2025

Temple, Texas

During the final days of the campaign, Balu Kuraganti, Blake Owens and Bathanie Blake returned to a home where a young woman had previously invited a team led by Diane Walls in and showed interest in hearing more about the Gospel. When we knocked again, we were surprised to be greeted by Laurie Munoz, an older woman who turned out to be the young lady’s mother. Laurie Munoz, explained that her daughter was at work, and she was babysitting her grandchildren. Balu asked if they could pray for her and her family, and she graciously accepted. After the prayer, Laurie allowed them a few minutes to share who they were and what they were doing in the community. She expressed deep appreciation for their efforts and began sharing her own faith journey. Laurie spoke about being baptized as an infant in the Catholic Church and shared how her trust in God grew stronger following a traumatic event in her life. Years earlier, a close friend of hers had been critically injured. Laurie prayed fervently at the hospital, and her friend miraculously recovered. That experience marked a turning point in her spiritual life, eventually leading her to attend a Protestant church. However, Laurie admitted that although she believed in Jesus and prayed regularly, she had never been taught about biblical salvation or the true purpose of baptism. As they spoke, Balu opened the Scriptures with her, walking through key passages from Acts and Mark. Matthew and Bethany also shared their insights, helping Laurie understand the Gospel more clearly. It became evident to her that her infant baptism was not in line with the biblical pattern. Laurie realized that while she had faith, she had not yet been baptized for the remission of sins as taught in the New Testament. Deeply moved and convicted, Laurie said she did not want to wait another moment. She declared, “I’m ready to get my sins washed away in the precious blood of Christ.” She brought a towel, followed they to the church building, and was baptized that very day—added to the Lord’s church through obedience to the Gospel. God truly opened the door to Laurie’s heart, and they are grateful to have witnessed her transformation and new beginning in Christ.


On Monday, March 10, Bart and Cindy Sparks and Kathy Hardy approached Delilah Torez in her driveway. They asked Delilah if she knew anyone they could pray for. She said Yes, for herself and her two sons. They all held hands and prayed with Delilah, then asked her the question: “What if the Lord were to come right now? Would you be ready to go to Heaven?” Delilah said, “No, I do not think so.” She had made many mistakes in her life. She said she had been baptized as a very small child. Kathy asked Delilah if she could share her salvation story with her. She said yes and invited us inside her house. We proceeded through the entire 29 verses of the gospel presentation with Delilah, Bart, Cindy, and Kathy taking turns reading the scriptures aloud. After she read the last scripture of the Gospel presentation, Acts 22:16, Delilah realized she needed to obey the Gospel. She said, “I need to be baptized.” Bro. Bart told Delilah, “You can be Obey the Gospel today.” Delilah said she wanted to wait until her father could be there and that Friday at 2:00 p.m. would be a good time. Later in the week, Bro. Bart recommended that we check on Delilah in case she had any questions or concerns. It was decided that they would do this and also take a sister from the Ave T congregation along with them so that Delilah could meet and begin to connect with a sister from the congregation. On Thursday afternoon Brother Bart, Sister Jevon, and Sister Kathy visited Delilah and asked if she had any questions or concerns. She said no and that she was excited and looking forward to obeying the Gospel. We were overjoyed to hear her enthusiastic response! On Friday at noon, Delilah was baptized by Bro. Joe Burns at the Ave T Church of Christ.


On March 14, Delilah Torez and her live-in boyfriend Juan Mendez decided to marry after a discussion with William Hardy. After Delilah’s baptism, they went to the Bell County courthouse to apply for their marriage license. While waiting, William shared the gospel with Juan, who expressed understanding and a desire to obey the Gospel. After getting the license, they returned to the church, where William helped Juan obey the Gospel through baptism, then officiated their wedding. The church celebrated with a collection, a gift, and a reception cake. Juan and Delilah were both happy and excited to start their new life in Christ and as a married couple. They attended worship on Sunday morning, sharing their joy with the congregation. 


On Wednesday morning, March 12, Willow Owens, Coby Munsami, and Kathy Hardy visited a house on 7th Street. When no one answered the door, we noticed Alex Rodrigues, a middle-aged man sitting in his car. After asking him if he was a Christian and knew who Jesus was, we shared the gospel with him. Alex didn’t understand it at first, so they went over Saul’s conversion story. When we asked him to read Acts 22:16 and respond to the Lord, Alex initially struggled to understand the question. Kathy asked him what he would have said if he had been in Saul’s position, blind and healed by Ananias. He replied, “I would have said yes, I want to be baptized.” I explained that while Saul was physically blind, Alex had been spiritually blind until now. With this understanding, Alex read Acts 22:16 again and expressed his desire to be baptized, but he planned to wait until after work on Friday. That night, several church members and most of our GSM group waited for Alex to arrive. At about 9:00 pm, he came to the church building, made his confession, and obeyed the gospel of Christ..

2024

Danville, Illinois

Latifa Smith’s door was knocked by Kathy Hardy, Jeff Leibach and Joshua Morris she answered the door cautiously. When we asked if she knew anyone who needed prayer, she asked us to pray for herself and her family. When we asked Latifah if she was sure she would go to heaven, she said that she did not feel she was ready to go to Heaven, but that she needed to get some things right in her life.  She said she was attending a holiness church and that she could discern spirits. She said Jehovah's witnesses had come to her house in the past and had brought a bad spirit. She said she felt that we - Jeff, Joshua and Kathy - were sincere people who brought a good spirit to her home. Therefore, she invited us inside. Latifah listened attentively and actively participated in the Gospel presentation, reading the majority of the scriptures aloud herself. She readily understood that the Gospel is the power of God to save us after she read Romans 1:16. Latifah acknowledged that she had been baptized before at a young age, but after the Gospel Presentation, she decided that she needed to be baptized again in order to obey the Gospel. Latifah is presently 33 years old. She said she wanted to get closer to God., but she seemed to hesitate. Jeff Leibach explained to her that he had been baptized more than once, and that if she felt the need she should be baptized again. Kathy Hardy used the example of the disciples of John in Acts 19:1-5 who only knew the baptism of John but were baptized into the name of Jesus Christ once they learned that needed to believe on Jesus Christ. Latifah was told that she could be baptized that same day. At that point, Latifah was encouraged and decided she wanted to obey the Gospel that evening. She loaded her infant daughter and two young boys into her car and drove herself and her family to the East Park church of Christ where she was baptized that same evening.


Duane and Amanda Kilgore and Craig Suby went out together. They knocked on the door of Nick Bingham and Antanisha Taylor. They were about to eat, and several children were there. They set a time for her to come to the church building the next day. The time came and went, so Duane reached out to her by text, and she said she couldn’t find a ride.  Amanda and Duane went and picked her up. She ate lunch with everyone there, then they began the presentation. She was very receptive but did ask several questions. After it was obvious that the gospel pricked her heart, she weighed out the urgency against her other fears and asked to see where she would be baptized.  She was taken to the baptistry and shown the process, then she said, “Okay, I want to do it.” Steve Cordle baptized her. Duane and Amanda talk with her daily. She is doing well but still has some struggles. Please continue prayers for her.

 

Erma Yvette Robinson is a 58-year-old woman that Larry Lovett, Romelda Hyams. and Victor Harvey had the pleasure of meeting in Danville, Illinois. She greeted them at the door with a warm friendly smile and was very hospitable. She expressed her faith in God, and that heaven will be her eternal destination. She indicated she was and had been looking for a church that taught the truth from the Bible. she also said that she was looking for a church with diversity. What she meant by that was that she did not want to go to an all-black church or an all-white church. As it happened, Romelda has Philippine ancestry, and Victor is originally from Jamaica. Yvette thought that was funny. After sharing her salvation story with us, she allowed us into her home. She seemed very knowledgeable of scripture, but it was apparent as we shared the gospel, she had not seen for herself, nor had she been taught the necessity of baptism. She did make the decision to obey the gospel, and God provided her the opportunity. Please pray for her as she continues to grow in her Christian Walk with the spiritual family in Danville.


Iyssis Hubbard is an 18-year-old young lady that Larry Lovett, Romelda Hyams and Victor Harvey had the privilege of meeting in Danville, Illinois. She was a very intelligent young lady, very courteous and respectful. After sharing her story, she was very sure of her relationship with God and sure she would be in heaven one day. She was gracious enough to hear our story. While presenting the gospel to her it was apparent that where she was attending services there were many things she had not been taught. Upon completion of the presentation, she obeyed the gospel. Please pray for her growth in her Christian Walk.
 
 

Lebanon Junction, Kentucky

We were knocking doors at the Bryant Place Apartment complex in Lebanon Junction KY. Seeing a young lady sitting on the patio, we approached her and introduced ourselves. Her name was Susan, and her husband was Mikey. The team was made up of myself, my wife Bonnie, and Duane Kilgore. I opened the conversation telling her that we were in the community trying to get our Christianity of the building and trying to see if we could help our neighbors in anyway and that one way we like to help was praying for folks. I asked if she had anyone in her family who needed prayer, and she said no. 

I then asked her if I could ask her a question and she said yes. Then I asked her if the Lord were to come back today, would she know for certain that she would go to heaven. Her answer was yes. I then asked how she was so confident that she would go. Her answer was that she was a good person and that she helped older people in any way she could. I commended her for that and explained to her that we could not get to heaven by our own works because we needed the blood of Jesus to get there. I asked her if she wanted to know how to come in contact with the blood of Jesus and she said yes.

I then let Duane Kilgore lead the presentation and he did an excellent job for his first time. He was very patient and took his time to cover all the bases. We were about four verses into the study when her husband came up. I introduced myself to him and asked if he wanted to follow along. He did and after the study found out that he had been baptized for the wrong reason. Duane asked if he wanted to get that right and he said yes. I had to study with her a little more for her to completely understand. She finally realized what she needed to do, and both of them obeyed the Gospel through baptism into Christ.

Belen, New Mexico

On the first day of the campaign, Monday morning, April 29th, in Belen, New Mexico, the team of Chuck Wyeth, the preacher here, and his son, Bradley, and William Hardy went to the house of Christine and Aaron. Christine has been a part of the afterschool program at the Belen Church of Christ with her five children. She is a very sweet and kind-hearted young lady in her early 30s. She had set up this meeting without actually telling her husband, Aaron, about it. When Aaron came out, he was somewhat surprised. However, he seemed to have a ready and receptive heart to hear the gospel. Aaron stated that his family had been faithfully attending the Mormon church doing the early years of his life. He stated that at the age of 12 he was baptized in that church. However, as he began reading the scriptures, he stated that he remembered telling his grandmother that the preacher was changing the words and the meaning from what he was reading in the Bible. Sometime later, his family stopped going to that church altogether, and Aaron continues to be troubled by the fact that both his aunt and his father, as well as his grandmother, abandoned much of their belief and stopped going to church, worshiping God, or reading their Bibles. Aaron stated that he knew that there was something missing and once we showed him the gospel of Christ and how to obey it, Aaron readily accepted, as did his wife, Christine. After proceeding to the church building, Chuck took their public confession. They obeyed the gospel and were welcomed into the family of God. The following Tuesday morning Chuck and William went to their house to give them new Bibles, and their 14-year-old son, Jeremiah, asked to go door knocking with the team and volunteered to read the scriptures. It is believed that this whole family is going to be a wonderful addition eventually to this congregation. All glory to God.


Pamela was the first person on April 30, the second day of the campaign at Belen, that Charles, Tommy, and Barbara found who would share in examining Bible scriptures with them. Pamela is single. She has 2 sons, Christopher, 42, and Adam, 39. She also has one grandchild, Adam, 16, who she is raising. She is a paralegal and also works as a stocker at Walmart. She is friendly but somewhat reserved with a quick smile. She was very receptive and wanted to study the Bible. She considered the final question in Acts 22:16, “And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” She then said, “I’m ready,” so everyone went to the building, and she obeyed the Gospel.


On the second evening of the campaign Chuck Wyeth, William Hardy, and Jennifer, who is the adult daughter of Eugene and Evelyn met at their home. They were soon joined by their daughter-in-law, Camilla. Eugene and Evelyn are an elderly couple in their mid-seventies and have been married for almost 50 years. Eugene is a Vietnam army veteran. Rapport was built with them from small talk and admiration for his accomplishments in the Service and in the work done on his house and the conversation gradually transitioned to asking the most important question, “If the Lord were to come right now, do you know for sure, nothing doubting, that you would go to Heaven?” When neither of them could answer for sure, then 1 John 5:13 was read in order to focus on what is written in God’s word before pivoting to ask them both what they had done in the past to secure their salvation. Since both of them had been Catholics all their life, they revealed that they were baptized as babies. From that point, the study moved on to the next verses, putting emphasis on the verses that pertain to things in the Bible that conflict with the Catholic teaching, such as the passage in 1Tim. 2:5, where it says that there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man, Jesus Christ. It was explained that this eliminated praying to other mediators, such as the Pope, Saint Jude, Saint Francis, or even the Virgin Mary. This fact was eye-opening for them. Finally, when the last verse of the study was read, which was Acts 22:16, Eugene stated that he could see no reason why he should not obey the Gospel that very day. Therefore, all proceeded to the church building to accept his confession before men as well as that of his wife Evelyn, his daughter-in-law, Camilla, as well as his son-in-law, Tiger, as they obeyed the Gospel in baptism.
 
 Tiger is the longtime husband of Jennifer. Jennifer is a faithful member of the body of Christ. A few years ago, she was converted and led to Christ by her best friend, Rose, who had given Jennifer the book, “Muscle and a Shovel”, by Michael Shank. Jennifer read this book and was convicted to obey the Gospel. Tiger has recently been attending worship regularly with his wife, Jennifer, and he has even been attending some in-home Bible studies with a fellow brother in Christ named Hud Griffith. However, when we gathered together during his lunch break and William Hardy presented the Gospel from the little checkbook Bible, Tiger was convinced that he needed to obey the Gospel. Therefore, he returned that evening with his in-laws, Eugene, Evelyn, and Camilla, where Chuck took all four of their confessions publicly. There was much rejoicing and singing of hymns as, one by one, they all four obeyed the Gospel of Christ. This was a very happy occasion for everyone, especially for Jennifer, who was instrumental in helping lead members of her family out of Catholicism and into the obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ. Rose stated, "Jennifer’s baptism was a blessing, but even more so for me. She became my best friend in a time that I needed a friend and an extended family the most when my mother passed away. God’s blessing was multiplied in so many ways."
 
  Antoinette is a young lady that Larry Lovett met in Belen, New Mexico. She was at the church building and Larry introduced himself and asked her if she had ever heard a Gospel presentation. She agreed to listen, so she, Larry, and Rose Gould studied for nearly 3 hours, making sure that she understood what God expected of her. She obeyed the gospel at 10 PM on Tuesday night of the campaign. She has been adopted by one of the local members and they are continuing to educate her.


On Wednesday, November1, the first day of the outreach effort, Chuck Wyeth asked Joe Ferguson to go to the local nursing home to check on one of the employee’s cars which would not start. It was found that the problem was that the finance company had locked her car due to a mix-up with the payments. It was decided that Joe needed to take Beatrice, the owner of the car, to the finance company in Albuquerque in order to sort it out. On the way Joe asked Beatrice the question and her reply was no, she did not know if she would go to heaven if she died. She had been baptized into the Mormon church in order to attend school and then baptized in the Baptist church but realized that something was missing both times. After her car was released, they went back to the church building and started a Gospel presentation. After getting halfway through it, something came up and it was postponed. Sunday morning Beatrice was in worship and stayed for the noon meal at the building. After lunch, Joe and his wife, Darla, along with Laurel, a local member, took her and completed the presentation. At the end of the presentation Beatrice was asked to give God her answer as to whether or not she would obey the Gospel, she burst into tears and said, “I have been praying that God would let me live long enough to find the truth.” She then obeyed the Gospel by putting on Christ in baptism.


The preacher at Belen, Chuck Wyeth, received a call as we were concluding services Sunday evening on May 5th. It was from Nicholas, who wanted someone to come meet with him and his wife, Mary. Nicholas said it would need to be Monday evening after work. Chuck asked Charles Shelton and Sharon Pacheco to go and do the presentation which they were more than willing to do. After meeting Nicholas and Mary, it was very apparent that Nicholas had spent much time studying the Bible.  He knew it better than most people. Charles would start reciting a verse and he could finish it. They were both very willing to get right to it. Nicholas did most of the scripture reading. As we progressed, it was easy to tell they were getting it. Toward the end before we got to Acts 22:16, I took them to Acts 9 and showed them Paul's conversion. Then we went to Acts 22. They read verse 16 silently. After a few minutes, Mary said, "I want to be baptized". Nicholas said, "So do I". We went to the building and Chuck baptized Nicholas then Nicholas baptized Mary.

Temple, Texas

On Monday, March 18, 2024, the Gospel Sharing Ministries team, made up of Diane Walls, Jeremy Tuck, and Zak Ryznar, knocked on the door of Chestine. We introduced ourselves, and she requested prayers for her family. After prayer, we asked her the “question”. She thought she was all right but wasn’t sure. She invited us to sit down outside on the porch. We obtained her salvation story. After sharing the Gospel presentation with her, she responded by saying she did not understand what the Gospel was before, and now she needed to be baptized to obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She was taken to the church building for her to obey the Gospel.


On March 21, 2024, Trevis Bonnett from Cypress, Texas, Rodney Carter from Killeen, Texas, and Massea Rex from Sunset International Bible Institute in Lubbock, Texas, were approaching neighbors on a street less than one mile from the church doors. They knocked on the door of a young man named Jorge. Jorge said that he was 6 out of 10 or 60% sure that if the Lord came today that he would go to heaven. Trevis asked if he would like to be 10 out of 10 or 100% sure. Jorge said yes, and Trevis and Rodney worked together to share the Gospel of Christ with him. Jorge was a man of integrity with his response to the Bible and decided at that moment to come to the church building and obey the Gospel right away. Trevis took Jorge’s confession, and he then obeyed the Gospel as he was baptized into Christ for the remission of his sins. Glory to God!


On Tuesday, March 19, 2024, the Gospel Sharing Ministries team made up of Diane Walls, Walker Perry and Luke Witt knocked on the door of JoAda. She had just gotten off work. We introduced ourselves, and she requested prayers for her family. After prayer, we asked her the “question” and she wasn’t sure that she would go to heaven. She allowed us to come into her home, but after a little while she said she was tired, and she agreed that we could return on Thursday. On Thursday Diane returned with Larry Lovett and Cole Tuck and obtained her salvation story. Her religious background was low church, but she had been involved with other religions. After sharing the Gospel presentation with her, she asked many questions, and said that she did not understand what the Gospel was before, and now she needed to be baptized to obey the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She wanted to wait until she got off work the next day, Friday. She felt she would be alright until then and decided to wait. She did come to the church after work on Friday and obeyed the Gospel in baptism.


Nancy and Toan were having difficulties and called the church building for help. They had a job lined up in Waco but had no means to get to Waco. David and Christie Bell went to the motel where Nancy and Toan were staying, so David and Christie brought them to the church building. As they came, the question was asked to see if Nancy and Toan knew for sure about their salvation. This led to a Gospel presentation in which Larry Lovett also was present. Time ran short so Larry Lovett was asked to finish the study with them after which they obeyed the gospel. They were invited by Christi and David to come in for lunch that day to study afterwards. They were moving to Waco that weekend for a job for Nancy.