Wednesday, May 13, 2009
"Disaster Assistance" has just completed a short mission with the Hemly Rd. Church of Christ in Bayou La Batre, Al. Just a couple of weeks, ago Brs. Dave Neal and Doug Oaks from the Somerset Church in Somerset, Ohio spent time in BLB. There they taught and baptized 5 people. A call came to us, to come and help teach these new converts as well as several new Christians more about the doctrine of Christ. This church does not have a regular preacher. Thanks to your support in these spiritual matters, we were able to go there and really be a big help to this young growing church. As you may recall, prior to hurricane Katrina, the only congregation in BLB had ceased to meet some 2 yrs before the hurricane. When "Katrina" came to BLB, shortly thereafter, several Christan's came there to help. Out of this help, the church began to meet again, Christians bought another building, have a dynamic outreach program, are now a center of activity in the community and this past Sun. had 80 people in worship service. Your help greatly aided in the development and growth of this congregation. Br. Mike Baumgartner, Director of "Disaster Assistance", with the help of Rosemary and others cooked and fixed some really good meals, 460. The church invited the community in and was the community ever impressed by the friendliness of this church? We inter mingled with them and talked them about the Church of Christ at the supper time meal. We invited them to worship with us Sunday.Several of them who had not visited the church before came to worship that Sunday morning and I personally know some that have expressed an interest in studying God's word. This was an excellent outreach project that you helped make possible. With our spiritual outreach arm of "Disaster Assistance", while there we had 21 in attendance during 12 different bible studies. Now while our effort there was to help "ground" new Christians, one was baptized and I believe two more will be baptized shortly. We left the Hemly Rd. Church of Christ with a renewed appreciation for the outreach of this church, esp. with young people. Of the 80 people who were in attendance at worship Sun. I believe over half of them were young people. I went around to the Sunday School classes Sun. morn. and was deeply impressed with the dedication of the teachers. Sun. Ev. we went to the Creekwood Congregation in Moble. Br. David Sargent had an excellent lesson on Christian's caring We had an opportunity to renew old acquaintances there from our work in Katrina.
As we are back home now for awhile, I think, we have a lot of activity planned this summer at the Howel Church where I preach and which sends and supports Rosemary and I on these various home missionary trips. Our gospel meeting is in June, I am in a meeting at the Mc Burg Church in July, we have our Super Sat. Bible School in July and then there is the upcoming Sycamore Bible Bowl in Cookeville, Tn. in early Sept. then I speak at the Heritage Christian Un. Lecturship in late Sept. In between all of these activities, "Disaster Assistance " remains ready to "Drive at Dawn"to help organize and work for the local church should disaster strike. We can always use volunteers "at the ready". I must tell you, this is work. We start early in the morning and it is usually nearly dark, when we finish. That's 7 days a week, with time off to go to worship. While it's work, it has, I believe, the greatest reward of all on this earth, the knowledge that you helped make a difference in someone's life physically and you also and at the same time had and used the opportunity to show and teach people about Jesus. If you would like to be a part of this Home Mission Work, email me or call me at 931 659 6643 cell 931 698 3150. Also please see Mike's blog about "Disaster Assistance" www.mikesmissionupdates.blogspot.com http://mikesmissionupdates.blogspot..com Don
As we are back home now for awhile, I think, we have a lot of activity planned this summer at the Howel Church where I preach and which sends and supports Rosemary and I on these various home missionary trips. Our gospel meeting is in June, I am in a meeting at the Mc Burg Church in July, we have our Super Sat. Bible School in July and then there is the upcoming Sycamore Bible Bowl in Cookeville, Tn. in early Sept. then I speak at the Heritage Christian Un. Lecturship in late Sept. In between all of these activities, "Disaster Assistance " remains ready to "Drive at Dawn"to help organize and work for the local church should disaster strike. We can always use volunteers "at the ready". I must tell you, this is work. We start early in the morning and it is usually nearly dark, when we finish. That's 7 days a week, with time off to go to worship. While it's work, it has, I believe, the greatest reward of all on this earth, the knowledge that you helped make a difference in someone's life physically and you also and at the same time had and used the opportunity to show and teach people about Jesus. If you would like to be a part of this Home Mission Work, email me or call me at 931 659 6643 cell 931 698 3150. Also please see Mike's blog about "Disaster Assistance" www.mikesmissionupdates.blogspot.com http://mikesmissionupdates.blogspot..com Don
Monday, May 04, 2009
"Disaster Assistance"is fortunate in having so many fine Christians working to help in the caring for people both physically and spiritually thru DA. One such great helper is Russ Blackwell. Russ has told Heritage Christian University about our work and we have been invited to speak at their lectureship this year. We will be discussing the great opportunities for home missionary work with "Disaster Assistance". This lectureship is in late Sept. Rosemary and I have attended this lectureship several times. I always come away encouraged. Heritage Christian University is located in Florence, Al. You too may want to make plans to attend this year. They do have some RV spots available there. I have been deeply impressed on several occasions by the education that students receive at HCU. Don
"We Drive at Dawn" to Bayou La Batre, Al.
Rosemary and I leave early tomorrow morning to spend about a week helping the young church, Hemly Rd. Church of Christ, in Bayou La Batre, Al. This church literally rose from the disaster of hurricane Katrina. The church at BLB had ceased meeting some 2yrs. before Katrina, but when Katrina hit, many Christians worked tirelessly in this area, helping people both physically and spiritually. From the efforts of many dedicated Christians during the devastation of Katrina came forth the Hemly Rd. Church of Christ. This is a new young congregation. The face many of the challenges that a new church can have. They have some truly remarkable, hard working members, that are dedicated to spreading the gospel in this area as they help build the church. It is a growing church. Mike, The Director of "Disaster Assistance", Rosemary and I are privileged to have had a part in the development of this church from the very beginning. A couple of weeks ago, Dave Neal, an elder at the Somerset Church of Christ in Somerset, Ohio, and the minister there, Dave Oaks, went to BLB and spent some time having bible studies. The people were very receptive to being taught the word of God. They baptized 5 people into Christ. We wished we could have been with them but were working in Murfressboro, Tn. helping in the aftermath of a tornado. The Church at BLB has requested that we of "Disaster Assistance" come and, as a major part of our effort is evangelism, help teach these new converts. We truly appreciate this opportunity and are thankful for the confidence that Christians have in us in helping, not only in the physical part of a disaster but in the evangelism opportunity as well. Please remember us in your prayers. Also please know that while we are NOT requesting any funds at this time for this effort, it is your prayers and sacrificial donations that have made this work in evangelism possible. We appreciate the confidence that you have in the mission that we Christians have working thru "Disaster Assistance" and we will doing our very best to wisely use your donation to spread the border of the Kingdom.
Please go to Mike's blog http://mikesmissionupdates.blogspot.com You can read there about the great work that Dave Neal and Doug Oaks did while at BLB and learn a lot more about the Hemly Rd. Church of Christ.
"Disaster Assistance" is under the oversight of the Elders of the Alachua Chruch of Christ 14505 NW. 145 ave. Alachua, Fl. 32615. By the way, another good blog, greatly concerned with evangelism is Royce Ogle's blog http://gracedigest.com
Don
Rosemary and I leave early tomorrow morning to spend about a week helping the young church, Hemly Rd. Church of Christ, in Bayou La Batre, Al. This church literally rose from the disaster of hurricane Katrina. The church at BLB had ceased meeting some 2yrs. before Katrina, but when Katrina hit, many Christians worked tirelessly in this area, helping people both physically and spiritually. From the efforts of many dedicated Christians during the devastation of Katrina came forth the Hemly Rd. Church of Christ. This is a new young congregation. The face many of the challenges that a new church can have. They have some truly remarkable, hard working members, that are dedicated to spreading the gospel in this area as they help build the church. It is a growing church. Mike, The Director of "Disaster Assistance", Rosemary and I are privileged to have had a part in the development of this church from the very beginning. A couple of weeks ago, Dave Neal, an elder at the Somerset Church of Christ in Somerset, Ohio, and the minister there, Dave Oaks, went to BLB and spent some time having bible studies. The people were very receptive to being taught the word of God. They baptized 5 people into Christ. We wished we could have been with them but were working in Murfressboro, Tn. helping in the aftermath of a tornado. The Church at BLB has requested that we of "Disaster Assistance" come and, as a major part of our effort is evangelism, help teach these new converts. We truly appreciate this opportunity and are thankful for the confidence that Christians have in us in helping, not only in the physical part of a disaster but in the evangelism opportunity as well. Please remember us in your prayers. Also please know that while we are NOT requesting any funds at this time for this effort, it is your prayers and sacrificial donations that have made this work in evangelism possible. We appreciate the confidence that you have in the mission that we Christians have working thru "Disaster Assistance" and we will doing our very best to wisely use your donation to spread the border of the Kingdom.
Please go to Mike's blog http://mikesmissionupdates.blogspot.com You can read there about the great work that Dave Neal and Doug Oaks did while at BLB and learn a lot more about the Hemly Rd. Church of Christ.
"Disaster Assistance" is under the oversight of the Elders of the Alachua Chruch of Christ 14505 NW. 145 ave. Alachua, Fl. 32615. By the way, another good blog, greatly concerned with evangelism is Royce Ogle's blog http://gracedigest.com
Don
Sunday, March 15, 2009
Because you asked. There are people on a regular basis that stop me and ask, "exactly what does Disaster Assistance do? We are always glad to answer their questions. May I again talk with you about what we do and how we have been so successful in signing up so many people for bible study?
First of all, it is getting to be spring time and this can be a time of weather damage. We are ready to go. We go into an area, meet and work with the local Church of Christ, prepare and cook a good hot meal for often hundreds of people. This meal is served to them and they are told and know it is from the church of Christ. We are now able to give bible tracts out to the people where ever we are. We keep several on hand so that we can immediately give them out. We want them to know that the meal is made possible by caring Christians in the Churches of Christ. People often reply with such thanks as "Thank God for the Church of Christ".
We also help the local church unload supply trucks. When a supply truck pulls up to a congregation who has never been in a disaster before, everything can be overwhelming. We offer not only to help them unload the truck, but also show them how to store and distribute the supplies. Churches we have worked with are very pleased that we help them do this, because as I say the supply situation and how to properly get them out can be overwhelming.
The other effort in this evangelism work is to sign people up for a study of God's word. Believe me when you are there helping to supply them with food and other necessities, they know that these Christians really care. Actually,we have people that hear about our bible studies and come asking us to be signed up for a bible study. We have their names, address and telephone numbers and we work with the local church in setting up the bible studies. We have found that when members of the local church conduct the study or at least go with us on the study, students have a better connection with the local church and this helps them in there beginning days with the church.
Last summer during hurricane season, we set up over 500 bible studies for local churches.
Now a logical question, and I was asked this question today from a Christian in Florida, how do you get funds to do this? The only answer is from sacrificial Christians like you who are interested in helping people and have a special interest in evangelizing here at home. This is a great work. We don't have a paid staff, no paid advertising, etc. We are under the elders of the Alachua Church of Christ AlachuaChurch of Christ 14505 N.W. 145 ave. Alachua, Fl. 32615.
If you would like to volunteer to help, we would love to hear from you. You can certainly email me. I would be honored to hear from you. You can go to our Director's blogsite http://www.mikesmissionupdates.blogspot.com and find out more about this work in evangelism. I hope you will tell your local congregation about this work too.
If weather disaster strikes, you will be hearing from us,and we really mean this, if you can add this work to your prayer list, we would appreciate that too. Don
First of all, it is getting to be spring time and this can be a time of weather damage. We are ready to go. We go into an area, meet and work with the local Church of Christ, prepare and cook a good hot meal for often hundreds of people. This meal is served to them and they are told and know it is from the church of Christ. We are now able to give bible tracts out to the people where ever we are. We keep several on hand so that we can immediately give them out. We want them to know that the meal is made possible by caring Christians in the Churches of Christ. People often reply with such thanks as "Thank God for the Church of Christ".
We also help the local church unload supply trucks. When a supply truck pulls up to a congregation who has never been in a disaster before, everything can be overwhelming. We offer not only to help them unload the truck, but also show them how to store and distribute the supplies. Churches we have worked with are very pleased that we help them do this, because as I say the supply situation and how to properly get them out can be overwhelming.
The other effort in this evangelism work is to sign people up for a study of God's word. Believe me when you are there helping to supply them with food and other necessities, they know that these Christians really care. Actually,we have people that hear about our bible studies and come asking us to be signed up for a bible study. We have their names, address and telephone numbers and we work with the local church in setting up the bible studies. We have found that when members of the local church conduct the study or at least go with us on the study, students have a better connection with the local church and this helps them in there beginning days with the church.
Last summer during hurricane season, we set up over 500 bible studies for local churches.
Now a logical question, and I was asked this question today from a Christian in Florida, how do you get funds to do this? The only answer is from sacrificial Christians like you who are interested in helping people and have a special interest in evangelizing here at home. This is a great work. We don't have a paid staff, no paid advertising, etc. We are under the elders of the Alachua Church of Christ AlachuaChurch of Christ 14505 N.W. 145 ave. Alachua, Fl. 32615.
If you would like to volunteer to help, we would love to hear from you. You can certainly email me. I would be honored to hear from you. You can go to our Director's blogsite http://www.mikesmissionupdates.blogspot.com and find out more about this work in evangelism. I hope you will tell your local congregation about this work too.
If weather disaster strikes, you will be hearing from us,and we really mean this, if you can add this work to your prayer list, we would appreciate that too. Don
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
As this blog site is dedicated to evangelism, outreach, personal work, church growth, names that I use to basically mean the same thing, we want to bring a lesson on how to help make the church a center in the community.
As we are always ready to leave "on the spur of the moment" with "Disaster Assistance to help people, we may have to interrupt, but as long as we are home, Howell, Tennessee, we want to bring this lesson. It has helped us at Howell to reach others with the gospel and I hope it will help you too.
MAKING THE CHURCH A CENTER IN THE LIFE OF THE COMMUNITY
1.Where better to learn about Christianity than in church?
2. Where better to learn of Christian conduct than in church?
3. Where better to learn to grow spiritually than in church?
It has been said and I hear it often, in the "old days" people went to church a lot because there were few other places to go. Now I want to tell you, if I live to July 2, I will be 68. I was born and lived in the old days. There were plenty of places other than church to go. We had movie theaters, television, football games, basketball games, baseball games. We had cars. That did not keep us from going to church. By the way that still doesn't keep people from going to church. Turn on the television to nearly any religious program and what do you see? A building full of people. How many of these people do you suppose do not have any other place to go? You see we can help engage the community thru
the church.
When I was growing up the church was very much a center in our lives. It promoted activities with the teaching that promoted my spiritual growth. We can still do this and look to the scriptures for guidance.
Should there still be an opportunity for the church to be a center of people lives?
If the church a center of people's lives will this help them grow spiritually and the church grow numerically?
Can we,by effort and guidance from the scripture, encourage the church to be at the center of peoples' lives today?
YES! YES! YES!!!
In the coming days we will be discussing some ways that may help you make the church a center of life in the community. For those of us already working at that maybe we can share some ideas as to how to improve. If you have some suggestions to help, please email me at donhudsoncoc@gmail.com If you know of other who might profit from these lessons, please tell them about this blog www.donchudson.blogspot.com Don
As we are always ready to leave "on the spur of the moment" with "Disaster Assistance to help people, we may have to interrupt, but as long as we are home, Howell, Tennessee, we want to bring this lesson. It has helped us at Howell to reach others with the gospel and I hope it will help you too.
MAKING THE CHURCH A CENTER IN THE LIFE OF THE COMMUNITY
1.Where better to learn about Christianity than in church?
2. Where better to learn of Christian conduct than in church?
3. Where better to learn to grow spiritually than in church?
It has been said and I hear it often, in the "old days" people went to church a lot because there were few other places to go. Now I want to tell you, if I live to July 2, I will be 68. I was born and lived in the old days. There were plenty of places other than church to go. We had movie theaters, television, football games, basketball games, baseball games. We had cars. That did not keep us from going to church. By the way that still doesn't keep people from going to church. Turn on the television to nearly any religious program and what do you see? A building full of people. How many of these people do you suppose do not have any other place to go? You see we can help engage the community thru
the church.
When I was growing up the church was very much a center in our lives. It promoted activities with the teaching that promoted my spiritual growth. We can still do this and look to the scriptures for guidance.
Should there still be an opportunity for the church to be a center of people lives?
If the church a center of people's lives will this help them grow spiritually and the church grow numerically?
Can we,by effort and guidance from the scripture, encourage the church to be at the center of peoples' lives today?
YES! YES! YES!!!
In the coming days we will be discussing some ways that may help you make the church a center of life in the community. For those of us already working at that maybe we can share some ideas as to how to improve. If you have some suggestions to help, please email me at donhudsoncoc@gmail.com If you know of other who might profit from these lessons, please tell them about this blog www.donchudson.blogspot.com Don
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Saturday, February 28, 2009
From time to time, I like to remind everyone of the great opportunity that we have in home missions with the Sojourners. If you are a person that would like to be involved in home missionary work, have a certain like for travel and are looking for an opportunity to really make a difference, you may very well enjoy being a Sojourner. If the congregation where you attend could use some help in evangelism, teaching people how to evangelize or have physical work that needs to be done, the sojourners may be able to help. In either case go the the Sojourners' web site at www.soujourning.org read the info and see if this will help. If you would like more info on the sojourners and what a wonderful organization it is, you are certainly welcome to email me donhudsoncoc@gmail.com and I'll be happy to help. We may be able to put you in contact with Sojourners in your area. Don
Saturday, February 21, 2009
We have had so many inquires as to home mission work this week. I believe that we have had more person-to-person, telephone conversations, and email inquires this week than any week sense we have been at this blogsite. It is wonderful to see such renewed interest in home mission work and your desire to be a part of this mission effort. Or Director of "Disaster Assistance" is Mike Baumgartner and you can contact him thru his blogsite at www.mikesmissionupdates.blogspot.com for specific info. We can use help. Mike is over all in charge and we all help in some way in the preparation, serving and cleaning up after, the meals, but he has delegated me to help in the helping people spiritually aspect of this ministry. If you are interested in visitation, prayer with people and bible studies we can certainly use your help. You need to be advised that if you have an R.V. it can be a real help, but if you don't we will try and make provision for you too, but it might not be like at home. Besides Mike's blog, may I recommend Royce Ogle's blogsite at http://gracedigest.com Remember our email address has changed. It is now donhudsoncoc@gmail.com Don
Monday, February 16, 2009
The Howell Church, for which I preach and serve in a missionary capacity, had a wonderful period of fellowship, last Sun. Ev. On the third Sun. Ev., at Howell, after our evening worship, we engaged in another period of fellowship in which we enjoyed a common meal together. Sun. night, we went to the Catalpa Church of Christ, had evening worship with them and then joined them for another period of fellowship in sharing a common meal with them. It was certainly a great period of exhortation. I was asked to speak on the mission efforts of "Disaster Assistance" . This congregation which is only about 10 miles away, had greatly helped us in the disaster work last summer and fall. We wanted to tell them first hand of the great effect that they had in helping feed so many needy people and setting up so many bible studies. I also explained what an opportunity we have in reaching Hispanic people and that I was spending an hour a day in trying to learn the language so that we can better serve and help in mission work.
The Catapa Church is very interested in helping in the mission work of "Disaster Assistance" as we stay in contact thru email, phone calls and when possible personal visits and updates as to the numbers of people we are helping not only physically but also spiritually in our success in setting up bible studies with people.
Some of the members of Catalpa also told me that they would like to volunteer and go on some missions with us. We can sure use volunteers who want to help people both physically and spiritually.
Mike, our Director, is keeping a very watchful eye on weather reports and forecasts. We certainly hope that there won't be any weather related incidents this spring, but if there are, we want to be ready to help. And because of your prayerful support, we expect to be ready. When people see us pulling up in our rigs and our Orange Shirts that reads "Disaster Assistance" Church of Christ, they know the Church of Christ is there to help. They are thankful and grateful for Christians showing they care.
Make sure you keep up with preparation and other info about "Disaster Assistance" by regularly going to Mike's blog site. http://mikesmissionupdates.blogspot.com Good Night Don
The Catapa Church is very interested in helping in the mission work of "Disaster Assistance" as we stay in contact thru email, phone calls and when possible personal visits and updates as to the numbers of people we are helping not only physically but also spiritually in our success in setting up bible studies with people.
Some of the members of Catalpa also told me that they would like to volunteer and go on some missions with us. We can sure use volunteers who want to help people both physically and spiritually.
Mike, our Director, is keeping a very watchful eye on weather reports and forecasts. We certainly hope that there won't be any weather related incidents this spring, but if there are, we want to be ready to help. And because of your prayerful support, we expect to be ready. When people see us pulling up in our rigs and our Orange Shirts that reads "Disaster Assistance" Church of Christ, they know the Church of Christ is there to help. They are thankful and grateful for Christians showing they care.
Make sure you keep up with preparation and other info about "Disaster Assistance" by regularly going to Mike's blog site. http://mikesmissionupdates.blogspot.com Good Night Don
