April 29-30, 2010

Thursday and Friday the last session in the two-year cycle of the J.C. Choate School of Evangelism convened in Winona, MS. There were not very many survivors from when we began many months ago, but the Bates and the Rushmores were among the diehards. Bonnie and I did not miss any of the classes and were the only ones to attend each session.

This week was a busy week for Bonnie and me, because among other things, we finished preparing and mailed just under 800 newly printed newsletters chronicling our recent labors. Whereas the newsletters were mailed non-profit third class, Friday we finished preparing and mailed 279 first class letters to congregations with which we have had contact over previous decades, asking them to consider participating with us financially in our upcoming mission trips (June: Myanmar for two weeks of teaching Christian, Baptist and Buddhist young people; October-November: India and Myanmar, including teaching for three weeks in the Hmawbi Bible School). We can dream, but if each congregation sent $100, we would have about $28,000 to apply to the Lord's work abroad.

April 24-26, 2010

Saturday, while we were traveling through Memphis into Arkansas, tornados ravaged parts of Mississippi. Especially hard hit was Yazoo City, MS; the church building lost its steeple and shingles on one side of the roof, and a member of the congregation lost his home and barn. Other members of the church (Durant, MS) lost their homes, too. Several lives were lost in Mississippi and other adjoining states.

Saturday evening we lodged, courtesy of the church, in a motel in Pocahontas, AR. Lord's Day morning I spoke twice for the Biggers Church of Christ. We were treated to a fellowship meal following worship. We are always well received and encouraged. This was another congregation among several that tell us we don't have to come by, but we go anyway to encourage and be encouraged in the Lord's work.

We traveled toward Winona as far as Collierville, TN and lodged with our daughter—at our own private bed and breakfast, alias, her home. Monday, we picked up paper for the print shop in Memphis, TN before heading down I-55 to Winona. We stopped in Grenada, MS to buy some potted plants, etc., after which we intended to buy some groceries. However, Betty Choate called us to say that the tractor trailer delivery of The Voice of Truth International magazine and another book scheduled to be delivered on Wednesday was being delivered in 15 minutes. She was the only team member in Winona, and so we scrubbed the idea of buying food and headed for Winona. However, by the time we arrived, the books were unloaded and on pallets in the warehouse, courtesy of the truck driver, a lift gate on the truck, a pallet jack and a partial sheet of plywood for a ramp. The driver didn't want to make a return trip on Wednesday when we and our coworkers would be present, and he was kind enough to help Betty Choate thus move thousands of magazines and books inside. Clayton Malone, Betty's brother-in-law was available to assist as well.

April 21, 2010

Wednesday evening, we visited outside French Camp, MS with the Huntsville Church of Christ. We were received enthusiastically, and at the preacher's request, talked for a long time after everyone else departed. Nathan Wright hopes that his congregation can become more involved with the good works occurring in Winona, MS at the World Evangelism Building; French Camp and Winona are only about 30 minutes or so apart. Perhaps Nathan will venture with us on an upcoming mission trip abroad. Lately, several brethren in numerous states have expressed some degree of interest in traveling with us overseas; their ages range from the 20's through the 80-years-old or above that.

April 19, 2010

Monday was a day of travel from our night's lodging in Tallahassee, FL back to Winona, MS. Cities, towns and villages through which we passed today include these: Bainbridge, GA; Dothan, AL; Ozark, AL; Troy, AL; Montgomery, AL; Tuscaloosa, AL and Columbus, MS. Going and coming, we found gasoline for $2.59 per gallon on our route of travel in Donalsonville, GA, and we stopped coming back at the US-82 Rest Area at Maplesville, AL. We each ate a Nutra bar for breakfast while departing Tallahassee and stopped for meals in Troy, AL and Columbus, MS. From Friday early evening until Monday about 8 p.m., we traveled in the car 23 hours and 39 minutes to go 1,225 miles. Just one more routine day of travel; next week we will be in Arkansas, and the week after we will be in Georgia. (We should send a bill to each of the states in which we drove over the weekend—for bug extermination; the front of the car is masked in bug guts! A car bath is on the things to do list for tomorrow.)

I have more than one kind of lapel pin that I wear with my suits, but there is one symbol that I wear more than any other. Almost always someone comments about the "R/R" or inquires if I have some connection with a railroad company. It really signifies that I like love trains, especially steam engines. I'm a self-professed train nut! My grandfather Porterfield was a conductor on the Bessemer Lake Erie Railroad; my father as well as Bonnie's father and brothers built and refurbished railcars; and our forefathers laid track and maintained railway equipment. I have an island railroad of the N-gauge, on which all of our family members have worked to build over the decades. I have railroad paraphernalia everywhere in the den and in my office.

Someone who knows me well, though, said the "R/R" really stands for "Ready Rushmore," respecting my willingness to immerse myself in so many aspects of and lending myself to the cause of Christ. There is no light at the end of my tunnel (unless it is the light of an onrushing freight train), and I wouldn't have it any other way.

April 18, 2010

Sunday morning began with a good, complimentary breakfast at the commodious hotel in which brethren lodged us the previous evening. The meetinghouse was about a half mile or so away, and we arrived in plenty of time to set up a display, some gifts and a few books. We were well received by a group of maybe 160 brothers and sisters in Christ as I present the Because of the Center Cross PowerPoint lesson. A fine Christian couple took us to Cracker Barrel for lunch and afterward entertained us in their home until time to leave for my second Sunday appointment that day.

We were no less charitably received by brethren at a second congregation in Jacksonville, FL. About 30 were present for that assembly. It was my good pleasure to become acquainted with brethren visiting from elsewhere, including an elder; he was already aware of our efforts from another elder of the same congregation with whom I had come in contact a month or so earlier. Bonnie and I hope to visit this third congregation in the weeks or months ahead in 2010.

Each of the three congregations with which we interacted this trip is multi-ethnic, and appear to be in perfect harmony on every level. How refreshing and encouraging! God, certainly, is pleased.

Declining to stay over night, we headed about two hours or a little more west on I-10. We stopped for the night in Tallahassee, FL. To our surprise (and mild disappointment), not all Comfort Inns are the same (worn around the edges, no refrigerator, no microwave). Happily, we will be this much ahead on our still several hour journey tomorrow back to Winona, MS. It's late; good night.

April 12-17, 2010

Routine Monday through Wednesday, the week took a turn for the even busier Thursday through Saturday. Thursday, with the help of one extra volunteer, plus Theola Burton, Betty Choate, the Bates and the Rushmores, the last of the Global Harvest magazine were shipped via the US Post Office in Winona, MS.

Friday, Rafael Barrantes (new Editor of the Spanish Edition of The Voice of Truth International magazine) and Mainor Perez (Spanish layout person for the magazine) arrived just before 9:00 a.m. for a day's labor, trying to iron out the stubborn kinks in getting the first issue to the press since the passing of the former Editor of the Spanish Edition. We have been working together from afar for months without being able to get a workable document to the printing company.

We consumed the whole day in sometimes futile exercises due to computer program, etc. issues (mostly incompatibility problems). We think we have a workaround that will get us to press on this edition. In addition, we put in place the necessary procedures to expedite future production of the Spanish Edition of The Voice of Truth International magazine (we think!). Brother Barrantes lives in Tennessee; brother Perez lives in Missouri; we are in Mississippi; and the printing company is in South Carolina. We wonder, among other considerations, why it is a challenge for us to all be on the same proverbial page! Alas, though, many with whom we labor in World Evangelism are scattered throughout this nation and literally scattered through the world. Somehow, it all comes together, but not always easily.

Bonnie and I attended as little as necessary the reconstruction of our home sewage system by the contractor, while helping to complete the mailing of Global Harvest magazine (around 3,000) and mailing postcards about our upcoming mission trip to Myanmar (Burma) to around 2,000 congregations, working to resolve issues with the Spanish Edition of The Voice of Truth International, loading books, etc. for our weekend trip to Jacksonville, FL and packing our clothes for the same trip. We hoped to leave earlier than we did (always happens that way) and were supposed to remain a day longer than we did to further tend to the Spanish edition of the magazine.

We thought we would lodge overnight on the south side of Tuscaloosa, AL but ended up lodging on the south side of Montgomery, AL. The motel we ended up with was the most India-like of the many India-run motels we encounter on our frequent trips. As it turn out, the "new rooms" meant freshly painted walls, old, holey carpet, no hand towels and one sheet atop a mattress pad—and Oh, yes, the aroma of certain spices. A red light on the phone beside the bed was the size of my thumb, and it flashed nonstop; upon calling the front desk to enquire how to turn off the light, I was advised to unplug the phone! The service of taking our luggage (no question of whether we were going to be able to carry our own luggage—we weren't) to our rooms was extraordinary for in the states—really a good thing, for which we parted with some gratuity. The price was right!

All day Saturday, we drove and we drove and we drove! The brethren, though, took better care of us than we take care of ourselves, with the fine lodging that evening, in anticipation of the Sunday service at which I will speak. Sunday evening, we will worship with a second congregation in Jacksonville, FL, whereupon I will speak a second time about our mission work.

This blog, answering emails in this country and abroad, changing the time on our watches and phones to Eastern Standard Time, etc., the evening is spent and to sleep, to sleep we must adventure.

April 11, 2010

Sunday evening's appointment turned out to be a strange one; we showed up for the evening worship, but the church didn't. They did know I was coming; I hope that wasn't the reason! Slight miscalculation on setting the date and time; on that particular Sunday of the month, afternoon services are suspended and members do visitation (e.g., hospitals, nursing homes, homebound, sick, etc.). Sometimes I have a hard time keeping my scorecard straight as over the last two years or so where I have been traveling about, congregations often suspend or change the time of services for various reasons that disagree with their published times. We have rescheduled the appointment for a Wednesday night.

April 4-10, 2010

The week in review was filled with routine at the Winona office. The heat pump for the offices used by Paula as well as Bonnie and me failed again, the fourth time in about two years; probably the heat pump for the center warehouse room of books on the floor below will be shifted to replace the failed unit—to save the thousands of dollars that otherwise would have to be expended to buy a new heat pump.

Thursday, April 8, a crew from the Strickland Church of Christ in Glen, MS and some from a sister congregation to them came to Winona for the day to help us put out a mailing of the newest edition of the Global Harvest magazine. (The Strickland congregation sponsors Jerry and Paula Bates, who were supposed to be out of the country for this occasion, but they returned from India prematurely due to the grave illness and subsequent death of Jerry's mother.) About 2,000 copies of Global Harvest were packaged along with the memorial issue of The Voice of Truth International magazine and other materials. Packages had to be banded in groups of 10 and five of those placed in postal bags.

While Bonnie assisted Betty Choate, the Bates and the volunteers with preparing the Global Harvest mailing, I printed some book and tract order forms and milled the spines of 200 books in preparation for perfect binding (only 1,600 of that title to go, plus two other titles of 100 each); though we have most of our books printed offsite, this test (begun over two years ago with 2,000 of our daughter's book) remains incomplete. However, we discovered that we could save about $500 per printing in-house, but we simply cannot devote the time to the time-intensive production and keep up with other obligations, and the finished product with better equipment is superior offsite than when produced onsite. We primarily print some class books that have not been converted to the more expensive format yet, postcards, envelopes and newsletters.

At the house, we mowed the grass for the first time of the season. When we left the week before for our northward trip, it didn't need mowed yet, but by the time we arrived back in Winona, the frequent rain that intervening week grew some grass in areas of our yard by eight or more inches. Before we could mow grass, though, we had to remove six wheelbarrows of pine tree debris from the yard. Today (Saturday), we will cut the ditches and the embankments, place landscape timbers, etc. Inside, I need to crawl into the attic and replace somebody else's DIY faulty wiring for a dining room ceiling light. We have minor details to attend to complete the semi-renovation in which we have been involved since December, that is, before moving to the main bathroom, the kitchen, etc. Hopefully, the next pictures I post will not be of the hole where I fell through the ceiling somewhere! Bonnie adds, or of me in a full-body cast!

April 3, 2010

Today, is somewhat of a down day at Rebecca's. For the last two days, Rebecca has been consumed with Lads to Leaders in downtown Memphis. So, we have been pretty much on our own, getting some office work done, doing a little shopping and helping out just a little around the house.

Your reward for visiting Our Blog today, though, is free access to 63 volumes of The Voice of Truth International magazine and dozens of Bible study books in PDF format (computer digital files). Go to:

We only request that you view our missions page and drop us an email to acknowledge receipt of the free magazines and books in PDF format. Enjoy the veritable library!

April 1-2, 2010

Thursday was a travel day, from a Carrollton, KY motel to our favorite bed & breakfast (Rebecca's home) in Collierville, TN. We arrived around 7 p.m. That evening, we conferred with Byron Nichols via phone, and as he gave me final adjustments to the upcoming issue of The Voice of Truth International magazine, I made the corrections to the computer files.

Friday morning, Bonnie and I finalized both the April issue of Gospel Gazette Online and The Voice of Truth International magazines. Now, anyone going to the current edition of GGO from the lead web page will go to the April edition; we will send out the notifications to the free subscribers Sunday or Monday. We did some tweaking of VOTI before converting it to PDF files and via FTP sending it to the printing company in Taylor, SC. A few weeks from now, tens of thousands of Volume 64 will make their way by freightliner to Winona, MS and Springfield, MO. Often, we also have thousands shipped to New York for placement on a ship sailing from New Jersey to the other side of the planet for foreign distribution; at other times, we ship the foreign distribution from our warehouse in Winona to New York and send former editions (which is a balancing act to best use available funds and printed resources already on hand to keep literature flowing abroad).