Mission Report November and December 2013

Dear Pastors, Churches, Family and Friends,

We come to the end of 2013 here in Flagstaff with bitter cold weather but a warm hope for what God has planned for the future. It has been a little over two years that we have been in Flagstaff. I had hoped that we would be much further along in the work of starting a church but our progress has been much slower than we anticipated.

Playing Round the Piano

In November our daughter Stefann and her husband Andrew and our grandbaby girl Aria come for a visit. It was great to have Andrew, my former worship leader, play keyboard and sing in our small services. Stefann and Aria contributed as only a preacher’s daughter and grandchild can to the blessing of that day. We greatly miss having our family as members of our church. I never took them for granted when they were there but miss them greatly now that they are gone and serving the Lord in other Baptist churches.

We continue to do home Bible studies but have not seen these translate into members. Even the studies themselves are few and far in between. It seems that we are conditioned in America to think of church as being in a dedicated building. Our hope was to begin a home church and grow from there, such has not been our experience. Our home and its location is not conducive to this type of outreach. We are too far out in a rural community and down a dirt road to be convenient to many people that we can reach. We are beginning the search for a house to rent closer to Flagstaff proper with a large enough front room to be used for church services. In the past we could only afford to rent where we are now living but the Lord has blessed with jobs and we can now look for a better location and larger house.

Preaching at Lighthouse Baptist

In the meantime we continue to work where the Lord opens the door with Skype Bible studies in Texas and soon in Oklahoma. We also have had the privilege of teaching The Book of Revelation at Lighthouse Baptist Church in Camp Verde, Arizona where Bro. Don Randell is the pastor. We have been traveling the one and a half hours on Sunday evenings to teach and enjoy the fellowship with the wonderful people of Lighthouse Baptist.

We have started looking for places to rent for a church building. We are hoping that with a place to call First Vision Baptist Church we might be able to get people to respond better to an invitation. We realize that we probably don’t have the funds necessary but think it is important to get an idea about costs, locations and availability.  In the past we have checked with hotels and the local movie theater. Both were very expensive ranging from $250 -350 an hour at the hotel to $375 a week at the theater.  Renting a building or storefront by the month is not much more encouraging. Here are some of the places we have researched so far.

Stand Alone Bldg on Hwy 89 $950 mon

Former Church Ready to Go $3200 mon

Vacant Paint Store $6800 mon.

Please continue to pray as we continue to search for the open doors needed to start a church in Flagstaff, Arizona.

In his service

Kris and LeeOra Minefee