Please pray for God's provision for the bank building. We have taken a step of faith to move forward as we seek to acquire this property. The following letter was sent out by our sending church pastor, Pastor Dan Stertz.

SHORE FAMILY, SCOTLAND

Special Letter!

May 7, 2021

Dear Shore Family Supporters,

As the pastor of their sending church, I am writing on behalf of the Shore Family and their ministry in Scotland.  You should have just received their most recent prayer letter indicating the possibility of obtaining a building for their ministry.  It was also exciting to see that they have chartered officially as a church!  The reason I am writing is about the building.

The building for sale is a former bank building.  The location is central and the layout would readily serve their needs.  Right now, as you probably know, they cannot meet on Sunday mornings because the rented facility is not available, so they are meeting at night.  Additionally, it is located out of town.  

The cost of the building will depend on an accepted offer.  The expected need to purchase is about $350,000 in US dollars.  That is not a lot in terms buying a commercial building in most places in the US, or even for a house for that matter in many places!  

The church in Loanhead has some funds saved; however, it is not in the position to get a loan (it’s a new church).  For the Shores to get a personal loan to buy the building would make it a “business class” building which results in very high monthly taxes in Scotland.  

What’s the bottom line?  First, PRAY, of course!  Brother Shore has been seeking the Lord’s will on this and is willing to personally sacrifice from his own funds to see this happen, if God should allow this to happen.  Second, GIVE!  I am committing our own ministry here to do something—at least take an offering.  Our church is not large, but it is the giving of many small gifts that God often uses to supply abundantly!  

As I close, I cite from the passage  in 2 Corinthians 8 & 9 where Paul reminded this church of a commitment to give to a need some time before his writing this letter.  He was reminding them in case they came for the gift and found out the church had forgotten or not followed through.  In his reminder he gave a great blessing of what happens when we give to needs.  

2Cor 9:12  For the administration of this service not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God;

Notice that the need is met, but God is also glorified because believers receiving the gift will be praising God with “many thanksgivings” for having met their need.  

If you should decide to give to this need, please send it to their  "building fund" at Baptist World Mission  as noted below.  We believe the Lord is in this and trust He will supply the need. However, should the gifts given be insufficient for this property, this money would only always go towards obtaining a property for Free Baptist Church.

Thank you.

Serving the Savior,

                  Daniel W. Stertz

Pastor Cell: (608) 346-0838

Bible Baptist Church

546 4th Street N, Hudson, WI 54016

Baptist World Mission

PO Box 2149

Decatur AL, 35602-2149

Label Gifts: “Ben Shore, Building Fund”

Thank you for praying for the Bible study. Lewis has trusted Christ as His Saviour and has planned to be baptised soon. Please pray him as he starts his new walk with God.

If you want to see a glorious comment from Lewis on our facebook page - please check out the feed from our Hebrews Bible study this evening. It was a livefeed with a title of "faith." 

Tommy and I had to cancel our evangelism plans for this morning as the weather is very unsettled this week. It's rained all day so far. I needed to get a new Gospel flyer written and I'm thankful for the Lord's help in getting it done. I'll attach it below. Please pray for God to use this flyer as I've just ordered 5,000. The size is about 1/2 sheet of paper. (I'm sorry that I can't upload a larger picture of the flyer.)

We had a good day yesterday even though our attendance was down significantly. It's interesting how after a big day, you can have a down day (attendance wise.) Please pray that God helps us as there is no doubt that Satan pushes back when we take ground for the Lord.

The kids class went really well, praise the Lord. There is an assortment in ages between the youngest and the oldest. We hope at some point to divide and conquer with separate age groups for the older and younger kids.

I enjoyed preaching a message entitled, "Sow What?" from Ecclesiastes 11:1-6. I spoke about 4 areas of sowing (prayer, giving, righteousness and evangelism) before preaching from the passage on how to sow. God blessed us with a good service. Thank you for your prayers for our ministry.

Thank you for praying for my dad's sister. God has taken her to Himself. She entered into glory last night. I'm thankful that she is absent from the body and present with the Lord. Please continue to pray for God's grace for her family.

We were able to start door to door up again today. Scotland has nearly finished lockdown. Non essential shops opened back up this week. We still can't meet in people's homes, but that should change later this month.

We really enjoyed getting out in our neighbourhood today. Our church location is just accross from our home in the village of Auchendinny. We let people know of our service times and invited them to attend. Please pray that they will have the courage to visit our church.

Please pray for God to draw people to Himself. "No man can come unto me accept the Father which hath sent me draw Him." - John 6:44

God blessed the personal Bible study I had with a man from our community. We enjoyed looking into God's Word for an hour and a half. I didn't realize it was that long and think he did not either. Please pray as he takes in the truth of God's Word. We're going to get together again next week.

I've enjoyed our study of Hebrews on Thursday nights. We're into Hebrews 11 just now. I preached tonight on, "The Powerful Vehicle of Faith." Thank you for praying for my preaching ministry. It is much appreciated!

Personal Prayer Request: My dad's sister will soon enter into eternity. Please pray for God's grace and comfort for the family. She and her husband faithfully served the Lord in ministry for 50 plus years.

Today was a normal day out doing flyers. I had one very short opportunity with a young man in his late teens. He is an atheist. More often than not we are witnessing to atheists. Please pray that God will awaken his heart. 

We put out flyers for a couple hours and did a good sized area. One lady brought the flyer out to her rubbish bin, looked at me, grunted and put it in the bin. I said, "Thank you for that. Have a very nice day." The Lord helped me say it sincerely. It's really sad to see how this world hates God.

Thank you for praying for our evangelism.

God gave us a very special evening. We had 3 visiting parents with us and two visiting very young siblings. God blessed with a beautiful evening to baptize. We enjoyed fellowship time eating cake outside after the service as well.

Pastor and Mrs. Dillman were a blessing. Pastor Dillman's message to our church was a special encouragement as we charterd our church. We now have 17 members in our church. :) Praise God!

Thank you for praying for our day. We have visitors who will be visiting again and one who wants to do a BIble study. Please pray for God grace for each one of them. We are VERY thankful to God for His goodness and for what He is doing in our church. Here is some photographic evidence of our special day. Our charter members are pictured below the document.

It has been an encouraging week as we got ready for some special events tomorrow. Pastor Don Dillman will be preaching our 6PM service as we charter our church. In our Sunday School hour (5PM) we will have a baptismal service. Abby (11) is getting baptised and our Mac (6) is getting baptised. At least two adult visitors are supposed to be in attendance. Please pray for God to work in all of our hearts.

Praise the Lord, the weather is good and we have the baptistry (portable hot tub) set up and warming up. It is going to get cold tonight (32) degrees. Please pray that all goes well overnight. :) It should be mid 50's for the baptism tomorrow...with MUCH higher water temperatures - that is the nice thing about a hot tub.

We had special encouragement today as a church gave $1600 towards our building fund. We are praying earnestly for God to make a way for us to purchase the bank building. I know that many of your are praying as well. God is able. Please keep praying with us.

May God bless each of you with His manifest presence in your Lord's day services with your local church family. Thank you for keeping up with our family and ministry.