March, 2015 Prayer Update

MINISTRY IN MARCH

Reporting on the Revival Work of Dr. Rick Flanders in March 2015

In the month of March, the Lord had us again travelling for the cause of revival and preaching the Word, and we were glad to watch Him work in answer to prayer.  Your regular prayers were very important to the reviving work we saw done.  As you will see, we went several places, all up north.  Sometimes people ask me why I don’t concentrate on the south during the cold part of the year.  I guess I must not be smart enough to do that!  We just go where God leads us, and surely that’s pretty smart!  Anyway, keep praying for us.  Here is where we went this past month.

• On the first day of March, we were with the congregation of the Grace Baptist Church of Appleton, Wisconsin, with whom we had just worked at the Couple’s Retreat in Door County.  It was a very good day.  Many responded to revival truth, and the church, I believe, moved forward.  I am thankful for Pastor Randy Graham and his vision for revival in his town.
• On March 8, I flew to Minneapolis and was picked up by a good man from the Granite City Baptist Church of St. Cloud, and driven over to preach in their missions conference.  I had the responsibility of the keynote speaker, with some fine missionaries from various countries preaching also.  The Lord gave both Pastor Campbell and me some fine witnessing opportunities, one-on-one, this week, and in the services He pressed upon the congregation the issue of total surrender to God.  Many, we thank the Lord, responded to that issue in the right way.  It is really the bottom-line of missions.  At the end of the week, I was at Coon Rapids, which is a suburb of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St. Paul) to preach on the 15^th on important matters related to Christian missions.  It was their missions-emphasis month.  On Saturday, I got to go down into the city to do bus visitation with friends from the Straitgate Church, and to visit with Pastor Peter Magnuson.  There were other wonderful blessings on this trip, and I am grateful that God sent me to Minnesota for these opportunities.
• Sunday night the fifteenth, I flew back to Michigan so that I could drive up to Camp CoBeAc on Monday morning to begin teaching in the WalkRight Baptist Bible Institute that week.  My class (with nineteen students) was on the Doctrine of the Holy Spirit.  What an amazing opportunity this was!  WalkRight is a remarkable ministry that is helping young adults find their way down God’s plan for their lives.  I have taught there before, and was glad to agree to come back this week.  The new director of the camp and the institute is Brother Aaron Wilson, a friend of ours who used to be the youth director at First Baptist Church of Bridgeport.  He is doing a very good job in his new capacity, and the Lord is blessing this ministry.  I can say that God worked remarkably with the students in my class that week (March 16-20), bringing several to decisions of surrender and faith, and sparking some powerful prayer meetings among them.  I think it would be right to say that we had a revival in our class, generated by the One we were studying in these sacred days.  Thanks for praying for me.  Now pray for the WalkRight students.
• On the 21st, Toni and I drove down to the Southside Baptist Church of Effingham, Illinois, for the Reviving Rural America Conference.  Pastor Amster has been quite ill, and he called me before the conference to say that he was unable to do a lot of the last-minute leg-work he had planned to do for the conference, and that it would mainly be a revival campaign for his own congregation.  Sunday we looked in Sunday school at some of the basics about being filled with the Holy Spirit, and went the rest of the day to James 4, where we sought to understand revival.  God gave us a good measure of revival, as was evident at the invitation Sunday night.  During the week (the conference went through Wednesday), the Lord showed us in the Bible about the rural ministry of Jesus, about praying for the power of the Spirit, and about being saved and living as a Christian should.  We had a good number of visitors from the area Wednesday night, saw a lady receive Christ (Toni led her to Jesus after the service), and left the church with some receptive folks to visit.  Pray for the pastor’s health and for revival in his good church.  They are talking with me about coming back next year.
• On Saturday, March 28, I flew up to Edmonton, Alberta (in western Canada) for a revival campaign (from the 29th to April 3) at the Vision Baptist Church of Leduc (a town next to the big city of Edmonton).  We began the effort on Sunday, with a sermon in the morning about our being the light of the world and in the evening a message about the Holy Spirit as our Comforter.  A visitor was led to Christ after the morning service, and the Lord gave us a good start in our pursuit of revival in the church and in the Edmonton area.  Pray for us today.

Now we are asking you both to pray for the churches and ministries we recently helped, and also to pray for us as we visit other places in April:

1. The final days of the campaign in Leduc, Alberta (through the 3^rd).
2. Easter Sunday (April 5) at Beulah Land Baptist Church in Prince Albert, SK.
3. The Western Revival Conference at the Beulah Land Baptist Church in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, April 6-10.
4. A revival campaign at the Calvary Baptist Church of Gaines, Michigan, April 12-17.
5. A revival campaign at the Calvary Baptist Church of King, North Carolina, April 19-21.
6. Meetings at the Heritage Baptist Church of Vinton, Virginia, April 22-26.
7. A ladies’ meeting with Toni for the Juniata Baptist Church (where we used to serve) on April 18.

Ours really is a team effort, with you being our team.  Do keep on praying for us and our work, and come to see us when you can.  Also call me any time with your questions and suggestions.  Thank you for your help.  Romans 15:30.

RICK FLANDERS

Acts 1:8