Success Stories: January 22, 2025

Welcome Avalon church of Christ, Florida (remote): We welcome the Avalon church of Christ to the House to House/Heart to Heart School of Evangelism. Recently, Joe Palmer from Niceville met with them after they attended our seminar at Margaret Street. They have already submitted their first report. Preston Silcox (elder) reports, “The Avalon congregation was planted by the Margaret Street church of Christ in 2017. From the beginning, we have had a culture of evangelism to be a church plant that plants other churches. We believe utilizing the School of Evangelism will help us in this endeavor. Our materials arrived last week, and we wasted no time diving in. We have handed out copies of Evangelism Simplified and logged onto the website, digging into the introduction section. Our February elders’ and deacons’ meeting will focus on a plan to roll to out the school to the congregation. We are looking forward to learning and growing!”

Glencoe church of Christ, Alabama: Keith Ritchie (evangelist) reports, “Glencoe church of Christ had an exciting week! Ted and Angela Brooks completed their studies with Corey Walker on Friday afternoon. Corey was baptized into Christ by his father-in-law, Chad West (deacon). Tears of joy were shed! So far, four precious souls have obeyed the Gospel this year at Glencoe. Currently, two Bible studies are in progress, and we are prospecting several contacts. God has blessed us with growth! We now have two new convert classes. We have a new young adults’ class, which had nine in attendance. The Glencoe congregation has a lot of excitement, momentum, and growth. We appreciate prayers for the continued blessing of laborers and fruit! To God be the glory!”

Creekwood church of Christ, Mobile, Alabama: Tucker Presley (preacher) reports, “We have taken the first step of the program by conducting the post-evangelism survey. All the responses we have received so far have been positive, and people are ready and willing to work in multiple areas! Kathy Shelburne is coordinating our compassion cards and is already on the move with that. We also had our first Bible study last Thursday with Viktoria Kolysnyk. She is the Ukrainian girl who has been visiting Creekwood. We went through the green booklet, and it could not have gone better. She was engaged throughout and asked so many good questions. We had to defer many! We are set to go through the blue booklet this Thursday. We hope to have studies soon with several contacts. So far, we have had a good start!”

Central church of Christ, Saraland, Alabama: David Dixon (preacher) reports, “This week, we made at least two new contacts. I am confident these will lead to Bible studies. Not a day goes by that an opportunity does not present itself to talk to someone about God. That is not because people are any different than they have ever been. It is because we want to find those opportunities, so we look for them. I am focusing many of my sermons on our new converts’ needs, yet the lessons seem to apply to everyone. Emphasizing the needs and growth of new converts keeps the other members aware of being examples, so members are becoming intentional about helping their brothers and sisters in Christ.”

West Huntsville church of Christ, Alabama: Paul Owen (evangelist) reports, “The West Huntsville church has had eighteen baptisms in the last ten months! We continue working and cultivating new prospects, and seven Bible studies are ongoing.  Evangelism is a most rewarding work of God!”

Highland Park church of Christ, Muscle Shoals, Alabama: Andrew Myhan (deacon) reports, “Please pray for us as we continue to develop prospects and reach out to them. Compassion cards continue to be successful. We still have some ongoing Bible studies, and we expect good results soon. New members were assigned this week to help with transition and Bible studies.”

Hatton church of Christ, Alabama: Chris Miller (preacher) reports, “We rejoice as Brayden Mitchell obeyed early this morning. One of our high school youth and a college student studied with her, and she made the decision a little after midnight. We are so grateful that so many are active in being a light to those around us! To God be the glory!”

Fayette church of Christ, Alabama: Josh Taylor (deacon) reports, “In the first three weeks of 2025, we have witnessed three responses. Today, the wife of one of our respected members responded to the invitation for restoration. Kristen Woodruff had been away from the church for approximately two years, but her husband, Jason, persistently set an example by regularly attending services. Over the past couple of years, we prayed, visited, and sent cards to her. We are grateful to announce that today, she has been restored to faithfulness. Individual journeys often take time, and we are thankful for God’s patience. Please keep Kristen, Jason, and our entire congregation in your prayers as we continue to progress. May God be glorified through these efforts.”

Malvern church of Christ, Arkansas (remote): David Burruss (preacher) reports, “We continue to send compassion cards each week. Also, we are going to attempt a transition visit this week and begin the early stages of setting up a Bible study.”

Rison church of Christ, Arkansas: Keden Shrum (preacher) reports, “We have one person submitted for compassion cards, which we will send next week. I spoke with the elders about what we can do to get the fire going again. We need more involved in this work.”

Windsor church of Christ, Colorado: Lucas Stephens (member) reports, “Two people placed membership last week! This week, we had two visitors. We continue to have weekly leadership meetings and plan our future activities. This week, we anticipate our quarterly meeting with Rob as we meet and plan for our transition activities for our prospects. We attended a youth event at the Cheyenne church of Christ, where many of our members attended.”

Niceville church of Christ, Florida: Joe Palmer (preacher) reports, “This week was a week of movement. We had a meeting Sunday night attended by about 35 of our members. This was a good number, given the holiday weekend and the impending cold weather. Getting below freezing is a big deal in Florida. I went over the new steps we are taking in 2025, along with the following adjustments:

• Adding Follow-up to our New Movers program and HTH mailing for 9 months.
• Recruiting and training additional ‘Transition Teams’ and mailing our Card/Prayer list to the congregation, including ongoing studies.
• Adding a Mentoring Ministry to our work.

The focus was on recruiting help and inspiring involvement. I asked the congregation to step up and fill key roles in our program. I had a volunteer lead the mentoring program. I explained how we will train new transition team members and urged people to sign up for this needed work. The elders were pleased with the presentation, and the congregation was responsive. This week, we sent 19 cards and had three studies. We had nine visitors Sunday and gave out four welcome bags. We had one prospecting lunch.”

Margaret Street church of Christ, Milton, Florida: Troy Spradlin (preacher) reports, “It was time for our School of Evangelism follow-up call, so the elders met with Rob via Zoom and had a very fruitful discussion. Our elders are committed to the evangelism ministry and recognize that several challenges come with it. We will continue implementing more aspects of the model as we move forward, helping the congregation keep its focus on saving souls. Again, two new visiting families Sunday received welcome gifts from our Pew Greeters, creating new contacts. Our third Sunday group of compassion card writers was light this week because several were sick or out of town. We announced that we needed a little extra help this week, and the congregation stepped up to help us write all the cards! That brings our total number of contacts to 45, with 371 cards being sent so far. We are now focusing on getting more Bible studies through our upcoming visits to those on our ‘Love Our Neighbors’ list.”

Lafayette church of Christ, Georgia: Jesse Teague (deacon) reports, “This past Saturday, we knocked doors from our new movers’ list. Usually, we do that on the second Saturday, but we delayed a week because of the bad/icy roads the prior week. Over 40 visits were made by about 15 members. Though there was very little interest with most visits, we will carry on! Group 2 wrote compassion cards last night. We had about 16 saints sending cards to four people.”

Woodstock church of Christ, Georgia: Matt Amos (preacher) reports, “The WCOC congregation attended the Sunabella of Towne Lake Assistant Living devotional on Sunday. Ten non-Christians attended. We are attempting to establish a feeder church. This will enable us to help a smaller church establish an evangelism program. We had five attendees in the New Converts class. The attendees were people from the congregation who wanted to help the new converts. The compassion cards group wrote seven cards this week. We had four non-Christian visitors at our Sunday morning service.”

Cartersville church of Christ, Georgia (remote): Charles Harris (regional trainer) reports, “Recently, we advertised our compassion card work on a local Facebook group. We advertised it by asking for names of those who could use some words of encouragement. The response was massive. Today, my wife and I will begin studying with one who responded. Many other studies are in the works. Sunday, we rejoiced that Brother Garey Storey was restored. Many of us have reached out to him and have been praying for his return.”

Eatonton church of Christ, Georgia (remote): Roderick Coney, (preacher) reports, “This past week, only one family attended Bible study, so we did not sent out any cards. We should be back on track this week, Lord willing. My family was not there because we visited another congregation last Wednesday and this past Sunday.”

Collinsville-Troy church of Christ, Illinois: Jason Wright (elder) reports, “We had several visitors, even though the weather has been brutally cold. We continued our evangelism training this past Sunday. We had a coordinator’s meeting on Wednesday afternoon. We continue to tweak our Servants of Souls evangelism program. We had nine members who braved the cold to make follow-up visits and hand out new mover baskets. We mailed out 111 compassion cards this week. We are working to overcome challenges with some ongoing Bible studies. We look forward to warmer weather and more opportunities to reach out.”

LaGrange church of Christ, Indiana: Wayne Poe (elder) reports, “We had one new visitor yesterday and one baptism yesterday afternoon. It was a very good day; all praise to God.”

Judah church of Christ, Bedford, Indiana: Joe Moon (preacher) reports, “We had a fruitful Sunday. We baptized the husband of a member after we completed Back to the Bible with him. We have also started our Compassion Card program. The entire congregation seems to be getting excited and realizing that we really can win souls.”

Highland Village church of Christ, Bloomington, Indiana: Mark Stauffer (elder) reports, “Our first Mission Monday had a good turnout. It was attended by five members of the congregation, which is about a sixth of active members. Those present ranged from our most experienced members to our most recent convert. There is a desire to reach the lost, and they appreciate having a proven plan of action. They are gradually building the confidence to move beyond their comfort zones. Two teams each were given a prospect to visit. One was to visit a family that had attended services, and the other was to visit a delinquent family. Reports are pending. Our existing transition team was out with flu this week. We are making some adjustments to the compassion cards. We began sending a lot of cards immediately after the SOE and quickly had a lot of prospects. But that caused an imbalance between the number of prospects and the number of visits that we could make. To rebalance, we have temporarily reduced the number of new prospects and are working to add more transition specialists. Last week, we sent 19 cards, but we had no visitors, due to severe weather. We will be setting up our new mover subscription this week. The visitation teams have not reported on their visits yet.”

Beloit church of Christ, Kansas (remote): Dustin Dougherty (regional trainer) reports, “The conversion and restoration numbers are awesome to see, and we are so thankful for all the work from the congregations and individual Christians who reach the lost in their communities and bring them to Christ. Yesterday, we had our congregational meeting following services, and I was able to outline for the small number in attendance the evangelism plans for the coming year, the reworking of some things we had been doing, and the implementation of some new ideas. We are going to rework the compassion card program and implement a better way of handling visitors and new movers in our area.  Everyone seemed to be on board and ready to get to work. We appreciate all prayers for our work locally and for travel to work with the other locations in Kansas.”
Central church of Christ, Paducah, Kentucky: Adam Faughn (preacher) reports, “It has been a tremendous week in Paducah, and God gets all the glory. Two souls were saved over the weekend. First, Karen Frazier was baptized on Saturday around noon. She had been studying Back to the Bible,but she had to pause her study for a couple of weeks due to sickness. When we studied Book 3, she saw that baptism is ‘for’ salvation, and she was immediately ready to have her sins washed away. Then, around 2:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, one of our teenagers, Carter Holley, was baptized while our youth group was at Evangelism University. There had been many discussions and studies with Carter, and he knew he needed to be baptized, even at that late hour. We are continuing our new converts’ class, and we are also trying to get better at collecting names for prospecting. We have a lot of ‘efficiency’ work to do, but God’s Word works despite our inefficiencies, and we give Him all the glory!”

Madisonville church of Christ, Kentucky: Don Killough (deacon) reports, “We do not have any Bible studies going on right now. We sent out 85 compassion cards last week. We have had a fair number of visits at each service. We have around a dozen contacts on our prospect list.”

Aberdeen church of Christ, Maryland: Will Brown (preacher) reports, “We are working on reforming our evangelism efforts. We are studying Book 2 in one study, and two others are waiting as we try to schedule a study. We presently have one active card team in place. We are keeping our accountability board updated. We are inviting people to worship God and asking for Bible studies. We appreciate all prayers as we continue to pray for the success of our efforts.”

La Plata church of Christ, Maryland (remote): Eric Sykes (regional trainer) reports, “We had a good week last week. We sent out 22 compassion cards. We had one visitor. One of our new converts introduced me to one of her classmates at George Mason University. She said that he had questions about his faith. We plan to study Book 1 of BTTB with him tomorrow. We currently have three Bible studies. Our advanced teacher training class will be completing Book 3 of BTTB tomorrow. Next week, we will start training on how to close the study. We currently have seven new converts attending new convert training classes, with three more coming soon. Three members are studying Growing in Christ. Three others are studying The Beginning of our Confidence, and one is studying Fishers of Men. Fifteen attended our ‘Video of the Week’ class last week; the topic was ‘The Church of Your Choice.’ Our young men’s leadership training class is entering its fourth week of training. The class is comprised of our 20- and 30-year-olds. This week, we are training the young brothers on accountability as it relates to leadership. We appreciate all prayers.”

Shady Acres church of Christ, Sikeston, Missouri: Keith Olbricht (preacher) reports, “We had a busy couple of weeks at Shady Acres. The weather, illnesses, and injuries, and busy schedules have created chaos in our activities. At this point, we are working to transition several from contacts to prospects and from prospects to studies. We celebrated three baptisms last week: Silas last Sunday, Jasmin on Wednesday, and Zoey on Saturday. Silas was baptized by his great-grandfather. God is good.”

Fordland church of Christ, Missouri:  Josh Romo reports, “Thank you…btw, the first baptism of the year was last week on Thursday. James Raylyanu first visited us a couple of years ago. After implementing the compassion cards, I began visiting more often. He went through the Back to the Bible studies on his own and asked to meet Thursday evening, and we baptized him just a few moments later.”

East Flushing church of Christ, New York (remote): Clarence Jenkins (preacher) reports, “After worship service, we watched the HTHSOE YouTube video, ‘Introduction: A 38-percent Increase.’ The brethren started on our reboot. We will be continuing next week by going through the ‘HTHSOE CHECKLIST,’ and the ‘COORDINATORS SPREADSHEET.’ Our metrics thus far for January are seven visitors, nine prospects, and eighteen visits. Among the several Bible studies that were paused, two have restarted, three are scheduled to start this week, and one new Bible study started last week. We appreciate all prayers.”

New Concord church of Christ, Ohio: Terry Townsend (preacher) reports, “Bad weather, sickness, and two deaths within the congregation have hurt our evangelistic efforts for the last few days, but we persevere. I hope to have better news next week.”

Coweta church of Christ, Oklahoma: Keno Shrum (regional trainer) reports, “On Saturday, I had the honor of performing a marriage ceremony for Clayton and Shy. These two wonderful new converts were baptized last year after going through Back to the Bible. As they continue to grow and transform by the power of the Gospel, their life changes have not gone unnoticed. After the wedding service concluded, I was approached by Shy’s brother and his girlfriend. They said neither one had any religious experience, but they had seen the changes in Shy and Clayton. They then asked if I would baptize them. I told them I would be honored to do so, but we first need some studies. I told them baptism is entering into a covenant with God, and as such, they needed to have a proper understanding of the terms of that covenant and what baptism represents. They said they would love to go through the study, so we will meet them on Monday evening for Lesson 1 of Back to the Bible. Sometimes, we may not realize how much influence we have on our loved ones who are separated from God. An area of evangelism that is often overlooked is our immediate family. How do we reach out to our loved ones? What are some ways we can increase our Christian influence on our families? If you are struggling with these questions or others, the Regional Trainers can help you answer questions and build upon your foundational training. Then you can lead your families and others to Christ.”

York church of Christ, Pennsylvania: Mark Rashke (deacon) reports, “We had a visitor last week, and we sent cards. Some new volunteers participated in writing cards this week. We also had a brief visitation meeting (despite the snow) and distributed the names of three recent visitors. We will follow up with them by visiting them in their homes. Had some good conversations with a few members who are on the fence or nervous about wanting to make visits themselves.”

Union church of Christ, South Carolina (remote): Terry Hale (preacher) reports, “We had a great week! We sent four cards a day to four possible prospects. We have three excellent studies in Book 3, leaving prospects with a lot to consider. We are going into Book 2 with Robert, and he is able to retain what he is reading. Training is going well as we focus on growing good teachers.”

McEwen church of Christ, Tennessee: Jonathan Jones (preacher) reports, “We have preached the second Sunday of lessons and handed out bookmarks. Everyone is praying for their contacts daily. The evangelism table is going up this week, and the accountability board is next. One thing at a time.”

Cookeville church of Christ, Tennessee: Jonathan Medley (deacon) reports, “We continue to make significant progress with Diana. We were finally able to complete the first study with her, and her second one is planned soon. She has missed only one service in almost a month, including Wednesdays and our Gospel Meeting. We continue to send cards to Matt and Morgan, who visited during our meeting. One of our couples has volunteered to see them on Thursday. Andrew Scott, preacher at Freewill, gave me some significant input during our meeting on how they organize their compassion cards. It gave us the missing piece to make the whole process flow smoother. It is excellent that congregations are working toward the same goal. May souls be saved!”

Ocoee Street church of Christ, Copperhill, Tennessee: R.E. Vann (elder) reports, “Continuous winter weather hindered our attendance for the second week, and we were unable to make our transition visit with our new mover prospect. This week, we moved three unfaithful members to our prospect list and will begin sending them compassion cards.”

Rivergate church of Christ, Madison, Tennessee: Doug Tooley (preacher) reports, “We had two visitors on Sunday and one visitor this past Wednesday night. We made two visits last week. One man has expressed interest in a Bible study, and a lady seems to be very close to baptism, according to the ones who are working with her.”

White Oak church of Christ, Chattanooga, Tennessee (remote): John McGiffin (preacher) reports, “We had three visitors this past Sunday. None were from the local community. I attached the calendar of evangelistic outreach programs to gather contacts for the year. A neighboring congregation will host the HTH/HTH School of Evangelism seminar the first week of May. We plan to have one or two men attend that seminar so we can get them up to speed as coordinators. We will go over the bookmarks this week with the congregation in addition to introducing the group texting.”

Hillcrest church of Christ, Springfield, Tennessee: Tim Taylor (associate preacher) reports, “We have sent out more than 40 compassion cards each of the last two weeks, following up with the contacts we made during our food giveaways. I will be placing an order to restock our card inventory soon.”

Blackman church of Christ, Murfreesboro, Tennessee (remote): Brian McCord reports, “Blackman congregation had two visitors yesterday. We have sent out eight cards in the last week for two prospects. We have made one visit to the same two prospects. We will hopefully start a Bible study with them soon. The preacher will start the sermon series soon, and we will collect contacts from the congregation using the bookmarks.”

Chapel Hill church of Christ, Tennessee: Matt Jones (deacon) reports, “After a recent seminar, we have several new contacts. We will follow up by sending compassion cards. We are delivering our new mover baskets this month. We are looking forward to visiting and hopefully setting up some Bible studies in the near future.”

Rome church of Christ, Lebanon, Tennessee (remote): David Oxley (elder) reports, “We continued our study of Back to the Bible on Sunday morning, focusing on Book 3. We will meet this week on Tuesday for our advanced class and will be focusing on finding more contacts.”

Fayetteville church of Christ, Tennessee: Steve Jefferson (elder) reports, “We had a good week. We continued with one of our Bible studies; Book 2 was well received. Sunday after morning worship, 15 members from Compassion Card Team 3 wrote cards to four prospects.”

Freewill church of Christ, Gainesboro, Tennessee: Andrew Scott (preacher) reports, “The 2024 numbers are very encouraging, and it is a blessing that the Lord’s church is growing and congregations are evangelizing again! We had a great Lord’s Day at Freewill. Despite another weekend of winter weather, our numbers were very good. I presented the training lesson on making contacts. Over the last two years, this is our fourth lesson on making contacts. We passed out three of the training cards, bookmarks, and invitation cards. I included some points from the lesson on John 4. Everyone received the lesson very well and is excited about this reboot. We will send compassion cards this week to the family of one of our members who passed away last week. We pray doors of opportunity will open for them. Our second study with Ms. Carolyn was postponed until next week. She asked me several more questions about the nature of the church and worship after services, which I deferred and assured her we would study those topics in the next study and let the word of God provide the answers. She is very eager to learn. Finally, one of our new converts, Terrie Bohannon, has been talking to her mother about understanding the one baptism. Her mother is now unsure about her baptism and wants a Bible study! Her mother lives in Clarksville, and Ms. Terri will bring her home in the next couple of weeks to set things up. Also, she told me that one of her friends, who is an atheist, has had his heart soften, just as he had to undergo major heart surgery. We will be sending cards to him this week! What a blessing! We are praying earnestly for these souls! To God be the glory!”

Mountain Creek church of Christ, Chattanooga, Tennessee: Michael Tomshack (elder) reports, “On Saturday, the Elders convened to develop our ten, three, and one-year goals with a strong emphasis on evangelism. This year, we have set a goal of 15 baptisms and restorations. In 2023, we achieved nine, surpassing our target of eight; in 2024, we met our goal of 13. On Sunday evening, we presented our plan to the congregation, which included the budget, missions, and overall goals, followed by a fellowship meal. Three of our young adult women took our new female Christian to brunch to celebrate her birthday. This exemplifies the building of bonds within the congregation. We have a very loving and caring congregation in all age groups. This coming Saturday evening, we will host a game night with our deaf and hearing-impaired members. This year, we will intensify our evangelism efforts with our deaf members as they engage with their community.”

McKenzie church of Christ, Tennessee: Randall McAdams (elder) reports, “All is going well at the church, and attendance is holding at a good level despite sickness and cold weather. We had another response yesterday by Nolan, age 21, who has been following us on Facebook. One of our elders reached out to him and brought him to worship, and he responded to the invitation with the request to be baptized. He had attended the church years ago with his grandmother, who had a large influence at that time. He has had several challenges in his life, and the church is planning to help him all we can. We are presently getting the bulk of our contacts through our prayer requests that are being turned in weekly. We have had many deaths and sicknesses that are bringing in several contacts in our community and in adjoining towns. Our groups are enjoying sending cards to lift the spirits of the challenged. We ordered a new lot of cards two weeks ago. We had all but depleted the cards for ‘Prayers,’ ‘Missing You,’ and several others. May our Lord continue to bless our efforts.”

9^th and Main church of Christ, San Angelo, Texas: Leon Martinez (evangelist) reports, “We have four Bible studies going on. We also have 13 prospects on our list and are sending out compassion cards.”

Eisenhower church of Christ, Odessa, Texas: Allen Weakland (preacher) reports, “When the winter months arrive, people tend to slow down. We have been blessed with several visitors from the community who have expressed a need to return to God. As a result, Brother Ubaldo has started a study with Jose, who first visited Eisenhower two weeks ago. Ubaldo and I sat down this past Sunday and had a conversation with Jose, and he expressed that he knows the need to obey the Gospel. We request prayers for him as we approach our third study with him. On another front, I mentioned in past reports that Melissa agreed to a study this Sunday before services. We are using the series that confirms the existence of God, and she said that study convinced her that God does really exist; she is ready for our next study. We appreciate prayers for Melissa; may she have a soft heart to accept God’s will.”

Fruitvale church of Christ, Texas: Carl McCann (elder) reports, “We continue to work the model. Yesterday, we were blessed to have eleven visitors. These visitors are a direct result of door-knocking, delivering new movers baskets, and relationships made with neighbors. We have nine ongoing Bible studies, but several were canceled this week due to weather conditions or poor health. We are also waiting for two couples who agreed to study, but they had to cancel due to work and weather conditions. Once these start, we will have 13 studies going. We started Book 3 with Linda Moon, and she is so happy to be learning so much. With the Freeze family, we are now using Back to the Bible. We had two members, Jesse Stuart and Faye Melton, who were able to set up a weekly Bible study with a local nursing home in Grand Saline. This opportunity was made possible because of Faye’s relationship with the residents there as she cuts their hair. We plan to offer members training this coming Saturday as a refresher course or for first-timers on how to do follow-up work. Much work is being realized quickly here in the Fruitvale area of Texas.”

Roanoke church of Christ, Texas: Caleb Rutherford (preacher) reports, “Joey Davis finished preaching through Book 1 of Back to the Bible on Sunday morning. In the evening, Groups 2 and 3 combined forces to write cards, due to a special seminar we have next weekend. We once again wrote cards to our six prospects, with both groups sending over 120 cards each. We appreciate all prayers for fruitful results. We also have one study set up for this evening (20th). A lady from Nigeria has been visiting with us for the past two weeks. We took her out to eat both weeks, and she was appreciative. Then one of our ladies set up a study with her. We appreciate prayers for the study. Also, something unique happened. I mentioned in our report last week that a lady’s husband had passed away recently. It turns out he was placed on life support, but the doctors were telling her that he was essentially gone. However, after a couple of days, he began to respond to his wife’s voice. Eventually, he woke up, came off of the vent, and seemed to be doing somewhat okay. You can imagine our horror when we found out this news, after having already mailed Monday’s cards that all had the theme of ‘We are sorry for the loss of your loved one’! However, she was gracious and understood the situation. Unfortunately, her husband has taken a turn for the worse over the weekend, so we request prayers for this couple. We sent another batch of cards this week, all under the theme of ‘we are thinking of you and praying for you.’ The congregation is excited and working hard. We are prayerful for results.”

Colleyville church of Christ, Texas: John Garza (regional trainer) reports, “Regarding our Bible studies and compassion cards, things are going well. We have received positive feedback, especially from someone who expressed how much he appreciates the cards he received from us. We are sending cards to a few other individuals, and we plan to visit several souls this week. Additionally, we have six Bible studies taking place, and hopefully, one will be baptized tomorrow. If not, then maybe next week.”

Howe church of Christ, Texas: Aaron Alsbrook (preacher) reports, “This Lord’s Day, we were all encouraged by the worship assembly. Our singing, prayer, partaking of the Lord’s Supper, and listening to a lesson from the word of God concerning ‘Quantity not Quality’ from Matthew 22. We have many brothers and sisters excited about the congregational evangelism effort. We prayed for our personal Bible Bookmark contact people and asked those with erring brethren on their list to fill out a contact card and place it in our box. We will then train our Compassion Card coordinator to this effort and ask each member to be diligent and compassionate in moving these contacts to potential prospects. The willingness and love of so many members to save souls is overwhelming. We all look forward to another challenging year.”

Wheeler church of Christ, Texas: Garrett English (preacher) reports, “We continue to send cards to many who are hurting/grieving, showing our care for them. My wife and I plan for one of us to visit every other week as a follow-up. We also have contacts ready to ask for studies, but we must make the time.”

Bridgewater church of Christ, Katy, Texas: Doug Suggs (deacon) reports, “Our new movers group, led by Ken Mitchell, met to get materials ready to mail to the community. Forty-seven packets were mailed. John has been coming to our services for several weeks now.  On Sunday, his wife Laura came with him. One of our members, Jim, will set up a study with them next week. Andre is reaching out to some he has contacted. One of our members, Torie, has talked to her mother and encouraged her to have a Bible study. Wade will be studying with her mother very soon. She has recently moved into an assisted living home. We are trying to get contacts for our prospect list. On a Wednesday evening recently, I used one of the ‘Reaching the Lost’ videos to encourage everyone to fill out and pray for those on their list.”

Granbury Street church of Christ, Cleburne, Texas: Ryan Cowan (deacon) reports, “With the suggestion of regional trainer John Garza, I have decided to send the Body a weekly email update regarding all of our evangelism efforts. I am hopeful that this decision will keep everyone more informed and will help motivate all of us in our evangelism efforts. Several Bible studies are taking place.”

Buda-Kyle church of Christ, Texas: Ronnie Scherffius (preacher) reports, “Our evangelism committee met yesterday; we hope to develop two works that will generate contacts for our evangelism work. They are also committed to focusing on the ‘fundamentals’ (contacts, cards, and visitors) and are determined to renew the zeal of the brethren in our work. I have recommended to reach out to a regional trainer for assistance.”

Southside church of Christ, Lubbock, Texas (remote): Joshua Hubbard (associate preacher) reports, “In the week since the seminar, the congregation has been working. We have set up our evangelism table and will use the bookmarks to generate contacts. Everyone has expressed nothing but excitement for the endeavor we are beginning. We already have a few prospects, and we will start sending cards in the coming week or two.”

West Side church of Christ, Salem, Virginia: Jeff Durham (elder) reports, “Our time discussing compassion cards visits yesterday was encouraging. We shared both positive and negative experiences we have had in evangelism. We emphasized the importance of allowing people to decide to study God’s Word for themselves. We keep scattering the precious seed; God will handle the increase. We prayed for fertile soil upon which the message of God’s truth would fall. Our card-writing efforts continue to remain well-attended.”

Culpeper church of Christ, Virginia (remote): Dave Calvert (elder) reports, “We did not have services this past Sunday due to precautions taken as a result of forecasted snow. We would like to share that David Auguilar, whom we support, reported he had seven baptisms this past week in his missionary work in Chiapas, Mexico. Glory be to God!”

Williamsburg church of Christ, Virginia: Jerry Fields (elder) reports, “We had a good week with eight compassion cards sent to four contacts. There were a good number of visitors (18) this week, with one local visitor. We reached out to the community by knocking 45 doors, having four conversations, and preparing one contact card. We are involved in several Bible studies; two are within the family with their family members. A family of three that recently moved into the area placed membership. Their reason given was they were looking for and found a church that was caring, Biblical, and striving to reach the lost.”