Sunday in Montana

We have had a wonderful day in Poplar. We were so blessed to attend the worship service at First Baptist here today. Todd Warren played the piano and led the singing along with several others from our church. The church was SO thankful for someone to play the piano. There are usually no instruments because they have no one to play them in their church. It made me realize how spoiled we are in our church.........on an average Sunday, someone is playing a piano, an organ, a keyboard, the drums, a guitar, and sometimes a flute. And, yet we still find something to whine about. Our team of 21 people doubled their attendance this morning. We are so richly blessed to worship each Sunday with such a large number of believers. I pray that I never take my fellowship or my worship time with our church for granted.

The native language here is Dakota and we sang "Jesus Loves Me" in Dakota this morning. Before we sang, a lady named Pearl explained the meaning of each verse of the song. We will be painting 2 rooms in Pearl's home this week. Vance shared about the assurance we have through Christ in his message.

We met a very special young man named Ernie today. He quickly became attached to our team and even joined them in leading worship (he is in the picture above with the worship team). He also joined Todd at the piano while Todd played during the invitation. He held a hymnal for Todd. It was so sweet! Ernie was very sick when he was a little baby and almost did not survive. I believe that God has big plans for this young man........his life is truly a miracle!

Jase, Tami and all of the guys are staying at Vance and Cathy Thomas' house. Chris, Christa and all of the girls are staying at Bill and Kathy Hess' house. Bill is the church deacon (there is only one). The church had a potluck lunch for us at the Hess' house. We had a great time of fellowship.........wonderful food and the guys played football!

We had an afternoon of rest - we are still recovering from our 23 hour drive. After dinner at Vance & Cathy's, we visited about our week. Tomorrow morning, we will start removing everything out of the church basement. Tomorrow afternoon, we will break up into 2 teams - one team will stay at the church to continue work on the basement and one team will go to Pearl's house to paint. There is graffiti all over town that we will also paint.

Please pray for the team as we meet the people of Poplar. Pray that we will be a light for Christ in all that we do here this week! Pray that we can share the hope that is only found in Christ with people here! Pray for Vance & Cathy - ministry is hard anywhere but I think it would be especially hard here. I would grow weary and lonely. They are so faithful in their work here and their love for the people. God calls us to love everyone - Vance and Cathy exemplify Christ's love to all!