May Greene School

My waxing eloquent about May Greene school on Sunday made me wonder what had happened to the building. It was old when I was there in grade school. I googled it. Lo and behold!! The old building has been bought by First Assembly in Cape Girardeau, and is being used as a satellite campus.

It is called House of Hope. Regular services and small groups meet there every Sunday morning. On Wednesday, House of Hope buses in children after school, tutors them, and serves them a warm meal. A food pantry is kept there. The church provides free professional makeovers and portraits for whomever comes. By the way, my cousin helps run that particular program. Huzzah!!

A part of the First Assembly family has made House of Hope their church home. It blesses me to know the grade school I attended is now being used in church planting, a movement very dear to my heart.

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Stan the Man's Best Hour

This story of what may have been Stan Musial's finest moment was sent to me by Pat Day. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did. Stan Musial played in 3026 games, and never got thrown out of one. Never. In a game in 1952 the Cardinals were trailing the Dodgers by two runs in the bottom of the ninth with bases loaded and two outs. Musial hit a long grand slam home run to right field to beat the Dodgers. Musial started around the bases, but the third base umpire had seen a ball roll out on the field and had called timeout before the pitch was thrown.

The home run was disallowed. The stadium erupted. Fans went wild. The St Louis manager raced out of the dugout, and called the umpire every name he could think of. He was thrown out of the game, as were five other Cardinals. The umpire later said he felt like a cowboy in one of those old Westerns cleaning out the saloon, throwing out people through the front doors.

Musial, who in the confusion had not been told anything, calmly asked the umpire what happened. The umpire explained, and Musial said, "Well, there's nothing you can do about it." Stan stepped back in the batter's box and promptly tripled off the top of the center field wall to score three runs and give the Cardinals the victory anyway.

After the game, the umpire, Tom Gorman, said, "Stan is in a class by himself." I think many of us agree with that sentiment. Thanks, Pat Day, for a great story.

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Unreached People

Our church has now been working with the Bells of the Big Country (fake name) for over 15 years. The trials have been many, the victories few. I'm reminded of what a missionary once told me; there are reasons why the last groups to hear the Gospel are the last groups. They are hard to reach. Let me share some recent prayer requests to illustrate my point.

One group professed faith, but then said they no longer wanted to believe. They returned to their idols. A missionary says he thinks they are willing to return to faith. He plans to try to visit them soon. Pray.

Believers are often very reluctant to be baptized or to share their faith with others. Persecution is real, not only from the government, but also from dangerous cults which are infiltrating Bell territory. One lady is the only believer for miles around. What are her chances of being able to stay faithful? Pray.

Missionaries who work among the Bells cannot live in their villages. Thus they live as close as they can, and make excursions into Bell territory as best they can. This splits families often, and is hard on home life. Maybe this gives us a glimpse into some of the challenges we face in reaching the Bells. We made a 20-year commitment to reaching them. We have 5 years to go. Pray for a huge breakthrough for the Gospel.

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Two-week Revival meetings

Do you remember two-week revival meetings? Seems like ancient history, doesn't it? The last ones I attended were in the month of August in the late 1960s. It's hard to believe we church folks actually wanted to go to church every night for 14 days in a row, but it was true. We loved the singing, preaching, and hanging out.

The last two I attended took place back to back. Wade Paris, Pastor of Murray Lane Baptist Church in Sikeston MO, preached a two-week revival at our church, Southside Baptist in Cape Girardeau. The day after it ended, Dad started a two-week revival at Commerce Baptist Church, where my Grandpa Marshall was Pastor. In essence I went to church every day for that whole month. Interestingly enough, I remember it as a fond memory, though I was a teen at the time.

I doubt we will ever bring back the two-week revivals (And all the people said. . .). I remember when we went to one-week revivals, then four days (Sunday through Wednesday), then weekend meetings. I even remember churches advertising one-day revival meetings: two services in the morning, two at night, and maybe one in the afternoon for good measure. The times have changed.

417-887-3111 x110
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Homeless in Springfield

I'm neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I will not be surprised if the next great frontier for Second Baptist proves to be homelessness in Springfield, especially among the young.

According to the Springfield Public Schools, 488 of their students are homeless, and about 85 teenagers each night sleep in abandoned vehicles in our city.

As Jim Harriger, Director at Victory Mission, says, we can work to shelter these youths now, or later we will shelter them in prisons. I believe if Jesus walked among us, He would minister to the homeless, and where He would be is where Second ought to be.

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Ruth Versus Squirrels

Caesar had his Brutus, Hans Solo had his Darth Vader, Ruth has her squirrels. As 2013 dawns, an epic struggle is developing between the Queen of my house, and the pests in my yard. For some reason, squirrels have taken a hankering to our property. They are in our trees, on our back fence, and all over our roof. Every time one lands on our roof, Ruth yells, "Go away!" Since that has not worked she is moving on to more drastic methods.

Ruth, of course, labors with a huge handicap in this struggle. She can't hurt a flea, thus her options are limited. Her next effort will be to try to aggravate them away. She went out and bought a nerf ball gun. She doesn't want to hit them, she just wants to get the nerf balls close enough to the squirrels that they feel aggravated and unwelcome. She practiced on an indoor target at the house. Her first shot hit it dead center. Amazing. After that, though, she didn't get anywhere near the target. I'm not optimistic. I'll keep you updated.

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