The church in Littleton, New Hampshire is letting her light shine through Christians from the University of Arkansas who are here doing community service projects (pictured below). There are seven workers (three more to arrive later), including and under the guidance of Justus Bobo, campus minister at the University, along with his wife Bailey. They arrived Saturday, May 25 and are to work until they leave June 6.
As I write, early in the week, scrapped and painted the porch of a recent widow, did a tremendous work painting picket fences, porches and other parts of the house of a legally blind lady. They also did a tremendous job clearing under-brush from around the house of man who is in a motorized wheelchair because of his MS. They have installed several window air-conditioner units for those whose health keeps them from installing them. By the time they leave, they shall have done several other good works.
These contacts came from the ad we ran in House-to-House – Heart-to-Heart and the local paper. Because we ran the ad several weeks, the paper gave us one week free. The ad said college students were coming to do service projects for free, especially for vets, widows, and anyone who could not afford to pay someone to do the work. When the workers arrived, we had about a dozen jobs lined up. When those needing work would call, Weezie and I went to see each of them and met some of the most interesting people.
We are so pleased to have this group here doing these service projects. In a small town like Littleton, word will get around as to who did this work. We want the town to know we are here to serve the community, not only spiritually, but also physical. After the work is done, Weezie and I will take some literature giving information about the church that has been established here to all the families where the work has been done. It’s the first step in building relationships with people.
Who would like to bring a group to help us? If you want to mix the Lord’s work with a vacation, the fall, especially October, would be a fabulous time to come help us. Leaf colors will be fantastic. Contact me for more details.
We have been blessed through the service project contacts by having one lady who has attended the last two weeks of our Sunday afternoon Bible study at our house. We trust that she will continue to attend. She is retired from military service and for the past twenty-five years has volunteered to work for the vets to see that they get the benefits and honors they deserve. We seemed to have bonded with her from the first day we met. Please pray that Marilyn will continue attending these classes and that these may lead to one-on-one Bible studies and her conversion.
Teaching and Preaching
Our Thursday night Bible study has been working through the little book of Jude, which may be short, but is loaded to challenging truths. Quite often we have a visitor who is a leader in the United Church of Christ, a local denomi-nation. (We met him at a community game-might that is held at the community center the 2nd Friday night each month). He has a busy schedule but meets with us often. He sings in an outstanding community chorus. They recently had several concerts. Weezie, Mac and I attended one of them to continue to build our relationship with him.
Mac, Scott, and I rotate teaching the Thursday night class. Mac teaches the Wednesday night Bible class in Lancaster. I teach the Sunday morning class there and the three of us rotate preaching in Lancaster. Scott Johnson is a Bear Valley graduate who came to help the church in Lancaster about eight years ago. A few years ago, he got off church support when he went to work for the Post Office. He has recently been appointed Postmaster for the city of Pittsburg, NH. This town is the northernmost town in New Hampshire. It is only about 45 minutes from the Canadian border. He will be moving up there soon but plans to continue to make the 45-minute drive to Lancaster and the hour and fifteen-minute drive to Littleton to help us. He says, “Hey, I’m single, don’t even have a dog or a plant that keeps me from traveling and I love working with both churches.”
The first of May we began having our Sunday afternoon Bible studies in our house. Mac and I are teaching this class. We are working our way through the Sermon on the Mount. It is a great study, one that may attract others to attend.
Future Methods of Outreach
The author of the book Pollyanna, lived in Littleton. It is a story about a young girl who was made an orphan at an early age. She went to live with a grouchy-old-aunt. But Pollyanna was taught by her father to find something to be glad about, no matter how bad the situation. Through this philosophy she changed her aunt and the whole town. Because that author lived here, the town has adopted Pollyanna’s attitude and the second Saturday in June (June 8 this year) they have a day of festivity. We plan to mix and mingle with people that day. I reached out to the contact person for that event, asking if it was possible to have a booth in which to distribute religious literature. I never got a response. There is a strong opinion of some here against religions. That may be the reason I didn’t get an answer to my inquiry.
Also in June there is a motorcycle ride and the church in Lancaster sets up a booth for refreshment for anyone who wants to stop. In July, they also have a hamburger cook-out for First Responders. This Labor Day weekend there is a big fair in Lancaster and we have scheduled a booth to advertise the church.
In July the Littleton church is bringing in Denny Petrillo to do a “How We Got the Bible” seminar and we have another group of young people who are coming to help us. We continue to send out House-to-House – Heart-to-Heart on a regular basis and from this work, we receive a list of move-ins to which we call upon and give them a nice little gift.
Wayne and Weezie,
Your missionaries in New Hampshire
