Hello everyone,
Well, we left Medford, OR on June 7 and drove up the Oregon coast on Highway 101 and saw many, many beautiful scenes looking out over the Pacific Ocean. We saw Sea Lions playing in the water and sunning on the rocks and light houses (went in one). We stayed in Florence, OR Monday night and then drove on up the coast and turned east toward Albany. We arrived in Albany Tuesday afternoon and found a nice RV park about three or four miles from the church building.
The Lord has blessed us greatly in our travels and we are so thankful for the many, many ways He has blessed us. It is our prayer that He will continue to bless us in this work.
We worshiped with the church in Albany on Wednesday evening and Winn Frunk, the preacher here, did a good job teaching from the book of Joshua. Then we began the gospel meeting on Sunday morning. I present a lesson dealing with responsibilities of the Christian from 1Thess 5:14 during the Bible Study period and for some unknown reason I couldn't get my power point projector to show my presentation. I began the series of lessons on the home at the worship hour and the power point presentation worked just like it is supposed to. Who knows why electronics sometimes don't work as intended. On Sunday evening I continued the series on the home and a young lady responded to the invitation and wanted to be baptized. Obviously, there was great rejoicing over this young ladies' obedience to the Gospel of Christ. She had been considering this for some time and had talked to the preacher here quite a while ago about this and he had pointed out the seriousness of this decision and that it must be her decision. So, she decided last night that she needed to be baptized and her grandfather baptized her into Christ. He said this was his second grandchild to obey the gospel, the other having been baptized not too long ago. This demonstrates that the Gospel of Christ still has power to move individuals to obey. In fact we learned about two other baptisms recently at the congregation in Houston, MS. One was a man past middle age who had been attending with his wife for many, many years, who told the preacher "he was ready" or words to that effect and then a young man was baptized this past Sunday evening. Certainly we rejoice with our brothers and sisters at the addition of these precious souls to the Lord's body.
We have had visitors who are here from Mobile, AL waiting for their RV to be repaired and they plan to attend the meeting all week. We expect other visitors during the week. Dottie and I visited with a young lady yesterday afternoon, who is staying in the RV park and she said she would attend the meeting some this week.
So, things are going well with us and the work we are trying to do in the Pacific Northwest. We continue to solicit your prayers for us in these efforts and we are so very thankful for the congregations and individuals who have helped and continue to help financially which makes it possible for us to continue in this work.
Your servant in the Lord
Jerry L. Henderson
Hello Everyone,
Yes, I know it has been over a week since I posted aything, so I guess it is time to let you know what has been going on since then. We left Yakima, WA on Thursday May, 20th and stopped at Hood River, OR and worshiped with the small group that meets there. We had heard about the church there from brother Reggie Finch the preacher in Cleveland, MS. He preached in Hood River prior to his coming to Cleveland. So, since it was on our way to Medford, OR and we had that Sunday open, we decided to visit and encourage the small group meeting in Hood River. They meet in a Senior Center. There are only about 15 or so meeting there and a man who is a member of the 160th street church in Portland drives over and preaches for them. This is only the second Sunday I have not preached since we left Florence, AL on March 7th. We enjoyed our visit with them and while we were there we were able to drive out to see Mount Hood. It snowed on us while we were in the mountains and we saw some people skiing down some slopes at a closed ski resort. From Hood River, OR we drove to Medford and found a nice RV park about five or six miles from the meeting place of the church here. They meet at the "Grange Hall" (that's like a community center) Dean Blackwell is the preacher here in Medford, his wife's name is Joan. Dean is retired on disability but is still able to preach full time. Since he had not had any time off in about a year, he took advantage of our being here and took a few days off to go see children in California. After we got here we participated in a home study on Wednesday evening at Dean and Joan Blackwell's house. They meet for midweek Bible study on Thursday evening because the Grange Hall is not available on Wednesday evening. I spoke on Thursday evening, then at the Bible study period and morning and evening worship Sunday. There is a good group of Christians working here. They had some problems some time ago due to an influx of folks from the liberal church, but they were not receptive to the Truth so they left. Basically the same thing that happened in Yakima, WA. It is good to know there are brethren who are willing to stand for the Truth on institutionalism. There has also been some problems with marriage/divorce/remarriage, but the brethren here stood firm on the Truth. We will have another home study in the home of one of the families here this coming Wednesday evening and I will speak again Thursday evening and three times on Sunday. We took a day and drove to Crater Lake which is just about a couple of hours from Medford. It was a beautiful day and the Lake is absolutely beautiful. There was snow everywhere in fact the road on the West rim was only open for about a mile and was the only road open except the main highway up to the summit.
We will leave Medford on Tuesday 6-8-10 and travel to Albany, OR to begin a Sunday through Sunday meeting June 13-20. From there we will be travelling to White Rock, British Columbia, CA. I will preach there on Sunday morning (they only meet once on Sunday) and then will be with the church in Bellingham, WA.
Well, that's about it till next time
Jerry
|
Hello everyone,
Once again it has been several days since I posted anything, so just a short note to let you know what is going on out here in the Northwest. We are still in Yakima, WA and will be here through Wednesday evening. We had a good service yesterday with a little over 40 present Sunday morning and a little less than that Sunday evening. Steven Wallace and his family, the preacher at Sunnyside, was present last evening (they meet in the afternoon for one long service). It was good to finally meet him after having corresponding with him by email several times. He has been very helpful to us in working out our schedule. We enjoyed a great potluck lunch at the home of one of the members here in Yakima with most of the congregation being there. This gave us another opportunity to visit with some of the members here in Yakima. Dottie and I will be going to Seattle tomorrow for our anniversary and my birthday (18 & 19). We will have 47 great years together tomorrow and then I will be 67 years old the next day. We will spend the night in Seattle and take in some of the sights in that very large city and be back in time for Bible Study Wednesday evening.
Thursday morning we will be leaving Yakima on our way to Medford, OR for two weeks (May 30 & June 6). On the way to Medford we will be stopping to worship with the church in Hood River, OR. This is a small group of Christians that rent the adult senior center as a meeting place. Brother Reggie Finch who now preaches in Greenville, MS use to preach for them and encouraged us to stop by and encourage them in the work there. This will be right on our way to Medford so we will stay the week-end there and head on to Medford on Monday. We have a place reserved for the time we will be in Medford. From Medford we will be going to Albany, OR for a Sunday through Sunday Gospel meeting (June 13-20). Then there is a possibility that we will be going to White Rock British Columbia, CA for work with the small group of Christians that meet there.
As you can see we are doing our best to stay busy, primarily in the Lord's work, which is why we came out here, but we are also enjoying this part of this great nation that we call home.
We miss all the folks back "home" and hopefully will see ya'll this Fall. One of the brothers from Sunnyside ask me today if we were getting homesick, and I told him we were at "home". However, we are going to miss seeing everyone this Summer during camp week and having the grandchildren for a week, but that will have to wait till another time.
We appreciate the prayers and support, both financial and otherwise, with which we could not do what we are doing. Thanks always for you care and concern for us and this work.
In Christian love,
Jerry
Hello to everyone,
Well, it has been several days since I posted anything. We worked with the church in Sunnyside, WA this past week. I preached for them on Sunday and then again on Wednesday evening. They meet at 2 PM on Sunday for one long service. They changed the time a few years ago due to many who were having to drive very long distances to attend worship services. I did a lesson during the Bible study period and then a long lesson during the worship period. They told me I could just preach till my voice gave out, to which I replied, they didn't know what they were asking for. As long as I have been preaching, my voice has not gotten to the point that I couldn't preach. I preached a little over an hour during that service and then one Wednesday evening, I preach for about an hour and no one complained about the length of the sermon. In fact one lady said it didn't seem like it had been that long. During Bible study Sunday I talked about the importance of realizing that the Word produces the church. I titled the lesson "What went forth from Jerusalem". Then I talked about the Christian's responsibility to the local church with a lesson titled "What I owe my congregation". On Wednesday evening in continued this theme with a lesson titled "What can kill a church" dealing with a number of things that can cause a congregation to die such as persecution, false teaching, worldliness and indifference.
This church seems to be compsed of individuals who love the Lord and are dedicated to serving him. The next closest congregation to them is the one in Yakima which is about 40 miles away. There are actually two congregations in Yakima, but some have mentioned some problems that existed and have not gone into detail about them. I may learn more details regarding this during the next week or so while I am working with the church that meets on LaSalle Street here in Yakima. I am scheduled to preach for them this coming Sunday (May 9) as well as the next Sunday (May 16). I will be speaking each Wednesday evening of these two weeks also. A brother and his wife, from the church in Bellingham, WA visited with the church in Sunnyside Wednesday evening and while talking with him after services, he suggested that he might arrange for us to be scheduled there sometime in July, since at the present that month is open and then to White Rock British Columbia, CA. Hopefully, this will work out. However, if something is not schedule for July, we will go back to Blackfoot, ID until time to go to Canada.
We have been able to see a few of the sights around this area. We went early to services on Wednesday and stopped by the Indian museum that is about halfway between Yakima and Sunnyside. Then yesterday we took the day and went to see Mount Rainier and the clouds opened for a moment to allow us to see the top of this more than 14,000 foot peak. There was snow on the side of the road when we went through one of the passes and we went through some rain and a little wet snow on the way back. For a few days early this week the wind was just horrific and it has sprinkled rain a time or two, but this area only gets about 6 or 7 inches of rain annually. There is a lot of farming, orchards, vineyards and dairy farms around here but everything is irrigated just as it is in Blackfoot, ID. It is amazing to see all the water that is being used out on what, I guess, is called "the high desert".
So far, we are enjoying this work of teaching/preaching and helping to encourage and strengthen the Christains in this part of the country. The Lord has blessed us so very greatly in our travels and we trust that the work we are doing is of benefit to His cause and Kingdom.
We continue to appreciate the support we receive both in a material way as well as the prayers and words of encouragement from so many.
Yours in service to the Master,
Jerry
|
