“And he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while . . . .” (Mark 6:31) July was this type of month for us. After six straight months of hard travel, we spent some time at home, resting from travel. Sometimes we spend so much time in our car that we begin to think of it as our house! To say that getting to spend some time in North Carolina, not traveling 600 miles a week, was a great help to us is an understatement. Though July was a restful month as far as traveling goes, we stayed busy with scheduling meetings, dropping into new churches in our area, and soul winning. We rejoice that this past month, I was able to fill out our schedule with more meetings, even filling much of August, which, as you may remember, was the pesky month that I couldn’t seem to fill.
July is always a memorable month for many reasons, but the thing I most look forward to is our anniversary. This year Liz and I celebrated 10 years of marriage! In the past we’ve just incorporated where we celebrated our anniversary into wherever we happened to be in our travels, but because we were actually home this time, we felt like we were actually getting away. We spent a wonderful day and a half in Mount Airy, North Carolina, otherwise known as Mayberry, North Carolina, the home of Andy Griffith. We look forward to the next 10 years of marriage and beyond as we serve the Lord in Toronto, Canada.
We did have a couple of meetings at the end of July that, though few in number, were great in quality and a benefit for us. We first went to Grace Baptist Church in Goldsboro, North Carolina, with Pastor Jason Stoeber. We arrived a day early to go out soul winning; we got to knock several doors and invite several new people not only to visit the church but also to receive Christ as Saviour. We greatly enjoyed the spirit that this church has for serving the Lord and making Jesus known to their area and the world. I got to preach and present our work in the Sunday morning service. That evening we went to Five Forks Baptist Church in Hillsborough, North Carolina, with Pastor Austin Brown. I presented our work that evening; and, to our surprise, they voted on bringing us on for support that very night. The streak continues! The good news gets even better: we got word that two other churches that we visited over a year ago also took us on for support. The new support that these three churches add brings our support up by a little over 4%.
Please pray for us as we begin traveling again from August through the end of November. We won’t see home again for four months. Our schedule is packed and even a little hectic, but the Lord can bring us through it. Pray that much support is raised during this time.
Pressing toward the mark,
Brian Hebert