Harvest Blog

We had a good day yesterday at Harvest Baptist church. The Bigelow family from St. Cloud, MN, attended. They had been members of the church before I came. They moved to St. Cloud where he is Physics Professor in the State University.

In the morning service I preached on “Let Us Rise Up and Build” (Neh. 2:18) We need to remodel our building, and we have preliminary plans drawn up. We will have a much larger auditorium to house 180 people plus choir. The building will be transformed on the exterior to have a more “churchy” look and to be an attractive amenity to the community. We are preparing an application to send to a Foundation that contributes money to help small Independent Baptist Churches with building programs. The morning message was given to challenge our people to really mean business and help in getting the building construction underway. We do not feel we should let the Foundation know that we are challenging our people to give sacrificially to have this building go forward. We have had a Building Fund for this past year. In that time we have received $10,300 in our Building Fund. The challenge yesterday was that we multiply the giving of this past year by four times—that we give $40,000 this coming year to the Building Fund. For our church to do that and maintain our land payments and the church expenses will take a miracle. But we serve a Miracle working God. We are asking everyone to pray and sacrificially give to make this a reality.

It was Flag Day and we were blessed by Hannah Hanson reciting the poem, Hats Off—The Flag is Passing By.

Pastor Josh and Priscilla returned with the Teens from the Camp on Wheels in Arizona. They had a great time. We had good testimonies about the blessing of the camp in the Evening Service. Julie Hanson’s testimony about the blessing she received was great.

Today our Juniors leave for Treasure Mountain Bible Camp, Florence, CO.

The Childers family shared a great blessing with us. The have a new grandchild—Caleb Luke Munger born last Thursday, weighing in at 9 lbs., 4 oz. and
measuring 21 1/2 inches. Sandy is in North Carolina helping the Mungers with this added blessing right now.

We all need to pray for Viola Wall. She fell last Friday into an antique glass cabinet door and cut a large painful cash in the top of her skull. She is home now recuperating. Pray also for other who are ill: Ann Kroeker and her family; David Head having a cat scan today (Monday); Jan Waters having a difficult time with her cancer.

Next Sunday is Father’s Day—and we are trusting God for a good Sunday. We will have a gift for every father present, a gift for the father with the most children present, and a gift for the grandfather with the most grandchildren present;.

Don’t forget—Vacation Bible School is June 29-July 3. We are praying it will be a success and a blessed outreach tool this year.

Have a good week. May your focus be on glorifying the Lord.

Yours and His,

Ed Nelson, Pastor

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We had blessings at Harvest Baptist Church last Sunday. In the Morning Service Pastor Josh preached a wonderful message on 1 Samuel 14. He showed how Jonathan believed that “there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few.” The challenge was for us believers today to believe God and see Him do great works.

We had some folk visit us in the morning service who had been part of the church before I came as pastor. We met the Andrew Bake family. They had moved from here to Wichita and were back in Colorado for a few days. They brought Mrs. Brake’s sister and a friend of hers with them. It was good to meet people I had not known before and to know of their definite interest in this work.

Yesterday (Monday) our teens left for camp in Alpine, AZ. The van was filled with teens and with the Musgrave family. They left around five a.m. yesterday morning. We are praying there will be good decisions made in the lives of our teen agers this week. Pray this Saturday for a safe trip for the Musgraves and the teens coming back from camp

Next week our juniors will b going to Treasure Mountain Bible Camp at Marble, CO, for their camp week.

Next Sunday we will have a short business meeting after the Morning Service to vote on the Church’s participation in our Building Program which is a remodeling of our present facilities. It will give us an auditorium almost four times larger than our present auditorium. We are about to present our building plans to a Foundation that helps Independent Baptist churches with building programs. We believe our church needs to decide on what we an do as a church to make this building a reality. We do encourage all of our people to be present next Sunday to help us make this decision.

Kroekers have asked for special prayer for Ann. She is not doing well. They had hoped that at least one of them could be in church last Sunday, but her condition was such that they felt they both needed to be with her. Others who are ill include David Head, Melinda Hanson, and Jan Waters.

Pastor Ed Nelson

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We thought summer was here this last week. But it is certainly much cooler this week. However, we can praise God for the rain—something that has been greatly needed.

We had a blessed time at Harvest Baptist church last Sunday. After the morning service we had Dinner on the Grounds. I mean it was literally “on the grounds.” The tables were set up outside and we enjoyed a great meal together in the Spring-Like sunshine of the lat day of May.

My wife and I thank you for all the cards we received for our Sixtieth Anniversary. We appreciate you members and friends of Harvest Baptist Church. Thanks for your kindness to us. Our statement concerning this is 2 Cor. 4:5 “For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus sake.”

In the Morning Service Sandy Childers sang a beautiful solo. Then we had the Afternoon Service right after the Dinner on the Grounds, at 1:30. Pastor Jeff Musgrave brought a wonderful message to us. My wife and I were greatly were greatly challenged by his message. His wife, Anna, was with him and played the piano for the Service. What a blessing that was. She is a tremendous pianist. we were thrilled with the music.

I am glad to report that Jan Waters received a good report from her doctors yesterday. They believe the chemotherapy is doing what it is supposed to do and that she will be much better. She has another treatment next week.

I am sure you will be thrilled to read this e-mail I received today from Mike Redick, an outstanding missionary to South East Asia. He and his wife, Lisa, are doing a tremendous work all throughout that region. And now his Lisa,will have this unusual opportunity this week. Let’s pray together for Mike and Lisa Redick:

Prayer Warriors:

Lisa is leaving tomorrow for Java, Indonesia. We are asking the LORD to open a new ministry and He has done a miracle. Dr. Paul Choo, Lisa and Pastor Tupas will be meeting with the Vice-King of Java tomorrow to sign a memo of understanding giving us the right to bring in teachers to teach English to their university students from all the outlying islands! We are asking them to house them on campus and it looks as though they are going to agree. Please pray … the meeting is Thursday morning. This is a major breakthrough for us into this, the largest Islamic Country in the world!

Thanks for praying,
Mike Redick

We will look forward to seeing you at Harvest Baptist church for Sunday School and the services next Sunday.

Yours and His,

Ed Nelson, Pastor

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