09 Jun Newsletter from Karl and Mary Badalian – March and April, 2015
March and April, 2015
March began for us in Porter, Texas working with the church family at Grace Baptist Church. It was nice to have part of our NTCP family to work with also. Since the Finleys, and Needhams arrived the end of February and joined the Browns and us, we were able to speed up our tile laying. We completed most of the tile by the third week of March. Pastor Brantner was there working with us daily. Many members of the church showed up on their days off or after work, devoting as much time to the building project as they could. March 25th we had the building inspector give us permission to occupy the building along with a short list of items we needed to complete. On Sunday March 29th it was good to see Pastor and Mrs. Moody as they stopped in Porter on their way home from vacation, giving them a chance to see the work going on and meet the folks of Grace Baptist Church. Wednesday, April 1st, Grace Baptist Church had their first service in the new building. Although there was still “finish” work to be done on the building it looked great. Resurrection Sunday, April 5th , was our last service in Porter. It was a blessing to get to spend the past couple of months meeting and getting to know our Texas brothers and sisters in Christ.
On April 7th we had to leave our new Texas family and head back to our home in Missouri. It was interesting pulling our trailer through Dallas rush hour traffic at 5:30. (Wonder why we did not see any other trailers??) We spent the night on the road in our trailer at hotel Wal-Mart. When we arrived at Wilson Creek Baptist Church we were greeted by our friend, Evangelist David Porter, who was passing through and staying in one of the missionary apartments. We spent a busy yet refreshing week at home before leaving for New Mexico to help finish up the building project in Deming.
When we arrived in Deming we were greeted by the Finleys and Murphys, fellow NTCP workers. Pastor Steven Sykes and the congregation of Mount Calvary Baptist Church currently meet in a little store front in Deming. The new building with its auditorium, two class rooms and a nursery, a pastor’s office, bathrooms, and kitchen will provide the church with needed space for expansion. We spent several days getting the majority of the siding on the building. Jerry and Rita Hayes made a trip to Deming bringing us a trailer containing a set of double doors for the Sanctuary and bathroom partitions. We all worked on cleaning the rooms, vacuuming, and mopping so we could get the tile ready to seal and prepare to lay carpeting and laminate flooring in the office and class rooms and nursery.
Please pray for the congregation at Mt. Calvary Baptist Church, and for all the workers laboring in the New Testament Church Planting ministry.