Professional Packers

It’s awesome to see how God works and prepares us for what He has for us to do!  As missionary kids and now a missionary couple , Shannon and I have packed and moved many many (too many!) times!  With our new church plant in Concord now we do not yet have a building to call our own but are “borrowing” a place at one church for our Sunday service and another place at a different church for our mid-week service.  We are limited with outreach ministries at those facilities due to the activities they have going.  So, for VBS this summer we were able to obtain permission from several different trailer parks to set up a Summer Carnival in their park on Saturday and have a gospel presentation, music, games and prizes.  So, our two back seats came out of our Toyota Van, we ran by our storage room we have rented and loaded…are you ready?! …4  10 foot gazebos, 4  6 foot tables, a popcorn machine and cart, a sno-cone machine and cart, four rubbermaids full of supplies, a cooler full of ice for sno-cones, and a small helium tank for balloons!!!!  We set all that up in the park and Joan, the clown, did a gospel presentation with colored balloons and the colors of the gospel.  Then the kids did sack races, face painting, several other carnival games, ate popcorn and sno-cones, and had a blast.  They were all registered before participating so now we will follow up with letters to the families and visits to each home.  Please pray for these many families that we are meeting through this outreach and… for a truck!!!  Think it’s time to trade in the van for a truck for our new carnival ministry!!  :)

Spring – A New Beginning

Spring, along with all the new life, brings with it unpredictable weather as we saw last Friday night. We had worked all week, every afternoon and evening inviting people to come watch the Jesus film on Good Friday evening. The forecast all week looked good… until Friday and they changed it! That afternoon the storms moved into Charlotte and the worst of the storms was right in the middle of Concord, where we were meeting. Tornado watches, hail, high winds and pouring rain and it did not let up until around 11 pm. Needless to say, we were a little discouraged at first but…we sure can’t control the weather and we know WHO does so we left it in His hands. We still had a crowd of over 80 people to brave the storm and hear a clear presentation of the Gospel story from this film. Please pray as we follow up on these contacts and decisions made that night.
Yesterday, one week later, the weather was beautiful for our picnic/mini soccer camp at the park. We had 115 come out to play soccer with four Charlotte Eagles players (semi-pro team here in Charlotte) there to do a little mini camp with the kids. We met many new people, ate a lot of hotdogs, and served quite a few snowcones (with the new snow cone machine I, Joan, found on craigs list last week!! What a blesssing!! ) We are going to try to have a family movie night some time in May and our Bible school this summer.
The first stages of planting a new church are so exciting with all of the events, visitation, evangelism and new births!

Dinner with the Pastor

What an awesome time we had last night! We invited the new families that have been coming to a special ‘dinner with the pastor’ just to spend some time together and share the vision and the mission of the church. We had seven families come and each one shared testimonies of how God is working in their lives. What a blessing and encouragement to hear them share how they came to know Christ, how much they are learning in the discipleship classes and how much they are enjoying coming to church. God has been so good to send us these precious families and what a privilege to share HIM with them. The beginning stages of church planting can be somewhat tedious and so we are very happy that after just a few months of labor God has blessed us with these precious families. Next week we begin to invite, advertise, and canvas neighborhoods for our evangelistic outreach on Good Friday night when we will be showing the JESUS film. Please pray for this upcoming event that we could reach many more.

Guatemala

One of our IBIC graduates, Jose, is working in Riachuelo, Guatemala. A few weeks ago, we received a call that his wife, Marisol, was really having a hard time as pastor’s wife, etc. A medical group was going down to the area to do some medical clinics and asked me, Joan, to go with them to be their translator. What perfect timing as God opened up the door for me to go and get to spend the week with Marisol! I went with a group of 24 and visited Jose’s churches in Riachuelo, Rio Negro, San Joaquin, and Bonanza. Bonanza is a small village up in the mountains with no water, electricity, and living in extreme poverty. We did a medical clinic and treated several hundred people for parasites, skin infections, high blood pressure, chronic cough, and many other sicknesses. We repeated the clinic in another village the next day. Every evening after the clinic we would hold services and I translated for the sermons. We saw about 20 people saved each night. It was a very rough week as far as living conditions and travel into those villages but an absolutely wonderful privilege to be able to show and share God’s love to those people. Marisol was encouraged but still really needs our prayers as the work they do there and the life she lives is very difficult and can easily become discouraging. Please pray for Jose and Marisol as they work the four churches that they have started now and have services somewhere EVERY day of the week!! (By the way, Shannon did a great job ‘holding down the fort’ here for me to be able to go on this trip and minister to Marisol and to the Guatemalan people) I was too busy working as nurse, doctor, pharmacist, translator….you name it! …and didn’t take many pictures but will post some as soon as I can get them from some of the other people who went. God Bless You and thank you for your part in this ministry! We saw “much fruit that will abound to YOUR account” last week.
Love,
Joan

Snowed in on Tuesday

Brett’s face lit up when he opened his blinds on Tuesday morning and he said “snow”.  He sat and watched it fall for awhile  and then it was out to play for hours.  Of course, Shannon had to get it on it too and has been sore for days.  Tackle football in the snow with Ashlee and Kayla is not as easy as it used to be.  Kayla nailed him one time too many!  As Brett watched them make snowballs and throw them at each other he began to imitate!  He had his chance…he walked up to me taking pictures and nailed me right on the head!  He laughed.  How sweet to see him understand and enjoy play.  We love to see him laugh and enjoy our time together…something we did not see a few years ago.  Thank you for your prayers and thank you, Lord,  for the privilege of raising a son with autism and the lesson learned of cherishing every moment and taking nothing for granted…not even a snowball to the head!

joan

Upcoming Ministry Opportunities…Endless

Our Christmas service was more than we could have ever imagined.  We are now trying to call, send letters, and visit the many prospects!  Last Sunday we had 5 couples with their children back in the services.  Please pray for Cesar and family, Edgar and family, Mariano and family,  Higenio and family, and Mateo and family.  

Tuesday night Joan and I spent a few hours at the  pregnancy resource center in Cabarrus county.  On Tuesday they offer their services for the Spanish community.  We went to help translate and to look for ministry opportunities with these families.  Ashlee is going to volunteer as a translator twice a month and they have asked Joan to begin teaching the Bible study and parenting classes.  Several fathers attend as well for counseling and other resources and I will be working with them.  

VBS coming this summer…pray for resources and recruitment.  Anybody want to come help??

Christmas program

Children’s Christmas Service

Children’s Christmas Service

Reception after Christmas Service

Que Dios les Bendiga (God Bless You)

Shannon & Joan Hampton – Missionaries to the Hispanics World.