God is Bigger Than the Weather
Our bags, cars and vans were packed. Ready to head to the Appalachian Mountains. We were all excited about the trip to Pineville, KY, where we would be staying at the Clear Creek Baptist Bible College as we distributed the Christmas Backpacks. [In Partnership with the Appalachian Mountain Ministry (AMM)] That would be the start of a very long busy week for the workers from Ohio. Our target areas were schools in Bell county KY, Hancock County TN and Lee County VA.
The day before our departure the weather forecast for that part of the Appalachian region called for more that 12 inches of snow. Ryan Martin, the pastor/ missionary that directed this ministry said,”God is bigger than the weather. It’s in His hands”. We began praying!!!
Part of our team left on Sunday. When they arrived at Clear Creek they found,”No snow, just rain!!!” Looking at the current weather map it was as though we were looking at a horseshoe and our area was in the middle of that horseshoe. The storm had been pushed further south from our location. Parts of Hancock county had snow and the roads were bad. Our schedule was changing daily, due to the weather conditions. The Lord used it to allow us to visit a nursing home, what a joy they were to visit. We prayed with them. We passed out backpacks and shared Jesus with a pre-school of about 50 children. This was not on our list of visits, but due to school closings for that day, we were able to visit. The children were adorable and so appreciative of the Christmas backpacks.
- The entire state of OHIO collected 841 filled backpacks. This included 284 received from the West Central Baptist Association.
- We distributed over 2100 Christmas backpacks to 8 schools and 316 children made professions of faith in Jesus.
- There are churches in West Central Baptist Association and in the state of Ohio who are already packing backpacks for Christmas, 2019.
- April will be our Annie Armstrong Home Mission Emphasis. This will be our state emphasis also for the Christmas Backpacks; for after all, Christmas backpacks for Appalachia is a Home Mission Emphasis.
Barbara De Lorme
SCBO WMU Coordinator for AMM Christmas Backpacks.
Phone: (937) 609-0231
E-mail: 11kidsnanny@gmail.com
GOD IS BIGGER THAN THE WEATHER