Greater Portland Baptist Church

Keith and Donna South: May 2007

Praises: Someone asked me the other day, "Where would we be without the Lord?" I had only one answer that took no time in getting out of my mouth, "Lost!" Praise the Lord for His goodness and all of you He has provided who have faithfully prayed and supported this ministry. The ministry is doing well. We have had a good start to 2007. The Lord has been so good to give us new faces and families to minister too. We have new contacts and potential relationships to build. Attendance in all areas has been pretty consistent. Sundays, Wednesdays, Master's Kids, Teens, Care Center, and the Jail have all stayed solid. We thank the Lord for our best week of Revival yet. The Lord worked mightily in hearts and we saw our best overall attendance to date! Some of our Teens returned from Denver, CO where they attended a youth conference. I was pleased to hear that prayer was answered and the Lord spoke to our Teens while there. We had a baptismal service for 3 folks: a father & son, & another man who we have ministered to for many years. As many of you know, we don't have our own baptismal so we use the Best Western's pool for our services. PTL!

Prayers: We would ask your continued prayer for all facets of our ministry. We now have a lady from our Care Center ministry that comes to church. Sharon is in a wheel chair but that doesn't slow her down. She loves coming and has won a special place in this preacher's heart and the hearts of our folks. I spent almost 24 weeks with her in a personal Bible study at the Care Center. She knows the Lord as her Savior and her love for Him is both heart-warming and challenging to all of us. Please continue to pray for the Taylor & Carter families. They are both from Mormon backgrounds but are now attending our services on Sunday. The Taylor's didn't miss one of our revival services. Pray that they will be saved and continue to grow. Please continue to pray for our Teen group. As many of you know, they are unique in the sense of so many being unsaved kids from town. This poses several challenges for Pastor Steve & Jacque. One of the challenges we have is with so many unsaved and unchurched kids, it is a challenge to give our church kids all they need. We are seeking the Lord for direction in this matter. We have over 30 Teens each week with only 5 who are saved. Please pray with us. We are looking at the summer ministries, & would ask your prayers. Please pray for Camp, Summer Bible Time, and a special Teen outreach. We will host two groups this year plus our first intern. Pray that we will be a blessing and help to them as they come to learn and labor with us in the ministry. Please continue to pray for our building progress. Lord willing we will see a couple of the obstacles removed this spring or early summer to open the way for us to proceed. I met an individual who visited our church who works for BGW (Building God's Way). They are an A&E firm based in Ogden, UT. We will be looking into possibly using them for our building. Please pray for Iris Tolley. She is a friend who has terminal cancer. Please pray for her salvation & that God would give her peace & comfort in these days ahead.

Personal Stuff: The Lord is faithful and we praise Him for His goodness to our family. Donna is doing well PTL. The products from Mannatech seem to be helping. Please continue to pray for her. She is struggling with very little energy and with camp coming up she is concerned she won't be able to "pull her weight." She continues to be a great encouragement to me and the boys. We know she is worn out but she keeps on keeping on. It makes it pretty hard for us to complain about being tired. She is our hero hands down. Jeff is back with us from his first year at Northland. He had a great year but is very glad to be home. He is looking at a summer filled with ministry and looking forward to it. Brad continues to make pizzas and is now getting ready for the summer and football. Doug is also. He is working with Brad and looking forward to the start of football. He is constantly asking me if I want to go out and throw the football with him. He's ready! Brad now has his driver's license and is enjoying the road. We are enjoying the extra driver. We also want to update everyone on our financial situation. We've had several folks call or write inquiring. The Lord has been so good to us. This past year He provided abundantly (approx. $14,000!). Between Donna's medical costs & loss incurred from reporting-in trips, we still have some debt remaining, but are whittling away steadily as God provides. What a blessing to see Him work through so many avenues! We are asking Him to further reduce the debt this year or take it away all together. We have lost several supporters over the past 2-3 years which has reduced our monthly support by almost $600/month. But the Lord is faithful and has kept us. It seems the biggest reason for the reduction is due to the fact that we are in the U.S. and have been at this for 13 years. Most of the churches believe we should be self-supporting by now and wanted to move their funds to another field. They didn't understand the nature of missions in Utah, our "foreign field" within the boarders of the United States. Some loss is due to pastoral changes, but the Lord knows. I will be honest and admit that it hurts a little for awhile but there is no bitterness and God continues to remind us that He is in control and never makes mistakes. When something like this happens, it gives us a deeper appreciation for all of our churches and individuals that have stuck by their commitment and the support of this ministry both financially and prayerfully. We praise and thank the Lord for each of you and want you to know that you are held up before the Lord almost daily. We are humbled and awestruck by what the Lord does through all of you. I pray you can understand how blessed we are because of your faithfulness to allow the Lord to use you.

The South's
Keith, Donna, Jeff, Brad, & Doug