September - October 2006
Dear co-laborers in Christ,
In this
prayer letter I want to focus on three things.
1. The Spiritual Condition of our work:
It
is great to see Christians grow in the Lord.
I am greatly encouraged as I look at the people in the church and how
they have grown over the past couple years.
Praise God for the seed that falls on good ground.
It is here you have the constant, steady, upward growth.
No matter how fast or slow, it is good to see them continually growing in
the Lord, proving to be one who has heard the word, who understands the word,
and who is bringing forth fruit.
At
times the outside may not be showing anything but a stalk and a couple of
branches and leaves. The real
stuff, however, is unseen to the eye. It
is the root that is ever growing deeper into the truths it is receiving, pushing
into the earth, wrapping around the Rock of Ages and gaining a strong
foundation.
I have
several men who are spiritually qualified for leadership but none have expressed
their desire to be a preacher. When
God does bring up a man for that purpose we will rejoice.
Until then, I will continue to lead the church in the truth and continue
to build a good foundation of truth from God’s Word concerning the church and
its operations and administrations.
Along
with spiritual growth comes the desire to participate in outreach.
The men of the church are willing to go door-to-door.
They are faithful to our weekly prayer meeting on Tuesday nights and
express their desire to pray for the souls of their family, friends, co-workers,
and the people of Limavady.
2. The Physical condition of our work:
There
has been no progress on obtaining our own premises. The U.K. placed a freeze on all new building permissions in
rural areas. This has driven the
price of land astronomically high. To
build in or near the town you would need close to a million dollars for just the
land. The land in rural areas is
only slightly less. Even to buy an
existing building is not feasible for the fact that the land the building is on
is worth more than the building its self. Property
agents and building firms purchase buildings all the time just to tumble them
and build a row of apartments. If
you ever have a chance to look up land prices in the U.K. on the web, give it a
go.
For the
mean time we will be content with the present place we meet in until the Lord
opens the door for something else. We
were limited in our space because of the way the building was laid out, but over
the summer we took the time and money and moved some walls around on the inside
giving us room to place an additional twenty seats.
We also
installed a heating system this past spring that is going to be a great use to
us this winter. As mentioned last
month, we made the outside appearance of the church very pleasing to the eye.
If you haven’t viewed our web page, please take the time to do so.
The photos can’t give the real feel of the place, but they can let you
get a small taste.
3. The Personal Invitation to our work:
If any
pastor or church member would like to take their vacation time and come to
Northern Ireland, we would be more than happy to try to accommodate you.
We are not travel agents or a holiday resort, but we will show you the
land God has placed us in and allow you to join in with us in our work.
This is just a reminder that God may use to nudge your heart to go on a
mission trip. Remember, there are
no snakes in Ireland, no poisonous spiders, no malaria,…only bombs!!
Just kidding. I hope you took my humor in good form.
We look
forward to hearing from you and ask that we all continue to remember each one in
prayer.
Bro. Ronnie Smith and Family in Northern Ireland.