Greetings in Jesus Name,
We would like to begin our Spring 2021 update by giving thanks to our Great Savior. 2020 was a year that most of us were glad to put in our rear view. From great social and political problems to the loss of many dear friends and family it was, perhaps, the most difficult year our family has faced. In spite of the hardships, God has not changed! It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. God has given us grace and strength to endure tragedy and sickness and to press forward in service to Him. We are what we are by the grace of God and His grace has been not only sufficient, but it has been abundant. Praise God that He giveth more grace!
The new year has brought many open doors to labor and to preach the Word of God. In February we picked up 55 cases of Choctaw/English parallel New Testaments and delivered them to Mississippi. As I am writing this I just returned from the reservation where we had the first of two distributions of these scriptures at Choctaw Central High School. Laboring with Raymond Johnson and Bill Blair from Grace Indian Baptist Church, and Pastor Alan Peoples from County Line Baptist Church, we put just under 150 Bibles and around 450 gospel tracts directly into the hands of Choctaw students and teachers. The school allowed any student that wanted to the opportunity to leave class and come to where we were set up to receive a Bible. We will follow up with a second distribution there on May 11th. Pray for these labors.
April began with a Thursday through Sunday meeting at Swappingback Baptist Church in Geary, OK. This is a Cheyenne and Arapaho church in western Oklahoma that is near to closing it’s doors. I was able to preach the Gospel to around 30 Natives on Easter Sunday morning. The western tribes in Oklahoma remain in great need of the Gospel. They are expecting us to return soon to hold Sunday services for them. For now, this is an open door in a very needy area. Pray for us and that God would raise up preachers for areas and churches like these. For us, this is a 9 hour round trip so we are trying to put together a rotation of 3-4 teachers or preachers who can help this church to start having regular services again.
In mid-April we returned to the Northwest and preached in services at the Calvary Independent Baptist Church in Post Falls, Idaho. These believers have become very dear to our hearts and we greatly enjoyed the trip and our time of worship together. My heart still greatly desires for the Spokane Reservation to open up again. Being so close to the Natives there and unable to even visit left us feeling unfulfilled. This is a door that was for a time wide open to us. Please pray that we would be able to labor again on the reservation this summer.
On personal note, we have moved our membership from Bethesda Baptist Church in NC to Indian Mission Baptist Church here in Smithville, OK. While our Brethren in NC will always be in our hearts as family, our labors are almost exclusively in and from Oklahoma. While it was always our plan to join the Church here, it was a hard move nonetheless. Thank you all for your continued prayers and financial support. May God bless you for your faithfulness to His cause and make His face to shine upon you.
Yours in Christ, The Silvers Family