September 2004

Dear Saints,

The 2004/2005 school year is off and running.  Please pray that God grants to all of us campus preachers power, victory, and boldness in order to bring in a harvest of souls.  While you are praying, please pray for Brother John and Sister Ellen Duncan.  Last spring, Brother John began to experience pain in his right elbow which worsened until he could not bend his elbow past a ninety degree angle resulting in him wearing a sling.  Brother John had his elbow medically checked out and several tests and months later he was diagnosed with lymphoma cancer.  At this writing, Brother John has already endured two chemotherapy treatments and has lost his hair.  He told me that the chemo has produced a hypersensitivity to the sun and experiences exhaustion easily from normal physical exertion.  He will undergo chemo therapy until at least February and until then he needs to refrain from overexertion in order to help fight off the cancer.  Please pray that The Lord will have mercy and grant Brother John a quick and complete recovery.

While I was preaching at IUPUI in Indianapolis, Indiana I was encouraged when Brother Nathan Wagers, a freshman student from Brother Johnny Shepard’s church in Richmond, Indiana walked out of the crowd of students and up to me in order to voice his support for my preaching against the sins of the students and for the Blood of Christ that delivers from the same.  Brother Nathan told me that my preaching there was a great encouragement to him.  On the first of the four days that I preached at IUPUI, I had only been preaching for about fifteen minutes until I experienced the first major hostile reaction from the crowd of students.  No, it was not concerning such hot topics as the war against the Islamo-fascists, or homosexual marriages or even abortion, it was regarding the issue of drunkenness and no, the sinners were not the upset ones, it was the professed Christians that took umbrage with my preaching of God’s condemnation of such behavior.  The next big bone of contention came from the Moslems who became quite verbal when I began to expose the lies of their “prophet” Muhammad.  Each of the four days that I was there I challenged those Middle Eastern Moslems to bring out their Qurans but they never did.  Finally, on the last day a sinner who had checked me out brought out a copy of the Quran and I was afforded the opportunity to read from it and show that their ‘God” Allah allows men not only to have up to four wives but also to beat them if he merely suspects disloyalty from them.  I also read the Jihad verses that teach all Moslems to hate, fight and kill the friends of Satan, i.e., Jews and Christians.  A female student newspaper reporter wanted to interview me at 8:30pm one night so Brother Tinsley Rector and I drove back to campus for the hour long interview.  Brother Rector expressed his delight in how I answered the young reporter’s questions.  One of the four days I was joined by Brothers David Bush and Gary Mahan who came ready to witness for the Lord as they had plenty of tracts in their hands and were not shy in passing them out.  I turned the crowd over to Brother David Bush and he wasted no time in presenting the Gospel.  I could tell that he was right at home in dealing with sinners.

At Purdue University , I was glad to see Anson and Bryce Miller, two members of Brother Scott Carper’s church in Goshen , Indiana .  They both expressed delight in having me preach to their fellow classmates.  Bryce told me that he had basically hibernated within his dorm room until the week that I was there.  I was told that there was a creation science presentation on campus one night by a retired Purdue nuclear physicist so I talked Bryce and Anson Miller as well as Brother Alan Bunning into joining me.  I told Bryce and Anson that they could not have the full university experience without attending a creation science discussion.  One of the days I was pleasantly surprised to have fellow campus/street preacher Brother Greg Davis show up on campus along with an Indiana pastor and his family as well as others from his church.

We thank you for your love and prayers,

Brother Jim, Sister Bonnie, Aaron, Gabrielle, and Arielle