Dear Pastor and Brethren:
A Month of Improvements
Although February was a slow month with low attendance, March is showing improvement in that area. We are having an early spring here in Stillwater, and I think that may be one of the encouragements the Lord is providing to motivate people to come to our services. On the 3rd of March we had twelve people, including two new children, attend our service. The same happened on the tenth with twelve attending. The numbers dropped to five on the 17th but then went back up on the 24th to ten and on the 31st of March to eleven. So we praise the Lord for the nice weather and His drawing of the people to come hear His Word.
Subject Matter for Preaching
On Sunday mornings I am preaching on John 17, the Lord’s prayer to His Father before departing with the Eleven to pray in the garden of Gethsemane before His betrayal and arrest It is the prayer of the highest beauty and deepest doctrine in the entire book of Holy Scripture. His prayer certainly needs to be studied in view of the upcoming celebration of Resurrection Sunday (Easter). Properly understanding His prayer would truly give us a proper understanding of His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.
On Thursday evenings I am preaching on Article Ten of our Articles of Faith, The Blood Atonement. This subject certainly complements the theme of the Lord’s prayer so that those who attend will have received a good understanding of the redemptive work of our Lord when we are finished with the study.
Our Outreach
Our outreach efforts have waned somewhat due to sickness. Bro. Dick Gaches finally had the operation on his knee and is in the process of recovering slowly. We have missed his presence in our services, and he has missed being here and serving the Lord while under his affliction.
As to the Latino outreach, we have only had opportunity to reach out to two new Latinos, and that very limited. We have had contact with other Latinos with whom we work from time to time. This is a very difficult attempt on our part to reach these people with the true gospel especially since the Roman Catholic community has built a 24 million dollar complex on the west side of town. Brethren, please pray for us.
By His grace and in loving gratitude,