Here is the latest from our missionaries to South Texas, Aaron & Melissa Freeman. To see photos, click on the “date” below to go to their website.

12/30/2011 8:26:47 AM

Just a couple quick updates. Things in the church are still going well. We have not been able to finish the closing on the land, but it will be soon. There was a hiccup due to our legal status as a nonprofit association that caused problems with the title company, but those were resolved yesterday. We may close today and if not it will be early next week. Tomorrow we are having our annual New Years’ Eve activity and are looking forward to a good time together as a church family. In other news, we have begun a big repair project on our personal home, replacing the roof! The asphalt shingles are about 30 years old and are literally coming apart. The asphalt is just rolling off the roof and in many places there are holes all the way through the shingles themselves. Fortunately we haven’t had any leaks yet (not sure how just going to give the credit to God on that one!), but we don’t want to press our luck! So, I’m busy laying underlay and will be putting a new roof on over the coming weeks. It may take me a while, but I thank God for the physical ability to do the work! Not much else to share.

First, I want you to know that the messages from this past Sunday are uploaded on our Sermons page.

Here is the latest update from our missionaries to South Texas, Aaron & Melissa Freeman. Click on the date below to see several pictures on his webpage. It is exciting to see the Lord work in the church there.

11/21/2011 11:05:07 AM

Good Monday morning to y’all. A few updates. The baptism last week went well and the new heater worked perfectly. Definitely was an improvement over the fridgid water from the last baptisms! Yesterday we had a busy Sunday. Normal morning services but then our church’s Thanksgiving Dinner in the evening. After the dinner we had a brief message and then our annual business meeting. Everything went well. In the meeting we voted to move forward with the purchase of the land here by our property, so we’ll be trying to make progress on that in the next couple of weeks. Also, we voted in 8 new members to the church, which was quite a blessing. We’ve still got some other folks attending regularly that have not yet decided to join, but we trust that will happen in the Lord’s timing. In other news, Melissa and I are still battling colds. It was “unpleasant” trying to preach with a sore throat and upper-respiratory infection, but we made it through. By the end of the day I had basically lost my voice, but it’s a little better today. Praying this will go away SOON! Otherwise, not much to report. Have a great week and a great Thanksgiving!

Here is the latest update from our missionaries to South Texas, Aaron & Melissa Freeman. Click on the “date” below to visit their webpage to see the pictures…

11/7/2011 8:52:17 AM

Good morning all! Four updates for you today. First, my medical conditions seem to have all abated (finally). I’m very happy about that and thank you very much for your prayers. Second, Melissa goes this afternoon for her appointment with the surgeon. It’s a second opinion (requested by her doctor). He’ll determine if he needs to do a biopsy or just leave things as they are and do a follow-up in a year. We’re praying that the doctor will make the right decision which will lead to her being completely healthy! Third, this coming Sunday night we are having a baptism service here. I’ve got one young lady already scheduled and may have 2 more girls. Praise the Lord for their willingness to continue forward in obedience. The following Sunday we have our annual church business meeting and will be voting in new members. I’ll let you know after the meeting what the final count is! Fourth, you will notice below that there are quite a few pictures of some half-empty land. That’s because our church is considering purchasing a tract of land to provide for future expansion. We are about 60% full in our current building and have been seeing steady growth since we began the work almost a year-and-a-half ago. If we continue at this pace we will outgrow our current facility in March of 2013, so about another year-and-a-half from now. We obviously can’t predict the future with any degree of certainty, but we’re going to assume that we’ll remain faithful to the work and that God will continue to bless us with souls saved and folks added to the church here. Therefore, we’re going to plan on that growth. Last night I presented an opportunity to the church to purchase a 1.9 acre tract on the same road as the church property. The basic details are that it costs $55,000, the owner is willing to finance at 6.5% with a $5,000 deposit and payments of $300 for 5 years. At the end of 5 years we would need to obtain permanent bank financing (which we don’t qualify for now due to being a new church). We’ve already received a promise from an individual to cover the deposit and as a church we could handle the payments. I asked the church here to begin praying about the situation and in 2 weeks we will discuss it again in our annual church business meeting and make a final decision at that time. So, please be praying with us that we would make the right decision, that being the one that is in-line with God’s will. That said, if we do end up purchasing the property, if anyone is interested in helping financially we could certainly use whatever assistance is available in paying off the balance as soon as possible to aid in having the funds available when it comes time to build the actual building. That’s it for today! Have a great day.

The latest from our missionaries to South Texas, Aaron & Melissa Freeman…

Click on the “date” to view the photos on their website.

7/14/2011 3:53:08 PM

Greetings. Just a few quick updates today. First, the activity yesterday (and today) as great. We enjoyed a lot of games and food and had a good devotional that turned into a Bible QA time with a bit of unplanned discussion. The teens show a sincere desire in growing and weren’t in any hurry at all to end the devotion to move on to more “interesting” things. Out of the 10 teens that were present, most of them made it through the night unscathed. We did have one twist an ankle playing volleyball. The ironic part is this is the same teen that caused me to twist my ankle a year-and-a-half ago, putting me on crutches for a while. His doesn’t seem as bad, but he’s going to be hobbling for a while! Otherwise, it was a good night of fellowship and a great chance for us to get to know some of the newer teens to the group better, including a first-time visitor. In other news, we received some additional funds for the bathrooms and it looks like we may exceed what we need, leaving some available for other projects to be considered, which is a blessing. There’s never a shortage of work to be done! And, finally, please pray for Braden as he has surgery tomorrow. He has to have his wisdom teeth surgically cut out. The oral surgeon says he’ll be incapacitated for 2 days and won’t be “back to normal” for about a week. It causes him to miss summer camp, but he’s okay with it since this is his last step before finally getting his braces removed. One last thing. If you receive our prayer letters by MAIL, they are on their way. E-Mail letters went out on time, but we’ve been waiting on bulkmail postage to arrive at our local post office to send the printed letters. After over a 2-week wait it arrived today, so they will go out tomorrow. We apologize for the delay! Otherwise, all is well. Have a great day.

Below are the latest updates from our missionaries to the Hispanics of South Texas, Aaron & Melissa Freeman. To see photos, click on the “dates” and you will be directed to their website.

7/8/2011 8:38:31 AM

I continued making progress on the bathrooms yesterday. The sub-floor is in, about 1/2 of the rough-in electrical is done (including fixing the fans in the templo, which melted the controls due to a bad design), part of the drywall is in and one of the walls is done. I have managed not to electrocute myself yet, but I do have a purple finger from a bad hammer swing! Today I’m doing the other wall and continuing on the drywall and hopefully finishing up the electrical. We’ll see! In a bit of sad news, we lost one of the families from the church. The company the mother worked for was bought by another company and they transferred her job to another town. Since work is scarce, she’s going with the job. So, that’s a loss of 4 people. But, we trust that God has a plan and can rejoice with her, as her new job/employer is better and will help alleviate some of the struggles she’s been having. Otherwise, all is good. Enjoy the photos!

7/9/2011 10:52:28 AM

Update on bathrooms. I got the second divider wall in, so there are two actual rooms now. Doors are in, about 1/3 of drywall is done and all rough-in electrical is done. I forgot to mention that I’m having to replace the fans in the new templo. The wall-controls melted. They come with special individual controls, but I wired them both to one (after asking the manufacturer if that was okay). Tried to contact manufacturer after it melted, but they seem to be out-of-business (wonder why). Contacted McCoy’s (hardware store where I bought them) and they gave us two new fans for free. I’m wiring these individually! Today I’m busy finishing up preparations for tomorrow. We have normal services in the morning but have a special youth service in the evening. Also finishing plans for an all-night teen lock-in on Wednesday night (after service). Plus, visitation at 1:00p today. So, no work on the building. Enjoy the photos.

7/12/2011 12:49:55 PM

A few things for today. First, below you will find photos from the youth service on Sunday night. We had a great time and were able to involve all of the new youth that have begun to attend in the past month. They are eager to serve and we are more than happy to see them do so. We also saw a family visit with us for the second consecutive week on Sunday morning. It’s a husband/wife and their two children. I spoke with them more after the service and they indicated they will be continuing to come, so that is a blessing. In other news, I haven’t made any progress on the bathrooms. Too busy most of this week, but we’ll see. We were contacted by a family about assisting with the cost to finish the work (ie the showers). So, Lord willing that need will be met. Please be in prayer for two ladies in our church. One is a member and was trying to finish applying to Pensacola Christian College to begin attending there this summer. The application is all good, but the financial side is still snagging. She’s looking at the loan option, but is unsure she wants to ask her family to cosign the note. So, please pray for wisdom and guidance there. The second is not a member, but is a lady that has been attending regularly. She had a court case yesterday (still not 100% sure of the reason behind the case). She thought it was just to determine guilty/innocent, but they wound up finding her guilty, sentencing her and taking her immediately to jail. She was given a 7-year sentence, so it was a big shock to all involved. Please pray for her family and especially for her grandson, whom she has custody of. She’s been growing over the past few months, but we understand that doesn’t erase responsibility for past actions. That’s about it for now, have a great day and enjoy the photos.

This is the latest update from our missionaries to South Texas, Aaron & Melissa Freeman. To see photos, click on the “date” below…

4/19/2011 10:35:40 AM

Greetings! Just a quick update today. Our weekend was good. We started off with a celebration of Melissa’s birthday. Nothing large or elaborate, but rather some good family time together. Hopefully she enjoyed her special weekend! (I think she did). I also wanted to give you some photos of the “teen” service this past weekend. *Almost* everything (except song leading) was done by the teens. This is the second teen-led service, and they are doing a great job. We have one planned every 3 months, so they will continue to gain experience and have opportunities to serve in this way. Otherwise, all is relatively quiet here. Braden is still looking for a summer job (hoping maybe he can get one of those 50,000 McDonald’s jobs today). Weather hasn’t changed for 4 months hot and dry. 102 today and has only rained once so far this year. Ugh. But, it could be worse! Looking forward to Resurrection services this coming Sunday. Not much else to share, so have a wonderful day!