Fayetteville St. Baptist Church

This past week Liz and I enjoyed the privilege of participating in a mission conference at Fayetteville St. Baptist Church in Asheboro, NC. Prior to leaving for Asheboro, I learned that the city had incorporated on Christmas day in 1796! Both the city and the church have a long history in the area.

We arrived on Tuesday to take part in the services that evening and Wednesday evening. We were one of 5 or 6 missionaries brought in at different times of the week. We shared the Tuesday/Wednesday slot with the Price family, missionaries to Zambia. (Viviane loved Mrs. Price and spent all the time she could playing with her.) The first two days of the conference had been called of because of the ice, but by Tuesday the roads were clear enough to go on with the plans.

The pastor, Dr. Bruce Dickerson, showed us every consideration. He ate meals with us, housed us in the church's very comfortable mission house, spent time talking with us about the church, and went out of his way to make us feel welcome and esteemed for the Lord's sake.

We were more aware of the Lord's grace on this trip because Liz suffered from a bad sinus infection. Although she felt relatively well during the days, the pain was so severe at night that she was not able to get a good night's sleep from Sunday night through Wednesday night. Despite the sickness, the Lord enabled Liz to sing with me in both services and to exert the energy needed to visit with people before and after the services. We also thank the Lord for guiding us to a kind doctor who saw Liz as a walk-in and prescribed a course of medicine that seems to be working. Liz is feeling much better and slept through the night last night.

The services were well-attended and the people expressed love for us and interest in our mission. Michael gave a 12 minute presentation of our ministry on Tuesday night before another missionary preached. On Wednesday Michael was able to speak in the elementary school chapel (the church has a Christian school ministry) in the morning and then preach about the cause of missions from Romans 1:5 in the evening service.

The Lord seems to have given us an entrance into the hearts of the people. Pastor Dickerson encouraged us to stay in touch and to pray about what God might do in the future with regard to a partnership in our mission.

We thank God for the opportunity to meet these brothers and sisters and for the chance to communicate to them our burden for the French people.