June, 2015 Prayer Update

PRAYING FOR REVIVAL IN JUNE

A Report from Evangelist Rick Flanders for June of 2015

We are partners through your backing the revival preaching by praying (Ephesians 6:17-20, Colossians 4:2-4).  Of course your part is absolutely essential.  Here is what happened in June.

• MUKWONAGO BAPTIST CHURCH: I was thrilled to join this wonderful church and pastor (many of you know Rhon Roberts) in seeking revival in the church from the Lord.  They believed that they needed such a revival, and we saw God send a measure of it during these days (May 31-June 4).  The Pastor believed that God was calling on us to add a day to the campaign (we had planned it to extend only through Wednesday), and Thursday it was obvious that we had followed divine direction in doing so.  Revival truth and revival decisions came every day, but it seemed especially to happen on that added day and service.  There were great testimonies showing that the Lord had begun a good work in the church.  We had some tremendous prayer meetings that week, which indicated good things to come.  We also saw souls saved, even though the thrust of the campaign was revival among the saints.  What good days these were at the beginning of June for me.  Let’s keep praying for the revived saints, the new converts, and the Christians still in need of revival at Mukwonago Baptist Church.
• BETH HAVEN BAPTIST CHURCH: On Sunday night, June 7, Toni and I went over to this wonderful church near Greenville, Michigan, for a service to promote revival.  We at Juniata Baptist Church “discovered” Pastor Kevin Crowell and his congregation just a few years before I left to start travelling, and we loved the opportunities we got to do youth things in connection with this conservative, evangelistic, and balanced church.  I have preached for them before, but this time I preached from Luke 19 on “Occupy Till I Come,” an important truth about the right attitude toward the second coming of Christ.
• LAGRANGE BAPTIST CHURCH: On Wednesday night, June 10, I preached on “Peace” for this pastor and church just over the border in Indiana.  They are my friends, and I always delight to do them good.  It seemed that God answered our prayers.  The church appears to be stronger than I have ever seen it, and I am praying for them as they continue down the revival road.
• VICTORY BAPTIST CHURCH: June 14-21 I got to preach in a very good “tent meeting” in Harvey, North Dakota, put on by this well-known church.  Much good was done, and we look for a new start in the ministry here in the prairie.  Believers from many churches came and responded to revival truth.
• FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH: We have driven over to upper New York State for a revival campaign at this good church in Black River, which is taking place June 28^th (our 46^th wedding anniversary) through July 1^st.  We have already seen people saved, and a number of revival decisions.

What a remarkable summer this is to be!  Do remember the Revival Focus Christ-Life Clinic in Ann Arbor, Michigan, August 3-6.  It is a retreat to help individuals and couples understand and live the abundant life Jesus came for us to have and live in Him.  Check it out at the Revival Focus website. I  also want to mention for your consideration two other evangelists who have served through the First Baptist Church of Bridgeport, and are really helping the churches.  Rick Mitchell is a good preacher and an expert in churches reaching their communities through the bus ministry.  The Lord is using him in reviving or starting a bus ministry in congregations that are ready to reach out.  Often this is the next step for churches that have experienced revival.  Contact him at dmitchell@2fbc.com.  My friend evangelist Mark Bohman is moving to Canada, where he has been preaching a lot while living in Michigan.  Canadian churches as well as those in the States will want to invite him to come and help you win souls to the Lord Jesus.  You can do this by contacting him at markbohman1@hotmail.com.

Of course, please remember us in prayer the rest of the summer.  On the Independence Day weekend, I am to preach at the great Ann Arbor Baptist Church in all the Sunday services (July 5).  Soon after (July 10-15) I will be going to the Vancouver area of British Columbia for revival meetings.  Most of that time I will be with Pastor Derrick Goette of the Harvest Baptist Church in Langley for one of the five weeks of meetings he leads every summer.  August 1-2 I am to preach at the Melvin Baptist Church here in Michigan, and might see some of you in the special preaching conference on Saturday.  Don’t forget the National Conference on Prayer and Revival at the Greater Cumberland Baptist Church in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, which will be led by Pastor Ken Shaver, whom I first met at a gathering of the same name held in Oberlin, Ohio, in 1992.  The other speakers will be Billy Ingram (long a revivalist, and now a pastor in Georgia), Christ Miller (widely-used evangelist out of Tennessee), and John R. Van Gelderen (well-known revivalistic evangelist and author).  It will be a very important and helpful conference.  The dates are August 9-14.  Also remember the revival campaign at the Grace Baptist Church of Urbana, Ohio, August 23-26.  This summer Toni and I also plan to take a little time to get away and rest.

As things heat up for the 2016 elections, I want people to know about a decision I have made.  I will not be supporting any candidate for office in the next election season unless he or she is in his right mind.  Perhaps you have noticed that increasingly insane things are being said, taken seriously, and supported these days.  People claiming to be the opposite gender from what their bodies indicate, are being commended for saying it.  A man in Canada is being complimented for demanding that his arm be amputated because he has always felt disabled.  An official of the NAACP was recently exposed as pretending to be black for a number of years (although she is white), and she defended herself with a straight face by saying that she feels black.  Men are demanding the right to use the women’s restroom because they feel female.  Justices read the law and say it says something it doesn’t say.  Somehow there are a lot of people who have lost sight of the fact that believing what is obviously false is the very definition of insanity.  This year, folks are being called courageous who in saner times would have been committed to mental institutions.  Remember the brother in Arsenic and Old Lace who thought he was Teddy Roosevelt?  There are objective ways to determine gender, race, and other obvious characteristics, and society cannot continue to be civilized path unless it returns to objectivity.  So I am not going to respect insanity.  I will only endorse the judgment of people who are apparently in their right minds (although our culture seems no longer to be)!

Sure do appreciate you.  Call me and tell us how we can pray for you!  My phone rings at 989.863.0784.

RICK FLANDERS Acts 1:8