January and February Report

Dear Pastors and Churches,

Our new year started off with a real blessing from a new supporting church. Thank you to Pastor Joe Mandrino and Edmond Road Baptist Church. We are so grateful that the Lord has led you to join with us in our vision for a new independent Baptist Church in Flagstaff, Arizona.

January was a month of bearing the winter cold and planning the New Year. We parked our trailer in Santa Fe, Texas with the idea of working the South Texas area throughout the winter and early spring months. The idea was based on our experience of living in Houston for the past 13 years. It is supposed to stay warm in on the Gulf Coast. Though we have not suffered the extreme cold, ice and snow that many of you have, it has been the coldest month in all our years in Houston. We have experienced more snow and sub-freezing temperatures this month than I think I have experienced in all the years I pastored here. Still we are very grateful to Santa Fe Baptist, our home church, for letting us ride out the storms and cold in the lee of their building and anchored to their electricity and water.

We presented our vision for First Vision Baptist church to First Baptist Church of Clute in January. We truly enjoyed being with this strong church again and spending time with Pastor Lyndon Pettijohn and his wife Ann. Bro. Lyndon, Ann and I attended Bible College together in the early 80’s. They have been good friends ever since. They have been placed by the Lord in a good church with tremendous opportunities and have proven themselves ready for the challenge. The day we worshipped with them 9 joined the church, 6 that morning and 3 in the evening service. I look forward to hearing more good news from the little big city of Clute and First Baptist.

I had the opportunity to preach the funeral for the uncle of one of our church members here at Santa Fe Baptist. It is always an honor to be able to help a family at this time of loss and I was very thankful that the Schalm family allowed me the privilege. I presented the gospel to a roomful of family and friends who may have heard it for the first time. I pray that it would accomplish that which the Lord sent it to do.

We had to put some of our plans on hold in the middle of the month to be with my mother in Lufkin, Tx. She broke her left femur and was hospitalized for three weeks after the surgery to repair it. I would ask you remember Suzane Franklin in your prayers. She is the main reason I’m a pastor and missionary now. If not for her godly influence and faithfulness in taking me and my brothers and sisters to church I would be a completely different person. It was her love of God and belief in His power that overcame my father’s alcoholism and saved our family. Now at 71 years old it was hard to see her in such terrible pain but again she has leaned on the Lord and her family and come through stronger for the difficult journey. We spent a few nights in the hospital with Mom to help her through the first few days of her rehab and healing and were very grateful she came through as well as she did.

Unexpected Turn of Events
This letter is going out much later than it should have, after my Mothers hospital stay it was my turn to visit the emergency room. For about two weeks I had problems with breathing and with pain in my neck and head. This was always preceded by attempting to exercise or some other exertion. My blood pressure also began to peak and I couldn’t get it to come down. After a visit to our fine Christian doctor and subsequent trips for both x-rays and a CT scan I was told to get to the emergency room. Several tests over the course of 24 hours led to the discovery of a couple of congenital heart defects that with age and weight has resulted in the need for an aortic valve replacement. As of this writing we are trying to go through the medical system for financing for this surgery. The operation will have to take place within a couple of months and will probably be full open heart surgery. We have no insurance and no money but are abundantly blessed in hope and love from the Lord. We would appreciate your prayers for the surgery which will probably take place at UTMB in Galveston, Tx sometime in late March or early April. We expect to be more able to serve the Lord in Flagstaff than we were before, especially when you consider I will be able to breathe a lot better now that my heart can supply more oxygen than it did in the past. (I always thought my breathlessness was me just getting old and being out of shape. It’s nice to have an excuse if nothing else. ) We will keep you informed as the date grows closer. Thank you for your concern and prayers.

January Offerings
Thanks to our new supporting church Edmond Road Baptist Church. Thank you so much Pastor Mandrino and church, you have provided a great blessing to start off 2010.

Santa Fe Baptist Church 100
Addyston Baptist Church 100
Bay City Baptist Church 50
Country View Baptist Church 85
Edmond Road Baptist Church 75
Evergreen Baptist Church 50
Highlands Baptist Church 50
Holts Prairie Baptist Church 75
Lakewood Baptist Church 50
Northeast Baptist Church 110
Individual Gifts 225
Riverview Baptist Church 75
Rodgers Baptist Church 70
Story Road Baptist Church 143
Temple Baptist Church of T.C. 100
Total 1358


We appreciate all those that support us financially and prayerfully. After 21 months of deputation we are just over 33% of our goal. We are in praying for $4000 a month in support. This amount will allow us to rent a building/ home, help with personal expenses and purchase supplies needed for our ministry in Flagstaff Arizona.

Finally remember the statistics of our Post-Christian nation and pray for more Church planters to look to the fields of America.
• Today there are over 195 million non-churched people in America, making America one of the top five largest “unchurched” nations in the world and the largest in the western hemisphere.
• In 49 of 50 states the population is growing faster than church attendance. In spite of the rise of mega-churches, no county in America has a greater church population than it did ten years ago.
• During the last ten years, combined membership of all Protestant denominations declined by 9.5 percent, while the national population increased by 11.4 percent. Only about 15% of the population actually attends church in the USA on any given Sunday.
• Each year 3,500 to 4,000 churches close their doors forever; yet only as many as 1,500 new churches are started. In other words for every church that starts four have closed. To keep pace with population Christians must start 2900 churches each year.
• There are now nearly 60% fewer churches per 10,000 persons than in 1920. Four out of five American churches are plateaued or declining.”
• BJU has identified almost 1200 communities without a fundamental Bible preaching church; most of these are in the western states.
• Since 1900 the number of churches in the United States has risen by 50% but the population during the same time has risen by 300%.