The Shumaker Family's Blog

Stephen Knickerbocker has arrived.  He in the other young man that will work with us this summer.  He will stay for about one month.  He just finished his second year at Crown College.

I have known his family for a long time.  The night that I surrendered to preach the Word, his father Pete Knickerbocker preached.  They helped us when we were in language school.  They have been a blessing to us.  We sure are excited that Bro. Stephen is here to work and help us.  God will use him and Bro. Jason greatly.

I read this from John Maxwell. It is powerful.

“One of the greatest lessons I’ve ever learned is that the people closest to me determine my level of success or failure… The only places where my influence and productivity were growing was where I had identified potential leaders and developed them… Spending the time with them had been like investing. They had grown, and at the same time I had reaped incredible dividends.”

Mark 3:13-14 – And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him. And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach.

We had a wonderful day today. I suppose that I say that most Sundays, but that is the truth. I love church, love being with our people and I love preaching to them. We had a good crowd at Water of Life Baptist Church.

The walking ministry was a success. Bro. Jason and Mamadou brought about 20 kids. That is a wonderful start. I am sure that they could have had more but I really wanted them to get to know these kids and become their friends. They told me that their parents were very appreciative that they would walk and pick up their kids and bring them back after church. Some of their parents said they will come next week. We will see.

We had about 7 adult visitors also. God really moved during the message. My message had seven points, and I only finished one. I was teaching on eternal security. We had five professions of faith. Praise the Lord!

We also started a little competition among the youth. They are getting excited about it. They will receive points from faithfulness to the services, memory verses, reading their Bible each day and visitors. There are two in a group. We will have a winner among the young ladies and a winner among the young men. This is also Bro. Jason’s idea and he has agreed that we will take the winners out to eat at the American Rec. Center. This will be great. It is already heating up.