It has been a busy spring for us, as we had four Missions Conferences in six weeks in four different states! Our first Missions Conference was at First Baptist Church of Hammond, Indiana, the last week of March. It was there that I got to experience two personal highlights of my missionary life: I got to speak on the radio station with Pastor John Wilkerson and Dr. Don Sisk, and I got to speak for a few minutes in Hyles-Anderson College chapel. We were so blessed and overwhelmed by the very kind and giving spirit of the people. One such example is the young couple that hosted us at their house; they gave us the key to their house and told us to keep it so that we could stay at their house whenever we passed through the area or needed a place to stay.
Just three days after that, we were at our second Missions Conference in Fort Worth, Texas. While there, we got to see four other missionary families that are friends of ours, and most of them had been with us in past Missions Conferences! It’s always great to see familiar faces and to know that we have friends who are on the deputation trail just like us.
From there, we went all the way to California for our third Missions Conference near the end of April. Before that, though, we made it just in time to Southern California to spend Easter with my sister’s family, where her husband pastors a church. My brother-in-law and I spent an entire afternoon together passing out 600 Easter Sunday invitations. Praise the Lord, He blessed our efforts, as my brother-in-law’s church had their highest record attendance in their 10-year history with 136! Some more great news is that First Bible Baptist Church in Bakersfield, California, where we had our third Missions Conference, has already started supporting us!
After California, we went back to the Midwest, where we had our fourth Missions Conference in Missouri during the first week of May. It has been tiring, driving and traveling all those miles, but each church and Missions Conference that we have been in has been such an encouragement and blessing to us as we get closer and closer to finishing our deputation.
Let us not be weary in well doing,
Ian and Czarinna Vincent