January 2021 Update

Dear Praying Friends,

Lindsey and I hope you had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

We are so thankful for all that God did in 2020 at Community Baptist Church and cannot wait to watch the Lord build His church in 2021. We can already see His hand at work. 

December has been a mixed bag of encouraging and discouraging events. 

One of the discouragements has come with the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts has begun to impose additional regulations that have made things challenging. This has caused some uneasiness with some of the people who had been attending regularly. Thankfully, many of them have stayed connected through our live-streamed services on Facebook and Youtube. Because of these concerns we have seen a noticeable dip in our attendance since our last letter. 

However, God has been doing some incredible things as well. On December 13th, we had our first baptismal service. I was able to baptize Tyler and Erica. Both, were saved in the summer and Lindsey and I have been discipling them since. We are excited to see growth in their lives. 

On January 1 Lindsey and I were able to meet with a young lady, who wanted to be baptized. She had not attended our church and I was not sure of her salvation. I get calls nearly every week from people wanting to have their babies baptized or requesting holy water. I thought this was another one of those calls but, as I always do, I offered to meet with her to discuss her relationship with God. Emmanuela took me up on that offer. Lindsey and I were able to spend nearly an hour sharing the gospel with her. At the end of our conversation, Emmanuela trusted Christ for salvation. What a way to start 2021!

Emmanuela has already expressed an interest in meeting for discipleship. Please pray that she would continue to grow in her new relationship with Christ. Emmanuela is also trying to change her work schedule to have Sundays off. Please pray that this would work out so that she could be at church on Sundays. 

In our last update, I mentioned churches bringing missions groups this summer to help with the many outreach opportunities in Lawrence. We have had some churches express interest but have nothing scheduled up to this point. If you are interested in bringing a team, we could use help canvassing the area and promoting the evangelistic meetings on the town common in August. We are hopeful to have some groups come in July in preparation for that meeting. Now is the time to start planning. If this is an interest for your church, please reach out to me so that we can discuss the opportunities. 

Thank you for your faithful prayers and support. We cannot wait to see what 2021 brings as the Lord builds His church here in Lawrence, MA.