As expected, my trip to Napa to be with the Hopewell Baptist Church family and their extremely “sedate” (yeah, right) Pastor Mike Ray was quite a fun experience. Anytime you spend two days’ worth of quality time with Pastor Mike Ray, it’s an experience. We had a wonderful service on Wednesday evening. The crowd was great, the spirit was wonderful, and the folks were fantastic. I preached, the altar was packed, and then we showed my video presentation. It was a great service. After the service someone–I have no idea who–handed me a note, which I put in my pocket and did not read for a few days. The note, among other things said, “Your message was such a blessing tonight. I walked through the doors broken and broke down and your message was so very encouraging. ….” Praise The Lord!!!

Note

On Thursday morning, I headed down to meet up with my wife at my daughter and son-in-law’s home in Orange Cove, California. I even brought her a dozen roses. She was a happy camper! After staying in Orange Cove for two days we headed to SO. CA. On Sunday we were in two different churches, including First Baptist Church of Long Beach. First Baptist Church is not only one of our supporting churches, but they have been our dear friends for well over 20 years. I had the opportunity to meet their new pastor. The church seems to be doing extremely well, and for this we praise The Lord!

Please continue to pray as God allows my wife and me to be a blessing to various churches on our travels!

While I was not able to be in attendance, Pacific Baptist Church of Long Beach celebrated their 26^th anniversary. I am sure it was a bittersweet experience especially for my brother’s family. So very grateful for the legacy of Pacific Baptist Church and my brother Pastor Joe Esposito. God has done some wonderful things through that ministry that continue on even today.

Please continue to pray for Pacific Baptist Church, my brother (a miracle needed), his family, and all of the ministries in Long Beach!

On Monday I had the opportunity to preach at Pacific Baptist Bible College. I preached a message “Dreaming Big and Living Radically for God.” It appears that God moved and for this I am grateful. I will be teaching two sessions and preaching again on Friday on the same topic.

Please pray that God uses this time with the PBBC students to inspire some future dreamers for God!

 It is so exciting to hear the tremendous reports from the restricted nation in which my wife and I served for 15 months. Our team is doing extremely well. In fact, God is doing some really good things there. The picture below is of a Monday evening prayer meeting after the evening English classes. They are praying for God to use them to reach their fellow students, as well as other nationals in this needy country.

The church, led by a national pastor [see picture below], that I had the opportunity and privilege to serve alongside of while in the country recently had three more new converts baptized. The small Bible Institute is going forward in training a handful of young men for the ministry. I am grateful that in recent days, because of sales from our books, we were able to send $500 to the country to help the Bible Institute, in addition to sending another $175 to barnabas1040.com.

Please continue to pray for our team in this restricted nation as well as the three different IB churches led by national pastors. Pray for God’s provision and protection for the nationals in this restricted nation!