Rev. Phillips Whang is a pastor in Burbank from South Korea. He is a delightful brother who has a deep faith and a heart for prayer, teaching the Bible, and reaching people for Christ. I greatly enjoyed hanging out with this man. He drew from the emphasis in South Korea on prayer and had his congregation commit to 6,000 minutes of prayer in preparation for my coming to his church. Did it ever pay off! Over the three days we were together, we had more than his average Sunday morning attendance in the evening services!
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The sanctuary of Pittman Park UMC in Statesboro GA

Statesboro, GA, is a lovely town in the southeast corner of the state. I flew into Savannah, which is one of my favorite cities in the US. If you’ve never been there, I recommend it as a vacation destination. You can spend a good bit of time just driving around and looking at statues commemorating different aspects of Methodist history. It is really something.
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The boys and girls were very excited about being a part of BibleQuest.  They had a lot of fun and learned a lot as we shared time together.  I never get tired of this part of ministry!

Kicking off BibleQuest.

 
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FUMC Titusville, PA.

I love North West PA.  I’ve been to several churches and communities here, and enjoy the churches, the beauty of the terrain (lots of trees, hills, and water), and the wonderful people I’ve met there across the years.  Rev. Ron Hipwell is back from a fruitful time of ministry in Mexico where he served in a seminary there, training ministers to proclaim the Gospel.  He and his family are back home in PA and excited about this new chapter in their lives.
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Beautiful sanctuary.

On Sunday night, we kicked off at Bethel Nazarene Church, Monday we moved on to Johnson Nazarene Church, and Tuesday we finished up at Johnson United Methodist Church.  It was great working with these churches in Johnson.  The pastors were all very pleased with the participation from the community and the response to the storytelling.  I’ve been in Johnson three times, but only with the United Methodists.  I have three community revivals scheduled this year.  It’s a great way to expand our ministry to reach more people in a community.  I’d love to see this become more of a trend.

 
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What a beautiful window!

This was my first time to work with Doug Hasty, pastor of FUMC Cheney, KS.  I met him through his brother, who is also a UM pastor in KS.  As a matter of fact, I went from Doug’s church to his brother, Don’s church the next week.  Doug has a deep faith and a contagious love for Christ.  I was so delighted to be able to work with him in this wonderful congregation.  I have been in Cheney a couple of times in the past, but it’s been quite a few years since I was here.
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Immediately after our time in Gadsden, I traveled across town to the community of East Gadsden. The East Gadsden UMC has a long and proud history in the community. In the last few decades, the neighborhood where the church sits has gone through a major transition. The church has been struggling with how to deal with that transition and under the direction of Rev. Mark Puckett, has now made a courageous step to move the church towards becoming a multi-ethnic congregation. They are receiving a black pastor in June and they are gearing up to walk into a new future. That is the context I stepped into as we began these days of renewal.

Mark was an associate pastor in another congregation when we were last together. He has a passion for ministry and a love for the people he serves. I was greatly blessed to be with him this week.

The Rev. Mark Puckett

 
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Taylor and Jenny Gallman have been friends for years. Taylor’s dad was one of my favorite people, Andy Gallman, an evangelist from Mississippi. He went home to be with the Lord many years ago, but I will never forget him or the influence he had on my own ministry. It was a delight to be able to minister in Gadsden with his son.

Taylor Gallman is the pastor at the Bellvue UMC.

The meeting went very well. It was a very Continue Reading…

After returning from Africa, I had a few days to catch my breath, and then headed off to Carthage, TX. It was a delight to be with Rev. Keefe Cropper. We discovered we had many friends in common. I’m not sure how we had not run into one another before now. He and his wife, Tina, are wonderful people. (By the way, please be in prayer for Tina. She suffered a heart attack a few weeks after our meeting. She continues to improve, but needs all the prayer she can get.)

I really enjoyed the congregation. The hospitality was great, the worship was heart felt, the joy was contagious. I believe God has some great plans for the future of these believers!

leading worship. There was a wonderful spirit in the services!

This was one of those sanctuaries where the singing reverberated Continue Reading…

We had a good flight to Lagos, Nigeria, this morning. We woke at 3:45 a.m. to leave at 4:30. Flight was to leave at 6. Delayed. Good thing. We made it through customs at 6!  The agent checking my passport couldn’t find my entry stamp and told me there was no record of my entering the country. I looked at him stupefied and said, “I’m here!”  Fortunately he did not get upset!  Another agent looked Continue Reading…