Hey!! We're headed to Pearlington, Mississippi

back to Our Walk of Faith

When we got into Milton, we made contact with Brother Goldfarb who gave us directions to his house. Mr. Hinnant bought lunch for us at Burger King, and we walked over to the Goldfarb’s house. Brother Jack, Sister Bonnie and Ashleigh (their granddaughter) welcomed us and we chatted a bit. We learned that Brother Jack was involved with starting a school in Lima, Peru about 8 years ago. (yet another contact…How does God do it?!!) We were able to watch a video about it, and he shared all of the contact info with us. Then we went to dinner at La Hacienda…now the Goldfarbs have lived in Milton for 27 years and have been very involved with the 38 Baptist churches in the county. In other words, they know a ton of people. We met people from several different churches and from their church—including Marty & Ginny Jones (pictured here), Mark & Kim Shipman, & the Lowe family. Bob works as the Church Administrator for First Baptist of Milton, so he invited us to help out at the church on Friday if we wanted something to do. He also wanted us to pray about speaking to the middle & high school students on Sunday morning. After a great dinner, we finally made it to the door where we saw on open Bible beside the cash register…the owners are a strong Christian family!!

Thursday night after we got home, Brother Jack told us “I’m a completed Jew.” Neither of us knew what he meant since we knew that he was from Peru. He began his story…oh, it was amazing to hear what God has done in his life…he told us that he was so confused. His father was a Jew from Russia who was deported to Argentina after the War. His mother was also a Jew. His parents met and married in Argentina, but he was born in Peru. He went to a private Catholic school. He didn’t really know who he was or understand why all of the kids treated him differently than everyone else. He was really mistreated by the kids at school when the teachers weren’t around, so he decided to join a gang to have protection. He did many things that he’s not very proud of including breaking into the homes of the children who mistreated him and stealing from them and destroying other things. His family eventually wanted nothing to do with him, so he left Peru to come to the US. When he came here, he almost starved to death and he couldn’t speak the language. He felt that his only option was to join the military. He finally got into the army (That’s a crazy story in & of itself.), and was eventually sent to Korea where he was pretty badly injured. While he was in the hospital, the other soldier in the room prayed for him. Brother Jack told him to stop. Then he yelled for the nurse to either move him or move the other soldier because he was going to kill him if one of them didn’t leave. The nurse just gave Brother Jack a shot to put him to sleep. The next morning, the other soldier was gone…he died in the middle of the night, but he didn’t care…he was just glad he was gone…he didn’t want to hear anything else about Jesus. When he was finally sent home, he was stationed in Alabama where he met Sister Bonnie. She didn’t want anything to do with him at first, but they eventually started dating. Then he wanted to marry her, but she wouldn’t marry him unless he went to church. So he went, just so he could marry her, but he would never stay through the whole service. He accused Sister Bonnie of telling the pastor about all of the bad things that he had done because he was always talking about him (Hello, Holy Spirit!!). One day, Brother Jack finally sat through the whole service and was deeply convicted. He surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ that day!! They’ve been serving Him together ever since…50+ years!! Since he accepted Christ, he went back home and apologized to his entire family and to the people who he stole from and destroyed their possessions. Because of his changed life, many of his family members know Jesus now!! He ended by telling us that he hopes to see that soldier from Korea again when he gets to heaven…He’s going to ask Jesus with they can be in the same room!!

Friday morning, we did go over to see if Bob had any work for us to do. We were able to meet the Senior Pastor, Dr. Spence, and share a little of our testimony with him. He prayed with us and gave us some contacts in Mississippi & in Louisiana. Then we met the Minister of Family Education, Erik Juntti and took a tour of the building. By the time we finished all of that, it was time to set out the luminaries. We worked with Bob and a few others in the community setting out luminaries. While we were waiting for it to get dark (so we could light the luminaries), we met the Minister of Music, Kenneth Martin, who was getting ready for their big Christmas program. He was making props...styrofoam fruitcakes when we found him.

(Kenneth is holding the fruitcake while Bob gets ready to take a huge bite!!)

We also went into the sanctuary and were able to listen to Mike & Kathie Lewis practice with Elaine Gillis, the pianist. They were doing the special music on Sunday—Stephen Curtis Chapman’s song “Christmas is all in the Heart.” (I’m telling you, being on God’s payroll there’s a couple of things we’ve learned…1st we never know what we’ll be doing from day to day, 2nd we’ll always have work to do…God doesn’t lay people off & 3rd His provision “paycheck” is never late and just what you need.)
On Friday night, the Goldfarbs invited us to their church Hickory Hammock Baptist Church for their monthly 50+ covered dish supper. They had a guest singer, Chris & I shared a short testimony, and we enjoyed some good fellowship and tasty food! After the program was over, Lee Shaw & Greg Thorsen came up to Chris and started talking to him about Pearlington, MS. We were pretty interested about that because Pearlington had already come up several other times. So we started praying that night about possibly heading towards Pearlington.

Saturday—Chris worked around the house, & I made the rehearsal dinner invitations for Jack, Jr. (Ashleigh’s dad) and Susan. We also went to Ashleigh’s Sunday school class party where we met Susan and were able to talk with Jack, Jr. a little more. They are a really sweet group!! It was at La Hacienda, and Antonio, our waiter, “just so happened to be” from Costa Rica. We told him about what we were doing, and he told us that he was planning to go back to Costa Rica in March. Then he told us we would be welcome at his house, and that he would e-mail us as soon as he knew where he would be living. We also met a lady named Anne Parish who was moving to Arkansas with her grandson, Junior…be sure to find the connection to her later in the post!! (Praise God for going before us…that’s the thing though…His Word says in Psalm 139 that he goes before (and behind) all of us…it’s just a matter of seeking Him. It’s not just a special thing for us…He has an amazing plan laid out for your life!! Are you seeking Him and His plan daily? We’ve heard testimony from some people we’ve crossed paths with on this journey. They have asked God to open their eyes to what’s going on around them. One lady said “It’s so amazing to see God’s hand…He’s been keeping me busy!” He wants us to seek Him above and before all else!!)
Saturday night, we went with the Lowes (l to r: Bob, Gail, Zack, & Zoe...Zane was missing from the picture??) to Milton High School to see their boys play basketball…one of the seniors has already committed to play for Florida next year. He’s pretty big to say the least! They won pretty easily against the 3rd ranked team in the state. After the game, we went with the Lowes to get a bite to eat and made plans for Sunday.

Sunday—We met the Minister to Students, Jim Waters, and spoke to the middle & high school students at First Baptist of Milton. I don’t think that they really knew what to think about us at first, but we had a great time sharing with them. One group of students stayed a few extra minutes talking with us, and another group of boys came back after their class was over to ask us more questions. During their class time, we met Charlie, the director of the high school Sunday school classes. He shared with us that his son, Andy, has a disease that has put him a wheelchair over the course of his life. (Andy's in the right picture on the far right.) He’s not expected to live very long into his 20s, but he loves Jesus and his love is contagious. Charlie shared that he came to know the Lord because of his son’s illness and just last month Charlie’s 70-year-old father came to know the Lord because of Andy! It awes me to see God working in ALL circumstances!
The message came from Luke 2…it’s a common passage at Christmas time, but it’s amazing because the Holy Spirit has revealed different things each time we’ve heard someone speak from that chapter. Dr. Spence shared that the 1st Christmas carol was all about giving glory to God and the shepherds HURRIED off to find the Baby Jesus. He encouraged us by telling us that our Christmas should end in the same way…hurrying to Jesus!! After church, we met the Pastor Emeritus and his wife, Dr. & Mrs. Bamberg. They have been married 62 ½ years…that’s the record so far on this trip. What faithful servants!!
For lunch, we headed back to the Goldfarbs house, and the whole crew was there—Brother Jack, Sister Bonnie, Jack Jr., Ashleigh, Susan, and a summer missionary to Peru, Christina. We had tons of fun sharing together, & the food was wonderful! I wrote down quite a few recipes while I was with Sister Bonnie. Susan was a beautician at one time, so she pulled out her clippers and gave Chris a little buzz!!
After hanging out a little, everyone headed back to their homes, and Chris & I went back to First Baptist to help set up for the Christmas program. While we were there, Babbie Mason arrived, and we were able to talk with her! I was so excited because I saw her in concert in Greenville, NC when I was in high school. I really like her music!! The program “Christmas at First” was amazing!!! The choir, the actors, the kids, the flag girls…it was wonderful…we could tell so much work went into the production and over 1000 people showed up for it!! As God would have it, we sat down beside retired missionaries Bill & Vivian Trimble. They had been in Lebanon before they kicked all of the Christians out. It was awesome talking to them and hearing of God’s provision!!! After the program, Mark & Kim Shipman who we met on Friday night at La Hacienda wanted to take us out to eat. They are just about to celebrate their 1st anniversary, so we had fun swapping stories about how God brought us each together and what He’s been doing ever since!! They are a really sweet couple who love the Lord!!

Monday morning rolled around, and we knew that we were supposed to go to Pearlington…the two men who talked to Chris on Friday night were carrying Anne Parish’s horse to Arkansas and Pearlington was only 30 miles out of the way. It was time, so we washed up our clothes & loaded up our packs…on the road again!!


(The picture below is one panel of a bench outside of First Baptist Milton...I thought it was appropriate for us!!)