Weekly Devotional

By Max Lucado
Dependable people are like diamonds. They are precious because they are so rare. Experience and know-how are great assets, but they are not much good without trustworthiness. Talent is wonderful, but by itself its not enough. Far better to be a faithful christian. Are you? Like Timothy and Epaphroditus , are you a role model for others? Determine to be a person others can rely on. Keep your word. Show up. Be consistent. Live for others. Take risks . Be a "go to" guy or gal. Make it your goal, by God's grace, to exemplify a life of spiritual steadiness.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Home from India

We arrived back in the Fantastic USA late Thursday night, June 11. It has taken a week to get back to normal, depending on what normal is! We have looked back at the precious time we had in the villages around Rajahmundry, India and still cannot believe that God chose us to go and minister with and to the people there.

We learned after we had been there about 5 days that Daniel, the father to Williams and Paul, and the Pastor of the church in the village where the orphanage is, had been praying for 25 years for God to send somebody from the United States to minister with him and the other Pastors in the 50 villages. BOY does this make the parable of the persistent widow come to life.

After having a group of Mississippi rednecks for 10 days preach, led a Pastor's conference and hold a 3 day revival with up to 5,000 in attendance, he may be more specific in his prayers!!!! But all joking aside, our personalities fit perfect with the people there. They loved us and we loved them back. When we left from the airport, 15 men and 2 women went with us and we all cried like babies. They cried, I hope, because they had been praying for so long and now we had come and were leaving. AND they did not know if they would ever see us again, BUT we know that we will be back.

This has been an unbelievable trip and we are planning another for after Christmas but before Tax Season. Please be in prayer about getting out of your comfort zone and go!

We love all of you, thank you for your support and prayers.

Steve and Cheryl

Friday, June 5, 2009

update

The gospel meeting went very well. Steve did his "Peter" drama thing again but from acts this tis time. They had a youth choir from some of the villages sing for us and the little girls danced and sang. alyssa was not feeling well but we hope she is better today. So pray for her.
Today Steve is going to preach at a church in another village while the rest of us do a little shopping for family at home. Tonight we have a church meeting. Church meetings are not the same as a gospel meeting. The gospel meetings were many villages coming together ...the church meetings are thier regular church services in individual villages. They meet almost every night. The pastors of these small churches as so sweet and love the Lord. Its great!



INDIA UPDATE FRIDAY JUNE 5




PICTURES FROM TODAY 'S SERVICE.




























CLOTHES THAT WILLIAMS RAY'S FAMILY PURCHASED FOR US! IMAGINE THE SACRIFICE OF MONTH'S OF INCOME TO BUY FOR US!!!!












TWO BEAUTIFUL WOMEN! AND PRAISE GOD I AM MARRIED TO ONE OF THEM!!!















OUR NEW EXPANDED FAMILY!!!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

MORE











MORE INDIA PICTURES
















INDIA UPDATE THURSDAY 8AM




























































We are having the most wonderful time. We did not know God could use to minister as he has. Talk about getting out of our comfort zone.

Tuesday we preached in 2 churches, one a small thatched roof building with approximately 75 or more people crammed in. After every service the people just crowd to the front of the churches for us to lay our hand on their head and say a short prayer for them. The little churches desire is to build an actual building to keep the flood waters out!!!!

Wednesday was an unbelievable day for us! The Pastors Conference had 120 male Pastors and 13 female Pastors/Evangelists. Bo and I encouraged them in the Lord, the meeting was only 3 hours long and we could have been there 4 or 5 hours. After I was graciously allowed to speak, we washed the feet of all the Pastors and annointed them with oil and prayed for each one. The Pastors were in total shock that we would wash there feet. It was a most humbling experience for us, but blessed us more than it did them. GOD IS SO GOOD!!! ALL THE TIME!!

Wednesday night we had the first of the "Great Gospel Meetings". Williams Ray decided that I would preach Wednesday and Friday and Bo would preach on Thursday. The service had approximately 2,500 people attending from many villages. Williams Ray was very disappointed that we did not have more. But the Pastors conference got started later than expected which made many Pastors getting back to their villages too late to come back for the Meeting. We were just excited that so many came.

I was very blessed and portrayed the Apostle Peter and told of his walk with Jesus Christ and different miracles that Jesus performed and then the Crucifixtion and Resurrection. The people were very respectful and listened intently.

The children are so loving!!!! They all want to touch our hands and hug and kiss us!! It is wonderful.

We have been eating their food and God has blessed and kept us healthy and strong. The heat amazingly has not been stifling. The rains have stopped for our visit. BUT our driver is a mad man. People drive all over the road in 3 wheel cars, motorcyles, buses and large work trucks. If we honked our horns and passed people, missing them by inches, ROAD RAGE would end in mass kaos at home. Pray for our safety as we have the fastest car on the road.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR PRAYERS!!!!!

GOD BLESSING EVERYONE!!!

Steve, Cheryl, Bo, Alyssa and Kennis

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

MINISTRY IN INDIA

We have arrived in Rajahmundry, India on Sunday and it is Tuesday afternoon. We have preached in three services already, have another worship service tonight. Bo Baker and I are preaching in each service and Cheryl, Alyssa and Kennis are giving short words and testimonies.

We may have two women evangelists before we get home!

Tomorrow we will have a Pastors Conference with approximately 120 Pastors coming from the
area. God is blessing and we are blessed beyond measure that HE is allowing us to be apart of HIS Ministries in India.

The mother and grandmother wanted me to bring this precious baby back to the USA. The baby preceded to relive himself on me after I had prayed for he and his family. I am now ready for anything!

As you can see from the pictures, the Lord is using all 5 of us to minister to the people. We have shown any of the pictures of the children. But they and the adults are so loving and caring.

They even love an old grumpy fat man like me. We would love to bring some children back, any takers?

The Gospel meetings start tomorrow night and Williams says we will have about 5,000 people each night coming from different regions. If we had some real preachers preaching, there is no telling what God could do! But it appears he will have to settle on Bo and I!

Please keep praying for us and also pray about coming with us next trip.


We thank you all for your love and support.
We are now able to check email and update the blog as you can tell.
We are limited in the number of pictures we can upload at one time.
God Bless and we love you
Steve, Chery, Bo, Alyssa and Kennis

Monday, May 11, 2009

Updates for May and June 2009

The Outreach at Fayette Prison has been moved to Saturday, June 13. We will be through by 3PM, just in time to make it back for the Worship Service at Rayburn Correctional at 6PM.

This has been moved because Steve and others will be in India on a mission trip. And Mike Monroe has had a detached retinue and will be unable to work as he has for the next couple of weeks. Please be in prayer for Mike and for the Mission Trip.

Please be in prayer for us as we travel to India, this is an area that is very poor and appears to not have anyone from the USA working with them. Pastor Ray has great plans for a 3 day Gospel Meetings, with possible 10,000 people in attendance. We will have a Pastor's Conference for a day. Also working with the orphanage. We will be trying to visit as many of the 50 villages in the area as possible.

If you have a Sunday available, Mike Monroe and John Bonnabell are going to Red Bluff most pretty Sundays and setting up a tent and giving away water, tracts and sharing the Gospel will all that will listen. If you have never done this kind of ministry, it is a blast!

Saturday May 2nd











Things don't always turn out the way we plan, but thankfully we have a father in heaven who causes all things to work out for His good for those who love Him.

OUR plan was to go to the prison in Angie La. for the big worship service and cookout, however the Louisiana prisons were shut down that Friday because of the swine flu scare. We already had purchased 1000 hamburgers and all the "fixins" so we were left wondering what we should do. It didn't take long to decide we would go to the streets of Columbia Ms. and with the Lords blessings (I'm sure He had this planned all along) we went to the public housing in south Columbia off hwy 13. I'm so sorry I cannot remember the name of the community and Steve is not here right now to ask.

We set up our tables, tents and sound equipment on a corner right in the middle of the community. In no time at all people started coming. We cooked hamburgers, sang, had a bubble machine and face painting for the kids and had a great time!

After we ate we had a few people get up and say a word then opened it up to testimonies from the people in the neighborhood. They seemed to love it! Everything went better then expected for us "flying by the seat of our pants" as Steve likes to say.

I had to leave a little early to go check on Hunter who had just had his wisdom teeth out. As I drove out of the community I noticed that those who didn't come over to our corner were sitting out on their porches listening to the music and testimonies. Almost every porch had someone out there listening. God is good !! Hopefully He will allow us another time to go back.


We went to the Dan Stepney Housing complex. Steve just got home.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

THE POST BELOW IS FOR PASTOR WILLIAMS

The blogspot allows us to type English and it is automatically translated into Telugu. The letter is an encouragement for the people Williams and his ministry team reach out.

The scripture from Acts 2:42 to 47 was typed

"They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. AND THE LORD ADDED TO THEIR NUMBER DAILY THOSE WHO WERE BEING SAVED!"

Why are we not seeing people saved everyday? Because we are not doing the things that the early church did, devoting our selves to the word, fellowshiping with other believers, to prayer, acting selfishly instead of giving to others that are in need. Our commitment has gotten to be to US, not to God.

Let us search our selves and find out that the only path we need to be on is Jesus Christ!

As Robert Rimmer says "God Loves you, I love you and there is nothing you can do about it!"

పస్తోర్ రేయ్, ఓర్ఫన్స్, విదోవ్స్ అండ్ అల్ బెలిఎవెర్స్ ఇన్ జీసస్ క్రైస్ట్

ఐ ప్రి థిస్ ఇస్ సయింగ్ వాట్ ఐ వాంట్ తో సి, విచ్ ఇస్, తాత వే లవ్ ఏఅచ్ అఫ్ యు వేరి దీప్ల్య్ అండ్ ప్రి ది నెక్స్ట్ కోప్లె అఫ్ మొంథ్స్ ఫ్ల్య్ బి, సో వే కాన్ కం తో విసిత్ యు.

విలియమ్స్, వే వే కం వే వాంట్ తో హెల్ప్ యు మినిస్టర్ తో ది కాంవేర్త్స్ అండ్ రీచ్ ఔట్ తో ది లాస్ట్. తో హెల్ప్ యు షేర్ ది గోస్పెల్. వే విల్ షిప్ మోర్ బిబ్లేస్ ఫర్ అస్ తో గివె తో ఒథెర్స్.

ఈఫ్ వే కాన్, ఐ వౌల్ద్ లికె తో సి అస్ హవె అ కోప్లె అఫ్ కుక్ ఔత్స్ ఫర్ ది కాంవేర్త్స్ అండ్ అస్ అం ఔత్రేఅచ్ తో ది లాస్ట్!
గివె ఎవెర్య్ ఒనె అ హాగ్ అండ్ కిస్ ఫర్ అస్.
"థెయ్ దెవొతెద్ తేమ్సేల్వేస్ తో ది అపోస్ట్లేస్' తెఅచింగ్ అండ్ తో ది ఫెల్లోవ్శిప్, తో ది బ్రేకింగ్ అఫ్ బ్రెడ్ అండ్ తో ప్రయెర్. ఎవేర్యోనే వ్యాస్ ఫిల్లెద్ విత్ అవే, అండ్ మెనీ వన్దేర్స్ అండ్ మిరసులౌస్ సిగ్న్స్ వేరే దోనే బి ది అపోస్ట్లేస్. అల్ ది బెలిఎవెర్స్ వేరే తోగేతేర్ అండ్ హద్ ఎవెర్య్థింగ్ ఇన్ కామన్. సెల్లింగ్ తేఇర్ పోస్సేస్సిఒంస్ అండ్ గూడ్స్, థెయ్ గావే తో అన్యోనే అస్ హి హద్ నీద్. ఎవెర్య్ డే థెయ్ కాంటింయూద్ తో మీట్ తోగేతేర్ ఇన్ ది టెంపుల్ కోర్ట్స్. థెయ్ బ్రోకే బ్రెడ్ ఇన్ తేఇర్ హోం అండ్ అటే తోగేతేర్ విత్ గ్లాడ్ అండ్ సిన్సురే హార్ట్స్, ప్రైసింగ్ గాడ్ అండ్ ఎంజొయింగ్ ది ఫవొర్ అఫ్ అల్ ది పీపుల్. అండ్ ది లార్డ్ అద్దెద్ తో తేఇర్ నెంబర్ డైలీ తోసే వ్హో వేరే బింగ్ సవెద్." అచ్త్స్ ౨:౪౨-౪౭
ప్రైస్ గాడ్
స్టీవ్

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Update From Our New Ministry Venture With Pastor Williams Ray in India

















The Bibles w
ere delivered to Pastor Ray, 60 complete Bibles and 80 New Testaments. Several of the pictures are shown. The Bibles were all given away within a week. They need more!

































The Jesus Video has been shown to some of the church members and prayerfully will now be used to evangelize the villages. We helped Pastor Ray to purchase a DVD player and also sent enough money for the orphanage to have a banquet (see pictures).





















Pastor Ray has bought cots for all the orphans, they were sleeping on the ground. They also have enouth food for at least the next 45 days.

The ministry team has churches in 29 villages that have approximately 1,000 to 3,000 people in each village. Each church has a minimum of 20 converts. Seems as though the fields are white unto harvest.

















Cheryl and I are trying to plan a trip for June to visit the orphanage and several of the villages and the churches to see how we can minister with Pastor Williams and the other ministers. Looking at the precious children, we are ready to love all of them. If you are interested in going, please contact us.

These seems to be a tremendous opportunity for us to expand our field of ministering from the prisons, street ministy and Bible studies, etc to foreign missions!

Enjoy the pictures and pray for the Lord's Guidance for you and for Three Fold Ministries!

Retreat Weekend at Rayburn Correctional March 6 to 8, 2009

If you missed last weekend, you missed a BLESSING! We thought we were going to minister to 75 inmates at RCC, BUT we were ministered to as much as they were. The weekend was hardly believable!

Friday night Dr Russell Bush at 89 years young preached, with praise and worship, testimonies and ended the night with the Lord's Supper. His message was perfect for the weekend! Jesus Christ and a personal relationship with him that is life changing.

Saturday we had praise and worship, and sessions on Relationships with wives or finances, Relationships with children and Relationships with others. There were 11 tables with one or more facilitators at each table. During the afternoon we did foot washing and every man in the room had his feet washed at least once. There were many relationships healed among the inmates.

Several of the facilitators testified later "I'm not taking my shoes off and have my feet washed!" BUT as the feet were being washed and the tears started flowing and hearts started being mended, THE SHOES of the facilitators came off!!! Ain't God Good!

Many of the inmates said Sunday morning that they were up most of the night praying and repenting and reflecting on what God was doing in their lives.

They came Sunday morning to the smell of "Hot, Fresh Donuts". The donut place nearly stroked out when I ordered 30 dozen donuts at 6:24 AM to be picked up in 45 minutes. BUT Praise the Lord, they had them ready when I got there. Many were crying because they had not had a donut in many years.

After the Donuts, we had a session on our Relationship with God and the facilitators started annointing and praying over each inmate at his table. And then the inmates prayed over the facilitators. Then people were praying for each other all over the room.

The morning ended with me having the privilege of Baptizing 3 inmates. Praise God!!

We have already schedule another weekend for the second weekend in December. PLEASE mark your calenders and don't let anything stop you from coming!

God Bless everybody that came and ALWAYS remember it is not about us, but about Jesus Christ and him Crucified and Risen from the Grave!

Steve

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Pray For Robert Rimmer and Family

Robert Rimmer's son was killed in a car wreck on Wednesday, February 11,2009. The Funeral will be in Marrero at Rock of Ages Church Friday, February 20, 2009 at 10AM.

Several of us are going. If you are interested, call myself 601-731-2546 or Mike Monroe 601-736-8562.

Please be in prayer for Robert and family.

Pastor Williams Ray in India














































































I have been emailing Pastor Ray in East Godavari, Andhra Pradesh in Southeastern India for about 6 weeks. It is amazing the ministry that the Lord has he and about 50 on his ministry team doing. They have 29 small churches with about 20 people in each church meeting in thatched roof buildings. They also have an orphanage with 21 children.

We have mailed to them the Jesus Video in their language, Telugu, and also shipped 60 Bibles and and 80 New Testaments. He will receive these in about 2 weeks. We are wiring them enough money to purchase a DVD Player.

Pastor Ray has requested that we pray for 2 of his flock that are having health problems. Remember PODUGU RATNAM and MORATH VINITH in your prayers.

If everything keeps working in the direction it is, a trip over will be planned for sometime this summer or fall. Interested let me know.

Friday, January 30, 2009

One Day With God at Rayburn Correctional 1-24-09

Cheryl and I got to minister with Forgiven Ministries out of North Carolina on January 24. We picked up Eddie Bishop's two children and their mother in McComb, Ms about 7AM and got them home about 7Pm that night.

To see the Dads and Granddads with their children brought all of us to tears. The love and healing in the gym was unbelievable. There were probably 100 kids and 40 dads or granddads.

Cheryl has a great update on the day on her blogspot, cheryl-acceptancewithjoy.blogspot.com. Please go see her perspective of prison ministry.

Please be in prayer for Forgiven Ministries, they do the "One Day with God" at least a couple of weekends a month, if not more. Scottie also wants to use our tract "Have I gone to far for God to love me as I am" in her ministry. Ain't God good.

There are so many opportunities to minister, JUST get involved somewhere!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

New Years

The 2nd group...Shane and Tabitha
Jay and Cynthia

Robert and Mike being, well,... Robert and Mike


Happy New Year from Steve and Cheryl



This was the 1st group, Robert , Mike, Brian, Jamie, Jay and Cynthia




New years Eve at the Grays

My sweetie in his harley santa shirt
Roberts wife, Cynthia
Hot Stuff
Brian after the food
well, a pictures worth a thousand words