“Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14 Joyful greetings! Christ is born!  Thank you, God for sending your Son. Thank you, Jesus, for coming. I bless your name forever and ever.  1 SOMETHING NEW We have never reported the ways in which LTI has gifted others throughout the years. We have worked under the premise that our benevolence giving should not be spoken of. You know…do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. However, I was impressed a few weeks ago that I should at least let you know that a portion of all your general giving to LTI goes to bless others. Just as we have not believed we should explicitly broadcast our giving, we have also believed we are to give to others: that we are not to be a “Dead Sea” that only receives. We believe the law of giving applies to our ministry just as it does to us personally and to everyon...

“In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” I Thessalonians 5:18 Here it is again. November. And we have just rounded the corner toward the close of this year. King Solomon said, “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under the sun.” (Eccl. 3:1) November on our calendar is the season and time for giving thanks. We call it Thanksgiving Day. I am thankful that our country still celebrates this holiday. I am most thankful that it’s original celebration was for the purpose of giving thanks to God for all His goodness in bringing them safely from England to this new land of opportunity we call America. Not just thankful for a day off from work. Part of my family will be with me again this year to celebrate, but all of my family will be “together” in remembering the goodness of God in each of our lives during this past year. I am certain the same thing will be happening at your house, as well. For those of you who m...

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” Ephesians 1:3 G reetings to you today. I thank God for you and trust you are enjoying the richness of His blessings in your life every day. A Very Busy Month The Blog At some point in every day I sit at my computer to write on my blog apassionformissions.org, becoming more and more skilled in doing this project. There are still a few more “construction” things that need to be done before the site is finished. I think everything will be accomplished by the end of this month. I am very happy with it and thank the Lord for this tool that will allow me to cast the net for new generations of full-time missionaries until He comes again. Some of the topics that are, or will be written about are: the vision for the blog, including Casting the Net with details;  The Need, The Call and The Preparation for ministry as a missionary; God’s ...

“Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice.” Philippians 4:4 Joyful greetings to you today!  ANNOUNCING: The Birth of my New BLOG! Its name: “A Passion for Missions.” Date and Time of Launching: August 29, 2019, at 10:23 am My final function was to click the “Publish” button. Instantly, a message came back telling me it was broadcasting live! I grinned from ear-to-ear, raised my hands toward heaven, gave a joyful “Thank You Jesus,” and danced a little jig. All those weeks of hard work had finally paid off! A wonderful new ministry tool had come into being. From this point on, I look forward to helping it grow through prayer and more hard work. My desire is that it will be a very useful tool in our Master’s hand for the expansion of His gospel all over the world. Especially those faraway, hard-to-get-to places that still have never heard the name “Jesus.” I am so very happy! You can read it anywhere in the world on your computer, smart phone, tabl...

“And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world…” Matthew 24:14 G reetings in Jesus’ wonderful name. The Lord is great and greatly to be praised. We are so blessed to part of the family of God.   LOUISIANA TRIP REPORT My first stop was at Family Worship Center in Leesville, Louisiana. This wonderful congregation has been hosting an annual missions convention for at least twenty years. Recently, they have chosen to call it their “Family Reunion,” and it truly is. I have attended these reunions since their beginning and have made many friends that have become “family” to me. Both church members and missionaries that labor in Mexico, Central America, South America, Europe, Australia, Africa, India and the US as well. We eagerly look forward to seeing one another again; catching up and rejoicing over all that has happened in the past year. Beyond that, we are loved on, fed wonderful food, encouraged and strengthened. Then the spiritual ministry of the wor...

“…though the vision tarry, wait for it.” Habakkuk 2:6,7 Greetings! I hope you had an enjoyable and blessed July 4th celebration. For most of LTI’s history, we have sent our newsletters out so that you would receive them on or about the first day of the upcoming month. You know I have not always been able to do that in recent months. In fact, it has only been three weeks since I sent my last newsletter. However, I am working diligently to get back to the old schedule, and that goal will be accomplished at the end of this month. You will be receiving your August newsletter on or about August 1st. Thank God for restored health. Answered Prayer Quite a while ago, I began asking the Lord to send helpers to me so that I will be able to perform the job He put in my hands to do.  Since the beginning of LTI, our daughter Jennifer has been our IT person for graphic designs, newsletter publications, and much more. She has been a most willing asset to us, and we cannot thank her ...

“I delight to do your will, o my God...” Psalm 40:8 (ESV) Hello.  You see this newsletter is different than all newsletters before. That is because I want to talk with you as friend-to-friend. I hope you will enjoy this change and be blessed by what you read.  In last month’s newsletter we celebrated the 40th Anniversary of Leadership Training International. Those were wonderful years in every way a person could imagine. I wouldn’t take anything for them. Every person involved in the activities of those years has multitudes of glorious memories that will be cherished until the Lord calls each one home. Particularly, myself and my family. But those years are past. Now we look to the present and the future. For me…there is no stopping place. Retirement has no appeal to me. My breath, my life is to continue working for the Lord; doing any and everything He puts into my hand to do; for as long as I can or He calls me home. Through these past years of illness, when I ...

 “Faithful is the One who calls you – and He will make it happen.” I Thessalonians 5:24 TLV Greetings in the wonderful name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It’s a beautiful day in my neighborhood and I trust it is the same for you. A Thumbnail Review During the months of April, May and June of 1979, life for our family began to take a turn that would define us for the rest of our lives. In April, after 16 years of marriage, 3 children, and ministry as pastors and Bible college administrators and instructors, an invitation came to us from Ghana, W. Africa, to launch and establish a Bible training institute. We acknowledged the invitation and requested time to put it before the Lord as to what our answer should be. In May, we accepted the invitation, began the process of resigning our ministry positions and prepared to launch out into the depths of fulltime foreign missionary ministry. On June 20th, after selling all our belongings, we drove away from the pa...

“The tomb is empty! Christ lives again. He holds the keys of hell and death. Why seek the living among the dead? He is not here. He has risen as He said.” (a chorus written by R. B. “Bud” Cassidy) Greetings in the wonderful name of Jesus, our risen Savior and Lord. In just a few days we will once again celebrate His resurrection. For the will of God to be accomplished in His life, three important events had to occur: His birth, His death and His resurrection. All over the world, Christians celebrate His birth. In some segments of Christianity His death is remembered on Good Friday. And, again, the whole Christian world celebrates His resurrection. Of the three, the most important one is His resurrection. You know as well as I, if He had not risen, the accusations of the unbelieving Jewish leaders would have been ratified. “See,” they would have been able to say. “Didn’t we tell you he was just another man like we are.” BUT!!! He DID rise from the dead! Proving the scoffers wrong. H...

“And it shall come to pass in the last days, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh…” Acts 2:18a  Greetings in Jesus’ wonderful name. This is another day that the Lord has made. I am rejoicing in it. I hope you are as well. A whole lifetime ago, when I was a preteen, a chorus was spontaneously birthed by the Holy Spirit (which was a frequent occurence during worship services in those days) that said: “God is moving; by His Spirit. Moving in all the earth. Signs and wonders; when God moveth. Move, oh Lord, in me.” He was moving all over the earth in that day. It was more than wonderful. It anchored me in my faith, and I fell in love with Jesus. All I wanted to do was totally surrender my life to Him and follow Him wherever He would lead me. Words cannot fully express how thankful I am to have been a partaker of that outpouring. The earth has needed a fresh outpouring of God’s Spirit like that one for quite some time. I, and many others, have longed for it and praye...

“I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:14 Greetings in Jesus’ wonderful name. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Gladness for me, today, is to be sending you the latest news from LTI. If you think you did not get a newsletter from me last month, you are correct. Try as hard as I tried, I kept sensing the Lord calling me to a time of being alone with Him. A fast, if you will, from the busyness of life in order to clearly hear His voice for 2019 and beyond. I have been rewarded for my obedience. Still Casting the Net Since having been given the assignment to “cast the net” I have cast it in every way I could think of without much result. The next things I share with you reveal that God has better ways than mine.  A little over a year ago , the Lord brought a middle-aged woman into my life that soon became a new friend. It was for more than friendship, though, that He brou...