Friday, March 18, 2011

John Callender pictures



March 18, 2011

It's hard to believe that it is almost spring. It was over 50 degrees yesterday and I had the opportunity to sit on a rocking chair on the porch. Question: does the fact that I enjoy spending a few minutes on a rocking chair on my porch make me old? Well....

Since my last post there have been a lot of happenings. Through it all I can say that GOD HAS BEEN GOOD TO ME!

Sunday Feburary 27 was my last Sunday at the Barter's Island Baptist Church. We had a great day there. It was sad leaving, but it was time for me to come back home to Church Hill Baptist Church. Please continue to pray for Barter's Island Baptist Church as they are now deep into their search for their next pastor.

It has been great to get a chance to teach the adult Sunday School. I am teaching our way through the book of Ecclesiastes. God has been blessing through my study there. I have the opportunity to preach on Wednesday the 23rd of March. Pastor Wiley will be preaching at the Heartland Baptist Bible College on Tuesday the 22nd. Please pray for him as he pleads for more laborers. The Lord is laying a message on my heart right now and I must be sensitive to His will to "preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee" (Jonah 3:2).

Saturday morning soul-winning has been going on through the winter. Praise God for a small but faithful group that has labored through the cold and the unplowed streets. We have seen many souls saved through this ministry. I look forward to building the number of participants up to canvass the city of Augusta (a.k.a. our Jerusalem). As you go from apartment to apartment and house to house, you can't help but get a broken heart for the lost. There is also something very special in sharing the true Gospel of Jesus Christ in the shadow of the big Catholic stone idol (a.k.a. their "church" building). Open up the Kennebec Journal and view the obituaries any day of the week and you will see souls that have slipped into eternity. Many are Catholic and I wonder if they have ever heard a clear presentation of the gospel in their entire life. WE MUST REACH THEM BEFORE THEY ARE IN THAT SECTION OF THE PAPER, WHEN IT IS ETERNALLY TOO LATE.

Won't you pray that the Lord will give you boldness to witness to those He brings your way?

On a personal note, I continue to learn more about the Baptist preachers in my family tree. I have learned much about Nathaniel Jenkins. I had the pleasure of learning (on Saturday the 12th) about more Baptist preachers in the family. Frank D. Jones was a Baptist pastor of many churches in Maine in the mid 1800's. I have seen his name on a few websites. I am also related to the Callenders. This name is a very active name in the late 1600's and 1700's in New England. Ellis Callender was one of the first pastors of the First Baptist Church of Boston. He was a contemporary of William Screven who planted the first Baptist church in Maine before being kicked out of the district only to settle the first Baptist church in South Carolina. Brother Screvin actually wrote a letter to the First Baptist Church of Boston recommending Ellis Callender to be the next pastor. Ellis had a son named Elisha Callender who was also a pastor at the First Baptist Church of Boston. Ellis also had a nephew named John Callender who was a Baptist preacher in Rhode Island. John Callender chronicled much of the early history of the Baptists in Rhode Island. Do an internet search for Ellis, Elisha, or John Callender and you will get many links. I have not searched them all out yet. Time is precious but what an encouragement when I can steal away for a few moments to do this research. It fires my soul that I am going forth preaching the very same Gospel of Jesus Christ that my relatives preached. What a blessing.

That is all for now.

Please pray for laborers. Maybe it is you the Lord is talking to about witnessing more?

Browns to Montana