Marion Reed

Missionary Baptist Association of Texas

Post Office Box 450813

Garland, TX 75045-0813

Tel. 972-272-7727 Fax 972-494-6959 Email cbmin1@juno.com 

     As assistant treasurer, I was asked at the messenger meeting in November if I would be able to take care of the office in case Brother Crawford should need to give it up. My reply was that only God knows and He will see us through whatever He would have us do. Little did I realize at that time I would so soon be called on to continue the operation. However, I am glad to do what ever it takes to see that this work goes on for our Lord. I believe it can work together with Church Building Ministries where I am designated a Missionary Helper to accomplish the needs of both. I am presently working with four of the state missionaries in developing plans for their facilities and I have been involved with most of the others at some time in the past. I look forward to serving our Lord’s churches and missions as long as He allows. I do request your prayers and the cooperation of the missionaries that we may be worthy of the financial support that is provided. It will be my goal to keep the expense of the office at a minium so that most of the funds will go for paying the missionaries’ salaries. This can be done with the help of our pastors in leading their churches to raise their support and to encourage the churches that are not supporting to began sending monthly offerings for State Missions. I will try and be available to come to any church that might like for me to represent Missions.

     It was reported that we spent approx. $30,000 over what was received last year. This leaves our treasurer short on funds to operate at this time. Please ask your church to provide a special offering to help with this need. There was little change in the financial needs for the year ahead as compared to the past year. The messengers recommended nine men who came for support. Five were recommended for full salary. They are:

Mitchell Williams working in Midland, sponsored by First Baptist of Hermleigh, Rex Reynolds, Pastor

W. S. Taylor working in Fort Worth, sponsored by Central Baptist of Bedford, Larry Jacobs, Pastor

Larry Frye working in Denton, sponsored by New Hope of Valley View, Robert Boone, Pastor

Robert Hively working in Pottsboro, sponsored by First Missionary of Duncanville, Pervis Williams, Pastor

Dennis Pace working in Pilot Point, sponsored by Cedar Creek of Palestine, Ron Davis Pastor, was added this year for full salary.

Three were recommended for half salary. All three received half salary this past year. They are:

     David Humber working in Abilene and pastoring Texas Avenue

     Roy Fikac working in Round Rock, sponsored by Modoc of Athens, Robert Poe, Pastor;

Gordon Riley working near Wills Point, sponsored by First Missionary of Duncanville, Pervis Williams, Pastor

Roddy Rodgers working in Floresville, sponsored by Harmony of Houston, William (Bill) Myrick, Pastor, was recommenced for one-fourth salary.

     All state missionaries receive a monthly allowance for health insurance.

COMMENTS: The Lord added two more blessings to our list of things to be thankful for during the month of Thanksgiving. Cheri, a 21 year old single girl with a great singing talent, joined us on promise of a letter and Bethany, a highschool Sophomore came for baptism. Please pray with us for these young ladies. He also blessed us with a high attendance of 48 in service one Sunday this month.

A lot of people have received our outreach material this month. The Lord promises to bless the fruits of our labor. We are thankful for His promise. It keeps us going, and going, and going --- !

Thanks to all of you who gave our mission a vote of confidence by keeping our pastor on full salary. We're working diligently toward building, organizing and becoming a church that gives more than we receive in the near future.

Also, a great big thanks to all of you who support the Texas Mission Development project. We received $23,067 at the State meeting to go towards paying off our land. That amount plus the money in our building fund leaves us with just $8,000 balance to have the land free for use as collateral to begin our building. What a blessing it would be if 40 of our churches gave $200 toward this goal. Our ladies raised a little over $700 at the craft show to go into our building fund. A lot of work went into that project.

We received a total of $1,334 from other churches this month. Thanks for your prayers and financial support.

AVERAGE ATTENDANCE:

SUNDAY SCHOOL: 23 WORSHIP: 37 EVENING: 17 WEDNESDAY: 19

TOTAL CHURCH OFFERING: $3962 TOTAL GIVEN TO MISSIONS: $310 BY LETTER: 1

Greetings once again from all the folks at North Lake Baptist Mission.

Texas State Meeting

We had a great time at the meeting. It was sure good to see all the brethren. The best part for Bro. Shaun and I was, when we were able to lead a man to Christ on Monday! I sure hope to see more folks to help in that effort next year. There was a total of five saved! Praise The Lord!

Arkansas State Meeting!

We were also blessed by being able to attend the Ark. State meeting. It is always great to see my brethren in Ark. They have always been a great blessing to me and my ministry.

Door Knocking!

We have knocked 107 doors this month with several good visits.

Another Bus Route!

We will be starting another bus route the first Sunday of December. We have eight kids to start with. We bought us a mini school bus for $1,500 and it was ready to go. So we are putting it to work.

Our Attendance

We had 36 for S.S. and 36 for Worship Service.

Special Needs!

We are still needing some support for Brother Shaun, my Missionary Helper. We are going to start building soon and we will be needing about two hundred trees, two inches in diameter. We are thinking about planting pecan trees, so we can get some use of them later. This might be a good project for your youth group. We also need someone to haul our motor grader from Sheridan AR. to Denton TX. We also need a trailer that will haul 36,000 pounds.

Special Note To Our Supporters!!

I want to thank all of those who are so very faithful to support this work. You are such a blessing to us. God will bless you in years to come for your seed sowing today. I could not do it without you.

TOTAL CHURCH OFFERING $3,342.00

TOTAL GIVEN TO MISSIONS $2,181.00

TOTAL PAID ON PROPERTY 00 RENT $200.00

AVERAGE ATTENDANCE:

SUNDAY SCHOOL 36 MORNING WORSHIP 36 EVENING

Josh Woolridge united with our church family during November. Josh is a young airman stationed at Dyess AFB here in Abilene. He is the second young airman to join Texas Avenue in the last two months. We are thankful that these young men put forth the effort to search for a conservative Baptist church after moving to Abilene. Josh has already proven to be a real blessing. He is a real worker.

We are using the holidays to meet physical needs and hopefully spiritual needs as well. "Share The Love" is simply a campaign to gather food items and household goods to give to a family who may need a little help. Most of us have been there and done that. As we reach out to families who may not know Jesus or may be unchurched, it is our goal to meet physical and spiritual needs. We simply want to share the love of Jesus in our communities. Our people are excited about this effort and are learning some lessons about giving and generosity along the way. Pray for the Texas Avenue Baptist family as we "share the love".

1. Prayers

2. Offerings to help pay down indebtedness on building

3. Regular support for housing & salary

Thanks to you who support the work here by your offerings sent directly to us and through support of the M.B.A. of Texas mission program. Your prayers and support mean so much and are a great encouragement. You have a part in the work here as we see folks saved and lives changed. Thank you for allowing God to use you in this way. We are thankful for God helping to meet our needs through half salary through the M.B.A. of Texas. Thanks messengers for approving support for another year. During November we received special offerings for salary or housing from George and Liz Clinton, Paul and Bonnie Hull, the Pace family, and Westwood Baptist of Odessa. Thank you for your support of Texas Avenue Baptist.

Average Attendance: Sunday School: 36 Morning Worship: 42

Evening Worship: 26 Mid-week Bible Study: 24

Received By Letter 1

Total church offerings: $2,587.89 Gave to missions: $339.97

Greetings Brethren,Managed to baptize one during November, and give over 300.00 to mission work. Attendance averages: Sunday School 52; Sunday Morning Worship 73; Sunday Evening Worship 35; and Wednesday Night Worship 30. We want to give you much thanks for supporting us at half salary for another year.This one thing I ask of you now is that you might continue to pray with us that God's will be done in each of the lives of the members of Faith Missionary Baptist Church of Round Rock. Pray that the Lord might grant us the ability to look on the things ( resources ) that He has and not our own. Pray that we will live up to our name - FAITH. Pray that we might organize in 2003.State Missions will never be the same. Bro. Luther and Sister Theda Crawford played very important part in getting this work started here in Round Rock. I for one, will miss him very much. Bro. Luther can truly say,2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.May all of Texas remember this family in our prayers to God. They will remain in our hearts forever.

Received by Letter 6 Baptized: 1 Received salary from project: $ 1,251.24Gave to missions: $ 300.00Paid on property: $2,412.55

My Brothers and Sisters, First giving all praise to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I would like to express my thanks for you voting to put me on full salary. Thanks to all who have supported me and my family over the past year. I ask that all who would like to continue helping me and New Life MBC to help by sending to our building fund to our sponsoring church. I believe that as my health gets back to order things will begin to grow just a bit better. Well, the devil got one year ending slow that caused me to lose my transportation, so I am in need of a good running, cheap car. If anyone has one, please call me at 915/550-5698.

With the love of God. Bro. Mitchell Williams

Average Attendance

Sunday School - 18

Morning Worship - 24

Evening Worship - 8

Midweek Service - 12

Received from project for salary - $300.00

Received from others for salary - $200.00

This year, 2002, is coming to a close. God has blessed us abundantly. We have now started using our new Sunday School rooms. Much work has been done and God has protected us from serious injury, even though some have shed blood and nursed sore muscles.

In the year 2003, we have new opportunities. We have space to grow and we are the witnesses of the greatness of our Lord. We have the message of salvation.

Now we pray for burdened hearts as we search for the lost and those who have spiritual needs. Let us renew our love and devotion to the purpose for which we are called. Please pray for your missionary. Pray for our leaders and teachers that we will keep our eyes on Jesus who is the one to lead us to victory.

Average Attendance

Sunday School - 22

Morning Worship - 33

Evening Worship - 25

Midweek Service - 25 BTC - 20

Received from project for salary - $200.00

Received from others for salary - $350.00

It was good to see our attendance up in all services in November. We had a high of 29 in Sunday School, 31 in Morning Worship, 24 in Evening Worship and 20 in our Midweek Service.

The Lord has also blessed with four additions by letter. We are glad to have them!

Thank you for your confidence and love by once again keeping me on as a State Missionary; this time for 1/4 salary plus insurance. Thank you, again!

Average Attendance

Sunday School - 25

Morning Worship - 27

Evening Worship - 19

Midweek Service - 18

Received from project for salary - $1,000.00 (Housing, car allowance, etc.)

Received from others for salary - $75.00

     The month of November brought various experiences and emotions. The highlight of the month was the profession of faith by our daughter Melissa. She is 9 yrs old and realized that when she was younger and made a profession of faith, and was then baptized that she didn't really understand about salvation. She came to that conclusion on her own with the convicting of the Holy Spirit. She then accepted Christ as her Saviour and has no doubts about her salvation. Praise the Lord! Our hearts rejoice. It is a wonderful joy and peace we have as parents knowing that all 8 of our children have accepted Christ as their saviour.

     The down side we have experienced this month is our dealings with the city. Previously the city council voted to allow us to use the newly remodeled city center as our place of Sunday worship for at least the next 6 months. Before going to the state messenger meeting the city manager informed me we could start meeting in it the very next Sunday. Upon returning from the state meeting I learned that the city manager had been authorized to write the guidelines for the use of the facility and those guidelines were approved. Without going into a great amount of detail I can simply state that the guidelines drawn up do not allow us the use of the facility for the next six months. Once we had been informed of our supposed use of the city center we were released from our lease on our other meeting place and it has already been leased out. Looking at the minutes of the previous council meeting, we could have forced the issue and probably won. But I believe the media would have played it up and it would have been a mark against us in the community and we do not want that. We know God is gracious and He is still in control and allowed this to happen for a reason. So now we are looking and praying for the Lords will regarding another meeting place. On behalf of my family and I, I want to earnestly express my gratitude to the messengers of the Missionary Baptist Association of Texas Churches for approving me for another year of support, and for your words of encouragement, and especially for your prayers. You share in every blessing and in every reward. May God bless you and your ministries.

Your fellow servant, Bro. Hively

Offerings - $320.00 Building Fund - $169.91 Paid on Rent - $350.00

Other salary received - $445.00

Averages: Morning worship - 17 Evening worship - 9 Mid week - 14

Souls won - 1 Additions: letter 0, baptism 0