Going to the dogs...

Can I have one, huh, please can I.

Just one, please, can I?

I just hope people had their eyes closed during the prayer, or they'd see that ever increasing bald spot.

Brian and Kathy, the owners, invited me to come offer a blessing for the business.

Trish, one of our members, is an employee here. She is standing at the far left talking to the guy in the purple shirt.

Linda with a fluffy friend

March and April happenings

Greeting, friends,

Spring has sprung! At least the snow is melting. I put the snowblower away for the spring. I saw the first few crocuses last week, so warmer weather is on the way. Things are continuing to go well here in Conway. I say “well” in that we have not had any serious setbacks or concerns in the congregation’s life this month. In fact, we have just come off of an exciting weekend as we hosted a Women’s Weekend Rally here at the building. Becky Blackmon came and did the speaking for the ladies. She is the daughter of Russ and Lea Fowler, who established the work here in Conway in the late 70’s. Maybe we were a bit crazy for hosting such a weekend so close to our youth rally last month, but it all went well. The men did a lot of the cooking and behind the scenes helping. We ended up with over seventy ladies coming for the event. Becky did a wonderful job and many women mentioned how they really needed the weekend. In fact, we had several ladies in attendance who were part of the group that left the church a couple of years ago. One can hope and pray that through things like this the door may be opened for some eventual restorations of fellowship. We’ll see. Someone mentioned that the weekend was a good testimony to the New England area that the Conway church is alive and well. We may be alive and well, but we are also wiped out and tired, but it is a good kind of tired.

As always, I want to make note of my appreciation to all of you for your love and concern for the work here in Conway. I am thankful for your support, both financial and spiritual, and long for the day when the church here will grow to be self supporting again. I fear because of the economy that this might be later than sooner. What the church needs are more members, not just for the financial aspect, but for the sake of souls in our community.

I am always trying to figure out ways to get the word out about the church here. Having the youth rally and the ladies’ weekend is great, but primarily focuses on the Christians of New England. I know God has many people in this town who need to hear the Gospel. While people don’t respond well anymore to door-to-door calling, I believe there are opportunities available through tools such as web sites, e-mail and blog pages. I am trying to secure some funds toward developing a working web site that I can manage and update myself.

A few months ago I mentioned in my blog of a family in Arkansas who had made a decision to give $300 a month as long as they were able. Sadly, the wife developed cancer shortly after their decision and she passed away a couple of weeks ago. I would appreciate your prayers on her families’ behalf, particularly for her husband, Jay. It was interesting that shortly before we heard news of her passing, we received an unexpected donation from another family. God seems to work that way in our lives right now. He is faithful to provide for our needs when he knows we need it.

As far as other activities of the month, I was able to get away to Manchester, Connecticut for a church growth conference. It was nice to be with many ministers from the New England area, some whom I hadn’t seen for quite awhile. Linda spent much of the month in Arkansas with her family, helping them after her dad’s knee replacement. She’s back now, doing great. We both continue to do various things in the community, such as my singing in the community chorus and Linda’s part time work in one of our member’s convenience stores. We are again having Friday evening visits with some of the young couples in the church, trying to strengthen their faith and understanding of the church and its work. We have been enjoying some good discussions on Wednesday evenings. We have opened it up to simply answering questions the congregation has about different religious topics. So far we have talked about Eldership and church leadership, how to reach out to a postmodern culture, the resurrection, and the restoration attitude.

Well, I’m going to finish up for now. I hope you enjoy the pictures from the month. Have a great spring, and we’ll be in touch again soon!


Brotherly,

Leland and Linda

Pictures of the "Ladies' Weekend Rally"

Becky with some of her friends who have been part of the Conway and Concord churches.





Becky teaching in front of the fireplace downstairs. She liked the cozy atmosphere so much she moved the ladies downstairs for the Saturday night lesson.












Our houseguest locked herself out of her bedroom so I had to break into my own house. The curious beagle is coming to offer her assistance.



Linda and me with the Scarletts and their friends from the Concord church (the O'Neills) who stayed for worship Sunday morning after the Rally.


"Ladies' Rally Weekend" With Becky Blackmon. Here is Becky with some of the ladies the first night of the program.











Friday evening was "soup night." This is my version of how to sample soups!

What a motley kitchen crew. (ha) The men really did a good job stepping up and helping with this weekend. They made it such that all of our ladies could participate in the program.







Here is Becky with Decker and Anne Clark of the Leominster, Massachusetts congregation. Decker has been a strong advocate for church growth in New England for a lot of years. he was the one responsible for getting me up here in 1986, when we helped begin the work in Southbridge, Mass.


Every Wednesday night during the winter months we put a fire in the fireplace in the fellowship room and have our Bible classes. The ladies sure enjoyed having the fire going during Ladies' Rally Weekend.

February Pictures

Snowblowing the back yard for the dogs

(This was after the husky escaped!)

Linda posing while we were snow-shoeing out at Echo Lake State Park

This is MY version of walking on water!

Props for the youth rally. Tarshis pointed to the stage, where we had it set up like a boat. Nineveh pointed to the back of the auditorium, where we had Jonah's booth set up.











Jonah's booth. Notice the worm up on the plant, and Jonah, sitting under the booth.

A shot of the youth rally, Billy giving his first talk.













The guys outside cooking hamburgers for Saturday lunch...in 25 degree weather!

A shot of the whole group

One of the Saturday afternoon activities was snow-tubing. It was great fun!

Catch this action!

Winter Greetings!

Greetings, friends

Welcome again to the blog page. We didn’t have quite as much going on last January, seeing as how we are in the dead of winter and it seemed that every snowfall that hit either came on a Sunday or Wednesday. I can see why some folks move to Florida, but I still enjoy playing in the snow and trying to keep up with the snowblowing and shoveling. The other day I let the dogs out in the back yard not realizing the snow coming off the roof had nearly covered the fence. The Husky thought it was great…she just walked right out of the yard and was bouncing around out in the woods.

Anyway, the last two months really have been busy, as we were making final preparations for the annual Youth Rally that happened just last weekend. What a success! Last year (2008) we had 70 kids. This year we had 120! Everybody seemed to really enjoy it. The theme for the rally was “Jonah and the Worm,” which dealt with a lot of the more mature issues found in the book of Jonah, especially in the last chapter. Billy McGuiggan from the Natick church was the speaker and did a great job bringing the message home to these kids. We had a young man from Harding come lead the worship and singing. It was really fun working with the congregation preparing skits, decorating, planning, etc. We got the basement in the house fixed up enough to where the boys could come over and play four-square, pool, etc. (I’m still looking for a foosball table!) This youth rally is always a huge solidifying influence for the church here. Last year the church was still reeling from the struggles they had just a few months prior from the split they had, and going through the preacher search. This year we were able to hit the ground running on all cylinders and we had everyone on the same page. If you happen to have an account on Facebook, you can check out the pictures we took of the event. (I went snow-tubing for the first time. That was a hoot!)

Thanks to a couple of good sized donations, our personal financial picture is a little better than it was last year. We are still having to watch our budget, but at least we are able to keep up with things without getting into debt. I feel blessed about that, especially in light of the financial situation facing the country right now. Of course I wish that growth in the church would come faster. We continue to see visits from people in the community checking us out. People are still searching for answers to the spiritual questions they have. It’s just hard to get people to commit to making the decision to follow.

Linda continues to work part time at the convenience store owned by one of our members. With her gift of talking with people she really does well working there. I am still singing with the community chorus. I was asked recently to sing at the funeral for the mother of one of our chorus members. I really do see that small things like this are helping to get the news out about the church. If nothing else it is helping give the church a good name.

Linda is currently in Arkansas visiting her family. Her dad just had a knee replacement so she is down there doing what she can to help out while he recovers. Our son Michael is going to take a day and drive over from OKC to visit while she is down there. So I and the dogs are batching it for a couple of weeks.

I’m looking forward to the spring. I know where some of you live the flowers are blooming and the trees are budding. Enjoy it. We won’t see that for another couple of months. May God bless you for the support you have given and the prayers you offer for the work here in Conway. I hope you have a wonderful month. (p.s. enjoy the pictures)

Brotherly,
Leland

December Pictures

Who needs a snow gauge. We can tell how much snow we get just looking at the feeder. This was part of the 14 inch storm we got!

Sarah and me cutting down the Christmas tree. We had to go with a shorter one this year, since our ceilings are lower than in the house in Springfield.

Linda, with her Christmas goodies... 13 books to read!

We did three concerts. The first two were with the full choir with our bowties. This third one was a shortened version with half of the chorus, singing at one of the local inns for the "Wounded Warriors" families being supported by the town.

Me and Leo, one of the church members, the night of the Christmas Choral Concert.

Christmas fun for the beagle.

Mister emcee, explaining the rules for the Yankee Swap.

I won a dusty, used, but working Dewalt orbital sander.

Whooppeeee!!!

Here are some of the folks who came out for the Holiday Banquet and Yankee Swap. We have a good group of people here in Conway!

December Happenings

Greetings and blessings for the new year.

What a year it has been. Although it seems as if the year has gone by quickly, it amazes me now much has taken place. It is especially amazing when I consider where we were a year ago. The two big events of course were the move to Conway and our son’s marriage last summer. What an emotional year.

The church here has grown in so many ways through the year. I was talking to them recently in one of our classes about how this year has been a year of healing, but we need to make moves to start working again for the Lord and no longer live in the past. I reminded them of the passage from Isaiah 43:18-19, “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?” What a good attitude for any of us to take into the new year. Everyone here is praying for open doors to talk to their friends and neighbors about the church. We are beginning to see more and more visitors from the community come in for worship. Growth is slow, but I believe we are moving in the right direction.

Although the church still cannot support us fully, because of people like you, God has provided for our needs throughout the year. I appreciate so much your commitment to help us last year. I had hoped to secure more stable finances from various churches for this coming year, but not very much has developed. I have received a few one time contributions which I will divide among the months, and have a couple of other new monthly supporters which helps us another $350 a month. Perhaps the economic situation of the country is limiting churches from committing to the work here, I don’t know. I trust that God again will see us through this coming year. I will be sending you supporters a more detailed breakdown of last year and this year’s support through the mail very soon.

This month saw its usual amount of people being away for holidays, combined with visitors coming for the holidays and for skiing vacations. Linda and I organized a holiday supper with a Yankee Swap, which was very much enjoyed and appreciated by those who attended. I think we had about 25 who came. Linda continues to work with the Monday evening food pantry serving meals to needy folks in town. She also is now working part time with one of our members who recently opened up a convenience store. She hopes to use this once again to meet people in the town. I had my singing concert which went really well. Many people who we have met in town were in the crowd. If it accomplishes nothing else, this community exposure is putting a more positive image in the town of the church than existed a couple of years ago.

My activities were curtailed very briefly by a fall I took off of a ladder one Sunday afternoon as I was working on an addition to the church building for our oil tanks. The fall was small, but it gashed a 10 stitch rip in my leg. Great fun! It is healing up good. It has been nice to have Sarah with us for the Christmas break. It seems odd not to have Michael with us. Now we know what other families go through as we experience the feelings of not having the whole family with us for every holiday. It won’t be long before we put away the decorations and get Sarah back off to school. It will be good in some ways to get back to a routine. We will be beginning our Friday evening Bible Studies again now that the holidays are over. We are praying that some of our non-Christians who have been worshipping with us throughout this year will make that commitment to obedience. Please pray for God to turn hearts toward him.

Well, that’s it for now. Thanks for the positive comments about the blog page. I hope you enjoy the updates, and we’ll continue to send them your way even if you aren’t able to continue your support into next year. God bless…

Leland