A few updates from church first:
1) We debriefed with the messengers who went to the Southern Baptist Convention to represent us yesterday (one of the reasons that I wanted to wait until now to write this update).  Despite what you may have heard on the national news, the convention was unified on many important issues (every decision I'm aware of was made with more than 70% support, most of them with 90% or more of the messengers).

2) Things are going well with our building plan.  We're at the point of getting our drawings sent off to the architect and then we will be able to come up with some kind of budget for the building project.  It's very exciting to see how God is allowing everything to move forward and blessing us as we move through the approval process and as we have opened up a dedicated building fund.  I think it's fair to say that we've seen God do "exceedingly, abundantly above all we could ask or imagine" at this point.

3) We continue to grow having both a couple of child dedications and a baptism recently, and we have also welcomed several new members into our fellowship who have transferred their membership from other churches.  We're not really about counting heads, but all these things are an encouragement to our elders, and we rejoice along with them that we are seeing parents who are bringing their children to church and want to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the LORD, children, teens, and adults who are giving their lives to Christ and signifying that through believer's baptism, and people of like mind covenanting with us (see the What We Believe section of this website for some information about what I mean by this).

Now for a couple of things that you can pray for:
1) We still want to ask for prayer for the process of our building project.  No matter who you are or where you are, you can join us in prayer that God will show us how to best use this property and the building that we believe we are to build there.  Specifically pray as we reach out to our immediate neighbors and those in the housing development right behind this land.

2) For my family you can pray for us as we need to make some major house repairs over the next month.  I won't give details here as I'm not sure my parents want me to share that, but I think it's fair to say that God is giving us a chance to fully rely on Him to provide for us in this situation.  Specifically, these are two passages that are on our minds right now as we want to remember to have faith and not to worry.


Philippians 4:6
New International Version
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Matthew 6:25-34
New International Version

Do Not Worry
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

​28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.


2) I have a couple of relatives that are going through some medical procedures (again, I don't want to give too many details here).  Please pray for the doctors that are running the tests and treating them and for their families who are taking care of them and for their recoveries.

3) Please continue to pray for the men that I disciple online.  Whether it's that they are in a new position at work, or that there are not enough employees at work for the job that needs done, or if they are struggling with how to be a Chrisitan in their workplace, all of them have requests about being good ambassadors for Christ in their workplace, so this is a good way to pray for all of them.  Pray for their churches that they are members of (or seeking to become members of in some cases) that the leaders there would hold fast to biblical truth where we see that many churches are looking to culture and not the Word of God to define what they believe and how they should live out their faith.  Pray for their families as I believe all of them have family members who are not saved, and pray for them as they study the Word of God together that they will see clearly what God is trying to teach them and that they will receive the Word and put it into practice (we don't want to only be "hearers" of the Word, but also "doers" of the Word).

Those are my "big three" things you can pray for right now.  I look forward to updating you in future newsletters on how the Lord has worked in these situations.

It's hard to believe that we're nearly to the end of June already.  Some great things are going on that I'd like to share with you, and there are some items that I would like to ask you to pray about.

Continue to pray for me as I share the gospel at work and as we pray for the salvation of many friends and family members.  Discipleship starts with evangelism, but it doesn't end there.  That is why I've added a "What We Do" section to the website to covers evangelism techniques and describes a little bit about what we do to help with discipleship.  Discipleship is easier in some ways when you are living right alongside the person and have easy access to them, but harder in other ways when you are that close and don't want to jeopardize the relationship you have as friends, neighbors or coworkers.  We see that Paul had to mentor and disciple people over a long distance in the New Testament and used his epistles to do so.  He'd stay with one group for a while and work with them, then he'd move on to the next city, but he'd send the other cities letters as he remembered things he didn't get a chance to tell them, and they'd send letters to him with questions and concerns.  I've tried to set up the website in such a way that it allows for this kind of communication through the Contact Us form, and I now have a place to write open letters on topics related to faith, culture and apologetics when those questions are asked.

Things are progressing well for the church I attend in finding new land. We're at the point of getting plans approved by the city and county.  Since there was already an approved site plan that we haven't made any changes to, this process should be fairly straightforward.  We've also set up a building fund (the first time that we've ever had a fund separate from our General Fund for anything--typically we just allocated percentages of our General Fund to particular projects).  While decisions about the property and the exterior of the building are fairly certain, we will need to have decisions fairly soon about what kinds of things we want to do with the inside of the building so that we know what kind of spaces besides the sanctuary, Sunday School classrooms and fellowship hall are needed.  We then might need to designate certain items as "Phase 1" and others as "Phase 2" and maybe even come up with a "Phase 3."  It will depend on how the Lord leads us in whether we should only build with the money he has provided to us using the building fund and the designated funds for the building from the general fund, or if we should do something like mortgage the land to help build the building or get some other kind of loan to help us build the building (our local convention makes such building loans available sometimes where we are borrowing money from the convention and not from the bank, so the terms are much better).  Please pray for the elders and the members of the Facilities Oversight Group (I think that's still the name of the committee) that will help us decide how to lay out and maintain these new facilities to meet the needs of the church.  There will also be new needs in owning land and a building as we'll have to have people to help with buildings and grounds, maintenance, and basic custodial services that we've never really had a need to deal with before.  We're probably a couple years away from actually having a new building that we could meet in, but these are all issues we want to start praying about now as we are seeking for the Lord to lay it on people's hearts how they can use their gifts and talents with the new opportunities and challenges of having our own land and building.

Along that same line, I would like to ask you to continue to pray for God to make it evident to the congregation who we should be approaching to nominate as new deacons and elders as our deacons and elders are term-limited and many of them are reaching the end of their terms.  We can certainly go back to people who have served in these roles in the past and ask them if they would be willing to serve again, but the purpose of the term limits has been to give every generation the chance to listen to the call of the Holy Spirit when He tells them that He wants them to step up and serve as a deacon or elder.  As a sub-topic of this, I think we are looking for VBS workers and are praying for the children and their families who will be coming to VBS this year.  While we're thinking ahead of what things will look like in a couple years in what will hopefully be our new, "semi-permanent" home (we know that the new heavens and the new earth are truly our eternal and permanent home), there is still much that we need to do in the short-term with the resources we currently have available.

Those close to my family and those from my church are probably aware that my family is going to have to make some serious repairs to our home.  I won't go into all the details now other than to say that God has been good to us so far in taking care of the immediate need in a way that is beyond what we ever would have expected.  Now the major work needs to be done and we are trying to seek help from those who are qualified and will deal honestly with us.  We know it is going to be expensive and this is an issue of concern for my parents.  God has already shown us once in this process that He owns the cattle on a thousand hills and that He can do exceedingly, abundantly above all we can ask or imagine and we just need to trust Him again in this.  Please pray for us as we know God is stretching us beyond our means and abilities, but not beyond His means or abilities.

There are a couple of new members to our discipleship group.  I'm not sure I was able to tell you about them last time.  Again, I'll leave names for now.  One of them is a streamer who I have been watching play video games on Twitch for a bit and we are both members of a Discord server together.  He made it clear in his stream tags (things that identify and describe the stream and the streamer) that he is a Christian and that sets the tone for what kind of culture he wants to set for his stream.  He's also very open about that in his bio.  I reached out to him and let him know how encouraging this was as a fellow Christian and I've been able to give him access to online and printed discipleship materials (thanks to the support of my church).  This friend in particular has asked for prayer in udnerstanding what it means to call God Father,--I infer that this means he either has no father-figure in his life or has a father but they are not a good example to him of what it means for a father to love His children.  I believe this man has his own family now and desires to be a good father to his children and to let them see the love of God (though it be an imperfect representation) by the way he loves them.

Another friend of mine recently joined the weekly ZOOM Bible study for the first time.  he is the only Christian in his immediate family and he wants to be engaged in daily Bible study, regular church attendance, desires to be a member of a church so that there will be personal accountability and discipline, and he desires to become a man of God who need not be ashamed so that his words and his conduct speak in concert.  He also desires, after letting the Lord work on him, to meet a Christian woman so that he can be the husband and father that he believes that God is calling him to be.  Pray specifically for the salvation of his family members and for wisdom as he desires to be a bold witness for Christ, but is limited by rules about this where he works (I won't say too much about that).

I also got the chance to introduce one of the ZOOM Meeting members to many of the people at church who have been praying for him.  He came with some other friends to visit Busch Gardens and Kings Dominion and since the place I currently worship is pretty close to Kings Dominion and they were planning to go to Kings Dominion on Sunday, I offered to pick him up from his hotel, take him to Sunday School and church, and then take him to the park.  It's always good for people to be able to put a face with a name and get to know who they are praying for.  I hope for the opportunity for many other friends to not just get to come and visit me and my family so we can talk to them about Jesus, but get to come to church and see us worship together as that tells an even deeper story as we don't just preach the gospel, but we sing it, speak it to each other, pray it, and participate in it through the giving of our tithes and offerings.  It is also evident when people look at us and say, "See how they love each other" (not a direct quote, but just an impression that I believe many walk away with).  I pray for each of the men in the group, both young and old, to be able to be members of a church where they can say the same things and they feel comfortable inviting others to "Come and see" the gospel in action in the lives of those who worship Him and call Him both Savior and Lord.  "Back to Church Sunday" is not that far away and neither is the "Who's Your One?" campaign to be intentional to pray for just one person that you know who isn't saved for 30 days and pray that the Lord would show you how to reach them with the gospel.  We also know that Fall is the best time statistically to invite people to come to church with us.  Summer vacations are over, the weather is good, kids are starting new grade levels and are excited to be in Sunday School classes with new friends, and parents are looking to get involved and get their kids signed up for lots of additional extra-curricular church activities.  However, summer is really important with Vacation Bible School and Backyard Bible Clubs.  Hopefully all of you are already being intentional to reach out to your neighbors, but this is especially a time we focus on reaching children and parents whose children will be the next generation of members and leaders in the Church.

 This update will be much shorter than most newsletters, but it is necessary to write a short newsletter about the updates I am making to the website.  I am moving as much of the information that was meant for public consumption that has been housed on the Discipleship Discord server to this website.  That means some reorganization in the site navigation, an additional publication, and some additional resources and information that should be appearing here over the coming month.

Some of the content that I'm moving to the website needs to be behind a login due to licensing agreements that I have with the publisher.  For that reason there is now an option to register directly on the website.  It doesn't cost anything to register and I don't intend to use your registration for any other reason, but it is possibly that Weebly may use this information for marketing or sell this information to advertisers to make revenue.  For that reason you may want to register with a "burner" account that you only use for registration for websites, apps, and social media so that you don't get advertising emails clogging up your inbox.

The other major change is that I've split the math tutoring portion off as its own website that is now at http://mathmandan.weebly.com.  That ministry is still an extension of my discipleship ministry, but I wanted to make a website that uses the same "handle" (nickname) that I use other places on the internet.  I've also made my YouTube account use this handle to make it easier for those that know me from Discord and Twitch to find me there.  I'm doing something similar there in that I am taking my YouTube playlists and embedding the videos directly on the webpage for each class to make it easier for users to find the resources they are looking for.

That's it for now.  I hope to write another newsletter with ministry updates later this month or the beginning of next month.  Thank you all for your prayers and support.  Please reach out to me using the new Contact Us form if you have any comments or questions.

It's almost the end of May, but it's time for an update as I have some exciting news to share with everyone.  First, we have broken ground at our location for what we hope to be the new and permanent location of Harvest Christian Fellowship.  For years we've been renting/leasing space from schools, businesses, and even other churches, but it looks like God is opening doors and making a way for us to have our own property and building that we can use throughout the week which will allow us to do things that we've not been able to do "on campus" before.  I'll include some pictures of the new property from our Easter Egg Hunt event.

As for the discipleship ministry that I have, we are continuing to make our way through the Bible.  We recently finished the book of Revelation, and the members of the ZOOM Bible study asked to study the book of Exodus (probably because they heard how much I referenced it in the book of Revelation and how the LORD's salvation and redemption of Israel shows us how He has always planned to save and redeem a people unto Himself, how the day of salvation of His people will be the day of His wrath and judgment for those who are not His people, and how He has prepared a place for us that He will secure for us to be our eternal inheritance).  They recently studied the story of Passover, and that study was led by one of the Elders at Harvest Christian Fellowship, Barry Taylor.  The members present all said they had never so clearly seen Christ in Passover before and didn't' realize how many times Passover is mentioned in the New Testament, and how important it is to not just Jews, but Christians also because Christ is our Passover Lamb.  We've talked about the crossing of the Red Sea and the LORD making the bitter water sweet and will soon be studying the living water that was provided from the rock (that is Christ) and the kind of people that LORD wanted the people called by His Name to be.  At that point it was the nation of Israel, but we too are His people called by His Name, and He also desires us to be a royal priesthood (just see 1 Peter 2 where Peter uses the same words of Exodus 19 to describe God's desire for us as Christians if you have never seen this connection).  It is an exciting journey for these men as they see how the Old Testament is not just the story of the Jews, but it is the story of Christ at work in His people that He chose by election, just like He is at work in His people today, though we understand that what God "began" in the Old Testament has its completion and fulfillment in Christ.  We await the ultimate fulfillment that we studied together in the book of Revelation where we will all be saved from the presence of sin and will live in the Promised Land of the New Jerusalem in the midst of God the Father and God the Son forever and ever.

God is also bringing new people to me on a regular basis whether that is through tutoring, the roller coaster enthusiast group I manage on Discord, or running into other Christians as I'm watching people play video games on Twitch and having conversations with them about how we can encourage one another in an environment that is fairly hostile to biblical Christianity (Is there really any other kind?  It's a shame I feel the need to put that qualifier on it, but there are many that are "Christians" in name only that preach a false gospel that are more than comfortable in the culture created on Twitch).  I look forward to cultivating these new relationships and for God to bring more people to me this summer as summer classes just started on Monday.  Please pray for me as I act as an ambassador or the King and His Kingdom wherever I am--at work, at home, at church, and, yes, even online.

My family situation has not changed much.  Continue to pray for those that I have mentioned before.  There are many in my family and others close to our family though not related by blood who need salvation.  Others who are friends of mine are looking for churches to join.  Pray for them as, for some, this is their first time making such a commitment to come under the authority of a local congregation.  Some are desiring Christ to be glorified and at the center of new relationships that are forming.  Others are struggling with the loss of family members.  Still others are in need of physical healing.  If you can think of a way to pray for someone, there is probably someone directly connected to our discipleship group that needs that kind of prayer.  I don't know every need that everyone has, but the Holy Spirit does, and He knows all of the members and those that their hearts are burdened for by name.  Thank you for joining with us in lifting up these requests even in this manner that is "unspoken."  If you don't know any other way to pray for me and the members of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Mechanicsville, Virginia, here is a model given by the Apostle Paul to the Colossians:


Colossians 1:3-14
New International Version

Thanksgiving and Prayer
3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, 4 because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people-- 5 the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel 6 that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. 7 You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, 8 and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

​9 For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, 10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, 11 being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

A newsletter is long overdue.  Apologies for missing the one that should have been written last quarter in January.  Here's an update for those of you who are partnered with this ministry through prayer.

Updates for how to pray for my local church:
1) A huge item of praise that in January we had Pastor Kyle Smith join us at Harvest Christian Fellowship as our new full-time pastor.  Please pray for Pastor Kyle and his family.  You can read more about him here.
2) Things are progressing well with the property we recently purchased and with the warmer weather, we intend to have a dedication ceremony sometime after Easter (I believe in April).  Please pray for us as we seek to build there to reach out to the neighbors and the community.
3) Continue to pray for men and women to step up to be disciple-makers.  Evangelism is hard, but discipleship is much harder and "messier" as we live life alongside each other.
4) Pray for the next generation of leaders who are being prepared to serve in various ways.  We don't know who all of them are, but the Lord does, and we know that He will equip those who He calls to serve.  Pray for us that those who hear the call will respond in obedience.
5) Pray for our youth as they are going through a curriculum on Apologetics.  We desire for them to know what they believe and why they believe it, especially before we send them off to college or into the workplace, but even as we prepare them for the battlefield many are in as they go to school.  The Christian worldview they are taught at church (and hopefully at home) is questioned on a daily basis just like the serpent who tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden when he said, "Did God really say,....?"  Please pray for our youth as they learn what it means to have a biblical worldview and how they are to contend for the faith, and to always be ready to give an answer for the reason for the hope that they have.

I continue to meet with a small group for Bible study on Tuesday and and different group on Wednesday.  As I mentioned above, the Tuesday night group is now in Exodus.  The Wednesday night group is in the book of Acts.  As a family we are studying the book of Joshua, and I am personally making my way through 1 and 2 Kings on the website.  I also continue to talk to many on a regular basis through Discord.  This week I got to share with many of them how I had epilepsy as a child that was so severe that the experts didn't expect me to live, and if I did live they expected me to have no higher brain function.  I made sure to tell them this was my testimony and to give glory to God for me being alive.  All that came out of a conversation of a Subway employee in the server who saw a customer have a grand mal seizure in front of him and it rattled him a little bit.  That server in particular is full of people who are not Christians (we all like the same video games).

I also had the chance this week to speak to a friend about what happened at Asbury College (many are calling it a "revival," but I'm not so quick to label it that way).  Much of what I said to him privately, I turned into a public message on Facebook (not naming him at all) and copied it as a separate Journal Article here on the website.  You can read that here:  Saving Faith Leads to Obedience.  The Lord know who those are that I had in mind that are caught up in the false gospels that I mentioned in this post.  Some are family, some are friends, some are probably co-workers, and some are those that I'm connected to only through the internet.

Please also be in prayer for our church's ministry at a homeless shelter for veterans called Liberation Veteran Services.  One night a month (the fourth Saturday of every month) we go and serve the men dinner and share the gospel with them while they eat.  We have had some encouraging conversations with a small group of them, but we don't have long-term relationships with these men as they are in and out rather quickly.  Please pray for these men to be connected with a church that preaches, teaches, believes and lives according to the Word of God and will disciple them to do the same.  It is hard to get to speak to them maybe once or twice and never see them again, but one man plants, and another waters, but it is the Lord that gives the increase.


1 Corinthians 3:5-9
English Standard Version5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building.

Please continue to pray for our missionaries around the world.  Specifically, our church as missionaries working in Tanzania that I probably have mentioned before.  The country is under severe drought and while the seminary they work at is okay for now, the people in the surrounding area are not okay.  Please also pray for our missionaries in East Asia, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe (I won't mention any more specifics about any of them) as well as our missionaries that work with the International Missions Board giving leadership and training to other missionaries and those who are helping to plant churches in other parts of the world.  It's also the time of year for the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering with support our North American Missions Board (NAMB).  Those interested in supporting our "local" church planters and missionaries may give a tax-deductible donation at https://www.anniearmstrong.com/ (100% of your gift goes to support our NAMB missionaries and this one offering typically provides 50% of the funding for our NAMB missionaries).

Thanks to all who regularly pray for me and those that I minister to and who are praying for my family (especially for those praying for the unsaved members of my family).  Please continue to pray for the Lord to open doors for me to share the gospel with others (especially online, as that is where I feel my "mission field" is) and to encourage those I come in contact with to not only repent and believe but also be obedient as was His command in The Great Commission "Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."

It has been a while since I shared an update, and I am sorry to those who have been relying on these updates to know how to pray for me and the ministries I'm involved in.  Let me break things down ministry by ministry.

Harvest Christian Fellowship:  Thank you to everyone who is praying for the church.  We continue to ask for prayer in several areas, but especially in the following areas:  Our Pastoral Transition Assistance Team (the search committee responsible for searching for and interviewing pastoral candidates), our Future Facilities Team, Sunday School, Community Groups (that are just starting up again), our sister-church in Belarus, the other local local ministries we support and the missionaries that are working locally and around the world that we support.  You can find more information on the missions and missionaries that we support by visiting our website at https://hcfellowship.com/.  Please also continue to pray for our interim Pastor, Stephen Felker as he seeks to convey all to us that the LORD has laid on his heart during the time that he has left with us as he will no longer be our interim pastor once a full-time pastor is hired is nominated by the search committee, presented to the congregation, and approved of and hired by the congregation.

99-1 Discipleship Discord and Website Ministry:  I still have two men that are consistently meeting with me on a weekly basis.  We continue to study books of the Bible in a verse-by-verse format, but they do give some input into what books of the Bible they would like to study next.  We are currently about halfway through our study of the book of Revelation.  My main focus for these men is to see how Jesus meant for this letter to the early churches (and to the Church today) to be a message of hope.  Too often we read this letter like we are one of the members of the world that is under condemnation and wrath, but Romans 8:1 tells us that there is now no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus.  This message is also part of the "good news" or gospel message, and we are promised in Revelation 1:3, "3 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near."  So then, this the perfect message for us during these times that we are in right now that don't look that different than the times that these early churches found themselves in, and many of the descriptions of the seven churches would adequately describe the various conditions of our local churches today (maybe we are mostly like one of them or some mixture of several of them, but the Lord's message to us has not changed throughout the ages).

On the website, I am making my way through the books of History in the Old Testament, currently in the book of Judges.  We have seen as we finished our study of Joshua and now as we are studying Judges that the LORD was faithful to keep and deliver on the covenant that He made with Israel even though it was a conditional covenant that they did not deserve to receive, because they were never truly able to keep their end of the covenant.  Now the LORD is using the enemies that the people failed to drive out to punish them for their wickedness, but one by one, those enemies are being driven out and defeated so that eventually the people are defeating most of the people groups that they were originally commanded to conquer during the times of Moses and Joshua.  God is using imperfect judges to accomplish these purposes and to call His people back to obedience to the Law, yet over and over again we see the people return to paganism and idolatry as the people do not seem to be transformed in the long-term.  They experience short-term external behavior modification, but that lasts only as long as the Judge is in authority and they fear punishment for doing wrong.  Almost as soon as that Judge dies, the people no longer remember or obey the LORD and do what is right in their own eyes and start acting like the pagan people that they have chosen to live among.  We no longer live in a theocracy like ancient Israel did, but we still face the same issues about failing to teach the covenant to future generations, making the truth of the "gospel" all about what we lived to and experienced so that younger generations can't grasp onto it, and that as we live among a godless culture we need to be in the world, but not of the world (Romans 12:2, which was Pastor Felker's sermon text this morning).  We are seeing the moral decline not only of our culture, but also of those who claim to be members of the Church.  Are we really part of the people of God if we fail to love Him and keep His commandments?  Those are the marks that Jesus says are marks of His true disciples.  That takes me to an additional item I'll include this time that I did not include as part of the regular Harvest Christian Fellowship update.

9 Marks Conference:  I had the opportunity to go to the 9 Marks conference at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary this past weekend.  The 9Marks at Southeastern 2022 videos are not yet available to watch on YouTube, but they should be uploaded to a playlist in the near future.  Keep an eye on this link and watch for them so you can hear from the same men that I did:  https://www.youtube.com/c/9MarksBuildingHealthyChurches/playlists.  I'll probably write something extra about this when those videos come out.  Suffice it to say though that we heard and saw things that encouraged us as brothers and sisters from many denominations (though mostly Southern Baptists) joined together to learn about what the "marks" of a healthy church are.  For information about each of the nine "marks," (as well as a video on each), you can visit https://www.9marks.org/about/the-nine-marks/.  The video playlist that's coming will feature at least the 30-minute video for each of the 9 marks as they did an overview of all 9 this year, and possibly some of the panel discussions afterwards, which I found to be even more informative on some levels as you got the perspective of many of the panelists in real-life situations on how these principles are put into practice in a local church.

Wednesday Night Men's Bible Study (ZOOM):  We'll be starting again this coming week and will be studying the book of Acts together.  Please pray for us as we study together that God will reveal to us how He plans for us to continue to take the gospel to the whole world as the book of Acts seems to have been written in way where Luke says that it is only the beginning of the work that Jesus would do through the Holy Spirit and where there seems to be a definite end to the time of the Apostles (with a capital 'A'), we continue on mission as the local church under the commission of Jesus Christ to His Church in Matthew 28 and Acts 1, and through the gifting and power of the Holy Spirit to be His ambassadors as we continue to take the gospel across the street and around the world.  It is a task unfinished much like the task of conquering the Land in the book of Joshua and Judges.

Tutoring at Reynolds Community College:  My work is picking up now as some of the later sessions have started--we now not only offer 15-week full-term classes, but shorter/intensive 12-week and 7-week sessions.  Our first 7-week sessions are drawing to an end, and the second 7-week sessions will be beginning next month as we are about halfway through our semester already (we end the beginning of December).  More students give me more students to interact with, but it's a little harder to get those one-on-one discussions with students that I want for evangelism and discipleship opportunities.  However, one of the big takeaways from the 9 Marks conference that I went to this past weekend is that we often think of evangelism as that one moment of conversion when the person says "Yes" to the gospel, but out of the over 500 Christians in the room, only one of them raised his hand to say that he repented and believed the gospel the very first time it was ever presented to him.  That's not the story for most of us, as we may hear the gospel (or at least have "nuggets" of the gospel planted) 20, 30, 40, or 50 or more times before we finally say "Yes."  I may not have as many opportunities now to be the one to reap the harvest, but please continue to pray for me that I would be faithful to sow the seed as the Lord gives me opportunity and that I would be faithful to "water" what others have planted as well even if another is the one to eventually be there for the harvest, and in all this to give thanks to the The Lord of the Harvest who is the one who changes the heart of men and makes the gospel effectual in our lives, giving the "increase" of a life that is changed into the likeness of the Son of God Himself.

Continue to pray as well for those that I work with that they would truly understand and believe the gospel.  For some of them, this is easier than for others because some of them must first be convinced they are not saved before being told how they can be saved while others have come having never heard the gospel and it is easier for them to see the depravity of man and the solution that the cross provides (though it is still foolishness to this world).  There are also many personal issues I will not mention her for each of tutors, especially for those that are still students and have classes and everything that comes with them to manage on top of work, family, and other obligations.  Please also pray for those that are in leadership over me that the Lord would bless them and give them His wisdom.

Other Online Ministry Opportunities:  I'm still engaged in other Discord communities--most of them centered around video games, and one related to the roller coaster enthusiast website that I used to own.  I may never have described how God has allowed me to use video games.  Most streamers play video games after work as a way to decompress.  Those that are "professional streamers" are much harder to speak to as they have larger communities, but I try to focus on the ones with smaller communities where I can help them with moderation and building their community (which puts me in a role of helping set the tone and the culture for their stream).  I then make every effort that I can to be present when they are streaming to talk to them and their community members which can lead to discussions that we want to have through Direct or Private Message through Discord.  Once they connect with me there, they can see my "About Me" on Discord which gives them access to this website as well as a link to my YouTube channel (which contains a lot of gospel-centered video educational videos) and access to my dedicated Discipleship Discord server where they can come to learn about the Bible, ask questions if they are curious about anything and seek to grow, even if they are still in the process of the seed becoming a stalk of grain that has not yet produced a head of grain yet.  Hopefully those I spend the most time with online see that my words and my actions work in concert with one another to show and tell the gospel, and where I fail in that area (because I still battle with sin and "fall short") that the Lord is still able to use that for His glory as it is an opportunity to confess, repent, and submit to the Lord.

Family Devotions:  I don't think I've had an opportunity to share this in a previous newsletter, but for a little over a month now, we've been reading and studying a chapter an evening from the book of Genesis.  It has been a blessing to us as we make this the last thing that we do together as a family before we go to bed.  We started with Genesis because that is the last book of the Bible that we partially studied together in the Wednesday Night Men's Bible Study (we only studied chapters 1-11), but my dad wanted my mom to be able to hear some of the things we had talked about and he wanted to be able to ask other questions and give us as much time as we needed to spend in the text with no time limit (in our Bible study we were trying to always be done by 8:30, but definitely 8:45).  The regret that we've had so far is that we never did this before.  We were encouraged to each have devotions individually (and I still do), but only recently did we take time to schedule out of day to come together around God's Word as a family.  We should be finishing the book of Genesis sometime next month and I look forward to updating you on where God takes us next.

Sorry that it's been so long since I have provided an update here.  I will give a short update here to let you know that Summer Session finished well and Fall Semester is just around the corner for me.  I had contact with many more students over the summer than I expected and got to have some good gospel-centered conversations with several students and co-workers.  I'd say that nearly all my co-workers have something going on in their lives right now that we could be praying about whether it is the health of one of their parents, a marriage that is in trouble, going away to college and being away from home for the first time, or new job opportunities as one person that I worked with previously has transferred from our division to another division of the school (though I may actually see more of this coworker now).  Many of these co-workers are also trying to figure out how to be fulltime students in the midst of everything else going on in their lives.  Please pray for all of them that they will have their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs met by the Lord first and foremost.

Please continue to pray for Harvest Christian Fellowship as we continue to search for a full-time pastor.  We have good news when it comes to buying the land that I mentioned in a previous newsletter.  We are officially land owners now as of the beginning of this week (that's one of the reasons I delayed in writing this update, as I wanted to be able to share this good news with you) and we are now looking at how we should best care for and maintain that land until we are ready to build on it.

We also want to ask for prayer as we are also keeping an eye out for who the Lord wants to have serve as deacons and elders.  Our deacons and elders serve three-year terms and some of them are close to the end of their terms (I know many of them will continue to help out as they are able even after their terms are up, but we desire for others in the congregation to get involved and have their spiritual gifts recognized and put to use as well).  Pray for the Lord to make it clear to those whom He wants to have serve and to those who are looking to make nominations.  We find that often the ones that He brings to our minds to speak to are the ones He is already speaking to Himself, but somehow they are waiting or looking for some kind of confirmation that comes in the way of someone asking them about if they had considered serving in that particular role.

My online ministry is going well as we continue to study the book of Revelation on Monday nights.  The Wednesday night Bible study that I was a part of decided to take a break for the month of August as many were going on vacation this month.  We'll be speaking again soon about whether we want to continue to meet online or want to go back to in-person meetings at a local church that hosted us in the past.  We'll also discuss what book of the Bible we want to study next.

Last, but not least, please continue to be in prayer for the members of my family that I have mentioned previously.  My sister and her family from Philadelphia and my aunt in Ohio and their family members.  The needs are different for each, but there are needs for both families to see members of the family be born again and to see the power of the gospel at work in their lives.  Please also pray for my father's friend and co-worker from Texas as he seeks to understand the Bible and what it truly means to be a Christian as he has had many people close to him sharing a false gospel with him, and he wants to understand what the Bible says so that he not only can believe it for himself, but so that he can teach it to his grandchildren while he still has some time to do so.  He is in poor health and may not have many more years of life left (my dad's friend and co-worker).  All these items are in the hands of the Lord, but I pray that God will not only use us, but other Christians in the lives of these that live far away from us as it is often times challenging for us to witness to and disciple those who live far away.

First, I want to thank everyone for their faithful prayers for me, my church and the work of this ministry.  I have some good news to share with you this time, both in the form of promising updates and some answered prayer requests.

I am back at work for the summer and things are going very well so far.  I am already getting opportunities within the first week to share the gospel with my co-workers as they are asking questions about the nature of sin and evil.  For context for those reading this later, there were several mass shootings recently, the most recent of which at the time that I'm writing this was at an elementary school in Texas.  This is a time when many hearts are softened to hear about the reality of the brokenness around us, the origins of that brokenness, and the solution that God provided through Jesus' perfect life, His death and His resurrection.

Our church could still use your prayers as we are looking for a full-time pastor.  The selection committee is getting close to bringing a candidate forward for the approval of the congregation,  Please also continue to pray for us as we are in negotiations to purchase land for a more permanent facility for us to use.as we meet together for regular times of worship and fellowship throughout the week.  We also are getting ready for our Summer Vacation Bible School program (VBS) where we meet with the kids once a week for several weeks.  We pray that this ministry not only reaches these children, but also their parents as God often uses the children to get the parents to come to church and hear the gospel preached.

We are making good progress in studying the book of Genesis on Wednesdays and the book of Revelation on Mondays.  Our Monday studies will be put on hold for the next few weeks as the members of that group are taking vacations with family and friends now that it's the unofficial beginning of summer.  We'll resume those lessons again on June 13th for anyone who is interested.  The Gospel Foundation videos are all posted to Discord now and I am also adding notes from a course on Biblical Interpretation to the Discord group as I'm taking it this summer through my local church.  Please contact me through Discord if you're interested in the Monday-night study of Revelation.  We're just getting started, so there's plenty of time for you to join.

As I write this, I am now between semesters at college (our Summer 2022 session will begin on May 23rd).  God gave me some great opportunities to work with students during the Spring semester.  I'm looking forward to working with some of them again in the Summer and some of them in the Fall, but others have completed their last mathematics course and some graduated and are moving on to other colleges and universities.  Pray especially for these students whether they are finishing their degree locally or away from home that they will be able to be connected with a church and maybe even campus ministry teams that will be able to assist in teaching them sound doctrine, giving them fellowship with other Christians, giving them opportunities to pray with other Christians, and the opportunity to be benevolent in taking care of the needs of others (as well as the chance to have other looking out for them if they have needs while they are at school, especially if they are away from home).  You may have never thought of this kind of a ministry before, but having a small group of college students that you "parent" while they are away from home can be something wonderful for them and you.  If you live close to a college or university, I encourage you to look into leading a Bible study in your home.  Give the students a home-cooked meal, and let them know they can call you or come over to see you if anything comes up.  Let them see you interacting with your family as it may help some of them realize for the first time what a godly marriage and godly family looks like, and encourage them to use their spiritual gifts to lead and to serve, both in their churches and in their communities.  As always, I'd recommend doing this through your local church and giving others the opportunity to be involved as well.  There is even a great need to reach out to and mentor the leaders of the "Christian" ministry teams that are on campus.  Imagine being in a position where your job was to lead and disciple others, but you had never been discipled yourself.  That is where some if not most of these ministry team leaders find themselves.  As youth, no one discipled them beyond telling them to go to Sunday School or some after school program, or to go to a youth group meeting.  That may be the only pattern they know how to follow, but I doubt any of us would find that to be enough--we need people we can live alongside every day in light of this verse, "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

As I look forward to Summer, 2022 there are additional opportunities that present themselves for me to have contact with students who are fresh out of high school and seeking to start college.  Many of them will be eager for community after having lived life through ZOOM for the past couple of years.  We can use this time to help pray for these students who will be coming into our sphere of ministry and ask God how He wants us to minister to them.  Many colleges and universities have a day when registered organizations can come on campus to let students (especially new students) know about who they are and what they do.  The event usually is some form of a "Block Party" or "Fall Kickoff" event or something of the sort.  If your church feels so inclined to participate in such an event, make sure you register with the college or university in advance.  You can also hold off-campus events at your church that would be appealing to these students.  I was part of a church once with a large college ministry where the church had its own tour bus that would be able to sleep everyone and we were able to take trips over the summer when students were out of school to places like Chicago, Niagara Falls, and places that were more local like the beach and local amusement parks.  Getting these young adults in the doors of a church because they want to come is important at this age.  Giving them connections to other friends at school that they know they will see at church and giving them leaders in the church to specifically work with them is one of the best ways to help them feel like they belong.

As for my Discord communities and other Bible studies, the group I meet with on Mondays has decided they want to study the book of Revelation.  I was a little surprised by this request, but it's a book that I have wanted to study with them for a while because it is a message of encouragement for us as we go through challenging and difficult times as a church and we hear directly from the Lord as to what He would say to churches like ours today.  There is an urgency that we face to take the gospel to all nations because we don't have forever, and yet there is a certainty that end will not come until God says it is the right time and that everything is proceeding according to His plan and is totally within His control.  Those of us who are in Christ have nothing to fear because like Noah and his family, we will be safe inside the Ark that is Christ.  We know that persecution and trials will come because the Lord promised them to us, and we can look to the signs that the Lord gives us that the end is near, but we do not need to see these things with the fear and panic that the world does--for they also have a fixation on the end times now.  We'll likely be studying Revelation for the rest of this calendar year--probably a bit loner and we may even take a full year to study it.  I am glad that God has put the same desire in my heart as He has in the heart of those attending the study to read and study this book that comes with a promise to those that read its words.

On Wednesdays we continue to study the first eleven chapters of the book of Genesis.  We are making slow progress, but it has led to some good and positive conversations both online and offline about things like the clarity and inerrancy of Scripture, and how that should affect our biblical hermeneutics when it comes to these passages.  What implications are there for saying that these chapters are more mythological or allegorical than saying they are historical?  Do we first presuppose the Bible to be true and interpret all other "facts" and philosophies through the lens of Scripture, or do we let the world tell us their "facts" and philosophies and try to interpret the Bible in light of them?  These first eleven chapters of Genesis tell us the beginning of everything for all of us--all the nations of the world that come from a common ancestor.

Our country is at a point now where everything that is taught in Genesis is questioned and substituted with a counterfeit version.  Creation has been substituted with Darwinian Evolution and the "scientists" are the priests and clerics of this atheistic religious system.  We are at a time when a Supreme Court nominee can no longer define the difference between a man and a woman because she "is not a biologist."  Life which God created and which He commanded that no one has the right to take away, except in the specific cases where God commanded His people to go to war or to use capital punishment or in self-defense under the Law has been made into a the "right" for a woman to abort a baby in the womb and the "right" in many places in the world for a hospital to determine that they will end the life of a patient who is chronically ill, elderly, or who has some kind of deformity or disability because their score for their "quality of life' is too low to justify the cost of keeping them alive.  This goes even further in some areas of the world where in some countries citizens now have the "right" to go to a doctor to get a prescription for a medication that will kill them--all they have to do is to tell the doctor they no longer want to live and the doctor and pharmacist are compelled to go along with the request--sometimes the doctor or hospital even administers the lethal dose of medication.  The world is exchanging the truth of God for a lie (Romans 1) and is calling evil good and good evil (Isaiah 5:20).  So what are we to do as Christians?  We are to be salt and light in our communities and to share the gospel with them.  We are to unashamedly proclaim the existence of God and the inspiration, authority, inerrancy and perspicuity of God's Word.  We must not only claim these essential doctrines, but we must live by them so that we our not hypocrites where our mouths say one thing, but our lives say another.  We must desire to see individuals changed from the inside out as they too come out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His marvelous light so that they will no longer walk according to their flesh, but that they will be controlled by the Spirit.  We must proclaim the truth in love and we must make sure that in all things we do it all in a way that brings glory to God and shows people the truth of the gospel that we claim no only to believe with our hearts and minds, but that we claim that has transformed us and made all things new.

In addition to the "culture war" issues that we see, the first eleven chapters of Genesis lay the foundation for the gospel.  God mad us perfectly without sin, but as sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, all creation fell and was broken because of Adam's sin.  We are unable to fix ourselves and we all stand condemned even before our first sin that we commit because we were born as sinners (Original Sin) and as such none of us that are sinners can do anything to fix the problem of sin because sin must be covered by a blood sacrifice of an innocent animal (God set this example for us when He told Adam and Eve that their coverings of fig leaves were unacceptable and God killed an animal and made a clothes to cover their nakedness).  We see that God judges the wicked, yet He is faithful to provide salvation for a remnant and that He does all the work necessary to preserve and protect those He has put into His Ark of Salvation in Genesis 6-9.  I'll probably share a few more details about Genesis 6-11 in the next couple of newsletters/updates as we'll be covering those chapters in the next few weeks.

As I study Revelation on Monday nights we will see many of the same themes from Genesis and Exodus., except we see Jesus as the one who is Redeemer, King, and Creator (He is the one who is making all things new).  We see God saving His remnant, executing justice and pouring out His wrath on the wicked, and we even see a garden city that we live in with the Father and the Son where the Tree of Life will be.  The serpent that we are introduced to in Chapter 3 of the book of Genesis is defeated along with all of the angels that rebelled with him.  What we see that's different is that there is no longer a Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in this new garden city.  There is no longer any opportunity for us to sin and we are in a permanent position of being in right relationship with God because we have been made in the image of Christ.

I believe that's it for this update, but, as always, please let me know if you have specific questions or would like updates on any of the prayer requests that I have shared previously.

I hope all of you had a Happy Good Friday and Resurrection Day this month.  There are lots of things to be thankful for and that we remember this time of year.  First and foremost is that we remember the sacrifice of Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament feast of Passover.  He is the Passover Lamb that whose blood marks His people so that death, judgment, and condemnation will pass over them.  It was at this feast that the LORD was first called the Redeemer of His people.

This is the time of year when we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus.  Without the resurrection, we would be a people most miserable, because we would still be dead in our trespasses and sins, but did you know that the Resurrection fulfilled another Old Testament feast called the Feast of Firstfruits?  Jesus is the first and best of the harvest that is that there will be many others that likewise will be raised to new life and receive a body meant for the kingdom of God, and His resurrection is a sign and a promise that an even greater harvest is coming.  One day, those who are in Christ will gather together from every tribe, tongue, nation and ethnicity to sing their salvation song (just like the song that the Israelites sang when God drowned the Egyptians in the Red Sea).  This is a time where those of us who were dead in our trespasses and sins have been made alive in Christ--a life that is both abundant and everlasting.

We also see the rain this time of year and remember that God will never again judge the earth in the same manner that He did during the Flood, yet even in the Flood we remember that He provided an Ark of salvation that pointed forward to how all those who are in Christ will be pass through the judgment safely while those outside of Christ will be destroyed.  The same can be said for the children of Israel while they were in Egypt and how God kept them safe from all the plagues in the land of Goshen, and the same will be true in the end times as all those who are in Christ have nothing to fear of the coming judgment that is reserved for those who are the enemies of God.

There is also much we can pray about individually and corporately.  We pray for the peace of Israel as we are commanded to in the Bible, yet we know that there will not be true peace until the Prince of Peace sits on the throne of His father David.  So, we pray "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."  Let all of heaven and earth be subject to their Maker, Creator, Ruler and Sustainer.  Let all who  have life and breath use it to confess their sins, cry out in repentance for salvation, and together praise the LORD with the words of Exodus 15:2, "The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him."

However, we know we are in a time where rebellion against God increases and as a result there is greater chaos and calamity.  We see wars and hear of rumors of wars and there is one natural disaster after another.  All these things that should grab people's attention and call them to repent and believe the gospel are having less and less of an impact people people would rather put their hope in anyone or anything else other than to put their hope in God right now.  So, we continue to pray for Ukraine and for Belarus, and for China, and for Russia, and so many other places around the world where we know there to be strife.  We pray specifically for the missionaries and pastors in those areas that they would stand up and be strong under the persecution that they are facing.  We pray for this persecution to be used in a good way to refine the people of God and for the false teachers and false prophets to be exposed, and we pray for many people to be drawn to the LORD because they see that the thing that they were trusting in is unable to save them.

​Please continue to pray with me for those who I am ministering to and for those in my sphere of influence that I am trying to reach with the gospel who are unsaved.  Please also continue to pray for the congregation I meet with for worship on Sundays as God is taking us through a time of transition both in finding a new full-time pastor and we are also looking to move to and build a new facility.

There is no much else to update you on right now.  We are still studying Genesis in the Men's Bible study on Wednesday nights, and we are still working our way through Nehemiah on Monday nights with the group from the 99-1 Discipleship Discord.  We are thinking of studying the book of Revelation after we have finished the book of Nehemiah.  We are still studying the Capitol Hill Baptist Church's Core Seminar Series on Living as a Church (https://www.capitolhillbaptist.org/resources/core-seminars/series/living-as-a-church/).