Random Notes

A few thoughts on a variety of topics:

1. The China broadcasts continue three times a week (M-W-F) at 6 AM CDT (7 PM China time). Check out our Chinese website and the iPhone and Android apps.

2. We have just posted the Spring 2012 KBM Newsletter with the headline “We Need More Anchors.” Later this month we expect delivery of 100,000 copies of Anchor to our Book Depot in Pontiac, IL. 

3. Speaking of Anchor, we got a request recently from a man in CT who has used the book before. Here is what he wrote:

This book is so well received by everyone I give it to. They always look at the title, then smile and say thank you. I haven’t have anyone turn it down and I have given out a couple hundred or more. I really think it’s the title that gets their attention. An Anchor for the Soul, who doesn’t want that?

Love that last sentence. So true.

4. In the last month, I have been in churches in IN, CT, MA, ME and VT. Some things that struck me:

*Calvary Chapel in Stroh, Indiana has a “fellowship time” during the worship service that goes for almost ten minutes. The pastor told me they do it that way because the congregation is scattered among the small towns of NE Indiana, and Sunday is the only time they see each other. 

*When Pastor Tim Vamosi started the service at Eastford (CT) Baptist Church by singing “O Come, Let Us Adore Him,” the congregation joined in immediately. At Small Point Baptist Church in Phippsburg, ME, Pastor Dan Coffin started the service with a congregational reading from Psalm 136. He also led the congregational singing. Even though the there were around 100 people in the service, he led as if we had 700. The service was informal, friendly and dignified. Hard to get that combination right, but they make it work at Small Point.

*At Berean Baptist Church in Brunswick, ME, Pastor Mark Rockwood asked a young man he’s been discipling to lead the Sunday night service. We sang hymns (and a chorus or two) and had a sharing time before my message. 

*That reminds me that at Eastford, they had a sort of “open announcement” time along with a prayer time on Sunday AM. A woman stood and said that her husband (who was sitting by her side) had been told that his cancer treatments were not working and there was nothing left to do. We all felt the weight of that moment. 

*At four different churches they prayed for us and for KBM after my message. That’s only happened a few times in the past, but it has happened four times in the last month. After we finished the pastors conference in Vermont, Pastor Tony Longe prayed that God will remove any barriers so that Keep Believing could become a part of God’s great worldwide harvest. That sort of prayer is very encouraging to us.

5. Finally, I found this prayer from the Book of Common Prayer that seems full of wisdom:

Heavenly Father, in you we live and move and have our being: We humbly pray you so to guide and govern us by your Holy Spirit, that in all the cares and occupations of our life we may not forget you, but may remember that we are ever walking in your sight, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.