January 2019
Dear Friends,
Another year has gone by & the Lord hasn’t come back yet! Nope! I’m not discouraged or disheartened. It just gives us more time to serve the Lord.
Meetings
We finished up 2018 with the following statistics. In 2018 I preached 214 times in 46 different churches. I preached in: Ohio, Michigan, Alabama, Mississippi, North Carolina, Maryland, Montana, New York, Colorado, Iowa, Indiana, Connecticut, Kentucky, Illinois, Nebraska, Utah, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Idaho, Idaho, Idaho, Idaho, and Canada. Sometimes there were multiple meetings in the same state. With the addition of Nebraska I have finally preached in all 50 states.
This coming March, 7-10, 2019, we will be attending the 2019 Capitol Connection in Washington DC. I will be speaking at one of the evening services.
We had to put over $7,000 into our truck this past summer to get it ready to tow this comingsummer. That included a new transmission that finally gave up the ghost after I got the temperature up to 245 degrees and pretty well fried it. I am still seeking a 3/4 or 1 ton pickup to take over the towing duties to give the GMC a rest.
Ministry News!
The first Sunday of January Pastor DeMichele stepped down from the presidency of Treasure Valley Baptist Bible Institute and asked me to take over. No, even though he has been fighting Leukemia for 18 years it is not because of his health. He’s is doing fine. But, with a church of over 1,000 and a Christian School and all that those ministries demand he is just trying to shed a little pressure.
Treasure Valley Baptist Bible Institute was founded in the early 1980s and has graduates across the country and around the world in the ministry serving the Lord. I love to teach so I am really looking forward to theopportunity to help train men for the ministry as well as better equip others to help their pastors and better serve the Lord. We are reformatting the curriculum with an emphasis on these goals.
If you are interested in any information about our classes feel free to contact the church at 208- 888-4545 or google “Treasure Valley Baptist Bible Institute.”
What About Evangelism?
I will still be traveling and taking meetings. For the last two years I have been preaching Sun.- Tue. meetings so I could get back her to teach on Thursday. Now I will shift to Fri.-Sun meetings so I can fly back on Monday to be here if needed. During the summers Kathy & I will be traveling one end of the country or the other having meetings.
The Lord has blessed our meetings and I have had numerous invitations to new churches. Kathy & I still love the traveling and we love fellowshipping with God’s people in church.
Books
By the time you read this there will be two books “in the pipeline.” An Understandable History of the Bible is going into it’s 8th printing. In addition to this I have a new book at the printer. The title is self-explanatory, Why Do We Believe the King James Bible? It will be a little, saddle-stapled book of about 30 pages that briefly covers the subject from one end to the other. Obviously it will not be an in- depth study but will be a good book to pass out to those who need that answer.
Many buy The Answer Book and pass it out for this purpose. The Answer Book costs about $7.00. This new book should cost around $3.00 so it will save folks money if they want to pass them out and it will directly address the issue. Check daystarpublishing.com and you’ll know when both books are available.
There are several other books I’m working on but I’ll tell you about them as they progress.
Our Health
Kathy & I both have some problems but they don’t keep us from giving our all to the Lord. Kathy’s eye gives her flashes of misery but the drops she uses help keep it in check. The only problem is that one of the drops causes cataracts and the other causes Glaucoma. But without them the fire burning inside the eye is unbearable.
I am still in need of a fourth surgery on my neck. This next one will fuse me from C3 to C7. Unfortunately I am simply not up for that right now. There are some pretty rough days but so far I accomplish everything I need to do. The only problem is that the neck is unstable and therefore a small traffic accident could turn into a big traffic accident in a hurry.
When we are in Meridian Kathy & I spend our Saturdays visiting for Pastor DeMichele. We really love doing it. Plus, it gives us an excuse to get a couple junk-food burgers! Please pray for us!
In Christ’s Service,
Samuel C. Gipp
Mr Gipp,
There are those that claim the King James Bible was edited by Sir Francis Bacon. I can’t find any reliable source to deny this. What are your views on this. Can you help me prove that this isn’t true?
Thank you so much.
Gregg Fetter
greggfetter@gmail.com