Lancaster Family Prayer Letter - May 2015

 

Dear Friends, Family, and Supporters!

We have so many exciting things to tell you in this new update! When I sat down to write this, a verse came to mind: “I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvelous works.” - Psalm 9:11

Because of the many things the Lord is doing in our lives and ministry, we have decided that it is finally time to start sending out monthly prayer letters. Another big change in this area is that I (Pepsi) will start writing the prayer letters to lift some of the work load off of Joshua. This is an exciting opportunity for me and I look forward to this new task!

The Lord has blessed incredibly since the last time we updated! The beginning of the year found us in Pennsylvania, attending the deputation meetings that Joshua was able to schedule. We had a great time of fellowship and were able to meet many new pastors and their churches.

In March, our family started discussing that we really needed to get another travel trailer. We had been without one for several months and it seemed like it might be a good time to work on a plan to get another soon. We started implementing a financial plan that would hopefully see us getting one in the fall/winter. Not two weeks later, my parents called and said that they had purchased a travel trailer for us! We can’t tell you our surprise and excitement! We had a couple day break from meetings where we were able to head back to Illinois to pick it up and get it back to Pennsylvania in time for more meetings. When we got to Illinois, we realized that it needed quite a bit of work. We ended up driving back to Pennsylvania (without the trailer) for meetings and headed back to Illinois again to work on getting it fixed up and road-ready. This ended up taking 4 weeks of hard work to get it fixed up and ready to go. Praise the Lord for His provision of the trailer and for all the money/supplies it took to get it fixed! My parents were so kind and we had another family that blessed us immensely with a large donation to aid us getting 4 new tires for the trailer. In this time, Joshua was not able to make phone calls due to the amount of work the trailer needed. This left us with a gap in meetings for this spring. After finishing up the trailer, we went back to Pennsylvania for a meeting or two, and then we had nothing else scheduled. In that same time frame, there was a God Bless America Crusade (GBAC) Prayer Rally scheduled in Virginia, so we headed over to that meeting. It was a good time of prayer for the Crusade and an excellent opportunity for the choir to rehearse. After the Rally, we decided to travel to North Carolina where we could park at our mission board for about 6 weeks and Joshua could get back to calling and scheduling meetings.

We have had a great time of catching up with friends in the area and visiting several of the churches that we have come to know and love. The Lord has shown Himself good and faithful! We had no promise of any meetings while being in North Carolina, but the Lord has opened doors and Joshua has been able to preach in several churches. He was asked to preach at a youth rally and we were privileged to see a teenager saved! Our family was also invited to come and do the music for a Homecoming service at a church. Due to the pastor not feeling well, Joshua was asked to preach for that service and we saw 2 young people come to Christ then as well! It is always so exciting to see people coming to the Lord and it is so humbling that the Lord uses His imperfect children to accomplish His will! So many times in our travels we are able to spread the Gospel through preaching, door knocking, and tract distribution, but often we are not in an area long enough to see fruit from these labors. It was encouraging to our hearts to see immediate, precious fruit!

Another incredible blessing and opportunity has arisen in the last couple months! We were contacted by a pastor in Virginia that will be participating in the Crusade this fall. He asked that we come and help his church out over the 10+ weeks that we will be in Virginia preparing for the Crusade. Throughout the weeks leading up to the Crusade, Joshua is insanely busy helping get out thousands of door hangers inviting people to the GBAC. Throughout the weekdays this takes up almost all his time, but it does leave church services on Sundays and Wednesdays completely open. This is where we will have the chance to work with Pastor Jones at Faith Baptist Church in Charlottesville, VA. They have asked us to help with Sunday School, Jr. Church, the Teen Program on Wednesday evenings, and fellowship banquets throughout the summer, as well as many music opportunities.  We are so excited and look forward to working with his dear church. While we were in Virginia for the Prayer Rally, we had the chance to go over and meet him and the people of his church and they seem wonderful! They have a sweet spirit for the Lord and their community and we look forward to diving in and having a great summer!

We have many exciting things to look forward to before we can start work with the Virginia GBAC and Pastor Jones though! In two weeks our mission board will be having Family Week that we will be attending in Greensboro, NC. This is a week filled with good food, sweet fellowship, solid preaching, catching up with fellow missionaries, and being encouraged. Last year was our first Family Week and we greatly look forward to the one coming up! The following week we will be traveling to Galesburg, IL where Joshua will preach a week long youth meeting. This will be a very exciting and busy week! After that meeting is finished, we will have about a week and a half to stop in and see friends and family in Illinois before we head down to Virginia to start our summer. We would greatly appreciate your prayers for our travels, the youth meeting, and as we plan and prepare for this summer.

The Lord is so good and has faithfully stayed by our side and led us every step of the way. He has opened doors and provided in ways we could never have imagined! It is amazing to see what He is doing in our ministry as well as our home life. Two weeks ago Joshua and I were able to celebrate our 5th anniversary. It is amazing to look back on those 5 years and see what God has accomplished and where He has brought us! Our two boys are doing well and seem to be enjoying being back in a home of our own. We give God all the praise and glory for what He has done and what He is doing now! We hope our update will encourage you of God’s goodness and prompt your own “shewing forth all His marvelous works.”

His Servants,
Joshua and Pepsi Lancaster
II Chronicles 7:14 & James 4:8-10