“. . . he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? . . .” (Acts 10:4)
When an angel of the Lord appeared in his vision, Cornelius was terrified and eager to hear God’s bidding.
It was early Monday morning. As I was wrapping up some of my morning routines, I heard a calling at my gate. I wasn’t expecting anyone that morning, especially that early. Responding to the call, there was a security officer standing at the entrance to my house. I have seen him in the community before but never had the opportunity to talk to him; that made his visit very curious.
Horace had a somber look on his face as he told me of the dream he had just had a few hours before. He said that an angel of the Lord told him in the dream that he wasn’t saved and that he should find me so I could tell him what the Lord wanted him to do. With a very concerned look, he asked me, “What does the Lord want?” I felt very privi-leged that God would give me the opportunity to witness to him! He was curious, and his questions were very intelligent. After almost an hour of my trying to unravel some wrong, preconceived notions about the Gospel, Horace put his faith in Jesus Christ! His occupation, sincerity, encounter, and response reminded me of Cornelius.
MIDWEEK BIBLE STUDY
Several months ago, we began teaching through a discipleship program, published by our home church, in our mid-week Bible study. We were scheduled to be done with the series several weeks ago, but we haven’t finished yet. Each lesson in the series is designed for one session, but many times we had to break the lessons into three or four sessions! Folks have been very engaged. In fact, our midweek services have grown steadily in attendance to almost as strong as our Sunday morning services.
BUILDING PROJECT
We have faced some setbacks, causing delays with our construction project (Phase 1). However, we are very close to completion and are looking forward to having full use of it before the end of March. We are so thankful to all of you who have donated and/or prayed for this milestone in our ministry. We would like to say a special thanks to our sending church, First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, and Pastor John Wilkerson for their extreme generosity.
COVID
A few weeks ago, there was a surge of flu-like sickness that swept the island. Our government had informed us that COVID Omicron was on the rise and warned that the illness that was going around was very likely Omicron. It passed through our home and affected every member of our family. It seems to have left residual effects on us, but we are thankful, nonetheless, that that rough episode is finally over. God has been incredibly good to us!
One day as I was struggling with a fever of 105, one pastor contacted to let me know that he was praying for me. How thankful I am for him and for you, our praying friends, for supporting us in the varied ways that you have.
The Oral Anderson Family
