TEXAS STATE MISSIONS REPORT FOR JULY 2004
General Fund Beginning Balance - $131,428.57
General Fund Offerings - $20,658.78
Missionary Salaries - $8,997.00
Designated/LaMarque Mission - $50.00
Adm. Salaries and Expense - $2,203.61
General Fund Ending Balance - $140,836.74
Please remember that September 15th is the deadline for the Secretary/Treasurer’s Office to receive endorsements for missionaries or projects for the next MBA fiscal year.
This is report number 11 for our fiscal year which ends on August 31st. God has truly blessed our financial needs this year through you, our supporting churches. I am so thankful for continued support by so many of our churches.
I have been doing some research in our MBA Yearbooks as to the number of churches that have been organized as a result of our State Mission work. To my surprise, there has not been much accomplished in this area. If I understand the work of our Lord we are to make disciples, baptize them and then teach them to observe all the things He commanded in His Word. Winning people to the Lord and leading them to be baptized and become members of His church/mission is very important, according to His words. They then must be taught and led in the developing of that church to become a self-supporting work. Then they can reach out into their community and around the world with the gospel. Also, they will be the means of providing the facilities for their growth. It seems to me our policies have led us to come to expect others to provide an ongoing salary for the Missionary/Pastor and to build the facilities for a complete church plant, while remaining a Mission. I believe we need to take a really hard, prayerful look at our State Mission work and get back to the basics.
If your church would like a visit from the Secretary/Treasurer of Missions, please let me know.
Continue to "Pray the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth laborers into His Harvest."
W. S. Taylor
Fort Worth
Souls Won 0 Baptism 0 Letter 1 Statement 0
Sunday School 22 Morning Worship 26 Evening Worship 16
Total Church Offering $3,436.00 Given To Missions $370.00
What a mess we’ve had in and around our building. Road blocks have been up constantly all month causing round-about ways to get into our parking lot. They are almost through with the road along the front of our property and will now begin on the road along the side. We’ve been saying that people who come during this construction mess really want to be at Crossroads. In spite of all that, we’ve been blessed with two first time visiting couples and one addition by letter. We’ve been approached by and Oil and Gas company about leasing our land for a gas well. We’ve been diligently pursuing this and if it all comes together, it could be a means to help pay for our new building. Pray with us about this matter - that we’ll be wise and prudent. Our five acres will be the smaller part of a large tract of leased land, but if they hit gas, we could realize a nice monthly income. They are projecting the drilling to be 12 to 18 months away. We’d like it to be sooner, but all things work in God’s timing. And, of course, it may not happen at all, but the interest in drilling in Tarrant and surrounding counties is very high right now. We received a total of $1,182.00 from other churches. Continue to pray for our work. Thanks to all of you who support us.
DAVID HUMBER
ABILENE
Souls Won 3 Baptism 6 Letter 0 Statement 1
Sunday School 40 Morning Worship 46 Evening Worship 32
Total Church Offering $3,561.00 Given to Missions $556.00 Paid On Property $888.00
On a personal note, I had surgery on July 9th to remove my gallbladder and was back home on July 15th. My recovery is going well other than a little problem with my liver function. I must say, I have done a lot of thinking about Jesus being the Great Physician during all this. I give Him all the glory for my uneventful surgery and good recovery. My thanks to those who knew about this situation and responded with calls, prayers, cards and offerings. A special thanks to Eastside MBC in Gary for a very generous offering that really helped during this time. A special thanks to my wonderful wife, Anita, who has endured my moanin’ and groanin’ and continued loving me anyway. She’s a real blessing to me. I want to ask you to pray for my brother, Tim Humber, who was in a serious one-vehicle accident early in July. He was airlifted from the accident scene to a hospital in Shreveport where he remains at the time of this report. We don’t know what the future holds for him in this situation. We are simply trusting the Lord.
The day I had surgery was the Friday before our church went to camp. Several have told me that I will do anything to get out of going to camp. We already had a good number of adults going, so these faithful folks stepped up and did a wonderful job leading our group of 22. We praise God for 3 of our young people coming to know Him as Savior and 1 young adult rededicating her life to the Lord and seeing her need to be scripturally baptized. David, Kayme, Justin and Cheri are all relatives. God used this to bring about a chain reaction of sorts. Not only did we baptize and receive these four, but also David Bogart (Cheri’s fiancé) a former member of a so called "church of Christ group." But, it didn’t stop there. Sheree’s parents, Bobby and Tammy, who have been visiting with us for some time, began asking questions about church membership. Well, Tammy said she was sprinkled in a Methodist church. So after some explanation she understood and agreed that she also needed to be scripturally baptized before being a member of Texas Avenue. So, we praise the Master for adding these seven to our church family. They have already proved their faithfulness to attend and help in any way. The doctor hasn’t turned me loose to do any kind of lifting yet so when we began talking about the baptisms, some of our men told me if Texas Avenue would authorize them to help, I could do the talkin’ and they could do the "dunkin." So that’s what we did. It was a great service. We had a high attendance in July of 55. Please continue to pray for us as the Lord continues to work in and through us here at Texas Avenue.
LARRY FRYE
DENTON
Souls Won 17 + 11 Hispanics Baptism 0 Letter 0 Statement 0
Sunday School 28 Morning Worship 29 Evening Worship 14
Total Church Offering $2,587.83 Given To Missions $l,138.00
We have had a great month. On July 3rd we had a community bar-b-q and fed 300 people. We have seen 16 professions of faith so far from the follow-ups and we have many more to go. We also had a backyard VBS and had one profession of faith. I cannot wait to tell you about the VBS our sponsoring church, Longview MBC, did for us. They did a great job on a VBS and the Lord blessed with 44 professions of faith. We bussed in 184 kids from 6 to 16 in three days. Some of their parents came and were saved. It was the best VBS that I have ever been involved in. Thank you, Longview, for your hard work. It sure paid off in heavenly dividends. Thirty one of the professions were Hispanics led to the Lord by Bro. and Sis. Rodriguez. Praise the Lord!
We are in a holding pattern right now waiting on the city. They have changed the size of the water line from 12 to 16 inches. This will be more expensive but the city is going to pay the difference. This is good because it tells us that there is going to be much growth in this area.
Bro. Akin is trying to get a grading permit so he can start instructing us on how to move the tons of dirt we need to move. I hope to have a ground breaking ceremony soon. We are in need of more transportation. We have just picked up some more bus kids in Sanger which is about ten miles north of Denton. This will be two routes and we only have one small bus. If you have a van or small bus that you are not using we sure could put it to good use. It is always a pleasure to thank special folks that are partners with us in this mission. Thanks for the IMD funds and the TMD funds which we will receive next quarter to go on our land. It is really encouraging to us to know that so many of you are behind this work. I pray that you can stay with us for a while longer. Thanks to your help, we will see a New Testament Church here soon.
ROY FIKAC
ROUND ROCK
Souls Won 2 Baptism 2 Letter 0 Statement 0
Sunday School 32 Morning Worship 61 Evening Worship 30
Total Church Offering $5,874.43 Given To Missions $512.25 Paid On Property $2,400.00
FMBC of Round Rock wishes you cool breezes and the blessings of our God. Received 2 more on profession of faith and baptism. Bill and Michelle Grumbles come with their sons, Kevin and Christopher. Offerings averaged $1,428.60 We have high hopes that our attendance numbers will come back up as summer comes to an end and we go back to school. By the time you get around to reading this we will have completed 10 years as a Mission here in Round Rock. 2005 will be our last year to apply for state salary. We will only ask for 1/4 salary, then that will be the end of it. We appreciate you hanging in there with us all this time. It has been an adventure and will continue to be so. Sponsored by Modoc MBC of Athens.
DENNIS PACE
PILOT POINT
Souls Won 0 Baptism 1 Letter 0 Statement 0
Sunday School 10 Morning Worship 11 Evening Worship 7
Total Church Offering $1,880.03 Given To Missions $213.00 Paid For Rent $575.00
Where has July gone? Things went by so fast it left our heads spinning. Keeping our folks busy during these hot days has been challenging, but with God’s help we were able to have quite an interesting month of studies. Our Bible Boot Camp has been quite a success and it has been good preparation for our young folks for what’s to come in August when we start Discovery again. We were blessed this month with a visit from Bro. Ron Davis and his family and from Bro. and Sis. Reed. We appreciate their deep concern for Pilot Point MBM and welcome any and everyone who would like to come and visit with us. We have a few needs that we hope you or your church consider helping with. Our current payments for our van are $246.14 and we could use help making those payments. We have also decided to purchase some stackable chairs from SAM’S for $17.87 each. These are just some of the things we could use help on and I know if you’re like me you want to know these needs. Please prayerfully consider helping. To those who already send support, God bless you all. Love always in Jesus Christ our Lord.
JOEL CLAY
LAMARQUE
Souls Won 3 Baptism 1 Letter 2 Statement 0
Sunday School 40 Morning Worship 90
Total Church Offering $6,914.17 Given To Missions $646.34 Paid For Rent $719.00
It is hard to believe that another month has come and gone. Wow, how time passes when you are having fun. The Mission is still proving to be a challenging, yet rewarding, experience. We added three new souls to the Mission with one being a candidate for baptism coming from a Catholic background. I am grateful that God continues to lead people to the Hopewell Mission. We’ve started some outreach training classes using the Basic Bible Truth’s Guide and hope to begin extending our efforts into the surrounding communities soon. Our Mission is also sponsoring a back-to-school supplies drive for families that can’t afford these items for their children. In July we finished the summer vacation off with our youth spending a day at Moody Gardens beach as well as a Saturday afternoon picnic in the park. They all had a wonderful time! Our Youth Dept. is growing and I have discovered that if you win the children to Christ the adults will soon follow.
We ask for the prayers of churches as we believe in God to provide a more accommodating place to worship, as well as one that provides room for growth. Please continue to pray for our work in LaMarque. We extend our deepest appreciation to Mission Bend BC, Woodville MBC Ladies Auxiliary, Calvary MBC (Baytown), Unity MBC and Baker Drive Baptist Church for your continued support. Thank you so much for considering our Mission.