“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so
that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” Romans 15:13
Dear Family and Friends,
We hope you are doing well and wanted to give you an update with how the Lord is using us here in the Upper Midwest.
We
were able to join our community for a time of prayer specifically for
our nation, state, and local community. It was great to gather at our
city hall as one in Christ. As we see more and more tragedies across our
nation due to sin, it's a reminder of how much we need Jesus and the
work He can do to forgive and heal hearts. Let's keep praying for the
lost to come to Christ and then for the boldness to talk to people about
Jesus and invite them to get to know Him.
A
few of those who have recently come to our church fellowship and are
now growing in Christ are Jason (pictured on the left) and
Paul (on the right). Both were in need of a loving church family and of
good Christian friends. Jason had been dealing with years of struggles
and felt that a lot of people viewed him as an outcast and outsider, but
after meeting for a few times he began to see that we were different in
a good way. He said "Just by listening to you and seeing how you
interact with others, I feel that you have a lot of love and care in
your heart for people and that you want God to work in their lives in a
big way." God is doing a great transformation in Jason as he grows in
Christ. Then there is Paul who also was told by churches in our
community that he was not welcome, and he felt alone and forgotten
about. He too has been able to see God's love through our church
fellowship and has been really enjoying our time in God's Word together.
God is restoring lost time in Paul's life with his family and we are
thankful for the way God is changing his life as well.
The
ladies in our church fellowship are some our prayer warriors who
monthly gather to intercede for us and the work we are doing. We believe
we are seeing the fruit of their prayers. Recently the ladies from our
church fellowship,
Maureen,
Anna (with our newborn Samuel in arms), Cindy Lou, and Sandy
(pictured on the left)
all had a great time
at a Calvary Chapel Woman's Retreat as the ladies learned about the
power of the Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian. It was also a great
time of being refreshed with other Pastor's wives (Kimberly, June, and
Tanya -- pictured on the right) who have been an encouragement to Anna
and have helped us along the way.
June Hesterly was the main speaker and has co-authored three study
guides with her husband Jim Hesterly
for Pastor Chuck Smith's books, along with a short-book on the
power of the Holy Spirit.
And
then there are devotions in the workplace. I (Tim) was able to share
Jesus with my co-workers and fellow employees at Douglas Machine which
is a manufacturing company. Guess what I talked about that our
Tuesday AM/PM and Thursday
devotions? JESUS! The man in the first picture in the left in the back
row asked a great question about God which was a perfect transition into
presenting the Gospel message. There is something wonderful about being
able to personally share the Gospel on-the-clock at work, and to
encourage others in their walk with Christ.
But
we can't stop there. We had a group of guys hungry for more of the
Word, so we now have a weekly men's Bible study group on Wednesdays
going through the Gospel of John. Each of the guys (pictured behind me
to the right -- Brad, Devon, Tim, Jim, and Bob) contribute and ask great
Bible questions and are such a blessing to me personally as we get into
the Word of God together. I'm very thankful for the opportunity to
gather on our lunch break and use a company meeting room to talk about
Jesus and to pray for one another. One of those prayers was for Brad,
whose wife had cancer but is now in remission and doing great. What a
mighty God we serve!
Then
we also had our annual community worship service with around 1000 in
attendance from over 12 churches in the area. I was told by one of the
two baptist preachers in town to share a message after the others
specifically because he wanted me to give an invitation for people to
accept Jesus Christ, like I gave a couple of years ago. The three of us
speakers agreed on using Romans 6:23 (For the wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord) as our text
to preach from and talked about salvation. Wow, was a privilege it was
to share the Gospel and invite people to receive Christ as Savior and
Lord. Dozens prayed and were added to the Church!
Our
family has been wanting to have an ice-cream social to get to know our
neighbors better so when the city announced they would be supporting
crime deterrent block parties through "National Night Out" we decided
that was an open door. So we had an ice-cream social with a kids
slip-n-slide and even had a visit by our local firefighters. What a
"sweet" time together and we are so thankful for our conversations about
faith, church, life/death and the opportunity to point them to Jesus!
Well, who likes to run?
Not me really, but when you look for doors of opportunity sometimes you
have to run to them before they come to you. It's actually a sport that
I've been learning to enjoy as I pray and meditate on Scripture. What I
found is that there is a running community that is similar to a circle
of friends. They are open to learning more about Jesus and are in need of
encouragement. One of those runners is Arne who over this last year has
found less stress in his life as he draws closer to God and lives out
his faith. We have had some great discussions about Jesus and our
constant need for Him in our lives. We also were able to run a 7k trail
run in June, and then recently a 10k race together in August. Glory to God for the strength He alone provides!
After
the 10k last Saturday my left knee was hurting pretty bad; so much that
I had a sharp pain and much difficulty going up and down the stairs.
But after our Sunday service I sensed God was wanting me to have faith
that He would heal me. Now, I'm not one of those who trust in "faith
healers" but I know God can heal so I trust in Him. I called my
two older boys, Joshua and Caleb, to come and pray for daddy and then I
prayed too. Moments after their prayers I sensed my knee getting very
hot, but then within just a minute the heat went away, and I noticed the
pain did as well. I was able to take my knee brace off, walk and even
take the stairs without issue. Praise God for His healing touch and for
the prayers of our precious young boys! About 5 days later I was able
to also run a 5k without any pain. Praise the Lord!
Lastly,
at the end of this summer it will be a full six years since we left
California and traveled all the way to Fergus Falls, Minnesota with the
sole purpose of planting a Calvary Chapel fellowship. Time is short but
our God is Big and we are so thankful for the Lord's calling upon our
lives and for your support. We have been able to see God work in
wonderful ways in the Upper Midwest and work through us to reach people
every week for His glory. Lastly (no really) we have some exciting news
we wanted share with you all! We will be coming to Chico, California at the end of this year for a Christmas Vacation. We are looking forward to seeing many of you again!.
Again "thank you" for your prayers and emails of encouragement! We love you all!
- Pastor Tim, Anna, Joshua, Caleb and Samuel Molter
"But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." -- 2 Timothy 4:5
