BAYOU DuLARGE BAPTIST CHURCH
December 6, 2000
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
We praise God for your prayerful encouragement. The Lord is doing great things, and we are convinced He has much more planned!
| Yes, there
have been some disappointments and real struggles over these past few years,
but in spite of all that, our people are growing stronger in their purpose and
vision of God's will. The Lord continues to give our church members courage
and hope. The witness of our church is slowly regaining credibility among our
bayou people, for which we are very thankful to God. Full recognition of our
church by the LBC last year has helped to begin restoring our credibility
among Louisiana Baptists.
The charismatic group that had been installed in our building as a "Baptist" Mission has now been absorbed by another charismatic group which has its own building just down the bayou from us. Our building remains locked and empty, but we are hopeful that this will soon be cleared up. In the mean time, we are continuing in the Lord's work and meet in homes for Bible Study and Worship. |
|
|
|
God is also blessing the work of a church on another bayou just 15 miles across the marsh. Years ago, the Grand Calliou Baptist Church was a mission work sponsored by our church. They constituted in 1997 and have experienced tremendous growth. Many have been saved, and their church building is crowded with new people. Praise the Lord! They have already begun a new church building project in the Ashland area of Grand Calliou. Many more people live on Grand Calliou Bayou than over here on Bayou DuLarge, so the Grand Calliou Baptist Church is considering an expansion of their ministry to include both the established church and a new mission church. Their pastor, brother Marcell McGee, is a good friend of ours. He is doing a great work for the Lord over there. The members of our churches have long-standing ties of Christian fellowship. We are all very excited about what God is doing both here on Bayou DuLarge and across the marsh on Bayou Grand Calliou. Our family is growing! Jeremy and Nena have one baby already and another one on the way. Joshua is home from Africa right now. Joseph is working hard and really enjoying college. Joseph sees his time at college more in light of ministry and witness opportunities than purely as a means of academic pursuit. Cindy and I are doing OK. |
Our people have had good shrimp seasons this year and the oyster market is good right now. The fur market is still depressed, so more and more of our bayou folk are trying to find some sort of other work during the winter months. I am glad that winter is short here!
There are oranges, lemons, grapefruits, cumquats, and satsumas all over the place right now. Our young trees produced way more than we can use, so we have been giving them away. The weather has been pretty rough on our fall garden, but we have plenty put up from the spring. I've been putting a few redfish, speckled trout, and oysters in the freezer lately. We do eat well! Oh, and the goats are fine, for those of you who are animal lovers. We expect about 40 new kids between now and May.
Orange trees in our garden behind our empty church building |
First two kids of the season |
Please keep us in your prayers. We are excited to see some light at the end of what has seemed like a very long tunnel! We thank you for your faithfulness and partnership with us in God's work. Brothers and sisters in Christ,
"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers." Galatians 6:9-10