Greater Portland Baptist Church

Keith and Donna South: May 2006

Praises: There is always much to praise the Lord over! We want to thank all of you for your prayers and faithful support not just for the last few months but over the many years that the Lord has had us together. The ministry is cranked up and moving forward for the glory of God. I believe every aspect of our ministry is growing & we pray maturity is taking place as well. We have put Master's Kids away for the summer but will still get them together periodically to keep those contacts fresh. Steve and Jacque continue to be a major praise for us as God has worked through them to take our youth ministries to new heights. We have seen several kids come to know the Lord and we have added a new family due to our youth ministries. This is definitely an answer to prayer. Matthew continued to come to church by himself for almost 2 years and just a few weeks ago, his whole family came. Dad, Mom, and three brothers all showed up! Pastor Steve and I went over to explain baptism to Matthew and his parents just a couple of weeks ago. The Lord had more than Matthew's edification in mind as we were able to share the gospel with Dad and Mom! Just this week the Mom told us she had accepted the Lord & her husband is close! I am scheduled to baptize Matthew in June, pray that we will baptize Dad, & Mom also, and maybe his younger brother Ashton who just yesterday wanted to know how to be saved!

Prayers: Please continue to pray for our building situation. Many have called or emailed me to inquire about our status. We are basically waiting on Bart (the man in our church who donated the land) to deal with all of the city's red tape. They are making him jump through many hoops in planning, and subdividing, etc. The question has come up, "Are they doing it because we are Baptists?" Bart is from a faithful Mormon family here in town and now he attends our church faithfully with his family. I'm sure that rubs folks the wrong way, but I cannot say for sure if it is because he is going to the "wrong" church. He, however, has to do things over that he already had approval to do at one time. They are also making him complete several items that are not necessary, but I told him not to get frustrated. We will dot all our "I's" and cross all our "T's," and when God puts this building up, they will have nothing to come back on us for. Pray for our summer ministries coming up. We had a group cancel on us for Summer Bible Time at a late date and we are scrambling a little to get things ready, but the Lord knows. Camp is coming up so pray that we will be able to send many to camp this year. Our youth ministries have really grown and we have a potential to send several. Our Teen group is made up of kids that are not popular and in trouble a lot at school. It is unique and Pastor Steve & Jacque need your prayers. Austin & Shannon Hiner have started helping them out which has been a huge blessing. Pray that we can continue to reach these Teens nobody wants.

Personal Stuff: Everybody is doing fine. Glenn & Jennifer moved back to Salt Lake. Glenn is working as a security guard, & Jennifer is working at the University of Utah in the cornea transplant lab. We celebrated Jeff's graduation from high school with a service on April 28. He has been accepted to Northland Baptist Bible College to prepare for full-time ministry. Brad is now a working man at a local pizza house. He just turned 15 & is opening the restaurant on his own daily! Not bad for a kid to have so much responsibility! We are proud of his work ethic. Doug is trying to figure out what to do with himself, & is adjusting to Brad working & Jeff leaving us soon. Donna is finding out just what the chemicals do to a person years after chemotherapy, but we praise the Lord because the alternative was not good. She is with us and for that we will take each physical challenge as it comes and look to the Lord. That brings me to a hard subject for me to talk about, but one that is well over-due to share with you. We started tracking our finances in two specific areas seven years ago while Donna underwent all her cancer treatments. After seven years unfortunately we have a somewhat large debt. This breaks down into two categories: Medical costs & Reporting-in trips. With continuing medications, cancer & diabetes checks, & additional long-term challenges cropping up, our medical expenses are significant on a monthly basis. We subscribe to Christian Brotherhood Newsletter, a benevolent fund to help with medical expenses. Just about the time Donna went through cancer, they went through serious financial & legal challenges. As a result, they are getting back on track, but reimbursement for medical needs is in the range of 9-12 months from the time a need is submitted. We finally received the last of the 1999 cancer needs just this past year. This puts a large strain on a monthly budget. We have gone to discount drug plans, secured discounts and have qualified for programs to help out, but it has been a challenge to say the least. The other area of reporting-in trips has caused us to have to try to cover a bigger expense than our love-offerings can handle. For example this year we were out 5 weeks, and were able to visit 10 churches. The trip cost us $4300 and our love offerings came to $1900. Don't get us wrong, we are not complaining, these are simply the facts. After several years of not covering our expenses for these trips and the added medical costs Donna has had, we are going to have to stop reporting-in trips on a yearly basis. We have had some churches over the last seven years decide to stop supporting us for one reason or another. The good news is our church has really stepped up and is trying to help out all they can. They have taken on about $800 of expenses each month so we don't have those coming out of our budget. Donna and I are in the process of researching and talking to other insurance companies and benevolent groups because Brotherhood has really hurt us. With our budget taking a big hit, there are changes that must be made. I'm sorry I have to inform everyone about this, but we desperately need your prayers in these areas. We love to report-in. It is a blessing to us on several fronts: We are able to get new perspective of the ministry here, spend some quality time together as a family, & spend time with our supporters and see what God is doing in those ministries. It is such a blessing to see old friends, and meet new faces that are in each of our churches. However, we will have to get caught up financially before we venture back out to do any reporting-in. In the mean time, we will do more email updates and the church is working on helping me with a computer and equipment to produce DVDs of the ministry. Hopefully between the updates and the DVDs, that will help in the absence of a personal visit. Again the Lord is so good. This little bump in the road for us has not slowed the ministry down one bit. We thank the Lord for His provisions and allowing us to continue to serve Him in Nephi, UT! This challenge has also made our people more sensitive to the needs of our missionaries and the costs involved. Our church is growing on several fronts, and I thank my God for His people He has put on this team. We invite all of you to visit us any time to see the ministry & what God is doing with your faithful prayer & financial support in this needy area. We love the ministry God has given us & love to share our burden for Utah with you all. Thank you so much for your faithfulness over the years.

In His service,

The South Family,
Keith, Donna, Jeff, Brad, & Doug