Ministry Update
Brent and Michele Howard
ChurchCare Construction, Grafton, OH
May 2023
Building Churches—Building Lives
Dear Family and Friends,
In this letter, we would like to focus on the gifts that God has provided for us. James 1:17 says, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. First and foremost, praise God for His free gift of salvation—His grace should never be taken for granted. If you do not know Him as Savior, accept Him today. Contact us for more information.
We consider it a precious gift that we can take the things we love to do and use them in service to God. It is a joy for Brent to be able to use his construction abilities to serve churches, and I am happy to help my husband but also joyful to sing on the praise team and work with children through various ministries. The day-to-day progress on the building here at Grace Baptist Church in Canton is encouraging. We are in the finishing stages of the drywall phase in all areas except one where we are waiting for the rooftop air conditioners to be added and wired/plumbed into the building. It has made things a little more difficult having this center section unable to be completed. Please pray that the parts will arrive soon and be installed quickly. This is the case for the guts of the main electrical panel. We are unable to switch over and hook up the electricity until these arrive and are installed also! Meanwhile it is a gift to have 3–5 guys from the church here daily to work on various projects from drywall, painting, and cleaning to drop ceiling, tile work, and more clean up!
Work teams are an encouraging gift that God sends at just the right time. Over the years, Mike Smith has joined many work teams from People’s Baptist in Newfield, NY. It was a gift to have him bring his wife, Bethany, for a few days to work on the insulation of the building. Also, we have been blessed by a first time group from our supporting church, First Baptist Church of Niles, OH, that spent several Mondays in a row helping to hang the large sheets of drywall on the sanctuary ceiling. Another first time this spring, Mt. Carmel Baptist Church in Normantown, WV, sent two couples to help do painting in the office complex.
What a huge gift of God when we consider where the Lord has each of our children. So many of you have faithfully prayed for them over the years, and we continue to pray for them to love the Lord all the days of their lives. Now we include the next generation in that prayer as we ask God to bring our expected grandson safely into the world and securely into His fold at a young age when he can understand God’s gift of salvation. We are so grateful that God is using our children as they utilize their gifts to faithfully serve in the local church through teaching, singing, sound, serving as trustee and security.
You are a big gift from God. We truly understand that we could not do what we are doing without YOU! We thank you so much for several one-time gifts to our account since last spring when we were considering if it was the right time to downsize our outfit to one combined trailer with an attached garage instead of pulling two separate trailers. We are so thankful for God’s leading and people faithfully following what He asks them to do. This is how He provides for us.
So we are excited to share that God has provided a new-to-us 2017 Grand Design Momentum 350M-3s. It is hard to let go of the gift God gave us in our first trailer that has served us so well for 16 years. We praise the Lord for the timing and clear direction as we waited on Him. It is truly a gift in this economy that Baptist Church Planters has provided us with a 9-year loan at 3.5%. Of course, anyone that knows us well, knows that we fully intend to pay for the trailer as fast as we can. We have some money in our account to pay the first chunk, but we want to share two other opportunities for individuals to be involved:
1. You can put your gift directly on the balance owed on the trailer by designating Howard’s trailer on your check in the memo line and sending that to Baptist Church Planters.
2. You can participate in Michele’s Norwex Fundraiser to help us earn the money by selling laundry soap and other cleaning products.
Our ChurchCare team enjoying dinner together
Left: Brent and Michele holding Paul Stevenson, Ryanne and Daniel holding Leroy Stevenson
Right: Mark Henthorn, Abby and Jimmy Stevenson
