Greater Portland Baptist Church

Keith and Donna South: January 2008 (2)

Praises:
After nineteen years of knowing my Savior, thirty years of marriage, twenty three years of parenting, and almost fourteen years in Nephi ministering, we are praising the Lord more than ever! We thank the Lord for each of you who have known us and prayed for us all these years. We are also thankful for the way the Lord has used you to help financially. The ministry continues to move forward at the Lord's pace. We praise Him for eight who have accepted Him as Savior this past year. We are also praising Him for the seven we were able to baptize. We are looking forward to another year to get to know the Lord better and serve Him with all our heart, mind, and strength. We praise the Lord for our average attendance increase and pray that will continue in all areas of ministry. We are ministering to over twenty teens each week and our Master's Kids have close to thirty each week. PTL! Our jail ministry is doing well with at least one inmate accepting Christ this year and many others being helped through our weekly Bible study. The Lord has given us fruit in our Care Center ministry. Sharon now comes to all services. Our boys, Brad and Doug, pick her up each Sunday and another family pick her up for Wednesday nights. We praise the Lord for our monthly newspaper articles and the exposure we receive along with the doors the Lord opens for witnessing. We are already preparing for our Summer Bible Time in June along with camp UTIBACA in July. Our core group at church has also grown a little which is a blessing. Our Wednesday night services have gone from twelve in attendance to 16-20. This is a real answer to prayer. Our home Bible studies have slowed a bit but we have seen one person saved and a family really grow over the year. PTL!

Prayers:
With all the victories the Lord gives us, there are still plenty of challenges. As we move from victory unto victory, the Lord strengthens us as only He can in between. Please continue to pray for our ministries and families. We would ask that you pray for Andrea as she is so close to accepting the Lord. As the Lord reminds you, pray also for Heber, Carl, the Carter family, the Taylor family, the Sneed family, Jason, and Kyle. We also would ask that you pray for all of our Teen's families since all are unsaved. The only saved teens we have are my boys and one other. Also our Master's Kids are primarily unsaved too. We have very little contact with these families outside of our Teens and MK. Pray that they will be saved and loved into the church family (our folks are great at that!). Please continue to pray for the advancement on our new church building. The Lord has cleared the way for us to finally develop our plans and submit them to the city for approval for construction. We are in process of putting down on paper what we would like to see the Lord provide. We are going to need a whole lot more money than we now have, but we've seen God do greater things than that! I would like to see us finalize plans with an A & E firm and be able to submit them to the city by this summer. Please pray that the Lord will lead in this and we will understand and do His will. We would also ask that you pray for Donna as her ministry to cancer patients around town takes a big toll on her. "As thy days are so shall thy strength be" is a huge promise we lean on. Pray that we will see many of these folks saved and added to the kingdom before they go into eternity. In particular, please pray for Iris who has terminal cancer and is very afraid of dying. She has seen a difference in our family. We're asking God to save her & give her peace. Also a dear saved friend, Ruby is terminal. Please pray for her comfort.

Personal Stuff:
The family is doing well. Donna is still struggling with energy levels. We thought things were getting better a couple of months ago, but it hasn't continued. Her Parkinson's hasn't progress too much over the year so we are very thankful for that. The Lord knows. Glenn is doing better and we ask that you continue to pray for him. As many of you know, he is divorced and now is an over-the-road truck driver. He loves it. The divorce was one of those difficult situations. We couldn't counsel him to divorce his wife, but pleaded with God for an answer. As parents we were glad to have him out of a very destructive environment. He has made some good decisions, and has shown some movement back towards the Lord. He still struggles with various things, so please continue to pray for him. Jeff is doing just awesome. We've so enjoyed our time with him over the winter break and are moving towards that depressing time of having to send him back. He has been asked to be a Resident Assistant. Pray that he will be able to manage that along with school, wrestling, and his time with the Lord. Brad is now officially the manager at the pizza place. He is doing well with both work and school. Doug handles brother as his boss very well. They are both hitting the gym with me in the mornings getting ready for next football season. Pray as they both are going to need direction in the area of the right college and all the preparation that needs to take place. Brad will be a senior, Doug a junior next year so there isn't much time left. Once the boys leave, I'll be able to concentrate all my energies on finally getting her whipped into shape!

In His service,

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