Hey, everyone!!!

Last month, I met with the evangelism committee of a church here in Central Illinois, and I will be doing a Gospel of Mark presentation at the church on October 2. Given the makeup of the church, the Gospel of Mark theatrical presentation was deemed to be more likely to have a good reception, though it is possible that an apologetics talk or message might also be given. That issue was left in the hands of the evangelism committee. One of the encouraging things about this opportunity is that one of the members of the evangelism committee, David Fluty, heard me give much of an apologetics talk and wanted me to come to his church. In addition to being a personal encouragement, this sort of situation indicates that it would get easier to get more opportunities for ministry the longer that I am in it and that the harder part of the ministry would be now.

Although I spent some time working on developing a talk that would look at objections to Paul's authorship of the pastoral epistles, Colossians, Ephesians, and 2 Thessalonians, at some point in May I started a paper reduction project that involved taking pictures of academic and other material from a period of more than a decade, such that the paper could be removed and I still have access to the material. The main part of the project took a little over two weeks to complete. Among other things, there were academic articles that I copied while in Edinburgh, notes and lecture material from my time at Trinity and Bradley, and important personal documents. One notable example was a paper on Islam's view of Jews and Christians that I may use for a talk that explores why some people would call Islam a religion of peace and others call it an evil religion, and how Islam's principle of abrogation makes it such that later violent passages from the Koran can be taken with some justification as overruling earlier peace-promoting passages, diminishing the strength of the case for calling Islam a peaceful religion and yet showing how there could be confusion surrounding its nature among the broader populace. I am not an expert on the subject, though, and would want to do more reading and research before I would be sufficiently comfortable giving such a talk. Though I think the paper is right, I would want to read a significant amount of both sides of the issue and examine the basis for assigning certain Koranic passages to the Medinan period and others to the Meccan period.

On the personal and family side, Dave McGrew was the worship pastor of my church, and May saw his last Sunday leading worship at Grace as the worship pastor. He will have moved on to a church out East (in Maryland?). He is simply a great, fun guy with a sharp mind who has read extensively and has strong interest in apologetics and the historicity of Christianity. We had a two person Eusebius reading group that met only two or three times, but it was a real encouragement to have someone of his caliber at the church and as a friend. I did not have as much interaction with David's wife Vicky, but judging from what little interaction I did have and from what David told me about her intellectual interests and her character, she seems to be amazing woman. They would not be easily replaced. As is common here, there have been a lot of visits from nephews, and the weather is now warm enough that boat trips have been a wanted activity from nephews. One trip had us going to a muddy cove area where Sam and Mary walked in stinky, sinky/squishy mud. Luke went to a fallen tree trunk and Ezra wanted me to hold him in the boat. In another, I and some nephews (and Mary) went to a place that has a little beach on the lake.

PRAYER REQUESTS
1. Fundraising. Financially, one of the hardest seasons for a ministry is the beginning. Please pray that God would bring monthly supporters alongside Credible Faith. Credible Faith is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization and donations are accordingly tax-deductible in the US as permitted by law.

2. The Donation of a Used Car. My car is a 2002 Saturn with over 130,000 miles on it. In itself, that is not very bad, but it became something of a money hole. When I was at Trinity, I think that much of the transmission was replaced, and in January over $700 was paid for fixing part of the transmission system. Yet, there continues to be jolts when shifting, and I am concerned that it will deteriorate as has happened before and again be in a situation where a large expenditure is required. There has also been battery failure and the failure of the starter, both of which were replaced. I do not have much money and don't have enough to buy a good used car. Pray that someone would donate a used card before I would need to sink a lot more money into the one that I do currently have, or pray that the current car would not need significant expenditures.

3. Ministry Opportunities. Pray that doors would be opened for ministry in churches and on campuses and for relationships to be formed that would be mutually beneficial for ministry in those places.

Have a great month!!!

Sincerely,

Paul

Sunday, June 5, 2016
Illinois, USA

Quote of the Month

A quote of Thomas Jefferson: To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.