~The Faithfulness of One man, & God working behind the scenes to reopen an old Country Church.~

 God works in Marvelous ways!!

9 months before we found our house on Strait Creek Rd, Phillip left an early morning men’s prayer meeting at CNC and headed out towards Hillsboro to find a house for our family to buy! 

He was driving along Route 41, in the area nicknamed, 

“The little Smokies.”

When all of the sudden he rounded the corner and there was such a beautiful Picturesque Old Country Church with a creek running beside it! The scene nearly took his breath! He whipped into the lane thinking, “This is God’s Country!” 

Just then he saw a sign that said, “House for sale!”

He started driving down the road to see the house, when he thought, “Who am I kidding? 

This seems too good to be true and I would love it, but this is too far from our Church.” 

So he turned around and left without even seeing the house for sale.  (We found out later, that it was OUR HOUSE for sale, but God had him not see the house, because we would not have been able to afford the house back then. Later, the owner would lower the price to what we could afford.)

9 months later, we found our house on line and bought it! Phillip had no clue that this was the same lane on which sat that old country church.

Sometime after we had purchased our house Phillip went down the lane and was shocked to see that that elegant Country church is at the end of our lane!

We’ve lived here 4 1/2 years and had never seen anyone near the church. 

But we knew that someone was taking good care of it, mowing the lawn and keeping things up, we just didn’t know who. 

For all these years, it seemed a mystery. We would ask around, and no one knew who was taking care of the church. 

Finally last August, Phillip contacted one of our neighbors and he said that his mother knows everyone and he would ask her who takes care of that church. 

Three days later, he texted Phillip and told him who was taking care of the church and where he lived.

Phillip got busy with life, but about a month later he had some time on his hands and decided to pay the man a visit. 

For about three years now or so, Phillip has been telling me he felt like God wanted us to start an early morning community prayer meeting; to pray for our nation, to pray for our communities, and pray for revival!  

He really wanted a central place to hold the prayer meetings.

So he went and met the dear elderly gentleman, and asked if we could hold early morning prayer meetings in that old white country Church. 

After the man and his wife asked Phillip several questions, 

they agreed that Phillip could have prayer meetings in their church. 

But the man asked if we could please have the prayer meetings in the evenings instead of early mornings. 

September 21st, 2023, we held our first prayer meeting in that Strait Creek church. 

This was the first time we saw inside the church.

That’s when we found out how FAITHFUL the dear man has been.

You see, He grew up in this church. He was just 14 when he started getting up at 4 o’clock on Sunday mornings to go light the furnace so that the church would be warm when people gathered in to worship Jesus! 

He has attended this church faithfully ever since.

However, for the last 15-20 years, he has attended the Strait Creek church alone!

He has come every Sunday morning alone, 

plays a CD and sings a hymn or two, 

reads Scripture and has a Service by himself, 

then turns off the lights and shuts the door 

and goes back home.

The attendance board says,

Attendance today 1

Attendance last Sunday 1

So at our first prayer meeting on Thursday night, September 21st, when we prayed and sang choruses and hymns together, I’m sure it was nearly like heaven to him.

Afterwards, he had tears in his eyes and he said, “Did you hear the acoustics in this big church? We sounded like a choir!” 

We have now been having prayer meetings for six months. 

God has been meeting with us and we have been seeing Him answer our Prayers! 

Phillip is filling lead to open a Daughter church of our Christian Nation Church in the church where this man has been worshiping. 

We will still attend our Christian Nation Church on Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights.

We will have Services here on Strait Creek on 

Sunday nights 7 PM and 

Thursday nights at 7 PM. 

We will open the church with a week of special services every evening at 7:00 PM starting: 

Tuesday, April 23rd through Sunday, April 28th.

We will still be Full-time Faith Missionaries, and still be busy about mission work. Phillip will still preach sermons in Spanish online, and be a pastor to our pastors on the field, and visit our fields as God allows. 

We are excited about this new ministry! Phillip is already looked at as a pastor here in the community as he takes time to call on a shut in and take them some fresh eggs and some Sunday school papers, or drop by a neighbor’s house to pray for one that’s going to have surgery the next morning, etc. 

As you think of our little church, please pray that God will help us to touch lives for Jesus in our community! 

Holiness Unto the Lord is our Watch-Word and Song.

~Abigail helping ring the church bell.~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

~We have been praying for quite some time for some nice bookshelves for Phillip's books.  A dear friend gave Phillip some money toward bookshelves. God sent us this 5 piece unit for only $100!  We are happy with how his office / our Guest Room is turning out. (We are still praying for some more bookshelves for he has a lot more Holiness books that are still in boxes.)

~This is the corner piece off of the furniture above, that didn't fit in that room.  

We put it down the hallway.~

~The kids dressing up.~ 

~Abigail playing offertory for Jr. Church.~

~Out for coffee with Lauren.~

~Our bed all dressed for Spring.~

~After our prayer meetings on Thursday nights, we often have treats that the 

ladies take turns bringing in.~

~AWC choir came to our church.  

I made 128 rolls to serve to them, some of them Gluten Free.~

~Sweet Grammy Eisenhart (our Pastor's wife made these yummy cakes for the choir and us (and our families) that helped cook for the choir.~

~AWC choir.~

Jesus really helped the choir, and God's presence was near!~

~Our choir that was practicing to sing for Easter.

(Phillip and I were going to fill in at Berrysville on Easter.)

~Phillip giving his report from going to Colombia back in the Fall.~

~And that is when he shared with our CNC about their new daughter Church on Strait Creek.  (SCCNC)

~Spring is here.~

Peach blossoms on our tree.

~On the Front Porch.~

~We often see Wild Turkey and deer on our road.~

~The other day we ran some furniture up to Josh and Sarah.  This table looks so nice in their home!!

Jesus gave them this adorable green high chair at Good will for less than $7.00!  

~Jesus is helping Sarah with her pregnancy.  She is now 23 weeks along with our baby Girl!!~

~Communion before Easter.~

~I still love this antique Church window that our dear friends Brent and Nicki gave us.~

~The prayer meeting before Easter, 

Mary and I made cinnamon rolls like the "backs of bunnies" and made icing as their fluffy tails.  We passed them out after prayer meeting.~

~That prayer meeting Mrs. Katie passed out these yummy cupcakes.~

~And Mrs. Katie made these decorative eggs for our family.  It is called, "Egg Mazing," with markers.

She did such a great job!~

~Mrs. Pat put together a fun basket of candy for everyone.~

~And she brought these Peeps and yummy Dunkin' jelly beans for our family, 

knowing our Love for Coffee.~

~For supper after the prayer meeting I made Stromboli.~

~A neighbor gave Elijah this cute little white rabbit.~

~ALL NIGHT PRAYER MEETING!~

When Phillip volunteered to be in charge of the all night prayer meeting at CNC, I said that our whole family would come too.

I really didn't know if I could stay awake all night long, but wanted to try for Jesus' and Phillip's sake.

I asked Noah to please bring me a fun coffee that was on sale at The Lunch Bucket...knowing I would need that caffeine during the night! :-)

~But Jesus helped me, and I was able to stay awake the whole night.

God really met with us!! 

It was a glorious night filled with petitions, gratitude, weeping, rejoicing, singing, 

and gathering in Jesus' name!

~Abigail during that all night prayer meeting.~

~Abigail's drawing of God and her!

It made me want to cry.  

She drew God saying, "We love each other."  

And then she agrees with Him and says, "Yeah" 

And of course, she is going to draw Him with a beard, 

because her Dear Daddy whom she loves with her whole heart has a beard. ~

~Abigail tried her hardest to stay awake until midnight, but fell sound asleep around 11:45.~

~Dear Bro. and Sis. Paulus prayed for nearly 7 hours that night!!  They were such an encouragement!!

There were a total of 42 pray-ers that came to pray that night!

But most of all, GOD WAS THERE!~

~Elijah's female dog, always crosses her legs when she lays down.~

~Our Resurrection Lord's Day!~

~Phillip and I filled in at Berrysville Church on Easter Sunday morning.~

~I bought cookies and the girls packed them up for me to pass out at Berrysville.~

~My Easter Table.  I used Mrs. Katie's pretty eggs on my table.  And some fun bunny napkins I found.~

~The kid's gifts were simple this Easter.~

~Kimberly made the yummy rolls.~

~I made corn pudding.~

~I made Palova for our dessert.~

~Abigail and the bunny.~

~Then the same people dropped off a little gray bunny to be with the white one.  Elijah and Abigail are so happy.~ 

~The kids playing bells Easter Sunday Morning.~ 

~Mary and her friends.~

~On Monday after Easter, Mary really wanted some scones.

So I made the blueberry Scones and she made the red raspberry scones.  Yum!~

~I thought Mary's little strings on her blouse were so cute the way she did them.  When I went to take a pic of them, she cracked me up by her silly pose. :-D ~

~Tornado warnings, candlelight, and some extra prayers.~

~This sweet pic popped up of Abigail and her Grandma.  Abigail was only 2.~

~Back some time ago I mentioned that Phillip and I had run over to take care of a sweet elderly neighbor who had fallen.

Last night her sweet daughter dropped by this sweet card and some Black Rifle coffee as a Thank you for checking on her Mom.~

~Last night after church the youth surprised Brittany and celebrated her birthday at Taco Bell.~ 

~Ella made these yummy cupcakes.~ 

~Mary has wanted a little personal blender for quite some time.  The other day she found a Hamilton Beach one for $4 at a closeout store near us.  She was so happy! 

Today Mary used her new little blender and made me a Yummy Java-Chip Frappe.~

Latham Church is in Revival this week.  They have asked our family to sing tonight and Saturday night.  Please pray for this revival.

And Please pray for IHC!

How we all Long for More of JESUS!!!!

~HEATHER~