On Saturday morning I flew from Belfast International Airport to Cardiff city airport. I flew with BMI Baby. Surprisingly the plane was quite untidy, EasyJet are normally very good at getting the planes turned around between flights. Anyway, the flight only lasted about 45 minutes and on arriving Christian Jones collected me from the airport. We drove up to Ynyshir which is in the Rhonda Valley. It is a really beautiful place and well worth a visit!
Christian is Pastor Paul Jone's younger brother. On the drive home from the airport we had a good time talking about God's Word and aspects of ministry. Later that day I met his fiancee and some of his family. They were all very welcoming, very kind and good people. You can tell a lot about a family when their first questions are around how you were saved. This family did just that and we had a good afternoon talking about the Lord.
In the evening Pastor Paul showed me Bethany Baptist Church and then we went to a youth meeting. I played a game of pool with Pastor Paul which was a lot of fun… I won!
The next morning I was collected by Pastor Chris Bluto and I went and preached for him in their first mission's conference. Similarily to us they meet in rented accommodation. Pastor Chris and Mrs. Meg were very friendly and I enjoyed meeting them. I enjoyed the opportunity given in the service for people to share how the Lord had worked in their lives that week. It is perhaps something I will start doing at Faith.
The Bluto's have two missionary families with them at the moment. Rob and Barb and Mike and Melanie. It was great to meet them all and I hope to see them all again and stay in contact. They are doing a good work for the Lord and I am sure He will bless them all.
During the message I gave a clear Gospel presentation and, praise God, after the service a young man made a profession! He is 15 years old and had attended the church there for a while. He had often asked questions about salvation but on Sunday morning he took that step of faith and trusted the Lord!
After the service we all went out for lunch at a local restaurant. It was a good time of food and fellowship!
In the evening I was with Pastor Jones in Bethany Baptist. In the morning and evening I felt great freedom to preach and I know it was because of the Lord! God was gracious and enabled me and empowered me to preach His Word to His people!
After the service they had tea and coffee. It was a good opportunity to meet some of the people. It was an encouraging and uplifting time.
Through Pastor Jones I have found out about a group called HELP Ministries. It may be that they can assist me in getting some meetings in the US to raise support. God willing I will contact them today. The Jones family were great to meet and get to know over the weekend. I thank the Lord for them and pray the Lord will bless their ministry.
Arriving home yesterday Derek (our treasurer) collected me from the airport. He had some very good news regarding Faith Baptist here in Newtownabbey… but that will have to wait until next week to be announced.
God has been good to us and we praise Him!
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