It is on purpose that I write this newsletter to you all on the morning of our Thanksgiving holiday here in Canada! I am reminded of the verses in Lamentations 3:22-23, “It is of LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.” How thankful I am for God’s faithful provision and care for us through the years of serving Him here in London, Ontario, Canada. I am also reminded of Philippians 1:3, which states, “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you.” How thankful I am for each of you who pray for us and support us in the work to which God has called here. Thank you for your faithfulness, prayers, and support! Lastly, I am reminded of I Timothy 1:12, which says, “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.” How thankful I am for the privilege of being called of God into His ministry and for His enablement to help reach souls for Christ in this needy field.
This Thanksgiving weekend has been special to us also to have our whole family back together for the first time since some have married and moved away! Our family has grown from six to nine now, with another little one on the way in March! How I thank God for the gift of family and the gift of time that we have been able to share together this weekend! It was a blessing to have the whole crew in church together this Sunday, and we took the opportunity to sing “I Have Been Blessed” together as a family!
God has bestowed many blessings and victories on us as we seek to continue to serve Him! One recent great victory was the salvation of the 30-year-old son of one of our men! We have been praying for his family’s salvation for nearly 10 years now! His son came to church with his dad a couple of times previously, and on Sunday evening, September 17, his son came to church one more time before he was to move to the UK for further studies for his PhD. That Sunday evening under the preaching of a guest preacher named Dr. LeRoy Pennell, God got ahold of Edward’s heart! Edward walked the aisle, and after the service was concluded, I was able to lead Edward to place his faith in Jesus Christ as His personal Saviour!
In recent weeks, some of the souls we have seen saved are a Filipina lady in her 70s, a Syrian mother in her 30s, a 20-year-old university student from Liberia, and an 18-year-old girl we met while out soul winning, whom we found out to be the granddaughter of one of the men at our church. Recently, 2 young children were saved in Junior Church as my wife taught the Gospel. At the end of the lesson, 2 of the young boys came up to her and asked her, “Can you show me how to ask Jesus into my heart?”
In September, we conducted our annual Ladies’ Fall Jubilee. We are preparing for our 26th Anniversary Sunday on October 15, and November 17-18, we will be conducting our annual Youth Conference! We appreciate your prayers!
Pressing on the upward way,
Phil & Tanya Powless Family
Galatians 6:9
-
- The 30-year-old son of a man in our church got saved!
-
- Our family–together for the Thanksgiving holiday–singing “I Have Been Blessed” together in church