Friday, August 4, 2017

The Garraway's Summer Adventures!

It has been a busy summer for our family! With meetings that spanned from New York to New Mexico and everywhere in between, we have spent many hours on the road, been in many churches, camps, and youth conferences, and seen God bless in more ways than we could mention here! We are so thankful for all that we got to experience the past couple months!
David LOVES getting to sing and quote Scripture as we travel!
Our first summer meeting was in Magnolia, OH at Sandy Valley Baptist Temple!

40th anniversary of Capitol City Baptist Church in Columbus, OH!

While in Maryland, Caleb filmed his next short Gospel tract film!

David and his friend, Zane Shifflett (Pastor Stacey Shifflett's son, in Baltimore)

Singing "How Can I Fear?" with Daddy and Mommy for the first time :)
Peoples Baptist Church, Clifton, NJ

Grandpa Garraway came to act in the short film we were filming in MD! The kids were so excited to see him!

Happy Father's Day!

June 17 - Alyssa is 13 months old!

Caleb preached and we sang all week at Mt. Salem Revival Grounds in WV!

We had an amazing week of VBS at Lighthouse Baptist Church in Horseheads, NY!

Teaching the missionary story

Many, many young people trusted Christ that week! Including our own son, David! 
Read about how he was saved here!

Special date day at the Corning Museum of Glass in Corning, NY!



What a fun week we had making friends and playing outside at Commonground Baptist Camp in Butler, PA!

I taught all the girls on Purity one morning during a split session. Caleb preached each night and we sang throughout the week.

Amazing youth conference at Parkside Baptist Church in Mesquite, TX! David quoted his newest passage, Eph. 6:10-17 (the armor of God), Caleb preached, we both taught split sessions and we sang!

Thankful for Bro. Jonathan Wells and his wife and Bro. Josh Wells and his family for all the work they did to make this conference a reality!

Always a joy to sing together as a family! Can't wait til the other kids can join us!
Fundamental Baptist Church, Alvarado, TX

Alyssa turned 14 months old on July 17!

July 20! Happy 31st birthday to Caleb!

Wonderful meeting with our dear friend and mentor in the ministry, Pastor Bob Ross at Open Door Baptist Church in Mesquite, TX!

The Ross' let us swim in their pool!

We always have fun catching up with our good friends James and Andrea Leeder and their kiddos in Albuquerque, NM! This time, since we'd rented a home while in NM, we got to host them for dinner for a change!

These two.... I wish they'd stop growing up so fast! 

Our Time Southwest Youth Conference, in Rio Rancho, NM!

Our family at the close of the conference.

Final meeting of the summer! The boys love to quote Psalm 100 and sing Jesus Loves Me together :)
New Heights Baptist Church, Albuquerque, NM

With our dear friends, the Reyes family, pastor of NHBC!

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Our Firstborn Is Now A Child Of God!

All praise to the Lord for His mighty working in our four-year-old David's heart this year, drawing him ever so faithfully and tenderly to Himself. It all began really around Christmas time, when we did our annual Live Animal Christmas Play. The crucifixion and resurrection scenes were some of David's favorites and the main character trusting Christ as His Savior at the end made an impact on David. For the next few months, he'd ask questions and bring up the topic randomly. He was always very interested in the Gospel and seemed to really understand, but just wasn't quite at the point of making the decision to put his faith in Jesus for himself. Sometimes he'd seem almost ready, and we'd tell him that if he really meant it, really understood, and really knew it was the right time, to talk to us in the morning. He'd never remember! And we really didn't want to force him into a false profession. 

Well, at the end of June, we held a VBS in upstate NY. David attended each night, listening intently to the Gospel as it was clearly given (and illustrated through powerpoint) by Caleb. He came home with questions, wanting to talk about it often throughout the week. Finally on Thursday night, he seemed so close! But it was bedtime and I wanted to make SURE that he was indeed ready, not being forced into something we really wanted him to do, or just doing it to make us happy. I told him to ask us about it again in the morning. I prayed for him a lot that night. In the morning (Friday, June 30), I had butterflies! I was so excited for him to bounce out of bed and bring it up! He didn't :( It wasn't until we were all sitting at breakfast when he put down his spoon and stated, "Mommy, I really need to ask Jesus to be my Savior, right now!" Caleb and I both were able to sit with him in a quiet room and lead him to the Lord! He was SO excited! Later, he ran out of the room and saw Johnny (age 2) in the hallway. He said, "Guess what, Johnny?! I'm a Christian now! You're not...but don't worry! I can teach you!" 

It has been amazing to see God working in his life and changing him into a "new creature" little by little! David loves passing out tracts and gets so excited at the thought that the person he gave it to might read it, get saved, and he will be able to see them in Heaven one day! We are so thankful for the power of the Gospel and the simplicity that even a child can understand it! We pray that David will grow up to love God and His Word, and serve Him alone with his whole heart!