Success Stories: October 23, 2024

Welcome Madisonville church of Christ, Kentucky: We welcome the Madisonville church of Christ to the House to House/Heart to Heart School of Evangelism. The congregation showed great interest in setting up and executing the model. Please pray for their preacher, Russell Kline, who is having a lot of health problems.

Glencoe church of Christ, Alabama: David Marker (elder) reports, “We are making plans for our annual Fall Festival. Fortunately, our location is the perfect place to ensure a good turnout. No doubt, this is usually one of the most significant events of the year. It is a great time to capitalize on making contacts. Recently, two families have expressed a desire to be identified with the local church. We will meet with them this week. We continue to participate greatly in the various programs.”

West Huntsville church of Christ, Alabama: Paul Owen (associate preacher) reports, “We had a very successful Fall Festival. We knocked on doors and invited families to attend. The Lord blessed us with a beautiful day on Saturday. We had about 40 visitors, so we are sending cards to them and making visits! We had our 1 Mission meeting last night. At West Huntsville, there has been an uptick in our contacts, prospects, and Bible studies in the previous two weeks. Our elders are doing an excellent job of keeping evangelism before our congregation.”

Highland Park church of Christ, Muscle Shoals, Alabama: Andrew Myhan (deacon) reports, “We conducted one Bible study last week. After four weeks of the card ministry, we have some responses. We have two Bible studies this week, one of which was a direct response to mailed cards. We appreciate all prayers for these souls.”

Hatton church of Christ, Alabama: Chris Miller (preacher), “Paxton Phillips decided yesterday to obey the Gospel! We have made several efforts with strong hopes for more baptisms. The card ministry continues to have great support, and we are planning for our annual hayride and trunk or treat, where we typically get lots of new contacts.”

Petersville church of Christ, Florence, Alabama: Adam Richardson (preacher) reports, “Big weekend for the Petersville congregation! We had our monthly coordinators meeting on Sunday and had great brainstorming to improve our efforts. The congregation also listened to an update after the Sunday night service, and new volunteers approached coordinators to get involved. On Sunday afternoon, there was a door-knocking effort to invite our neighbors to the trunk or treat next Sunday, and 17 members knocked on about 200 doors. We have sent out over 1,300 compassion cards since beginning that effort, and it continues in a robust way. We give glory to God of everything!”

Malvern church of Christ, Arkansas (remote): David Burruss (preacher) reports, “We continue to send compassion cards each week, which has led to another former member coming back. We have several exciting things upcoming, including preparation for our first trunk or treat next week and support for our local school district with pencils. We also started a men’s ministry training program. We currently have an active Bible study that is going very well.”

Rison church of Christ, Arkansas: Keden Shrum (preacher) reports, “We had a family of five visit Sunday. Sunday evening, Care Team B met and signed cards, including cards for the visiting family and invitation cards to another family.”

Windsor church of Christ, Colorado: Lucas Stephens (member) reports, “We assigned our brother Nick Moriarty as Overall Coordinator. Lucas Stephens is the Point of Contact, and brother Bill Hamerick is the Evangelism Table POC. We have weekly meetings on Tuesdays to organize plans for the foreseeable future. Brother Lynn completed the first John 4 lesson, and we handed out bookmarks yesterday. We are moving!”

Niceville church of Christ, Florida: Joe Palmer (preacher) reports, “This week, we sent ten compassion cards and had two Bible studies. We kicked off Phase 2 of our New Movers Ministry. We sent out our teams to deliver welcome wreaths to our new movers. On Saturday, we had our annual Fall Festival and added two contacts to our card list. On Sunday, we had two new visitors and four returning ones.”

Eatonton church of Christ, Georgia (remote): Roderick Coney (preacher) reports, “We sent out six compassion cards. We have two folks in Bible studies. One is studying Does it Matter? and the other is starting lesson one of BTTB. We are going through “Growing in Christ” as a congregation.”

Oak Hill church of Christ, Rome, Georgia: Matt Wallin (deacon) reports, “Three years ago, our college group started with four or five students and no classes or activities. Now, if everyone comes, we have 45. How did we do it? It was simple: evangelism! We have had six baptisms in the past four weeks, and other studies are ongoing. Four of the baptisms are college students, one is the father of two college students, and one is an older gentleman who sits on the pew in front of us. A new study starts each week, and new visitors enter the group. Our weekly men’s group and active college program drive the growth. God is blessing these works. We appreciate all prayers so that the devil will not be able to stop the work, that God will send us workers, and that we will continue to be blessed with open-hearted people.”

Bremen church of Christ, Georgia: Scott Broughton (member) reports, “We have one Bible study using the Back to the Bible guide that will continue this week. This study was started last week, and they should finish Book 1 at their next meeting. Leigh Cooper was baptized for the remission of her sins. The New Converts class is continuing. Some subjects covered in this class are Premillennialism, the Reformation, the Restoration, and infant baptism.”

Lafayette church of Christ, Georgia: Jesse Teague (deacon) reports, “Group 2 met to sign compassion cards last night. Our attendance for card signing had dropped a bit the last few times, so we asked for more folks to help, and they delivered.  Sometimes, you just have to ask to get what you need (James 4:2b). We are back to normal with 16 saints signing cards for three people who need the Gospel.”

Woodstock church of Christ, Georgia: Matt Amos (preacher) reports, “The New Movers Group is preparing the next round of baskets to be assembled. The Prison Ministry Group is working with a Ruth House to continue a Bible study with a student who was recently released from jail. The compassion cards group completed 45 compassion cards. We had one non-Christian visitor at our Sunday morning service.”

Collinsville-Troy church of Christ, Illinois: Jason Wright (elder) reports, “It was a wonderful week in the Lord as we baptized Jim and Judy Grider into Christ on Saturday. We had to use the pool at the local YMCA since Jim is in a wheelchair. Other people at the pool watched the baptism, and that allowed us to talk to the workers about the church and baptism. God was certainly glorified! We began the New Converts class with our new Christians on Sunday, and several congregation members joined. After worship, we showed a video of the baptism as I explained that the road to baptism for Jim and Judy took 30 years! Never give up on a soul! We mailed 66 compassion cards and did training on the invitation cards during our Servants of Souls class. We continue to have several studies in progress, and I just received confirmation to study with one of our member’s brothers. Trunk or Treat is Sunday; candy will not be the only thing we will share!”

Highland Village church of Christ, Bloomington, Indiana: Mark Stauffer (elder) reports, “We have had a good week. Three new visitors joined us for worship, making seven first-time visitors this month. I began a Bible study with a married couple that visited earlier this month. Because they had questions about the inspiration of Scripture, we are using Believe the Bible. We began sending cards to three prospects, with a total of 40 cards sent.”

LaGrange church of Christ, Indiana: Wayne Poe (elder) reports, “We are on our third week of sending compassion cards, and the congregation seems to enjoy sending those. We have three studies using the booklets, and we had a family of five who visited on Sunday night. I look forward to seeing them again and hopefully getting a study going with them. Good things are coming, and we look forward to more opportunities for God to show us where to go next.”

Beloit church of Christ, Kansas (remote): Dustin Dougherty (regional trainer) reports, “We had a visitor yesterday morning for services; I was able to visit with him and get to know him a little before he took off. I got his information and invited him back for Wednesday’s class. The Book 3 study we had scheduled did not work out for this evening, so we will try later in the week. The current Growing in Christ study is progressing nicely. Members were excited about the extra copies of HTH/HTH coming so they could share them with friends outside our mailing areas. We have a Gospel Meeting with speaker Glen Elliot on the first weekend in November. As always, we pray that community members and friends will accept our invitations to come and join us. To God be the glory.”

Central church of Christ, Paducah, Kentucky: Adam Faughn (preacher) reports, “What a wonderful week! Last Tuesday, we rejoiced at the baptism of Crystal Howell. She had been studying with a couple of our ladies for quite some time, but the breakthrough occurred when she knew she was lost despite a denominational background. We were overjoyed to baptize her into Christ. In addition, two of our teenagers studied with four friends last week, and we pray that those studies continue and go well. We celebrated our 60th Anniversary on Sunday and began our Gospel Meeting with David Powell. The lessons were tremendous, and we were blessed with dozens of guests. Of course, many former members came back to encourage us, but some were erring members, and a few were not Christians. It was so encouraging to see members scurry to them and welcome them. We will be working on follow-up immediately!”

LaPlata church of Christ, Maryland (remote): Eric Sykes (regional trainer) reports, “We had a good week last week. We wrote 48 compassion cards and visited two contacts on our compassion card list. We have 13 folks on our prospect list and seven on our reserve list. We have two open Bible studies. One of the brothers completed Lesson 1 of BTTB with a co-worker. They are scheduled to do Lesson 2 this week. One of our new converts completed Lesson 2 of BTTB with his co-worker, and they are scheduled to do Lesson 3 on Thursday. We appreciate all prayers for these studies that these two souls will be saved. Five people attended the new convert classes this week. In our advanced teacher training class, we finished a mock Bible study session on Lesson 1 of BTTB. We plan to begin mock Bible study training classes on Lesson 2 tonight. Sixteen people attended the video of the week, which was a zoom class on ‘The Truth About Heaven.’ The timing of the message could not have been more appropriate. Brother James Redic, Sr, one of the elders of the Suitland Road church of Christ, was called home for his reward yesterday. Brother Redic was one of my mentors. He was the brother who came and rescued me from ‘The Far Country’ years ago. I often thank God for my dear brother and for all he has done for the Lord’s kingdom. I love him, and I will miss him and look forward to seeing him again on that great day in Heaven! We appreciate all prayers for the Redic family and the Suitland Road congregation.”

East Main church of Christ, Tupelo, Mississippi: Barry Kennedy (preacher) reports, “We are gearing up for a big weekend with hopes of making some good connections in the community. We have planned another clothing giveaway, and we will have a trunk or treat/hotdog and chili supper on Saturday. Our Gospel Meeting is starting Sunday and goes through Wednesday! We plan to combine delivering our new movers baskets with our MSOP door knocking campaign! We are praying God gives the increase as we plant and water! To God be the glory!”

Shady Acres church of Christ, Sikeston, Missouri: Keith Olbricht (preacher) reports, “Things have been busy here at Shady Acres over the past week since Rob and Nicole were here to get us started. We have begun our training and have selected a few coordinators. Our evangelism table is a work in progress and likely will be for a while. But the greatest joy is seeing people excited and desiring to learn more. What a blessing! We are looking forward to making tremendous progress soon.”

Marshall church of Christ, Missouri (remote): Charles Reid (preacher) reports, “The congregation viewed Rob Whitacre’s third film yesterday during the worship hour. After that, we had a little discussion and talked to some of the people in the congregation as they started to go home. They had to pass the evangelism table out in the foyer loaded with our House to House School of Evangelism material, and we told people to take the first lesson of Back to the Bible and look it over. They took a lot of other study materials, and we talked about the compassion cards. We gave Bibles to a visiting couple, and we got their name and address on a visitor card. I will follow up on them. There does seem to be a growing enthusiasm. Three of us went door-knocking for about three hours Saturday morning. We had a brief study with two young Micronesian men. They want a study this coming Friday. I gave them a House to House brochure with my name and phone number on it.”

Samford church of Christ, Steele, Missouri: Kyle Imel (deacon) reports, “Tim and his wife worked through the end of Book 1 and started Book 2 with Mysti. She visited with her children again. We continue to send cards to six individual contacts gained from door-knocking, and we will be visiting soon.”

East Flushing church of Christ, New York (remote): Clarence Jenkins (preacher) reports, “After worship service, we watched the HTHSOE YouTube video ‘Establishing Metrics.’ We then reviewed the accountability board numbers we have to date for this month: four visitors, two visits, seven prospects, and seven Bible studies. We filled out 20 compassion cards, bringing this month’s total to 66. We are continuing to rejoice and are encouraged in that our new brother in Christ, Djery participated in serving the very Sunday after being baptized. To God be the glory! We appreciate all prayers.”

Carthage church of Christ, North Carolina (remote): Randy Chambers (preacher) reports, “This past week, we had three personal Bible studies, and we mailed out nine compassion cards to a prospect. We had a congregational picnic, and two guests attended. We began our Gospel Meeting, which resulted in several visitors, and more will follow as we sort through the information we have and the week’s progress. We thank God for the workers in the KIngdom!”

New Concord church of Christ, Ohio: Terry Townsend (preacher) reports, “Three more first-time visitors came to our services this past Sunday, which brings the total of non-member community resident attendance to 101 since the beginning of 2024! All three were related to folks who have themselves been attending this year, and one was the daughter of a recent new convert. Each received a welcome mug/packet, and all three will receive follow-up visits this week. Our compassion card teams were back at it again this Sunday, writing and mailing out an additional 105 cards. This was the second round for this new group of prospects.  Our transition teams and new mover team continue to make assigned visits. We should have a more up-to-date report next week.”

Streetsboro church of Christ, Ohio: Ralph Price (preacher) reports, “We currently have three on our prospect list. We just put together 20 new mover baskets yesterday. We plan to have lunch together on Saturday and then deliver the baskets in pairs. We also have one Bible study going on right now. We completed Lesson 1 of Back to the Bible last week. We are meeting again tomorrow night.”

Sullivan Village, Lawton, Oklahoma: Steven Hill (preacher) reports, “The Sullivan Village church of Christ had three new converts in the last couple of months. All three went through the three studies from Back to the Bible and were baptized immediately. All three continue to study the 17-part series of lessons by Justin Hopkins called For the Love of Christ to establish a strong root system in the faith. Also, a gentleman rededicated his life to the Lord. He was baptized about 20 years ago but had fallen away. We have started the 17-part series of studies with him, and he is doing well. We are continuing our evangelistic efforts and allowing God to give the increase. We appreciate all prayers, especially for our new converts.”

Cheyenne church of Christ, Oklahoma (remote): Nathan Brewer (member) reports, “On Sunday, several members wrote cards for a member’s son and daughter-in-law. She lost her father recently. The son is an inactive member, and his wife has never obeyed the Gospel. A few weeks ago, we sent cards to a man who is battling cancer. Yesterday he came to worship service with his wife. They are friends with a member of the congregation. We gave him money to buy clothes because he has lost 70 pounds. Everyone said hello to them, and we stayed after worship to talk more. He seemed to want to speak, and we kept listening. His inability to eat (he has a feeding tube because eating is so difficult) kept us from taking them to lunch. I am sending a follow-up card this week, and we gave them a visitor’s bag to take home.”

York church of Christ, Pennsylvania: Mark Raschke (member) reports, “This week, we visited our prospects and sent compassion cards to two contacts. This is the first week since moving into our new building that we have not had any visitors.”

Union church of Christ, South Carolina (remote): Terry Hale (preacher) reports, “We had two studies last week, but others were delayed. Most notably, the prospect who studied Book 2 is seeing the worship of the church for the first time.”

McKenzie church of Christ, Tennessee: Randall McAdams (elder) reports, “We are continuing to send out our weekly cards, with this past Sunday being our third mailout for the month. As mentioned in our report three weeks ago, we are focusing on our Community Kitchen attendees, offering them thanks for participating and a further invitation to visit the church. We also had a wonderful baptism. Of course, all baptisms are wonderful, but this one involved a husband and father, Zac; his wife had been baptized about three months prior to his baptism. Zac always visited with his wife, Wendy, and we all prayed that he would put Christ on in baptism. He did last week and all glory to our Lord for that. Contacts are not pouring in, but they are coming in little by little, and we are thankful for that. May God bless all efforts to bring people to the Lord.”

Rivergate church of Christ, Madison, Tennessee: Doug Tooley (preacher) reports, “We had six visitors on Sunday. About six have gone through the card cycle and will hopefully be visited soon. We have nine Bible studies currently ongoing. Seven of those are in Spanish. A new couple is continuing to study with one of our elders.”

White Oak church of Christ, Chattanooga, Tennessee (remote): John McGiffin (preacher) reports, “We distributed 400 door hangers as invitations for our trunk or treat. We have put up banners in the front of the building as well. We are hoping for 100 people to attend. We continue to send cards to past contacts. This week, we received two local requests via our website page for Bible correspondence courses. If they return the first lesson, we will call to see if they will continue with face-to-face lessons. In that case, we will switch to Back to the Bible by Bobby Bates. One unchurched neighbor will come to a member’s home for dinner. We hope that it will lead to a study as well. If successful, we will start encouraging members to invite their neighbors for dinner to start the conversations.”

New Union church of Christ, Manchester, Tennessee: Paul Fultz (elder) reports, “We had eleven visitors on Sunday. Our congregation submitted six contacts and sent out 37 compassion cards. Two people placed membership. We made three visits and have one student in our new convert class.”

Cookeville church of Christ, Tennessee: Jonathan Medley (deacon) reports, “We have completed our first round of compassion cards. We only have the cellphone number of our college student visitor, so we decided to assign someone to send her a text message rather than a card each day. She was overwhelmed by how friendly everyone had been. One of our members is supposed to meet her later this week to eat lunch and start laying the groundwork for getting a Bible study. We are in our Gospel Meeting this week. We have had many visitors; some are looking for a church home. They have all been church members, and we are hoping for more visitors the rest of the week.”

Hillcrest church of Christ, Springfield, Tennessee: Tim Taylor (associate preacher) reports, “Greetings from Hillcrest!  We currently have seven prospects who are receiving cards.  Among those just added are Tommy and Stephanie, who visited us last Sunday for the first time.  He has had a recent cancer diagnosis and was touched by the cards he received from us. We were also visited by a walk-in last night for worship. His name is Jared. He and his wife live in the apartment complex next door to the church building. They are having marital issues. We are following up with him tomorrow with a home visit. He has Johnny’s contact information for potential marriage counseling. Please pray that these individuals can be reached with the Gospel. We are gearing up for our trunk or treat this coming Saturday. We are hosting a meal and registration in our fellowship room, which will precede the trunk or treating in the parking lot. One of our deacons, Jared Cummings, is coordinating this event and is prepared to get contact information from all our visitors at the welcome desk. We appreciate all prayers for our efforts to be fruitful.”

Mountain Creek church of Christ, Chattanooga, Tennessee: Michael Tomshack (elder) reports, “One of our new Christians turned in a name for compassion cards yesterday for a co-worker whose grandmother passed away. Regardless of one’s age in Christ, each Christian is part of the evangelism process. When a card is turned in, it encourages others within the congregation to continually look for opportunities to reach those outside the body.”

West Fayetteville church of Christ, Tennessee: Steve Jefferson (elder) reports, “The West Fayetteville congregation had a great day of worship and training in the information HTHSOE. Yesterday, October 20, was our official start date. We passed out the Evangelism Model Cards during our Sunday school class to all who could read. We then reviewed the PowerPoint presentation ‘Let’s Get Motivated’ re-emphasizing that every member can participate in the process. During the worship hour, Brother Miller brought the lesson of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, encouraging the congregation to take the right approach to reach the lost. We plan to meet with our coordinators this week as we continue to train and put into practice what we have learned.”

Chapel Hill church of Christ, Tennessee: Matt Jones (deacon) reports, “We are making progress. Recently, we met with all our coordinators and had good reports from many areas. Our card writing teams are still going strong and writing to all our prospects. We currently have several Bible studies in progress, and others were set up after recent visits. This weekend, we have our fall family fun night and will have many visitors to engage with during this event. We pray that the Lord will continue to open more doors through all our efforts.”

Hondo church of Christ, Texas (remote): Andrew Patterson (preacher) reports: “We set up two teams for our compassion cards. Yesterday morning, Team 1 wrote cards. We wrote 38 cards to send out this week. In a meeting with the elders, we resolved to take our time. Change is difficult for some people, but we hope seeing results will soften hearts. Craig, one of our most hard-working members, has taken the initiative to reach out to people. He is already following up with some of the contacts from the door knocking effort. I am excited to watch the progress.”

Colleyville church of Christ, Texas (remote): John Garza (regional trainer) reports, “Though we have implemented some aspects of the program and started training the congregation, we are excited to have the Whitacre family come to teach us about congregational evangelism in a month. We have four or five Bible studies going, and this Wednesday, we will teach about ‘How to Close a Study.’”

Northern Oaks church of Christ, San Antonio, Texas: Mel Hutzler (elder) reports, “I am including a picture of a baptism we had a few weeks ago. Blake Riley was baptized Saturday afternoon into Christ. We are thankful for his decision to obey the Gospel, and we appreciate Joe Bentley, one of our elders, for studying with him. We are always trying to keep up with those baptized and ones who place membership. We are thankful for God’s gift of the increase, and for the efforts of all our members. About 40 door-knockers from our congregation as well as a few from other congregations knocked on hundreds of doors, inviting people to the Gospel Meeting and gaining contacts right before it. Eric Lyons will speak October 24-27 on the subject, ‘Is the Bible Reliable?’ We hope to have several from our community, plus sister congregations, in attendance.”

Southwest church of Christ, Austin, Texas: Mark Speir (elder) reports, “We have lots of returning visitors and ongoing conversations. We had one new local visitor who is a son of a new convert.”

Graceton church of Christ, Diana, Texas: Johnny Willeford (elder) reports, “We had two visitors at our worship service on Sunday morning. Our Compassion Card Team A met Sunday evening and will send 50 cards to five new contacts this week. Our New Movers group will deliver a basket this week. “We will meet next week for our Mission Monday group to review our home visits and get our following assignments. We also met at the home of Kreston and Amy Willeford for our monthly family game night. Two families that we have been reaching out to came and enjoyed the fun and fellowship. There was an excellent turnout. The ladies are working hard on our First Sunday Fellowship Thanksgiving meal. We encourage our members to invite a friend or neighbor to come and join us that day.”

Granbury Street church of Christ, Cleburne, Texas: Ryan Cowan (deacon) reports, “We continue to write cards and attempt visits for those first contacted a few weeks ago for our mini-AMC. Some visits to wayward members are taking place. One active Bible study is in progress at this time. We will deliver new movers’ baskets soon.”

Wheeler church of Christ, Texas: Garrett English (preacher) reports, “Our compassion card writing had not stopped entirely, but it was declining; however, we have more people involved lately. Now we need to work on following up. We had one visitor to each assembly yesterday. One lived far away, but the other had visited before and was invited by an older member. We aim to follow up with her and ask her to study. One of our members was asked about our church at our monthly nursing home birthday party, which we arrange for the residents and staff. The lady who asked said she grew up in the Lord’s church not far from here. The member told her to visit us. We will see her again this week as we sing at the home this Wednesday night. We have continued with our card writing, and it is effective. We had a baptism this evening! A young man who approached me months back in need of counsel had asked me this evening to study about baptism. He believed his baptism was incorrect since he did not know what it meant. We learned about repentance and baptism; I could tell he was ready. He committed to being at Bible class and worship each week. He will be in our new converts’ class. We praise God for His increase!”

Buda-Kyle church of Christ, Texas: Ronnie Scherffius (preacher) reports, “Deric Merz is the coordinator, and he is working to build the greeter teams. When he has enough commitment, he will begin the specific training. The ladies met this morning and put bags together. The ones with colored ribbons are for a family with a child or children.”

Fruitvale church of Christ, Texas: Carl McCann (preacher) reports, “We continue to work the model. Currently, we have three studies ongoing. One uses Zoom, and the other two use it in person. All three are in Back to the Bible. Belinda is in Book 1, Karen is in Book 3, and Stephanie is in Book 2 “We have had several visitors from our door-knocking and follow-up work. This last week, Jesse Stuart assisted our brethren in San Saba with a door-knocking campaign. They had 34 contacts, one Bible study with two people, and two visitors on Sunday.”

Crosby church of Christ, Texas (remote): Jon Wheeler (elder) reports, “We have had two baptisms since our last update a few weeks ago. One was a 19-year-old young man who was a relative of my family. He used the Back to the Bible series online. He and his mother flew in from Colorado for his baptism. His mother reports he is very faithful in attending local worship services. A Bible study is in-progress with a prospect who recently started visiting with her brother. She will be in Book 2 this week. We hope to offer Bible studies to three other prospects soon. We were so excited this past Sunday to have nine visitors. Eight stayed for lunch with a compassion card team and got to know some of our members. The other visitor went to lunch with a co-worker who had invited her to services!”

Bridgewater church of Christ, Katy, Texas: Doug Suggs (deacon) updates, “At Bridgewater, our Compassion Team 1 met Sunday evening to address cards to contacts. Our new movers also met to send packets to the address on the list. Our study with David from China is going well. We have gone through the Believe the Bible, Back to the Bible and are presently going through the Jule Miller videos with him. He is asking questions and thinking about spiritual matters. We appreciate all prayers.”

West Side church of Christ, Salem, Virginia: Jeff Durham (elder) reports, “Our Sunday morning guest speaker from the Tri-Cities School of Preaching and Christian Development presented a lesson titled, ‘We Reap What We Sow.’ Points from Galatians 5 centered around our need to sow the fruit of the Spirit instead of the works of the flesh. The significance of our manner of life/influence around others is vital to our opportunities to teach the lost effectively. If our actions do not match our teachings, we lose our ability to be the salt and light Christ expects us to be. People are always watching; we want them to see Jesus in our words and actions so we can teach them the Gospel.”

Peninsula church of Christ, Hampton, Virginia: Ben Phillips (preacher) reports, “Last week was a great week! Yahiel Milano (JL) was baptized into Christ on Saturday after studying with Michael Driver and myself. He was contacted via flyers that were left at McDonalds (his workplace) during the American Mission Campaign. He is the second person whose conversion came directly from the American Mission Campaign. We are continuing to follow up with other contacts from AMC. He is the fifth baptism here since July. With an average attendance of the low 80’s at that point, we are more than halfway to our ten percent goal of eight souls coming to Christ in a year. This last week, our follow-up team reached out to several contacts. We will be continuing that work over the next few weeks. We also had a young lady who came to services yesterday after an invite. She is a postal worker, and Kevin Barnes met her at the post office. He gave her an invitation card, and she came! She moved here about a year ago; this was her first time to attend church. We added her to our prospect list and began sending her cards yesterday.”

Williamsburg church of Christ, Virginia: Jim Bishop (elder) reports, “This week, Williamsburg church of Christ conducted the monthly door knocking on Saturday in the apartment complex adjacent to the church building. The team made two contacts, which resulted in six visitors—a mother with three children, a young man, and his son. God provides opportunities and answers prayers. There were 25 compassion cards prepared. There are two prospect visits planned for next week. God bless those seeking to save the lost and obeying God’s Word.”

Marlon Retana (regional trainer) reports, “We are back home after a rewarding weekend in Brownsville, Texas, just a few miles from the Mexican border, where the population is predominantly Hispanic. We had the privilege of visiting the Northside church of Christ, a congregation that has shifted from primarily English-speaking to predominantly Spanish-speaking. “This weekend, they hosted a Bible lectureship featuring three speakers and eight lessons from the book of Colossians. I was honored to speak three times, presenting on ‘The Preeminence of Christ,’ ‘Complete in Christ,’ and ‘The Prayer of Paul.’ I also preached on Sunday on ‘Laborers in the Vineyard.’ Many brethren approached us afterward to express their gratitude, sharing how the lessons were clear, concise, and easy to understand. We were also blessed to set up a display where we shared information about Escuela Bíblica en Línea. We distributed numerous resources in partnership with World Video Bible School. I gave a short presentation covering our various projects, including Spanish Bible School, HTH School of Evangelism, and Digging Deep in Spanish.

A true highlight of our visit was meeting Celia, a wonderful sister in Christ. Several years ago, she discovered our work through the Digging Deep Bible Study for Ladies by Cindy Colley, and she was thrilled when she learned that we translated it into Spanish. Since then, she has shared the study with the congregation’s sisters and regularly engaged with all the content we have made available. She shared how much her 90-year-old mother enjoys the lessons, and their hospitality  blessed us during our stay. We are deeply thankful for her kindness and the opportunity to spend time with her.

Another highlight was witnessing the collaborative spirit among the Hispanic congregations in the Rio Grande Valley. Many of them attended the lectures. They actively work together year-round, planning events and strengthening the church. One exciting initiative with one of those congregations is the Congregational Evangelism Seminar scheduled for next year. “I know this is a long report, but I wanted to share the joy of seeing the church grow—no matter the language! We are thankful to God for the opportunity to contribute to these efforts and to witness the dedication of our brethren in serving Him and giving Him all the glory. May God continue to bless us richly today and always!”