God Knows Best

A big blessing this week was the company of Missionary to Serbia, Danny Foss.
I have been in a hurry to get to Croatia for some time now, and there have been several small delays along the way, but God knows what He is doing and His timing is always perfect!
Danny Foss attended our missions conference last week at Trinity Baptist Church and was a blessing to us.  Then, after the conference he needed a place to stay for this week to work out a few local meetings.  Lo and behold, since I was still here in the house he stayed with me.
It was great getting to know Danny a little bit while soulwinning with him.  He has a great burden to see Serbia saved and he is preparing to go there as soon as next January.  He will be the first and only Independent Baptist Missionary in Serbia.  Since we now know one another, and since Serbia is right next to Croatia, and since both countries speak essentially the same language, perhaps I will be able to drop in on Danny once in a while and be a help and encouragement to him. Maybe that is what God had in mind working out my timing the way He has. (Just maybe.)
What a mighty and all-sufficient God we serve.  He knows the end from the beginning.
Oh, and my timing?  I purchased a ticket for March 26th.  I will be in Croatia very soon.
Glory to His name!

Bull Riding? Yes! Bull Riding.

What a great Saturday we had!  Missions Conference has been going on at Trinity Baptist Church in Arlington and we had the honor of some very special guests being in town.  One such guest is a young man name George Salazar from Capitol City Baptist Church in Austin.  He accompanied his pastor, Adam Thompson, who was preaching to our Spanish department this week.
George and I went soulwinning together for several hours Saturday morning, and after lunch at my favorite Chinese Restaurant (China Sea Buffet) we went to my favorite street corner for some Street Ministry time!  Hallelujah!  What a blessing!

George has a great singing voice and we sang hymns for over a hour, to the top of our lungs. (He sang and I made a joyful noise.)

Traffic was unusually high for a Saturday afternoon and we had noticed some activity around the gigantic Dallas Cowboys stadium that was worthy of some followup.

Lo and behold! Bull Riding was going on at the Dallas Cowboys Stadium and it wasn't going to be over till 11:00 PM.  That's great because we had plenty of time to go to our church service and then return to the streets again for all the exiting traffic.  Wow!

We had the privilege of passing out hundreds and hundreds of tracts and standing with our signs till well after midnight.

Thank you George Salazar for the blessing of your participation on Saturday.  And THANK GOD for a Street Ministry and a Gigantic Stadium to draw 100,000 never-dying souls to our back door to receive a gospel witness. Bull Riding?  Who would have thought?

What a Saturday!  Glory Hallelujah!

What's next week?  Would you believe a Monster Truck Rally?  Yes, we'll be there.

God is not willing that any should perish.....

NBA All-Star Game

We were so privileged to have the NBA All-Star Game played in our city over the weekend!  Why? Because we had the privilege to be at the entrance of the stadium passing out hundreds and hundreds of gospel tracts and repeatedly telling the huge crowd that Jesus loves them and died for their sins!
Glory Hallelujah!
What a blessing to have so many thousands flock to your back door - just 5 minutes from church - and have them hear and receive a gospel message.

Two experiences stood out to me:

1. When I asked a man who had a very pronounced European accent if he would like to have a Bible message, he replied "Not Really."
   As I continued holding out the tract for him to take I pleasantly said, "Then you probably need it very badly". To my joy, he chuckled and said, "You are probably right" and accepted the tract.
   (God will give us the words to speak if we will depend upon him.)
   
2. I offered a tract to young man who,  when he realized what it was, broke out into a long and extremely joyous statement of what a blessing it was to have somebody out preaching the Word.  He offered a high five saying, "High five me, bother! High Five!", which I happily accommodated. He was a blessing and an encouragement.

Hundreds of tracts were passed out and many people heard that Jesus loves them and Jesus saves!
A Sunday afternoon doesn't get any better than that.

Interesting Video (Less than 2 minutes long)

The First of Many Farewells

My two most faithful English class students, Peter and Ling, invited me to dinner on the 27th to say their goodbyes since they decided to move back to New York.  They also invited our good friend Trista.
We had a wonderful dinner together at one of their favorite places - the one that served us steamed chicken feet last time we were there.
The food was fantastic and the fellowship was wonderful - a very fitting goodbye.
After dinner, Peter and Ling mentioned the remote possibility that they might one day move back to Texas.  That was my cue to let them know about my upcoming move to the mission field of Croatia.

It was perfect timing, since Trista speaks really good English she was there to help me explain to Ling and Peter exactly what I was planning to do.
Needless to say, they were not too pleased with the thought that I was moving halfway around the world.  They asked many questions about my health, the weather over there  and how long I would be gone, etc.

In the end, they came to understand that my move to Croatia is because of the Lord.  (Ling and Peter don't yet know Him, but I continue to pray they one day will.)

Trista is a Christian and joy is always on her face.  She is such a blessing to me.

As you can see, both Ling and Trista are actually very mean spirited!  :-)

 

By their own declaration, "We are family.  We will never forget!"

I have so enjoyed getting to know these precious people, and the joy of teaching them English in an effort to reach them for Christ has been incomparable.  The grace of God is evident in having them move first.  The goodbye would have been much harder the other way around.
Ling told me she would keep these photos of us and tell her children, "This is your Uncle Sam, the teacher."

By the way, Ling kept a couple of the A Beka Readers we were using in class.  She is determined to read them to her sons who are finally coming from China to meet them in New York.  (The A Beka Reader has Bible verses in it.)  Praise the Lord!
To God be the glory, great things He hath done!

This is the beginning of a series of farewells.