It is NO Coincidence!

Praise God for what He continues to do! So much is happening that it's hard to tell everything. In the spirit of openness, I want you to know as much as possible.

We are excited to tell you that we will be opening an office for the Caracas Crusade 2008. We praise God for the generosity of First Baptist Church, San Angelo, for allowing us to use an office there. The phones will be installed tomorrow (8-14-07). We hope to have the office ready to receive team member registrations by September 1, 2007. The office will be staffed by volunteers with Diane overseeing the project.

A registration form is near completion. We are waiting on some critical information regarding the cost of housing and transportation. We are excited to report tht Buck (Rolando) Smith's son-in-law, Leonel, has become a travel agent and will be able to save us a lot of money in the purchase of airline tickets.

In the house church area, Gail Graves is excited that Tony & Felicity Dale, who met with us in Dallas a few weeks ago, have invited him to speak at their annual National House Church Conference in Dallas on Labor Day weekend. It is my understanding that Sherryl and Dee McCleery (part of our team) will be accompanying him. Pray that hundreds of people will feel led to go to Caracas to help start 1000 house churches following the crusade. This is one of the most critical parts of the entire plan.

Regarding the athletes and their participation, I am excited to report that Dr. Bill Cashion has agreed to be our point man in the coordination of the professional athletes and the baseball clinics that we envision. Bill has been a missionary to Caracas/Venezuela. He used ball players to help start over 20 churches in the Caracas area. Bill has worked with many leaders in the sports area of Christian outreach. Dave Altopp with Fellowship of Christian Athletes and Eddie Waxer are familiar with Bill's ministry. God is so good! And it is no coincidence that Bill is an advocate of the House Church ministry...wow!

Brian Harper with Saddleback Community Church has consented to help us with several pieces of literature that we will need for the training of simple church leaders. It is no coincidence that he knows Gail Graves, Bill Cashion, and others on our team! Tom Holiday, brother-in-law of Rick Warren gave me Brian's name. I am praying that Saddleback will get even more involved.

I do have one area of concern that I need you to pray about. As of this moment, we don't know how God is going to fund it all. I am planning several fund raiser dinners as well as talking to every church that Diane and I get the opportunity to talk to about the crusade. We need $250,000...and we need it NOW! We need to reserve the stadium. We need to reserve the hotel. We need to get sound equipment. We need to start the publicity. Please pray with us!

Praise God for all that He is doing!