Success Stories: October 30, 2024

Welcome Margaret Street church of Christ, Florida:  We want to welcome the Margaret Street church of Christ to the House to House/Heart to Heart School of Evangelism. This congregation has incredible talent and energy.  The attendance was very high, based on their membership and visiting congregations. The elders and preachers are focused and ready to begin the training.  We look forward to hearing about souls being saved.

Glencoe church of Christ, Alabama: David Marker (elder) reports, “We had numerous visitors Sunday, and we also had a family of four that placed membership. Others are calling and commending us for our work in the community. Our new members are participating in various works. We are also organizing and making plans for our Fall Festival. This event is usually the best-attended event that we have all year. Many will be involved in cooking, handing out candy, and having teams set up to collect contact information. We continue to work with delivering new mover bags and are successfully moving some of those folks to the next stage of receiving compassion cards. On Wednesday, we will review what we have accomplished this past year and discuss our goals for the upcoming year.”

West Huntsville church of Christ, Alabama: Paul Owen (associate preacher) reports, “We sent approximately 100 compassion cards last Sunday. We have 18 current prospects and five studies.”

Highland Park church of Christ, Muscle Shoals, Alabama: Andrew Myhan (deacon) reports, “We had two new Bible studies last week. We have one new one already scheduled for this week and another request that will likely be this week, if some conflicts do not interrupt it. These studies are the result of the card ministry. We also gathered several new contacts from the Trick or Treat event we held after the evening service on Sunday.”

Hatton church of Christ, Alabama: Chris Miller (preacher) reports, “Robbie Wert, a young man who has been following along in our classes and our evangelism efforts, decided it was time to obey the Gospel. He was baptized Sunday morning . . . He is an amazing young man who loves to lead singing. We have our trunk or treat this week and should be gathering many new contacts from this effort.”

Petersville church of Christ, Florence, Alabama: Adam Richardson (preacher) reports, “Petersville put our evangelistic efforts on display this Sunday with our trunk or treat event. We followed several good suggestions from the HTH School of Evangelism, including advertising the event, door knocking the surrounding houses, and gathering contact information. We separated the candy gathering from the games and food by having an outside devotional right in the middle of our event, and nearly everyone stayed to participate. We filled out more than 120 contact cards (some with multiple family members on one card), and 53 stated they wanted to learn more about the Petersville church of Christ! We will collect the information and reach out to everyone in the coming weeks.”

Fayette church of Christ, Alabama: Josh Taylor (deacon) reports, “One of our high schoolers was baptized into Christ this morning. Cade was one of the ones who went through our class this summer using Back to the Bible. Our teacher could tell Back to the Bible helped Cade. We were excited this morning to learn Cade made the most excellent decision he will ever make. We are so thankful for Back to the Bible at Fayette. We sowed, we watered, and now God gave the increase!”

Malvern church of Christ, Arkansas (remote): David Burruss (preacher) reports, “We met yesterday after services to work in compassion cards and to add new prospects. We are completing a few transitional visits and still have one active Bible study that is going well.”

Rison church of Christ, Arkansas: Keden Shrum (preacher) reports, “Care Team A met Sunday evening to work on compassion cards. This week, we are sending a second round of cards to a family that has been visiting with us. We wrote cards to a family in the community that just lost a loved one and a man from the community who is recovering from surgery. We hope and pray these will lead to Bible studies.”

Windsor church of Christ, Colorado: Lucas Stephens (member) reports, “We are continuing our training and organizing leaders around the different structures categories. We completed the second John 4 lesson and our Bible class training on general evangelism tools.”

Niceville church of Christ, Florida: Joe Palmer (preacher) reports, “This was another great week as we saw one precious soul baptized into Christ. Eveliss Rodriquez came to us with a friend, Karyn Ford, and we have been studying with her for a while. Karyn met Eveliss at the park, and they struck up a friendship. Karyn has worshipped with us for a few months, and we invited her to church. We took them both to dinner on the first Sunday night they visited and set up a Bible study for Thursday. We held a study each week for three weeks.  We had a meal each week, went through the Back to the Bible study, and watched football on Thursday night.  The formula of food, faith, and football worked. Eveliss was a great student, hungering for the truth. She was weighing things after our study last Thursday and even had some additional questions for my wife on Sunday morning. When Sunday night came, she was ready, and we rejoiced to see her put on Christ. Today, she texted my wife, ‘Thank you so much for everything you have done, especially for the warm welcome I have received from the church. I have never felt so good before in a church.’ This week, we had five studies, mailed out 45 cards, and had one baptism. We had no new visitors. We have started delivering gifts to new movers and are working on getting that better organized.”

Eatonton church of Christ, Georgia (remote): Roderick Coney (preacher) reports, “We started a Bible study with the sister of a member. We have three active Bible studies. We had our Fall Party, and one prospect came. The congregation is working to build a relationship with her. We have four prospects now. We are still teaching Growing in Christ to the congregation during the Wednesday night Bible study class hour.”

Oak Hill church of Christ, Rome, Georgia: Matt Wallin (deacon) reports, “The Oak Hill church of Christ continues to grow. We had four baptisms from Sunday, October 20, 2024, to Sunday, October 27, 2024. Quimas is the father of two college students, Blake, a student at Shorter College, and Case, a high schooler, and Lauren is from our college group.  The common denominator among these baptisms is the inspired word of God. Locally, this is how it looks. The College and Young Adults group has scheduled meetings on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, (most) Thursdays, and Fridays. We have on average, five meals together each week, and we constantly check on one another. Blake met the group at a college fair and has been watching the group chat from a distance, reading and watching every link sent, and listening to sermons online. He finally contacted us asking to be baptized and has attended every event possible since then. Kase has been taught the Bible by Jason for the past year and was baptized by him, who spent years in our Men of Valor group that meets weekly, and he now teaches the high schoolers. Quimas was baptized after seeing years of faithful love from the church and hearing his wife and daughters explain the Gospel to him. Lauren started attending Oak Hill this June with her boyfriend. She has been attending weekly, and for the first time, she has truly studied her Bible. She started examining Back to the Bible with Rod and Victoria and was baptized on Thursday, October 24, and she spent the following hour crying tears of joy. The Gospel works, as we pray that God will use us and that we will move forward.”

Bremen church of Christ, Georgia: Scott Broughton (member) reports, “This past week, we continued with the New Converts class and our discussion of False Doctrines. We presented baptismal certificates to those who recently obeyed the Gospel: Leigh Cooper, Bella Carros, Corinne Stephenson, and Blake Taylor. Blake started college this year and attended the Oak Hill congregation.”

Lafayette church of Christ, Georgia: Jesse Teague (deacon) reports, “We had a good time with the saints at our Annual Hayride and Cookout on Saturday. Of course, we had folks from the community there as well. These friends and families needed to see what Christian fellowship looked like, including devotion time. Two of our young men led songs and offered prayers after a short devotion. Seeds were planted. Better yet, we had a young lady obey the Gospel on Friday. She has been visiting us for a good while now. She has such a good heart, and once engaged in Bible study, she realized what she needed to do and was baptized into Christ. Praise God for salvation.”

Woodstock church of Christ, Georgia: Matt Amos (preacher) reports, “The New Movers Group had five volunteers who assembled 30 themed baskets and nine volunteers who knocked on 12 doors. They delivered one basket to a person who was at home. We placed ten door hangers to those that were not home.  The Prison Ministry Group attended Career Day at DeKalb RYDC. Our staff entertained questions from 45 students, focusing on full immersion baptism. We are hoping that this will spark some interest in Bible studies. The WCOC congregation attended Sunday’s worship service at Sunabella of Towne Lake Assistant Living. Six non-Christians were in attendance, and two expressed interest in a personal Bible study. We are preparing for those studies in the coming days. The Compassion Cards Group created and sent 42 cards. We had three non-Christian visitors at our Sunday morning service.”

Cartersville church of Christ, Georgia (remote): Charles Harris (regional trainer) reports, “The culture here continues to change into an evangelistic one. Other members are setting up Bible studies. One Bible study scheduled was the result of efforts from a new convert. We did not have any baptisms during the month of October, but I believe we are close to having several in the next few weeks.”

Honolulu church of Christ, Hawaii: Tagiilima Esene (preacher) reports, “Aloha from the Honolulu congregation! We continue with our ongoing studies with six souls at this time. Two young souls have gone through the Back to the Bible study and are very near to the Kingdom. Please pray for these souls that they obey the Gospel of Christ. We had another community giveaway on our church grounds. This is a great opportunity to make contacts. We had a wonderful turnout from the community, and we made a good impression with those who attended. Last Sunday, our youth group engaged in their Bible bowl. They studied Romans 10 and did a wonderful job. We appreciate all prayers!”

Collinsville-Troy church of Christ, Illinois: Jason Wright (elder) reports, “We have had a busy couple of weeks. Our food giveaway and Trunk or Treat yielded a few contacts. One contact asked if we could replace a post on her porch. We will replace that post this week. She has also been invited to the women’s Bible study, along with 24 others who showed an interest. We had visitors on Sunday and handed out a visitor’s bag to each one. We continue with the Bible studies; 11 studies are in progress. Our new convert class is rolling along, and our mentor program will start soon. Our card writers were busy as we mailed 190 this week. I met with our young adults and did some extra training on the bookmarks and invitation cards, and I focused the lesson on their role in church growth. We are promoting congregational evangelism, stressing the role everyone can play; disciples making disciples is Christ-approved!”

West Hammond church of Christ, Indiana: Robert Webster (preacher) reports, “As we continue our evangelism thrust, I have decided to teach the new converts’ class. I am doing this to ensure we make a special effort to retain those baptized into Christ. We are using Bobby Bates’ book, Growing in Christ.  We also continue to send out cards and have Bible studies. We have two new studies that started earlier this week. I am also training some of our brethren to use various materials as part of our effort to get more members involved.”

Highland Village church of Christ, Bloomington, Indiana: Mark Stauffer (elder) reports, “A picture of the Highland Village status board is below. It covers our second week of sending cards. God has blessed us with numerous visitors. We will begin visits to prospects after this week. Congregational training continues, and members are enthusiastically supporting this effort. A high percentage of our members remain to sign cards. The level of optimism in the congregation is increasing. To God be the glory!”

LaGrange church of Christ, Indiana: Wayne Poe (elder) reports, “This is the start of our fourth week of compassion cards, and we are looking forward to visiting those who have received cards for four weeks. On Wednesday nights, we are using some of the training videos along with trying to use that night to practice the training of the video we watched. We look forward to seeing what happens next.”

Judah church of Christ, Bloomington, Indiana: Joe Moon (preacher) reports, “We started the sermon series yesterday on John 4. When the sermon was completed, we passed out the contact bookmarks to the members. We are having a men’s meeting next week to continue developing the model.”

Beloit church of Christ, Kansas (remote): Dustin Dougherty (regional trainer) reports, “I’m still trying to finish up the study I was having with Mike. We need to do book 3, but he hasn’t returned to services since we completed book 2. His dad is very, very sick with cancer, so that could be a factor.  We have our 3rd annual Gospel Meeting this weekend with Glen Elliot; I pray the meeting will be a great success.  Hopefully, next week, I’ll have a better report.”
                                                                                          
Central church of Christ, Paducah, Kentucky: Adam Faughn (preacher) reports, “Following our congregational model, this week was spent primarily on new convert work. We are thankful for those helping our new converts, both in studies and mentoring, and we are praying for the spiritual development of our new brothers and sisters in Christ. However, we also enjoyed our gospel meeting with David Powell and were blessed with many guests. As expected, many were from area congregations, but we did have a couple who are not Christians, and we are seeking to follow up with them. One of those also came to our Fall Festival later in the week, so we pray that the door to a study might open. It is a blessing to continue to see our church family seek to win the lost. Finally, on Sunday evening, we were blessed to pray with an erring Christian who rededicated his life to the Lord. He is a member of a sister congregation, but that church does not have Sunday night services, so he has visited with us recently. It was an honor to pray with him and to know the Kingdom is stronger.”

Madisonville church of Christ, Kentucky: Don Killough (deacon) reports, “I asked Russell last week to start preaching the sermons he is supposed to teach. I hope he can start this coming Sunday. Bob and I have gone through all the boxes and are watching the videos. Diane has sorted the compassion cards. I have spoken to Dennis, and we will meet once a week.”

Aberdeen church of Christ, Maryland: Will Brown (preacher) reports, “This past Saturday, we had our annual Trunk or Treat. We have learned how to make the event evangelistic. We found four contacts through the event by adjusting our registration form questions. We changed one question to, “Would you like a Bible study?” One person said yes!  The other three contacts said they were looking for a church home and provided their complete contact information. The information provided will allow us to send them a card or email, and call/text them on the phone. We understand now that when we look for people who are searching, we can find them. Lastly, we have two ongoing Bible studies. We appreciate all prayers for our evangelism efforts and the Lord’s church in Maryland.”

LaPlata church of Christ, Maryland (remote): Eric Sykes (regional trainer) reports, “This week, we wrote 12 individual compassion cards. Each card went out with multiple signatures. These twelve prospects are now on our gift basket list. We are arranging to visit them this week. We have seven new prospects who are new movers. We visited them recently.  We will add them to our compassion card mailing list for this week, and they will start receiving compassion cards on Sunday. We currently have two active Bible studies. We had five people in our new converts classes.”

East Main church of Christ, Tupelo, Mississippi: Barry Kennedy (preacher) reports, “This past weekend, we had a fantastic time of fellowship and reaching out to the community with our annual Trunk or Treat. I hope we will have responses from contacts at that event. We also started our Fall Gospel Meeting with Paul Sain, who is doing a fantastic job preaching “Building Up and Strengthening the Church!” A great group of MSOP students is working with us on an area-wide door-knocking campaign. Today (Monday), we hit 388 doors and had many contacts (some requesting prayers). We also delivered seven new movers’ baskets. Lord willing, we will head out again, canvassing the area tomorrow and Wednesday! We are looking forward to seeing what the Lord will do with the seeds being sown this week! To God be the glory!”

Shady Acres church of Christ, Sikeston, Missouri: Keith Olbricht (preacher) reports, “It has been an exciting week at Shady Acres. We are getting in motion, and that is good. We are working on transitioning a couple of contacts into prospects. This week’s big objective is to get the compassion cards organized and ready to begin. We had one baptism last week. Glen started attending here several years ago at the invitation of a sister who then worked at a laundromat and met him there. (This sister turned 99 last Wednesday). Glen had put off being baptized for years because he had a severe fear of water. We took him to the pool at the local YMCA (who graciously lets us use the pool for baptisms) where there is a sloped floor into the pool so we could get into and out of the pool with no steps, and we could get chest deep into the water so that it was not as far for him to have to go down. Even so, it took several attempts to get him immersed. We all rejoice with him.”

Samford church of Christ, Steele, Missouri: Kyle Imel (deacon) reports, “Thaxton, one of our teens, brought his friend yesterday and went through Book 1. We are very proud. They came to our Fall party/Trunk or Treat Saturday night.”

East Flushing church of Christ, New York (remote): Clarence Jenkins (preacher) reports, “After worship service, we watched the HTHSOE YouTube video: ’New Converts: Mentoring.’ We are also implementing the Lads to Leaders program, focusing on it as part of our evangelistic keeping/mentoring process. This month, we have five visitors, 11 visits, eight prospects, 66 compassion cards sent, and seven Bible studies. We appreciate all prayers.”

New Concord church of Christ, Ohio: Terry Townsend (preacher) reports, “Not much to report this week. We did have four more first-time visitors on Sunday. Several recent visitors continue to assemble and show interest. Follow-up visits have been made, but we do not have confirmations yet for Bible studies. Several of the folks who have been visiting our services for a while will be revisited this week. A second effort will be made to set up some Bible studies. One of our recent couples who visited a few weeks ago (and continues to come) is starting to express interest. I have been told that the man is a member of the church (wayward Christian), and his wife is not. I have made two visits to their home, but both times they were not home. They told me yesterday they want me to come back and visit. Many non-members are attending regularly now, but we have had little success setting up Bible studies. We patiently work with current contacts and encourage them. We pray that doors will open soon.”

Sullivan Village church of Christ, Lawton, Oklahoma: Steven Hill (preacher) reports, “We are continuing our studies with our new converts, trying to get them fully grounded so Satan cannot snatch them away. In the meantime, we are seeking to set up new studies with a couple of people.”

Cheyenne church of Christ, Oklahoma (remote): Nathan Brewer (member) reports, “We are mailing our latest batch of cards this week. We discussed the health condition of other prospects. Also, renovations on our auditorium are supposed to begin this week. We hope an updated look will motivate activity inside and outside the building.”

Coweta church of Christ, Oklahoma: Keno Shrum (regional trainer) reports, “Jamie and I have a nephew who was raised in the Assembly of God. He is 20 years old and has moved to a nearby town for college. I seldom have an opportunity to see or visit with him, but last Tuesday, he rode with me in one of our dump trucks. As the day went on, I steered the conversation toward God. I asked if he was still worshiping at the Assembly of God. He said he has not worshipped anywhere over the past year. I was happy to hear that and extended the invitation to come with us to Bible study the following evening. He did not commit, but on Wednesday evening, I was excited to see him walk through the doors of the church building. Afterward, he went out for burgers and ice cream with our young members, two of whom were his cousins.  As he lives in a town 50 miles away, I didn’t expect he would be back Sunday, but he proved me wrong when he showed up Sunday morning for Bible class and worship. I am in California this week, but I will approach him next Sunday about a Bible study. Last Monday, Gina, one of our members, obtained a Bible study with the wife of another member who has been resistant to previous offers to study by various other members. The Bible study went well through Back to the Bible Lesson 1. I am anxious to see how Lessons 2 and 3 go. The backstory is very inspiring and encouraging, but I will save that for a later update. I am always encouraged by the RTL reports from around the nation. I am praying for all who are laboring in His name!”

York church of Christ, Pennsylvania: Mark Raschke (member) reports, “This Sunday, we had one of our largest crowds (77) since moving into our new building. One sister was restored after being absent from the assembly for years. She brought her adult daughter, grandson, and teenage son. We gave the daughter a visitor bag. We also had a first-time visitor who heard about us through the House to House/Heart to Heart mailing. We were thankful that he filled out a contact card. We will be following up with both by sending compassion cards. This week, we also sent compassion cards to two of our contacts from about a year ago to let them know that we still care and warm them up for a visit in the coming month.”

Union church of Christ, South Carolina (remote): Terry Hale (preacher) reports, “We have 12 soldiers now working in the field. I will visit three contacts who have been receiving compassion cards. I am working on seven Bible studies this week; hopefully, these three new contacts will also become studies. One study in Book three is going well, with a prospect learning from Ephesians 1:3 and Galatians 3:27. Another study in Book 2 finished with a deacon in the Baptist organization. He answered the question in the book about whether it was a sin to name the church the Baptist church, and he said yes.”

Hebron church of Christ, McMinnville, Tennessee: Derrick Stiles (preacher) reports, “We have great things to report at Hebron this past week. The Lord added another new soul to the church. This young lady had attended for a short period but had never obeyed the Gospel. After receiving cards from the compassion card program, she returned to church and was grateful for the cards. On Sunday morning, she was baptized into Christ for the remission of her sins. Praise God! An additional 60 cards were sent out through the compassion card program.”

McKenzie church of Christ, Tennessee: Randall McAdams (elder) reports, “We continue to plug away at our contacts. We have added a few new contacts to our mailouts for the coming week. We have recently had an influx of visitors. We get their contact information, hand out visitor bags, and ask them to go to lunch. We have had one family desire to place membership with us. We are excited about that. After a study today, Jerri Lynn King desired to obey the Gospel and be baptized into Christ. We rejoice with her as well as her family. We feel like we are impacting our community, and we pray God gets all the glory.”

Rivergate church of Christ, Madison, Tennessee: Doug Tooley (preacher) reports, “We had seven visitors on Sunday morning. One family was taken to eat on Sunday. Also, we had about 15 visitors on Sunday evening who were invited to our Fall Festival that followed our evening services. Our card ministry is still going strong. Also, we are prepared to hit our new movers list for October.”

White Oak church of Christ, Chattanooga, Tennessee (remote): John McGiffin (preacher) reports, “We held our first Trunk or Treat and Chili Cook-off. Twelve people filled out contact cards. Seven families from the immediate community visited us for the first time. Several were unwilling to provide any information, and we did not push the issue. All had fun. We printed the photographs and plan to deliver them along with prizes for the best costumes. We had someone welcoming people in the fellowship hall. This person sat and talked to community members.  He forged several connections. We are unsure how many attended, but we went through several bowls of chili and about 75 hotdogs. The only surprise to this northern boy is that people in the South love coleslaw in their chili and on their hot dogs!”

New Union church of Christ, Manchester, Tennessee: Paul Fultz (elder) reports, “We had four contact cards submitted and four visitors this past week. Our Compassion Card team sent 37 cards. We made several transition visits.”

Hillcrest church of Christ, Springfield, Tennessee: Tim Taylor (associate preacher) reports, “We had our Trunk or Treat Saturday night. As a result, we have several new prospects for follow-up. We will add some of them to our nine current compassion card recipients. Jackie, a benevolence contact, visited with us for Bible study. We will follow up with her tomorrow. Also, Bill and Frances Bennett placed membership with us Sunday morning.”

Mountain Creek church of Christ, Chattanooga, Tennessee: Michael Tomshack (elder) reports, “Attached is a photo of Sunday’s Compassion Card Team One (we have four teams) writing cards for this week’s mailings. Each participant touches a personalized card, from the youngest, who may use a crayon to draw a picture, to a more life-seasoned person sharing words from real-life experiences. Each note is important, and each person writing the note understands this is an important role in the evangelism process. They are working for Christ and making the process successful.”

West Fayetteville church of Christ, Tennessee: Steve Jefferson (elder) reports, “The West Fayetteville congregation had a good weekend. On Saturday night, we had our Annual Chili Cook-off and Trunk or Treat event.  We invited our community to come and enjoy with us. We had several visitors who had not visited with us in the past. During the Bible class on Sunday morning, we met with our contact coordinators to discuss their roles and responsibilities. We also showed the adult auditorium class the Congregational Plan video. We will continue meeting with the remaining coordinators over the next few weeks.”

Chapel Hill church of Christ, Tennessee: Matt Jones (deacon) reports, “This past week, we had our Annual Fall Family Fun Night. We had a large turnout, but a good percentage of those who joined us were visitors. Many of our members were engaging with these visitors and making meaningful connections. Many visitors expressed how much fun they had with our church family. All our visitors were invited to join us at our services, and several said they would. We pray that God will continue to open doors through this event. We do still have a couple of ongoing Bible studies, and we look forward to setting additional studies in the future. To God be the glory!”

Rome church of Christ, Lebanon, Tennessee (remote): David Oxley (preacher) reports, “We completed our sixth video yesterday and are looking forward to the seventh. We have a small prospect list and have been sending compassion cards. We have one Bible study confirmed for next week and another we are working to confirm.”

Freewill church of Christ, Gainesboro, Tennessee: Andrew Scott (preacher) reports, “We continue our soul-saving efforts. We have had record attendance and 10 Bible studies for September and October. Most of the studies are ongoing, and four are at book 3. We have also sent out about 120 compassion cards.  We will start our Gospel Meeting with Keith Ritchie this Friday through Sunday. We plan to reach out to any visitors to prospect them. We thank God for our growth and continue to keep you all in our prayers. God bless.”

9^th & Main church of Christ, San Angelo, Texas: Bryan Braswell (elder) reports, “We continue to have good focus. We have multiple cards being sent and new contacts being made. We share information weekly with the congregation, and our teams are focused. A husband and wife were baptized yesterday, due to organic evangelism at 9th & Main. People love the Back to the Bible three-part study. We continue to do lots of follow-up work, and we have many active Bible studies ongoing. As a result of all the new converts, members, and legacy members, we have decided to study the material Kevin Rhodes has published dealing with hermeneutics and how to study the Bible in our Sunday morning and Wednesday evening Bible classes. The morale could not be higher at 9th & Main!”

Buda-Kyle church of Christ, Texas: Ronnie Scherffius (preacher) reports, “The work at Buda-Kyle is moving slowly, but it is moving in a forward direction! Three contacts are scheduled for visits this week, and our “greeters” program is coming into shape.”

Hondo church of Christ, Texas (remote): Andrew Patterson (preacher) reports, “We are doing some of the early congregational training a little out-of-order, so yesterday we began presenting the videos for the remote seminar. After AM worship, Team 2 wrote cards. A sizable percentage of members showed up; we wrote 107 cards together! This Saturday, we will host and conduct a funeral for Darrell (the late husband of one of our contacts, Andi). He was a firefighter and police officer, and we expect many folks from the community to attend. Hopefully, we will make some contacts from it and deepen our relationship with Andi.”

Colleyville church of Christ, Texas (remote): John Garza (regional trainer) reports, “Here at Colleyville, evangelism is going well. We have four Bible studies taking place, and we know that one older brother tends to have studies without updating us. This Wednesday, we will continue our “How To” series of evangelism, specifically “How to Teach after Baptism.” This week, we will have our annual lectureship, and in a couple of weeks, we will have the special seminar with the Whitacre family.”

Northern Oaks church of Christ, San Antonio, Texas: Mel Hutzler (elder) reports, “We had two members who came forward Wednesday night, and then on Sunday morning. As we were concluding our Gospel meeting, we had a baptism. Later that night, we had another member come forward. Our Gospel meeting with Eric Lyons from Apologetics Press occurred Thursday through Sunday. On Sunday, between our sermon and Bible class, Edward Brieno came forward and was baptized into Christ. Edward is the husband of one of our Christian ladies. We had a few visits from the community and area congregations. We have a few more contacts that have been made, plus additional Bible studies that are taking place and coming up shortly. Many of these efforts were made by door knocking, sending cards, members welcoming guests, and showing hospitality. It is a beautiful blessing to see members working together in God’s Kingdom as He gives the increase!”

Graceton church of Christ, Diana, Texas: Johnny Willeford (elder) reports, “Our Compassion Card Group B met Sunday evening and will send out 76 cards for ten contacts. We are excited about our First Sunday Fellowship Meal next Sunday. We are hoping that several of our new contacts will join us. Three families visited with us for our morning service this week. All of our new movers’ baskets have all been delivered for this month. Now, our Mission Monday group will start home visits. “Plans are underway for our Annual Fall Church Family Retreat at a local state park near us. Again, our hope is to invite several of our new contacts and recent visitors to join us that day. It will be the first weekend of December, and we hope for nice weather. “Our church workday this past Saturday was well attended, and some of our new members attended to help. We laid underground electrical lines and water lines to a new church sign, a new storage building, and a new sprinkler line for our aerobic septic system. We pray for all, and we appreciate your thoughts and prayers also.”

Granbury Street church of Christ, Cleburne, Texas: Ryan Cowan (deacon) reports, “We are continuing our efforts in making in-person visits to those who have received compassion cards. On a sad note, one of the prospects we were studying with has closed the door to additional discussion. We are praying for a tender heart, but the call of repentance may have proven too great. We ask for prayers for this soul. Cody and Angel Grinnell are preparing to study with a family member of Angel.”

Wheeler church of Christ, Texas: Garrett English (preacher) reports, “No one got a picture of the baptism we had, but the man was there for worship Sunday and is certainly a changed man. He plans to attend the New Converts’ class each week to continue growing. Since last year, we have sent many cards and keep sending them. My wife and I had our third child last week, so we may be limited in our efforts for evangelism for a few weeks, but the work will press on through the rest of the church.”

Fruitvale church of Christ, Texas: Carl McCann (preacher) reports, “This week, we started a new Bible study using Searching for Truth with Karen Vrooman. She believes she is saved after finishing Back to the Bible, so we have changed the lure in our tackle box. We have been doing more follow-up work from our campaign and have made a few more contacts. We continue to work the model and set up more Bible studies. We also continue to teach a coping class at our local community center, which has been producing more contacts.”

Bridgewater church of Christ, Katy, Texas: Doug Suggs (deacon) reports, “A young couple attended our services on Sunday evening. Some of our members were meeting with them after services. We will send them compassion cards. David from China continues to attend all of our services. Wade and I continue to study with him. He is doing very well for someone who knew very little about spiritual matters. We have a couple of ladies attending who are bilingual. They attend our Spanish class on Wednesday evenings and are with us on Sunday mornings and evenings. The Wednesday class is taught in Spanish, and students can understand it in their language. Wade, our evangelist, has a PowerPoint when he preaches, and he has it in English and Spanish for those whose first language is not English. We will go into the community on Saturday morning to put hangers on doors around our church building. We will invite them to our meeting, beginning on November 10 and continuing through November 13.”

Wasatch church of Christ, Clearfield, Utah (remote): Daniel Welker (preacher) reports, “Wasatch church of Christ had our first Annual Trunk or Treat on Friday, October 25. We had a very successful event. We were able to reach out to 83 families (415 individuals). Thirty-three families requested Bible studies. We passed out 83 welcome bags to families at the Trunk or Treat with information about the congregation. We also gave out the Christian Gift cards with a QR code to Back to the Bible studies. We have already assembled a team of five men who will assist in the Bible studies. We will start reaching out to the families of those who requested Bible studies on Thursday, October 31. This coming Sunday’s lesson will focus on the members’ part when visitors come from events like Trunk or Treat. We also had one family visit on Sunday. We took them out to eat with another couple of the congregation to get to know them better. We know the wife is a faithful Christian, but we are not sure if the husband has yet been baptized. We appreciate all prayers as we continue to focus on evangelism efforts in Utah.”

West Side church of Christ, Salem, Virginia: Jeff Durham (elder) reports, “Our lesson and devotional messages were centered on Joshua 3 and 4. The children of Israel needed to have faith that God would deliver them across/through the Jordan River. Their confidence in God’s promises would move them to act on their faith. The devil would love for them, and us, to allow fear to keep us from trusting in God enough to move forward in serving Him. The same is true for our Congregational Evangelism efforts. We continue to encourage our members to overcome fear and their part to spread the saving truth of the Gospel message.”

Peninsula church of Christ, Hampton, Virginia: Ben Phillips (preacher) reports, “We had a delightful surprise at worship yesterday when a contact from nearly three years ago showed up. We gave her a turkey and other help on Thanksgiving three years ago. She had intended to visit but had forgotten. Thankfully, her home was door-knocked during AMC. The visit reminded her of us, and she came with her grandson. We connected him with some of our kids his age, and they had a great time. She even stayed for the potluck, allowing us to shower her with love. She promised to come back, and we believe she will! We request prayers for this precious soul, as she is a solid prospect. We continue working on other prospects, some of whom continue to be a long game. We are also following up with our contacts who have recently received the cards. A lot of good work is happening, and the congregation remains engaged. We are thankful for the fruit God has given and are praying for more to God’s glory!”

Williamsburg church of Christ, Virginia: Jim Bishop (elder) reports, “Williamsburg church of Christ was blessed again yesterday with the addition of another sister in Christ. This is the fourth baptism since we began the congregational training in July and the sixth baptism for this year. We are focusing on reaching additional contacts and making visits to prospects. With this in mind, we had 60 children attend our fall event and visited three prospects. The William and Mary campus ministry is progressing, with two of the students attending worship and the college Bible study class on Sunday. One family who visited is moving to the area, and we took them to lunch.”

Culpepper church of Christ, Virginia (remote): Mike Morgan (preacher) reports, “We had an amazing ‘Kickoff Sunday’ at the Culpepper church of Christ. We truly enjoyed worshiping and fellowshipping with Eric Sykes. We are fired up and excited about starting and implementing the Evangelism Model at our congregation. Please keep all of us lifted up in prayer as we strive to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ in our communities!”

Eight Mile Rock church of Christ, Bahamas (remote): Tavaro Levar (preacher) reports, “I plan to have lunch with two male prospects. Meals are a great way to soften the heart so we can sow the seed. I am hoping to start Bible studies with them in the coming weeks. We appreciate all prayers for these efforts.”