Wednesday Morning and Afternoon

Missions
Al Gilbert, pastor at Calvary Baptist Church, Winston Salem, NC, preached the Convention Sermon this morning. Near the end of his message, he told this story…
Ms. Bertha Smith (wonderful missionary to China and prayer warrior years ago) came by their apartment (I think while they were in Seminary). Al was away, so she visited with Al’s wife. She laid hands on each of the three children and prayed that God would send them to the mission field. Then she prayed for his wife and the baby she was carrying. A couple of years later, Al’s wife told him that she began to pray the day that Ms. Bertha stopped by…
“Lord, send us anywhere any time, and if not us, send our children.”
[My thought: Could we say that? Would we say that?]

That day Ms. Bertha also said that we need to pray that God would send all our kids to the mission field, with half going overseas and the other half staying home and making the money to support their work.

Today, three of their four children are serving. There’s one staying home to, as Ms. Bertha said, to support them.


Southwestern Luncheon
We attended the alumni luncheon for Southwestern Seminary today. Great food. Some good news, along with the recognition of three distinguished alumni were highlights.. Tom Elliff who will speak for our church on the 22, was one of the folks. He is one of the finest, most consistent men I have known, and I met him when I was doing weekend youth ministry in Atoka, OK while a student during the week in Fort Worth. He came a did a prayer conference for our little church. He is still the same gracious and humble man he was then, and he is such a man of faith and encouragement! Garry Moore, worship pastor at second Baptist Houston was another distinguished alumni.

But the highlight was the awarding of the Distinguished Alumni award to Rev. Eugene Florence. He began as a night student at age 39 in 1943. He had to come at night, because he was a black man. (Now if you do the math, you can figure out that Rev. Florence is 104! He still preaches some, and he may still drive! (That gives me pause.) I wish I could reprint the whole article about him, but it would be long. If I find something, I'll post it.

Fireproof!
April and I got to see a pre-release screening today of Fireproof. It was great. It hits the theaters on September 26. It’s speaks of Covenant Marriage, as it tells the story of one couple’s journey. It will make you laugh (some scenes are hilarious), cry, and there are a couple of heart thumping scenes as well. I say, plan now to see it, and plan who you’ll take to see it. www.fireproofthemovie.com