SEPTEMBER 2009
“Mobilizing Families for God’s Kingdom Worldwide”
"And He said to them, ‘Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.’"
~ Jesus in Matthew 4:19
Dear Friends in Christ,
As I write this, we have just returned from a delightful one day family trip to hear our favorite violinist, Augustin Hadelich, perform the Symphonie Espagnole in Cleveland, Ohio. If you enjoy classical music, I would recommend you see Augustin sometime if you can. He is phenomenal. I believe he has a bright future and will soon be a very well known virtuoso violinist. He is the same violinist we spoke of in our last newsletter. To see his concert schedule, visit www.Augustin-Hadelich.com.
Since August, the weather here has been beautiful and cool, a change from the humidity and heat we had been having. We hope this cool front has touched many of you as well. We also hope you enjoy this brief sampling of our activities and ministry over the past several months.
Church Family Ministry
Our family had fun visiting
an old friend of ours who is
now a pastor, Pastor Scott
Beck: Sydenstricker
U.M.C., Springfield, VA.
He and his church hosted
us to do a series on evangelism.
People were very encouraged, and comments included: “It was just what we needed.” “So helpful.” “So inspiring.” “Loved meeting your family!"
Neighborhood Outreach
We’re always looking for fun and creative ways to connect with our
neighbors. Another friend of ours, Steve McCurdy from the Baltimore
area, is an architect and tree expert. Interestingly enough, he helped
design the park at Baltimore’s Inner
Harbor where we’ve done open-air evangelism.
We invited Steve to lead a tree
identification hike in the woods near our
house. We were delighted that about
three dozen neighbors came! Steve did a
wonderful job leading, teaching and especially involving the
kids.
Bernie Speaks
Bernie always enjoys speaking about the importance of the Biblical Foundations of our country and its Founders. At “City On The Hill” (a 5-day youth leadership conference in Baltimore), Bernie was invited to speak to a great group of young people about Maryland’s Christian Heritage. He used Scripture to talk about Maryland’s flag, seal and Francis Scott Key. In various conversations and settings, Bernie has been asking Christian Dads three questions. For example, at a weekly men’s breakfast led by Neal Dillard, a great friend at our old church in Northern Virginia, Immanuel Bible Church, Bernie posed his “Three Dad Questions.”
- What are the biggest challenges you have faced as a Dad?
- How would you express your vision for your family?
- How might your wife and children express your vision for your family?
It’s been very helpful to gain insights into the pressures and hurdles Christian men face in leading their families. These insights are helping us as we continue to develop evangelistic and discipleship opportunities for families, especially for fathers to lead their families to join in with us.
Another Battlefield Tour & Outreach!
Along those very lines, we were delighted
to have several fathers and their
kids join us for this year’s Monocacy
Civil War Battlefield Tour and Outreach
here in Frederick, Maryland.
Everyone in our group joined right in to
hand out gospel fliers, and some took
short evangelistic questionnaires with
people. This encourages us! The fliers
are reprints of actual Civil War era Gospel tracts. We’ve enclosed one for you.
Preserving the Beall Family Heritage
At his mother’s
home in Clarksburg, MD, Bernie enjoyed interviewing
the oldest living sisters of the 10 siblings of his father’s
family. Aunt Ruth (85) and Aunt Esther (93) were visiting
family in the area for a week, having been driven
here by his niece, Elizabeth, who has recently moved to
Wilmore, KY to live with them and care for them for a
season. Fascinating stories from these wonderful godly
women who have served the Lord in many ways for
many decades. Bernie hopes to eventually transcribe
and summarize the 4-hour recording they made that day.
Another Granddaughter
Added to the Beall Family Legacy
On Saturday, September 5th, Josh and Kerin had their 3rd
daughter, Bethany Lauren. 3:44am, 7 lbs 6 oz, 19 inches long.
She is, of course, the most beautiful baby ever, just like her
sisters were and are. We got to play with Abigail and Rachel
for three days while Mommy rested. In the following days,
Kerin's family helped care for her and the children by cooking,
cleaning and playing with the girls. It sure is a sweet blessing to
live close by. We don't take it for granted, this may not always
be true, and it may not be true for our other children if/when they marry. But we can appreciate this for now.
After Bethany was born, I realized something that is really special to me. Abigail and Bethany were my top choices for girl names if we would have ever had more girls after Sarah. How precious! Rachel was a middle name we had chosen, as well, if I remember right. Although Sarah never got that sister, and we never had any other girls, it is very sweet that I now have grandbabies with the very names I had chosen. Neither Josh nor Kerin knew this. They chose the names because they liked them and their meanings, or as I like to think, God named them, He just clued me in ahead of time for what was ahead in the next generation, even though I didn't realize it. God is so sweet.
God’s richest blessings to you all,
In Christ,
Linda and family
Current Prayer Requests - Thank you for your prayers!
- For Aaron to have the time to finish up our evangelistic web site. Every time we do outreach, we get visits at www.GetEternalAnswers.com, but nothing is there yet, and he is quite busy these days, even having difficulties finding time to complete his new professional site: abeall.com.
- For spiritual fruit that remains from our ministry and outreach, and wisdom for the future.
- For Sarah as she begins working and teaching in two local studios, and as she prepares for her next piano recital this winter. The tentative selections include the Bach Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue, Haydn Sonata variations in F minor, Brahms Opus 118, and Ravel Sonatine.
- For Josh and Kerin as they and Abigail & Rachel adjust to new baby Bethany.
- For Daniel as we move forward with his major orthodontic needs. The 6 extractions went very well. Thank you so much for those of you who heard about it in time and prayed! Daniel had 'no significant pain', so we are wondering if he has a high pain tolerance. It went much better than expected, but we think that mostly it was the prayers that covered Daniel after we sent out a mass e-mail the night before his oral surgery. (If you didn’t get that e-mail and would like to receive our occasional e-mail Prayer Updates, sent us a quick e-mail saying so.) We met with the orthodontist last week, and he would like to take out at least one more tooth that he wasn't sure about before. He wants to allow this tooth to erupt more first, and to wait 3-4 months before starting the braces. So we are looking at doing this in December or January.
Thank you so much for your prayers!
“Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” ~ II Cor. 5:18