Dear Friends and Supporters,  Sept. 26, 2007

     

Here we are in the middle of September already. We have been relatively busy on the east coast. We left south GA and moved up to Sumter SC. This is familiar territory for us as we lived in SC for about twelve years. We visited Sumter Baptist Temple there and look forward to making new friends and return visits. We then moved on to the Baptist Tabernacle in Ladson, SC. We had not been there for some time so it was an extra blessing to visit there again. There is nothing like southern hospitality and both of those churches know how to take care of the wayfaring stranger. We found ourselves with a few days open in our busy schedule over Labor Day weekend. We decided to head north by way of the extreme east coast. We had not visited Cape Hatteras and the Outer Banks of NC since our kids were very small so we arrived at the nearest ferry just in time to board ship and embark on our adventure. The weather was beautiful and although I thought it would be terribly crowded we nearly had the place to ourselves. The two and a half hour trip was great and when we got off the ferry and continued up the coast we had no trouble finding a camp site for the night. The next day we continued up the coast and actually went on every ferry, through every tunnel and over every bridge we could find all the way to Coney Island, NY!!  The ferry from Lewes, DE to Cape May, NJ was pretty scary. It was nearly dark when we boarded and the sea was very rough. All I could think of was the Poseidon Adventure and the Titanic! Praise the Lord for a strong stomach and safe passage!!

Once we hit NY it was time to get back to work. We definitely enjoyed our brief sightseeing trip but we were eagerly anticipating our upcoming revival meeting in Harvey’s Lake, PA. When we arrived there we decided to camp for the week so we set up in a beautiful private site behind the church building made special for us!! We had a wonderful set of meetings and want to thank all the folks who were involved. The meetings were very well attended in spite of it being a holiday week. There were many visitors from neighboring churches. Butch preached some powerful messages and there was some great special music by the children and several folks from the church. Our travels have taken us to northeast PA several times this year. The list of senior centers and retirement homes continues to grow with each visit. We have a real burden for these folks and they really love to hear the gospel. Our prayer is that more people would become involved in the senior’s ministry. Modern medicine helps them to live longer so we have a responsibility to take the gospel to as many as we can.

After we finished our PA meeting we headed to Beckley, WV. New Prospect Baptist Church had invited us to share in their annual homecoming. We had a grand time with Bro. Gary and Cindy as always and big thank you to the Vass and Evans families for putting up with us in their homes. We actually were in Beckley on Grandparent’s Day. The founder of Grandparent’s Day is Marian McQuade and she lives in a nursing home in Beckley, WV. She has 15 children and 40 grandchildren. The first day celebrated was the first Sunday after Labor Day in 1973. Congress sanctioned it in 1978. We have had the pleasure of meeting Mrs. McQuade and she is a delightful soul. We then continued to Home church at Victory Baptist Church in Fairmont, WV. They were celebrating their 24th homecoming revival. We were all set to spend several days visiting family (our son John and his family live there), friends  and nursing homes. We had the added blessing of meeting Evangelist Jerry Chaney and his wife, Sue. It seems they also have some Texas blood in their veins. We thoroughly enjoyed his messages and their fellowship. We also enjoyed our midnight suppers with Bro. Bob and Rose at Mom’s Restaurant. Thank you “Home Church” for everything.

But alas we can not stay in one place to long which brings us to our friends in Morristown, TN. There we visited with our friends at Open Door Baptist and Morristown Baptist Tabernacle. We also got to visit  Dandridge Senior Center, Heritage Place and  the Life Care Center among many others. The Life Care center is one of the first places we visited when we came to TN. We have some very fond memories of visits with the residents there. For a while it seemed every time we came to Morristown our bus would break down so we accumulated a large list of seniors to visit in this area. But we Praise the Lord for directing our paths to these dear folks.

We now have our new mini-bus just over three months and already we have 22,000 miles on it. What a wonderful blessing it is!!! We are constantly aware of God’s goodness as we travel down the highway. We are grateful for His watch care and provision.

 

YEAR TO DATE  --  2007

          people / 25,664

          meetings / 417

          miles / 82,224

Till next time ------!!                ….......  Roxann Hinkle