When I arrived back from Argentina, Linda and I packed for a series of preaching engagements in Michigan. We started with going to Standish for the weekend of September 23. We were with Pastor Wiergowski at the Faith Baptist Church. Sometimes people ask me about the dangers involved in traveling to different countries. Those dangers include the possibility of getting sick from the food or from insects. Well, some of those dangers are here in the United States as well. Such was the case in my trip to Standish. After eating at a restaurant on Saturday evening, I woke at 2:30 on Sunday morning, sick with food poisoning. In spite of my sickness, I was able to preach both services on Sunday. Thankfully, I was able to rest most of Monday and Tuesday, so I was close to 100% by the time I preached Tuesday and Wednesday night in Maple Rapids for Pastor Lang at the Hope Bible Baptist Church. We then proceeded to Saginaw, where I preached all day on Sunday. Pastor Jurva of the Sheridan Road Baptist Church had me come to preach on missions in preparation for their conference, which was to start on Wednesday.
After a few days back in Iowa, we took off for Columbia, Missouri, where I preached for Pastor Crumly at the Victory Baptist Church. I have had the privilege to preach for Pastor Crumly 14 of the past 16 years for their Missions-Emphasis Sunday. This involves a Saturday evening meal with a challenge and, normally, preaching all day Sunday. I know at least one person was dealt with about salvation. This year I had meetings in Indiana, so we drove all Sunday afternoon to be in church at the First Baptist Church in Hammond, Indiana. I had six hours of meetings at the FBMI offices in Hammond and then drove home to prepare for my trip to Nigeria.
I flew into Port Harcourt, Nigeria, on October 12 to be with Missionary Dave Maskey and his family. I gave a challenge to the soul winners on Saturday. Brother Maskey and I picked up Adewale, a young preacher who was preaching with me for the Missions/Leadership Conference that started on Sunday. Sunday morning, 24 souls got saved, and 4 were baptized. Local pastors, along with some of their people, came to the services Monday through Wednesday. We had morning sessions for the ladies, laymen, and pastors on Tuesday and Wednesday and preaching services in the evenings. I had the privilege of preaching six times and teaching seven hours in the morning sessions. Pictured on the right are the pastors who came to the conference.
Thursday morning, Adewale and I flew to Lagos, where Tunde, a preacher I met many years ago, picked us up and drove us to Ibadan. During my time in Ibadan, I met individually with pastors whom I had preached for previously. Each of these men have been faithfully serving the Lord Jesus. I preached for Pastor Jide of the Independent Baptist Church all day Sunday and then preached his one-day Soul-Winning Conference on Tuesday. I cannot thank Tunde and Adewale enough; their efforts helped me so much during this trip. Both of these young men pictured here are powerful preachers and dear friends. Please pray for God’s power and my physical strength.
Missionary Evangelist James Belisle
