HELP !!!

I am sending this blog to those who truly believe that God can answer prayers. The church that I pastor have a need that we need much prayer for. We just found out that we have a major mold issue at the building and that we are not sure that the insurance will cover the cost of getting things cleaned up before our August revival. We found out that our building has foundational leaks and that when it rains for several days that the water will come up through our drain lines to the outside, something called "back flow" problems. This is what has created the mold issues in the basement. Of course when you speak of mold, you are talking about something that usually cannot be cleaned up very quickly. Of course we cannot do the clean up ourselves with all the health issues related to this issue, so we just need your prayers to the Lord that he will provide the needed help and assistance that we need. We have contacted our ins. carrier and are awaiting a call from the adjuster, so until then we stand waiting. The building is an old building and I am sure that when constructed none of these problems were problems then. I don't mean to go on and on. We really need the prayers of all those that read this blog ! It may come to the point that we might have to ponder selling the building. If that is what the Lord wants then that is what we will do. I know prayer does change things. I have seen God take a man who had stage 4 cancer and reduce it to stage 2. I have seen the Lord take a lady who the doctors gave no hope to because of her cancer and after the saints began to pray, the doctors found no trace of it. So, what I am saying is that prayer works !( These things that I just mentioned has happened within the last few months .)

Please, please pray for and with us that God will open up the doors and pour us out a blessing. Not for ourselves to glory in, but that the power of the Lord will be shown in and around this community. We want to serve the Lord through good and bad circumstances and by His infinite grace that is what we will do !


Thank you,

Bro. Mark Crabtree
Pastor
Harmony Baptist Church

Gone, But not Goodby.

It's Saturday, July 4, 2009, and the final weekend that we have with our oldest son Adam for a long while. Adam will be leaving Monday morning heading to Ft. Leonardwood, Missouri. What seemed as if a time that was so far away has now come upon us. While it is a sad time to see him go, we know that that is the plan that God had initiated for all man kind. Still it doesn't make it any easier to see him leave.

As his Dad, I often wounder if I have done enough to prepare him for what he will face in the real world. I have not tried to shield him from everything that is in this world because I feel as if shielding creates a false sense of security and does not teach the realities of what this world is about and the pitfalls that lye within it. Adam has seen what sin does and what problems that it creates and if that keeps him from experiencing those things then it's worth it. Eph. 6 tells us fathers to train them in the nurture and the admonition of the Lord. While training and teaching they do need to know from what it is that God, and we, do not want them to do when they are old enough to go out on their own. All I can do now is pray that he uses the learning and the knowledge that I have tried to instill in him and not fall to the things that Satan would have him to fall to.

I ask for your prayers also for Adam as he starts out on the road of independence. Please pray for his mother and I as we continue to train and to raise our youngest son. That we take the lessons learned from rearing Adam and apply it to Jacob. He will be heading out on his own before we know it.