Success Stories: November 6, 2024

Glencoe Church of Christ, Alabama: David Marker (elder) reports, “A tremendous amount of effort went into organizing and planning our Fall Festival. Many from our congregation prepared food, bags of candy to be handed out, and set up stations outside to solicit information for our contact cards. Every person was greeted with warm hospitality, given information concerning our services, and invited to worship with us. We had numerous people who expressed sincere gratitude for our efforts. As a result, we collected approximately 70 contacts and challenged our outreach groups to prepare compassion cards to be sent out ASAP! Every person stepped up to that challenge, and we are sending out those cards this week to all of our contacts. It is encouraging to see how many people worked tirelessly to make this event a success.”

West Huntsville church of Christ, Alabama: Paul Owen (associate preacher) reports, “Our contacts and personal Bible studies are increasing because our members are true soul winners daily. We are making a difference in the Huntsville community!”

Highland Park church of Christ, Muscle Shoals, Alabama: Andrew Myhan (deacon) reports, “Several of our men have been reaching out to a young man after his grandfather died a few weeks ago. We conducted Bible studies with him, and one of our most recent converts even helped with those studies. We are proud to announce that he was obedient to God’s word and was immersed for the forgiveness of sins! Please rejoice with us and pray for this young soul! This has been our third baptism since August when we began this process.”

Hatton church of Christ, Alabama: Chris Miller (preacher) reports, “Nella Layman obeyed the gospel this past week. We celebrate because we know this is the result of significant parental influence, a wonderful youth group, a culture at Hatton that is always talking about our evangelism work, and most importantly, the power of God. Also, we had a study this week with a family of four, and on Sunday, we assigned visits to several other contacts.”

Petersville church of Christ, Florence, Alabama: Adam Richardson (preacher) reports, “Petersville celebrated the baptism of one of our men this Sunday. His family has attended Petersville for years, and he is highly respected in the church, so his decision answered many prayers! We continue to plan to reach out to the contacts from Trunk or Treat. We sent 50 cards last week to eight different families.”

Rison church of Christ, Arkansas: Keden Shrum (preacher) reports, “Care Team B met on Sunday evening to sign cards. We completed Book 2 of Back to the Bible on Wednesday with Shad. He has many health problems and is currently on dialysis, so scheduling the studies has been challenging. He has been very receptive to everything thus far, and Lord willing, we will get to Book 3 soon.”

Windsor church of Christ, Colorado: Lucas Stephens (member) reports, “Bill took the congregation through the evangelism table training in Bible class. Brother Lynn walked us through Week 3 of the John 4 lessons. Our men’s leadership meeting went through the rest of the training schedule and plan for priorities.”

Niceville church of Christ, Florida: Joe Palmer (preacher) reports, “This week we mailed thirty cards and conducted three Bible studies. On Sunday, we had three returning visitors and one new visitor. We had a New Movers Ministry meeting Sunday night, which was well attended. Our leader, Doyle Babe, is doing a great job, and the church is asking good questions. One of our men will attempt to scrub the list for addresses that are not new movers. I am not sure of his method, but he thinks he can help us identify people who are not new movers. It is encouraging to look around on Sundays and see new brothers and sisters worshipping with us. That, along with the activity and effort of the church, has turned the church in a positive direction in 2024.”

Eatonton church of Christ, Georgia (remote): Roderick Coney (preacher) reports, “This past week we conducted a Bible Study using back to the Bible lesson 1. We continued with compassion cards to 2 people.  We also put up our accountability board listing evangelism efforts. Finally, we got a prospect who wants to set up a Bible Study just have to get a date that works.”

Woodstock church of Christ, Georgia: Matt Amos (preacher) reports, “The Prison Ministry Group is working with a young lady who was released from jail on October 30. We have been conducting Bible Studies with her and her incarcerated boyfriend since May 2024. We are hoping for baptisms.  The WCOC congregation attended the Sunday Sunabella of Towne Lake Assistant Living devotional. They had 11 non-Christians in attendance. The Compassion Cards Group created and sent 11 cards plus another 12 cards for new movers’ baskets. We had seven new Christians who attended the converts’ class. This class is to help those that were recently converted with the conversion. WCOC had three non-Christian visitors at our Sunday morning service. We had one Bible Study.”

Cartersville Church of Christ, Georgia (remote): Charles Harris (regional trainer) reports, “Bible studies are beginning to add up. Baptisms should be taking place soon. Living in a subdivision gave my family and me several opportunities to reach out to the parents of trick-or-treaters. We estimated that 200-300 stopped by our house. A few other church members did the same type of outreach in their neighborhoods as well. Visits to set up Bible studies are numerous. Our next Soul Winners class will cover how to make that visit.”

Collinsville-Troy church of Christ, Illinois: Jason Wright (elder) reports, “The mentoring of our new brethren has begun. One of our elders took Jim and Judy out for lunch on Sunday to get to know them better. We continue with the New Christian’s class each Sunday morning. We had visitors again this Sunday. We gave a visitor’s bag to a lady and her three children. She attended the food giveaway back in October. We mailed 197 compassion cards this week. We were able to set up two more Bible studies; one is with the brother of one of our members, and the other is a previous contact. We are still working on the bookmarks and passing out invitation cards. We are praying November will be as good or better than October!”

West Hammond Church of Christ, Indiana: Robert Webster (preacher) reports, “God has blessed us with more open doors. We were able to purchase a church van to transport folks who want to attend but are unable to. We had one of our largest turnouts last Sunday; as a result, we set up four additional Bible studies. All our new converts attend the New Converts class, which I teach. Our new church van is used to bring people to the class. Both the men’s and ladies’ classes assist with the evangelism model. I have been working on the website updates, including the new app. This is so convenient.”

Highland Village Church of Christ, Bloomington, Indiana: Mark Stauffer (elder) reports, “We sent 124 cards this week and continued congregational training in our Sunday lessons. We experienced a lull in Bible studies due to the illnesses of the parties involved, but we are scheduled to resume this week. Visits to prospects begin this week.”

LaGrange Church of Christ, Indiana: Wayne Poe (elder) reports, “I had a good week with trunk or treat and was able to meet many people from our community. We gained a few contacts from it, and we look forward to many more. We had one visitor and her children, and I am looking forward to getting to know them better and hopefully starting a Bible study with them. I started a new list of contacts for compassion cards. I am looking forward to potential visits with these contacts.”

Judah church of Christ, Bloomington, Indiana: Joe Moon (preacher) reports, “I preached Lesson 2 from the sermon on John 4 on how to make contacts. We passed out bookmarks last week so our members can begin making their lists. We had one Bible study this past week. We continue to develop the model.”

Beloit church of Christ, Kansas (remote): Dustin Dougherty (regional trainer) reports, “We had a great gospel meeting last weekend with Glen Elliot. He presented seven great lessons while he was here with us. A couple visited on the first night of the meeting and one visitor on Sunday morning. We are continuing to work and seek the lost in our community. We have a technical college and a community college about 30 minutes away. We are starting to explore options to reach students at both colleges. To God be the glory.”
                                                                                          
Central church of Christ, Paducah, Kentucky: Adam Faughn (preacher) reports, “This past summer, Valerie James visited our booth at the local fair. She requested a correspondence course and quickly returned each of the lessons. When she submitted her last lesson, she requested baptism. After several conversations, she was baptized early Sunday morning at Central. She lives about an hour away, so we are working on helping her find a congregation if she does not want to make that drive. We rejoice with her and look forward to helping her in any way we can in her walk with the Lord! We continue to send cards and to greet and encourage guests. God receives all the glory.”

Madisonville church of Christ, Kentucky: Don Killough (deacon) reports, “The first sermon on evangelism was preached Sunday morning, and the preacher plans to discuss and hand out bookmarks next Sunday. The evangelism team will be meeting with the elders every Wednesday. A Bible study is scheduled for Monday.”

Aberdeen church of Christ, Maryland: Will Brown (preacher) reports, “We have two ongoing Bible studies. The card team sent four cards. We are praying for one another. The church as whole is growing spiritually and numerically. Saving souls is not rocket science, but it does take patience to recognize that there are people looking for authentic Christians who attempt to follow the Bible. We request prayers for the success of these studies.”

La Plata Church of Christ, Maryland (remote): Eric Sykes (regional trainer) reports, “We had a good week. We sent out 70 compassion cards. Four people attended our new converts’ Bible study classes.  We have two open Bible studies. One is starting Lesson 3 of BTTB, and the other is starting Lesson 2. Last week, we conducted our annual Trunk or Treat event, and it was a great success. Members of a local Volunteer Fire and Rescue team came over to the building with one ambulance and passed out candy to the children from the back of their vehicle. They let the kids sit inside the ambulance and ask questions. We invited the children and their parents inside the building for hot dogs, chips, and soft drinks. More than 50 children attended, and we received five new contacts from our ‘Trunk or Treat’ this year. Last week, we added a total of ten new contacts to our prospect list last week. We are working hard this week to train more of our members on transitioning prospects into Bible studies. We plan to visit 13 people over the next week. Fifteen people viewed the video ‘The Truth About Hell’ in our weekly training class.”

East Main church of Christ, Tupelo, Mississippi: Barry Kennedy (preacher) reports, “We just had a fantastic gospel meeting with Paul Sain. He challenged us as individuals to realize what we can do to help the church grow and be more robust. Twelve MSOP students helped us with our campaign. We knocked on 1,090 doors in three days. We are now going through the contact information to work on follow-up visits and cards. To God be the glory as we see what comes from our efforts to sow the seed!”

Shady Acres church of Christ, Sikeston, Missouri: Keith Olbricht (preacher) reports, “We have had an increase in visitors of late. Since we are currently working on the training process, the brethren have started to look at those visitors differently. As we implement the model, I can hardly wait to see our confidence grow. We plan to start mailing compassion cards next week. We are blessed.”

Samford church of Christ, Steele, Missouri: Kyle Imel (deacon) reports, “We are sending compassion cards to four contacts this week. Two are from our Fall Harvest party. One is a community member fighting cancer. The last one is to the family of a young girl who lost her battle with cancer. Please pray for Justice’s family as they deal with her loss.”

Marshall church of Christ, Missouri: Charles Reid (preacher) reports, “Two people in our congregation went door-knocking last Saturday using the new mover’s list. We had two visitors that we never had before for worship. Then, after worship, some of us were working in our fellowship area, and another person drove up to our back door, having seen our cars there. He said he was a church member and had been looking for the church for a while. Well, he found us. We gave him a copy of House to House with all our info on it; including worship and Bible study times.”

East Flushing Church of Christ, New York (remote): Clarence Jenkins (preacher) reports, “My wife, Geri, began studying with Maya in 2023 long distance. With the continuing love of Christ, patience, understanding, and the biblical evangelism principle of ‘Let’s Not Argue About the Message,’ they went through these studies: Back to the Bible, Searching for Truth, and Complete in Christ. On Friday, Maya called us to let us know that we could witness her, on FaceTime, being baptized into Christ at the Killeen Church of Christ in Texas. To God be the glory. The gospel saves! We appreciate all prayers.”

Carthage church of Christ, North Carolina: Randy Chambers (preacher) reports, “This past week, we continued the three personal Bible studies conducted on Mondays, and we mailed out 14 compassion cards to four different prospects.”

Streetsboro church of Christ, Ohio: Ralph Price (preacher) reports, “We currently have seven on our prospect list. We had a visitor from the community yesterday. Unfortunately, he left after Bible class, so we did not get the opportunity to invite him to lunch. We did get his contact information and gave him a visitor bag, though. We concluded our Bible study with one of our prospects. Unfortunately, we have not baptized him yet, but he is still considering it. It was amazing in the study to see when he realized what the Bible taught about baptism. He is a prudent and cautious man. He said he needed some time to think about it. His wife is a member here, so I am hoping we will eventually baptize him. He was at service this Sunday, so we were encouraged. We also set up another Bible study and other family visits regularly, starting next week.”

New Concord church of Christ, Ohio: Terry Townsend (preacher) reports, “We continue to be encouraged by the uptick in attendance and the number of visitors who continue to frequent our assemblies. On Sunday, we had another new visitor (a family friend visiting us for the last few months). One of our elders and his wife recently took one of the newer families to lunch. We are working diligently with them in hopes of a Bible study. One of our dear sisters has started two new Bible studies with her neighbors, and she is including one of our new converts in that study to assist her as a silent partner. Several of our new converts are on fire, studying all the time and getting involved! Follow-up visits continue. I am working on a plan to get several more members involved in visitation (transition visits). Several have asked me recently if they could start going with me to make some visits! Exciting times!”

Sullivan Village Church of Christ, Lawton, Oklahoma: Steven Hill (preacher) reports, “The main focus at Sullivan Village is evangelizing the lost, but we also want to develop those whom we have baptized. We are trying to spend more time with our new converts, and we are continuing to sit down regularly and study with them one-on-one and in classes. We appreciate all prayers as we continue to seek more opportunities to preach the gospel.”

Cheyenne church of Christ, Oklahoma (remote): Nathan Brewer (member) reports, “Willing members wrote cards to mail to two new prospects this week. The prospect’s daughter is a previous prospect, but she suffered a severe health problem, so we thought we would reach out to her parents. A couple we have been prospecting came to worship for the second time, and they even stayed for the congregational meal. Their friend, a church member, is trying to arrange a study between the couple and one of the men in the congregation. I also spoke to a member about his inactive adult son we have prospected. I told the member that if his son is willing, I would love to study with him or visit him. He said he would talk to him. I enjoyed Rob’s sermon on ‘The Promise of Seed Time and Harvest’ and sent it to all the members.”

Coweta Church of Christ, Oklahoma: Keno Shrum (regional trainer) reports, “Jamie and I were in Lake Tahoe, California, last week. While there, we had the opportunity to visit with that congregation and the minister from a congregation in Morro Bay, California, about how HTHSOE can help them grow. I hope to follow up with them soon. Ethan has continued to worship with us for the past few weeks and has agreed to go through Lesson 1 of BTTB this coming weekend. On Saturday evening, we are having a chili supper at an outdoor pavilion some of our members owned. We have encouraged all members attending to bring one or more guests who are not Christians. We are using this event to generate contacts that we will then prospect. We expect a great turnout. We met Sunday evening and filled out compassion cards for three recent visitors. We had a visitor to whom we mailed compassion cards last spring. She said she enjoyed the service and would be back next Sunday.”

York Church of Christ, Pennsylvania: Mark Raschke (member) reports, “This week, we sent more cards to contacts. We met to discuss recent visits and those planned for November. We have found that only about 50 percent of the people we visit come to the door to talk with us. We thanked the congregation for the recent donations that helped replenish our visitor bags.”

Union church of Christ, South Carolina (remote): Terry Hale (preacher) reports, “We are active in training to have Bible studies in homes. Last week, after three visits and sending cards, all three are studying Back to the Bible. We have 12 soldiers in Bible studies, with nine studies active in all three books of Back to the Bible. Three of our studies are with people who have vision or reading problems, but the prospects are learning what the Bible has to say, thanks to the many tools HTHSOE has to offer.”

Covington Church of Christ, Tennessee: Wayne Dalrymple (elder) reports, “Last Wednesday, Jeremy visited our service. He was invited by one of our members. He and his family asked us for financial assistance. We told them we always like to have a Bible study before we consider requests like that. They agreed, so Jonathan McCain and I went to their house on Saturday. We took food with us (always eat!). We studied through almost all of Book 1 of BTTB. We will go back this week to finish Book 1 and do Book Two. We have agreed to help them get some food. On Sunday, we had our annual Friends and Family Day. Cliff Goodwin was our guest speaker, and he did an outstanding job. We had many visitors, including several non-Christians and several unfaithful Christians. We met Monday evening to write cards to these people. On Monday evening, Eli Fowler made the decision to be baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of his sins. Eli is the teenage grandson of some of our members. He has not been attending at all lately with them, but he expressed a desire to be right with God recently. I studied with him tonight to ensure he understood the importance and purpose of baptism as well as the commitment this involves. Once we looked at several passages regarding these topics, Eli said he understood and was ready to make that commitment. We rejoice that he is now our brother in Christ!”

Hebron church of Christ, McMinnville, Tennessee: Derrick Stiles (preacher) reports, “We had some visitors on Sunday. We added new families in the last several weeks and are excited about the future. The compassion card program is going well; 60 more cards were sent out last Sunday! We appreciate all prayers for our efforts as we move forward! To God be the glory!”

McKenzie church of Christ, Tennessee: Randall McAdams (elder) reports, “We continue to rejoice in the Lord for the progress our church family is making in bringing new souls into His kingdom. Last Monday, October 28, we baptized a young mother and wife, Jeri Lynn, into Christ. Her husband, David, has been a lifelong member of the McKenzie church. Jeri Lynn decided to make things complete with her submission to Christ’s commands. Both are an inspiration to our church family. Our attendance numbers continue to grow, and many visitors come each week. Our Sunday morning Bible class numbers are also increasing, which is uplifting. We are still using the evangelism tool of gift bags for visitors, and it is interesting to see how their faces light up when we present them with these little gifts. Concerning our growth, even though we are not getting huge numbers of contact cards turned in, we feel that this whole evangelism program, which we are regularly reminding our family about, is causing them to speak more openly to prospects and to be more aggressive in their invitations to outsiders. Overall, evangelism is on everyone’s mind more than it ever was before. We are excited about what is happening in our church family at McKenzie. This past Sunday, we began our November contact mailouts to five families, with four of them being non-members. We will have another Community Kitchen on November 14, generating at least 15 to 20 new contacts.”

Rivergate Church of Christ, Madison, Tennessee: Doug Tooley (preacher) reports, “We had seven visitors on Sunday. One couple that came was unique. The couple came with their parents, who were visiting from Georgia. This couple had recently lost a baby and actually got upset, saying we sent them too many cards. So we were hopeful for a change of heart by seeing them at worship. A young Hispanic boy come with a family that had been in a Bible study. He came to us after service, saying he was interested in baptism and wanted to study with us. One of the children who came to our Fall Festival on Sunday returned to service on Wednesday night. We have supplies stocked, and New Movers visits are ready to go out for the previous month. Five visits were made last week.”

Freewill church of Christ, Gainesboro, Tennessee: Andrew Scott (preacher) reports, “Our gospel meeting with Keith Ritchie was a great success! We made three new contacts, and visitor cards will be mailed out this week. We have a second accountability board up to show our year-to-date numbers. After talking with our Keith, we are going to launch a plan of work at the end of this year for 2025 and tie it directly to our evangelism training. Two new prospects are getting closer to Bible studies, and our members continue to turn in names for compassion cards. One soul at a time! We are thankful to God and give Him the glory for our efforts. God bless you all.”

White Oak church of Christ, Chattanooga, Tennessee (remote): John McGiffin (preacher) reports, “We had a visitor return for the second week. After receiving cards and letters from members, he wanted to bring his adult children to visit. We also sent cards to the contacts who came to Trunk or Treat.  We will be visiting this week to deliver photographs. We are planning our next community outreach. We will contact the local elementary school and get three families that need help with Thanksgiving meals. We will have them come to the building on Wednesday for a shortened Bible study followed by pizza with the members. They will go home with the food and hopefully a great connection with a member.”

New Union church of Christ, Manchester, Tennessee: Paul Fultz (elder) reports, “We had four visitors on Sunday. Our members submitted one contact card, and we wrote 31 compassion cards. We have two in our new convert class. We made five visits during the week.”

Hillcrest church of Christ, Springfield, Tennessee: Tim Taylor (associate preacher) reports, “We began our gospel meeting with Matt Cook from FHU yesterday. As a result, we have several first-time visitors to follow up with in the coming days. The Belcher family visited again yesterday and brought their daughter-in-law and two grandchildren.”

Mountain Creek Church of Christ, Chattanooga, Tennessee: Michael Tomshack (elder) reports, “Last month, a young lady came to Bible class to search for truth. She continues to attend the Young Adult Bible Class and is now open to a Bible study beginning this Saturday. Her background is diverse, with exposure to various denominations and participation in various religious beliefs, including atheism. She has a lot of pull from divorced parents and friends, each recommending a different denomination or philosophy as the basis of truth. She has wide-ranging questions, which we will write down to address later as we begin Lesson 1 of Back to the Bible. When we pray for opportunities to study with those outside of Christ, we must expect people to respond with messy lives that require navigating God’s Word.”

West Fayetteville church of Christ, Tennessee: Steve Jefferson (elder) reports, “The elders and preacher met Wednesday afternoon to discuss and plan our meetings with the remaining coordinators and plan our lessons. We viewed the video Let’s not Argue about the Method in our adult Sunday School class. During our worship hour, Steve Miller taught his third lesson on John 4. At the end of the service, we had a prayer for those on our bookmarks. We are still learning as we go forward. Everyone is eager to move forward but understands that we must lay a firm foundation for the process to bear fruit.”

Chapel Hill church of Christ, Tennessee: Matt Jones (deacon) reports, “We currently have a couple of active Bible studies, with one in particular that seems to be getting close to obeying the gospel. Many cards are still being written to our visitors and other contacts. New mover baskets are still being assembled and delivered on a regular basis. This past Sunday, a family who attended our Fall Family Fun Night joined us. I overheard them talking about how friendly our congregation is. I pray that their hearts will be opened to hear the gospel in the near future. Isaac is still doing a great job delivering Sunday morning sermons that have foundational concepts while still providing substance for those who are more mature. May God continue to give the increase as we plant and water!”

Rome church of Christ, Lebanon, Tennessee: David Oxley reports, “We have finished viewing our last video. We will start more in-depth training with those visiting and conducting Bible studies this week. We have started working with three new prospects this week using compassion cards.”

Buda-Kyle church of Christ, Texas: Ronnie Scherffius (preacher) reports, “We are moving forward with our efforts of congregational evangelism, giving special emphasis to our visitors as a means of creating contacts. In the past two weeks, we have added five names to our prospects list through those visiting with us. We hope to convert these visitors to Bible studies. In addition, our greeters began in full force Sunday and proved very effective.”

Colleyville church of Christ, Texas (remote): John Garza (regional trainer) reports, “Things continue to go well. We have multiple studies taking place. This week, we are studying How to Stay Accountable. We look forward to next weeks seminar.”

Graceton church of Christ, Diana, Texas: Johnny Willeford (elder) reports, “We had five families visit us for the service and meal. We also had the opportunity to hear from a young man we support in preaching school. Our compassion card Group C will be sending out twenty cards to five contacts this week. Home visits continue with the new movers’ contacts.”

Southwest church of Christ, Austin, Texas: Mark Spier (elder) reports, “We are continuing to reach out and encourage frequent visitors by offering Bible studies. Our card-writing program for October included 245 cards, 45 of which were sent to local visitors.”

Granbury Street church of Christ, Cleburne, Texas: Ryan Cowan (deacon) reports, “It is hard to keep up with all that has happened since our participation in the Fifth Annual Brotherhood-Wide Door-knocking Day in September. A sweet woman named Donna was baptized as a direct result of these efforts. Another man has been visiting regularly. Finally, Justin and Leah Hopkins began a study with a man named Leo. Door-knocking is effective when a strategic plan is implemented. Lost souls are looking for safety, but if we never reach out to our neighbors, souls will be lost.”

Wheeler church of Christ, Texas: Garrett English (preacher) reports, “At our fall hayride for the youth, we went by houses throughout the town and stopped by to see a contact who would like another visit. We plan to visit soon and ask her to study with us. We currently have six prospects.”

Fruitvale Church of Christ, Texas: Carl McCann (preacher) reports, “We were blessed to have Andy, Angel, Allen, and Asteo Reyes join us for training in door-knocking, follow-up work, delivering bags of food, and congregational development. Because of these four young laborers, we made 17 new contacts while door-knocking and set up three Bible studies with those we followed up with. We are currently engaged in several studies and making progress in them. In addition, we had our Trunk or Treat event, and eleven community members joined us. Two community members stayed for over one hour visiting with us. We offered a photo booth and will now plan to follow up with these eleven new contacts. Our Sundays continue to provide new visitors an opportunity to reach them.”

Bridgewater Church of Christ, Katy, Texas: Doug Suggs (deacon) reports, “One of our compassion card teams met Sunday to address cards to prospects as well as some who need encouragement. The study with two women who speak Spanish continues. They have been attending our services each week. We hung door hangers on houses around the church building to invite our neighbors last Saturday. After Bible class on Wednesday, these two Spanish women took some hangers to distribute in the area where they live. Our study with our visitor from China continues. He is understanding better, and I believe he will be baptized soon. Wade Webster, our evangelist, preached a lesson recently on “The Man with the Red Bandana.” Wells Crowther saved 18 people when the first tower collapsed on 9/11 in New York City. Wade’s main point was that Wells was willing to save those who were trapped and needed help, and we need to be searching for those who are trapped in sin and darkness and losing hope. On our evangelism table is the printed story of Wells Crowther, and we bought bandanas for the congregation to help remind them to seek out these souls. About thirty of these bandanas were taken by the members as a reminder to reach out to others.”

Wasatch church of Christ, Clearfield, Utah (remote): Daniel Welker (preacher) reports, “We had two visitors and a fellowship meal. Three studies scheduled to start this week. The evangelism team is meeting again on Thursday. We keep praying for fruit.”

West Side church of Christ, Salem, Virginia: Jeff Durham (elder) reports, “We recently discussed questions our friends might ask us, particularly about differences in their own experiences when compared to the things we do in our worship services. We referred to our Congregational Evangelism training to “defer, not debate” such questions. We also emphasized the need to establish the foundational matters of our authority in religion, such as Christ as the head of His church as presented in the Back to the Bible lessons. We are to acknowledge their questions and make notes to be sure they are covered in the lessons we have with them. Let God’s word speak for itself.”

Culpeper church of Christ, Virginia (remote): Mike Morgan (preacher) reports, “We completed kickoff Sunday. Multiple cards have been sent. A prospective friend of the church was diagnosed with pneumonia, and he was visited by several, both in the hospital and at home. Flowers and food were also sent. Elders, deacons, and ministers have watched or are watching the seven evangelism videos. We will keep track of anything new that happens and report on Mondays.”

Marlon Retana (regional trainer): “We recently had the privilege of visiting the Brown Trail School of Preaching in Bedford, Texas, where I participated in the lectureship series conducted in Spanish. Over two days, more than 120 brethren attended, eager to deepen their understanding and strengthen their commitment under the theme ‘Affirming Our Faith.’ I was honored to speak on practical ways we can live out our faith, an approach that resonated well with the audience and encouraged thoughtful conversations on actively embodying our beliefs. In addition to the lectures, we set up a display for Escuela Bíblica en Línea. Many attendees visited our booth, took samples of our materials, and shared heartfelt words of appreciation for the school’s resources. The gratitude expressed was uplifting and served as a powerful reminder of the importance of accessible, quality materials for our Spanish-speaking brethren who are hungry for ways to grow in knowledge and conviction. We thank God for the opportunity to participate in this meaningful event and for the chance to connect with so many dedicated brothers and sisters. Events like these underscore the value of the work we are blessed to do and encourage us to continue providing resources that affirm and strengthen faith across our Hispanic communities. We look forward to seeing how these seeds grow and praying that they bear fruit in the lives of all who attend.”