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!