Busy in the Lord!

It has been a very long time since I have updated my blog. Thank you to everybody who has hung tight with us despite the long layoff between posts. Things have been busy here at Bryant Pond Baptist Church. The Lord has given us good services over the last two months and we are thankful for that. In October we conducted "operation saturation" and were able to distribute door-hangar bags with John/Romans, Bible tracts and invitations for our church. We successfully canvassed all of Bryant Pond. We are trusting the Lord that He will use this in His time. At the end of October we hosted missionary Larry Strout. We have been supporting his ministry in Argentina for decades. Yes, you read that right, decades. He and his wife Melissa have been on the mission field since 1974. Their ministry is preaching the gospel, church planting and training up local pastors for those churches. Brother Strout is often asked when he will be retiring. His answer, "Well, we have another church we need to plant in...." what a great answer! He is not looking at retiring it, he is looking at re-firing it! This month we have been very busy doing some work projects at the church. We are now finished with our foyer and it came out very good. We are now praying about putting everything in order to begin the big work on the church building. Please continue to pray for us about these decisions. This work will literally cost tens of thousands into the hundreds of thousands of dollars for our church. It all starts with a good foundation. (kind of applicable to life...huh?) We are looking forward to hosting the December Plant and Root Maine rally meeting on the 11th at 7pm. We hope to see you there. Well, that is it for now. Remember, if there is ever anything we can do for you, please contact us at www.bryantpondbaptist.org God bless!

Oxford Fair and beyond!

Praise God for the great summer He has given us! Last week we had the opportunity to work the Fishers of Men, International booth at the Oxford county fair. What a great week! We passed out @2,000 to 2,500 tracts during the four days. We had opportunities to witness to dozens and dozens of people with many re-committing and seven precious souls trusting Christ as their Saviour! What a blessing! Special thanks to Brother Steve Elliot who set up the tent, trained the workers and staffed the tent every evening. Thanks also to the following who helped staff the tent: Paul Bragg - Bryant Pond Baptist Church Fred and Ledena Seger - Bryant Pond Baptist Church Marybeth Hoover - Bryant Pond Baptist Church Paula Jones - Bryant Pond Baptist Church Pastor Gary Wilkins - Standish Baptist Church Pastor Witham - Liberty Baptist Church, Poland Pastor Carl and Alice Morrison - New Heights Baptist Church, Bridgton Thank you to all who prayed for us this week. Now...I can't wait till next year!

July Update

Wow! I guess it's been a long time since I have updated this blog. It has been a great couple of months. The Lord has blessed and my family and I have been having a great time. Here are some of the highlights: We had a Sunday afternoon service at the old East Bethel Meetinghouse on June 24. It was a very good meeting and the Lord blessed. It was powerful to meet in that old Baptist meetinghouse. Many "visitors" were there and they heard the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ preached. That following Tuesday night we loaded up the van and travelled to Bridgton for an old fashioned tent meeting with the New Heights Baptist Church. It was a great time and it was exciting to bring a full van load to be there. July 4 we had a morning service followed by a cookout. The Lord blessed the morning as tried something new with this morning service. In the evening we travelled to Church Hill Baptist where I had the opportunity to preach. What a great service that was! Both my church family at Bryant Pond and my church family at Church Hill spoiled my family as it was Paula and mine 17th anniversary. What a blessing to have such great people around us. The generosity is amazing. On July 8 we hosted missionary church planter Phillip Brown and family (minus the children) and he preached and presented for us. What a great work the Lord will do with them in Bozeman, Montana. On July 21 we marched in the parade for the Mollyockett Days festival in Bethel. WE passed out 500 bags of candy with gospel tracts and VBS invites. Next year we will prepare ove 3,000. We ran out early. Not again! The absolute highlight of the last two months is a lady by the name of Thelma. Thelma trusted Christ as her Saviour on Saturday the 21st of July. What a joy it is to see the Lord still in the saving sinners business! (shouting fit here Wooooooooooo Hooooooooooo!) Now we prepare for our annual VBS. "Let's Celebrate" is our theme and we run from August 6-10 from 6-8pm. Please pray that we have a good turnout and most importantly, that the Lord will save souls through this ministry. We thank you all for your prayers. The Lord is stirring here in Bryant Pond, we praise His name!

Powerful 300th Service!

We had a very powerful service marking the 300th anniversary of the First Baptist Church of Cape May Courthouse. God moved and the people were heavily encouraged. Praise God for how He can break through despite the shortcomings of the preacher. Please pray for this church. They have been looking for a pastor for over 3 years.

PastorMatthewJones' photostream

PastorMatthewJones' photostream on Flickr.

Pictures from my trip to visit the churches that my great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather, Nathaniel Jenkins preached at. This will include First Baptist Church of Cape May Courthouse, NJ where they are celebrating 300 years.

We Will!

We will be having a service at the old East Bethel Meetinghouse on Sunday June 24 at 2pm. This is a facility that was used only one time last year for a service. Will the Lord prosper this meeting? I do not want to limit "the Holy One of Israel" (Psalm 78:41) We will approach this trusting God and saying "He can". Praise God for the advancement of the Gospel!

North Paris Baptist Church

As it looked in 1904 and now today. The church now exists as the North Paris Federated Church. This is another part of our local Baptist history.