Ray Family Update from April 2018

Dear Praying Friends,

It has been some time since I last wrote, but I would like to bring you up-to-date on the goodness of God in the life of this preacher and in the life of our church. Many of you are aware of the heartaches we faced in the last quarter of 2017 with nearly one third of our congregation moving on to other churches. Although deep in my heart I expected God to bring us through the storms, I must confess that my faith had its highs and lows. Along these lines, I have often wondered if the Devil (although not omniscient) ever gets indications of a blessing or blessings heading our way and ratchets up his efforts to get us to quit ahead of receiving the outpouring of God’s abundant blessings. While our numbers are down at the church, the improvement of the church’s spirit is evident on numerous fronts. On top of that, the work of the church has not slowed. We continue to reach out to our area through tract distribution, street preaching, and door-to-door visitation.

Antioch Baptist Bible Institute

We just completed another profitable semester in the Bible institute where we were blessed to add some new students both in-house and online. We truly count in an honour that the Lord entrusts us to train men and women for His service. The next semester will begin August 20th with classes being held on Monday and Tuesday evenings. The scheduled classes include Bible Prophecy, Bible Missions, The Book of Acts II, and First Corinthians. We are pleased to announce that this next semester will reintroduce the chapel service between classes with the male students preaching the messages. This will offer opportunities for additional experience and training. Once again, the classes will be offered tuition free. If you know of believers that could use sound Bible training from a school that majors on the Bible and does so at no cost, please send them our way.

Upcoming Schedule

With the Bible institute classes out for the summer. I will be doing some travelling to preach meetings out and about. At the end of this month (May 28-30), I will be preaching at a Bible conference at Spring City Baptist Church in Cleveland, VA. I do have a couple of openings in May, June, and July. If you would like for me to come, send me a note. The first week of June, we will be hosting our Bible conference. The first part of the week includes great preaching from Brent Logan, James Knox, Doug Stauffer, Joe Cammilleri, Ken McDonald, Jason Boger, Tim Crotts, Rob Carlson, and Noah Broughton. The second part of the week brings in our youth conference and includes great preaching from David Brown, Ken McDonald, and Tim Crotts. This meeting is always a tremendous blessing and this year should be the best yet. If you need dates, hotel information, or general details, please let me know.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

As many of you know, two projects have consumed much of my time over the last months/years. I am pleased to announce that both projects will come to a close in the next few months. I have been privileged to serve as an editor for a one-of-a-kind hymnal and preorders are now being taken at MelodyPublications.com with the final touches being completed on the book. I promise you there is nothing else like this available to the saints of God and you NEED this hymnal. Additionally, I was honoured to be asked to coauthor a complete revision of One Book Rightly Divided with Brother Doug Stauffer. This book is also nearing completion and preorders are being taken at BibleDoug.com. Please secure your copy today!