Last week, I was away at Heartland, giving our $250 to church planters from all over America. If you gave even $.25 in one of our offerings, you had a part in helping these churches get started. Praise God! Here are the men we helped, giving each one either $20 or $40:
Charles Hamilton–King James Bible Baptist Church in Greenville, Mississippi. He’s planting a church in the poorest state in America, in the delta of the Mississippi River—the poorest part of the state! He preached a phenomenal message on Tuesday night.
Burton Gates–Liberty Baptist Church in downtown Philadelphia. He is planting another church a couple miles down the road and will pastor both until God calls another man to pastor the new church. There are 40,000 people living between his church and the new one he’ll be planting (only a couple miles away!)
Anthony Rudolph–Anchored Hope Baptist Church in Lima, OH. This man had an incredible testimony (saved in jail) and was raising money to start a church to reach primarily African Americans.
Rafael Soto–Kai Point Baptist Church in Hawaii Kai, HI. He was raised in Hawaii and is returning to plant a church among the 60% atheist region.
Clint Minnick–Freedom Baptist Church in 29 Palms, CA. He took over a tiny church last year (basically a church plant), and has been working hard to reach the Air Force base close to his church. He grew up at Lighthouse Baptist in LaVerne, and he and I used to go to summer camp together before we ended up at Heartland together.
Jason Bearup–Solid Rock Baptist Church in Glendale, AZ. This guy moved his family from cold Michigan to warm Arizona to plant a church in a rapidly growing area. Along the way, his 4 or 5 year old child got cancer and passed away. He did not quit on God or the ministry, and has continued planting the church for God’s glory.
Michael Britt–Topsham Baptist Church in Topsham, Maine. He and I went to college together, and he was an interesting character, to say the least. He always had a heart for God and used his personality as a crazy tool to serve God. He was a youth pastor for several years until God called him to plant this church.
Jack Lamb–We’ve supported Bro. Lamb before, and now they’ve grown enough to bring people to the Preaching Rally this year! They are making improvements to their new building, and we were able to help them (Anchor Baptist in West Covina, CA).
As you can see, I ran out of money quickly! If you could have been
there to see it, you would have wanted to give everything you had away (like Alisha said in her testimony last Sunday). It was an incredible conference. I hope you can go next year!
-Br. Ryan