Success Stories: January 15, 2025

Welcome Creekwood church of Christ, Mobile, Alabama: We welcome the Creekwood church of Christ to the House to House/Heart to Heart School of Evangelism. The congregation has enormous growth potential. We were impressed with their ministerial staff and love for souls. Pray for the elders as they lead the congregational evangelism plan.

Glencoe church of Christ, Alabama: Keith Ritchie (evangelist) reports, “Glencoe church of Christ had an exciting week. Three precious souls obeyed the Gospel of our Lord. Tanner and Kaitlin Mize were baptized into Christ Wednesday night. The following Sunday, MacKenzie Kirkpatrick was baptized into Christ. Four ongoing studies may yield more souls for the Kingdom soon. Congregational evangelism works because it is a part of God’s plan of evangelism for the church (Acts 8:1-4). To God be the glory!”

Central church of Christ, Saraland, Alabama: David Dixon (preacher) reports, “The new year continues to produce opportunities. A lady and her two children visited Sunday evening with no prior church experience. When asked what she looked for in a church, she said, ‘One that is doing things the correct way.’ We just did what we always do; we took her information, and we are reaching out to her this week. We had 100 in attendance Sunday morning, and very few, if any, of those were visitors. Our new converts class has outgrown the classroom we were in, so we moved into our old fellowship hall. God is good!”

West Huntsville church of Christ, Alabama: Paul Owen (evangelist) reports, “Ava Shands was baptized into Christ yesterday! Ben Stevenson, our deacon over our college group, taught the gospel to Tre and baptized him on July 1, 2024. The picture in the middle frame is Tre studying with Ava (his girlfriend) in the high school cafeteria at lunchtime!”

Highland Park church of Christ, Muscle Shoals, Alabama: Andrew Myhan (deacon) reports, “While training the teens to use Back to the Bible, one decided to put on Christ in baptism this last week. We rejoice with her and her family. Please pray for this young soul. We also expect to see another conversion soon from an ongoing Bible study.”

Hatton church of Christ, Alabama: Chris Miller (preacher) reports, “We currently have several Bible studies. We celebrated Sunday evening because of the church’s growth and paying off our new building far quicker than we thought.  The challenge was to keep working together, soul-winning, as God continued to give us the increase.”

Fayette church of Christ, Alabama: Josh Taylor (deacon) reports, “Our first mission Sunday began with a new soul added to the Lord’s body! Levi Hall decided to put on Christ in baptism tonight. We are so thankful for him and his decision. We began our evangelism year by assigning our prospects. We have had a lot of visitors in recent weeks, and we are working to send cards to all of them. We appreciate continual prayers as we build on last year’s successes! To God be the glory!”

Malvern church of Christ, Arkansas (remote): David Burruss (preacher) reports, “We continue to send compassion cards. One person inquired via email about a Bible study, and we are having conversations.”

Windsor church of Christ, Colorado: Lucas Stephens (member) reports, “We are continuing to write compassion cards to our prospects, and we will write 60 cards this week. Our first prospect list has been visited, and we are still working through the transition questions with our members. We had zero visitors this week. We continue to have our weekly meeting, and this week, we will discuss starting the new movers program soon.”

Niceville church of Christ, Florida: Joe Palmer (preacher) reports, “This week, the New Year kick-off continues. We have been working on several in-house improvements. We have made our prospects database shareable so that multiple people can see it and work on it. I met with the card leader this week about corrective changes. I am going to meet with the greeters’ leader this week. Next Sunday night, we will have a congregational meeting after worship to review where we are and discuss our improvements for 2025. Sunday was a big day as we had a Friend Day. We had 15 visitors, and most were new ones. From this group, we anticipate that several Bible studies will start soon and eventually lead to baptisms and restorations. The congregation did outstanding with meeting and greeting people. The fellowship time saw people connecting with visitors on a deeper level. A future evangelist and his wife are setting up a study that I will teach in their home. They want to observe a study done so they can feel prepared to teach. I have two studies scheduled for this week already. I will be assigning visits to our transition team this week. Our cards teams are meeting again. We sent out 25 cards this week. We had no Bible studies this past week.”

Margaret Street church of Christ, Milton, Florida: Troy Spradlin (preacher) reports, “We had two new visitors Sunday who received welcome gifts; we added their names as new contacts. Our second (of four) card writing teams met and wrote 66 cards to seven prospects. We have sent a total of 280 cards. The visit/transition teams and the elders have started making house calls/visits. We are praying for Bible studies and restorations. We also started teaching the congregation Back to the Bible this week. We had to postpone our New Movers Team meeting. We are currently reaching out to 37 contacts. The process to implement the evangelism model has been slower than we had anticipated, but we are certainly moving in the right direction.”

Lafayette church of Christ, Georgia: Jesse Teague (deacon) reports, “Monday, January 13, was a sobering day for the Lafayette church of Christ. One of the kingdom’s best soldiers was laid to rest. David Elkin Paden, Jr., was laid to rest. He did so much to seek and save the lost. We were reminded by his life’s work how we should always focus on the Gospel and make sure we live it in our lives and share it with those that need it. He left big shoes to fill, but also left us an example—we should follow him as he followed Christ.”

Woodstock church of Christ, Georgia: Matt Amos (preacher) reports, “The WCOC congregation attended the Sunabella of Towne Lake Assistant Living devotional on Sunday. They had ten non-Christians in attendance. We had six attendees in the New Converts class. The attendees were people from the congregation who wanted to help the new converts. The Compassion Cards group signed and sent eight cards this week. We had ten 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 ongoing. Visits for the purpose of setting up Bible studies were hindered by recent snow and ice. We plan to get back at it this weekend.”

Eatonton church of Christ, Georgia (remote): Roderick Coney, (preacher) reports, “Last week we wrote compassion cards for four people. We continue to train the congregation on Growing in Christ. On Wednesday nights, we are studying Chapter 7: Giving. We are encouraging members to get involved with the Sunday Bible study class.”

Bremen church of Christ, Georgia: Scott Broughton (evangelist) reports, “The elders presented our budget and goals for 2025 this past Sunday. In that presentation, they emphasized House to House School of Evangelism to keep our momentum going from 2024.”

Honolulu church of Christ, Hawaii: Tagiilima Esene (preacher) reports, “Aloha from the Honolulu congregation. We are excited as we begin this new year. We continue to have Bible studies with six souls. Two of the studies have completed Back to the Bible. We need your prayers for these two souls to make the right decision. We have planted; now we water the seed and pray and hope for God’s increase. Our congregation will be hosting a new camp for families this year. This camp is part of our efforts to build up and to evangelize. Please pray for us as we plan and prepare for our first annual Ohana Camp. Our elders are meeting with their teams to renew our efforts in our card ministry, new movers program, and wellness check for members. We look forward to another year of reaching the lost, encouraging the saved, and glorifying our Father in Heaven. To God be the glory!”

Collinsville-Troy church of Christ, Illinois: Jason Wright (elder) reports, “We mailed 129 compassion cards this week. This program is going strong and continues to provide great results. We had eight visitors from the community. One family is a coworker of one of our members. They love attending here and find our church kind and welcoming. One of our new Christians brought a friend as well. We gave out one visitor’s bag this week. We currently have six Bible studies in progress and more in the works. Our coordinators will meet this Wednesday. Training continues with our minister on first and third Sundays. Invitation cards were handed out to the congregation this week as well. Our New Christians’ class is well attended and going great.”

Judah church of Christ, Bedford, Indiana: Joe Moon (preacher) reports, “We had a work day Saturday.  We set up the evangelism table, reviewed and organized compassion cards, and built shelves to hold them. We have chosen our first prospect and plan to start cards next week.”

Highland Village church of Christ, Bloomington, Indiana: Mark Stauffer (elder) reports, “We sent 38 compassion cards last week. Our first Mission Monday is tomorrow. We look forward to our members’ continued growth as we train new transition specialists.”

Beloit church of Christ, Kansas (remote): Dustin Dougherty (regional trainer) reports, “With the winter weather, things have been pretty slow, and the number was short yesterday. I gave a lesson on goals for the coming year and touched on evangelism. Next week will be our congregational meeting, and the bulk of it will be discussing evangelism efforts in the coming year. I am planning to do more specific training locally for that effort and will reach out to some of my contacts in Kansas to see what I can do to help in the coming months. The texting evangelism is showing awesome results. I have 16 readings; several are responding to the daily questions, and we are having some discussions. To God be the glory.”
Central church of Christ, Paducah, Kentucky: Adam Faughn (preacher) reports, “Sicknesses postponed a Bible study with Karen again this week. We are praying she gets well soon so we can study Book 3. This was a slower week, but a lot of effort was still made through card-writing and greeting visitors. We also received our signs for our attendance board, so we can begin putting those up for the congregation to see each week. We plan to do that in the coming couple of weeks. We continue to pray for harvest in Paducah!”

Madisonville church of Christ, Kentucky: Don Killough (deacon) reports, “On Friday, we will have sent out 100 cards this week. Our goal has been to reach the unfaithful. Then we hope that the preacher and/or elders will visit the unfaithful who have received cards within the next week or two.”

Aberdeen church of Christ, Maryland: Will Brown (preacher) reports, “We are starting this year well. We have three Bible studies scheduled along with one planned for this weekend. We are working together as a congregation to support evangelism by refining each process. We are not leaving any part of the process to one person. We are growing together in faith and growing closer together. Pray for the success of our Bible studies.”

La Plata church of Christ, Maryland (remote): Eric Sykes (regional trainer) reports, “This week we wrote 24 compassion cards. We had one visitor. We have six folks in our advanced teacher’s training class. We are finishing Lesson 3 of Back to the Bible, and we will hold mock Bible studies this week. We are going to show the teachers how to conduct a BTTB study session via Zoom next week, using our PowerPoint presentation. Six young men attended our men’s training class. We are preparing them to assume area coordinator positions. In our new converts training classes, four people are studying The Beginning of Our Confidence, and three are studying Growing in Christ. We have one student in our Fishing for Men class. We have three open Bible studies. The number of viewers for our video of the week has nearly doubled. We started with 11 folks; last week’s class had 20 in attendance to view ‘A.I. and the Bible.’ We give all praise, honor, and glory to God. We pray that we can take the lessons we learned in 2024 to convert even more souls for the cause of Christ in 2025!”

Lake Regions church of Christ, Tilton, New Hampshire: Bob Blouin (elder) reports, “David and Carrie Farr are in one of our pictures of newly baptized brethren. They are such a sweet couple who just want to be workers for the Lord. They searched near their home for the Lord’s church and found us. Soon after they started attending, Carrie was pricked to the heart and wanted to learn more. Though she had been put under the water sometime in her past by a member of the Lord’s church, she said she had felt constrained to do so. After they came to us and shed tears during a few sermons, Brother David Rollert (minister) studied with them. David and I studied with them one more time, and then she and her husband both expressed they needed to be immersed for forgiveness of sins. Brother Rollert immersed David Farr first. We asked Brother Farr if he would like to immerse his wife, Carrie. They happily agreed. I am sure all of us shed tears of joy upon Sister Carrie’s baptism! We have grown a lot both numerically and especially spiritually. On January 12, we appointed a third elder, and next Lord’s Day, we will add two more wonderfully sound and hard-working men as deacons. We have made some very positive changes over the last 10 years or so, and in that timeframe, we determined that God’s Word is all that we will use to determine our course. Adding to that, people just want to hear the words of life from the Bible and the Bible only. That is exactly what we are doing. I do not know where the Lord will lead us on this earthly journey. It is very humbling, and we are greatly honored that He would use us. We are determined to follow by ‘trying to walk in the steps of the Savior.’”

East Flushing church of Christ, New York (remote): Clarence Jenkins (preacher) reports, “After worship service, we watched the HTHSOE YouTube video, ‘Growing Church: Is It Time for a Refresh?’ The brethren have decided that we will do a reboot next week. Our metrics thus far for January are four visitors, eleven prospects, and six visits. Though we have several Bible studies on pause for various reasons, one will start again this week. We appreciate all prayers.”

Cary church of Christ, North Carolina: Larry Fife (preacher) reports, “This year is off to an amazing start! We celebrated our first baptism of 2025 as a young lady who has been studying with one of our members since September made the joyful decision to obey the Gospel after our morning worship yesterday. What a beautiful beginning to the year! Connect Group 1 also met for the first time and completed 72 compassion cards, encouraging those in need. Additionally, we are excited to have an upcoming community event at the end of January and have been actively inviting people to join us. We are prayerfully hopeful that this will lead to new connections and opportunities to share God’s Word. We can hardly wait to see all the wonderful things the Lord has in store for us this year!”

New Concord church of Christ, Ohio: Terry Townsend (preacher) reports, “Two new Bible studies are set for this week; both studies are with people who have recently visited our assemblies. Two other Bible studies will start Book 3 of Back to the Bible. Five new mover baskets were delivered last week. Inclement weather and sickness have slowed us down a bit in recent weeks.”

Coweta church of Christ, Oklahoma: Keno Shrum (regional trainer) reports, “Robert continues to work with Phil, strengthening their relationship while nudging him toward a Bible study. Some individuals need patience and prayer, but we will continue to work with him until we can get him to commit. I was blessed to work with the Southside church of Christ in Lubbock, Texas. They recently enrolled in the Remote Enrollment option. I visited the congregation Sunday and helped them begin their training with a Sunday Kickstart. They are a congregation of hard workers led by strong elders and two fantastic preachers. Elders Vince, Dale, and Malcom are ready to lead by example and provide all the training and support the congregation needs to excel at evangelism. Ministers Tommy Hix and Joshua Hubbard are excited to train the congregation and encourage them as they begin learning the concept of Congregational Evangelism. I am excited for what the future holds for them. As always, if any congregations are struggling or have stalled in evangelism, Regional Trainers are standing by, ready to help! I pray God blesses you all in your labors. To God be the Glory!”

Union church of Christ, South Carolina (remote): Terry Hale (preacher) reports, “Please pray for Carolyn. She has informed us that her health is getting better, and we hope we can study with her this week. She states that she thought she knew about God’s will, but after studying, she knows what to do. We hope we can complete the study this week. We have six other studies in Books 1 and 2 this week.”

McEwen church of Christ, Tennessee: Jonathan Jones (preacher) reports, “We are doing well. So far, we have a number of elders and deacons going through the online curriculum. We have collated most of our post-seminar survey data to know who is willing to work where. We are having an elders/ministers meeting later this week to fill out coordinator roles, and we will pass out our contact cards this coming Sunday. Yesterday, I did the first Sunday AM and PM lessons. The elders did not want anyone to feel overwhelmed, so we are taking it slowly, but we introduce something new almost every time we get together. I will be the point of contact, but one of the elders is going to coordinate with me.”

Cookeville church of Christ, Tennessee: Jonathan Medley (deacon) reports, “We are currently having our annual ‘Seek Ye’ series. We had a lot of visitors on our first day, and our evening service had almost 10 percent more attendance than our morning service. We have made a lot of great contacts, and we hope to get several more over the next three days. For a few months, one of our members has been inviting her neighbors to worship. They are a young couple. They attended Sunday for the first time, and they were talking with everyone and seemed to fit in well. One of our families took them to eat lunch after morning services, and they returned to evening services. They said they will be back the rest of the week. We have already started sending compassion cards to them. Diana, the lady who walks to our services, returned yet again. She is still very shy and hesitant to talk to anyone, but she has attended eight services. A family invited her to lunch on Sunday afternoon. She was very hesitant but agreed to go. However, as soon as services were over, she very quickly left and walked home. We continue to send cards to her, and one of our families will visit her soon. We would appreciate prayers for a door to open for a study with her. We are continuing to send cards to the man who lost his mother. The goal is to get him to start attending services with his wife and children at one of our sister congregations so they can study with him. Another young couple visited for the first time ever this past Sunday evening. Cards will be started this week.”

Ocoee Street church of Christ, Copperhill, Tennessee: R.E. Vann (elder) reports, “Winter snow reduced our attendance by half, so we postponed our training session. We were able to send out 23 compassion cards and plan to make a transition visit this week. We appreciate all prayers for His kingdom work at Ocoee Street.”

Rivergate church of Christ, Madison, Tennessee: Doug Tooley (preacher) reports, “We had two visitors on Sunday morning. Six visits were made last week. I have a good prospect for a Bible study from our new visitors. I am making preparations to refresh the congregation on some of the basics.”

White Oak church of Christ, Chattanooga, Tennessee (remote): John McGiffin (preacher) reports, “I have presented a year-long plan for evangelism and spiritual growth to the men. It is aggressive with a monthly community outreach. Our very small congregation has set goals for 1000 contacts this year as well as three baptisms.”

Hillcrest church of Christ, Springfield, Tennessee: Tim Taylor (associate preacher) reports, “We had another baptism this week! Jesse was baptized into Christ Monday evening by his older brother Wesley.  We are so thankful for the great example they are to all of us, and we pray that they both continue to grow in Christ. (No pictures available, unfortunately). In addition, one of our sweet young Christian ladies, Landyn, came forward last night, asking for prayers. We also have another Bible study that we expect to complete this week, and we are prayerfully optimistic about another soul coming to Christ.”

Blackman church of Christ, Murfreesboro, Tennessee (remote): Brian McCord reports, “Our preacher is finishing a sermon series next Sunday. After that, we will begin with the recommended HTH sermons, pass out the bookmarks, and start gathering contacts. While we have not passed out the bookmarks yet, we currently have one prospect, and we will start sending cards to that prospect this week. We appreciate all prayers!”

Chapel Hill church of Christ, Tennessee: Matt Jones (deacon) reports, “This past week, we focused on advertising a workshop to our community. The workshop, which Dean Miller presents, is focused on Living with Loss. We have made contact with quite a few new people from our community. This workshop has been beneficial for members and visitors alike. We look forward to following up with many opportunities!”

Rome church of Christ, Lebanon, Tennessee (remote): David Oxley (elder) reports, “We continued our study of the Back to the Bible on Sunday morning in Book 3. We will meet this week on Tuesday for our advanced class. We are currently working on two prospects.”

Hondo church of Christ, Texas (remote): Andrew Patterson (preacher) reports, “We are still training on Back to the Bible, having just begun the third booklet. Attendance for the training class has increased recently. We combined our card-writing groups, so we met yesterday to write cards. We had a visitor yesterday, and she seemed to enjoy the service. I hope to follow up with her soon. Craig’s first study with Paul B. was delayed, but he hopes to continue soon. He will also start a Zoom study with Jim P., who lives in Utah but is moving to Hondo soon.”

Southside church of Christ, Lubbock, Texas (remote): Joshua Hubbard (associate preacher) reports, “We are so grateful to have had the Shrum family with us this weekend. The seminar was uplifting to all of us at Southside. The congregation is on fire and ready to begin the model. We are excited to see where this will take us; there is so much potential. We will continue to send updates on our progress; we are thankful to have the support of the HTHSOE team!”

Eisenhower church of Christ, Odessa, Texas: Allen Weakland (preacher) reports, “This past Sunday, the Eisenhower congregation was blessed to see Sebastian obey the Gospel. Brother Wesson has been studying with Sebastian over the past month with the Back to the Bible series. After much thought, Sebastian made the decision to obey and be immersed in Christ. His mother was present, and we are thrilled about the prospect that might come about due to her presence. We request prayers for this young man as he begins his journey in Christ.”

Fruitvale church of Christ, Texas: Carl McCann (elder) reports, “This past week, Raoul and Misty were able to finish Lesson 2 with Chris and Alice Freeze. The study is going well, and they are learning that the Baptist church where they had attended was not doing things according to the Bible. Jesse and Wayne Melton finished Lesson 2 with Linda Moon who finally realized there is only one church that we read about in the Bible. Don and Debbie Maxfield, along with Jesse, started a group Bible study at the Fruitvale Housing Authority. They are using Searching for Truth and have finished Lesson 1. Four from the community joined them; they all loved the study and want to continue the study on Tuesday nights. Jesse and Faye Melton went to one of the three nursing homes in Grand Saline and spoke with the director about starting a weekly Bible study for the residents as there are four members of the church at that location. The nursing home will let us start January 28, using Searching for Truth. We continue to work the model by sending the compassion cards, do follow up work, deliver new movers baskets, and do Bible studies. We currently have eight ongoing Bible studies and a few new ones set up.”

Free Will church of Christ, Gainesboro, Tennessee (remote): Andrew Scott (preacher) reports, “One of our visitors, Carolyn Dunn, returned to services with one of our members, Eddie Staggs. After services, we took her out to eat, and she opened up about her religious experiences. I had to defer several questions, specifically about worship. She is very interested in why we partake of the Lord’s Supper every first day of the week and why we do not use instruments. At the close of that conversation, she said, “I really want to know more about the Bible.” What an opportunity for the transition! I replied, “I just so happen to have these study booklets.” We returned to the church building and began Back to the Bible Lesson 1. The study went great, and Eddie did a great job as the silent partner. Seeing our members involved in Bible studies is a great blessing! We are scheduled to start Lesson 2 next Sunday. We also have a Bible study planned in the next few weeks with the husband of one of our new converts. What a great start to 2025! Lord willing, I will begin our congregational training next Sunday. To God be the glory!”

Roanoke church of Christ, Texas: Caleb Rutherford (preacher) reports, “We had a great Sunday. Our members are excited to be a part of this great effort, and they are ready to get to work. After much training over these last few weeks, we kicked off our Compassion Card program on January 12. For this first round of card writing, we are starting off with six prospects. Five of them are unfaithful members of our congregation, and one is a neighbor of one of our members whose husband passed away unexpectedly this past week. Jason Edwards (elder) also met with some of our visiting team members and did some training with them. We have several more training sessions lined up and hope to be fully operational very soon.”

Colleyville church of Christ, Texas: John Garza (regional trainer) reports, “We have seven Bible studies taking place this week, with five prospects that we are writing cards to. Additionally, we had a sister in Christ place membership with us.”

Howe church of Christ, Texas: Aaron Alsbrook (preacher) reports, “We had another great Lord’s Day. We had two full days of snow the previous week, which is unusual for Texas. Our Eldership decided to delay our services on Sunday, and we had a great day of worship and encouragement. We asked every member to get out their bookmarks and pray for each person. We finished looking at the ‘Politically Incorrect teacher and the Master Evangelist’ from John 4. It has always been a privilege to examine the Scriptures and be more like Jesus. Next week, we plan to pray for our contacts and ask for one of the categories on the back of the bookmark to create our first set of potential Contact Cards.”

Wheeler church of Christ, Texas: Garrett English (preacher) reports, “We continue to press on with our plans of cards and visits. I will take some time and review the training resources this week.”

Bridgewater church of Christ, Katy, Texas: Doug Suggs (deacon) reports, “On Sunday evening, one of our compassion card teams met and addressed cards to ten different people. We have had a lot of visitors recently. One man saw our sign and came to our evening service. Several people talked with him, gave him some materials, and offered to help him. Cards were sent to him. Two sisters from the area attended, and cards were sent to them. Andre plans to reach out to several people he has contacted. David, our new brother from China, is trying to get a visa so he may attend the Brown Trail School of Preaching. We appreciate all prayers and look forward to trying to grow God’s Kingdom here in Katy.”

Granbury Street church of Christ, Cleburne, Texas: Ryan Cowan (deacon) reports, “At least two studies are taking place right now. Justin and Leah Hopkins are reconnecting with a man named Leo. We first contacted him through our new movers program. This past Sunday, I met with six members and discussed our approach to visiting those we sent compassion cards to. It was a positive discussion, and we shared ideas.”

West Side church of Christ, Salem, Virginia: Jeff Durham (elder) reports, “We are having an additional visitation training class for those unable to attend the first one. We will also have a debriefing session from our previous Connection Teams’ visits to those who received compassion cards.  At the end of each Wednesday night, we are taking the last five minutes to get updates on evangelism efforts our members are making.  This will keep the topic fresh in our minds and encourage us to continue to work every day for the Lord’s cause.”

Culpeper church of Christ, Virginia (remote): Dave Calvert (elder) reports, “Our minister has completed the series of sermons from John 4, concerning what can be learned from the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. We have all heard this story many times, but when we apply it to our approach to evangelism today, it is very clear the importance of sharing with others the message that Jesus shared with the Samaritan woman: Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life’ (John 4:13-14). Our minister is presenting our evangelism training on Sunday nights. Several of our members have shared that they hope to have a Bible study with someone they know. They have received the Back to the Biblebooklets to aid them.”

Peninsula church of Christ, Hampton, Virginia: Ben Phillips (preacher) reports, “I am making my way back from Costa Rica today. During our time there we had five baptisms. We also found that several baptized brethren from previous campaigns remain faithful, and we were able to start some good studies that the brethren will continue. Several of us used Does It Matter? as the outline for our studies. I have done that a couple of times now, and it has proven effective because often we have limited opportunities to study with the brethren. I gave each congregation I visited a copy of the Spanish Evangelism Handbook and the accompanying materials. They were highly excited and expressed a need for help in this area. I met with them and gave them an overview of the materials. I also gave them the links to Marlon’s recorded videos in Spanish to help them get started. I also gave them Marlon’s contact information. Sending extra copies of materials is hard, as shipping into Costa Rica is highly unreliable. The Jardines congregation in Alajuela and the Buenos Aires congregation are reviewing and looking to implement the teaching.”

Williamsburg church of Christ, Virginia: Jim Bishop (elder) reports, “We were blessed again this week with two local visitors. One visitor was a young man who had never set foot in a church building before. He found out about our congregation through our Website. He is just one of several who were not church members but found their way to the building. He attended worship, Bible study, and the potluck. He was interested in the midweek Bible study and eager to share his contact information. Two Bible studies are scheduled, and we will be door-knocking on Saturday. Twenty-five compassion cards are prepared for mailing.”