August-December Newsletter
Dear Friends & Prayer Warriors,
It has been a while since we have written a newsletter. We have been crazy busy. Steve has been very busy at the TV center. First semester of homeschool has been very busy. Christian was involved with Starkville Christian Home Educators’ Robotics team that placed first in our state and finished 7th at regional competition at Auburn. Christian was on the build team, the presentation team, and did all the programing for the robot. The presentation team finished 1st at MSU and Auburn. Christian won the programing award at MSU. We are so proud of them all. We have had some ministry opportunities over the last 5 months.
August 6-8 we had the opportunity to minister at Kolola Springs Baptist Church in Caledonia, MS where Bro. Don Harding pastors. It is always a joy to be with the sweet folks at Kolola Springs. The guest speaker for the week was Dr. Ronald Meeks, professor from Blue Mountain College. Dr. Ronald Meeks is blessed with the gift of preaching. We were supposed to begin that revival on August 5. However, that Sunday morning we were awakened to quite a scare. Caris, the baby of our family, had a seizure. She was carried by ambulance to North Mississippi Medical Center in Eupora and then we were transferred to University Medical Center in Jackson. Since that time, she has not had any more seizures. She has had a follow up visit with the neurologist and one more to come. Everything seems to be fine. Please pray with us as we are dealing with the medical bills now.
Thursday night September 6 we ministered at Fairview Baptist Church in Columbus, MS for their Senior Adult banquet. A special thanks to Tommy Gillon for asking us to be a part of this special night.
Our next engagement was at New Montpelier Baptist in Montpelier, MS for their fall revival October 7-10. Bro. Jerry King invited us once again. He and Mrs. Priscilla mean so much to us. Bro. Nick Holden was the guest evangelist for the week. We have grown to love the folks at New Montpelier, our home away from home.
Hill View Baptist Church was our next engagement. We led worship and provided special music for their fall revival October 14-17. Bro. David Bartlett is the pastor, and the visiting evangelist for the week was Wayne Hudson.
November 4-7 we ministered at Sallis Baptist Church in Sallis, MS for their revival. The music minister, Robby Robertson invited us to minister. We had the joy of working with Bro. Don Savell who has been an evangelist for many years. Their pastor is Bro. Gene Richardson.
Steve led our choir at Kilmichael Baptist Church in the Christmas musical, “O Little Town of Bethlehem” on Sunday morning, December 9 at 11:00 a.m. We had been working with the choir since August for this program.
On Sunday morning December 16, I helped get the songs together and play the piano for our children at Kilmichael Baptist Church as they presented “A Christmas Play” under the direction of our children's director, Lisa Sartin.
December 18 we had a surprise 18th birthday party at Skate Odyssey for Christian. His birthday was the next day, but we had a ministry engagement so we had to do it a day early. We praise God for him and how he is allowing himself to be used by the Lord. He is a part of the Anazao band. The Anazao band is a student led worship team that leads worship once every two months out of Bro. Russell Mord’s barn. It is great to see how the Lord is raising up our youth to bring glory to Him. Each worship night they bring in a guest speaker.
We were back at New Montpelier for their Family Christmas Worship on Wednesday night, December 19. It has been an annual event for us.
Our final engagement of the month and year was at Spring Creek Baptist in Philadelphia, MS on December 30. We led morning worship for their Harvest Day and presented a concert in the afternoon. Thank you, Bro. Josh Meadows for inviting us.
We praise the Lord for the opportunities the Lord has opened up for us to minister. There have been ministry opportunities because we are not full time in ministry that we have had to turn down because of work. However, we are thankful for the times we can go and minister!
In 2018, we were blessed to minister in 21 churches with revivals, special events and concerts taking us out 78 days and ministering in 96 services. When we are not on the road, we have ministered at our home church. Therefore, we have ministered every Sunday of 2018. Numerous decisions for Christ were made throughout the year. I don’t have that exact number, but the Lord knows what He did. Praise His Holy Name!!!
Please be praying with us about 2019. Our calendar for March is shaping up nicely. However, we don’t have anything in January & only one Valentine banquet for February at the moment. Please pray that the Lord will continue to provide for our financial needs and keep us healthy so that we can continue to minister for Him.
In His Service,
Steve & Becky Carver