pastor and others in the church, and every night at the service. We then headed up to Poulsbo, Washington to be with Pastor Steve Burden and Bible Baptist Church. He was kind enough to let us come in on Monday, even though his Missions Conference started on Sunday. We had a great time with Pastor Burden and the people, as well as the Koehns who are planting a church in Ellensburg, Washington. We enjoyed the fellowship and going door to door in Washington as well. We finished our trip to the Northwest by spending Easter at Willamette Valley Baptist Church. Pastor Rick Donley was kind enough to let us share our burden on Sunday night and Edwin was able to preach.

We headed home to North Carolina a few days later. We had two days at home to rest, recoup, wash our clothes, pack the van, and head to the Midwest. We thank God for his safety and provision as we logged somewhere between 4,000 and 5,000 miles on our van during this twenty five day trip.

We started this trip out at Crossroad Baptist Church in Wanatah, Indiana, with Pastor Rick Moore. We had a great time spending all day Sunday with them. Pastor Moore and the people were a great blessing and we enjoyed seeing what God was doing there and what He will do in the future under Pastor Moore's direction. Our next stop was Hillcrest Baptist Church, Logansport, Indiana. Pastor Brandon Hudson and I went to camp together during our high school days. His wife and I went to high school together. It was great to catch up and spend some time with them. The accommodations while at the church were out of this world and we were able to make some new friends during our stop here as well. Next on our road trip was a stop with a college friend, Paul Rebert, who is the Pastor of First Baptist Church in Danville, IL. It was great to catch up with him as well and share our burden and calling with the church.

Since Josiah's birthday was to happen during our trip, we planned a couple of days in St. Louis to celebrate. We enjoyed Chuck-E-Cheeses, the Zoo, the Science Center, and the St. Louis Arch. It was a great time of rest and rejuvenation. From there we headed to Ellsinore, Missouri where Pastor Adam Webb and First Baptist Church was kind enough to let us use their prophets chamber and allowed share our ministry on Sunday Night. The farthest west we would go was Edmond, Oklahoma. We had a fabulous time with Pastor Russ Bishop and his family. Their three year old church plant, Lighthouse Baptist Church is a great example of how God is using church planting in America. We were also able to enjoy some good preaching at Heartland Baptist Bible College.

As we began to head back home our first stop going back east was Calvary Road Baptist Church, New Albany, Indiana, with Pastor Mike Kleitz. We enjoyed our time with the people here and were excited when they voted to support us right their in the service.

The last leg of our trip was the most unexpected, yet exciting part! We had plans to be at a church in the Cleveland area. By way of a mutual friend, Pastor BJ VanAman at Pickerington Baptist Temple, Pickerington, Ohio, was willing to house us as we were passing through Columbus. He was kind enough to allow us to present our ministry during their Thursday night service. While there our meeting in Cleveland had to be canceled because the Pastor's mother had passed away with cancer and all the services would take place on the Wednesday that we were scheduled to be there. The Lord always has a plan though. They are also always higher than ours. After telling Pastor BJ about what happened he implored us to stay and enjoy their church plants' one year anniversary with them on Sunday. That Sunday they voted to partner with us!!! That was not part of our scheduled plan, but it was part of God's and we are thankful that He worked it out. We greatly enjoyed our time with Pastor BJ, his family, and the church. We look forward to seeing how God will use our partnership to glorify Him.

The schedule slows down a little bit as we will spend a good chunk of our summer ministering at Living Water Christian Camp, which is the summer camp our sending church runs. However, we we certainly ask you to continue to keep us before the Lord as we will be doing some deputation travel during the summer months. Things pick up big time starting in August as we head to the Northeast for about two months, before we head back out the the Northwest. We love you all and thank God for your support and prayers. May God continue to bless you all greatly!!!!

The first two months of 2014 have been some of the slowest, yet most profitable. Many of the churches we have been in contact with do not have Missions Conferences in these winter months. Also, most churches are aiming to implement their new church theme and vision, which leaves little time for visiting missionaries, church planters, or preachers. Because of this we have only been to two meetings this year, but bother were very helpful and encouraging.

Our first stop was the Church Planting Conference at Heartland Baptist Bible College, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. It was a wonderful time of meeting with like-minded church planter. We had the opportunity to hear beautiful singing and great preaching. There was also much money raised for the cause of church planting in America. All in all there was over $343,000 given. We did not have an opportunity to present our ministry at the conference. However, at the last service Dr. Sam Davidson called us and six other church planters to the stage and took one last offering for the seven of us to split! Wow! What an unexpected blessing that was! One of the greatest advantages of attending conferences like these is to meet pastors who have a heart for church planting, want to have you come present your ministry at their church, and want to support you! We were able to make six or seven really good contacts and look forward to being in these churches in the near future.

Our second stop of the year was the first annual Church Planting Summit at Green Garden Baptist Church in Monee, Illinois. The idea here was the same as the conference at Heartland. Green Garden Baptist Church is a six year old church plant. Sauk Trail Baptist Temple in Richton Park, Illinois is the mother church. Green Garden Baptist has already reproduced itself in the form of a Hispanic church that is meeting in Chicago Heights, Illinois. it is plain to see that these churches have a heart for church planting. Pastor Jayson Workman has a burden to help church planters as much as possible. I had the opportunity to teach Sunday School and then we enjoyed the Summit the rest of the time. In this first meeting more than $25,000 was pledged. We did have an opportunity to present our ministry here and we raised over $3000 in one time support and $150 in monthly support. One of the neat things about this conference was that all the speakers were church planters. The preaching was great, the spirit was great, the food was great, the music was great! It was all great! We were also able to make many good contacts here and even scheduled two meetings with pastors.

We were a little disappointed to start the new year with a sparse schedule, but the Lord new best. We have been hit with the flu, a stomach bug, and Edwin had some serious back issues. All of these things would probably hindered our ministry if our calendar was full. Thankfully once we get in to March things significantly pick up and we look forward to being back in churches. Thank you all for your continued prayer and support!

We hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!! The end of 2013 was a busy time for us. We were in Missions Conferences, we presented our ministry in many churches, and we traveled to Oregon to be with family, meet with Pastors, share our calling and vision, and to do a little more survey. By mid-December we settled in at home to enjoy the holidays. We start back up here in January and we are excited to see what God is going to do in 2014.

During our time in Oregon Edwin was able to go to a men's retreat in Washington. Over 300 men were present and multiple churches were in attendance. He had the opportunity to address the audience and share his vision and calling for church planting in the Northwest. Many of the pastors there were interested in what we are doing, took our prayer card, and wanted to stay in contact. Edwin was also able to be meet with a few pastors who have planted churches in Oregon or who have pastored in the area for some time. It is always good to be able to pick their brains a little bit about ministry in Oregon and the Northwest.

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We were also able to present our ministry in a few churches in Sherwood, Oregon and in Salem, Oregon, while we were there. We believe God is doing something awesome in the hearts of the churches in the Northwest and we look forward to seeing how God will partner us together with them to glorify Him through church planting! It was also great to spend time with Cassie's parents while we were in Oregon. These people have been a constant source of godly wisdom and encouragement. God's grace is made evident to us often through Mike and Mary Lou Bernard and we praise the Lord for them! We had a great ending to 2013 as we got a call from a pastor to tell us their church was taking us on for support at $200 a month. Praise the Lord!

We start out 2014 with a string of Church Planting Conferences. We look forward to attending these, getting to know other church planters, and being connected with churches and pastors who have a heart for church planting. We will be in Oklahoma, Illinois, and Colorado to start the year. There is a lot of traveling that goes on during deputation. It can be a costly endeavor, but we thank the Lord for many individuals who have given monetary gifts that make travel possible without stretching or destroying our budget.

Thank you for your fervent prayers on our behalf. We look forward to seeing what the Lord has in store for us this year and we will be sure to keep you up to date! If you haven't gotten one of our new prayer cards and would like to have one, please let us know.