November 1, 2013 Prayer Letter

BLESSINGS IN THE MINISTRY OF DR. RICK FLANDERS IN OCTOBER 2013

I truly wish you could be with us as we travel around in the service of the Lord!  This month I was in some truly wonderful places and saw some truly phenomenal things.  Thank you for praying for us.

• We finished a good revival campaign at Manitou Road Baptist Church the first four days of October.  Pastor Mark Kruchkow and his faithful people prayed much for revival and we saw a measure of it in these days.  We were able to lead a lady who came Sunday to the Lord Jesus in her home on one of days after her visit, and to get the Gospel to several other lost people.  Pastor and I went visiting several days, as did Toni and Mrs. Kruchkow.  We believe the Lord is reviving this Michigan church for great days ahead.  Do pray for them.
• We attended the meetings and served at the Fundamental Baptist Church of Kinross, Michigan, on Sunday the sixth and at their “Old-School Gathering” on Monday the seventh.  Dr. Tim Rader is a remarkable servant of the Lord, and this church is a large congregation in an unlikely location, way up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  For a number of years he has put together a helpful one-day annual conference they call the Old-School Gathering.  The pastor and church are very supportive of our revival ministry, and we always love to visit.  Monday in the early afternoon session of the conference I heard an outstanding message by Pastor Dan White of Clarklake on walking in the Spirit, which set the theme and tone of the day.  I preached later in the afternoon on the soul winner, from the example of Barnabas, and remembered the life and legacy of Dr. Jim Norton, who always came to the Old-School Gathering in the past, but this past year was called home to heaven.  There were other blessings, including a sermon on keeping our focus right by Pastor Orville Theaker, and also a fine banquet meal for all. In the evening, Dr. Joe Arthur, well-known from the Sword Conference, preached a good and encouraging sermon.  They had me preach in Sunday school and the Sunday morning service as well as in the conference, and we believe the Lord used us.  All of you ought to visit this evangelistic church someday, and see what God is doing with people who love Him up north.
• I preached in the Sunday evening service at the Northern Michigan Baptist Bible Church of Burt Lake on October 6.  We know Pastor Rusty Chatfield and others in this church, which is located in the northern part of the lower peninsula of our state, and were happy to accept their invitation to come and help on Sunday night.  I was led to preach on.  We have been with these folks before in a revival campaign, and the pastor is asking us to come back for another one!
• I preached in a revival campaign at the Rockford Baptist Church of Rockford, Minnesota, October 13-18.  This church is led by Pastor Roger Louks, who “grew up” at Juniata Baptist Church and was graduated from Juniata Christian School.  I am very “proud” of him, in the right sense, and of his family.  He is a faithful pastor with a vision for this town, and I was very glad to help him.  We saw a man get saved this week, had contact with others we hope will be won to Christ later.  They have already seen one of the door-to-door contacts of the week visit on a later Sunday!  We also saw some good things occur in the lives of some in the church.  Do pray for Pastor Louks for God to give him wisdom and power.
• I served at the Straitgate Church in the heart of Minneapolis in an eight-day revival effort, October 20-27.  Several years ago, their founding pastor, Brother Roger Magnuson, invited me to preach in a family retreat they held at a nearby Christian camp and in the Lord’s Day services, and the Lord blessed our time together.  Then we talked and decided to conduct an eight-day campaign with the goal of seeing revival in this remarkable church.  Of course we did not and could not know when we made these plans that Pastor Magnuson would be dealing with cancer when the time arrived.  Actually he has been treated for the disease for many months, and has carried on a remarkable life and ministry in spite of it.  However in the days prior to my arrival and during these wonderful meetings, his body was weakening and this situation was certainly in view throughout my time in Minneapolis.  Let me say that he ended up in the hospital toward the end of the week, but God answered both individual and corporate prayers by raising him up and bringing him home on the second Sunday.  The church meets in the heart of the great city, and for thirty or so years has been reaching the people who live there with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Their motto is “Unashamed of the Gospel” and Pastor Magnuson and his co-laborers truly are that.  There is nothing “contemporary” or compromised about their approach to evangelism.  We saw people saved several days, and good people revived according to John 15:1-5 in every service.  Pray for the pastor, who is also a widely-known and accomplished attorney, and for the church, which under Christ’s headship can expect many more harvests in the years ahead until our Lord returns.

In November I am to go to Iowa, where I will preach at the Round Prairie Baptist Church (the third through the eighth) and the Victory Baptist Church of Corydon (the tenth through the fifteenth), and then to Florida, where I am to preach at the Faith Baptist Church of Deltona (the seventeenth through the twenty-third) and the Memorial Baptist Church of Ocala (on Sunday the twenty-fourth).  Pray for us all month, and come visit these meetings as you can.

Soon you will receive a special report on our Nairobi Mission in 2014.  Let me just say that help has come in to the extent that I can buy our plane tickets.  At this point we have decided that Toni will go with me on this trip, but we still need your prayers for wisdom and for the supply of our needs.

I want all of you to know that we are going completely mobile in our phone service, and have cancelled our land-line, 989.823.2189 (a number we have had for forty years!).  I also want you to know that our daughter and son-in-law are running my website (www.drrickflanders.com) now and making some real improvements.  Take a look at it.  Read this month’s new article, “Remembering Revival,” by clicking http://drrickflanders.com/2013/11/remembering-revival/.  Thank you for all you do for me.

RICK FLANDERS