The leaves have turned colours, and the air is getting crisply cooler each day, which means fall is upon us. We are now in month seven of what we though would be a short, three-month hiatus until we returned to “normal.” Despite the looming threat of a possible second lockdown, churches here have been able to remain open for services with no new restrictions. We are, in fact, now on our full schedule once again! This means I was able to start our midweek teen program (teenIMPACT) once again. Currently, we are studying 13 of the Bible’s most notorious villains, the purpose being that we would learn that our choices have consequences and that wrong beliefs lead to wrong actions. The return to full schedule also means I got to restart our afternoon “University 101” series that Pastor Johnston asked me to start teaching last year. Back in September of last year, I started teaching on Spiritual Gifts 101, and we were going strong on that until COVID-19 halted our plans. Now I’ve restarted teaching the lessons again, beginning with a review of old material and eventually getting to new material. Please pray that these returns to semi-normalcy would stay.
People are still pretty cautious with COVID-19 hanging around, but it’s obvious that some people are tired of it. While I was out on a walk at a local trail, I was able to take a long time to witness to an elderly man named Siegfried from East Prussia. He was pretty set in his ways and had some strange views about God, but I was at least able to plant the Gospel seed. Please pray for his salvation. Unless God allows our paths to cross again, it’s very possible I’ll never see him again. Please ask God to work on his heart. Though he said he’s not afraid of COVID-19, he still needs to fear God and turn to Christ for salvation. We are still able to go out weekly for door-to-door evangelism with some faithful church people, but we need continued prayer for grace, patience, and perseverance in this new COVID-sensitive world in which we live. Pray for the tracts given and Gospel seeds planted to take root. Please continue to pray for the Gospel film and mailers we sent out; they are having a good effect with new visitors and contacts.
I would like to ask you to pray for us as we venture into beginning some new plans. We recently took some time off with Pastor and Mrs. Johnston for a staff retreat to be able get away for a while to recharge ourselves, hear some great Bible teaching, and discuss some things we’d like to see done in the ministry. A couple of great ideas came out of it that I am equally as excited about as I am nervous because of the “bigness” of the job. First is a Christmas program with the teens. I will be leading a core group of our teens in doing a monologue Christmas program, where they play the parts of different Bible characters whose journeys intersected during Christ’s birth. This isn’t something they’ve ever done before, so it’s a stretch for them—and for me—as I try to encourage them to use their talents for the Lord to the saving of souls. I believe in them, but I need them to believe that God can use them. Second, we’re going to start a pointed, soul-winning training program for our teenagers where we’ll take them out individually to train them on how to communicate with people and share the Gospel with people. My goal is for them not only to know how to lead a soul to Christ but also to have led a soul to Christ before they go off to college. Pray for Liz and me to have the grace of God on us as we strive to encourage ourselves and our teens in the Lord.
Pressing toward the mark,
Brian Hebert