SCM  NEWSLETTER FOR DECEMBER 2021

 

Hello in the Name of Jesus Christ!

    As we know, the year 2021 is rapidly coming to a close, and what a year it has been.  God has tremendously blessed us again, with meetings just about every week somewhere!  We have see the Lord save souls, change lives, build churches, give comfort to the hurting and seen those with no hope come to find hope in Jesus!  Thanks be to the Lord for all He has done!

    As we grow older each year, we find out bodies not having the strength we once had, and that my friends is something this old man is having a hard time accepting!  LOL!   However we know it is happening and as we travel those roads from meeting to meeting God keeps giving us the ability to keep on going!   Just this past week, while having a conversation with a person, he asked me two questions;   The first was how long will we keep traveling doing evangelism?   The second was when will be know it is time to stop?  This was not the first time we have been asked this, and we have addressed these questions before.  So here today, we would like to address them again!

First, we will go as long as we can, and our health allows is to do so.  We never know what tomorrow holds and in the book of James we are told never say tomorrow we will do this or that because we do not know what tomorrow holds.  We are told to say, if the Lord wills. 

Secondly we will know it is time to stop when we no longer have the money to operate and when we no longer have meetings to do.  That may sound strange to some, but let me remind what we have always said concerning the money and the meetings.

First, in all our ministry, we have never asked anyone at anytime for any financial help.   We do not send out letters for fund raising nor asking individuals,  businesses, churches or any organizations for any financial assistance, not ever, never, nada!   We have asked God to provide and He has!  He has used churches as well as individuals to supply us with the finances we need.   We thank those who have giving and are continuing to give.  Certainly it takes money for equipment, fuel, insurance etc, and again, God has always supplied every dime we have ever needed.  We see no need to change the way to do things now, so we will continue to rely on the Lord's method of keeping us going!

Secondly, we have never called up churches, and asked them for meetings.   The closest thing we have done to that is send out from time to time a newsletter to a group of churches sharing with them that we are available for meetings.  Even that we have not done much of in the last few years.   We rely on pastors and churches to call us.   That way we know the meetings are not something we worked up so to speak, but that God has laid on someones heart to call us.   When we book that meeting, we can truthfully say, we feel it was of God.  In all my studying of God's Word we have never read where he told someone to do something, and not supplied to them what was needed to complete the task.  So, as long as we have meetings, we faithfully believe God has given them to us, and He expects us to complete the task.    We call that  "operating by faith".     We do want to make clear, we do not in any way want to condemn any other ministry from fund raising, if that is how God has told them to do it, and if so, they had better do it.  We do not condemn them for calling and asking churches for meetings, or that they will be in the area or something like that to get meetings.    It just is not the way God laid upon our heart to operate.

In the coming year, we have currently 20 confirmed meetings!  Those meetings will take us to the states of Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Arkansas as well as Idaho. We covet your prayers for Mary and I, as well as the precious teams whom God has put in our paths to help us with music, meals, set ups etc.  For sure without them, we would not be able to do the work!  Again, God has supplied through His people, praise be to His Name.

Thank you for your love, care, prayers and support!  Meanwhile, we pray you had a Very Merry Christmas and you will have a prospers new year!

 

 Hello in the Name of Jesus!  

For sure it has been way too long since we wrote!  Maybe as we are getting older we are getting slower!

We will give you a short update as to how things have been going this year!  God has blessed, we have been very busy and with not quite half of the year gone we have already done meetings in Texas, Arizona, Missouri, Arkansas and of course Oklahoma.   In the next few months we will be in Idaho, Colorado, Kansas, then back to Texas, Arizona, Missouri as well as Oklahoma!  God has blessed with decisions for salvation, recommitments, baptisms, prayer and church memberships.  We have been pleased with the turnout at the meetings, and in many cases the turnout has doubled from the first service to later services in the meeting!  It appears many people are over the COVID deal and are ready to get back in church!  

There has been some difficulties with weather, in the form of high winds, cold temps, and of course much rain;  rain and more rain!  In all, considering those things, it has been very good!   As always we thank the team members we work with, they are great, always do a fantastic job and are very valuable to the outcome of the meetings.  Those couples who have been helping Mary and I are J.D and Lucinda Couch, Bob and Donna Whitchurch, Jeff and Donna Gore.  Thanks to all of them for a job well done!

As the times get more difficult due to our age, weather, and more directly, the spiritual condition of our nation, we continue to seek God's help and direction in what to do in the future.  For sure the tent meetings are always good, bring more attendees, but are much harder to do.   With our teams helping us with the set up, take down, music, meals and other things we find our selves more indebted to them each year.  Believe me, we just do not drive up to the church walk in, sit down and do nothing until it is our time to minister.  There are hours and hours of preparation and work going into each meeting. With tent meetings, we normally have to arrive a day  before the meeting starts and leave the day after the meeting  ends.   Sometimes, we just do not have much time between meetings.   The commitment our teams make to serve the Lord is to be commended and applauded. We thank them for the sacrifices they make to minister!  May the Lord bless each of them!

If there are any pastors considering using our team this coming year, we would suggest you book us early so we can do the best we can to get the dates you would like.  With tent meetings the spring and fall dates go fast!  We have already had several churches and pastors tell us they want us in 2022, so since we schedule on a first confirmed bases, it would be good to contact us as soon as possible and get the dates confirmed.

In closing, Mary and I pray for all of you who are praying for us, supporting the work and providing the love, care and means to help us continue to minister.  Our special thanks to our home church, First Baptist of Nowata, Oklahoma and our pastor Wayne Clayton for the encouragement, support and prayers given to SCM!

Hope to see you soon!   

Steve and Mary