Deputation Update

October 22,2008

Dear Friends and Family,

This past week’s rush has finally come to an end! Briefly we will try to outline the past week for you. On Tuesday of last week we had a meeting at the Cornerstone Baptist Church in Pittsfield, MA. This church was a blessing and encouragement to us! On Wednesday we drove to Hillsborough, NH for a meeting at the Hillsboro Baptist Church. As soon as morning came we left out for Belmont, NH for a meeting at the Central Baptist Church, and then on Friday we left for Keene, NH for a mission conference at Emmanuel Baptist Church. What a joy it was to visit each of these churches and see the work that God is doing to raise up good churches in New England! We had a good meeting at each of these churches, but we will not take the time to detail each one.

We have been in services for 13 out of the past fifteen days and have driven close to 2,000 miles in the midst of those days. God blessed us with the needed strength as we traveled and has also given us some new support and many churches that will vote whether or not to support us when the new year comes along! God has given us 42% of our support since January, and we are encouraged at His provision and blessing! We are still planning to leave for Brazil in the summer of 2009 and ask that you pray with us as we work and pray towards that goal.

On Monday we left New Hampshire for the long drive home. We were planning on stopping in northern Virginia for the night and were due to arrive around midnight. However, God saw fit to place two men along the way with whom we were to stop and share the Gospel. We had stopped about 8:30 for a quick supper at McDonalds. Across the restaurant there was a man who looked so deeply troubled he was almost shaking. Jeremy was able to sit down across the table from him and talk with him concerning his need of a Saviour. This man buried people for a living and seemed deeply troubled by the constant death that he always saw. He asked if anyone had ever come back from the dead and told him there was really a hell. Jeremy said, “Yes!” Then he proceeded to tell him of Jesus who loved him, and had died to pay for his sins, and had come back from the dead to proclaim victory over sin and death! Although he did not trust Christ that night, he was clearly given a way of peace from his burdened heart. Would you please pray that God would not leave him alone until he trusts in the Saviour. Not long after we left McDonalds we passed a young man that had a flat tire. It was already after 10:00 PM and we still had a ways to go, but it seemed that God lifted Jeremy’s foot onto the brake and again gave him opportunity to help this man and give him the Gospel too! We were reminded that night of how easy it is to get so busy in deputation that we forget that the mission field is all around us, and we must be yielded to the Holy Spirit or we will pass on by and not even notice that there are folks all around us that are lost and on their way to everlasting torments!

Please pray that God would help us to be effective missionaries not only in Brazil but on the road as well. Thank you all for your faithful prayers and support!

With Grateful Hearts,

Jeremy and Esther Lockhart