A family trip to Maine...

We are coming to Maine! OK, so we are not coming for a  few more months, but we wanted you to be prepared. That's right, run for the hills, board up the houses and get out while the gettin's good.

We just purchased our tickets for our trip to Maine. We will leave our home Monday August 15 afternoon and spend the night near Miami with friends. Then onto the train leaving Miami at 820am,arriving in Maine August 17 about 10pm. We are then in Maine until September 13 at 6pm when we leave Portland heading home. Should arrive September 15 at 605pm and drive home that night.

I will be speaking at the men's breakfast at West Rockport Baptist Church on Sept 10. We have lots of places to go and people to see, so start booking now before we miss you!

1 Peter 3:21 and baptism

1 Peter 3:21, Acts 2:38 Baptism and salvation. For brevity's sake, I tackled the hardest one here, as Peter is the speaker in Acts 2, Mark's Gospel, and of course Peter's epistles. I hope this clears up the need for baptism in salvation.

Note first the sentence structure. Peter inserts this parenthetical statement “not the removal of dirt from the flesh, BUT an appeal to God for a good conscience.” We could read it this way, as we would with a mathematical equation, solving outside our parenthesis first. Baptism now saves you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We must also look into the Greek here. In Strong's Concordance, we find G499 ἀντίτυπον an-teet'-oo-pon

A trip to Maine

Our family intends to take a trip to Maine from mid-August until mid- September. We have family we would like to visit back in Maine, and the Lord has opened some doors for us to minister while in Maine also. Our family will most likely be in Maine the last 2 Sundays in August and the first 2 Sundays in September for church services. 

Mark is scheduled to speak at the men's breakfast at West Rockport Baptist Church the 2nd Saturday of September. We are starting to get more inquiries, and would be available for other engagements. There are many area Christians that we want to catch up with and hopefully be an encouragement and help to while we are in Maine. 

We will take the Amtrak to Boston, MA and catch a bus to Portland, ME where Sara's parents will pick us up. We have a van tentatively offered for our use some of our time in Maine and will have Sara's parents house to use while we are there also. Dan and Kay will plan to stay at Sara's aunts home nearby.  We are all excited about this trip, as we will not have seen my(Mark's) parents in about a year, and most of all our friends and family have not seen our children, and they really miss them all! 

As the trip gets closer, we will try to update with details on scheduling. Mark is currently open to preach or teach in various settings, but with a short trip like this we will not be able to visit each church most likely. We will also be available for Gospel outreaches and such. We will plan to have meals with folks as often as possible, but until we have solid dates, we will wait on scheduling that. Please email Mark at cowperthwaitefamily@gmail.com if you have any questions or ideas for ministry while we are there. 

We are so excited to go home for a while, especially since we will be gone for the worst part of hurricane season we hope! Praise God for opening this door for our family, God truly blesses us richly beyond our needs so often. He is truly Jehovah Jireh, God our provider!

Mark and Sara

Weekly meetings in our home/ schedule

We recently created this event on Facebook and wanted to share it with our blog readers, too.
~Mark

OPEN HOUSE AND FELLOWSHIP TIME We have been doing some door to door Gospel outreach on Cudjoe Key. Through this we have met lots of folks that live nearby who we would like to get to know better. We want to meet each week to visit, pray together, sing, and share with each other what God is doing in our lives, or whatever else God leads us to do. This is not a formal church meeting, but just opening our home and welcoming others in. We are taking our cue from the Scripture below. "Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved." Acts 2:46,47 NASB We hope that those who would not necessarily come to a church building would use this as a time to ask questions without all the pressure that comes from meeting in a church building. We are also available for individual meetings if you have questions you would rather ask in a private setting. We believe God wants His people to get together for encouragement, edification, prayer, and more. I think this transcends church boundaries and denominations. We want to see the body of Christ working together in every town, every neighborhood, maybe every home. We hope you will join us whether you can stay the whole time or just drop in to say "Hi" If you live too far away to join us, we would encourage you to open your home to do the same thing, or pray about it and see what God would have you to do to reach your neighbors and enjoy fellowship with Christians near your home.

Our current regular weekly schedule includes the following:

Sunday mornings at the Gospel Chapel in Key West

Sunday Evenings at First Baptist church on Big Pine Key

Tuesday evenings at our home

Wednesday afternoon study in Key West and prayer meeting that night at the chapel.

Saturdays we have men's meetings at the chapel.

During the week, we do door to door outreach, meet with folks as needed or available, and of course home school our four blessings (children) and we even find time to fish once in a while!

Mark will be preaching at First Baptist Church on Big Pine Key on Sunday morning, July 10 at 11am. Though they normally broadcast the service live on their radio station, I have asked not to have it broadcast live... PRESSURE!!!! LOL  We praise the Lord for the fellowship and opportunities we have to labor with fellow Christians and have enjoyed Sunday evenings and this week's Vacation Bible School at FBC of BPK. 

Update from Assembly Care Ministries newsletter

This newsletter comes from Assembly Care every few months. Assembly Care has been a big help to us and we thank the Lord for burdening the hearts of those at ACM to share reports from church planters, evangelists, and many more as they serve the Lord throughout the world. Here is our latest entry from the ACM newsletter. 


The Cowperthwaite family has had a busy few months. Here are some of the highlights: 

1. We moved to a rented house on Cudjoe Key, about 22 miles from the chapel in Key West. 

2. We have moved the kids club to Bernstein Park on neighboring Stock Island.

3. Mark has been preaching 2-3 weeks per month, working through 1 Peter. 

4. Sara has recently begun outreach to the women who work as exotic dancers in Key West. PRAYER APPRECIATED in this spiritual battle!

5. Our family just returned home after a 3 day stay in Weston, FL, where we were blessed to visit with the saints at Boulevard Bible Chapel. 

The move out of Key West has shifted our location focus in regards to some of the Gospel outreach, as we are now working on sharing the Gospel with our new neighbors as well as continuing the work in Key West. This island has 1700 year round residents (much more in the winter months) and not a single church. We hope to start a few weekly Bible studies in our home and also are inviting neighbors and local Christians to come for dinner at our home. 

There is much more going on, so check www.cowperthwaitefamily.com for up to date information, find us on FaceBook for daily praise and prayer reports, email us cowperthwaitefamily@gmail.com  or call 207-542-8916 anytime. Thank you to all those who have supported us in this work of the Lord. Many changes will be coming in the next few months, and we hope to share more with you all as things develop. 

Note our new mailing address below for any mail correspondence. 

Mark and Sara Cowperthwaite

110 Doubloon Lane

Summerland Key, FL 33042