Success Stories: September 25, 2024

Welcome West Fayetteville church of Christ, Tennessee: “We would like to welcome the West Fayetteville congregation to HTHSOE. They have a strong eldership, devoted preacher, and members full of good works. The attendance was outstanding.  We ended the seminar with a baptism.  We can’t wait to watch them develop the evangelism model.”

Glencoe church of Christ, Alabama: David Marker (elder) reports, “We have been looking for ways to be more involved in the local school system. We are presently participating in the ‘Adopt a Teacher’ program at the local school. We have selected the guidance counselor, hoping it may open other opportunities to serve and perhaps assist where there may be a need.

“On another note, we have made contact and will feed the football team a pregame meal on Friday, October 11. We will be feeding approximately 60 people, including the coaches, players, and managers. We will take food to the school facilities and serve it. Aside from helping with this effort, we asked everyone to pray for these opportunities so that we may be able to make a positive impact that will lead to Bible studies! According to our accountability board, September has been our best month so far this year. All metrics are up, and we have seen a noticeable difference in our attendance.”

Hatton church of Christ, Alabama: Chris Miller (preacher) reports, “We are averaging around 12-15 on our contact card list. We are laying some groundwork for follow-up visits and setting up more studies. We are still working with several individuals, hoping we can schedule studies soon. For example,  we helped one prospect to fix a ditch in his driveway this past week. Some take more time than others, but no matter what, we continue to assist and encourage all who will allow us to help them. Studies continue with hopes of more conversions soon to occur.”

West Huntsville church of Christ, Alabama: Paul Owen (associate preacher) reports, “We are having our third door-knocking this Saturday, September 28.  This past Sunday was our One Mission meeting. We continue to have several Bible studies each week!”

Highland Park church of Christ, Muscle Shoals, Alabama: Andrew Myhan (deacon) reports, “We wrote our second week of cards on Sunday. We will send a total of 128 cards this week. We are still trying to comb out procedural issues but are making progress. We have placed our full emphasis on this for the last two weeks, and we look forward to transitioning these souls soon.”

Central church of Christ, Saraland, Alabama: David Dixon (preacher) reports, “There is a calmness and stillness in your heart when you know that as a congregation, you are committed to growing the Kingdom God’s way. You know then that He will bless your efforts. That is happening at Central.
“We have a Bible study on Tuesday night. I hope to have two baptisms when that Bible study concludes this week. We will likely have another to take its place right away.

“This past Wednesday, we spent our service in prayer to God. Having an old-fashioned Prayer Service will do wonders for your focus. We prayed for the elections and our door-knocking event. “Friday night we had our monthly Game Night. It was incredibly well-attended. During that get-together, a young man I had been communicating with throughout the week dropped by to talk about his salvation. He is the 18-year-old grandson of some of our members and is maturing quickly. He was baptized Friday night and is excited to begin his life as a Christian. I can envision him becoming a preacher one day. His girlfriend is set to start a study next.

“On Saturday, four members watched the videos about door knocking.  Then we focused on making connections and having conversations rather than knocking on as many doors as possible. As a result, we got seven or eight solid leads with whom we will follow up and hopefully establish Bible studies soon.
“We are still sending out compassion cards, making visits, and using postcards weekly. God is blessing us, and we pray He keeps on!”

Petersville church of Christ, Florence, Alabama: Adam Richardson (preacher) reports, “The work at Petersville continues! I met with the coordinator this morning to continue developing media presence and outreach. Plans for using Trunk or Treat as an evangelistic opportunity were shared to great reception; enthusiasm is high for the changes to this event as members get on board.”

Malvern church of Christ, Arkansas (remote): David Burruss (preacher) reports, “We are finishing a revised plan for our compassion card program and contact bookmark card, which I plan to introduce Sunday (9/29). We have had four promising visitors recently. We are excited, and we hope our connections will lead to Bible studies soon.”

Rison church of Christ, Arkansas: Keden Shrum (preacher) reports, “We are having our gospel meeting, but unfortunately, we have not had any visitors. One recent visitor continues to come on Sunday morning, but she will not agree to a Bible study. I continue to ask, but she seems to have no interest. We do have an event next month, a local festival, that I hope will produce more contacts.”

Bremen church of Christ, Georgia: Scott Broughton (member) reports, “We are gearing up for our Door Knocking day before our gospel meeting. There is one Bible study in progress. This study is on Book 3. We appreciate all prayers for this study.”

Eatonton church of Christ, Georgia (remote): Roderick Coney (preacher) reports, “This past week, I started Lesson 3 of Back to the Bible with my mom, sent cards out to six people, and continued with the Growing in Christ book on Wednesday.”

Cartersville church of Christ, Georgia (remote): Charles Harris (regional trainer), “The work here continues to move forward. Our first Soul Winners class will be this Thursday. Each year, the church here honors our widows and widowers. This year, we are inviting widows and widowers from the community. We are praying that we gather many contacts. The event will be on Saturday.”

Lafayette church of Christ, Georgia: Jesse Teague (deacon) reports, “Good things are happening in Lafayette. One of our elders sold hay to a neighbor and told him about the Lord’s church. We documented that information on a contact card; then after more conversations and visits, we arranged a Bible study. After the third study last Thursday, Jeremy Bankston obeyed the Gospel. Teamwork helped with planting and watering, and God gave the increase. To Him be the glory! Several other studies are being processed.”

Rabun County church of Christ, Georgia (remote): McKinley Pate (preacher) reports, “We continue to move forward with our evangelism efforts. We have local visitors each week. We finished Book 2 of BTTB with one of our recent visitors last week, and his eyes were opened to the one true church. Lord willing, we will be studying Book 3 with him this week.

“Recently, we began giving away free tickets to the local high school football game. The first couple to receive the tickets was a young couple with a five-year-old daughter. They sat beside my family during the game, so we had a chance to get to know them. They were pleased with the gift of tickets because their daughter was cheering with the cheerleaders for recreation night, and they did not know how they would buy tickets.

“Of course, before the game ended, we began talking about spiritual things. They stated that they needed to find a church and that they were going to visit us. This Sunday was their second straight week being at services. Our family plans on having them over for supper this week.

“Also, I recently began playing golf to help me get into shape. One of the part-time workers at the clubhouse on the weekends is a retired physician. He and I had a conversation a few weeks back, and he stated that he wanted to come and visit and that he and I should play golf together. This Sunday was his second straight week of visiting.  We have recently played a round of golf together as well. He is looking for a place to belong and loves that we only use the Bible and not opinions. He has a lengthy, extensive background in multiple denominations. We are finding many avenues through which we can show compassion and invite people to attend our services. To God be the Glory!”

Woodstock church of Christ, Georgia: Matt Amos (preacher) reports, “The HTH Door-knocking Campaign had great success. Twenty-one volunteers knocked doors of 147 homes. Approximately 30 contacts were made; of the thirty, five were added to the follow-up list. They also revisited one of the previous leads and got contact information for a future Bible study.

“The Prison Ministry Group had one restoration this past Sunday. They were also approached by a member requesting to contact a wayward son who is in jail in North Carolina. We hope to have another restoration soon. WCOC has set up relationships by volunteering at the library of the Woodstock Elementary School.  This school is next door to the church building. We hope to recruit Bible studies via parents and teachers who check books out with a child. WCOC had three non-Christian visitors at our Sunday morning service. We had seven Bible studies this week.”

Honolulu church of Christ, Hawaii: Tagiilima Esene (preacher) reports, “Aloha from the Honolulu congregation! We continue to have a steady flow of visitors that we are prospecting. We currently have seven souls total in Bible studies. One of our elders is studying with one soul.  Another study is being done by our church secretary and her husband (two souls). Another study was started by one of our college graduates, and now we are both conducting this study together (one soul). One ongoing study began because of our church podcast (three souls). This week’s highlight is our elders starting to select men to be deacons in the church. We are going through a series of lessons on the topic of deacons. This will allow us to be laser-focused on our mission in Christ. We appreciate all ongoing prayers.”

Collinsville-Troy church of Christ, Illinois: Jason Wright (elder) reports, “Ms. Theresa Patrich is 85 years old and is now a babe in Christ. Her son baptized her into Christ on Monday, and their smiles were priceless. A family member of Sister Patrich said the care cards our ladies had been sending her had a huge impact on her decision. The Gospel can change people, no matter their age!

“We mailed 166 compassion cards this week. We also packed 43 new movers baskets and delivered some throughout the week. We made follow-up visits as well. We handed out two visitor bags at the St. Louis Area Wide Lectureship held at our building. We have 11 Bible studies ongoing, with three more scheduled to start in the next few weeks. We bundled 3,000 invitation cards into groups of ten and plan to start distributing them in October. Our food giveaway is just a few weeks away. It is just another opportunity to represent Christ in our community. We Will Grow!”

Highland Village church of Christ, Bloomington, Indiana: Matt Stauffer (elder) reports, “Since completing the SOE on September 13, we have had the first two lessons from the Preaching/Training schedule, distributed bookmarks to the congregation, and begun appointing coordinators. This week, we will set up the Evangelism Table and Accountability Board, start tracking the evangelism numbers, identify prospects, mail compassion cards, and Lord willing, begin one or more Bible studies.”

Judah church of Christ, Bloomington, Indiana: Joe Moon (preacher) reports, “We laid out everything yesterday and began going through it all.  We will send your names and email addresses to give our men access to the website training curriculum.”

LaGrange church of Christ, Indiana: Wayne Poe (elder) reports, “On Sunday, we asked for contacts and collected names of a few. We are planning to train coordinators soon.  It is lots of work, but I know it will bless the congregation once we are up and running.”

West Hammond church of Christ, Indiana: Robert Webster (preacher) reports, ““I am presently at the office waiting for a study to be completed, which was initiated by one of our contacts. We will meet an hour before evening service on Sundays and Thursdays to continue to train and delegate responsibilities. I am heading to Alabama and Tennessee this Thursday through Monday for church-related matters. We appreciate all prayers.”

Beloit church of Christ, Kansas (remote): Dustin Dougherty (regional trainer) reports “I will preach to the congregation in Ransom, Kansas, this Sunday morning.  I like visiting with that little congregation in the western Kansas Plains. I will restart the contact bookmarks locally at the beginning of October and try again.  I am looking forward to using the House-to-House newsletter locally again as well. To God be the glory.”

Central church of Christ, Paducah, Kentucky: Adam Faughn (preacher) reports, “This was a little slower week for us at Central. Of course, our card-writing team met for this week, and we are grateful that work goes on consistently and does so well. But it seems that the sickness that hit us hard the last couple of weeks slowed a few things down, and we are just now getting things back on track. Our new converts’ mentoring program will start next Monday, Lord willing, and we are looking forward to a 12-month follow-up meeting with Rob this week via Zoom. We continue to do the work and know there will be slow periods, but we will not let them stop us. Too many souls need the Gospel in and around Paducah, and we are determined to put them in touch with the Savior!”

LaPlata church of Christ, Maryland (remote): Eric Sykes (regional trainer) reports, “We wrote 53 compassion cards this week. We had four visitors. One of the visitors took a rain check on our offer to go out to lunch. So, we took the family of three out to lunch and had a wonderful time. We found out that they recently moved to our community, and they live less than three miles from the building. They currently worship with a congregation of the Lord’s church over 35 miles away. They might consider moving their membership to La Plata. We visited two families on our compassion card list.

“To generate more Bible studies, we will drop off gift baskets on Sunday after morning worship. That seems to be when we have the most people to greet our neighbors. We have recently completed training members on door-knocking and delivering gift baskets.

“We currently have nine people on our prospect list. We have five new converts in our new converts training classes.”

Aberdeen church of Christ, Maryland: Will Brown (preacher) reports, “Two families placed membership in the past three weeks. They are plugging in right away. As a church, we continue to increase fellowship. We are grateful to God for giving us the increase. We appreciate prayers for our congregation.”

East Main church of Christ, Tupelo, Mississippi: Barry Kennedy (preacher) reports, “We had a potluck dinner and a meeting with coordinators last Sunday. It is exciting to see and hear how members are stepping up and getting involved. We took a group picture of those who are involved in writing compassion cards; this was very encouraging!

“We also had a follow-up visit from a couple who received our cards, and the wife has shown an interest in studying something she heard in a sermon! We are following some very sage advice from a great gospel preacher named Robert Kingsley: ‘We may be disappointed, but we must not get discouraged!’ To God be the glory!”

Samford church of Christ, Steele, Missouri: Kyel Imel (deacon) reports, “We have had a very productive weekend. We participated in the national door-knocking campaign. We acquired six contacts to whom we wrote compassion cards. We also have one potential Bible study from door-knocking. We also started a Bible study with Misti yesterday during Bible class. Misti and her children came to our back-to-school giveaway for two years and recently visited a couple of times. We visited with her and her family a week ago, and she came again on Sunday. Our minister, Tim, and his wife, Julie, almost finished Book 1 of BTTB with her. We hope to continue next week. We also had a restoration. While perhaps not a direct result of our evangelism program, we did send Sondra and her husband cards and visited with them a little over a year ago.”

East Flushing church of Christ, New York (remote): Clarence Jenkins (preacher) reports, “We are praising God as we had a phenomenal weekend! We participated in the Fifth Annual Brotherhood-Wide Door-knocking Day. Attendance has tremendously increased in the past two years. With the encouragement of two prospects assisting, we had a team of members who stayed at the building, placing information labels on materials and having food and dessert prepared for the members who went door-knocking. We knocked on 137 doors. We had beautiful interactions with our neighbors, prayers, the HTH issue, and ‘Why are we knocking on your door?’ The door hangers were given and left. The seed of the kingdom was successfully planted, and we will follow up, looking for God to provide the increase.

“Also, the joy of the weekend was the baptism of Justin Brown, who had been studying BTTB with Brother Reid for several weeks. Justin was baptized into Christ this past Lord’s Day before worship service. We worshipped God in spirit and in truth with our new brother in Christ.”

New Concord church of Christ, Ohio: Terry Townsend (preacher) reports, “I had another Bible study with a young lady yesterday, and we have scheduled a follow-up study for this Thursday.  She is attending a Baptist church. The study seems productive, but I fear she is not ready to make any changes. We will know more on Thursday!

“Linda, one of our dear, sweet sisters, has a Bible study set for this evening that she and I are praying will result in baptism. They will be finishing Book 3 of BTTB. Linda also has a study with one of her neighbors at the end of this week. Four individual cards were mailed out to people in our community. The members of the congregation signed each card. I took a young man (a local college student) out on Sunday. He is a member and plans to attend the congregation here while he is in school.”

Streetsboro church of Christ, Ohio: Ralph Price (preacher) reports, “We are currently working on three prospects from our prospect list, with two more ready to be added next week. We are also distributing new-mover baskets. We had no new visitors this week, but we continue to encourage visitors from previous weeks.”

Coweta church of Christ, Oklahoma: Keno Shrum (regional trainer) reports, “On Sunday, we wrapped up our Gospel Meeting with guest speaker Don Blackwell. We gained several contacts from non-Christian visitors and will start prospecting those immediately. On Saturday, we will be knocking on doors. We will meet at 8:30 a.m. and review our HTHSOE training on door-knocking before heading out to meet members of our community. Next weekend, I look forward to conducting a Sunday kickoff for the Hondo, Texas, church of Christ. They have enrolled in the Remote Enrollment version of HTHSOE. I am excited to help them get started in this training. I know they will do well as we teach Congregational Evangelism. We appreciate all prayers for these brothers and sisters.”

Cheyenne church of Christ, Oklahoma (remote): Nathan Brewer (member) reports, “Sickness has hit us, but the willing and able-bodied met before Sunday morning Bible class to talk about people on our prospect list. We also discussed the need to have people in our homes and develop an easy rapport with them to get a Bible study.”

York church of Christ, Pennsylvania: Mark Raschke (deacon) reports, “We continue to have at least one new visitor each Sunday. We are handing out visitor bags and trying to get to know the visitors while they are with us. We are collecting contact information, and we are following up with compassion cards (both for our visitors and for other contacts who have illnesses or other needs). Early in October, we will start our visitation meetings, and we will begin inviting our contacts to our Fall Festival in November.”

Union church of Christ, South Carolina (remote): Terry Hale (preacher) reports, “I am requesting prayers for Melissa. She is a visitor that one of our new converts brought in. She and Melissa finished Book 1 of Back to the Biblewith another of our workers. Melissa had a few questions written down. She said she learned a lot and is scheduled for Book 2. Also, we request prayers for our other workers as they begin working with the prospects they have been assigned.”

North Bradley church of Christ, Cleveland, Tennessee: Keith Wilson (preacher) reports, “We have a special evangelism assignment this week thanks to the Cookeville congregation. We are coordinating with them to send cards to a lady in our area who is a friend of the Don Blackwell family. We ask for prayers; we pray this will be a fruitful endeavor for all of us!”

Hebron church of Christ, McMinnville, Tennessee: Derrick Stiles (preacher) reports, “Another great week at Hebron! We have one ongoing Bible study. Compassion Card teams mailed another round of 60 plus cards of encouragement and invitation to neighbors in the community. Also, we had one soul who was baptized this past week for the remission of sins.  Praise God and may He and His Kingdom be glorified through our continued evangelism efforts. We appreciate all prayers for our work at Hebron.”

Rivergate church of Christ, Madison, Tennessee: Doug Tooley (preacher) reports, “We have seven Bible studies that have started in Spanish. We have two other Bible studies. We had 14 visitors on Sunday. We also had a new couple that placed membership on Sunday.”

White Oak church of Christ, Chattanooga, Tennessee (remote): John McGiffin (preacher) reports, “We held our first New Movers basket delivery on Saturday. We knocked on 24 doors and got seven great leads for prospects. The new Spaghetti Dinner baskets were received well. We did not have ANY negative responses.

“Sunday was Family and Friends Day, and we broke the attendance record with 90. We had two contacts who are great leads for prospecting. We also had two visitors return for the third time. House to House and Heart to Heart was well represented, as Luke Griffin led the opening prayer and Austin Fowler led the closing prayer.

“Riding the wave of enthusiasm, the men met after the Family and Friends Day event and voted to have a Fall Festival or a trunk-or-treat event. They want to deliver door hangers in the immediate neighborhood. We will be initiating the bookmarks this coming Sunday.”

Cookeville church of Christ, Tennessee: Jonathan Medley (deacon) reports, “Eight days after the seminar, we have gone through all our new material and have everything organized. We updated our evangelism table with some new supplies and sent compassion cards to our first prospect this week. The lady lives in Cleveland, Tennessee, so we are working with the North Bradley church of Christ. Both congregations are sending her compassion cards, and North Bradley will visit her after they have been sent. We have one study in process right now.”

Rome church of Christ, Lebanon, Tennessee (remote): David Oxley (elder) reports, “We completed our second video yesterday and are looking forward to the third. We are going through the foundational training.”

Nance church of Christ, Alamo, Tennessee (remote): Bill Mitchusson (preacher) reports, “We continue watching the videos. We have scheduled a leadership meeting with Charles Harris on October 6.”

New Union church of Christ, Manchester, Tennessee: Paul Fultz (elder) reports, “We had ten visitors from the community, and our members submitted six contact cards. Our compassion card team met and filled out 35 cards. We made five transition visits and have two ongoing Bible studies.”

Covington church of Christ, Tennessee: Wayne Dalrymple (elder) reports, “We had several visitors this week. We wrote compassion cards to all of them, thanking them for visiting and inviting them to come again. Ten of our members went door-knocking Saturday morning. We knocked on about 30 doors, talked to about 14 people, and got one contact card. Another one of the people we talked to is a member who has only been attending services on Sunday mornings recently. She was present this Sunday morning and evening. There were several who were not able to participate in the door-knocking and would like to have gone. We are considering having a second day next month. We pray God will open doors for us to teach and encourage others.”

Hillcrest church of Christ, Springfield, Tennessee: Tim Taylor (associate preacher), “We had our final planning meeting for our door-knocking event next Sunday.  We are prayerful that we can open some doors and make connections in the area around Hillcrest. We have our Missions Bulletin Boards installed in our foyer and are in the process of displaying pictures from community events and SOE materials. Hopefully, I will take pictures next Monday, as well as our Visitors’ spreadsheet, since Mark is now back from vacation.

McKenzie church of Christ, Tennessee: “Randy McAdams (elder) reports, “It has been two weeks since our last report, and we are still involved in our card mailouts. As another outreach plan, we just finished our September Community Kitchen, giving out 161 meals to our local citizens. We will use this contact information in our evangelism card mailouts beginning in October. Our following Community Kitchen will be done in November, Lord willing.

“We plan to begin a new converts class on October 6 for the adults who have recently put on Christ in baptism. There will also be a separate class for the youth. We currently have ten adults and 17 youth that we hope will participate in these classes.”

Celina church of Christ, Tennessee: Daniel Burton (member) reports, “As we often hear in the world, life is short, and we better live it up. However, as followers of Christ, our perspective must go deeper. We need the mindset that eternity is extended and must prepare for it now. We need to live our lives for Christ. The work we do now, reaching the lost and connecting with those in our community, has eternal consequences. Every invitation, every prayer, every gospel conversation is a step toward helping someone obey the Gospel.

“This past month, we made 19 visits, including transition and new mover visits. We have also mailed over 200 cards this month. What a blessing it is to have many opportunities to serve! These visits are more than just numbers; they represent precious souls. We currently have one Bible study ongoing and are praying for more.

“I encourage anyone reading this to consider how you can be more evangelistic. Whether it is participating in visits, praying for those we reach out to, or simply sharing the Gospel with a neighbor or friend, everyone has a role. Eternity is forever, and we have been commissioned to help prepare others for it. We may have to be uncomfortable and make difficult decisions, but we must do what is necessary to hear the words, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.’
“Again, thank our coordinators and congregation for their hard work and vision! We pray the congregation will continue to plant the seed, trusting God to give the increase.”

Hillsboro church of Christ, Tennessee: Chris Sliger (member) reports, “Team A met this week to write cards to seven contacts; all seven contacts were new movers to the community. We also had a visitor during Sunday morning class for whom we were able to offer benevolence.”

Mountain Creek church of Christ, Chattanooga, Tennessee: Michael Tomshack (elder) reports, “The elders held our quarterly planning session Saturday to review our progress toward the 2024 vision, and to review our ten-year, three years, and one-year vision. On Sunday, the elders, deacons, and ministers met after assembly to review the previous quarter’s steps needed in the coming quarter, and to begin planning, Lord willing, for 2025.

“We held a quarterly women’s meeting on Sunday afternoon to discuss children’s education, fellowship opportunities, community outreach, and evangelism.  All of this information will be incorporated into our quarterly members-only congregational meeting in October. Making disciples involves every member of the body working toward Jesus’ command.  We feel our committed cadence of quarterly meetings will aid in communicating the efforts required to make disciples and building an understanding of the importance of every step the body takes.”

Chapel Hill church of Christ, Tennessee: Matt Jones (deacon) reports, “Things are progressing well. We still have a regular number of visitors to each of our services. This past Wednesday, we started our Community Table program and had several visitors from the community join us. Through this program, we provide a free meal to any visitor before our Bible class time. This allows us to meet them and invite them to our Bible study. We also select these visitors as hot contacts to follow up with through our card writing team and other potential service opportunities. This past Sunday, Lonnie Jones joined us to discuss “Raising Spiritually Reliant Children.” Our social media efforts advertised this, and flyers were passed out to friends. This brought many visitors and was a good message for everyone attending.”

9^th and Main church of Christ, San Angelo, Texas: Bryan Braswell (elder) reports, “We started our ladies’ day last Saturday as well as our gospel meeting with Trent Kennedy from Southwest out of Austin. We got off to a great start! A lot of the new ladies who are part of our growth as a result of the evangelism program were at the ladies’ day. We are currently working through our latest and newest contacts and adding more Bible study opportunities. I know our greeters handed out some new visitor bags this past Sunday morning. We always have visitors at 9th and Main. Likely, the freshest opportunity is a family, husband and wife, with three children attending faithfully. We are doing Bible studies with them, which looks very promising. All of this is the result of a focus on evangelism.”

Buda Kyle church of Christ, Texas: Ronnie Scherffius (preacher) reports, “The congregational evangelism work at Buda-Kyle continues to progress. Thirteen met Sunday evening for training on our House-to-House New Movers program. We continue our Compassion Card program and are laboring to follow up with visits.”

Graceton church of Christ, Diana, Texas: Johnny Willeford (elder) reports, “The Graceton church of Christ enjoyed a wonderful lesson from our preacher Scott this past Sunday. We had a family of five as well as two single individuals who visited us for the morning services. Two new converts announced they wanted to be recognized as part of our church family at Graceton. We welcomed the Shavers into the Graceton church family.

“Mrs. Phillis Stribling also wanted to be added to our family here in Diana. She is a lifelong resident of Diana but has been a church secretary to a sister congregation in a nearby town for many years. She has retired from that position and wants to stay closer to home.

“Our compassion card group will be online on Sunday afternoon and send 47 cards to seven contacts this week. Our newcomer group continues to deliver baskets and contact families in the Diana community. We enjoyed our monthly family game night this past Friday evening. Our Mission Monday group is a little behind but is working to get caught up.”

Northern Oaks church of Christ, San Antonio, Texas: Mel Hutzler (elder) reports, “We had another baptism on Friday. Leo Murillo from the HOW Foundation put Christ on in baptism. We appreciate those from the HOW who study God’s Word together and for Anthony leading in the studies. The recent new converts were given Bibles as well.

“We have a door-knocking event in October, along with our gospel meeting with Eric Lyons from Apologetics Press. We hope to garner more contacts from that, our card-writing teams, and our new movers’ program. Our new converts class continues to strengthen those new to the faith.”

Colleyville church of Christ, Texas (remote): John Garza (regional trainer) reports, “Ever since implementing our compassion card program, members have been giving us people to write to each week. Yesterday, we added two more to the list. Additionally, one of the elders, Grant Puckett, took a couple of guys who work at Chick-fil-A out to eat Sunday afternoon, and he was able to set up a Bible study with them. All around, we have seven Bible studies ongoing. According to one of the members, we have never had this many studies going on at one time. This week, we continue our How-to Class on Wednesday. This week’s topic is ‘How to Approach.’”

Granbury Street church of Christ, Cleburne, Texas: Ryan Cowan (deacon) reports, “Granbury Street was thrilled to participate in the Fifth Annual Brotherhood Wide Door Knocking Day. On Friday night, about 40 of us gathered, formed seven groups, and door-knocked approximately 140 homes of our neighbors. We returned to the building for pizza and additional training.

“On Saturday, we started at 9:00 a.m. with donuts and coffee. About 50 members took part in door-knocking approximately 400 homes. Eighteen members remained at the building and wrote compassion cards. Thirteen new movers’ baskets were delivered, three lawns were mowed, and one water heater was repaired.

“Our weekend’s efforts resulted in about nineteen contacts. Four of these contacts are requesting a Bible study. The weekend’s efforts encouraged the church. We are already talking about our next ‘Mini AMC’ for 2025. We appreciate the resources that House to House made available on this excellent effort and the original training that Rob and Austin offered us with our AMC in July 2023.”

Southwest church of Christ, Austin, Texas: Mark Speir (elder) reports, “We had a baptism on Monday night a week ago for someone who started visiting during the middle of August. She has been having weekly studies. We had one new local visitor. We also had a request from a visitor who has come a few times; he wants to study about his obedience. We were trying to find a time and place good for him.”

Wheeler church of Christ, Texas: Garrett English (preacher) reports, “We are trying to schedule studies of BTTB Book 1 with all our current prospects. We hope that some will join our new converts’ class. Bibles have not been given out yet. I am working with the outreach deacon to get the Bibles into the schools as soon as we can.”

Bridgewater church of Christ, Katy, Texas: Doug Suggs (deacon) reports, “At Bridgewater, one of our compassion card teams met last evening to address cards to our current contacts. We look forward to following up on these, as Wade and I continue our studies with David from China. David is an intelligent young man who grasps who God is and believes that the word of God is true. Andre is working to start a class for the students at his school. Mark continues to study with his son-in- law, Eric.”

Wimberley church of Christ, Texas (remote): Marshall Jennings (preacher) reports, “Wimberly church of Christ is inspired by being in the HTH program. Our HTH mailouts will reach about 6000 homes in our ZIP code in two-year cycles, then repeat. We are committed to bringing the Gospel to all our community with love. Soon, our young people will be visiting new movers. We have a special event on November 23 to welcome friends and neighbors to learn about Jesus and the Way. Blessings to all from Wimberley, Texas!”

Wasatch church of Christ, Clearfield, Utah (remote): Daniel Welker (preacher) reports, “We have been working hard to reach out to members who have fallen away, and we have seen some fruits from the effort. Two families attended Sunday from our efforts. We are still working to earn more Bible studies. We are also planning a Trunk-or-Treat event to focus on evangelism.”

West Side church of Christ, Salem, Virginia: Jeff Durham (elder) reports, “We continue to seize opportunities to teach and discuss how to recognize and maximize our chances to make and cultivate prospects and contacts. More and more members are contributing as we aim to influence the recipients to have a Bible study. Our recent new converts actively participate in their New Beginnings class and various activities.

“A key focus is to incorporate more members into our compassion card writing efforts. This initiative has seen tremendous involvement, with many members dedicating their time to reach out to those in need of prayers, which creates an opportunity to make a positive impact. The collective effort is truly inspiring, and we are only a few weeks away from our follow-ups. Compassion cards will be written on Sunday evening.”

Peninsula church of Christ, Hampton, Virginia: Ben Phillips (preacher) reports, “We had another profitable week of evangelism here at Peninsula. We continue to have studies and are busy prospecting our contacts. Our members brought in several new contact cards on Sunday, and we had a few additional visitors. We also finished our card blitz to get to some additional AMC contacts. They will receive the cards this week, and we will organize a follow-up on Sunday to send cards next week with these additional contacts. We have been able to stay in contact with others we are prospecting but have realized some of these will be a longer-term mission. Finally, we are also working on continuing to strengthen our new converts. We appreciate all prayers for the work here!”

Williamsburg church of Christ, Virginia: Jim Bishop (elder) reports, “This week has been great. We completed Back to the Bible, Book 1. God touched the heart of an unfaithful member, and he was restored. Praise God! Group 4 completed their week of compassion cards, and Compassion Card group coordinators will meet to discuss sending additional cards to new prospects. There are three Bible studies in progress.”

Marlon Retana (regional trainer): “One of the most evangelistic people I know, even though she may not realize it, is my wife, Jacky. A few years ago, when we planted a congregation in Panama, she went to a carwash with her Bible in hand, doing her Digging Deep study while waiting for the car to be cleaned. A man noticed her, asked if she was a Christian, and inquired where she worshiped. Just a few weeks later, that man obeyed the Gospel!

“More recently, during our time in Texas, Jacky attended ESL (English as a Second Language) classes near our home. She formed friendships with several women there, and two of them have since visited our worship services and joined our bilingual Bible class at the University church of Christ in San Marcos, Texas. After one lesson, one of these women approached me and said, “I loved the class, especially when you emphasized that it is not about making me join your church but about getting back to the Bible and seeing what God expects people to do.” We have been building a deeper relationship with her and her husband, and we can see God opening a door—we are committed to nurturing them faithfully.

“For our work with the Spanish Bible School, we recently recorded ten lessons for our course on Titus and 15 short videos to promote the ministry through social media. We will report once these courses are ready for public release. To our readers, we thank you for praying for us. If you’d like to learn more about our work, feel free to contact me or visit spanishbibleschool.org. To God be all the glory!”