Happy Wednesday, everyone! We recently had a wonderful opportunity to go on a door-knocking and lectureship campaign in Nebraska, and I want to share all about it with you.
Back in April, my dad approached me one evening and told me about an invitation that was extended to him to be part of a door-knocking campaign and lectureship in Kearney, Nebraska. Our family has known the preacher of one of the {2} congregations in Kearney for many years. In fact, when I was in high school, John came to Oklahoma a few times to spend time with Dad, and his youngest daughter even went to church camp with me. She and I were good friends for a few years before losing touch, but Dad and John have kept in touch all this time.
Anyway, so Dad asked me if Chris, myself, and the kids might be interested in joining the campaign in late July. I told him we'd check our schedule (knowing we had a lot on our July calendar already) and think about it.
In May, we took a vacation to the Dakotas and stopped in Kearney for worship on our way home. While there, John invited us to be part of the campaign and even told Chris that he would make a spot for him to preach in the lectureship line up. Not long after we got home from vacation, Chris told me he thought we should go. Chris contacted John, we marked the days on our calendar, and we made plans to join the campaign!
The campaign began on Wednesday, July 30th. We spent that day driving the almost 8 hours to Kearney, but other team members had taken Tuesday as their driving day. The campaign included John and his wife, Leanna, Mike and Kay (two members of the congregation we worked with), Mom and Dad, Russ and Lisa, Lance from Georgia, a group of nine from Mabelvale, Arkansas, and Lois from Kansas City who was picked up by the Arkansas group on their way to Nebraska. While the door-knocking kicked off on Wednesday, we were making our way to Nebraska.
We had to to drive through Kansas to get to Nebraska.
We stopped at a roadside park north of Salina, Kansas for a picnic lunch on our way.
The best thing about taking a road trip is being able to stop at random places along the way. While passing through Cawker City, Kansas, we decided to stop and visit the world's largest ball of twine!
Brecklyn and Brianna wanted to take a photo with this cat cutout that was at the ball of twine. Silly girls!
We arrived in Kearney at about 4:00pm that afternoon. Chris had reserved a house for us through VRBO, and we made a quick stop for some groceries before getting settled at the house. The house was one of the nicest we've gotten through VRBO. It had a nice front porch with swing, a living room with ample seating, two bedrooms (both with king beds) and a full bathroom, a dining room that seated 8, a great kitchen, and a sitting room upstairs. Downstairs was another living room, two more bedrooms, and another bathroom.
I didn't get any photos of the inside of the house, but Bri took this one of the beautiful grounds (and bunny) next door. This was the view from the front porch!
One we got settled, we met Mom, Dad, Russ, and Lisa at a local fast food place called Runza for dinner. Nebraskans will insist that Runza is the best, but we thought it was just okay. After dinner, we headed to the church building for Bible study with the rest of the team.
The next morning (Thursday), we all met at the church building for a devotional and planning meeting before starting our work for the day. John made sure to include all eligible males in leading, and Chris ended up leading singing and prayers several times.
The devotional lasted about 30 minutes, then we spent about 30 minutes making a plan for the day. We split into small groups of 2 or 3, and John made sure everyone knew where to go.
Brianna, Lance, Bren, and Grampy heading out to go door-knocking
Ready to door-knock!
Our goal in door-knocking was to invite local citizens to join us for the lectureship, as well as set up Bible studies. We handed out tracts about the church of Christ, invitations for a correspondence course, a tract titled Does God Care if I'm Lost, and the invitation below.
Chris, Brecklyn, and I ended up being a team on Thursday morning, and for the most part we were met with friendly people. Chris had a few short Bible discussions and made one contact that seemed promising. We did have one woman threaten to call the police on us for leaving material hanging on her door, and then continue to shout at us as we walked down the street. That kind of reception is never pleasant, but she was certainly the minority.
Around lunchtime, we all gathered back at the church building where we ate lunch that had been prepared by Ms. Leanna and Ms. Kay.
The men were good to highlight streets on a map that had been worked so we didn't repeat houses. Of course, Bren wanted to be right in the middle of that!
Wesley, Chris, and John
Chuck, Wesley, Chris, and John
We also took time to pack more bags and enjoy one another's company while back at the building for lunch.
Bren, Brooke, Lisa, and Mom
The group from Arkansas had driven a small bus, and Brooke happily joined those riding the bus to door-knock. She partnered with Mr. Wayne a good bit of the time and had no problem knocking on doors, talking to people, and passing out literature.
After working for several more hours after lunch, we all parted ways for the evening. Thursday was the only free evening we had, so we invited Mom, Dad, Russ, and Lisa to join us for taco salad at our house. The meal was simple but good, and we had a great time visiting. Russ and Lisa even stayed an hour or so after Mom and Dad left so we could catch up on life.
On Friday morning, we all met back at the building once again for a devotional and planning meeting.
Most of the campaign team - the photo is missing Wayne (who was taking the photo), Randy (who hadn't arrived yet), and Mom and Leanna who had gone for Leanna to get chemo that morning
The previous two days, Mom had stayed back at the building to help with tasks that needed to be done there. John also didn't join a door-knocking team because he had the job of running people and materials to where they needed to go. However, on Friday morning, Mom took Leanna to have a chemo treatment. Since I was in a group of three, I decided to stay back and help with tasks at the building. I helped rearrange and set up tables for lunch, helped clean out and fill the trough that serves as a baptistry, and packed more bags for door-knocking.
Meanwhile, the skies opened up and poured on our fellow workers out door-knocking. The weather was actually pretty chilly this day, and my kiddos were definitely cold when they came back to the building wet!
Lance and Bri in the rain
John had told Chris that morning to work Fourth Street until they hit the cornfield. I thought that was some sort of Nebraska humor until Chris sent me this photo of Brecklyn at the end of Fourth Street, lol!
Once again, lunch was a great time for everyone to reconvene, dry out, and get physical and spiritual refreshment!
Bren and Brecklyn packing bags for more work that afternoon
We took a short rest Friday afternoon before meeting back together on Friday evening for our first lesson. Lance preached an excellent lesson on authority that evening. Lance is an OABS graduate, and both Dad and John were among his instructors.
Chuck, Lance, John
Because the OABS semester began the Saturday that we were in Nebraska, Russ and Lisa had to leave on Friday to get home for classes. John was also committed to teaching for OABS Saturday morning, so there was nothing planned for the campaign team at that time. Several of us took the opportunity to visit the Nebraska Archway that morning.
A beautiful morning in Nebraska!
We were thankful Mom and Dad joined us for the morning.
Grampy and kids spent some time feeding the biggest fish from this bridge.
We didn't pay to go through the whole museum, but we did enjoy the parts that were free.
The Nebraska Archway that spans I-80
We ate lunch at Culver's, then met at the church building for the afternoon lessons. We had a few visitors from some area congregations on Friday evening and for the afternoon lessons on Saturday. For the evening lessons on Saturday, we had four visitors from the community!
Prince, Praise, Brooke, Peace, and Tre ready for the evening lessons
We had two more excellent lessons on Sunday morning.
After Sunday worship services concluded, we took a few photos of the team.
Jason, John, Lance, Chuck, Prince, Praise, Wayne, Wesley, Chris, and Mike
Jason, Lance, Prince, Chuck, John, Praise, Chris, Wesley, Mike, and Wayne
Tre, Brianna, Peace, Brecklyn, Brooke, Tamara, Laticia, Chelley, Jody, Leanna, Kay, and Lois
These men have worked together for many years and in several countries -
Chuck, Wayne, and John
Laticia was from Arkansas and really enjoyed Brooke and Brecklyn
Jody and Leanna
The next week, John let us all know that Breanna - a young lady who had visited the meeting on Friday night with her fiance' Micah - had put on Christ in baptism. We were thrilled to hear this news! Micah is a Christian from a somewhat nearby town, but he and Breanna plan to move to Kearney once they marry in the fall.
In addition to the wonderful news of Breanna's baptism, John also let us know that he had received three requests for correspondence courses in the mail so far. We were all certainly encouraged by this news!
Micah and Breanna
In addition to the wonderful news of Breanna's baptism, John also let us know that he had received three requests for correspondence courses in the mail so far. We were all certainly encouraged by this news!
We praise God for the good work that was done in Kearney during this campaign, and thank God that we were able to be part of it!
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