Tuesday, April 9, 2024

Dear Trinity Baptist Church Family, Psalm 84:1-2 “How lovely is Your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts! 2 My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord;
My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” Someone might say, “Pastor, Psalm 84 again?” I know I use it in these letters often. But I identify with the passion of the psalm. I want to be in God’s house. I want God’s presence, His blessing. The psalm ends: “O LORD of hosts, Blessed is the man who trusts in You!”

I praise the Lord for a delightful Lords’s Day with Maranatha Baptist University Chorale.  I enjoyed both the music and Dr. Anderson’s preaching. And thank you, thank you, thank you to all who brought food and stayed for the church dinner. It was fun to have a full room and plenty of food! I was very proud of our church. And did you notice the testimonies of the college students after lunch? Three of them praised God for the community and fellowship that is found in a church like ours. I was encouraged and I believe Jesus was glorified.

On Monday I shared with you the very sad news of Patsy Elsinger’s homegoing. Her obituary may be found at the Twohig funeral home website. A celebration of Patsy’s life is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 20th at Trinity Baptist Church. If you are able to attend, I know Dave and her family will be blessed to witness the love of the Trinity Baptist Church family for Patsy.

After a couple Sundays with different schedules, we return to relative normal this week. We will have one last adult Sunday School class in our current series. Sunday evening we will have a School Committee Meeting at 5:00 p.m. and our quarterly Congregational Meeting at 6:30 p.m. All are welcome at the Congregational Meeting. This month we celebrate the elimination of our mortgage. After the business meeting we are going to have cake and a mortgage burning in the back yard of the parsonage – weather permitting.

Some have asked what we are going to do now that our mortgage is paid off. Since our mortgage payment was a very small percentage of our annual budget, the change won’t be huge. The current plan is for the church to pick up some more of Pastor Charlie’s salary with a goal of hiring teaching staff and lessening the teaching hours of Pastors Leeds and Shaeffer. Also we need to keep updating both the church and the parsonage.

Pray for both Dave E and Dave R as they move forward without their mates. Pray for healing for Ken R and Carolyn O and Emma S. Praise God the colds have seemed to lessen among our families.

Pray for the Word of God to be rich among us. We have chapels in school tomorrow, Awana council times tomorrow night, and our preaching and teaching on the Lord’s Day. May God use our efforts to teach and change us.

Embracing Truth. Equipping Saints.

Pastor