Greater Portland Baptist Church

Jesse and Tiffany Shanks: May 2006

We could only imagine what the newspaper headline would say the following day, "Three year old missionary kid burns down church house." For some reason, Joshua thought he could hold a tissue over a burning candle and it would not catch fire. He found out very quickly, however, that this was not possible. Fortunately for us, and the church, I was able to grab it and move it onto a glass table where it harmlessly burned up.

Life is always an adventure when traveling with Joshua! The funny thing is that he usually does not do things like that, but I guess that any three year old is capable of just about anything!

This was just one of the many exciting things that happened this month. God is blessing in so many ways, and we are so thrilled and humbled that He uses us for His glory. God has given us many great opportunities to share the gospel and witness for Him. Most recently, I was able to speak at a church's gym night where around 50 kids from the community came to play games. During this time, I gave a short message from God's Word. I told them about David showing Mephibosheth undeserved kindness and explained how this is a picture of God's grace. Several kids raised ntheir hand indicating they wanted to know more about being saved. We praise the Lord for allowing us to plant, water, and reap in His harvest.

God has led us to some great churches this month in Washington, Idaho, and British Columbia. We have had some wonderful experiences and met many wonderful people. There have been a few people we have met this month who we developed an instant bond with, and enjoyed great fellowship with.

We have put our new video presentation on the website, so make sure to see it if you haven't already. It is similar to the old one, but we have updated and improved it where it was necessary.

Praise the Lord, we are getting very close to reaching 50% of our needed financial support! Many new churches have made the commitment to begin supporting us, and we have seen some of that come in this month. We are expecting and praying to be well over 50% in the next month or two.

Some current prayer requests: 1. Pray for more support to come in quickly. 2. Pray for God to be glorified in all we do in our ministry. 3. Pray for God to continue using us to shine the light of the gospel to those who are without Christ.

In His Grace,
Jesse, Tiffany, and Joshua Shanks