YEAR-END REPORT:
The night before last I delivered a year-end report to the CrossWay Mission's board of directors. The board of CrossWay Missions consists of 5 preachers, 1 elder, 1 deacon, and 2 dedicated Christian women. I am blessed to have these individuals on the Board and I am thankful for their collective wisdom and guidance. I will share with you the same information I shared with them.
CrossWay Missions is a missionary organization dedicated to the preaching of the Cross to the world. At this time, we have three outreach efforts: a state-side work, a work abroad, and a worldwide outreach.
The state-side work is a small Restoration church in Port St. Lucie, Florida that was on the verge of closing its doors – We have named this work “The Westport Mission” (the church is the Westport Christian Church).
The work abroad was dubbed “Mission Marsh Harbour” and is a continued effort to assist the Marsh Harbour Church of Christ in Marsh Harbour, Abaco, Bahamas.
The worldwide outreach is “Good News Radio” – a global internet radio station broadcasting undenominational sermons from Restoration preachers - around the clock.
Each of these works has enjoyed amazing continued success during 2019 thanks to God’s wonderful blessings.
MISSION MARSH HARBOUR:
This mission started back in July of 2017. After sailing almost 1000 miles in a 32 ft. sailboat for 8 days, we arrived at Marsh Harbour, Abaco, Bahamas. We initially were there for a stop-over to wait out the hurricane season after which, the plan was to continue to Saint Lucia to plant an undenominational church in that country.
God has a way of re-adjusting our sails when we least expect it. After 6 weeks on the island helping with the mission work there, the local missionaries decided to leave and return to the states. The departing missionaries and the church asked me to stay and help with the work in Marsh Harbour and after much prayer, counsel, and contemplation, Mission Marsh Harbour became the first outreach of CrossWay Missions.
We enjoyed numerous baptisms, attendance increases, spiritual growth, campaigns, revival, and many more blessings from God. In June of 2018, I was forced to return to the US for knee replacement surgery, but CrossWay Missions has kept ties with the Marsh Harbour church.
Recently, hurricane Dorian, a category 5 hurricane, slammed into Marsh Harbour head-on. With wind speeds as high as 230 MPH, the island was devastated. The Marsh Harbour Church building survived the storm but was damaged severely and the fellowship hall was de-roofed and almost destroyed internally.
CrossWay Missions is now working on providing financial aid and reconstruction assistance to the church. We have raised $6,281 to assist the church rebuilding and we are working closely with IDES (International Disaster and Emergency Services) to secure more funding for church property restoration. Lesslie Rolle, the local Bahamian minister has already reinstated weekly worship services despite having no power as of yet. We are organizing a rebuilding team for the 1st or 2nd week in February to initiate restoration of the building including re-roofing, window and door replacement, and many other property issues that need to be addressed. This is an ongoing benevolent work of CrossWay Missions and we will continue to post updates as they occur.
THE WESTPORT MISSION:
We began this stateside mission in August of 2018. When we arrived, the average attendance each Sunday was hovering around 12-15… it is now up to 25-30. The youth group consisted of 1-2 teens, has now grown to 5-6 teens. We've been blessed with 2 baptisms this year and have 1 young man seriously considering obedience to the Gospel. We also have a dedicated new member who has relocated to the area. The elders of the church and I have visited and consulted with Jim Book of the Kissimmee Christian Church regarding church growth and are employing a number of suggestions from Jim… they are working. There are still many challenges before the Westport church but God is not near finished with this small group of His people.
GOOD NEWS RADIO:
Good News Radio is a worldwide internet radio station that broadcasts Gospel sermons from great Restoration preachers of the past and present… 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This radio station went live on February 14th, 2019 and as of last night has logged 372,166 minutes of sermons listened to from 190 countries, (there are only 195 countries in the world). We are also receiving emails from all over the world. By the time the station is one year old, we are hoping to have logged one-half million minutes of sermons listened to.
Also, in an effort to get into the Apple iTunes directory, (iTunes does not allow internet radio stations to be listed in their directory of live radio stations), Good News Radio created a podcast on March 22nd, 2019, (they do allow podcasts to be listed) and we could link the radio station to the podcast, a clever solution to get into the iTunes directory if I do say so myself). Amazingly and unexpectedly, the podcast has taken on a life of its own. As of last night, 18,100 undenominational sermons have been downloaded from 91 countries. As of recent, as many as 200+ sermons per day are downloaded from Good News Radio’s Podcast! God always blesses the preaching of His word and promises that it will never return to Him void.
CONCLUSION:
God continues to bless CrossWay Missions with spiritual success after spiritual success.
A special thanks to Jim Book of the Kissimmee Christian Church for his time, counsel, and guidance to myself and the elders of the Westport church. Also, thanks to Jim and the Kissimmee church, CrossWay Missions will have a presence there at the Florida Bible Conference on January 21st-23rd, 2020. Please try to get to this conference… you’ll be glad you did.
To the First Christian Church of Margate that donated $4176 to the hurricane relief fund, thank you for your love demonstrated in such a magnificent way. Thank you, Johnny Cox, for orchestrating such a gift.
A special thanks to all the individuals who generously contributed to the relief fund for the Marsh Harbour church. Your generosity is a beautiful testimony to your faith and love for both God and people.
To all the individuals and churches who support CrossWay Missions, thank you and God bless you. If it were not for you, the radio station’s broadcast would be silenced, our benevolence to the Marsh Harbour church would fail, and the Westport church would possibly flounder. Because of you, these great efforts continue and are possible. Please continue to pray for CrossWay Missions and please share our efforts with your friends, family, and church.
God bless you all!