The Lord has blessed us with many miracles of blessing and fruit as we seek to continue to serve Him faithfully into this new year of 2022! Our theme this year of 2022 is John 20:22, “. . . Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” We have been teaching and preaching with emphasis on the Holy Spirit Who lives within us as believers and wants to greater empower us to Christian service and the winning of souls!
One blessed miracle was the visit of a new family on the last Sunday of the year. During the fellowshipping after the service, the husband Ed told me, “Pastor, I am a lost soul!” We made an appointment for that Friday following, which was the last day of the year. We started our appointment with Luke 19:10, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Praise the Lord, Ed got saved! He once was lost but now is found! He got baptized the next Sunday.
Another great miracle was the salvation of the husband of one of our dear ladies, who professed himself to be an Atheist. His wife began to attend our church at the end of August. She is a faithful Christian who loves the Lord; her husband, however, had no interest in God. After some time of her faithfully coming to church with her kids, her husband decided to come with her once on our anniversary Sunday in mid-October. Thereafter, he came a couple more times sporadically. Mid-November, he went out on his own and bought himself a King James Bible! One day while making a visit to him and his family, I told him, “Luc, I don’t know if you would be willing or not, but I just want to let you know that I would be happy to have some Bible studies with you if you would like to do so.” He said he would think about it and let me know. He came to our Christmas Eve Candlelight Service, and at the end of the service, he told me, “In the new year, I will take you up on those Bible studies! On January 3, he met me at the church—he said he wanted it to be more official. Our first Bible study was on “Understanding Salvation,” and there in my office, the Atheist became a born-again believer! (Luc’s picture is the third picture below.)
Another great miracle started out as a misery! We ended up with a furnace mishap that could have resulted in serious problems with carbon monoxide. It was determined that the old furnace and water heater needed to be replaced! The next day, two workers came to do the installation. When one of the workers had to go out for a while, I got the opportunity to witness to a young man named Jimmy while we worked together cleaning up the furnace room while the old furnace was out. Praise God, the emergency furnace replacement led to a soul being saved! All things work together for good. (Jimmy’s pictures is the final picture below.)
But the story goes on! The day after the installation, I went by the shop office to thank them for such a fast and good job of getting the work done and then to speak with them about how we could set up some kind of payments for this unexpected and large expense. There in the shop office, I was told these words: “You will not be able to make payments . . . because it has been decided that we will DONATE the furnace, water heater, and installation to the church!” Wow! Our Jehovah-Jireh God provided far above and beyond our hope and prayers. This was approximately a $4,000 furnace and a $1,500 water heater, plus all the labour to install them. To God be all the glory!
But the story is still not done! I later had the opportunity to meet Jimmy’s parents, as I followed up on him at his home, and there his dad and mom trusted Christ in their home. A week later, I was able to lead his 12-year-old sister to Christ over a video chat while they were all sick at home!
Thank you for your faithful prayers and support.
Serving a God of miracles,
The Phil Powless Family
Galatians 6:9
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- Jimmy, one of the men who replaced our furnace and water heater, got saved!
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- Ed got saved!
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- Luc, the Athiest, got saved!
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- Ed got baptized!
