Where is Pastor Isaiah? Grace Fellowship Church in Kinston, North Carolina, was the final stop on our East Coast travels. Last but certainly not least! Grace Church partnered with PPI in 2019 – our first supporting church – and has greatly encouraged us. We stayed with our friends, the Kecks, who now live in New Bern, an hour’s drive from the church.
On Sunday, we set up our PPI info table before updating the congregation and preaching in Grace’s two worship services. Listen to Ken’s sermon, “Make Some Noise,” HERE. After church we enjoyed lunch with Pastor Kent, his family, and a number of Grace friends. On Monday afternoon, we joined Pastor Jason on his Encounter Grace podcast to talk about Haiti and PPI’s work there.
Thanks again, Grace friends, for your warm welcome and faithful partnership!
On Friday, Director Jim Pittman and Tim Hurd explained CLC’s operations and gave us a tour of their warehouse. I knew God was using CLC to provide Bibles and good Christian literature around the world, but I didn’t realize to what extent! CLC oversees the printing and revision of Bibles and books, launches and manages Christian bookstores across the world, provides mobile “bookmobiles,” develops extensive web resources, and even provides logistical help for a Christian business in a closed Islamic nation.
Rena and I just returned from some vacation time in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. (Michiganians call it “the U.P.” and its hardy inhabitants “Yoopers.”) We started our sabbath with a Michigan history conference in Iron Mountain. After that, we moved up to the town of Calumet and dove deep in the copper mining story of the the Keweenaw Peninsula. Of course, that included coffee shops, restaurants, and some hiking and biking and sunsets on Lake Superior! [If you prefer, you can watch a video of this post HERE.]
It really hit home for us when we toured the Quincy mine. Our tour guide told us that, for 10 hours a day and six days a week, men worked a mile underground in near-total darkness. Without safety gear, they teetered on angled ledges of the mine to hammer, drill and gather mineral-laden rock. In most years, 1 in 3 workers died or were injured. The tour guide ribbed us, “Once you go down in the mine, you’ll never complain about your job again.”
As we toured typical miners’ homes, I said several times, “They use that in Haiti.” Charcoal for cooking, simple tools for sewing or baking, one light-bulb for the home (usually solar-powered in Haiti) – so many people in poor countries live now like people did in the United States a century ago. And like the Michigan miners, these people are hard-working and creative. They enjoy their friends, love their families and want their children to have a better life. Each person displays the creative work of a loving God, just as we Americans do.
In a word, Partnership of Pastors International gives