Deputation is many things, but boring is not one of them! In the two months since our last prayer, we have driven nearly 9,000 miles, traveling from Ohio to California to Florida. We visited the Grand Canyon (nobody fell in), enjoyed driving in Los Angeles and San Francisco, nearly ran out of gas in the middle of an Arizona desert, and missed an ugly car wreck by mere inches. We saw the Ozarks in Missouri, the plains of Texas, and the traffic of Southern California, all with a six-year-old, a four-year-old, and a newborn in the back seat. No, deputation is never boring! Thank you so much to those of you who faithfully pray for us. I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, that your prayers do make a difference. Allow me to share a few of the highlights of the last couple of months.
Soul Winning on the Go
God has really blessed our soul-winning efforts over the last two months. Since our last letter, God has used Ruth and me to lead 18 people to Christ, including a 29-year-old Mormon man in Mesa, Arizona, and a 40-year-old Cebuano-speaking Filipino in Shreveport, Louisiana. Soul Winning Still Works!
Deputation Progress
God has also blessed our deputation on a very practical level; since our last letter, seven new churches have taken us on for support, and several others have promised to begin supporting us in the near future. With the recent surge, we are currently receiving about 72% of the support we will need to go home to the Philippines. We were hoping to be back on the field by next March, but it is starting to look like it will be sometime next summer. Please pray that God would continue to bless our scheduling. I am so ready to go home!
Delayed Dividends
Sometime this past spring, a story began to unfold that I just have to share with you all. Back in March or April of this year, a man by the name of Ralph Duhig walked into International Baptist Church at Dumaguete. He said that he had been led to Christ way back in 2013 by a Cebuano-speaking American named Mike. (That would be me. There aren’t too many Cebuano-speaking Americans named Mike who go soul winning in Dumaguete.) As I understand the story, Ralph said that he used to be a strong Catholic, but over the three years following his salvation, he began reading the Bible and realized that the Baptists were right. Ralph and his family have now become faithful members of IBC, and on September 24, Ralph led his first soul to Christ! I’ll be honest; I don’t remember when or where I led Ralph to Christ, but I received the following message from Ralph just last night: “Hi, Good day,Bro. Mike. My name is Ralph from Dumaguete, Well, I just want to say thank you very much for witnessing to me back in 2013. I wish I could thank you in person, but, yeah Thank you, I really appreciate that and am very grateful for what you’ve done. Again thank you and God Bless.” We don’t always know what God is doing, but God is always doing something. If we will just be faithful, we will always see God’s blessing in the end. Serving God is always worth it!
Follow Us on Facebook
We now have a Facebook page, which is allowing us to stay much better connected with many of the good friends we’ve made as we have traveled on deputation. You can visit our page at fb.com/morrisseymissions.
Dividends on Your Investment and . . .The Case of the Missing Sweaters
It was a dark and cloudy night in the heart of New York City. Okay, it was actually a sunny afternoon at the park in Yuba City, California, but that just doesn’t sound as exciting!
We were staying in a prophet’s chamber for a few days, so I decided to take my two older children, Beth and Michael, to the park while Ruth was dealing with our laundry at a nearby Laundromat. When we arrived at the park, the public high school was just letting out. I watched in frustration as dozens of teenagers walked past the park, just beyond my reach. Without Ruth to watch the kids, I wasn’t going anywhere. I sat down on the bench, pulled out my phone, and started working on my Tagalog vocabulary. A few minutes into my boring studies, I heard Beth’s voice and looked up. There was my six-year-old daughter, chasing a young man riding across the park on a skateboard. I jumped up just as the man stopped and turned around to see who was chasing him. I walked up, introduced myself, and learned the man’s name was Carlos. He was 20 years old and very open to the Gospel. If you follow us on Facebook, you might have seen his picture. Halfway through my Gospel presentation, Beth ran back up and asked for my cellphone so she could take of picture of me witnessing to Carlos. He didn’t seem to mind, so I gave her my phone, and she went to work, as I went back to giving the Gospel. When it was all said and done, Carlos got saved, and I got a new ministry photographer.
A few minutes later, I packed up the kids and went back to pick up Ruth from the Laundromat. From there, we headed back to the prophet’s chamber. Shortly after our return, my conscientious wife noticed that neither of our children were wearing the sweaters that they had when their less-than-conscientious father took them to the park. I must admit that I was not at all happy with this new development. Solving “The Case of the Missing Sweaters” was not part of my plan for the day! After soundly scolding my children for THEIR carelessness, I walked back out to the van and drove back to the park, feeling all the emotions of frustration and annoyance that you would expect to accompany such a waste of valuable time.
When I arrived back at the park, I was able to quickly find both the sweaters. They were precisely where my children had flung them in the midst of their riotous play, and right next to the sweaters stood another young man whose name turned out to be Cole. He was 18 years old and also very open to the Gospel. I offered him a tract and proceeded to give him the Gospel. About a half an hour later, Cole bowed his head and put his trust in Jesus Christ alone for his salvation. I found the sweaters, and another young man found eternal life through Jesus Christ!
Just another mystery solved on the deputation trail.
Yours for souls,
Mike Morrissey
