Missions with Don & Rosemary

I do apologize for so many days without an entry, but this has been an unbelievably busy sojourn. Thats what we came for. While here at Cape Coral, near Ft. Meyers, we have thus far baptized two people a man and his wife into Christ. They have three wonderful children. Many of the sojourners are very involved in physical work around the church and the property. There has been much needed repairs. Many of us have busied ourselves with door knocking and bible studies. The meeting started Sunday and goes thru Wed. Tonight the lesson is entitled, "Seeking the Lost". Our lessons are an encouragement to the church to involve itself more in out reach. We have had several call s yesterday and today from areas as far away as 50 miles seeking direction to the building. We had an excellent crowd last evening and are expecting another good attendance tonight. The church here has some refreshments each evening after services - coffee, cookies, etc. This gives us an extended period of time with visitors and members we have not seen in some time as well as other visitors. Have several pictures, and hope to put them on the bloc next time. Looking forward to heading towards home this Thurs. Rosemary and I have been gone nearly two months. Don

Finally, we are where we can get on the internet. We are here for a couple of days with my Dad. We go to Cape Coral in Ft. Meyers tomorrow. We have had two excellent sojourns in Key West and West Hollywood. We have done a lot of physical work on the buildings and yards, and also a great deal of evangelism. Thus far, we have had 20 bible studies, and have had 9 baptisms. The people we have studied with have been very interested in the bible, the Lord and His Church. Our work at Cape Coral will be mostly evangelism with particular interest in teaching. We will be teaching a three night -Wed. Thurs., and Fri. night seminar on personal evangelism. Tues. Wed. Thurs. Fri. & Sat. of this week we will be door knocking inviting people to the meeting that will be starting next Sun. morn. We have a very busy two weeks ahead of us, but we are being well led by our team leader, Neil Holt and his wife Thelma. We are awaiting two more of our team members, Doug & Maxine. They plan to be with us Mon or Tues. Time to go to evening worship, but plan to answer e mail and send another blog tonight. Don

Finally, we are where we can get on the internet. We are here for a couple of days with my Dad. We go to Cape Coral in Ft. Meyers tomorrow. We have had two excellent sojourns in Key West and West Hollywood. We have done a lot of physical work on the buildings and yards, and also a great deal of evangelism. Thus far, we have had 20 bible studies, and have had 9 baptisms. The people we have studied with have been very interested in the bible, the Lord and His Church. Our work at Cape Coral will be mostly evangelism with particular interest in teaching. We will be teaching a three night -Wed. Thurs., and Fri. night seminar on personal evangelism. Tues. Wed. Thurs. Fri. & Sat. of this week we will be door knocking inviting people to the meeting that will be starting next Sun. morn. We have a very busy two weeks ahead of us, but we are being well led by our team leader, Neil Holt and his wife Thelma. We are awaiting two more of our team members, Doug & Maxine. They plan to be with us Mon or Tues. Time to go to evening worship, but plan to answer e mail and send another blog tonight. Don

Finally, we are where we can get on the internet. We are here for a couple of days with my Dad. We go to Cape Coral in Ft. Meyers tomorrow. We have had two excellent sojourns in Key West and West Hollywood. We have done a lot of physical work on the buildings and yards, and also a great deal of evangelism. Thus far, we have had 20 bible studies, and have had 9 baptisms. The people we have studied with have been very interested in the bible, the Lord and His Church. Our work at Cape Coral will be mostly evangelism with particular interest in teaching. We will be teaching a three night -Wed. Thurs., and Fri. night seminar on personal evangelism. Tues. Wed. Thurs. Fri. & Sat. of this week we will be door knocking inviting people to the meeting that will be starting next Sun. morn. We have a very busy two weeks ahead of us, but we are being well led by our team leader, Neil Holt and his wife Thelma. We are awaiting two more of our team members, Doug & Maxine. They plan to be with us Mon or Tues. Time to go to evening worship, but plan to answer e mail and send another blog tonight. Don

Finally, we are where we can get on the internet. We are here for a couple of days with my Dad. We go to Cape Coral in Ft. Meyers tomorrow. We have had two excellent sojourns in Key West and West Hollywood. We have done a lot of physical work on the buildings and yards, and also a great deal of evangelism. Thus far, we have had 20 bible studies, and have had 9 baptisms. The people we have studied with have been very interested in the bible, the Lord and His Church. Our work at Cape Coral will be mostly evangelism with particular interest in teaching. We will be teaching a three night -Wed. Thurs., and Fri. night seminar on personal evangelism. Tues. Wed. Thurs. Fri. & Sat. of this week we will be door knocking inviting people to the meeting that will be starting next Sun. morn. We have a very busy two weeks ahead of us, but we are being well led by our team leader, Neil Holt and his wife Thelma. We are awaiting two more of our team members, Doug & Maxine. They plan to be with us Mon or Tues. Time to go to evening worship, but plan to answer e mail and send another blog tonight. Don

The top picture is from l-r, Joe and Gladys, in the middle two of the people we baptized in Key West with their children, Joseph, his wife Carleen, their two precious children, Carl and Jeff. Gladys and Rosemary would play with the children-no small task, while Joe and I taught them about the Lord. After they were baptized, we had four-five more hours of study with them. Below is a picture of Rosemary and some of the children that she and Gladys cared for while we studied with their parents. Gladys, Thelma and Rosemary made our work a whole lot easier, we could have some very serious study with several parents while they cared for the children. The children that the women worked with came to church and enjoyed the classes. We are now at West Hollywood and are very busy here in physical work and evangelism. I really wish you could see how improved and inviting this building now looks after some of the members and several sojourners have worked on it. It actually beckons you to come over and see whats going on. Several people in community have either come over or have commented on it to those going door to door trying to set up bible studies. In Key West, we had some 17 bible studies and baptized 7 people. Here at West Hollywood, thus far we have had 2 bible studies and have thus far baptized 2 people. Those in the sojourn here are Neal&Thelma, Joe&Gladys, Jack&Marlyn, Walt&Marge, Rosemary and Me. If you know of congregations that can make use of the efforts of sojourners, please contact a sojourner or contact me and we will help try and arrange this for you. For a fact, Sojourners can make a difference. Don

We really thought we would be able to put pictures on the blog today. Rosemary has taken some really nice ones. But... the printer for some reason is not responding so until we get that straighten out we will not be able to send any. Our Team Leader, Neal, has us all prepared to begin our work in the evangelism and physical efforts Mon. We have taken a couple of days rest as the work in Key West was very intense and some degree of stress was involved. How ever, I believe we will all be ready for a couple of good weeks work beginning this Mon. The brethren here at Hollywood are very receptive and helpful to our efforts in evangelism and we look forward to worshiping with them in the morning. The building is surrounded by working class homes and we are looking forward to telling many of them the story of Jesus. Our team here consists of Neal & Thelma, Neal is our team leader, Joe & Gladys, Joe is our Co- Team leader, Jack & Marlyn, Jack is our song leader, Walt and Marge, Rosemary & me. Walt and Marge just joined us here yesterday, but are no strangers to sojourning. Rosemary and I serve on a sojourn under their leadership in Pottstown, Pa. a couple of years ago. Talked with Mike and Mark of the DRT concerning the tornado disaster in Cen. Fla. They are working right now trying to determine how to help and will be putting the info on their blog. When I receive it, I will try and get it on this blog. Don

We have now arrived at the Driftwood Congregation in West Hollywood Fla. This building is built on our old family farm. I often rode thru here on horse back, mostly bare back, herding cattle here. We found the place where we had to bring them out of the low places, swamps, after the 47 hurricane. That was an experience I still have not forgotten. My grandfather told me where to ride and not to ride so that I would not get into the water over mine and the horse's head. I did not listen. He had to come and rescue his first grandson. After Grandpa got thru with first grandson, Don listened from then on. There is a very large number of houses surrounding the building, but very few people attend here. We plan to visit a and set up as many bible studies as possible to teach people about the Lord beginning tomorrow. We have a lot of physical work to do also. Hope to have some pictures ready soon. Called Mark of the DRT about the tornado in Cen. Fla. He will be getting the word out as soon as he knows something. Don