Passover and Planes

What a great two weeks the Lord has given us. To you who faithfully follow our blog (and by extension, our ministry), thank you. Your prayer is vital to what we have been doing the last few weeks. The weekend of May 1, we were able to minister at Maranatha Baptist Church in Phillips, WI. For those of you who have a hard time with Wisconsin geography, it's waaaay up there. In fact Sunday morning May 1, we had snow. We were able to present our ministry in Sunday School that morning. Then came the most terrifying "opportunity" we have had thus far on deputation. Pastor Markle had me do a Passover demonstration, displaying the Seder meal. This would have been easy had I not known that this church had a Passover demonstration just two years earlier, by a man that has spent many years in Israel. It dawned on me that they had already seen the "real thing" and I was going to be challenged to improve on what this other missionary did. I threw myself at the mercy of God and went into it with fear and trepidation. I did the best I knew how and left the results up to God. What I did not realize, was the other missionary had simply shown how to do a Jewish Passover. While I was not as thorough in my Passover demonstration, I did try to bring out the parts of the Passover meal that point directly to the Jew's Messiah, Jesus Christ. After the morning service, several of the church people commented that my demonstration built very well on what the other missionary had done. Wow, my little demonstration was exactly what God wanted the people of that church to have. That is nothing short of God! I am continually humbled by the opportunities God gives us to minister and by the people we have to minister to. Praise God!
This weekend we were at a church in Bartonville, IL near Peoria. They had a weekend missions conference (Friday through Sunday) which we were able to take part in. We had a great time getting to know the pastor and people of this church. We were especially excited to see Coach's parents. For any of you that know me well, you know that Tony Cotelleso, my high school coach/teacher, is one of the most influential men in my life. Coach's parents are long time members of the church there in Bartonville. accommodationsWe enjoyed getting to know them better this weekend. The conference was great! It really seemed like God was in all of the sermons and missionary presentations. We finished the conference on Sunday afternoon with a tour of a C130 aircraft, provided by the Air Force Colonel that attends the church. Not only did we get to see a pretty awesome aircraft up close, but we also were educated by someone who has flown and been around these things for almost 25 years. We had a great time at the Air Force Base as well as in the conference.
We covet your prayers as we head into the next weekend of ministry. We had a cancelation and a host of late meetings pop up on our calendar. We will be in Lincoln, IL this Thursday and Friday for a missions conference, we will be in Peoria for El Vista Baptist Church's Honor Israel Sunday in the morning and in Plymouth, WI for the evening service at the church were my little sister goes on extension with Maranatha during the school year. We are excited about the opportunities to minister this weekend, and would ask you to keep us in your prayers.