New births

Hoo, boy. I've been meaning to duck in here and post this for a while. During the revival while my sister was here, we had a number of young people attend services for the first time. The speaker was very good at drawing children and keeping their attention. Many of them made the decision to trust Christ as their Savior. Several of them continue to come out to the church, and we're continuing to do follow-up work, getting ready for baptisms, and talking to parents.

During the week, a young couple in the church also had their first child. (The father is the same young man who has decided he is being led to preach.) We'll be having a dedication for the baby this Sunday. The grandparents are just popping with pride. It's always neat to see new births of both sorts.

Sibling Solidarity

If solidarity refers to togetherness, we've got an unprecedented level of it here for a bit, I think.

One of my sisters has come down from Virginia to spend the next week with us. Of course, one of my brothers is here already, helping in the church. This means that three children from our family will be in the same place at the same time for more than a week. I can't even remember when the last time was that happened -- it's certainly been years, probably since I was in grad school and some of my siblings were in the undergrad program at the same school. Of course, we've still got a brother in Georgia, a brother in Mississippi, and a sister in Florida, but we'll take what we can get for now!

The occasion for my sister's visit is the combination of my daughter's birthday this weekend (my daughter positively adores both this brother and this sister of mine) and a revival at the church with Barry Webb. Brother Webb is known for his impressive puppetry when he works with the children, and my sister has done enough of the same that she hopes to pick up some ideas from him. Regardless of whether she learns to be a puppet master this week, though, I'm looking forward both to having her around and to the revival itself.

Answering the call

We're, of course, staying busy down here as the weather warms up. We finished up revival last week, I had a Sunday of my own preaching, and then we head back into revival with the Barry Webb family next week, Sunday through Friday.

On Sunday, though, a young man in the church announced that he was answering God's call to preach. He's got a tough row to hoe for a lot of reasons, but it's really neat to see a really transformed life stepping up to do something for God. Possibly more on him later.