capitol city

well i've moved again!! this time to calvary baptist in helena. we are now staying with the pastor and his wife and little girl, Chesed (Kes-ed, its hebrew or greek) in their basement. its great because the house doesn't have central heat and air so its always at least 10 degrees cooler down here than it is on the first floor, so we try and get the basement anytime we can!! calvary baptist is the first southern baptist church established in helena and just celebrated its 50th anniversary. it was pretty neat because on sunday morning there were some visitors and we found out that they were from georgia and that their mother and father were some of the charter members of the church. so it was kinda fun to get to meet them. Calvary is an interesting church because about 5 years or so ago they went through a rough situation with a pastor and their doors nearly closed. I am not sure of the entire situation, but it had something to do with the childrens ministry and lack of supervision at certain times during their activities. the church drastically decreased and the children's ministry practically ceased to exist for a while. three years ago (the year before Mr. Mike became pastor) a team from tennessee came to do the vbs. they passed out over 500 flyers and not a single child showed up the entire week. the year after that there were 5 children in vbs. last year the number of kids doubled to 10. this year we had 13 come. I think it is great that the church is beginning to shows signs of growth, but they still have a long way to go. the community around them is very hard and unreceptive at times. today we were able to go out into the community to go door to door and pick up food for a food drive we were doing in partnership with the food bank in town. flyers had been previously passed out saying that the food could just be left on the porch and we would pick it up. as we went from house to house we found that very few had actually done that, so we knocked on their doors and if someone was home we asked them to donate and then if we could give them a copy of a new testament. There were a good many houses that had no one home, and several houses that were unwilling to donate. ally and i didn't experience it as much as some of the others but, there were a couple of instances where doors were slammed in their faces because they identified themselves as a being with a baptist church. last year they were only able to give out approximately 10 bibles, this year i gave out 7 and we totaled over 20. this year was successful in that respect and we pray that it won't be thrown away or left to collect dust, but that someone will pick it up searching for a hope that they have never had. I think overall it was a pleasant experience. I thank God for giving me a willing spirit to do the task today. going door to door asking for things is definitely not my favorite thing to do, but today i never thought twice about it. it never felt like a burden and i never felt scared of what the person on the other side of the door my ask or say to me. I thank God so much for giving me that peace and strength and for allowing me to serve with a joyful spirit.

last friday ally and i spent the day on the town. we ate lunch did a little shopping, went and saw a movie and even went to a johnny cash concert. it was a nice day to be able to see the sights of helena even though they were few and far between!

i wanted to share with you about the message we heard sunday morning. there was a missionary family, the cullens', who travel full-time around the US sharing the message of the sanctity of human life. they shared with us so many amazing facts. it just blows my mind how people can't understand what they allow to happen to these innocent babies. the abortion industry is focused solely on making money. most times they sell the aborted babies body parts to other companies, and they use them to make certain products. A lot of MMR shots are made using aborted baby tissue so they suggested speaking to your doctor to make sure your child isn't getting shots that are made in that manner. also a lot of cosmetic products will use collagen ingredients that are derived from aborted babies. it is such a money making market from all aspects. i never would have dreamed that the abortion "industry" is tied to so much and the average american doesn't realize it either. I challenge you to research these things about abortion and begin to take stands so that maybe we can impact those companies that side with this wicked act. sorry, it got a little gory but i think its horrible that we are still allowing this to happen in America. I know its not like there isn't anyone working on banning it, but why doesn't the average american really know what goes on with all of this???!!! maybe they do, and maybe its just me thats a little behind....but some of the things he said sunday made me flat out mad!!!!!

continue to pray for calvary baptist that they would see growth in the church as well as the softening of hearts in the community around them.

deer that stayed in the playground at south hills baptist all day long. thats the interstate behind them. the one closest to the front was a little buck.

south hills vbs family night

south hills baptist church in montana city. i am pretty sure that they said a team from mississippi came up to help them build this building.

craft time at calvary vbs

mural i helped put finishing touches on at calvary

calvary baptist church