13-Year Anniversary!

Sunday, December 18, Bonnie and I plus our daughter Rebecca worshipped in the morning with the Old Union Church of Christ in Carroll County, MS. I remember back when I first visited the congregation years ago. I tried repeatedly to find its location on different occasions, only to return to the house after a fruitless search. Only when I found someone who had visited it before and knew where it was well enough to give me directions did we finally locate it. The meetinghouse for the Old Union Church of Christ is nestled in the woods, only visible after traversing ribbons of clay cutting through the pine forests and seas of kudzu; the building itself sits at the terminus of its own quarter mile long little dirt road. The clearing in which the church building sits is populated as well with a church family and community cemetery, grave markers ancient and modern. The Old Union Church of Christ is one of the oldest congregations in the State of Mississippi.

As always, this time too, we were greeted warmly, and I was permitted to update the brethren during the 9:30 a.m. Bible class about our 2011 mission trips with a PowerPoint presentation. During the worship hour, I exhorted the congregation respecting the necessity of having awe and reverential fear for God especially while worshipping. Members commended the lesson and noted that biblical material of this sort needs to be presented in every congregation throughout the land (really, throughout the world).The church was generous toward us financially regarding our mission work, for which we are sincerely thankful.

Sunday evening, the three of us assembled with the West President Church of Christ in Greenwood, MS. We usually convene with this congregation on Wednesday nights for Bible class. It was my pleasure to present again the PowerPoint Into All the World in 2011 about our mission work. Highlights of our recent 8-week mission trip to Myanmar (Burma), India and Sri Lanka included that combined Bonnie and I taught for nearly 200 hours to about 6,500 people; we taught Christians, Baptists, Christian Church, Methodists, Assembly of God, Buddhists, Hindus and Animists. Financial support from brethren in the States enabled us to leave funds in various nations for tens of thousands of tracts to be printed in eight foreign languages.

Any Church of Christ wishing to become better acquainted with our ministry of publishing Gospel literature and foreign missions may invite us to visit. We travel about 3,000 miles monthly by car in the United States and travel up to 50,000 miles annually by air abroad. I can be contacted at 662.739.3035 or rushmore@gospelgazette.com.

After returning home Sunday evening, from the comfort of our loveseat in the living room, I put the finishing touches on the December issue of Gospel Gazette Online (www.gospelgazette.com) and published it to the Internet. With this issue, we have completed 13 years of publication. Sometimes we wonder if it is making as much of an impact and is read as widely as necessary to warrant the time and expense. Then, someone corresponds with us to boost our morale and encourage us not to falter in its continued production. This resource remains free to users and in addition to each monthly edition, thousands of articles are archived, searchable with the site search engine. Give someone for whom you care a gift that will brighten their days and point them toward the heavenly horizon.

Catching Up!

Catching up the blog – three weeks’ worth! Catching up with the workload awaiting our return to Winona, MS. Alas, though, catching up is not the same as caught up! I’m not sure I ever want to be caught up, for I might become bored too easily or feel unneeded.

November 27’s Sunday morning appointment was rescheduled the day before as Bonnie, Rebecca and I were en route from North Carolina to Mississippi; Robert Johnson from the 10^th Ave. Church of Christ in Columbus, MS bumped my Bible class and preaching back two weeks. I decided to take a hotel in Northport, AL, which would permit us to worship with the Northport Church of Christ that I had wanted to visit; we went as visitors, students to the Bible class and worshippers. We were edified in both circumstances, and we left some copies of The Voice of Truth International and Beverage Alcohol. I look forward to the possibility of speaking for the congregation at some future date, either about our mission work or biblical lessons.

Sunday evening, we kept my appointment with the Starkville, MS Church of Christ, whereupon I delivered my lesson What Is Jesus’ Plan for My Life? Bonnie set up a table of free materials (e.g., The Voice of Truth International and Beverage Alcohol) as well as books for sale. Afterward, we headed for Collierville, TN to take our daughter home, so she could teach school the next day. Later Monday, Bonnie and I arrived back in Winona, MS for the first time since September 29 when we left for Asia.

Thursday, we were out of the office again in Jackson, MS for dental cleanings. We left The Voice of Truth International and a couple of new titles there, along with two worn out suitcases, which will eventually make their final excursion out of the country carrying medical supplies – after which they will be discarded. Friday, I made a special PowerPoint presentation at Rebecca’s school about samples of culture in three Asian nations. (Each PowerPoint presentation and every lesson presented anywhere requires behind the scenes preparation, and I have spent many hours working on these PowerPoint and others lessons since our return to the USA.)

Sunday morning December 4, I presented the PowerPoint of our 2011 mission trips, Into All the World,  to the Collierville, TN Church of Christ for Bible class; during worship, I preached Worshipping Almighty God Acceptably and with Godly Fear. That evening, I showed Into All the World to the Elliott, MS Church of Christ. Three days that week I worked feverishly on producing the next issue of the Rushmore Newsletter, and we got it into the mail.

Saturday, a new Christian visited the office of World Evangelism in Winona, and we gave him the grand tour as well as provided him with his very own empty cardboard box – into which we invited him to place some books from our repository of good Christian literature. Madolyn and Gene Gibson operate a student center at Moorhead where they came in contact with the young man and taught him the Gospel of Christ.

Sunday morning December 11 was a short trip. We arose early enough to travel the hour and a half between Winona and Columbus, MS. It was my pleasure to present Into All the World during Bible class and preach Worshipping Almighty God Acceptably and with Godly Fear. After a quick lunch, Bonnie and I drove to the Florence Blvd. Church of Christ in Florence, AL for a meeting with its mission committee, followed by a special presentation via PowerPoint at the worship hour of our visit to foreign mission works in which the congregation has invested prayers, moral support and financial assistance. Afterward, we hooked up with Janet and Wayne Barrier who had been speaking at another congregation in the area, and we enjoyed a tasty meal at a restaurant Bonnie and I had not experienced previously. Then, there was the three plus hours drive back to Winona, arriving after midnight!

Over these three weeks, including today (Monday), packages were prepared and shipped to various locations through the States. Delivery vehicles from time to time brought us packing and office supplies, and one day we loaded a pallet of literature on a tractor trailer, which literature will eventually along with other pallets of literature awaiting this final pallet board an oceangoing ship destined for ports overseas; from there, the literature will make its way to non-Christians and Christians who have requested it. Besides this, many odds and ends in behind the scenes necessary work to the overall program of evangelism to which we devote ourselves required their share of attention.

It is fair to say that we are catching up, but it would be a serious overstatement to suggest that we have or are even close to being caught up. The December issue of Gospel Gazette Online has not been begun yet – late, late, late! I need to update the online book catalog of new titles available – and inactivate one or more titles that are now out-of-print. Oh, No! The next issue of The Voice of Truth International is supposed to go the printers the first week of January, and we are a long, long way from having it that far along. Phone calls and more phone calls I must make to schedule additional weekend appointments. Etc., etc., etc. I’m just glad that the solid bed of pine needles on the lawn and the cooler weather overrules the need to mow the grass (and equally delightful is that the Mississippi climate precludes the need to shovel the driveway).