Today, we are traveling along Interstate 90W in New York, headed from the Albany area toward Cleveland Baptist Church for this coming Sunday and reflecting on the last several weeks with joy and gratitude. We have been able to partner with ministries in South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York, and in each of these places, it has been evident that God was working on behalf of specific situations. For instance, in North Carolina, a 13-year-old boy saw direct answer to prayer as his mother and grandmother attended two of the revival services that week when, previously, they had only attended three times in the last five years. God is at work in this young man’s life and in the life of his family, and we are eager to see how He will continue working in this situation in the future. This week at Victory Baptist Church in Scotia, New York, we were able to see several unsaved and unchurched people come out for the Resurrection Sunday services, and one trusted Christ as her Savior that morning. God has also given Pastor Jason Wampler good favor with his neighbors, and many of them attended faithfully during our Sunday through Wednesday services. We are confident that this is just the beginning of great things to come for Victory!
Another highlight of our week with Pastor Wampler was the Pastor’s fellowship on Tuesday hosted by Victory. What a joy it was to see these men come together for the common cause of being encouraged in the Word and seeking to win their area with the gospel of Christ! It was a blessing to see our good friends, Pastor and Mrs. Steve Harness, from Wilton Baptist Church, and his assistant Jason Betts at the fellowship. We enjoyed a profitable week of meetings with them this past fall and look forward to being back with these men in 2019.
The fellowship with pastors and their wives over this last month has been such a refreshing opportunity! To see the burden they have for the folks in their congregation is both sobering and encouraging–sobering, because of the reality of spiritual battles taking place and yet encouraging, because “greater is He that is in [them] than he that is in the world.” (I Jn. 4:4). It is been a sincere privilege to partner with them over these last several weeks for the sake of the gospel and for the edifying of the body of Christ. We have definitely left a part of our hearts at each of these ministries!
Just briefly as we wrap up this update, we thought we’d give you glimpse into a travel day with the Thompson family. :). We have found that when we plan a route to our next destination, that whatever drive time is estimated, we can tack on an extra two hours to the travel time for munchkins and equipment details. Our habit for the last month has been to leave around 8 AM, just after everyone has had a light breakfast, so that we can get as much drive time in before noon. Our little men are wonderful travelers! Seth (8 yrs.) stays busy with school during the morning drive time, Samuel (3 yrs.) enjoys books, plays with matchbox cars, and eats snacks along the way, and Asher (10 mos.) keeps us all entertained with his sweet babblings until he drifts off for his morning nap. Around noon, we typically stop at a truck stop in order to prepare lunch and allow Tim to fuel up and take care of any other equipment issues. Not many a travel day goes by where I am not filled with amazement and gratitude to the Lord for how comfortable we are able to travel! While Tim is fueling up, I can start up the RV generator and warm up leftovers, make a pot of coffee, or just make sandwiches while boys wrestle and get the wiggles out in their room. Typically, we make it to our destination church by mid-afternoon. We love sharing the gospel and ministering together as a family, and we are extremely grateful to the Lord for how He takes such good care of us and for how He makes this all possible!