Greater Portland Baptist Church

Keith and Donna South: September 2006

Praises: What an awesome God we serve! We continue to thank and praise the Lord for all of our faithful support team. Without your faithful prayers and support we would not be able to survive the demands of ministry in Utah. We are praising the Lord for a great summer's end and the beginning of our fall ministries. We were asked to run a concession stand at our county fair! Only God can do this. All fees were waived and we were able to keep all we made! Our folks rose to the challenge and did a great job, so good that the fair committee asked us to do it again next year when I went to turn in the key on Monday! PTL! We learned a lot and the Lord blessed our ignorance. We were able to add over $4,400 to our building fund. Beyond that, it was an awesome opportunity to again gain great exposure in our community. Several contacts were made and folks have talked to me about it around town even as late as last week. Another praise was our Heroes Service in September. We had several from law enforcement, firefighters, and EMTs attend. We received many thanks. Again the Lord blessed and I had several come up to me and remind me that we are not only the only church that does this, but the only organization period that cares enough about our local heroes to honor them. PTL! We had representatives of the city council also attend along with many of our own people. More contacts, more opportunities to build relationships for God's glory! Our fall ministries have gotten off to an explosive start. We are in need of more helpers in our Master's Kids, and Teen ministries. What a blessing to have those kinds of problems. Our attendance has been down a little but that is partially due to running out of room in our present location. (Another one of those tough problems to deal with.) God is so good and His timing is perfect, so we are trusting in His plan and trying to stay out of His way. Our property will be available for us to begin work on as soon as a sub-divider across the road from us has his plans approved. Then, we can put the required water line in and that will allow us to start submitting drawings for building permits.

Prayers: Please continue to pray for this ministry and our family. We are asking the Lord to touch the hearts of our folks to step up and help in several areas. Two mentioned above are Master's Kids and Teens. There are several families in line for our home Bible study. Pray for the Wood family as I start a Bible study with them this week. Dad and Mom are both close to getting saved, and I'm praying that during the course of this study God will do this. They have been faithful in attendance on Sundays and have been searching and asking questions. We would ask prayer for the Lord's timing and financial provisions for our building project. We currently must rent local facilities for our Master's Kids program throughout the school year and for our Summer Bible Time in June, along with any special meetings like our Heroes Service because ours is not adequate. As always, we would ask you to pray that we can reach the lost here in Nephi. There are several that are interested but still very much intimidated by the LDS church, their family, and friends. Pray that God will give us and our folks much wisdom, and testimonies that will impact this community for the glory of God.

Personal Stuff: Glenn and Jennifer are doing well in Salt Lake. They are both working, but still not walking with the Lord as they should. We would appreciate your continuing prayer for them. Jeff is doing well and loving Northland Baptist Bible College. He is a good boy and checks in with his mother regularly. It would be embarrassing to have her show up at his dorm if he didn't! Brad and Doug are both off to another good start with school. They are both playing football and doing well. They are providing a good testimony to the team and coaches that I praise the Lord for, and am very proud of. What can I say? I'm married to an amazing gal! As many of your know by now, Donna is a cancer survivor since 1999. Due to all the treatments and drugs she has taken, there have been a continuing number of physical challenges crop up over that past seven years. She is now diabetic, she has trouble with her thyroid, she has osteopenia, and the latest challenge is she has now been diagnosed with Parkinson's. Now, have we cried?--yes. Have we felt sorry for ourselves?--yes. Have we questioned or given up on God?--NEVER! It is amazing to see how many folks Donna has had to minister to. I'm talking about unsaved community people who have gotten to know us over that past twelve years here. They call, or drop by and Donna is able to point them to the Savior. She says, "I don't know what the Lord is doing, but I do know He never makes a mistake, so we'll just trust Him through this also." The reactions are classic. If I could, I'd take a picture and record all of them. She is doing well. There has been a loss of dexterity in her left hand and arm but nothing major yet. The boys have been wonderful through it all, and have taken it as their ministry to continue to "stir her up," Parkinson's or no Parkinson's. They don't see one good reason to back off and give her a break, and she meets that challenge like a champ! I don't have enough room to tell you all the stories that have manifested themselves over that past few months, but suffice it to say the boys are loosing and they love it. Brad started to leave for work one day and decided to "stir her up" by not giving her a hug and kiss before he left. She stopped him in his tracks, made him turn around and stand in front of her. She then stomped on his foot, reminding him that the impact is good for her bones. She then proceeded to put the boy in a bear hug until he hugged back and very politely asked if he could go to work. She reminded him that this was good for her neuromuscular health. Doug said something that was not received well by her, so she turned on him. He, like the man he is, turned tail and ran downstairs screaming like a girl! He crept back up stairs only to observe his mother moving towards me! I mustered up all the courage I had and said, "Go ahead, give me your best shot, let's see of your neuromuscular response can squeeze the life out of me." With that we commenced a huggin' one another and that's when both boys made a sick groaning sound and left the room. I'd say her Parkinson's is not too advanced. She popped a half dozen of my vertebra and almost took away my breath! But lets face it, she's been taking my breath away now for 29 years!

In His service,

The Souths
Keith, Donna,
Jeff, Brad, & Doug