12.19.08
Posted in Country, Family at 10:01 pm by Administrator
In the upcoming Congress we will likely see a concerted effort to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in order to bring the United States into compliance with international law as it pertains to “children’s rights”.
This week Owen has gotten two spankings. They weren’t horrid and frightful events. They were necessary exercises of correction. Such occurences are more common than I’d like (Owen is a bit stronger-willed than my other two have been), but they are not tramatic and they are not abusive. If the CRC is ratified I would likely lose this reasonable right, and my disciplinary methods would be subject to the scrutiny of foreign humanists.
Earlier this week Kelly had to reprove Taylor for going further away from the house than she was comfortable with, without mentioning to her where he would be playing. Under the UN policy that will be under consideration by our own governmental leaders, Taylor could potentially appeal to the government for a review of the unfavorable (in his own mind) decision that his mother made.
Noah has been told twice today that he may not play an educational game on the computer that he had asked about. Under the CRC this could be a violation of his right to leisure (no I’m not kidding), and if believed by a social worker to be in Noah’s best interest, my decision may be overridden to allow him to play the game (after all, it was educational).
All of this sounds insane, and it is. Someone has said, “Truth is always scarier than fiction” and this latest effort by the one-worlders is nothing less than frightening. It could mean the end of our right to home-educate, and it could ultimately mean the end of our rights as parents to provide religious instruction to our children based on our own Biblical convictions.
As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths. Isaiah 3:12
According to Edward Gibbon in his Magnus Opus, The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire, the number one reason for the fall of Rome was the undermining of the home which is the basis of the rest of society. I’m upset about the coldblooded murder of unborn children. I’m disgusted by the disregard for traditional marriage and the acceptance of homosexuality. I’m saddened by the rampant rate of divorce in our country. I’m most of all disappointed by the spiritual decline of the church. When you consider all of that, the only thing this country has going for it is a handful of Christians still raising their children according to Bible prinicples. When that “right” is taken away, where does that leave a nation?
In the Bible the parents are the one’s with the rights. Children have the right to live a long life if they obey their parents (Eph 6:1-3).
If you’re curious abou the Convention on the Rights of the Child you can “google” it or visit .
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12.13.08
Posted in Family, Missions at 3:22 am by Administrator
By the grace of God, I am back in Brewton and happy to be with my family again. My internet access has been extremely limited for the past week so I haven’t been able to give much update on the happenings in Africa. Our trip to Zambia was an overall success. We departed from the Copperbelt Province on Monday, and thus concluded our stay at Kafulafuta and the ministry leg of our trip (or so we thought). The flight to Livingstone was very late (nobody gets in a hurry in Zambia), but we made it to the Southern Province without incident and were met by a very gracious, very patient missionary named Joe Haden. Joe and his wife Tammy have been in Livingstone for four years and permitted us to stay in their guest house (not to mention fed us several meals, and carted us around the city) at no cost. We had a great visit in Livingstone including visits to Victory Falls, and a National Park to see the animals, and a White-water rafting trip down the Zambizi River. It was a great time for Dad and me. I also got the unexpected opportunity to preach on Wednesday night to preach at the Livingstone Fundamental Baptist Church where two young men were saved and baptized! There’s much more to tell and I’m looking forward to sharing the trip testimony to the church very soon. Perhaps the most wonderful sight of the trip was my family waiting for me in the Pensacola Airport. Two weeks is a long time you know. On a personal note, my sweet wife, after God has blessed her dress-making endeavor went out and bought me a recliner (something I’ve wanted for a long time) while I was gone and had it delivered all with her own money. How industrious this little lady has gotten to be! We’ve tremendously enjoyed our day together as a family and I’m looking forward to the Christmas Parade Outreach tomorrow.
Scroll down for more trip pics
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12.07.08
Posted in Missions at 2:06 pm by Administrator
It’s been another good day for us here in Zambia. This morning Dad taught Sunday School to over 50 children (Ages 1-16 years!). He taught on the life of Joseph and had one of the boys draw the story on a dry-erase board. He did a good job (Dad and the little boy). Church was pretty well attended. This is the mission church that we ministered at today, Kafulafuta Bible Baptist Church. The music was… interesting. They had a youth choir, a ladies choir, and a men’s group. They had a regular offering and what they called a Pastor’s basket where church members bring something just for the Pastor (money, fruit, etc.). There was a strange emphasis on money (at least there was in my estimation). I preached on the Judgment Seat of Christ. We had lunch at the Pastor’s home and it was actually very good. We had some good fellowship with Bro. John in the afternoon and then Lorna fed everybody a Lasagna fiest. It was out of this world.
I have learned more about missions (and Kafulafuta) over the course of this trip than I could reasonably include on this blog, but I’m looking forward to being home to share it with the church. And most of all I can’t wait to see Kelly and the boys. Our phone conversations have had to be very sparse since being here.
Today wrapped up the ministry portion of our trip. Tomorrow we fly to Livingstone for three days of leisure and sight-seeing. Thankfully it has worked out for us to stay in a Missionary’s guesthouse in Livingstone. We’ll fly toward the states on Thursday and arrive in Pensacola some time Friday morning. I’m looking forward to seeing the float on Saturday and passing out some tracts (if I can still stand up!).
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12.06.08
Posted in Missions at 1:14 pm by Administrator
Greetings again from Zambia. We completed our Pastor’s Refresher Course yesterday morning. We took about two and a half hours to cover Luke 9:23 and the Essential Components of Discipleship. It was a great study and a good close to the course. The Refresher Course, without question, has been the highlight of the trip for me. God prepared hearts, worked out the timing, and permitted us to deal with some Biblical material that seemed very relevant and needful to these national Pastors. I praise the Lord for it. Friday afternoon was an opportunity to rest and prepare for today. This morning was the Graduation Ceremony. There were three ladies that had completed courses of study with Lorna, and five men that graduated from the Bible Institute. The Valedictorian preached a message on our lives being an epistle from 2 Corinthians 3. I preached from 2 Timothy 2 on being a Good Soldier and a young Pastor named Barry Katongo preached a tremendous message from 2 Timothy 4 on Paul’s charge to Timothy. It was a good time. Today, believe it or not, is the first time that we’ve had “genuine” African cuisine, and we ate with our fingers. It was an experience. Tomorrow Dad will be teaching a children’s Sunday School Class and I’ll be preaching. My voice is really exhausted, but I’m sure I’ll get one more message out of it. Be sure to scroll down and check out some new pictures from previous days.
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12.04.08
Posted in Missions at 1:59 pm by Administrator
We had another tremendous day of teaching in the Refresher Course. We completed our study today of Spiritual Growth and Maturity. The Holy Spirit sort of drew out some important issues that really needed to be dealt with authoritatively from the Bible. And the Lord has given me the liberty to deal with those things. I may have mentioned previously that there was some controversy regarding the role of committees among the churches here. Not committees in the sense that we’re familiar with, but groups of Pastors that help different churches with matters of discipline and for ordination purposes, etc. I took the third hour of teaching this morning to address the matter from the Bible and the Lord seemed to use it in a very positive way. We had more tremendous questions. The question and answer time of each session has been the best part. Minus the great swelling words, suffice to say that it became very clear over the course of the day that I am here in Zambia by the Lord’s will. I have had perfect liberty in all of my teaching (strangely enough most sessions none of the missionaries even sat in on the teaching!). When I was invited to come no one from this ministry had every heard me teach, preach, or even met me in person. I know. It doesn’t seem right. But apparently it was of the Lord. If they had known my age I don’t expect I would have ever been invited. In Zambia you aren’t a man until around age 35. Can you believe it! It seems like this has helped some of these young men to learn to let no man despise their youth, and hopefully it has helped to break some of the prejudice among some of the older men. Dr. Sarra preached tonight and he did a terrific job. It was a good day here. Tomorrow is the last morning of teaching and then on Saturday is the graduation. Continue to pray for us. By the way, we distributed over 250 ties today to over 60 pastors and they were thrilled. Thank you for helping out with this. We’ll have lots of pictures when we return.
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12.03.08
Posted in Missions at 2:41 pm by Administrator
Pastor Sety Recieves His Books
We had another fruitful day in Zambia. Dad was blessed today to travel to nearby Kitwe and visit a Pregnancy Center and Orphanage that he became familiar with back home. He seemed to enjoy the visit. I had another great day teaching and preaching. I continued the theme of Spiritual Growth and Development in the morning session. Somehow the subject of church discipline came up and there was a lot of interest in that issue. Apparently they have committees here made up of Pastors that some how help hold the churches accountable (or something like that?). Any way it was sort of hot button, but it provided a chance to discuss local church autonomy. There have wound up being about 54 pastors for the course (at last count). In the afternoon I taught for two hours on the Biblical Doctrine of Tongues. You won’t be surprised that heresy is found in Africa as well. It went quite well and we had some great questions. It was supposed to end at 4:00 and I didn’t get out of there until nearly 5:00 PM. Its been a lot of fun. I heard from Kelly and the boys today, which was very refreshing. Taylor is quite proud that he has a loose tooth.
Dr. Sarra has been very sick the whole time we have been here. Please pray for him. He was unable to preach tonight, so I preached in his place on the Courage to Try Again. It was received well. Its the second night with attentive hearts and full altars. Tomorrow is the last full day of Refresher Course and I’m looking forward to it.
In another note from Zambia, Pastor Sety got some bad news since we’ve been here. It has rained off and on (the rainy season just began). Apparently their church building back in Kabwe collapsed in one of the storms. You can pray for them as well.
I miss you all and thank you for your prayers for us. I’ll try to update things again tomorrow night.
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12.02.08
Posted in Missions at 1:59 pm by Administrator
Well I’ve had a bit of “technical difficulty” since being in South Africa. I just realized that my blog from Sunday morning didn’t publish. Sorry about that. They just got the internet operable here at the Kafulafuta Baptist Mission. I’ll try to bring you up to speed without being to lenghthy.
Sunday at the Mine Church with the Dobbins Family was a great blessing. It was a thrill getting to see Mike Dobbins conduct a Bible Study in the native tongue of Bemba. Sunday School was held in a school building and at the close the whole church marched over to the new church building singing as they went. The church building has turned out very well. I’ll have pictures when I return. We did a ribbon cutting and then had service. I preached from 2 Kings 4 and it seemed to go very well. After lunch we met Kevin Pestke and made our way to Kafulafuta. Sunday afternoon allowed us time to meet everyone and fellowship with the Sarra’s for a while. Monday wound up being a day off. It was good to get the rest. We didn’t have preaching on Monday night. I did get to meet Pastor Sety and give him his books. He was elated.
It is about 10 PM here (Eight hours ahead of CST). It has been a long but prosperous day. I taught from around 9 am to after Noon on Spiritual growth and maturity. I dealt with the subject of baptism for the afternoon subject (2-4). It seemed to go well. There were some great questions asked and I certainly had a lot of fun. After supper we had church and I preached on Looking Unto Jesus. There was good liberty and a good response to the word of God. Dad has been a real blessing helping out in every way that he can. We’ve enjoyed our time together. I suppose we were relatively prepared to “rough it”, but that hasn’t been the case. We’re staying in a nice home with the Sarra’s and everyday has had a terrific home cooked meal. We’ve had a great time so far and I’ve learned alot about Africa, Missions, and Kafulafuta. Continue to pray for us as we have a lot of teaching and preaching left. God bless you and we miss you.
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Posted in Missions at 1:48 pm by Administrator
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The Dobbins Family
We had an uneventful trip from Joburg to Ndola and then driving to Chingola. On the way to Chingola we got to see the main church over here and meet the Pastor Ophi Phiri. The Dobbins have a great work here. We stayed at a very nice guesthouse. We had a terrific visit with Mike and Lattisha Dobbins and their children. They fed us a terrific meal of chicken and rice (not to mention sweet tea, praise the Lord). We had a great time of fellowship and went back to the guesthouse around 9:00 PM. I got about 4 hours of sleep maybe last night. That’s about ten hours in the last three nights. I hope it doesn’t catch up! We are about to head to church to preach at the first meeting
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