March 2003

Dear Friends,

Proverbs 11:30b, "…and he that winneth souls is wise." In Luke 14:23, the Lord says, "And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled." Our vision has been, Acts 20:20, "And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publickly, and from house to house."

God has blessed our efforts in this. We have not advertised at all, only going soul-winning twice a week. We averaged 60 on Sunday in February and we continue to see people saved, baptized and added to the church. Let me tell you of just a few of these blessings.

Robert, 50yrs old, was found by door to door soul-winning. He was saved in a Sunday morning service and will be baptized this week. He has been a blessing by his faithfulness and giving. We are working to see his teenage son, Tom, saved. Robert has also taken all of the stumps and trimmings from the trees that have been taken down during the clearing of our property.

I helped Marcus with his vehicle on the side of the road over eight months ago, witnessed to him and left him with our tract. Last Sunday he came to church for the first time with the wrinkled tract in his hand. He was saved that day.

We have mentioned Phyllis to you before. She was found by door to door soul-winning and was saved and baptized a few months ago. She continues to grow and is a blessing to us. She is in her 80's, but wanted very much to do something for the Lord. She now does our Card Ministry and is doing a great job. Last Sunday, she was a tremendous blessing to this pastor and our building program, when she handed me a card with a check for $17,500.00. Phyllis handed me the card just before the 11:00 am service. When I opened it and read the note and saw the amount of the gift, I was overcome with emotion and thanksgiving. We prayed together at the altar and then I had to get alone with God for a few moments of crying and praise. Some were wondering what in the world was going on. When I shared this wonderful blessing with the church they were overwhelmed and praised the Lord. What a testimony she has been to me and to our people.

I firmly believe that door to door soul-winning is the way to build a church. As you know, we meet all kinds of people and for the most part they are not receptive to the message of the gospel. But God always gives us a few victories over the devil and also brings others to our services that have been special blessings to us.

The Lord has been good to this Pastor. Each of our children has a love for the Lord and wants to serve Him with their lives. We are thankful that He has enabled us to start the Olympia Bible Baptist Church. God has brought us some good solid families, who want to see a work built in Olympia. We have a great opportunity to reach many for Jesus and we are the only independent, fundamental, Baptist church in this entire area to get the job done.

We continue to make progress on our property. We have cut down three loads of lumber in the preparation for building. With the money earned from the lumber, we have been able to pay the labor for this project. We continue to work with the civil engineer and architect. They are almost ready to present the paper work for the special use permit. This process has taken much longer than we expected. Of the $25,000 we needed for the preparation of the land: fees, engineer, architect, septic, well, and excavation, etc., we have received $4,000 from our supporting churches and $6,000 from our own efforts. This leaves us with a need of $15,000 to finish this phase of the project. Please pray about the part your Church can have in raising this remaining $15,000 for building this new Church in Olympia.

The remaining $57,500 will be raised by our church. We have put the $17,500 given to us by Phyllis into a savings account to be used for building materials. We are still counting on being able to get this building up for a total of $100,000, and are waiting on the permits to see whether we will still have time to start the actual building this summer. It may have to be delayed until next spring. I am trusting God to lead and direct in these important decisions. Our people are committed.

We thank you again for your faithfulness in support and prayers, because without you none of this would have been possible. It has been a joy to see how God has worked in this new church in the last couple of months. He has answered our prayers in a spectacular way.

Serving Christ together,

Rick Wilder

Thank you for your prayers in January & February.