Ray Family Update from April 2022

Dear Praying Friends,

As I write this update, we are just coming off of a four-day meeting in Statesville, North Carolina. I had the privilege of preaching on four lesser-known servants in the Old Testament: Bezaleel, Phinehas, Barzillai, and Benaiah. We pulled into our driveway a little after 11 p.m. on Saturday night and quickly went to bed to recover for our services at Antioch on Sunday morning. Our time in Statesville was greatly blessed, but we were grateful to be home. While in Statesville, we had great fellowship with the saints at Northmont Baptist Church, including good church services, assisting in the distribution of door hangers in the Statesville area, and even an opportunity to help the pastor move into his new home. There are some dear folks in this church and it serves as yet another reminder that God has pockets of faithful believers throughout this nation and around the world.

While we were in Statesville, we had a bit of a scare as it pertains to my wife’s (Lula) health. For a little over a month, Lula has been dealing with inexplicable bone, joint, and muscle issues. So far as we can tell, she has done nothing to injure herself. If she did, she does not remember doing so. She has been to the doctor and several potential issues have been suggested, but she is not seeing any improvements. Before we left for Statesville, she was prescribed some medicine and while I was preaching, that medicine spiked her blood pressure to the point that her vision became blurry so that she could not recognize me in the pulpit. She tapped the pastor’s wife (Miriam Boger) on the shoulder and asked her to escort her out of the service. They were able to check her blood pressure and discovered that it was dangerously high. Needless to say, she has stopped the prescribed medicine, but we remain in the dark as to her diagnosis and her pain is spreading and growing worse. We would more than appreciate your prayers in this. All of us in the family are trying to help more and take some of the burden off of Lula so that she can focus on getting well.

During the time of my wife’s illness, I have grown increasingly proud of my daughter Sara. She is always willing to help at home and she has been my close companion in ministry things in my wife’s absence. She is quiet and unassuming in all that she does. It has been a blessing to watch her grow in the Lord and in her desire to serve Him, especially in the area of music. She just mentioned to us that she would like to add the cello to her repertoire, suggesting that it would add a different instrument to our church orchestra. We encouraged her to pray about it and ask the Lord to provide her with a cello if it was His desire for her to learn it. Regardless, I love her desire to broaden her abilities for Him. I hope she maintains this desire into adulthood.

Looking ahead, the next few months are expected to be quite busy. In the next week, we will launch a completely redone LearntheBible.org. Even after launch, I have nearly 1,000 hours of work to do to edit the existing site content. This site is truly going to be an invaluable tool for people to learn the Bible. In addition to this, just over a month from now, we are hosting our annual Bible conference at Antioch. The dates for the conference are June 6-8 with services being held on Monday night, Tuesday morning and night, and Wednesday morning and night. We are asking those who plan to attend to let us know as soon as possible so we can plan accordingly. We truly believe this will be one of our best conferences yet. We would be greatly indebted to you if you would pray with us concerning all these things.