Ray Family Update from December 2023

Dear Praying Friends,

The passing of a calendar year offers a natural time of reflection on the past and anticipation of the future. While there was much good that came in and from 2023, my overall perspective is that it was a rough year. The year’s end somewhat summarizes how I see the year as a whole. In the last few weeks, we had four deaths (three of which took close loved ones from elderly ladies in our church, and the other of which took our unborn grandbaby—the second unborn grandbaby lost in 2023). We also passed around the flu, or flus, or COVID, both through our church and through our family. If that were not enough, on day one of 2024, as my wife and I were preparing to leave to attend one of the funerals, we got a call from our son that he, his wife, and their child had been struck in the passenger side of the car by someone who ran a stop sign. Our family appears to be fine (Praise the Lord!), but I am not so sure their car will make it.

I keep hoping we will get to a place in the ministry and in life where everything will be serene, stable, and serendipitous, but I guess that would make the present time too much like heaven or the New Jerusalem. I would like to look back on a year and see that nobody left the church, only new people came. I would like to look back on a year and not see any losses of loved ones, especially unborn grandbabies. Rather, I would like to have welcomed several new members to the family. I would like to survey the year behind and see nothing but happiness, peace, and contentment, both in me and in everyone else around me. What a blessing it would be to survey a year and see only success unmixed with any failures! But this is not life, at least not here and not now!

If you have survived to read this update to this point, you are probably worried for my mental and spiritual well-being, and rightfully so. Just a week ago, I was in one of the darkest places in my mind that I have ever been. The regular happenings of life were burdensome enough when I decided to get whatever the latest virus was and the darkness that came along with that sickness almost drove me to a place of despair. I (somewhat) joked with someone that my new life verse was 2 Corinthians 1:8. Be assured that life and the ministry are not for the faint of heart. People who read these letters do so because you love our family and care deeply for us, but few people ever know the realities of how many times in a year their pastor would like to quit and do something else with his life but knows the Lord would be displeased if he did so. All in all, we do not serve the Lord because of the absence of these things. Rather, we serve the Lord in spite of and in the face of these things. While my transparency may be alarming for some, I have always strived to be honest and forthright with people so that they can see the reality of the battle to live a Christian life. You fight battles. We fight battles. Quitting is not an option that we should put on the table. If the Lord Jesus Christ did not faint in the day of His adversity (Hebrews 12:1-3), who are we to give up because the flowery beds of ease look more like bloody seas (see Am I a Soldier of the Cross?)?

All that being said, I am hopeful at the prospects of 2024. I am not disappointed in or with the Lord, nor am I displeased to be where the Lord has put me in the ministry. I have a perfect Bible and a perfect God, so what if everything else is imperfect! All of that just magnifies the value of that which is perfect! Furthermore, I am thrilled to be married to my best friend, and I absolutely adore my children, the spouses of my children, and my grandbabies (only one of which has graced us with her presence). I only have a few true friends, but they are worth more than their weight in gold. What else matters when you truly think about it? Therefore, when you read this update, do not be discouraged about the difficulties of life, but be encouraged that we have a God that is so good that He is worthy of our love and allegiance regardless of whether or not life seems to give us favourable circumstances.

Update on the Work

Fewer and fewer preachers actually take the time to put pen to paper today and provide written teaching or admonition for the saints. About the best we get from our generation are transcribed (then polished) sermons, but I assure you that this is not the same as taking the time to systematically and methodically write out biblical truth for others to read and grow thereby. God’s men from the first century church set an example for us that verbal preaching was not enough! Along those lines, I have tried my best to always have some sort of a writing assignment laid to my charge. I do not consider myself gifted in the area of writing (or in any area for that matter), but I want to give the Lord my best and trust Him to make it helpful. We are nearing the completion of a publications site where you will be able to see all of the notes, books, and tracts that we have completed. The most recent publication is The Little Maid Who Saved a Captain. Already, I have begun work on a four-volume set that teaches through the doctrines of the Bible.

In addition to the writing work, we are currently moving forward on two projects that are time-consuming and labour-intensive. We praise the Lord for providing the funds for us to complete phase two of our building renovations. Now, our men just have to find time to put all the equipment (technology) together, run the wires, link everything together, and whatever else brainiac type stuff to get us up and running. Unfortunately, the details of this work are so intricate that only a few of our men can do the work, and these men have busy lives beyond the work that needs to be done at the meetinghouse. We are hopeful that January will start to see some of the upgrades made, but certainly the next few months will. On another front, we are going through and editing our YouTube videos to make them available to the general public, both in long-form and shorts. This work is slow, but rewarding. We would love to have more helpers in this ministry, but the Lord knows.

Update on our Schedule

This time of year is unusually busy for us. We just finished up a meeting in Cana, Virginia, on the home and family. In a couple of weeks, I will be flying to preach in two different churches in far north Michigan before flying back to preach in a conference in Deland, Florida. I always get nervous in these meetings and feel very inadequate for the task at hand. It would be a great blessing if you would pray with me that the Lord will help me be a help to the people wherever I am preaching at any given time. I do not do this because it is easy, nor because it is always fun, I do it because I want to honour the Lord and help His people.