This past month, there’s not that much special to report! We had our nose to the grindstone, visited churches, set up meetings, and continued our deputation. We enjoyed our time in Oklahoma, but that chapter has come to a close. We are so grateful that Heartland Baptist Bible College, our alma mater, let us park our 5th wheel on campus for these months in Oklahoma. We will miss the people we know and love and look forward to reporting back to our supporting churches.

We enjoyed a personal, quiet Fourth of July weekend together. This will be our last “Fourth of July” for many years since it is an American holiday. The following week, we had our first meeting in Midwest City. We enjoyed our time there and had a wonderful meeting with the church. The next Wednesday, we had another meeting set in Moore. We had a wonderful meeting with the church and the pastor, but something unexpected happened! About halfway through my testimony, for no apparent reason, I started to pass out! I was able to make it to my seat and take time to recover while they showed our video, and my wife gave her testimony. I was grateful that the Lord gave me the strength to continue after that and preach. I was also so thankful for the grace and understanding of the church and the quick thinking of the pastor and staff for helping me through such a thing. I have been on stage since first grade, and that kind of thing has NEVER happened before, and fortunately, it hasn’t happened since! We were very blessed by the church, and I was grateful for God’s reminder that without Him, I can do nothing on my own.

The following Sunday, we had a meeting in Edmond, a church with which we were very familiar. During my time at Heartland, they gave me the opportunity to preach for my practice preaching class. We were blessed with fond memories and enjoyed our meeting very much. The following Sunday, we had a meeting in a VERY familiar church in Yukon. It was very familiar because it was the church/school where Joneia taught Kindergarten while I finished at Heartland. We were enormously blessed by the church, and for the first time, everyone knew my wife’s name before they knew mine. We are excited to see the church growing.

We visited a church in Ponca City for our last meeting in Oklahoma. We saw some familiar faces of Heartland students and a former teacher. We had a very good meeting. And with that, our chapter in Oklahoma was over. We loaded up the 5th wheel and moved back down to our home state of Texas. The temperatures are hot, the calendar is booked, and we are excited for the coming months. Be praying that all of our support comes in promptly. We aim to make it to Brazil by January now, and we hope to make it with full support by then. Many churches have meetings and make decisions about support at later dates, so, for now, we are actively waiting for support from the churches we have visited. Our original goal was December, and we still hope to be finished with deputation by then, but we looked at flights to Brazil, and the prices practically double around Christmas! So as we look ahead, we plan to purchase our flights for January. We are both healthy and happy, and we are excited for our many meetings to come. Thank you for your continued prayers!