The week or two since our last update has been a flurry of activity. Our trip from Winchester, Kentucky to McDonough, Georgia was just that much more fun with Sara enduring the stomach bug that ran through the rest of the family in Kentucky. We praise the Lord that she recovered quickly and the next two days we were blessed to spend time with Gerald and Pamela Scarbrough and their children. The Scarbroughs have just listed their house for sale, and are praying about the Lord's leading in their lives in this time of transition.
From Georgia, we headed south to Ocala, Florida where we parked at Ocala Bible Chapel. This was a scheduled stop that became more necessary after a tire blowout on the camper. Yet again, we saw the Lord's provision as the blowout was on the passenger's side of the trailer. In our nearly 2 years of full time travel in the Lord's service, we have had to replace 4 tires, and not once have we had to do so on the driver's side.
When I consider the thought of changing a tire with cars and trucks zipping by at 70 mph,
I praise the Lord that we have not yet had to deal with that added pressure and danger.
When we arrived in Ocala, we were excited to visit Isaac and Joanna Hebert, a young couple from our church in Union, Maine, who have recently moved to nearby Candler. Saturday afternoon proved to be a bad time to find a trailer tire, yet we were able to find one Sunday morning before services started. With a new tire on the camper and our bellies full from lunch with the saints in Ocala, we headed yet further south to Tampa.
We arrived in Tampa, at Carrollwood Bible Chapel on Sunday, Oct. 31 around 5pm. We parked at the chapel for this past week, visiting with Mark's brother and his family, and of course times of food, fellowship, and prayerful consideration of God's desires for our ministry here in Florida with the brothers and sisters at Carrollwood Bible Chapel. Mark spoke this past Sunday at Holiday Gospel Assembly in Holiday, Florida, and we enjoyed the ministry of God's Word from our brother Mike Gentile at CBC last evening.
Today, we are visiting with some friends and family, then packing up the camper for our trip even further south. We are scheduled to spend this coming week at Fort Lauderdale Bible Chapel, then we will head to Key West with a stop in Miami along the way. This "survey trip" around Florida was designed to help us see the needs of some small local churches here, with much prayer and counsel from local brothers in Christ that know the needs. We know the Lord has these plans in place, and we continue to walk day by day seeking His will to be done in all we do and say. We appreciate your many prayers and encouragement through cards, gifts, letters, and emails. The Lord is gracious and we thank Him for providing for our every need.
